While LivingSocial may hold the title for largest application on the Facebook platform, Zynga, the leading social gaming company on Facebook, continues to expand their lead daily. As of today the company is just shy of 43 million monthly active users and 100,000 short of 8 million daily active users, making it the biggest platform developer by all metrics. It appears that for a few days Facebook stopped updating their metrics last week. Once they began updating again Zynga’s metrics jumped through the roof.
What’s increasingly becoming clear is that social games are continuously battling for the top spot when it comes to daily active users. Over the past week Zynga’s second largest game, YoVille, experience a surge in traffic. Zynga also holds the title of the only company with two or more applications in the top ten Facebook applications based on daily active users. In other words: Zynga is dominating the platform.
So how is Zynga so successful? Some developers attribute the company’s success to strong political ties with Facebook executives. Others attribute the success to a rabid base of fans. The company has an internal goal of responding to all customer’s inquiries within 48 hours although the current response time is around 4 days on average. With 43 million monthly active users, responding to every inquiry despite the service being free can be extremely challenging.
Just ask Facebook what that’s like. I personally receive about 20 emails from people every day looking for help with their Facebook accounts so I can only imagine the thousands of emails that Facebook is receiving. As Zynga continues to expand their dominance, handling customer support will be something that the company needs to continue focusing on. Despite the challenges though, the company is reportedly bringing in over $100 million a year in revenue, and continues to experience phenomenal growth.
As the company also continues to expand on mobile platforms Zynga is on a roll and with social games being the leading applications on social platforms, the company is in an enviable position. The only question now is who will be able knock Zynga off their current pedestal?

35 Comments »










i still believe Playfish is the best developer for Facebook!
I have no idea how this is! I play Street Racing, My Heroes Ability, and Texas Holdem…you guys pretty much bite…unfulfilled offers. In Yoville the economy system is out of wack. 500 coins for a box of chocolates but only 150 doe a piece of zen painting? Street Racing…CONSTANT CONTINUOUS SERVER RESETS. There is now way to be king off all 8 cities because Zynga resets constantly. Two weeks ago the promised that this would not happen again…well what’s going on? My respect, collectibles, and Master street perks are always going BYE BYE!
Offers…I did okay with Texas Holdem…I haven’t played in a while but I usually got offers met. Heroes? Seldom. Yoville? Seldom… Street Racing? Once in a blue moon. I’ve HEARD of…I have not seen it myself but it does not surprise…of people actually buying Yo bucks, favor points, etc. and they don’t ever get them…maybe a law suit would step up the game…I’ve read a forum by a customer service rep that they had over 2 million users waiting to be heard. I admire the hard work you’ve put into these games…but for the most part…they screw you over.
From: oli_storm@hotmail.com
To: info+nnfqn0e@facebook.com
Subject: RE: My Account Has Been Hacked or Compromised
Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 18:25:21 +0000
hello
this morning after i have lgout my account was hacked
i was out from around 6Am to 11:30 pm and at this time is hacked, the reason are CHips at Texas POker Stars,
im in GMT + 1 time zone, Sarajevo Skopje Warsaw Zagreb
Before Chips Account was around 1.400.000.000 and after was around 900 000
i didnt clicked any links or something,
i must say last few days since when ive maid this chips i have changed my passwords few times
and all of them were strong with letters numbers and specials signs
i have reinstaled Java , cleared Cash,
Checked E-mail address and changed passwords on email and facebook
can you fix this problem faster?
my friend waiting so much for this more than 14 days
which makes me feel that i dont have chance to see my chips again
Thank You!!!
and i must say that i have sended this to FB to
and im waiting so much for simple ansfer
jhfi7uofl.i
Zynga rewards you for having lots of friends in your ‘team’ in the game, so what some people do is start up new facebook accounts and add those accounts into their team. In yoville you´re limited to working every 4 hours so people add many facebook accounts until they can go to the factory every few seconds (visit the factory in yoville and you’ll see lots of people walking in all the time)
Also, how do they count these numbers, are they from the bit in the game’s information page that tells you each game’s monthly active users? If I played 2 different games on zynga would I be counted as 2 different users for them?
Hi there….you know I just wanted to let you know how I have been feeling over the past couple of weeks…and I know that I am not alone. YoVille has been such a great part of my life….very addictive…but very mind relaxing. The past couple of weeks everything is so slow. I keep having to reboot…and now I have been trying to go to some of the events..and an error comes up and I am told that I am being sent to the exterior condos. Now this is messed up. What has happened over the past couple of weeks that have made this happen. I even had a friend try to enter my home, and she was popped out to the curb too. I think you should know how upset people are becoming. Please let me know how to resolve this problem. Sincerely
i still believe Playfish is the best developer for Facebook!
There’s no big mystery or magic here: Zynga aggressively acquires users through lots of advertising. They market far more than any other of the application companies and that drives users and click-throughs.
What’s going to take them down? Game quality. Their games easily cloned and often just copies themselves. These guys are clearly great at the ad game but they suck as game designers. They only have two successes: Poker and Mafia. Poker is a game anyone can make (hey Playdom) and Mafia is a copy which they’ve made lots of versions of (like Space Wars and Fashion Wars and so on).
