Posts Tagged ‘Zynga’
Monday, April 1st, 2013
 Mobile phones are expected to remain the main driver of advertising revenue growth for Internet information providers such as Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO), Zynga Inc. (NASDAQ: ZNGA), LinkedIn Corp. (NYSE: LNKD), Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), and AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL).
With more and more people switching to smartphones and tablets, the shift to mobile is expected to grow even more. As a result, advertisers are likely to allocate more of their budgets to mobile advertising.
While we don’t generally cover the stock market this specifically at the TechJournal, we thought these reports would be of interest to many of you in digital marketing and other tech areas in which these firms are major players.
On Thursday, which was the final trading day of the month of March and the first quarter, shares of Internet information providers ended on a mixed note even as the broad market posted gains.
StockCall has taken an interest in these companies and you can now sign up to download the free technical research on YHOO, ZNGA, LNKD, FB, and AOL at
http://www.stockcall.com/registration
Yahoo!
 Yahoo! Inc.’s shares struggled in Thursday’s trading session even as the broad market edged higher. Shares of the Sunnyvale, California-based company closed 0.26% lower at $23.53 on above average volume of 17.61 million.
Shares of the company had an excellent run in the first quarter of 2013, gaining more than 18%. In the last one year, the stock has now gained more than 50%, which makes it one of the best performing technology stocks. Yahoo’s shares are currently trading well above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages. Sign up today to read the free research report on YHOO at
http://www.StockCall.com/YHOO040113.pdf
Zynga
Zynga Inc.’s shares posted modest gains in trading on Thursday. The stock closed 0.30% higher at $3.36 on volume of 9.38 million. Shares of ZNGA are trading nearly 75% below their 52-week high of $13.15. However, the stock has had an excellent run in 2013, gaining more than 42%. The company’s shares currently face stiff resistance at around $4. Register to download the free technical analysis on ZNGA at
http://www.StockCall.com/ZNGA040113.pdf
LinkedIn
 LinkedIn Corp.’s shares fell sharply on Thursday. The stock touched an intra-day low of $175.12 before finishing the day 1.02% lower at $176.06 on volume of 1.23 million. LinkedIn’s shares fell nearly 3% last week even as the broad market posted gains for the week.
For the first quarter, however, shares of LNKD gained more than 53%, compared to a gain of more than 10% for the S&P 500. The company’s shares are trading above their 50-day and 200-day moving averages. However, the stock’s MACD has slipped below the signal line, which suggests that market sentiment is bearish on the stock. Free report on LNKD can be accessed by registering at
http://www.StockCall.com/LNKD040113.pdf
Facebook
 Shares of Facebook Inc. tumbled in trading on Thursday even as the broad market posted gains. The stock ended the day 1.95% lower at $25.58 on volume of 28.59 million. Facebook’s shares finished nearly 0.60% lower for the week. Its shares are currently trading below their 50-day moving average. The stock currently faces resistance at around $26. Register with StockCall and download the research on FB for free at
http://www.StockCall.com/FB040113.pdf
AOL
 AOL Inc.’s shares struggled in trading on Thursday. The stock fell to an intra-day low of $38.14 before finishing the day 1.81% lower at $38.49.
Despite the sharp decline in the session, AOL’s shares have gained more than 7% in the last three trading days. The stock has gained nearly 30% in 2013 so far, easily outperforming the broad market. Read the full free research on AOL by signing up to StockCall at
http://www.StockCall.com/AOL040113.pdf
Tags: AOL, facebook, LinkedIn, mobile phones, revenue growth, stock reports, Yahoo, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Internet/New Media, LinkedIn, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Zynga | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 13th, 2012
 Internet companies may launch their initial public offerings of stock with a splash, but that public arena has its drawbacks as both Facebook and Zynga are learning.
Zynga Inc., the maker of Facebook’s most popular games, Farmville, Words with Friends, Draw Something and others, saw it shares fall sharply yesterday on the heels of a report from analysts at Cowen and Co. saying the number of active daily users of its games fell 8 percent in May.
That’s the second consecutive monthly drop. All the Zynga games declined.
The San Francisco-based company’s stock fell 10 percent to $4.98 yesterday afternoon, down more than 50 percent from its $10 IPO price. The stock has traded as high as $15.91 (March).
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been seeing a decline in Zynga game-players on my Facebook stream for quite a while. While the games were extremely popular, many Facebook users did not like all Farmville and other game requests popping up on their newsfeed if they didn’t play.
Cowen and Co. analyst Doug Creutz said consumers are switching to mobile games, something Zynga has been experimenting with, although the Facebook games are still its major focus.
Creutz said that Zynga’s games trail more weighty role-playing and multi-player games on mobile phones.
We’re not sure we agree with that. We see people playing easy zombie shooter games, Angry Birds, and solitaire most often on mobile devices.
What do you think? Are Facebook games a dying fad? Would you be sorry if they were?
