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Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Is there hope for Zynga

Lead generation scams
Through 2009 Zynga made money from lead generation advertising schemes, whereby game participants would earn game points by signing up for featured credit cards or video-rental services. These were criticized as being less cost-effective than simply buying game points, and in some cases, being outright scams that would download unwanted software or unwittingly sign up for a recurring subscription.[11] On October 31, 2009, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said that Zynga intentionally worked with scam advertisers, and that lead generation made up a third of Zynga's revenue.[18] Arrington also alleged that Facebook was complicit in this.[19] On November 2, 2009, CEO Mark Pincus announced a reform in its offers: Tatto Media, a major offer provider that enrolled users into recurring cell phone subscriptions, would be banned, all mobile offers would be removed, and offer providers would be required to pre-screen offers.[20]


Arrington continued to question Pincus' role in the scams, republishing a video of a speech by Pincus.[21] In the speech, Pincus said:


So I funded [Zynga] myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this Zwinky toolbar which was like, I don't know, I downloaded it once and couldn’t get rid of it. *laughs* We did anything possible just to just get revenues so that we could grow and be a real business.


—Mark Pincus, Speech from Startup@Berkeley


In response, Pincus noted that after offering the Zwinky toolbar, his team of ten decided to remove it since it was a "painful experience."[22]


Several days after the Techcrunch story, Zynga's most recent Facebook game FishVille, was temporarily taken offline by Facebook on claim of advertising violations. According to Zynga, Fishville had 875,000 users within two days of launch. A release from Facebook on its reasons for taking the game offline read that "FishVille will remain suspended until Facebook is satisfied that Zynga demonstrates compliance with Facebook restrictions — as well as Zynga’s own restrictions — on the ads it offers users."[23] FishVille was later un-suspended at midnight November 9/10.[24]


Several suits were filed against Zynga for promoting such offers,[25][26] including a class-action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California for violation of the Unfair competition law and the Consumers Legal Remedies Act, after the lead plaintiff's credit card was billed more than $200 for offers she completed to receive YoVille currency.[27][28][29]


Pincus later said that he had been too eager to increase company revenues through advertising, and that operating in reactive mode by taking down ads only after receiving complaints had not worked. The company removed all ads for a time, relying only on direct purchase of game currency, then began reintroducing third party ads only after they had been screened.[11]


Other criticism
In September 2009 Zynga was threatened with legal action by Nissan for alleged use of their trademarks in the game Street Racing. Zynga subsequently renamed and changed the thumbnail images of all cars that were branded Nissan and Infiniti to "Sindats" and "Fujis" with the thumbnails changed.[30] At the time they also renamed and redesigned automobiles depicted as being made by GM, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Saab, and others.


Another source of criticism is non-players who grow tired of seeing updates about their friends' social gaming activity. Facebook groups created to express displeasure regarding overexposure of Zynga's games attracted millions of members.[11]


After all of the Scams and ways for Not only Zynga to make Big money Facebook it's self is to blame as well.


I'm a FaceBook user, And in the past recent months I have seen alot of changes that I think have made some Difference in the way they work and operate, Now They are the #2 ranked website (Google #1), But at what cost ?
Well at first they had a bad reputation for scams on the social network, And now that the Site is making Millions they can be picky on how the games are run on the website, Or you would think. I admit it is alot better and the Privacy settings are better, you just got to know how to use them.


Under Account at the top right on Facebook Click on Account setting, Change your Privacy settings
Also look under the Application settings, Check all of the Applications on your Facebook account.
If you Did'nt add it then I would remove it.
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