USA Today quotes SuperData Research
For a recent article exploring Zynga’s explosive growth and its strategy for the coming years, SuperData Research’s Joost van Dreunen helped fill in a few of the blancs.
(excerpt)
“Sure, social-gaming giant Zynga has conquered the U.S. market. But what about the rest of the world?
“The big challenge is international expansion, because they are so dependent on Facebook,” says Joost van Dreunen, founder of SuperData Research, which tracks virtual goods globally. On that front, Zynga has snapped up six companies since May to gain customers in the U.S., Southeast Asia and elsewhere.
Zynga bought XPD Media in China, its first outpost in Asia, signaling it’s just beginning its international rallying cry.
Still, Zynga faces tough competition abroad, from the likes of social-games developers Tencent, Shanda, NetEase.com, Perfect World Entertainment, ChangYou, Giant Interactive, NetDragon and Kingsoft.
“Zynga is often criticized as being direct marketers, and not true game designers like those guys,” van Dreunen says.”
Read the rest here.