Creutz cited figures from AppData in his analysis. — Allan Maurer
Tags: Cowen and Co., Doug Creutz, Facebook games, Farmville, IPOs, mobile, Words With Friends, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Farmville, games, Internet/New Media, IPOs, IT, Mobile, mobile games, Tech life/Culture, Zynga | No Comments »
Friday, May 25th, 2012
 Facebook’s IPO fell with more of a whimper than a bang when it finally hit a troubled NASDAQ a week ago. There’s a lot of discussion on the web about what went wrong. A quick Google search for that phrase turns up nine different stories on the firs page alone.
The folks over at Schools.com and Daily Infographic offer this overview of the Facebook IPO without second guessing it.
Tags: Andrew Mason, Barney Harford, education, Google, Groupon, Harvard, infographic, IPO, Larry Page, Mark Pincus, Mark Zuckerberg, Nasdaq, Orbiz, personal wealth, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, infographic, Internet/New Media, IPOs, social media, Tech life/Culture, Zynga | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2012
 Do you need a way to connect with new people or to try new things? A Santa Monica, CA, startup that helps users meet people for social activities offline has just nabbed funding to expand.
Social activities discovery site Lifecrowd has secured$5 million in initial funding to expand its online marketplace that helps users discover and participate in fun activities in their area, connect with friends and meet new people.
Lightbank, the Chicago based investment fund focused on early-stage technology companies, is leading the investment and will take a seat on the Lifecrowd board of directors.
Other participants include Bullpen Capital founded by Paul Martino (seed investor in social gaming pioneer Zynga), Baroda Ventures (seed investor in Fab.com) and Prism VentureWorks (seed investor in The Receivables Exchange).
First startup to emerge from the MuckerLab accelerator
Lifecrowd received additional backing from MuckerLab, where it became the first start-up to emerge from the Santa Monica based accelerator program just last month.
“This powerful group of experienced tech investors brings an incredible collective expertise in localized online commerce to the table, as well as deep experience in marketplace development, scaling up on a domestic and international level, and a thorough understanding of what today’s consumers want,” said Lifecrowd CEO Bong Koh.
Lifecrowd fuses online social networking with offline activities by providing a platform for users to discover and participate in casual group activities going on in their area—from wine tastings to dodge ball games.
On its website, Lifecrowd notes, “Despite being true net geeks at heart, we’re an active bunch that loves venturing out to try new activities, experience different events, and meet interesting people.” They blog about their adventures.
Curated selection of outings
At Lifecrowd, users can browse a curated selection of outings, events and host-led sessions, view photos and read user reviews about activities going on in their area, including volunteer opportunities.
Users can sign up for activities directly through Lifecrowd and even reserve/pre-purchase spots for paid activities. The site uses social filtering via Facebook and personalization methods to recommend fun activities aligned with users’ interests.
“The social activities space is really heating up and we see a tremendous market opportunity for Lifecrowd’s approach to catapult it to the head of the pack,” said Paul Lee, Partner at Lightbank.
Site includes volunteer activities
Lifecrowd emphasizes casual settings with a typical group size of 8 to 10 people—big enough to socialize without being overwhelming. All activities are created by users, called “Hosts,” and with Lifecrowd, anyone can be a host, not just a business or merchant.
The site also lists a variety of volunteer opportunities, perfect for individuals who want to participate in community service, but don’t know what’s available, where to go or how to get started.
The interesting startup has attracted national attention from the tech press, including TechCrunch, Wired, PandoDaily, KillerStartups, and Tech Cocktail, among others.
Tags: Baroda Ventures, Bong Koh, Bullpen Capital, CA, Chicago, Lifecrowd, Lightbank, MuckerLab, Paul Martino, Prism VentureWorks, Santa Monica, Zynga
Posted in entrepreneurship, Events, Internet/New Media, Money, social media, Startups, venture capital report | No Comments »
Thursday, April 19th, 2012
 If you own a mobile device, whether it is a smartphone, tablet, notebook or laptop, we bet you’ve played one or more mobile games.
They can be compelling. From slingshotting Angry Birds at laughing pigs, blasting away at tanks or bad guys, or trying to dunk a paper wad in an trash can, they’re great time-killers and may even have some beneficial effects on hand-eye-coordination and concentration.
Here’s an infographic from BusinessDegree.com that takes a look at how these little games became such big business:
Created by: BusinessDegree.net
Tags: Angry Birds, big business, businessdegree.com, in-game-purchases, iPhones, mobile games, most popular apps, Rovio, zombies, Zynga
Posted in Angry Birds, games, infographic, Internet/New Media, IT, Mobile, mobile games, smartphones, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech life/Culture, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Monday, April 2nd, 2012
 The public markets showed a strong appetite for U.S. venture capital companies in the first quarter but corporations did not as the pace of acquisitions slowed dramatically.
Twenty companies held initial public offerings (IPOs) during the first quarter making it the most active quarter for IPOs since the fourth quarter of 2007 and the most active first quarter since 2000.
Ninety-four companies were acquired for $18.1 billion during the same period, the second-straight quarter of declining deal volume for mergers and acquisitions (M&As), according to Dow Jones VentureSource.
“Greater stability in the public markets, more corporations opening venture units to work closely with startups without acquiring them, and a continued disconnect between entrepreneurs’ asking price and what corporations are willing to pay have contributed to a steady decline in M&A activity,” said Jessica Canning, global research director for Dow Jones VentureSource.
