July 3, 2012 Update: Suddenly, this guy is in desperate need of a hit. Zynga revealed FarmVille 2 and a new game called The Ville. But are the days when Zynga games ruled Facebook over? The company seems to be slipping as more competitors, big and small, fill the Facebook gaming charts.
April 27, 2012 Update: Zynga's domination from March is met with an obstruction in their path as they are hit with an $85 million loss.
March 27, 2012 Update: Zynga continues in their dominating path with a purchase of OMGPOP after their pictionary game, Draw Something topped the iOS charts and raked in over 37 million downloads.
Feb 20, 2012 Update: They pulled in a billion dollars in revenue last year. But without a breakout new hit, he's stuck at 19.
Why He's Powerful
Are the mighty already falling?
Maybe in terms of games. Zynga was supposed to launch with a stock offering that would raise a billion dollars. They were sure of it. They went public, selling stock. It was going to be great! The maker of FarmVille, CityVille and Adventure World couldn't lose! That's why they bought more than one video game studio a month in 2011. That's why the Words with Friends people sold to them and why the Drop 7 people did too.
ONE BILLION DOLLARS!
Zynga went public in December. As of January, it is worth: over $6 billion. Their market cap is now at $4.5 billion. Very good. Smaller than EA and Activision, but very good.
But their shares were supposed to be going for $10 and are now going for $9-something. The bloom was falling. Their shares are now up to $12.
That doesn't mean 10s of millions of people don't play Zynga games. Most game developers would love to have as many players enjoying their stuff as the average Zynga game creator does. And Zynga's games are gradually getting more sophisticated.
It's just that... maybe all that energy-using, click-farming, play-then-wait-or-pay stuff is... a fad?