3 ms·
It seems to me that Zynga's biggest mistake was 1) not expecting that social gaming craze to take a dive and 2) not figuring out early enough what to do next wh
by dave1619 14y ago
It seems to me that Zynga's biggest mistake was 1) not expecting that social gaming craze to take a dive and 2) not figuring out early enough what to do next when the social gaming craze died down ... those two things are related.
So rather than predicting and pre-empting the dive in social gaming, Zynga is in a tough situation where they're facing the harsh reality as it comes. As a result, they're stuck with a huge, bloated company not prepared to quickly pivot or create innovation in new product categories.
I don't know what else Zynga can do right now but to downsize and to refocus the company on building what's next and not what was. It's almost like they need to find a new product strategy and business model. And it will take a lot of insight, leadership and team to get it done.
What they have going for them is that they have a lot of cash and a lot of experience in the social gaming genre.
But what they have going against them is momentum which includes employees losing faith in the company.
- yurylifshits 14y agoThey also have distribution and user data.
- yurylifshits 14y agoThey also have distribution and user data.
- tatsuke95 14y ago>"So rather than predicting and pre-empting the dive in social gaming" I agree with your post, outside of this. They most definitely predicted it, and cashed out their stock to benefit from it. How else do you explain them cashing out so much, so early? That's the hard part for me to get over. Other than the shadiness of the VCs and execs, Zynga was a decent idea that didn't work out, like so many before it.