Zynga – Social Network Games

Identity Card

Name: Zynga
Founded: July 2007
Headquarters: San Fransisco, California
Description: Social Network Games
Monetization: Players can purchase credits through Paypal and other payment methods

What is Zynga ?

Zynga is a social network game developer, for platforms such as Facebook and Google Plus. The games are mainly browser-based, but work as application widgets in social networking sites.

The three most popular and renown games of Zynga are Farmville, Cityville and the newest Empire & Allies.
Most games follow a similar pattern, as they offer several features to develop yourself and make progress in the game.

In Cityville, you can build houses and shops in order to extend your city, while in Empire & Allies you will focus on building barracks and recruit military units to invade other players.

How does Zynga work ?

Zynga is mostly monetized by direct payments from the players, through Paypal or other payment options.
When the player runs out of actions points or wants to buy more virtual currencies, they can purchase packs of either actions points, or other forms credits depending on the game.

Despite the numerous options for online payment proposes by Zynga (Paypal, Wire, Visa…) it is unfortunate that there is no SMS/Mobile payment facility.
But again, currently no American company is proposing any solution for SMS gateway or mobile payment.

In order to attract more players on the social networks, users can “sponsor” their friends into the games simply by inviting them, which is automatic.
Sponsoring friends will earn the player extra game points.

Conclusion

Strong points :

• Multilingual products
• Good monetization
• Diverse gaming products (ex: Poker)

Weak points :

• Needs to integrate a mobile/sms payment solution, especially for small purchases
• Must be present on more platforms than Facebook/Google+