4 ms·

The question is, how does Zynga compare to Facebook? If they have huge growth and half as many users and revenue, why aren't they valued at $25B? It seems that

• loganfrederick 16y ago
  The argument could be made the Facebook has potential for more and faster rising growth than Zynga, which would raise their valuation. *(I agree that Facebook is overvalued)
• Cushman 16y ago
  The quasi-fraudulent nature of their business may be depressing their valuation somewhat.
  • radicaldreamer 16y ago
    I think this is a biased reaction because of HN's nature. While most visitors to HN aren't fans of Zynga's products, there are millions of people for whom FarmVille et al. are large and truly enjoyable parts of their lives.
    • electromagnetic 16y ago
      Those people who like Zynga aren't the same people who are to invest in it. Personally I would pass on Zynga because I know they're in a precarious position. They're purposely addictive, which means legislation against it is always a potential. They're hugely dependent on Facebook to supply its users and Facebook will want more of that cash flowing right past them to someone else, meaning FB could cut them off anywhere or at least take a chunk out of their profits by forcing them to accept giving out a cut - which again if it ever happened would set a dangerous precedent across the board for Zynga. Then, I just flat-out dislike Zynga. They're a parasite, they steal other peoples ideas and simply dump more cash into a game than the original creator can and market massively within their own games to out compete the people they're ripping off. They're like the mother of all leeches, they only win because they can suck the cash out of everyone faster than anyone else and that lets them grow and suck even more cash out of the next target they get.
      • muhfuhkuh 16y ago
        "they only win because they can suck the cash out of everyone faster than anyone else and that lets them grow and suck even more cash out of the next target they get." So... Wal-Mart?
        • Splines 16y ago
          A more appropriate comparison would be McDonald's.
      • il 16y ago
        If there's a case study for how execution trumps ideas, it's Zynga. "They only win because they can execute better than their competitors" is kind of a silly statement to make.
        • electromagnetic 16y ago
          If you word it like that, yes it sounds silly. If you word it like the truth that a $7 billion company can execute an idea better than the $0 dollar startup in a teenagers bedroom they just ripped off, then Zynga looks like what it really is: an uncreative bootleg factory. The funny thing is, Zynga can't execute better. Their knock off games usually have inferior graphics and worse gameplay mechanisms, but they can exclusively advertise to everyone on Farmville and make the original developers look like the knock off.
      • zitterbewegung 16y ago
        I'm pretty skeptical that the government would start regulating addictive video games. Even though they are regulating video games for content I don't really see the government regulating addiction.
        • electromagnetic 16y ago
          > I don't really see the government regulating addiction. So no lessons learnt from the taxes laid on alcohol, tobacco, gambling (and depending on where you're from pharmaceuticals and perhaps even narcotics). The governments method of regulation for addiction is to tax it. I wouldn't be surprised if online games begin getting taxes above and beyond simply the companies revenue.
    • Cushman 16y ago
      Does it seem like I'm hating on casual gaming? It seems pretty apparent that Zynga isn't in the business of making great casual games so much as rabidly pursuing the monetization of casual games. I feel pretty okay treating that as a little skeezy.
• zaidf 16y ago
  Two words: longterm outlook. I think people see Zynga as having already reached a lot of its potential while not so much for facebook.
• neworbit 16y ago
  they have more staff / their average revenue per employee is less - and junkies aside, lockin is less with farmville than with facebook