Introduction
"My kids decided a few months ago that peek-a-boo was their favorite game," he wrote. "While it's unlikely that we can improve upon this classic, I look forward to playing Zynga games with them very soon. When they enter high school, there's no doubt that they'll search on Google, they'll share with their friends on Facebook, and they'll probably do a lot of shopping on Amazon. And I'm planning for Zynga to be there when they want to play", Mark Pincus, former CEO of Zynga.1
Zynga was created in 2007 with the mission statement of, “connecting the world through games”.2 As the creator of some of the world’s most famous social based games, such as Farmville and Words with Friends, Zynga was at the forefront of the industry. The company would eventually start to deteriorate, as their epic roller coaster ride would hit bumps as issues arose.
Mark Pincus, a four-time entrepreneur without any background in the gaming industry, decided to conceive Zynga with his early supporting team made up of 15 members. 3 These members of the corroborative specialized in many aspects, from game design, social media insiders, and marketing specialists. The creative geniuses, with Pincus’ dream, created a platform for gaming that would turn the gaming world upside down. This group of specialists developed and dissected a social media product that was far exceptional to others in the industry at the time of conception.
Zynga not only set themselves above the “cream of the crop” in the social media gaming industry, they set a bar for others to look up to and achieve. The company has grown from $19.48 million in revenues in 2008 to an astounding $1.28 billion in 2012. Zynga’s revenue percentage from 2008 to 2009 increased a breathta...
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14. "Investor Relations." Zynga -. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
15. Takahashi, Dean. "VentureBeat | News About Tech, Money and Innovation." VentureBeat. N.p., 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
16. Fontevecchia, Agustino. "Can Online Poker Save Zynga? $417B Global Gambling Market Throws Pincus A Risky Lifeline." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 06 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
17. Vardi, Nathan. "U.S. Government Moves To Shut Down World's Biggest Online Poker Companies." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 15 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Dec. 2013.
18. "AppData - Application Analytics for Facebook, IOS and Googe Play." AppData - Application Analytics for Facebook, IOS and Googe Play. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
19. Palmeri, Christopher, and Elise Young. "New Jersey's Debut of Online Betting Marks Test for U.S. Casinos." Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 16 Dec. 2013.
Powell, Nancy. “Slots Coming In, Betting Windows Going Out.” Ocean City Today. 9 Oct. 2009.
Present Position: Generating positive return on any kind of input is Zynga’s biggest issue at this point, with generating return on equity being the main issue in particular. Zynga has sustained negative ROE since its initial public offering, despite extremely attractive gross profit margins over the same time period. At first glance, a logical conclusion would be that Zynga is not doing a very good job of keeping its costs down in order to preserve the revenue that equity investors are helping to facilitate. But on closer inspection of the income statement, it becomes very clear that almost half of Zynga’s total revenue each year goes to research and development. This category is not included in the cost of revenue on the income statement, which is treated as Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) in this instance. But an expenditure of this amount seems to make sense, given the nature of the industry and its reliance on research and development of new intellectual property.
P&G was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble as a maker of soaps and candles. P&G was known in Corporate America as a company to be admired and imitated. In addition, it was envied for its profitability as well as strong brand name. P&G has a long standing reputation as having life long employees. This dedication and loyalty by P&G's employees created the notion that outside sources were unwelcome and all products and ideas must come from within, however, this is not the way of the future.
The adrenaline-rushing feeling of gambling offers people the idea that opportunity lies within their hands. Unfortunately, there are far too many consequences to gambling to even begin to count. To win you must play, and to win big you must play big. As more gamblers can recall their losses rather than their winnings, gamblers are often dealt with poor hands and must play the risky game to stay alive. Even though gambling has so many faults, some still fall under its corruptions because of gambling’s deceiving fallacies.
The competition amongst the key players of video game industry in the mid-1990s to the early-2000s is noteworthy, considering the fact that technological endeavors were deeply intertwined with competitiveness. Some of the key players of the video game industry namely, Sony and Microsoft had developed and released their exclusive video game consoles, the PS and the Xbox, respectively.
Presently, America is experiencing a gambling boom. Everywhere you look there’s at least one advertisement involving gambling. Whether it’s a new Las Vegas hotel or a one-dollar scratcher, it seems to catch people’s eyes. Although it may look like a lot of glam and hype, there’s a dark side to the gambling industry, one people overlook the harsh consequences of.
"Gambling Under Attack." CQ Researcher. Congressional Quarterly Inc. 6 Sept. 2012, Volume , No. 33 Pages 769- 792
Have you ever wondered how much money these guys make? Well let’s take Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. It took about 200 million dollars to produce and they sold 500 million dollars’ worth of copies. Take 500 million and subtract 200 million, 500 subtracted by 200 and that equals 300, and you get a profit of 300 million dollars! They made a lot of money and because of that they created a lot of other games.
Online poker had become one of the largest sports in the world. In 2010, the last full year of online poker, there were over 6 million active uses (Fiedler). On April 15, 2011, a day that would be come to be known as “Black Friday”, the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) indicted and seized every major online poker website. The DOJ cites in continuing resolution 10.336, that their actions were for the public’s protection and that various laws, like the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), state how the game is illegal. It can be mathematically proven that online poker is a game of skill and does not apply to the ambiguity of the UIGEA. Online poker is not “gambling” and it should be legalized and regulated for national economic growth.
...n open platform the more games that enter form side B automatically increase the amount of interest in side A because more games are available. The more gamers that join in side A makes game developers more interested in entering through side B. This is how open platforms generate wealth and grow.
The lives of Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg have influenced American society immensely through their ways of innovation, generosity, and creativeness towards all the tasks they have embarked on. Many people look over Mark Zuckerberg and all he has done, but everybody knows all the accomplishments of Steve Jobs. Although Jobs is no longer with us, his improvements to technology and innovation are still around today helping society function in not only the business world. But also the entertainment world right along with Zuckerberg, who continues to contribute to society with improvements to Facebook and his major charity contributions.
The creation of (originally called) “The Facebook”, opened the doors for other creations such as Linken, Instagram and Twitter. What people might be surprised to know is that Zuckerberg was a child prodigy. Long before Facebook Zuckerberg was creating computer programs. At age 12 he turned his
Gambling is described as the betting of money or property on the result of an event or game that is mainly random with the desire to win more money or gain additional property. The industry or sector created by the activity of legal gambling is referred to as gaming. Since inception, gambling and gaming has continued to develop to an extent that it worth more than $335 billion across the globe. Most of the revenues obtained in this industry are generated by casinos and lotteries. In the past few years, gambling and gaming have attracted significant concern and controversy, especially with regards to the morality of the practice and whether its financial benefits outweigh the damage. While proponents of gambling
Facebook or “book of faces” has gained a massive amount popularity in recent years, because of it’s friendly interface and unique platform. Nowadays, almost everyone must have heard of or used the application. But only few people realize the negative impact Facebook leaves on users such as privacy, attitude, and behavior.
Our goal for the Lige' is to establish a strong product in the over 6 billion dollar a year handheld gaming market. In order to be considered a success we hope to sell 1.5 million units in the first 16 months. However, as is traditional with gaming platforms the program will have to operate at a loss over this time before we can expect to see a profit. To minimize losses the Lige' will focus on function and content over technology and will initially only be sold over our website it is expected that 100 to 150 million dollars will need to be invested before the program starts turning over profits.