Small- and Mid-Cap IPOs Take Center Stage
Twenty companies raised $1.4 billion through public offerings in the first quarter, significantly more exits and capital than the 11 IPOs that raised $768 million during the first quarter of last year.
“Big exits by Groupon and Zynga dominated the end of 2011, but small- and mid-cap IPOs have taken center stage so far this year,” said Zoran Basich, editor of Dow Jones VentureWire. “The public markets proved receptive to a broad range of companies, which is a positive sign for the industry.”
Currently, 50 U.S. venture-backed companies are in IPO registration. Thirteen of those companies filed during the first quarter.
It took companies a median of $68 million and 7.7 years to reach an IPO. That represents a 22% drop in capital raised but an increase in time from 6.2 years during the same period a year ago.
Google, 2011′s Most Active Acquirer, Sits Out As Groupon Steps Up
Ninety-four mergers, acquisitions and buyouts raised $18.1 billion in the first quarter, a 32% decrease in deals and 42% increase in capital raised from the same period last year. The median price paid for a company spiked to $190 million from$43 million in the first quarter of last year.
Notably, Google, which was the most active acquirer of venture companies in 2011 with 12 acquisitions, did not buy any companies in the first quarter of 2012. Groupon, however, has been snapping up venture companies at a pace that rivals Google’s in 2011. Flush with cash after raising $700 million through its November IPO, Groupon acquired six venture companies in the first quarter, double the three acquisitions the company made throughout 2011.
To reach an M&A or buyout, companies raised a median of $13 million in venture financing, 13% less than in the first quarter of 2011, and took a median of 4.9 years to build their company, slightly more time than the 4.6-year median a year earlier.
Tags: 1Q 2012, Dow Jones Venture Source, Google, Groupon, IPO market, M&A market, median prices, Zoran Basich, Zynga
Posted in IPOs, Money, Studies, surveys, reports, venture capital report | No Comments »
Thursday, March 1st, 2012
 By Joe Procopio
Last night at dinner, Windsor Circle’s Matt Williamson was a busy man. In between bites and drinks, he filled pages in a notebook with research on a number of investors who introduced themselves after his pitch. The beautiful thing was there was a veritable cornucopia of information to be had among the six of us at dinner, and by the time it was over, he was armed.
Williamson says, “It’s been an incredible experience being in such a tight concentration of venture capitalists. The overwhelming response is that we’re a compelling story for such a short amount of time that Windsor Circle has been around. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how helpful the VCs are.”
He said a lot more than that, but I blacked out. It was late.
He’s not alone. Several startups are making that upward swing from the pitches into meetings, and if yesterday was an explosion of activity, then this morning and afternoon should be buzzing with follow up.
Not Just Digital
PodPonics is an Atlanta based high tech agriculture startup, converting shipping containers into high tech controlled growing environments producing fresher, urban, weather-safe produce — in other words better and faster with incredible yield. These containers can be stacked 10 high to produce 150x yield per acre.
That’s a game changer.
CEO Matt Liotta will present this afternoon. But they’ve been networking and meeting people in preparation. They say it’s a good setup, allowing mass concentration of conversation is short periods of time and they’ve been able to generate interest before they even take the stage.
Not Just Deals
It isn’t just the dealmaking though. This year, I’ve met more entrepreneurs and potential entrepreneurs who are here just to get the lay of the land and figure out how to take the next steps with their idea or fledgling company.
The panels have also been refreshingly honest. The first sentence I heard in the Venture Capital Outlook session was that “the wheels fell off on August 15th.” Having been out in the field raising money at that point, I absolutely agree with that. It’s like the mirage vanished.
Overall, there seems to be a lot of activity in the $1 billion plus range, and a lot in the under $100 million range, with a big black hole in the sweet spot. This is troubling for those early-stage graduates, but with such an emphasis on customers and revenue over the last four years, it’s certainly not a shocker.
Crowd-funding
There is a lot of visceral reaction to crowd-funding, and you’re going to see a lot more in this space in the near future, and it will probably be volatile and filled with argument.
It’s tricky, to say the least. There was a lot of talk about how it can and should be done, not only from a legal perspective but also making sure that you can get follow on money and that there are no surprises going into your next round.
However it can’t be ignored. Kickstarter, though not technically crowd-funding but more beta-product pre-purchase (or free T-shirt), has done three $1 million plus deals already this year.
So while Groupon, Facebook, and Zynga dominate the exit talk, crowd funding made up a large portion of the entry talk.
Undercover Angel
But it wasn’t the only talk. Angels are making more noise these days, and a common theme, the lack of organization in the Angel community that makes it hard to get started, is still an issue, even post AngelList. One of the questions was “where do I find Angels” and the first answer was “LinkedIn.”
Coincidentally, TechCrunch did a post last night on AngelList potentially creating a common pitch-deck template. And while I don’t agree that that’s the right next step, it should be about more robust ways to build relationships between the entrepreneurs and the angels, it’s at least a step.
