
Facebook and Zynga to end close relationship - anons2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20554441
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potatolicious
This is a flesh wound for Facebook, but IMO will probably be lethal for Zynga.
Without the "virality" (read: spamming) offered by Facebook their games have
no hope of any sustainable user base.

They can pivot into _actual_ casual games (a la Popcap), but that space is
already crowded and Zynga has no real advantage over anyone else, and plenty
of disadvantages.

~~~
acgourley
This doesn't change that much for Zynga, they've known for a while that it's
mobile or bust for them, and all their acquisitions and movements show they've
bet entirely on that.

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nicholassmith
Could this turn out to be the nail in Zynga's coffin? Seems like investors are
getting cold feet, staff reductions, and a general malaise seems to surround
the brand. Losing that access as a key partner to Facebook and becoming just
another user is going to force them to make very rapid changes to adapt.

~~~
tatsuke95
I think the nail in the coffin was the last quarterly report. At this point
Zynga is priced right around the liquidation value of the company. Nowhere to
go but up (or out of business)!

Long Zynga 2014 calls in the hope they pull off a miracle of online gambling.

~~~
johnyzee
Somehow online gambling seems like a great fit for Zynga.

~~~
nicholassmith
Huge fit but with massively regulatory oversight, so they'd be at the whims of
the regulators.

~~~
michaelbuckbee
Admittedly so, but Vegas casinos seem to thrive under a similar regulatory
climate.

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michaelochurch
I name this Praziquantel Day.

(Praziquantel is a drug used to kill tapeworms.)

This is very, very _good_ for Facebook. They are upgrading their brand and
image by doing this.

The major reason Google+ Games did not succeed is that preferential treatment
was given to mainstream developers (e.g. Zynga) who didn't expect us to thrive
and therefore gave us their second-string stuff, as opposed to indie
developers who would value us and the access we could offer them and give us a
very high (brand-defining) level of quality. Having raised this issue, and
having proposed an alternative strategy that _would have worked exceedingly
well_ , is the major reason I am no longer at Google.

~~~
pekk
Facebook gave preferential treatment to Zynga too, so that can't be the reason
Google+ Games did not succeed. Perhaps it is more relevant that Google+ is not
widely used and those who do use it are less likely to be into things like
Farmville (demographics).

~~~
sbov
Facebook gave preferential treatment to Zynga only after they proved that they
were the most popular. They had to fight their way there - it didn't start
that way. It's still a bit dangerous to do so though because users' tastes may
change, so good on Facebook for removing their special status.

As you said, Google+ had no such information, and gave companies special
status out the gate before proving their popularity. If Facebook did the same
thing, their top apps would probably look a lot different.

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mathattack
I can't see how this isn't the death knell from Zynga. Maybe I am missing
something, but Zynga loses all their mass appeal. Maybe there is a self
contained group that runs under the radar screen at their site, but they lose
much of the social connection.

Facebook can find other game makers. There is no other Facebook for Zynga.
Facebook also gets rid of some unwanted Spam.

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jiggy2011
They could just resort to actual email spam, would anyone put it past them?

~~~
Deestan
They would if it worked, but email spam is mostly solved these days. Everyone
uses a spam filter.

~~~
jiggy2011
I was thinking more along the lines of "get 100 credits in this game by giving
us your gmail password/control over outlook so we can send to people in your
contacts list" rather than outright blind spamming.

~~~
potatolicious
I imagine that GMail, Yahoo, AOL, and all of the major email providers would
slam that door shut pretty quickly. Much faster than Facebook closed the door
on inter-friend spam.

After all, a webmail provider gets _nothing_ from such behavior, and it
represent a giant security liability.

~~~
slig
One could wish. I'm still getting spam from linkedin and couple of others
"social networks" (badoo and similars) even after reporting every email from
them as spam.

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zerostar07
Facebook is also enforcing new terms for its developers: From December on,
applications that run on external domains instead of appearing as an iframe
inside facebook will be severely restricted in their access to facebook[1].
This move is supposed to force indie developers to move their games to
facebook where they can't use AdSense (it's not allowed by facebook) and can
only use facebook's own payments system (it's mandatory).

Zynga could have used this 2 year time window to grow an independent social
gaming network, but they failed to do so. It was inevitable that this would
happen.

[1]
[https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/09/05/platfor...](https://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/2012/09/05/platform-
updates--operation-developer-love/)

~~~
lukasb
My reading is that those restrictions are only for games off Facebook, not all
applications. Interesting that they would make that distinction.

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abbott
Best for both, and it will release zynga from FB exclusivity agreement.
Facebook's platform and business has changed dramatically in the past 24 mos.
And zynga can focus on growth on other platforms in addition to maintaining a
presence on Facebook.

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brianbreslin
So in the article they say "Zynga's stock fell 13% on the news" - my first
reaction was how can you go 13% below zero?. Is that wrong? (actual drop was
$.17 since they are trading at $2.50)

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Narretz
>>> Zynga now has its own games platform, but players will no longer be able
to share their progress on Facebook.

Isn't every app allowed to share certain things on a user's FB page? Why
wouldn't this be possible for Zynga games?

