New York, NY (Top40 Charts) If you have been a Facebook user for some time, you may have come across game suggestions, like Farmville. It was a popular farming simulation gaming app on Facebook, developed by the gaming company Zynga.
Due to its popularity, the game earned Zynga over $200 million in the first year of its release, giving online gaming sites like Sbobet a run for their money. The revenue inspired the company to develop other games, such as Fishville, Cityville, and Petville. The growth spurred Zynga to go public, launching its IPO at $10 per share.
The business did not go as expected, however. The fall of Zynga began soon afterwards, leading to significant losses. How did Zynga fall? What were the critical factors that broke the previously successful gaming giant?
Change of Facebook User Settings
Unlike Sbobet and comparable gaming sites, Zynga launched its first creation, Farmville, on Facebook, a social media platform. Facebook enabled the app developers to integrate into its infrastructure and utilise the vast and fast-growing audiences it was attracting. Zynga enjoyed high acceptance but sorely misappropriated the access it received.
The company started bombing user newsfeeds with a constant stream of annoying gaming requests. Every user would receive a request to play Farmville, Petville, or Cityville, even with no interest shown in the products. Users launched complaints, prompting Facebook to change its user settings and severely restricting Zynga's access.
Facebook allowed users to filter the kind of messages they would like to appear on newsfeeds. Since Zynga depended on newsfeeds to attract new players, the company suffered a massive loss of audience when the new Facebook rules took root.
Failure to Diversify
In the 21st century, diversification is one of the core factors to consider if you want your business to remain profitable. As a social gaming developer, Zynga ignored this principle. Other game developers that were using Facebook as their customer attraction platform, such as King, went on to make smartphone gaming apps, like the now-famous Candy Crush Saga.
Zynga clung to its Facebook model without much diversification, however. They ignored the mobile gaming app revolution, lost customers, and tanked profitability.
Prioritising Quantity over Quality
Gaming enthusiasts value quality over quantity. The experience of a single game is all that matters.
For Zynga, the quality was secondary. The high acceptance of its first game-Farmville—inspired a desire to develop more games. The company's objective was to attract more users to the new games rather than to enhance users' experience of the flagship product.
Customer loyalty dipped, resulting in a massive loss of active users—over 10 million losses daily within one year.
Final Thoughts
The story of Zynga's rise and fall is a valuable lesson for other gaming sites, like Sbobet. Missed opportunities, poor prioritisation, and resistance to change were some of the reasons for Zynga's fall. The company is slowly recovering from the crisis, but it will take a while to compete with other successful gaming developers again, such as King.
If they're to achieve anything near their previous level of success and create a new, loyal customer base, there is much work to be done.
