Zynga branches out from Facebook to make new 'friends'

Good move, Zynga needed to loosen their reliance on Facebook.

This is vital for Zynga's future. Any big company that is reliant on another platform for its success is in a position of weakness. Zynga has to continue to diversify, they've already got too many weaknesses as a company and this helps. As Facebook grows, and as customers get more and more jaded with Zynga's "games", I'd expect them to be less and less important to Facebook as time goes on. Facebook is going to have a gangbuster IPO that is going to enable them to use their social data and audience to fund expansion into other areas like ecommerce, search, identity services, communication, and many others. You can just look at how many big brands promote their Facebook URLs on their magazine and TV ads, how many companies are listed at http://www.buyfacebookfansreviews.com that do nothing other than promote brand pages, etc to see how quickly businesses will latch onto anything that Facebook does. Zynga's "games" are very small potatoes by this measure. I'd also expect Zynga's revenue to decline over time because their reputation has declined over repetitive games and their newer games lose their audience much faster than they used to. They've carved out a niche, but are too dependent on a bad formula and reliant on Facebook IMO.

Branches out? You still need a facebook account to play their games. What is the point of this move. Why don't they just introduce Zynga accounts and keep the 30% that facebook rips off of them???