Zynga now valued at $5.51 billion, more than Electronic Arts

[daredevil]

SharesPost has valued Farmville developer Zynga Game Network at $5.51 billion, according to Business Week. That means it is now estimated to be bigger than console publisher Electronic Arts, which stands at a market cap of $5.16 billion. It still has a long way to go to beat Activision Blizzard, which has a market cap of $13.9 billion.

 

While making such direct comparisons isn't completely accurate, nor fair, it gives us a snapshot at how quickly social network gaming is growing. Zynga was founded four years ago and already six of the 10 most popular apps on Facebook belong to it, and it has more than 210 million monthly active users.

 

The valuation for Zynga is so high because it is based on the growth of the virtual goods space, which by itself is at a whopping $1.6 billion this year. The social firm isn't the only one in the virtual goods game though: EA also has a toehold in that market, having acquired Playfish late last year.

 

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-10-26/zynga-tops-electronic-arts-as-social-games-spread.html

 

If EA stops releasing this broken and shitty games, they might make some more profit. More or less people go absolutely bananas over Farmville.

[Post(?)Organic]

JESUS

[OnionKnight]

Just goes to show, facebook is the way to make some $$$. People pay good to play some shitty or average games =D

[sinA* <3 Padme*Amidala]

Farmville

[Jorz]

no wonder,with so many fb users

[Medic Kane]

Kinda of depressing

 

But EA could make more solid games

[krAzy :)]

I H8 FARMVILLE

[Achiyan]

I H8 FARMVILLE

+1

[Jorz]

I H8 FARMVILLE

+1 why would you spend up to 5 minutes playing that bs

[Desu]

ive used to farmville.

its kinda like an rpg game.

you see your creation mature....till you realize there is no point and you dont actually own a farm.

[tipsy]

I play farmville plz add me

[Antimony]

I dont know how much users play farmville. Is there a way to know?

 

 

 

I play farmville plz add me

 

 

Play more ET instead. or start scrimming.

[speedfact]

Not surprising my fiancee spend about 30 dollars a month on her farm and all those other games. Then I know one dude that spends about 200 a month on them games. I never understood the point but what can you say, its like the pet rock thing. People have no idea why they want it but they have to have it, even when there is no point to it, lol.

[Thoracic]

Very interesting, I’ve heard it was popular but not that popular, and an example of a disruptive business. A security analyst, Michael Pachter, proposed Activision create a subscription plan for COD (later refuted by Eric Hirshberg Activision’s CEO). I could see Activision possibly offering perks for $, but I’m just not sure if the Zynga model directly translates to the COD series.

 

(a little off topic) Re: comparing valuations of the companies, I can see why Business Week says they aren’t directly comparable. The float of shares on secondary markets such as Sharespost.com are low and apparently require accredited investors (individuals/corp/trusts….with high $$) as opposed to the general public. In the FAQ section of Sharespost states contracts need to be $25k min.

 

http://www.industrygamers.com/news/activision-we-will-never-ever-charge-for-call-of-duty-multiplayer/

 

http://www.sec.gov/answers/accred.htm