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福布斯:facebook和社交游戏开发者进入圈用户拉锯战

发布时间:2010-05-08 06:15:04 Tags:,,,

福布斯消息开篇就很认真地分析了facebook和社交游戏开发商之前的蜜月期已经提前结束了。

马克品克斯

马克品克斯

Gigaom网站将它称为是zynga公司和facebook平台的圈地(用户)拉锯战。

facebook和社交游戏开发商一度被称为是社交网络蓬勃发展的利益共生体,社交网络平台需要这些游戏开发者来为他们留住和吸引更多的用户;而游戏开发者需要社交网络这个平台来吸引用户和获得利润。

resized_zynga_games

resized_zynga_games

facebook这几年的急剧增长和社交游戏的贡献分不开,按照研究,facebook用户在facebook逗留的页面60%和游戏有关。而社交游戏也依赖facebook平台华丽转身,从小公司一跃成为国际游戏大亨,其中最为典型的是zynga,从4个人的小企业一下子成长为社交游戏行业的领军企业。

现在出现这样的局面,很大一部分和facebook的支付新体系有关,据说这套新系统有效压缩了开发者将近30%的利润。但是更为深入的应该是zynga本身,zynga的成长野心已经不是facebook一个平台所能束缚的。除了facebook,zynga也在自有平台zynga live 、myspace平台、iphone平台、ipad平台等上面发力,力求获得更多范围的影响。

我想zynga的底气在于,zynga的业界品牌已经形成,具有极强的号召力。以珍宝岛treasure isle为例,该游戏一上线一个月时间就获得了2400万左右的活跃用户,除了facebook的推荐以外,zynga本身的品牌和游戏运作功底也密不可分。zynga敢于对抗强势的facebook,深层的还在于zynga对用户黏性的信心,喜欢farmville的人,不管是不是一定在facebook上面,即便是在farmville.com上面他们一样能玩得开心。

离开facebook,zynga必然会受到用户流失的影响,但是那时候也是自有平台zynga live 、myspace平台、iphone平台、ipad平台等流量暴增的时候。

Facebook and social game companies were once close companions out of mutual interests, but the relationship has lately begun to show signs of strains, and even cracking. The latest example: Zynga on Thursday threatened to leave Facebook and start its own social game network Zynga Live, according to Techcrunch, over a breakdown in negotiations between the two on Facebook Credits, the social network’s virtual currency system that would require game developers to pay a 30% cut of revenues.

On a few different panels at the Social Gaming Summit in San Francisco on Friday, a number of social game companies addressed the “it’s complicated”-style relationship they are increasingly finding themselves in with Facebook.

“It reminds me of my second girlfriend,” said Arthur Chow, chief operating officer of social game developer 6waves. “It’s always a love-hate relationship, but the ‘love’ part is still dominating.”

Facebook Credits has faced some unpopularity among game developers, who are used to managing their own in-game virtual currencies and taking a larger cut of the revenues. In addition, one panel at the summit addressed the increasingly restrictive policies on Facebook’s “viral” channels for acquiring users, like using Facebook feeds and messaging. Though companies still largely acknowledge a dependence on the social network for acquiring users, at least in the U.S., a number are starting to consider other options, such as off-Facebook dedicated game portals like FarmVille.com.

“Anytime you build on someone else’s platform, there are extra sleepless nights that occur,” said Keith Rabois, a vice president at social gaming company Slide. “You’ll see more and more people having ‘mixed metaphor games’ where there’s some user acquisition on Facebook, but they are also trying to control more of the user experience on an [off Facebook] site they can control.”

Others at the summit saw Facebook’s policies and credit system as just part of the cost and risk of doing business with the social network. They expressed a willingness to stick with the site as long as it continued to grow and provide opportunities for other game companies to grow.

“There’s no free lunch,” said Andy Tian, president of game company XPD Media, defending Facebook Credits. “Facebook charging some sort of tax for use of their users is only fair.”

As well, there’s the issue that in the U.S., there are no better alternative social networks for game companies to approach. And Facebook easily has the largest network with over 400 million users.

“Who wants to be on the Zynga network? That’s also the question,” said Kai Bolik, chief executive of social gaming company GameDuell.

It’s clear that there is growing unrest among game companies like Zynga on Facebook. Still, while the relationship is becoming strained, many companies haven’t yet reached the breaking point in their relationship with Mark Zuckerberg’s empire, still seeing the profitability to be had there.

“Why I compared Facebook to my second girlfriend is because my second girlfriend actually turned out to be my wife,” said Chow. “So we haven’t given up on Facebook yet.”


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