These guys are low-quality clone merchants with money. They’re gonna flame out, like all these kinds of companies do, when the quality expectations change suddenly and users tastes mature. Their only hope is to become a distributor for other, better developers and earn their slice with their ad model that way. Other than that they are f**cked.
I am very happy to know I’m not alone.
WEll personally I love Yoville, and am totally addicted to it..lol But Im with Nancy here the past couple of weeks things have got very slow, and its hard to do things because of lag. I also get kicked to the street often. and I know alot of others who have said the same thing.
its getting rather anoying so I dont play as much as before because it takes a good five minutes lately for my character to load. Hopefully this can be fixed soon, because I know quite a few people voicing that they are planing on leaving is it keeps up, and that would be sad.
I don’t have a problem with any of the games…it’s just lack of upkeep.
I don’t understand why Zynga is so big, still. They had a great advantage of gaining users, being the first one out the door with social games. However, the games do not look good or work properly.
I think the second wave of companies will rock the boat, among them European start-ups like MegaZebra that are much more nimble and faster. Facebook is constantly moving and the bigger Zynga gets, the slower they are to adapt.
It is the simplest process in the world, advertisers ,how does Zynga make money, us the little people buying the products from the advertisers, boycott the advertisers and Zynga will wake up and listen, fix their problems and remember that they love the games, (thats their motto) or simply die off when their money dries up. Like I said it’s very simple.
I enjoy playing mafia wars. Played everyday, member of a few groups and sent friend requests to grow my mafia. Big “families” is necessary to be competitive. My account has now been disabled for “abusive or annoying” behavior(sending too many friend requests). Since Zynga is so tight with the Facebook folks, perhaps Zynga could convince Facebook to not punish those who wish to excel at Zynga games.
I was scame for 1,0000 coins it was not right he was mean he owe me 1,0000 coins
http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?p=675889#post675889
Just read the Zynga forums.. There are many angry ppl there. Crap product with even worse customer service. If you guys can’t deliver it, then don’t promise anything.
Of course, the major problem with Facebook is that it drops Zynga (Mafia Wars) users if they try to add friends too fast from Mafia Wars add sites.
Zynga has made it necessary to continually add friends to maximize performance in the game - e.g., one cannot purchase the new weapons or vehicles if one does not have enough friends, and more of the special equipment is better than just one or two of the same.
So Facebook officially disabled my account because I was adding friends from add sites too quickly.
MySpace, which is not as good a format generally, doesn’t have such restrictions.
i was scamed for 600,000 coinsit was noy right he is so mean and all my things are gone
I would like to know what Zynga feels about Its FaceBook players being penalized for playing zynga games such as Mafia Wars,Vampire Wars etc. FB users are being deactivated at an alarming rate or given “Pink Slips” because of adding too many friends or posting too many posts. Which technically is the only way to advance in most Zynga games Correct? You need a certain amount of people to advance,complete missions,make coins etc. It makes me laugh to see how proud you are and how much Venue you make from these games. While the people who play them are losing there Facebook accounts with all their personal cyber relations. I would like to see something done on this matter. Maybe a statement from Zynga or even FB. Someone better speak and soon. Search on google for FB pink slips and you will see how many people are starting to complain. Shame on you Zynga and FB for not caring about its users.
give me 5m
hi i have been scammed 70,000,000 in yoville and can you help me please the person who scammed me said i can have a puppy for all my money i gave him it and he took all my money and didn’t give me the puppy. please help !
I was scammed and hacked.
I have been emailing them for a couple of weeks now and still no response. I have provided receipts from cash purchases through paypal and can’t get a hold of anybody from the company.
i have lost allmost 500.000.000 millions in chips and i do not get any help .your system keep frezzing and you can not get out of the frezzed you have to reboot.so i have the district attorney office joyce leary going to court soon and sueing for 7.5 million dollors or you can settle this case for 300.000.000 millions in chips or go to court
lost allmost 500.000.000 millions in chips and no help so help
having read the above report i agree that steps are made against Zynga. The movement of chips supplied by outside dealers should be banned however the loss of chips which are hacked or stolen from accounts that meet the monetary value of $2000 to $50.000 if purchased at Zynga should be looked at. payment for chips placed in an account for use in poker should be monitured by zynga so all movement should be logged unofficial removal should be classed as theft.So Zynga do the right thing not and stand back in denile of your own
i got scammed 30000 plz can i get my money back
i was scammed 155yocash
Zynga yoville i wanted to know if u can help me i got scammed 4 6547300 coins on yoville from this guy and i dont know how i wanted to know if u will help me please help
I WANT MY MONEY IT WAS 123000000000
yoville neds new homes youcan buy an make new places on yoville.make a place wear you can buy a pool
i all most for got i just got scamme 80 yocash an 90000000 yocoins
My garden shed is missing! where did it go? I want it back
I am writing concerning some thing’s I purchased on Farmville and then when I went back on my farm they were gone and I spent over 50,000 coins for them.It was red school and a windmill. I am wondering if I can get them back or the coins? Thanks,Sherra
hello,Iam Isaac and i got scammed 100,000 coins on myspace because i went to this sale places and i was going to buy a recording box so we stared a trade and so i stared to put coins but right when we stared the trade he agredd then so i put in my 100,000 coins and he only left me a coin and i want my coins back