Farmville company worth a shitload

punishment

punishment

celtics superfan
Jul 7, 2009
119
4
0
boston
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/technology/internet/16game.html?_r=1

Digital Sky Technologies, or D.S.T., an investment firm with offices in Moscow and London, is leading a group that is buying a $180 million stake in Zynga, a fast-growing San Francisco company whose online games, like FarmVille, Café World and Mafia Wars, are extremely popular on Facebook.

Two experts in Internet company finance said it would be reasonable for Zynga to command a valuation of two and a half to six times its annual revenue. That could put the value of the two-year-old Zynga at $1.5 billion; one industry insider believes the value could be as much as $3 billion.

damn thats some serious dough for a couple facebook games
 


And the funny thing is that FB can turn that valuation into nearly 0 with the flip of a switch. Oops.
 
I would like to take this moment to give a big fuck you to all the developers for hire on this forum. When myspace first started releasing their app platform documentation and facebook apps were still in infancy I approached damn near EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU and asked to hire you to build an app. I offered great money and a hefty revshare, hell I even put no cap on the development costs. Most of you declined saying you were too busy working on developing your own gay shit that you were hoping to sell on BST but never amounted to a sock full of pennies but not before requesting i blog about it as a yahno... favor. Others accepted the job strictly because of how much money i was offering for it, went through a glance at the documentation and gave up because they didn't feel like putting in the effort to learn anything new and instead wanted to focus on clients who only required their current skillsets. The rest either didn't care or put me off for a few weeks, then a few more weeks then a few months till i quit bugging them.

I saw the opportunity and all its potential (i think most of us did), realized i couldn't do it myself so I threw cash at it and offered up as much as was needed to get the job done and some developers could have become filthy fuckin rich just off the revshare from it. I hate to be a dick and rub it in, but fuck you all for not listening and being lazy ass unopportunistic faggots. Have fun spending today trolling the forum for small jobs to get through the holidays and reading all these stories about how the original myspace and facebook app developers are banking it. :)

/cynicism
 
Last edited:
Deliguy said:
I would like to take this moment to give a big fuck you to all the developers for hire on this forum. When myspace first started releasing their apps and facebook apps were still in infancy I approached damn near EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU and asked to hire you to build an app. I offered great money and a hefty revshare, hell I even put no cap on the development costs. Most of you declined saying you were too busy working on developing your own gay shit that you were hoping to sell on BST but never amounted to a sock full of pennies. Others accepted the job strictly because of how much money i was offering for it, went through a glance at the documentation and gave up because they didn't feel like putting in the effort to learn anything new and instead wanted to focus on clients who only required their current skillsets. The rest either didn't care or put me off for a few weeks, then a few more weeks then a few months till i quit bugging them.

I saw the opportunity and all its potential (i think most of us did), realized i couldn't do it myself so I threw cash at it and offered up as much as was needed to get the job done and some developers could have become filthy fuckin rich just off the revshare from it. I hate to be a dick and rub it in, but fuck you all for not listening and being lazy ass unopportunistic faggots. Have fun spending today trolling the forum for small jobs to get through the holidays and reading all these stories about how the original myspace and facebook app developers are banking it. :)

/cynicism
Click to expand...


You think the time has passed? If you have a catchy/addictive game, why can't you still be successful today? Of course it's not as easy...but I believe it can still be done. Am I wrong in my thinking?
 
JMan1234 said:
You think the time has passed? If you have a catchy/addictive game, why can't you still be successful today? Of course it's not as easy...but I believe it can still be done. Am I wrong in my thinking?
Click to expand...

You aren't wrong, but if you do hit on a good game concept Zynga and Playfish will have a dupe of it within a week or two, then they'll use some of the cash their other games are bringing in to advertise their version and the signup momentum will switch to their version. Not saying it can't be done, it's just unlikely.
 
Deliguy said:
I would like to take this moment to give a big fuck you to all the developers for hire on this forum. When myspace first started releasing their apps and facebook apps were still in infancy I approached damn near EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU and asked to hire you to build an app. I offered great money and a hefty revshare, hell I even put no cap on the development costs. Most of you declined saying you were too busy working on developing your own gay shit that you were hoping to sell on BST but never amounted to a sock full of pennies. Others accepted the job strictly because of how much money i was offering for it, went through a glance at the documentation and gave up because they didn't feel like putting in the effort to learn anything new and instead wanted to focus on clients who only required their current skillsets. The rest either didn't care or put me off for a few weeks, then a few more weeks then a few months till i quit bugging them.

I saw the opportunity and all its potential (i think most of us did), realized i couldn't do it myself so I threw cash at it and offered up as much as was needed to get the job done and some developers could have become filthy fuckin rich just off the revshare from it. I hate to be a dick and rub it in, but fuck you all for not listening and being lazy ass unopportunistic faggots. Have fun spending today trolling the forum for small jobs to get through the holidays and reading all these stories about how the original myspace and facebook app developers are banking it. :)

/cynicism
Click to expand...

Im not sure if your talking about apps in general or game apps, but from seeing these games and the quality and depth put into them it probably isn't an easy task to create something like that without spending 20-30k + minimum. I know that basic simple flash games like mybrute as simple as it is can cost 20k+ just for a simple clone of the game and im sure mybrute isnt even close to being as complicated as the above games...

im sure the company behind those games in the OP isn't a couple dudes in there basement. they got a nice list of employees that work on every aspect of the games.

the chances of most online games succeeding like the above ones are pretty damn slim. The point im trying to make i guess is its a lot harder than it seems. Some risk takers will strike gold but you don't hear about the hundreds of others that didn't and ended up investing thousands and thousands on a web game only to never see a profit let alone break even.
 
