UPDATED: By the Numbers: Facebook vs. Zynga: Tech News « Why the Social Gaming Biz is Just Heating Up. Jeremy Liew invests primarily in the Internet and mobile sectors, with a particular interest in social media, commerce, gaming, financial and methods for increasing monetization.
He joined Lightspeed in early 2006. These are interesting times in the social gaming industry. Two weeks ago Disney acquired Playdom, and last week Google acquired Slide. Just like that, two of the largest social game publishers have become part of larger companies. This activity all comes on the heels of EA’s acquisition of Playfish late last year.
Social gaming, as a category, has grown incredibly quickly, becoming one of the dominant drivers of usage on Facebook, and an increasingly core component of people’s entertainment. 3 Factors in Social Gaming Viability and Acquisition The acquisitions show three commonalities. The second is revenue scale. The third is capacity for repeatability. However, the ability to take a lot of shots on goal is not enough. Social Games Have Value for Different Types of Companies. "FarmVille" vs. Real Farms [INFOGRAPHIC] With all those millions of Facebook and iPhone users tending to virtual crops and sharing them with friends, have you ever wondered how their toils stack up against actual real-life farmers?
!["FarmVille" vs. Real Farms [INFOGRAPHIC]](http://cdn.pearltrees.com/s/pic/th/farmville-farms-infographic-5679310)
How does our output of digital (and decidedly less tasty) tomatoes compare with our worldwide production of real tomatoes? And perhaps most importantly, who are these casual croppers, and are they anything like their plow-toting counterparts? We broke it down by the numbers and put some of these FarmVille trends in perspective for you.Go on. Harvest it. What do you think? Share your wisdom in the comments. More Gaming Resources from Mashable: - 5 Fun FarmVille Accessories- 10 Classic PC Games That Found New Life on the iPhone- Why the Social Gaming Biz is Just Heating Up- Why Games Are the Killer App for Social Networks- 10 Cool Konami Code Easter Eggs [PICS]
We Estimate Zynga Revenues Around $270M In 2009 And $240M In 2010 YTD. This is a guest post by Jeremy Liew, a managing director at Lightspeed Venture Partners where he invests in the internet and mobile sectors.
His investments include Flixster, Living Social, Playdom, Rockyou and Shoedazzle. He blogs at lsvp.wordpress.com. There has been a lot of speculation about Zynga’s revenue. Last week Business insider said: Zynga, the social gamesmaker behind Farmville, has a revenue run-rate around $600 million, a source close to the company tells us. Businessweek says: More than 120 million people play Zynga’s online games. We thought that we would estimate Zynga’s revenue ourselves by looking at publicly available info. Zynga. Zynga. Mark Pincus, Founder Zynga. Facebook vs Zynga. Zynga. Zynga - Connecting the world through games. Zynga - Competitors.