A shower of shooting stars is something to behold. In early autumn I was driving in Nebraska when all of a sudden the sky had bright streaks across it. With far more detail and contrast than a fireworks display, the meteor shower was breathtaking.
New phenomena, whether a consumer hit like the Cabbage Patch Kids, Wii, or a budding rockstar are frequently described as a shooting star. In their initial appearance, it is difficult to guess whether they will just brighten up the sky momentarily or whether they are a culture changer.
Zynga is a video game developer in San Francisco. In contrast to traditional gaming, Zynga produces games for social networking sites. Well-crafted for the current social networking craze, games such as FarmVille allow you to farm with your friends. DragonWars is where you create an army and fight others. These and others are executed as widgets within a social networking site such as FaceBook.
Zynga is Suddenly Everywhere. What Gives? notes that the company is currently lighting up the sky with coverage in many of the major magazines such as BusinessWeek and the Economist. Zynga may be valued at $1B on Facebook Craze suggests Bloomberg. The company is cleverly advertising for new employees in Silicon Valley with animated billboards.
There are some clouds in the bright streaks, as detailed by Zynga Faces Class Action Suit Over Misleading Advertising. GamesIndustryBiz tells that Zynga may earn a third of its revenues through cost-per-action advertising. The suit alleges that gamers were mislead into unauthorized phone charges or other misleading special offers. Facebook's FarmVille Loses Its Country Glow explains the game has over 60 million players worldwide, but some have complained about unauthorized charges to their credit cards. Zynga defends the integrity of their games, saying that these charges are from partners, not Zynga itself. The company founder wrote in his blog that Zynga was removing such linkages from the games until adequate controls were provided.
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