Tags: angel investors, AngelList, Atlanta, crowd funding, facebook, Google, Kickstarter, LinkedIn, Matt Liotta, PodPonics, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, TechCrunch, Tysons Corner, VA, venture funding, Winsor Circle, Zynga
Posted in Columns, Events, Facebook, Google, Internet/New Media, IT, LinkedIn, Money, Viewpoint | No Comments »
Monday, February 27th, 2012
 By Allan Maurer
Entrepreneurs keep coming up with new technologies, new web sites, new ideas, but what they really should be thinking about is evolving some new business models, says Eric Bleeker, Motley Fool tech analyst who oversees the site’s editorial team.
Bleeker joins tech luminaries such as Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph, OpenTable founder Chuck Templeton, National Venture Capital Association president Mark Heesen, National Seed and Venture Funds CEO Jim Jaffe, and NEA general partner Harry Weller, among many others participating in the Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA Wednesday and Thursday.
Right now, Bleeker says, “So many platforms are coming out that are dependent upon advertising. Yeah, they can get users, but what sort of platform lets you extract revenue from them?”
Zynga piggybacks on Facebook and other ironies
It’s ironic, he says, that game company Zynga can piggyback on a platform like Facebooks and monetize it at twice the rate Facebook does itself.
Similarly, the New York Times recently ran a piece on data mining that another news site picked up, put a more salacious headline on, and “Gets 50 times the pageviews,” says Bleeker.
The online music service Pandora, “is used on mobile 70 percent of the time, but only gets one percent of its revenue from mobile.” So new business models are necessary.
Bleeker believes quality journalism can still do well – pointing to “The Economist,” which is still managing to grow its subscriber base (and advertises widely online). Many local news venues may get squeezed out of the revenue streams if they don’t find new ways to make money, though, he suspects.
If it can’t command a premium, bye, bye
“If in the end, your product can’t command a premium, I’m sorry, but you’re going under.”
Quite a few companies are bridging that gap – along with many not doing it so well, he says. Companies with what appear to be successful models?
LinkedIn, he says has found a route: “Advertising is now a much smaller piece of their revenue than packaging business data,” he says.
OpenTable is another great example of an online firm that’s working, he suggests.
One problem he sees with many startups in the digital space – including mobile and hyper local, is that if they are ad dependent, the only exit solution they may have is to be acquired by the large tech firms sitting on billions in cash: Microsoft, Google, and Apple.
Apple, in fact, sits right at the top of the heap. “Apple is the big dog with the most money, but they don’t buy much,” Bleeker says. “They buy some intellectual property, but it’s not in their culture to bolt stuff on.”
That presents a difficulty if “The dominant player isn’t willing to buy.”
Apple, though, could be boxing itself in a bit with its emphasis on great design, the chunk of fees it takes for apps sold in its store, and its past DNA unless it finds ways to keep its customers. “They’re thinking about ways to lock folks in,” says Bleeker.
On the other hand, some estimates say that up to a mind-blowing third of global IT spending could be for computers (including tablets and Macs) in three years,” Bleeker says.
Sectors where Bleeker sees relatively unsung innovation is in networking and security, particularly from smaller firms. Catch what he has to say at SEVC later this week.
Tags: Apple Inc., Chuck Templeton, digital business models, Eric Bleeker, facebook, Google, Harry Weller, Jim Jaffe, Marc Randolph, Microsoft, NASVF, NEA, Netflix, Open Table, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, The Motley Fool, Zynga
Posted in Apple, Internet/New Media, LinkedIn, Marketing, Potomac, social media, Virginia, Washington, DC, Zynga | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 8th, 2012
 Mark Zuckerberg is going to be extremely rich after a Facebook IPO (not that he isn't now!) Initial public offerings of stock by innovative social Internet firms are making a major impact on the markets, these days.
Below is round-up of CEOs who have all watched their companies grow from small start-ups to publicly traded juggernauts. Each CEO is ranked based on their PeekScore, or digital footprint, from around the Web.
PeekScore is a rank from 1 to 10, assigned to every person. The higher someone’s score, the “more important” they are on the web. In calculating your PeekScore and updating it often, PeekYou takes into account your known presence and activity on the Internet, including but not limited to; your blogging, participation in social networks, the number of your friends, followers, or readers, the amount of web content you create, and your prominence in the news
1 Mark Zuckerberg Facebook / 2012 10.00 / 10.00
2 Larry Page Google / 2004 9.50 / 10.00
3 Andrew Mason Groupon / 2011 8.25 / 10.00
4 Mark Pincus Zynga / 2011 8.19 / 10.00
5 Tim Westergren Pandora / 2011 7.96 / 10.00
6 Jeff Clarke Orbitz / 2007 7.85 / 10.00
7 Arkady Volozh Yandex / 2011 7.09 / 10.00
8 Chen Tianqiao Shanda Games/ 2009 7.03 / 10.00
9 Shi Yuzhu Giant Interactive / 2007 7.03 / 10
10 Jeff Weiner LinkedIn / 2011 7.02 / 10
Tags: Andrew Mason, Arkady Volozh, Chen Tianquiao, facebook, Giant Interactive, Google, Groupon, Jeff Clarke, Jeff Weiner, Larry Page, LinkedIn, Mark Pincus, Mark Zuckerberg, Orbitz, Pandora, Shanda Games, Shi Yuzhu, Tim Westergren, Yandex, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Google, Internet/New Media, IPOs, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, TechLife | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
 Ben Horowitz Andreessen-Horowitz, which backed Groupon, Skype, Zynga and Facebook, has raised $1.5 billion for its third fund, bringing its total amount under management to $2.7 billion.
