PREDICTION: Zynga Will Be The Next Facebook Social Network
With all of the negative coverage of Facebook of late it seems as though everyone is trying to guess who the next Facebook will be. It is our prediction on the Tech Radio Podcast that Zynga will be that social network giant. Please consider our reasoning:
1. Zynga has been recently reported to have a valuation of several billion dollars. They have the gaming platforms that draw in the gamers more than any other social / casual gaming company.
2. Zynga enjoys a reported annual revenue of $150 million. Game players have no problem shelling out real money for virtual bucks to be used during game play. Zynga has the psychological ‘traps’ figured out to make their games go viral and bring in the money.
3. Zynga has been slowly moving their games off the Facebook platform. With Facebook wanting to charge Zynga 30% on all virtual money purchases playing the big bully, it has become more feasible for Zynga to take the risk and move it’s hugely popular games off Facebook and into their own server farms.
4. The typical cost for Zynga to launch a game on the Facebook platform runs anywhere between $50,000 to $150,000. Moving the games to their own server and off Facebook would run that cost to an estimated $500,000. Zynga could easily capitalize on that new traffic through ad revenue, keeping the 30% that would have gone to Facebook, and other revenue streams from traffic.
5. Zynga could go public in the next year. With that money, Zygna could easily create a new, secure social media site that could rival Facebook. Much of Facebook’s current traffic is a result of the popular games Farmville, Mafia Wars and Cafe World. Don’t believe us? Go look at your Home tab in Facebook and look at the update stream from your friends. What do you see? 90% of it is Zynga game updates.
Currently, we feel that Zynga is the only player that has the ability to take on Facebook and address all of the privacy concerns that have been reported in the media. Zynga has the content, they have the money, and the can definitely create the platform.
Do you agree or disagree? We would love to hear your opinions and we’ll share them on the next Tech Radio Podcast.
