Zynga is an American video game developer which was founded in 2007 in California, United States. It is known for developing social video games, and most of them are connected to Facebook as well, which increases its overall reach. It is popular for its all-time favorite games like Zynga Poker, Farmville and Words with Friends. All these games gained their fame since the time they were introduced. These games are played with millions of players every month and the biggest advantage is that the players are able to connect to millions of players from around the world.
One of the basic idea on which Zynga works and markets itself is that of connecting players for the better world. They are able to achieve that by connecting their games with a social cause and the players are able to contribute to non-profit organizations every time they play the game. This makes the players even more connected to the company and develops long-term relationships with Zynga. They claim that through their “Games for Good” feature connected to their games, they are able to contribute towards more than 50 non-profit organizations around the world and make a positive impact throughout the world. Also, this is something through which they are also able to attract employees and make them feel connected to a social cause while working for Zynga. This is the kind of corporate culture that they have developed in all their offices. This feature is something that distinguishes them from other competitors and ads up to their competitive advantage.
Another factor that counts as Zynga’s competitive advantage is the fact that these games are connected to, played through and advertised through Facebook. This increases their reach in the gaming market around the world as more people are able to access these games conveniently just by connecting to Facebook. As Facebook has millions of users around the world and this increases their customer base by having more monthly active users than other game developers have in total. It is further contributed by the fact that the games are social games through which players can connect to players around the world and feel more connected to the games as well.
All these factors contribute to an advantage for Facebook along with the fact that Zynga developed its technology at a very good time, when they were able to develop their games at a low price. They were one of the pioneer companies to develop social games, which helped them gain advantage over other late entrants into the gaming industry. Moreover, they are also able to maintain their position by constantly adapting to technological changes and provide their customers with advanced and updated games, which kept them into the industry for all these years and helped Zynga grow with each passing year.
Reference
Advisors, D. D. (2014, February 21). Software is a competitive advantage: King Digital vs. Zynga. Retrieved January 2, 2018, from https://digitstodollars.com/2014/02/21/software-is-a-competitive-advantage-king-digital-vs-zynga/
Four Reasons to Invest in Zynga’s IPO. Retrieved January 2, 2018, from https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.forbes.com%2Fsites%2Fpetercohan%2F2011%2F07%2F04%2Ffour-reasons-to-invest-in-zyngas-ipo-one-to-pause%2F&refURL=&referrer=#22bebb601269
Jboeger. (2016, September 2). Games for Good. Retrieved January 2, 2018, from https://www.zynga.com/gamesforgood