Zynga, the social gaming company whose “Mafia Wars,” “FarmVille,” and other games have amassed millions of devoted fans, is now worth billions of dollars and, on December 16, made its debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

The company, which is named after founder and CEO Mark Pincus’ bulldog, “Zinga,” priced shares at $10 a piece and raised $1 billion in its IPO.According to the Associated Press, the gaming company is now second only to Google when it comes to high-value internet IPOs. The search giant raised $1.4 billion when it went public in 2004.

Zynga’s IPO is only the latest in a series of highly-anticipated initial public offerings from technology companies this year. LinkedIn, Pandora, Groupon and Zillow, among others, also made their public debuts.

But how does Zynga compare to these other companies’ IPOs? And how are these “hot” companies faring now?

• Zynga: $1 Billion - Social gaming company Zynga raised $1 billion in its IPO in December, 2011, the biggest web-related IPO since Google, according to the Associated Press.
  Zynga had a valuation of $7 billion before it began trading on the Nasdaq on December 16.

• RenRen: $743 Million - RenRen, the Chinese social networking site, raised $743 million in its IPO in May 2011,according to Reuters.
  At the end of its first day of trading, the company had a market value of $7.4 billion.
  As of December 16, 2011, RenRen’s market capitalization stood at $1.34 billion.

• Groupon: $700 Million - The daily deals site raised $700 million in its IPO in November 2011, valuing the compnay at nearly $13 billion.
  As of December 16, 2011, Groupon’s value was $14.4 billion.

• LinkedIn: $352 Million - LinkedIn, the professional social network, raised $352 million in its IPO in May 2011.
  According to Reuters, the company was worth $9 billon after its first day of trading on the public market.
  As of December 16, 2011, LinkedIn’s value had dropped to $6.35 billion.

• Pandora: $234 Million - Internet radio site Pandora raised $234 million when it went public in June 2011, valuing the company at $2.56 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
  As of December 16, 2011, the company had a market value of $1.71 billion.

• HomeAway: $216 Million - HomeAway.com, a vacation home rental site, raised $216 million in its IPO in June 2011,according to MarketWatch.
  In its first day of trading, reports TechCrunch, the company had reached a valuation as high as $3 billion.
  As of December 2011, HomeAway had a market cap of $1.89 billion.

• Demand Media: $151 Million - Demand Media, a web content company, or “content farm,” raised $151 million in January 2011. The Wall Street Journal reports that the company was worth a whopping $1.78 billion after its first day on the New York Stock Exchange.
  As of December 16, 2011, the company’s market cap had fallen to $593 million.
  In the photo above, Richard Rosenblatt, Chairman and CEO of Demand Media, joins Tyra Banks at the New York Stock Exchange on March 15, 2011.

• Angie’s List: $130 Million - Angie’s List, a site where members can review doctors, contractors and more, raised $130 million in its November 2011 IPO, according to VentureBeat.
  The AP notes that at the end of the first day of trading, the company was valued at $904 million.
  As of December 16, 2011, the site had a market cap of $886 million.

• Zillow: $69 Million - According to TechCrunch, the real estate website Zillow raised about $69 million in its July 2011 IPO. The value of the company rose to as high as $1.6 billion on the first day of trading but dropped to $950 million at market close.
  As of December 16, 2011, Zillow’s market valuation was $657 million.

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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Zynga is partnering with Pizza Hut to help fight world hunger. Players on popular Zynga games, includingFarmVille, CityVille, Empires & Allies and The Pioneer Trail can purchase exclusive in-game items for $5. All proceeds from these specific purchases will go to the World Food Programme.

The pieces are both cutesy (see above) and educational. For example, the FarmVille item is the blue horse-drawn cart full of vegetables stamped with the World Food Programme initials. It’s a smart move by Pizza Hut and Zynga to not only have the items be helpful in-game but also support a worthy cause off-line. It’s the first time Zynga has partnered with a brand in this way.

Pizza Hut launched the partnership with Zynga as part of the annual World Hunger Relief campaign, which launches September 26. Pizza Hut has developed an entire website, called “Share a Slice of Hope,” to benefit the 2011 World Hunger Relief, including news updates, donation channels and links to similar campaigns.