Facebook is widely expected to file for an intial offering of public stock this week – in what is likely to be the biggest IPO event of the entire year.
Ben Horowitz, co-founder and general partner of Andreessen-Horowitz said in a statement that, “We’re remaking the modern venture capital firm and entrepreneurs are responding to our unique approach.”
Horowitz also wrote about why the firm has raised $2.7 billion in two years in a blog post, where he clearly identifies that different approach.
“We set out to design a venture capital firm that would enable founders to run their own companies,” he explains. That meant the firm’s general partners had to “be an effective mentor for a founder striving to be a CEO. This is why so many of our General Partners are former founders or CEOs or both, and they are all highly focused on helping founders become outstanding CEOs.”
The firm also backs well-known startups Foursquare, Fab, AirBnB, and Pinterest, which has been rapidly growing its footprint and gaining increasing attention in recent months and weeks.
Tags: Andreessen Horowitz, Ben Horowitz, Fab, facebook, Foursquare, Groupon, Pinterest, third fund, venture capital firms, Zynga
Posted in Internet/New Media, IPOs, Money | 1 Comment »
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
 Consumers who are active in social networks include their mobile devices broadly in their social activities, according to a study released today by the Pivot Conference.
The research included responses from more than 500 consumers who indicated high activity in Social networking. Consumers were drawn from the Crowdtap online consumer panels and responded between October 6-13, 2011.
Overall, this research indicates a close correlation between social and mobile among consumers. “They are two sides of the same coin,” said Mike Edelhart, president of The Tomorrow Project, LLC, producers of Pivot.
Interplay between mobile & social growing
“Smartphones and other mobile devices provide one more, uniquely geographically enhanced, access point into the social stream. Social activities represent a strong thrust for app usage on mobile devices. While the research did not specifically delve into this question directly, we see the interplay between mobile and Social growing ever closer and deeper in the months ahead. Taken together, they represent, in our view, the essential thrust of technology development for consumers.”
Key findings from the research include:
- The iPhone is the most common mobile platform for accessing social apps at 44 percent, with Android at 30 percent; no other platform showed significant numbers.
- Facebook Mobile dominates mobile-Social apps, with 83 percent using it. Notably, local apps such as Foursquare and Gowalla showed significant usage, possibly indicating the value of geo services for Social Consumers.
- Zynga is the most common games platform on mobile at 61 percent access. However, the three challengers — World of Warcraft, ngmoco and Playdom — taken together equal Zynga’s presence. Zynga’s dominance may come under pressure in 2012.
- The most commonly shared information among consumers is music and video, with location check-ins trailing just behind. Surprisingly, 31 percent of respondents indicated that they don’t share information and want most of their Social activity kept private.
- Consumers made it clear they expect something special from brands in exchange for their Social activities. They want deals, socially oriented loyalty programs, special product benefits and content and access to enhanced support.
“Social is clearly permeating into all communication channels with consumers,” said Brandon Evans, CEO and Founder of Crowdtap. “Marketers will continue to need to maintain closer and more real-time relationships with their consumers to keep pace with the speed and frequency of communications.”
The full report can be accessed at http://2012.pivotcon.com/research/.
Tags: Android, facebook, Facebook mobile, iPhone, mobile use of social networks, ngmoco, Pivot Conference, Playdom, World of Warcraft, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Internet/New Media, Mobile, mobile games, smartphones, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Tech Culture, TechLife, Zynga | No Comments »
Friday, December 2nd, 2011
Zynga, which created the Facebook games FarmVille, CityVille, and CastleVille, has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise from $850 million to $1.15 billion in an initial public offering of stock at a valuation of from $5.9 billion to $6.99 billion.
The social game maker will price the offering, which reports peg at 100 million shares (about 14.3 percent), Dec. 15 and begin trading the following day under the ZNGA on the Nasdaq exchange. Zynga had previously planned to launch its IPO July 1.
The valuation is about a third of the $15 billion to $20 billion bandied about when it filed initially.
Founded in 2007, Zynga makes money selling virtual goods for its popular, free Facebook games. It reported net income of $12.5 million in its third quarter, down from $27 million in the same period a year ago, but up from $1.4 million profit on $2809 million in revenue in the second quarter.
Its CastleVille, launched just over two weeks ago, already has 20.8 million users, making it one of the fastest growing games ever. CityVille, launched a year ago, has 58 million active monthly players, according to its roadshow video.
Zynga plans a 9-day roadshow to pitch the IPO to potential investors. It posted this video version of its roadshow pitch.
