Posts by rmacg

Zynga branches out from Facebook to make new 'friends'

Good move, Zynga needed to loosen their reliance on Facebook.

This is vital for Zynga's future. Any big company that is reliant on another platform for its success is in a position of weakness. Zynga has to continue to diversify, they've already got too many weaknesses as a company and this helps. As Facebook grows, and as customers get more and more jaded with Zynga's "games", I'd expect them to be less and less important to Facebook as time goes on. Facebook is going to have a gangbuster IPO that is going to enable them to use their social data and audience to fund expansion into other areas like ecommerce, search, identity services, communication, and many others. You can just look at how many big brands promote their Facebook URLs on their magazine and TV ads, how many companies are listed at http://www.buyfacebookfansreviews.com that do nothing other than promote brand pages, etc to see how quickly businesses will latch onto anything that Facebook does. Zynga's "games" are very small potatoes by this measure. I'd also expect Zynga's revenue to decline over time because their reputation has declined over repetitive games and their newer games lose their audience much faster than they used to. They've carved out a niche, but are too dependent on a bad formula and reliant on Facebook IMO.

Facebook flings clickjack spam lawsuit at ad-slingers

If they were involved in clickjacking practices, its arguably not a spam violation, it's arguably a hacking violation depending on what kind of code was executed. I think that there's so many decent options for advertising on Facebook between Facebook ads, the dozens of companies listed at http://www.buyfacebookfansreviews.com for example, and various other types of promotions you create right on your existing website that leads people to Facebook that I think that this type of behavior isn't necessary. Talking about hanging them from testicles is a bit over the top though.

Facebook won't deny it is sitting on huge mountain of cash

Facebook Ads and Credits

Facebook Credits are also a pretty big stream of revenue. Look at how many games and apps people are addicted to on Facebook. However, I would venture that the lion's share of revenue for Facebook comes from advertising. Despite the relatively low conversion rates, companies are starting to rely more and more on Facebook for a lot of their marketing. Furthermore, companies are so desperate for traction on Facebook that there are now dozens of companies listed at http://www.buyfacebookfansreviews.com that do nothing other than 'sell' Facebook/Twitter fans, which is interesting in and of itself. Regardless, until these details about Facebook's revenue become known, I'm not sure how to accurately figure out their revenue split, but I'd bet that Ads and Credits are the main sources.