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• FarmVille Addicts Can Help Feed Hungry Children (mashable.com)
• Pizza Hut Launches Share a Slice of Hope™ Campaign to End World Hunger (prnewswire.com)
• Pizza Hut’s Slice of Hope Campaign Integrates With Zynga’s Social Games (shoppingblog.com)
• Zynga partners with Pizza Hut across CityVille, FarmVille and more (games.com)
• Christina Aguilera Stars in New PSA for Yum Brands World Hunger Relief Effort (shoppingblog.com)
• Reason to Worry Before Zynga’s IPO (blogs.wsj.com)

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Zynga Inc., the maker of popular online games such as “FarmVille” and “CityVille,” is being sued for patent infringement by a Texas gaming startup.

Agincourt claims Zynga is violating two of its patents related to systems for redeeming prizes in games. The patents were awarded in 2001 and 2004.

Zynga’s “remarkable growth has not been driven by its own ingenuity or innovations,” Agincourt said. “Rather, it has been widely reported that Zynga’s business model is to copy creative ideas and game designs … and use its market power to bulldoze the games’ originators.”

Zynga has plans to offer an initial public offering of stock. About 230 million people every month play addictive Zynga games such as “Farmville,” “CityVille” and “Texas HoldEm Poker,” much of the time through apps on Facebook. The games are free to play, but Zynga charges small amounts of money to buy virtual items that can help players advance in its games more quickly.

Little is known about Agincourt. The company, based in Plano, Texas, describes itself as a “start-up aggregator and renovator of underappreciated games.” Its website links to an online game called Pantheon.

Agincourt filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Del. Agincourt seeks unspecified damages, attorneys’ fees and a declaration that Zynga infringes its patents.

Zynga declined to comment.

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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Facebook executives have choice words for Google’s efforts to bring casual games to its fledgling social network.

A little less than two months after Google launched its fledgling social network, Google+, Silicon Valley’s latest rivalry is heating up.

Google+ (GOOG) launched in June with an innovative group video chat dubbed Hangout. One week later, Facebook announced a video chat feature of its own in cooperation with Microsoft’s (MSFT) Skype. Last week, Google announced that games like Zynga Poker and Angry Birds would find a home on Google+. A day later, Facebook unveiled a slew of improvements to its games platform, including a newsfeed-like live ticker with game updates and higher-resolution gaming.

If it wasn’t clear before, it is now: Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg is paying very close attention.

At an event last week, Facebook director of game partnerships Sean Ryan had some choice words for his new competitor. “Google has emulated aspects of our system, which is what they have the right to do,” he said. “We just need to be better.” He’s referring to the way the companies make money from casual online games like Farmville and Words With Friends. Players pay for play time or virtual goods within the games, and the social networks take a cut of the sales. Currently, Facebook reportedly takes 30% from game developers, whereas Google takes just 5%.

The similarities between the two models have obviously ruffled some feathers. At the event, Facebook’s Ryan argued that Google’s gaming foray was like McDonald’s (MCD) recent efforts to offer premium coffee, competing in the same space as Starbucks (SBUX). (That business went on to become huge for McDonald’s…) “Google is at 5% because they don’t have any users,” he said dryly. Google declined to comment on the statements, but confirmed the percentage it planned to take from game makers.

There’s good reason for the two technology giants to see games as a new front in their tussle for social users. The global virtual goods market — arguably the largest revenue stream for casual games makers — is expected to more than double to $20.3 billion by 2014 according to research and investment bank ThinkEquity. Jeremiah Owyang, a principal analyst for Altimeter Group, notes that it is also a way to reach a coveted demographic. “When we saw casual gaming growth, it was amazing to see that the most common gamer was a middle-aged woman in the Midwest, and there’s a lot of advertising dollars associated with that,” he says.

But according to Owyang, both services have their work cut out for them. Google+ is off to a good start, but he doesn’t think a compelling reason exists yet for mainstream users to switch over from Facebook. That’s why the company announced it was going after casual games, to attract new users. Meanwhile, Facebook needs to be less reactive to Google+’s announcements and become more aggressive, he says.

With an estimated 25 million registered users, Google+ has a long way to go before it catches up to Facebook’s 750 million users. What’s clear is that both companies are likely to continue watching each other’s moves closely.

Source :- http://tech.fortune.cnn.com

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Social gaming juggernaut Zynga will flip the switch later today on The Pioneer Trail, a new social adventure game within FrontierVille.

Unlike all of Zynga’s previous games, Pioneer Trail is a linear adventure with a set beginning and end. Users outfit a wagon and traverse not one, but three different maps with their own unique set of missions and achievements. It also places an emphasis on a storyline where users get to choose their own adventure.