Deliguy said:
I would like to take this moment to give a big fuck you to all the developers for hire on this forum. When myspace first started releasing their apps and facebook apps were still in infancy I approached damn near EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU and asked to hire you to build an app. I offered great money and a hefty revshare, hell I even put no cap on the development costs. Most of you declined saying you were too busy working on developing your own gay shit that you were hoping to sell on BST but never amounted to a sock full of pennies. Others accepted the job strictly because of how much money i was offering for it, went through a glance at the documentation and gave up because they didn't feel like putting in the effort to learn anything new and instead wanted to focus on clients who only required their current skillsets. The rest either didn't care or put me off for a few weeks, then a few more weeks then a few months till i quit bugging them.

I saw the opportunity and all its potential (i think most of us did), realized i couldn't do it myself so I threw cash at it and offered up as much as was needed to get the job done and some developers could have become filthy fuckin rich just off the revshare from it. I hate to be a dick and rub it in, but fuck you all for not listening and being lazy ass unopportunistic faggots. Have fun spending today trolling the forum for small jobs to get through the holidays and reading all these stories about how the original myspace and facebook app developers are banking it. :)

/cynicism
Click to expand...

So do you have FB apps you are banking off? If not then you're the idiot :)
 
erifdekciw said:
Im not sure if your talking about apps in general or game apps, but from seeing these games and the quality and depth put into them it probably isn't an easy task to create something like that without spending 20-30k + minimum. SNIP!
Click to expand...

I respectfully disagree. What's so amazing about the games developed by these dudes? There's a flash player, database with relevant items in it, some pretty graphics and... that's it. No AI, no multiplayer issues (no, visiting someone else's farm/fish tank/whatever is not what I'm thinking about...), sending notifications and posting items to a user's wall is stupendously easy using Facebook's platform. A couple of months of a developer's time, plus a couple of weeks from the designer and you'd be set. The real cost would come in the hosting infrastructure, but wouldn't be impossible.

So, next challenge: what game/app to create that these fuckers won't rip off? ;)
 
Deliguy said:
I would like to take this moment to give a big fuck you to all the developers for hire on this forum. When myspace first started releasing their apps and facebook apps were still in infancy I approached damn near EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU and asked to hire you to build an app. I offered great money and a hefty revshare, hell I even put no cap on the development costs. Most of you declined saying you were too busy working on developing your own gay shit that you were hoping to sell on BST but never amounted to a sock full of pennies. Others accepted the job strictly because of how much money i was offering for it, went through a glance at the documentation and gave up because they didn't feel like putting in the effort to learn anything new and instead wanted to focus on clients who only required their current skillsets. The rest either didn't care or put me off for a few weeks, then a few more weeks then a few months till i quit bugging them.

I saw the opportunity and all its potential (i think most of us did), realized i couldn't do it myself so I threw cash at it and offered up as much as was needed to get the job done and some developers could have become filthy fuckin rich just off the revshare from it. I hate to be a dick and rub it in, but fuck you all for not listening and being lazy ass unopportunistic faggots. Have fun spending today trolling the forum for small jobs to get through the holidays and reading all these stories about how the original myspace and facebook app developers are banking it. :)

/cynicism
Click to expand...

Normally I wouldn't call you out, because I respect the shit out of you. But if you were that confident about this, then you would have done whatever it took to find a developer to get this done for you instead of counting on the "unopportunistic faggots" (LMAO) pissing away their days on WF. You didn't, so this lost opportunity is as much on you as anyone else.

Also, I'm surprised the multiple isn't higher than that. Valuations must have really come back down to earth.
 
nvanprooyen said:
Normally I wouldn't call you out, because I respect the shit out of you. But if you were that confident about this, then you would have done whatever it took to find a developer to get this done for you instead of counting on the "unopportunistic faggots" (LMAO) pissing away their days on WF. You didn't, so this lost opportunity is as much on you as anyone else.

Also, I'm surprised the multiple isn't higher than that. Valuations must have really come back down to earth.
Click to expand...
I'll admit while I love the writers and designers here on WF i have quite a bit of distain for the coders for hire and often frivolously pick on them in the BST. But its nothing new and a long time coming. I'm one of the original members here and the entire time i've been here i've always been on the constant hunt for a reliable coder from this forum and have yet to find a single one. So yeah I hold a bit of a grudge in that sense. :)
 
You can still make good money by making games for Facebook even if it is a small game. Most of the companies that help monetize will give you around $75/day per 1,000 active users. It is fairly easy to gain 5k-10k active users daily. Facebook is going to try to fuck a lot of these virtual currency companies soon though because they are introducing their own currency to be used on all products etc.
 
bprimeelite said:
You can still make good money by making games for Facebook even if it is a small game. Most of the companies that help monetize will give you around $75/day per 1,000 active users. It is fairly easy to gain 5k-10k active users daily. Facebook is going to try to fuck a lot of these virtual currency companies soon though because they are introducing their own currency to be used on all products etc.
Click to expand...

Basically trying to be the Paypal of the social networking arena (meaning disputes on how the virtual currency was obtained or given would be managed by FB).
 
I've been making FB apps for awhile (professionally) and though I saw SOME opportunity early on, I never envisioned the amount of cash flowing through these games. It's nuts.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom