Everyone likes to talk about how dependent Zynga is on Facebook, but that relationship cuts both ways. In the social network’s S-1 filing for its $5 billion IPO, Facebook says that Zynga accounted for 12 percent of its revenue in 2011, through a combination of virtual goods payments and advertising. The number was less than 10 percent in 2009 and 2010.
“If the use of Zynga games on our Platform declines, if Zynga launches games on or migrates games to competing platforms, or if we fail to maintain good relations with Zynga, we may lose Zynga as a significant Platform developer and our financial results may be adversely affected,” Facebook says.
Despite the fact that they clearly need each other (or maybe because of it), Zynga and Facebook have had rocky relationships in the past. Zynga has been trying to reduce its dependence by pursuing with things like partnerships with other companies and by developing its own gaming portal. Still, it’s probably safe to assume that it will be pretty Facebook-reliant for the foreseeable future — not least because Facebook and Zynga entered into a five-year partnership in 2010.
Facebook is the world’s largest social network, with over 1 billion monthly active users. Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg in February 2004, initially as an exclusive network for Harvard students. It was a huge hit: in 2 weeks, half of the schools in the Boston area began demanding a Facebook network. Zuckerberg immediately recruited his friends Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, and Eduardo Saverin to help build Facebook, and within four months, Facebook added 30 more college networks. The original...
Zynga was founded in July 2007 by Mark Pincus and is named for his late American Bulldog, Zinga. Loyal and spirited, Zinga’s name is a nod to a legendary African warrior queen. The early supporting founding team included Eric Schiermeyer, Michael Luxton, Justin Waldron, Kyle Stewart, Scott Dale, John Doerr, Steve Schoettler, Kevin Hagan, and Andrew Trader. Zynga’s mission is connecting the world through games. Everyday millions of people interact with their friends and express their unique personalities through our...
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