When was zynga started

In July , Pincus rebranded his new company, calling it Zynga after his late American bulldog which appears in silhouette as the company's logo. The company was growing fast but it had yet to test the waters on Facebook where Zynga would find its later fortunes.

When Zynga released their first game for Facebook, a poker game which was initially known as Texas Hold'em Poker and would later evolve into Zynga Poker , it was so successful that it made the company immediately profitable. The stage was set for the rapid growth that would ensue.

Zynga's method of creating games was unlike that used by other companies, such as rivals Playfish and Playdom with which they jostled for top spot in the early gaming charts on Facebook. Pincus was determined to develop games in the same manner that other software was being developed. Using techniques inspired from the popular agile methodologies of software development, he sought to test new game ideas as quickly and as cheaply as possible to find out what would work and what wouldn't.

Zynga was very reliant on this kind of data and Pincus willingness to scrap games that didn't return encouraging results was a major part of what propelled the company to its current position in the social gaming market. Although Pincus figures prominently in the company's history, he wasn't the sole architect of Zynga's fortunes. Throughout its early years, many people played a critical role in Zynga's growth, including Facebook COO Owen Van Natta, and experienced game designers such as Mark Skaggs and Brian Reynolds who crafted innovative and addictive games that were simply a cut above the cheaper clones that it used to churn out before.

What stands up in Zynga's growth is its consistent drive to create games that can be accessed and enjoyed anywhere and at any time.

The team behind its smash hits was firmly guided by the company's beliefs that games should be free, social and most of all fun to play.

The convergence of these three factors was where Zynga excels and where many of their early competitors, still intent on churning out clones, failed miserably at. Zynga launched its second game, Mafia Wars , in At around the same time it bought another game called YoVille , a social network game that was based in a large virtual world and which would form the basis of its best-known game, FarmVille.

Before growing crops and caring for farm animals became all the rage, Zynga could already boast of being Facebook's top app developer with around 40 million active users that played its games every month. In June , Zynga shot to stardom when it released it best-known title. FarmVille became the largest game on Facebook, attracting over 10 million users that were actively engaging with the game every day in only six weeks. These numbers continued soaring when Zynga released a sequel FarmVille 2 and a spin-off called ChefVille.

Thanks to these offerings, Zynga continued strengthening its grip on the social gaming market with over million active users per month and occupying the top three spots of the top five Facebook games at the moment.

Although the page had definitely turned for Pincus, working under Facebook's shadow was proving to be too much to bear. The social network could dictate the rules that developers on API had to follow and Zynga simply wouldn't have that. Also launches CityVille which outgrows FarmVille with over 58 million users. Thanks to its obsessive collection of data, Zynga was in a good position to know exactly what users liked from social games and it wanted to monetise this winning formula even further.

Their revenue was mainly collected from sponsorships and ads that Facebook displayed in the game. Zynga had already managed to prove to the world that free-to-play games were a viable business model thanks to the methods mentioned above, but now it sought to take it a step further by convincing users to exchange real money for virtual goods that could be used in a game.

Initially, this was done indirectly by 'lead generation', i. In , selling virtual goods was still a radical thing to propose, but Zynga was confident enough that they could develop this in a real business model.

Although it would still create free-to-play games, users would be able to make purchases that would enhance their gaming experience. When ad revenues starting drying up and subscription models were out of favour, Zynga began asking its users to start paying for virtual currency, the poker chips they used to play Zynga Poker , and perks such as VIP status which unlocked certain bonuses in the game.

The social aspect of gaming and the addictive gameplay that Zynga apps provided were a big draw for players and even though only 2. The main benefit of this system was that there was no limit to what users could pay and some users really took their games seriously!

Although some people were turned off by Zynga's decision to introduce in-game purchases, the cost of getting new users was very efficient and the losses were largely offset by new users installing Zynga's apps on their mobile devices.

Since its founding in and through all its ups and downs, Zynga has clearly fulfilled its mission of 'connecting the world through games'. The company is also looking to grow engagement and sales from its Words with Friends and Slots franchises on mobile. Keeping costs down and generating more sales from existing user bases across these two properties look to be achievable goals in the short term, but whether the company can deliver wins for long-term shareholders will likely hinge on its ability to grow its audience through the release of new hit games.

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