What is the response that your offerings are receiving?

We commenced business in 2007 and from that day onwards, we have never looked back. When we forayed into this business even we were amazed by the response that we received for our offerings. Internationally, there are approximately 235 mn monthly active users of Zynga games. FarmVille is one of our very popular offerings. It was launched in Q2 09 and currently has 76 mn monthly active users. Cafe World is our second popular game that was launched in Q3 09 and currently has 30 mn monthly active users. One of our oldest offerings, Zynga Poker that was launched in Q3 07 currently has 25 mn monthly active users. Among the top ten games on Facebook, six games of Zynga find a place. In India, 10% of the population is playing Zynga games.

Any remarkable facts about the gaming market that you would like to highlight?

The gaming segment has undergone a whole 180 degree of transformation which words fail to describe. In 2008, there were 300 mn gamers on the social network. In 2010, the number of gamers in the western countries is expected to reach the figure of 500 mn alone in the western countries. The market offers such promising prospects that new entrants are expected to foray into the market to capitalise on the prospects. In 2012, Yahoo, MSN, Google and Apple are expected to enter this market. This itself highlights the importance the segment is gaining. The attention that this segment is garnering is sure to translate into good revenues in the future too. Even the investors are interested in huge deals in the prospects that the Internet treasure holds for them.

What are the future plans of Zynga?

We plan to hire about 100 best-of-the-breed computer scientists and engineers over the next one year. We also plan to set up one of our first and largest centers outside the US in India. India is expected to become the third largest online market in the next three years and we intend to capitalise on these prospects. We intend to bring about 1.39 bn of Indias population under our wings.

What is the future prospects that you foresee for this sector?

It is a great sector where leisure has been converted into mainstream activity. Even 3-5% of our active users pay for extra turns which itself highlights the seriousness of the social gaming market. Among the top twenty or twenty-five applications on Facebook are games. Competition is expected to increase with new players entering the market every month.

Shilpa Shanbhag
shilpas@cybermedia.co.in