Today at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, Zynga CEO Mark Pincus took the stage to talk about social gaming.
Pincus started out praising Facebook for opening the platform in 2007, which had led to the rise of companies like his. And they’ve come a long way. Zynga’s first game in July 2007 was a social poker game on Facebook, and just yesterday the company hit 50 million daily active users across its properties.
Pincus believes that Web 3.0 is the App Economy. That is to say, it will be a web in which people use various apps to share things. And there will be money behind this thanks to direct payments, and social goods.
Of its 50 million daily users,, 20 million are using Farmville, Zynga’s most popular game about yes, farming. Pincus announced on stage that they had made $830,000 in just two weeks selling a certain kind potato seed (a virtual good), and that they donated half of that to school children in Haiti. That money will feed 500 of them for a year, he says.
There have been various reports around the web in recent months that Zynga is already making nine figures in revenues thanks largely to these social goods.
Below find some live notes (paraphrased)
- Social gaming started in May 2007, when Facebook opened its API for its Platform
- They don’t get enough credit today for how revolutionary that was. 100 million users at the time.
- Our first game July 2007, social poker game.
- 50 million daily active users as of yesterday (across Zynga games)
- Web 1.0 was discovery of the web and links
- Web 2.0 was the Google, both search and AdSense
- Web 3 is the App Economy
- The currency of this realm is what users want to talk about and like, “social breadcrumbs”
- Monetization in Web 3 is users paying for stuff directly, a great idea.
- Farmville 20 million active users alone.
- 800,000 virtual tractors sold
- Users finding services through apps
- Users will pay for things in the future, it’s already up to $6 billion economy
- Social plumbing – host portals – social applications.
- Facebook is plumbing and the portal.
- But don’t believe this is going to end with Facebook.
- There will be many forms of social plumbing and portals.
- Amazon in the future will be acquiring users from friends sharing not Google ad clicks.
- Social Virtual Goods
- $830,00 worth of virtual special sweet potato seeds in Farmville in 2 weeks – half of that has gone to school children in Haiti.
- This will feed 500 school kids in Haiti for a year.
this guy is nuts (literally, according to those working with him, and figuratively). got lucky and now wants us to believe he’s a visionary?
+ 1 , everyone puts their own twist.
O’reilly sometime back said, it would be about the “semantic web”.
This dude = no visionary.
You’re an idiot.
When someone has already sold 3 companies and is absolutely killing it with his 4th one, you shut up and listen.
zynga is based on having the money to go out and literally copy existing hits.
App makers deserve credit; however, remember the value of being juiced in to facebook.
Nuts or not, he has developed a game that allows him to grow and hoard billions of them! Farmville is pretty neat, though I am only an observer and not a farmer.
Jon @ WoodMarvels.com
the question is – if he stopped pumping these games with ads, would they all die off (albeit slowly)?
BS nuts. this is his 5th firm–Mark simply has put the pieces together. Go sulk in your nuts guy.
Web 3 is the App Economy
Sorry, I was testing Facebook connect.
“Web 2.0 was the Google, both search and AdSense”
Thats BS.
Web 2.0 = “Youtube, Facebook, Gmail, 37signals…”
you know the social, ajaxy, rounded corner stuff.
Web 3.0 = “Friendfeed, Twitter…”
The real time stuff.
Oh and
Gov 2.0 is like whitehouse.gov, apps.gov, .gov
Could we please stop trying to give the web distinct “versions”? It’s a progression of an environment.
We don’t give cities, governments, organizations, etc version numbers , do we? Boston 2.1, Chicago 1.3 rc1, Climate 2.4a, Europe 4.3.1, Intel 3.14, Particle Physics 15.2, … Please.
You can’t believe how many times I’ve talked myself out of buying a dog in my Happyfarm with real money… sooo tempting!
Web 3.0 is the location based services economy. whomever creates the greatest capacity to scale the internet and mobile seamlessly will win the game.
+1
btw, “Monetization in Web 3 is users paying for stuff directly, a great idea.” made me laugh
I’m beginning to wonder if the writers at TechCrunch are a bunch of unpaid interns. Where are they getting their info from? I’ve never heard Web 2.0 described that way.
This guy has no credibility. His company’s business is to clone other games and steal people’s ideas.
This is not about innovation, this is about making money and grabbing market share from everyone else.
Nothing to see here.
+1
It will have to be a combination of real-time and mobility. Just published an article on this: http://cherevik.com/?p=204. Applications, or rather data portability across applications, is part of it.
To be honest:
1. He is not very pretty
2. Most chicks would tap that just because of his money.
3. Him and Michael Arrington seem to have the same barber.
Pincus is no innovator, Pincus is a bi-polar egomaniac who steals ideas/apps and abuses his employees. As a CEO he is impossible to deal with, a back stabbing egomaniac with one thing in mind- personal gain. Never trust this scumbag.
Pincus, Schmincus. This guy is a self obsessed cheater whose main goal is to be rich and famous. Tell you what, he is a miserable liar with a very dark side to him. He says what he says only to gain personal wealth. He will never be happy, he can never be trusted, and ultimately his house of cards will come crashing down. Scumbag is far too nice a term to describe this despicable human being. Steer way clear
wow this guy seems to have quite a bad rapport..
a contact told me he used the poker code he licensed for tribe on facebook (illegally) to try things out.. some luck.. huh
one things clear. he will do any shit to get it done. not sure if thats a good thing or bad..
Web 2.0 is about rounded corners, shiny logos and input boxes the size of Steve Jobs’ ego. Not any of that google crap people are talking about.
Very good article Mark.
Something that you may be very interested in is the Facebook Status Generator, let me know what you think:
http://www.thei...atus-generator/
Looking forward to reading more of your stuff mate.