Zynga: finance, user base, new games, and much more!

Here are some of the latest news concerning Zynga:

Mark Pincus and the IPO:

The founder and CEO of Zynga, Mark Pincus, want to keep a strong control on his company. Zynga edited the S-1 form in order to detail the power of its CEO:

• 38.5 percent of the company’s voting power
• 70 votes per stock

The explanation of Forbes:

“Pincus still has a sizable 38.5% of voting control, despite holding just 16% of Series B stock. That’s because he owns 100% of the company’s powerful Series C stock.”

Financial market:

Zynga finally choose the NASDAQ as its trade platform. Try to follow this ticker: ZNGA.

Zynga Q3 profits:

A lot a websites are writing articles about the Zynga IPO, saying that the company has more than 230 MAU. But are they looking to the Zynga’s profit, especially for the Q3? The profits went down to $1.3 million according to the Wall Street Journal. Compared to the same period last year, it is a 95% drop: in 2010, the company made $27.2 million. Apparently, revenue rose by about 15% and costs rose by 30%.

Today I know why the IPO was delayed…

User base:

What will interest the potential investors:

Zynga need another relay of growth, and to develop new strategies in order to attract more gamers.

Zynga Project Z:

What is Project Z? Another farming game? No! It is a new social network, dedicated to the gamers. Today, the problem of Zynga is… Facebook. All the Zynga’s games are deployed on Facebook, and are using the Facebook’s Credits. Two consequences:

• Zynga is “owned” by Facebook
• Zynga is losing 30% of its revenues, because of the Facebook Credits

This newest social network is a potential response of these problems. With this project Zynga is building a real direct-to-consumer strategy.

For the moment, the users will be able to start a game on Facebook, and finish it on Project Z without problem.

The only question is: will this network be open to third party developers (with a revenue share)?

New games:

Several new games were announced less than one week ago. All the newest releases will be available on Google+ and Facebook. These games are:

• CastleVille
• Zynga Casino
• Mafia Wars 2
• Hidden Chronicles

These games seems to be more complex. Zynga is probably targeting a new segment of users.

Mobile:

Three games built with the HTML5 technology were announced. You will be able to use them on every device using a web browser compatible with the HTML5 (and with enough performance). I don’t know if you’ll be able to play to them on a mobile phone but with a tablet it will be easily addictive:

• Words With Friends
• Zynga Poker
• Farmville Express

Pierre Thurau

Pierre Thurau is a French Microsoft Student Partner, founder of this website.

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