FrontierVille general manager John Osvald explained to Mashable that Zynga wanted to use different social gaming mechanics for this extension of the FrontierVille franchise. In FarmVille, Empires & Allies and Zynga’s other social games, gameplay improves as users add more friends as neighbors or allies. In Pioneer Trail, that concept is discarded. Instead, the game only lets users travel the trail with three of their closest friends, which Zynga hopes will result in more intimate gameplay.

For users who can’t find three friends to join them in Pioneer Trail, Zynga will soon roll out a feature for matching them with existing players. Users can also add computer characters to their team, though the game will progress slower without having friends constantly playing. Osvald says that the typical game will take approximately three weeks to complete, although one set of power users were able to beat the game in 36 hours.

The game features a journey through three separate maps: Beaver Valley, High Plains and Avalanche Pass. Each area has an expansive map that is five times the size of any previous Zynga game, and each one has distinct art. Trekking through each area requires cutting down trees, acquiring Trail Points and helping people along the way. Each friend is given a distinct skill set (doctor, hunter, etc.), all of which are essential to surviving the trail without succumbing to illness or a broken wagon.

Once a team completes the game and reaches Fort Courage (the game’s finish line), users can transfer the prize tickets and resources they earn to their FrontierVille town. Users are scored on how well they played the game (based on the decisions they made, how efficiently they traveled the trail, etc). If users aren’t satisfied with their score, they have the option to travel the trail again. Users can spend the points they earned on previous Pioneer Trail trips on bigger wagons and more resources, making the game easier to complete the second or third time around.

Zynga has been experimenting with new types of game mechanics as its highly anticipated IPO approaches. Although the company’s revenue is booming and has been profitable since 2010, it hasn’t been able to surpass 236 million active users in the past 12 months. The company is hoping that new games like Pioneer Trail will help the company attract those new users.

Source :- http://mashable.com

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Google+, the search engine’s recently launched social network, has announced a slew of popular games that will be added to the platform.

Soon, gamers on Google+ will enjoy titles like “Angry Birds,” “Zynga Poker,” “Bejeweled Blitz,” “Sudoku” and many more–all while signed in to a Google+ account.

Games will begin rolling out to users on August 11, according to an announcement posted on the Official Google Blog by Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President of Engineering.

When the games are live on your account, writres Gundotra, a button for the Games page will live at the top of your Google+ stream.

“[From the Games page] [y]ou can see the latest game updates from your circles, browse the invites you’ve received and check out games that people you know have played recently,” Gundotra explains. “The Games page is also where your game accomplishments will appear. So you can comfortably share your latest high score—your circles will only see the updates when they’re interested in playing games too.”

Just as Google+ prioritizes the user’s privacy preferences, the games were also designed with privacy concerns in mind. Ars Technica notes that updates about Google+ Games will stay within the Games page, where they “won’t clutter the streams of those who aren’t as enthusiastic.”

TechCrunch points out that social gaming giant Zynga, known for its lucrative Facebook games, is one of the many developers on board with Google+ Games. “Google+ won’t have FarmVille or CityVille (those may be exclusive to Facebook via deal the two forged),” says TechCrunch, “but they will have Zynga Poker. And you can be sure other titles are coming.”

The addition of games isn’t exactly a surprise. Soon after Google+ went live, evidence of a social gaming network were discovered within the Google+ source code. But it certainly happened quickly, which seems to be the norm for Google+. Launched on June 28, the network has grown at a fast clip. A recent study published by comScore reports that Google+ attracted 25 million members in just over a month, making it the fastest-growing social network ever.

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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Zynga‘s newest game won’t let you grow corn. But it will teach you about online privacy.

The game, called PrivacyVille, is intended to help users learn more about Zynga’s privacy practices and also gives people access to additional privacy resources.

“We created PrivacyVille by leveraging our creative and gaming talents to build a more accessible (and rewarding!) privacy education experience,” the company said in a blog post.

PrivacyVille is modeled after the game CityVille and gives users rewards for learning about privacy. Users don’t have to be registered or on Facebook to play the game, though if they are, they can collect zPoints to receive items in other Zynga games.

In PrivacyVille, players go on a tour of a small town where the buildings each represent parts of Zynga’s privacy policy. After the tour, users take a quiz to become a Certified PrivacyVille Tour Guide. Afterwards, they can take their zPoints to RewardVille and redeem them for virtual items.

