Zynga shifts focus to mobile games
Zynga has been experiencing a significant amount of turbulence in the social gaming space recently. The company made its fortune through Facebook with its vast portfolio of social games. Last year, however, Zynga suffered a proverbial fall from grace as consumers abandoned the company’s games and Facebook stopped showing exclusive favor to the developer. Zynga has adopted a new approach to gaming in an effort to reclaim its throne and has shifted focus to mobile games.
Social gaming takes a back seat
According to the company’s latest financial earnings report, Zynga saw revenues of $311 million in the fourth quarter of 2012. The company experienced a net loss of $48.6 million during the same period. Revenues have been stagnant for the company for several years, but in-game sales have dropped by 15% throughout 2012. For the company to reclaim its place in the game industry, it will have to make a big splash in the mobile games sector.
Zynga working to break into the mobile space
Zynga has already aligned itself with a mobile-centric focus. The company has a workforce of approximately 20 developers working exclusively on mobile games. The rest of the company is focusing on the business aspects of entering into the mobile space, such as marketing, developing better in-game monetization schemes, and working to build new mobile deployment platforms for its upcoming games. Though the company has adopted a very strong focus on mobile games, it is unlikely that Zynga will abandon its social games any time soon.
Social games not likely to be abandoned by the company
Though Zynga may have lost a great deal of favor with consumers over the past year, the company still boasts of more than 298 million monthly active users for its games. Most of these users come from Facebook, where the company’s most popular games are still featured. For its mobile games, Zynga will have to find a new publisher, as Facebook has shown wariness of supporting the company’s titles and the fact that the social network has a very limited presence in the mobile gaming sector.
PayLeap and Spindle team to boost mobile commerce services
PayLeap, a company specializing in payment processing solutions, has announced its partnership with Spindle, a leading mobile commerce provider. The two companies have signed a strategic agreement that is designed to combine their solutions and technologies for the benefit of the global mobile commerce market. Such partnerships are becoming more popular throughout the mobile commerce sector as smaller companies find it nearly impossible to meet global demand for the services they provide on their own.
Companies to combine technologies and services
The PayLeap platform operates as a payment gateway, collection financial information from consumers and offering payment processing services to businesses. The platform supports in-store payments as well as those made through e-commerce sites. PayLeap also boasts of several security features, such as fraud management and secure checkout, in order to provide more safety for mobile commerce initiatives. Spindle offers businesses a variety of mobile commerce services, couponing, and loyalty programs.
Consumers demand better mobile commerce services
Through this new partnership, Spindle and PayLeap will combine their services and technology to provide consumers and businesses with more robust solutions in their given markets. These solutions may be well-received in industries that have been struggling to adopt mobile commerce per the demands coming from consumers. Those with mobile devices have been itching to participate in mobile commerce in markets in Europe and Asia, but there are still relatively few services that cater to these consumers, creating a promising opportunity for Spindle and PayLeap.
Partnerships could help small businesses compete against large companies
While the partnership will give both companies the ability to reach a wider audience, it will also help them compete against larger companies that have established strong presences in mobile commerce. Google is one such company and its Google Wallet platform has become a popular mobile commerce solution for consumers. Smaller companies may find it difficult to compete with a corporation the size of Google, hence the increasing frequency of partnerships being formed between such companies.