Tags: CastleVille, CityVille, Farmville, initial public offerings of stock, IPOs, SEC, social games, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Farmville, games, Internet/New Media, IPOs, video, Zynga | No Comments »
Friday, November 18th, 2011
 Groupon managed a highly successful initial public offering of stock earlier this month that opened at a higher than planned share price which then soared 40 percent. Angie’s List, which went public Wednesday, saw its shares jump 25 percent Thurdsday.
Now Yelp, which provides user reviews of restaurants, shopping, nightlife and entertainment, has filed for a $100 million IPO.
The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. A portion of the shares will be issued and sold by Yelp, and a portion will be sold by certain stockholders of Yelp.
Tech firms still in the wings include Zynga, Facebook, with others likely to line-up if the IPO window stays open any appreciable length of time. IPO activity had dramatically dropped in the third quarter due to economic volatility caused by European debt problems and the slow U.S. economy.
What do you think, readers? Will this IPO window provide time for more tech companies to go public? Will that stimulate increased venture backing for new tech firms?
Here’s VentureBeat’s take on the tech IPO window.
Tags: facebook, Groupon, tech IPOs, Yelp, Zynga
Posted in Internet/New Media, IPOs, IT | No Comments »
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
SocialVibe, a digital ad tech company, shows that 70 percent of tech-savvy consumers plan to shop on Black Friday – the Friday after Thanksgiving – which is a steep increase over 52 percent of respondents who reported they shopped on Black Friday in 2010.
Key findings from the survey include:
- 70 percent of the more than 1,000 consumers surveyed plan to shop this Black Friday, up from 52 percent who reported they did so in 2010
- 61 percent of surveyed consumers plan on taking advantage of Cyber Monday (Monday after Thanksgiving) deals this year
- The most popular items on people’s shopping lists are Computers/Laptops (40 percent); Clothing (38 percent); Electronics (34 percent); and TVs (32 percent)
“Our research shows that about two-thirds of consumers intend to shop on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so brands should really be looking for effective ways to draw people into stores, as well as drive site traffic on these mega-shopping days,” said Jay Samit, CEO of SocialVibe.
“The key to reaching consumers is to interact with them, rather than rely on a display ad, in the environments where they are already engaged and then provide a valued benefit along with your message. It’s not too late to look beyond banners and fuel holiday sales by incorporating engagement ads into your media plan for the holiday shopping season.”
Throughout October 2011, SocialVibe surveyed the most active social media consumers across eight of the top 10 Facebook apps and other social sites about holiday shopping trends.
The study, which was opt-in and garnered more than 1,000 responses, ran throughout SocialVibe’s network of premium publisher sites including Pandora and Causes.com and social games such as Zynga’s FarmVille and CityVille.
SocialVibe’s value-exchange advertising platform offers consumers something they value – such as virtual currency for a social game, premium content, or a donation to charity – in exchange for paying attention to and interacting with an ad. Consumers who completed the in-ad unit survey were rewarded for their participation with virtual currency or a free donation to charity, for example.
“Online advertising campaigns that incorporate interactive features and provide an incentive in exchange for a consumer’s attention to a brand message can increase website and in-store traffic, as proven by the research we announced last month with KN Dimestore,” Samit continued.
According to the company, the ads work well.
“Consumers exposed to SocialVibe’s engagement ads are 161 percent more likely to visit a brand’s website and 36 percent more likely to shop for a brand at the store after interacting with the ad—key metrics brands should be thinking about when it comes to holiday-driven marketing campaigns.”
Tags: Black Friday, Causes.com, CityVille, cyber Monday, Farmville, Pandora, SocialVibe, Zynga
Posted in Farmville, infographic, Internet/New Media, Marketing, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Zynga | No Comments »
Monday, October 10th, 2011
Two Hollywood scriptwriters are in talks with Zynga to adapt the Farmville game as a movie.
Alec Sokolow and Joel Cohen, who wrote “Toy Story” and “Garfield,” disclosed the talks. The game debuted on Facebook in 2009 and was a major hit for Zynga, even if it did annoy many Facebook users when their friends sent numerous Farmville requests (a problem that persists with Zynga “Mafia Wars” players on Facebook).
Rumors say Zynga is also interested in developing a “Mafia Wars” game, which seems a more likely movie inspiration than “Farmville.”
Netflix keeping its DVD service after all
Well, that didn’t last long: Netflix told its customers it is abandoning plans to spin off its DVD division as Qwikster and will keep both services bundled on its home page and customer accounts.
Netflix also says it is beefing up its streaming service, adding AMC’s popular “Walking Dead” series to its streaming service. The way Netflix has been stumbling around lately, you have to wonder if it doesn’t have some zombies stalking its halls. The first season is available now, and it will also be offering past seasons of AMC’s other original series, “Breaking Bad,” and “Mad Men.” 
The company stumbled when it essentially doubled its price for customers who have both its streaming and its DVD service. Many users cancelled and the company’s share price plummeted 60 percent since that announcement in July. The company apologized, but that didn’t satisfy disgruntled customers.
