Social Network Gaming Company Zynga Pulling In $100 Million This Year

Zynga is a company that develops games for social networks and most recently, the iPhone.  Zynga primarily focuses on multiplayer games such as Texas Hold Em’ on Facebook and MySpace.  In 2008, Zynga made about $50 million in sales.  The startup is due to make about $100 million this year according to people close to the company.  This was reported by Sarah Lacy on BusinessWeek.

Zynga was founded in June 2007 by Mark Pincus, Michael Luxton, Eric Schiermeyer, Justin Waldron, Andrew Trader, and Steve Schoettler.  The company raised $39 million in funding from several VC firms.  Bing Gordon, EA’s former Chief Creative Officer is also on the board of directors at the company.  As of March 2009, the company had about 46 million monthly active users and about 71 million registered users.

Where does the money come from?  About 2%-10% of the users pay $1 per hour to play premium games or purchases virtual goods.  Considering that many third party developers have been complaining about the design changes on Facebook that gives them awkward web real estate on the social network, Zynga seems to be the exception.  Zynga acquired social network gaming company YoVille in July 2008.

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