

Facebook and Zynga Enter Into Long-Term Relationship - jsm386
http://www.facebook.com/press/releases.php?p=162172

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andrewljohnson
Facebook really annihilated any meaning in their mission statement, and all
the passive language indicates the leadership doesn't really embrace the new
statement or take any ownership over it. Since when is Facebook about open and
connected? Facebook connects me with my friends across the globe, in a private
forum.

Facebook's mission statement should honestly read "anything for another
billion bucks," but instead some marketing stooge wrote this:

Founded in February 2004, Facebook's mission is to give people the power to
share and make the world more open and connected.

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julio_the_squid
I too am somewhat put off by the various statements from the CEO that his
mission is to 'change the world'. I can think of another 2-3 rather
manipulative, drive, self-oriented business founders who insist this about
themselves, too. "Anything for another billion bucks" would be a much more
honest assessment of their personal motivations.

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vtail
That's a lot of words for saying "Facebook and Zynga entered a 5-year
agreement on using Facebook credits in Zynga games, but details of that are
not disclosed".

Reading all those press releases, I'm wondering who is the target audience for
them?

* Surely it's not an average Facebook user - she does not read press releases.

* Surely it's not a journalist or a technical person - they don't need all the marketing mumbo-jumbo.

* Surely it's not an (educated) investor, for the same reason.

My question is, who?

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vtail
My conspiracy theory is that bigger firms are expected to have PR departments,
and people working in PR departments are expected to write longer paragraphs
to justify their existence.

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stanleydrew
Sounds like a regular non-conspiracy theory that is probably spot-on.

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andrewljohnson
Having worked in PR, there are no length requirements or even people valuing
wordiness.

What does exist is a stifling press release style that everyone loves to write
and no one loves to read. It doesn't mater how long each thing is, but you
need "about this company" and "about that company." You need garbage quotes
from the execs (written by the PR guy of course), and you need everyone's
statement of business in the first paragraph.

So, with all that crap, you already have a page of nonsense. Then, add in a
few paragraphs on the actual announcement, and that is how the sausage is
made. Some press release writers are better than others, but no one can write
good press release.

Personally, I don't write press releases anymore. I write casual blog posts.

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whakojacko
Sounds like Zynga got a discount on Facebook credits in return for staying
committed to the FB platform. Of course, I could be horribly wrong

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gabrielroth
Seems more likely that any discounts would go the other way. Facebook provides
Zynga with a massive installed and networked user base. What does Zynga offer
Facebook that couldn't be replaced?

If I were Zynga, my biggest fear would be that Facebook would decide to
compete with me. So I'm guessing this agreement prevents that from happening,
at least for five years, and in return Facebook gets a bigger chunk of Zynga's
revenue stream.

Disclaimer: I don't pay a ton of attention to this stuff, so let me know if
I'm off base.

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pchristensen
Much of recent FB growth, especially international, has been driven by gaming.
FB has users, but Zynga has over 200M players. FB couldn't compete with Zynga
in games without giving shady preferential platform features to their own
games - even the other big, successful game companies aren't competing with
Zynga.

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pxlpshr
Yep, I think people severely underestimate how much gaming is a contributor to
technology adoption. Mac OSX could have gained a lot more market share had
Steve not been so stubborn. Case in point, iPhone app popularity is heavily
skewed toward games.

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friendstock
I'm a little disappointed... I was looking forward to an epic showdown. Also,
this means fewer opportunities for the smaller app developers.

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nano81
Not true. Zynga adopting FB credits for all of its games is very much a good
thing for smaller developers on the FB platform. Having Zynga on board is a
big step to having FB currency used as a standard for all FB games, which
levels the playing field for small developers who can't build huge payment
systems themselves.

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sabon
Unless Zynga has 10% fees (my guess) and everybody else the usual 30%. I think
they wouldn't sign the agreement otherwise.

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iamdave
There was once a time where the phrase 'innovative' had been used so much, you
pretty much knew from the get go a company that touted it's success on being
'innovative' or 'forward' to be guilty of exactly the opposite. Same thing
with the word 'proactive'. I learned the hard way that a supervisor who
interviews you and makes it an explicit point to say 'I'm not a micromanager'
is exactly that.

In 2010, the buzzword became 'open' and the theme was 'transparency'. I'm
starting to learn that a company that calls itself 'open' and 'transparent' is
either exactly the opposite, or has decided to redefine what 'open' and
'transparent' mean in order to fit their own archetype of rhetoric.

Oligarchies by way of Nielsen's Law.

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prewett
I've come to the opinion that "if you have to say so, you aren't." If the tofu
were really yummy and tasty, you wouldn't have to say so on the package. (I
like tofu, btw)

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rmorrison
_Terms of the agreement between Facebook and Zynga were not disclosed._

Any guesses as to the terms? = ) I'm thinking ~0.00% instead of 30% fees for
the credits.

Edit: I meant that I suspect it's much less than 30%, not really 0.00%

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vtail
I don't think it's 0%. That would imply that Facebook has no negotiations
power in this dispute. But I think quite the opposite is true: Zynga cannot
really afford leaving Facebook platform _right now_ , so they don't have any
credible threat, other than creating more bad publicity for Facebook.

Based on how things are evolving recently, it doesn't look like Facebook is
paying too much attention to it.

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bemmu
I guess they negotiated most of that 30% facebook credit cut to themselves.

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zephjc
5 years is a long time on the internet. Who is to say it either Zynga or FB be
relevant by then.

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yason
Even if it's in writing it doesn't mean the bigger party can't screw the
smaller party.

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derekc
So by strategic relationship, would that be a less than 30% cut?

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macrael
re: Zanga My impression is that they are making use of the user data they are
able to collect when people start using the app. Is ther any evidence that
they are selling that data or otherwise doing something uncouth with it?

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teej
I'm not sure how much you think "user data" is worth. I can assure you that
Zynga makes more money playing virtual Monsanto than they ever would selling
user data.

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friendstock
so Farmville and Fishville are the High Fructose Corn Syrup of the internet?
:)

