New York Times: Zynga the new Google of games?

Familiar with Farm Ville or Mafia Wars? Did you happen to hear this from you friends -- "It's time to harvest my crops," "Add me to your neighbor," "send me some gifts," or "Add me to your clan." This are just some of the popular Facebook game applications that we almost see in our wall or your friends wall. A big applause to Mark Pincus, C.E.O. of Zynga, the man behind those popular games. A 44-year old founder who aims to build an online entertainment empire as important as Google is to search and have made New York Times focus their attention to the company.

(Zynga's FrontierVille game, which was released only on June 9, already has 20 million players. The company makes money, by and large, only when users pay real money for virtual goods.)

In today's issue of the Times, a new article poses the question: Is Zynga the next Google? Rather, will Zynga be to online games what Google is to search? If you consider the fact that Zynga is predicted to bring $500 million this year from its 100 million users, the article says it looks like this Silicon Valley startup might reach Google-esque proportions.

"So farm, he seems on track. The Zynga Game Network, as the company officially called, is the hottest start-up to emerge from Silicon Valley since Twitter and, before that, Facebook. Unlike Twitter, which has meager revenue, according to the Inside Network, which tracks Facebook apps.

While Facebook needed four and a half year to reach 100 million users, Zynga crossed that mark after just two and a half years."

If you are, the article is pretty much a mash-up of the popular news surrounding the company over the past two years: How they make money selling virtual goods, the 'ScamVille' scandal, how CEO Mark Pincus' bravado gets him into hot water and how the recent drop in FarmVille's monthly active users hasn't led to a big drop in revenue.

Probably the only new tidbits in this article: Pincus admits that he considers FarmVille and other Zynga games to be goofy and Dreamworks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg says if he started his career over, he'd want to be just like Pincus. Hard to blame the Zynga CEO for a swelled head after getting such a high praise from a Hollywood muckity muck. Hmmm...maybe that squelched "Mafia Wars movie" rumor still has some life after all.

Read more about the article here>>>