Our columnist Joe Procopio had this to say:
Why I’m breaking up with Netflix
Amazon trademarks Kindle Fire under different company name
 A Kindle Fire tablet computer
H’mm, now what does this mean? Amazon Inc. has trademarked its new Kindle Fire tablet and related products under the a separate company name, Seesaw LLC.
The online retail giant makes a handful of Kindle’s now with more to come. A new version sells for only $79.
Personally, we love our Kindle WiFi, but we’ve ordered a Kindle Fire. We’ll likely continue to do most of our reading on the eInk WiFi Kindle, which is as easy on the eyes as words on paper, but could use a light connected tablet. We found the 10-inch Galaxy tablet from Motorola too bulky (and overpriced), but this 7-incher from Amazon may do the trick.
We’ll let you know after we try it out. — Allan Maurer
Tags: Amazon, AMC, Breaking Bad, facebook, Farmville movie, Kindle Fire, Mad Men, Netflix Streaming, Netlfix, Qwikster, The Walking Dead, zombies, Zynga
Posted in Amazon, Facebook, Farmville, games, Internet/New Media, Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 21st, 2011
 Rogelio (Ro) Choy - COO, Formspring By Allan Maurer
A few years ago, the idea of paying for virtual goods online with real currency seemed outlandish to some. “It blew people’s minds,” says Rogelio (Ro) Choy, COO of the question & answer social site Formspring. But game companies such as Zynga, creator of Farmville, among other popular Facebook games, are successfully using that model.
Choy is one of dozens of Internet mavens, social media experts, marketing gurus, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs participating in the upcoming Digital East conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Sept. 28-29.
He’ll be discussing how to monetize social media efforts. He’ll address display advertising, brand advertising, performance advertising, social currency, mobile advertising and virtual currency. He’ll discuss each in some detail based on what he’s learned in a career packed with social media experience.
Choy was previously the CEO of Peerpong, a Q&A service using NLP/semantics for identifying interests and knowledge from social streams. Prior to Peerpong, Ro was Chief Revenue Officer for RockYou and responsible for leading all the business efforts for the company and Director at eBay Motors, leading the online parts business. Prior to eBay, Ro co-founded Cima Systems, a leading VOIP software provider for auto dealers.
Advisor on social media
Choy serves as an advisor to a number of social media focused startups including Applifer, Nanigans, Wildfire Interactive, Project Slice, Adnectar, 500 Friends, Guestmob, Facepad, Replybuy, J2Play, GamesthatGive and Groupcard.
We asked Choy to elaborate on using virtual currency to monetize social media.
“It’s a completely different way of imagining how people can make money on the web,” Choy says. It works because making social media platforms such as Facebook an intrinsic part of the game dramatically reduces the cost of acquiring customers.
In 2011, according to eMarketer, Choy notes, “27 percent of all Internet users were social gamers of some sort and 42 percent of all social networkers play games. In all 62 million people are playing social games of some sort. So a lot of people are playing games in a social network and buying certain types of virtual products.
Those virtual products are consumables tied to achievement in the games, not permanent objects, usually, Choy says.
Hooking people on achievement
“It’s the concept of hooking people on achievement within the broader concept of gamification. You get people used to making short goals,” Choy says. Then you present them with a longer, more difficult goal they may wish to attain, but they may lack the time to complete and want to speed up the process. “That’s where you monetize.Once they’re hooked on achievement, then you charge.”
The concept can be applied to anything, content, e-commerce, any experience that’s social in nature and involves friends, Choy adds. “Where people want to surpass time or material constraints, that’s where you monetize. Build achievement into how you think about offering your products or services on social media platforms.”
Choy says there are compelling opportunities in brand and performance advertising, social commerce and mobile marketing as well. Social commerce, for instance, “Is probably the least developed, but potentially the most compelling,” he says. We could tell from our interview that you’ll be hearing practical ideas that will get the gears of your mind cranking.
Tags: Allan Maurer, Cima Systems, Digital East, eBay Motors, Farmville, Formspring, hooked on achievement, monetizing social media, Peerpong, Ro Choy, RockYou, social commerce, social games, Tysons Corner, VA, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, games, Internet/New Media, IT, Mafia Wars, Marketing, Maryland, Mobile, Potomac, social media, Virginia, Washington, DC | No Comments »
Thursday, September 15th, 2011
 Michael Arrington After being fired from TechCrunch, founder Michael Arrington says he will start a new personal blog in the next few days. Arrington announced the personal blog via Twitter.
Speculation is that it will be more like the popular blogs of venture capitalists Fred Wilson and Paul Graham rather than a more journalistic enterprise such as TechCrunch. That might dampen the hail of criticism over Arrington’s alleged conflicts of interest.
Controversy isn’t likely to disappear from Arrington’s life, though. Already some have pointed out that Shaker, which won top honors at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, counts the Crunchfund as an investor. Is that a conflict of interest?
We’re in a brave new world of journalism when questions like this can even come up.Here’s the Guardian’s take on the Shaker shakeout.
Union Square Ventures, investors in Zynga & Twitter, raising new fund
The Wall Street Journal reports that New York City-based Union Square Ventures is raising a fourth fund pegged at $150 million to $200 million.