The game opens up to the public today at www.zynga.com/privacy.

Zynga recently filed its S-1 form with the Securities and Exchange Commission in preparation of its initial public offering.

Check out PrivacyVille below:

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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Several features of Google‘s new social network are quite similar to Facebook features, and rumor has it that the two will become even more similar with time.

According to Engadget, Google Plus’s source code reveals that a social gaming network may be in the works.

Facebook has had major success with social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars, and it’s likely that Google will take a cue from its biggest competitor in the social space.

In 2010, Google invested over $100 million into Zynga, the social gaming giant that has enjoyed staggering profits from its partnership with Facebook. Engadget predicts that Google’s payoff for that investment may well come in the form of Google+ Games. Zynga is expected to make its initial public offering any day now.

The Google+ source code also indicated that Google may introduce a feature called Questions, which will let users ask and answer questions with each other, similar to Facebook’s Q&A feature of the same name.

Multiple sources also reported to All Things D that Google+ Games are on the way. A Facebook spokesperson, however, was a bit more vague.

“It’s important to keep in mind this is an ongoing project and this is just the beginning,” the spokesperson said. “We plan to add a lot of features and functionality to Google+ over time. We’re just excited to get started.”

Check out our slideshow (here) to see what else Google+ has in common with Facebook.

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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Social gaming giant Zynga is going public.

The San Francisco-based company has just filed its S-1 with the SEC.

“The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined,” according to a press release from Zynga. “A portion of the shares will be issued and sold by Zynga, and a portion will be sold by certain stockholders of Zynga.”

Though the filing claims that the company aims to raise $1 billion, TechCrunch suggests that this number could simply be a placeholder. Sources told Reuters that the company could raise as much as $2 billion, placing its value between $15 and $20 billion.

Underwriters include Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Barclays Capital, JP Morgan and Allen and Company.

Though only four years old, Zynga has developed a slew of popular web-based games like “FarmVille,” “CityVille” and “Zynga Poker.” According to the filing, these successful titles have helped attract nearly 60 million active daily users worldwide. In the first three months of 2011, the company reports a total revenue $235.4 million.

According to All Things D, this is “the first publicly held company that makes its revenues mostly from the sale of virtual goods.”

For more from Zynga’s S-1 filing, check out our look at the IPO by the numbers.

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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Following a leak Wednesday about a possible upcoming photo-sharing app for Facebook, TechCrunch claims that Facebook’s next big endeavor, internally known as “Project Spartan,” will establish a new mobile web app platform that could help the social networking giant gain independence from Apple’s App Store.

Unnamed sources told TechCrunch that Facebook’s new platform will be HTML5-based and will be compatible only with Apple’s mobile Safari browser (at first). This means that when the platform launches, its entire customer base will be iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users.

“As of right now, there are believed to be 80 or so outside developers working with Facebook on Project Spartan,” writes TechCrunch, listing FarmVille developer Zynga among the partners. “These teams are working on apps for the platform that range from games to news-reading apps.”

If the sources are correct, Facebook’s platform will sidestep Apple’s App Store and create a mobile marketplace all its own. Users will also be able to download and access apps directly from Facebook’s platform.

“Forget the buggy Facebook app,” Gizmodo says of the project. “iPhone owners could use a mobile version of Facebook that is lean, mean and outside the reach of Apple’s control. [...] Here’s something to think about if this rumor pans out. Adobe Flash is gone, Apple is gone and everything will be channeled through Facebook. Kinda scary, huh?”

Looking toward Facebook’s financial goals, Techland writes, “If [Facebook] can get enough people using an iOS-optimized website, it can use that to sell them stuff too. It can sell apps that work within its web platform (as opposed to apps that have to approved by Apple first).”

Some, however, think Facebook might not be headed in the right direction. Gigaom, for example, writes,

Farmville, and many other social games that use in-game currency to make most of their money, have already found a profitable route to mobile thanks to Apple’s App Store. A Facebook offering might immediately appeal to some of these developers [...], but to prove a viable alternative in the long run, Facebook will have to either offer a better value proposition to devs (by giving them a bigger cut) or show that developers can reach more users than they do with native offerings. [...] For a store that resides entirely on the web, that’s a tall order, because it means convincing mobile users to shift their idea of what constitutes mobile software once again. It’s hard to understate how different it is to ask mobile users to pay for an application, versus asking them to pay for access to what basically amounts to a website.

Source :- http://www.huffingtonpost.com

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