VARIOUS: San Francisco-based social gaming company Zynga says its mission is "connecting the world through games" and as it celebrates its fifth anniversary, it's tapping offices in Asia to help fuel growth

Record ID: 480429

  • Title: VARIOUS: San Francisco-based social gaming company Zynga says its mission is "connecting the world through games" and as it celebrates its fifth anniversary, it's tapping offices in Asia to help fuel growth
  • Date: 12th July 2012
  • Summary: SAN FRANCISCO, UNITED STATES (JUNE 26, 2012) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF 'RUBY BLAST' GAME PEOPLE PLAYING GAME
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: India, Usa
  • City:
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Business,Industry,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVAAVQB5DP06516ZRSH8B776ILBM
  • Story Text: The San Francisco based social gaming company Zynga has enjoyed phenomenal growth by hitching its fortunes to the world's number one social network Facebook.
    It's been a pioneer in getting people to shell out real money for virtual goods. And it has had a string of successful titles such as Farmville, Cityville and Words With Friends.
    But as Zynga marks its fifth anniversary, it's confronting new questions about how it will make the transition for an ever-more competitive and increasingly mobile gaming market.
    Reuters TV has been granted rare access to founder Mark Pincus and to Zynga's global operations, including offices in Beijing and Bangalore, to learn how a company built on a simple notion - that gaming would be more social - is evolving.
    Shortly after Mark Pincus founded the company in July 2007, he set up office in an abandoned chip factory.
    "I thought it was a perfect place to build a game around poker chips and microchips," he says.
    Walking into the old office, now deserted, he explains "at one point, my entire engineering team was in this room. This wall wasn't here. So they were all in here and had one of those always on beer keg-o-rater things.
    The company surpassed a billion dollars in revenue in 2011 and listed on the Nasdaq in December with a value of $8.9 billion. The company's stock has dropped considerably in recent months, but Pincus says he still believes the future of gaming will be 'social'.
    "The one quote I always remind myself of is the more things change, the more things stay the same so as big as your company gets, your heart and soul has to be product entrepreneurs and it's great to come here and be reminded of the scrappiness that we approached the market with. There's a lot with the way we still approach the market that's really scrappy and there's a lot that's really different where we're operating at a scale that we didn't imagine when we're were in this building."
    Zynga now has several offices in Asia. The office in Bangalore is Zynga's largest outside of the U.S. and works on a range of technologies and games.
    "So Zynga's mission of connecting the world through games requires us to have talent that's truly global. India's just an awesome place with amazing talent. A mix of creaitve talent, technology and business talent. And that's the reason we set up an office in India," explains Zynga India manager Shan Kadavil.
    In China, Zynga's usual partner Facebook is blocked, so Zynga is partnering with Chinese internet giant Tencent to produce games for the local market.
    "For example we have street vendors in our China Cityville game selling smelly tofu. A delicacy in China, but not so much in the States," jokes country manager Andy Tian.
    Zynga Chief Technology Officer Cadir Lee says the company's offices in China and India are playing an important role in its global operations as well.
    "We treat them very much as major product development centres, which is unlike a lot of other companies which use them more as resources," he says.
    Back in San Francisco, Pincus explains he's hoping to build the equivalent of a digital skyscraper.
    "I think that's the greatest opportunity of our time," he says.
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