In addtion to Zynga and Twitter, Union Square also invested in Foursquare, the social music startup Turntable.fm, and Tumblr, which seems to be the latest social media hot space.
YouTube rolling out new editing features
YouTube is introducing new editing features that people who upload videos to the site can use.
The new editing tools allow users to make simple changes sucha s trimming the beginning or end of a clip, adjusting contrast, color and brightness, and adding stablization to jittery video.
It also includes 14 style effects.
Netflix lowers number of subscribers expected, stock falls
Netflix (NFLX: NASDAQ) says it’s still confident it made the right longterm choice in effectively doubling what it costs to have both unlimited streaming movies and DVD subscriptions to $15.88 a month.
It dropped its projections of DVD only subscribers to 2.2 million from the previously expected 3 million and said it would have 9.8 million streaming only customers rather than 10 million.
The Los Gatos, CA-based company saw its stock price tumble the most in three years, dropping $31.50 or 15 percent by 9:30 am Thursday morning (Sept. 15) and was slightly lower by noon.
Our columnist Joe Procopio had this to say: Why I broke up with Netflix
Tags: Foursquare, Joe Procopio, Michael Arrington starting new blog, Netflix stock price falls, price increases stall Netflix, Tumblr, Turntable.fm, twitter, Union Square launching new fund, Why I broke up with Netflix, Youtube adds editing features, Zynga
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Friday, September 9th, 2011
 Investors are giving Twitter something to tweet about: the microblogging service is in the process of raising an additional $400 million in backing – the second raise of that amount this year at a valuation of about $8 billion, according to reports. CNN Money first reported the story about the new raise.
The company, which claims more than 300 million users, more than 100 million of them active, raised $400 million earlier in the summer in a round led by Yuri Milkner and Russia-based DST, the same firm that has backed Facebook, Zynga, and Groupon.
Tags: CNN Money, DST, facebook, financing, Groupon, social media, twitter, Yrui Milkner, Zynga
Posted in Internet/New Media, Money, social media | No Comments »
Friday, September 9th, 2011
 High-profile launches from players such as Amazon, Google and Apple are expected to galvanize the growing market for consumer cloud mobility services, generating revenues reaching almost $6.5 billion per annum by 2016, a new report from Juniper Research has found.
According to the report, while initial consumer deployments in the cloud were focused primarily on the social networking space, music and video storage/acquisition services such as Amazon’s Cloud Drive and the forthcoming Apple iCloud are expected to gain rapid traction with substantial adoption over both smartphones and tablets.
Both services are geared to migrating end users’ music collections onto the cloud as well as enabling the purchase and storage of additional tracks, while Amazon also offers a cloud-based delivery mechanism with its Cloud Player.
Further opportunities in social media, security solutions
However, mobile social media services are also expected to benefit as providers increasingly seek to develop revenue streams based around virtual goods: the report highlighted the success of Zynga’s Farmville, and suggested that growth in this sector should receive a particularly strong boost as consumer tablet adoption accelerates.
While the report claimed that the increasingly competitive storage sector meant that the provision of consumer storage in isolation was unlikely to generate substantial returns in the longer term, it identified bundled storage and security solutions as a key growth area. According to report author Dr Windsor Holden, “The handset is now the repository — in many cases the sole repository — for data such as photographs, videos, address books, games and music; when the device is lost or stolen, that data may be irreplaceable. Hence, the facility to offer remote back-up becomes increasingly attractive.”
Other findings from the report include:
- Enterprises need to develop policies to cover the use of consumer smart devices in the workplace
- Cloud offers network operators the opportunity to develop double-sided revenues from PaaS solutions for enterprise and consumer markets
The Mobile Cloud White Paper is available to download from the Juniper website together with further details of the study ‘Mobile Cloud: Smart Device Strategies for Enterprise & Consumer Markets 2011-2016.’
Tags: Amazon, Apple, Cloud Drive, Dr. Windsor Holden, Farmville, Google, handset as digital storage repository, iCloud, junjiper research, mobile cloud consumer services, music & video cloud services, Report, virtual goods, Zynga
Posted in Amazon, Apple, Cloud, Farmville, games, Internet/New Media, IT, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications, video, Zynga | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
 Game-maker Zynga is expected to file for an initial public offering of stock this week, possibly Wednesday, according to CNBC.
Zynga, already profitable, unlike some of the other digital media companies that have launched IPOs, such as Pandora, recently rasied $250 million at a $7 to $10 billion valuation, according to reports.
The company is expected to have a valuation of between 15 billion and 20 billion and will raise between $1.5 and $2 billion in its IPO, according to Kelly.
Zynga’s investors include Google, DST, Reid Hoffman, Tiger Global, Kevin Rose, Kleiner Perkins, Union Square Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Peter Thiel, Foundry Group and IVP.
Among other games, Zynga makes Farmville and Mafia Wars, two of the most popular Facebook games.
Tags: CNBC, Farmville, IPOs, Kate Kelly, Mafia Wars, Zynga
Posted in Facebook, Farmville, Internet/New Media, IPOs, Mafia Wars, Zynga | No Comments »
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