Zynga’s Rocky Shift to Mobile
To turn around its flagging business, Zynga Inc. is betting big on mobile games and creating a network that connects mobile-game players.
But how to carry out that shift remains up for debate.
David Ko, Zynga chief mobile officer, said he may follow a franchise model that Zynga has spearheaded with one of its mobile games, ‘Words With Friends.’ Above, Mr. Ko spoke at a Zynga event last fall.
At Zynga’s San Francisco headquarters last month, Chief Mobile Officer David Ko met with jeans-and-T-shirt-clad engineers and designers to discuss a mobile game the company plans to introduce this fall. During the hourlong meeting, the group deliberated whether to make the game free—like Zynga’s social games on Facebook Inc.’s site—or to ask users to pay for the game upfront.
Ultimately, the meeting ended with no answer, partly because Zynga still is determining how to build a large audience of mobile users. “If we don’t work out social [on mobile devices],…that’s what gets frustrating,” Mr. Ko told the team… read more at wsj.com
