Above: Zynga’s S1 filing in word cloud form
Zynga has filed for a $1 billion IPO. If all goes according to plan, the social gaming juggernaut could be worth more than $15 billion.
Zynga’s impressive stats are part of the reason for its sky-high valuation. With 232 million monthly active users and $597 million in revenue last year alone, it’s no surprise that so many people are interested in getting a piece of the action.
SEE ALSO: PHOTOS: Zynga Files for IPO | INFOGRAPHIC: Users & Revenue
But when we dug into Zynga’s nearly 200-page S-1 filing, we found a more complicated picture. Zynga’s user base hasn’t grown in the last year, for example, but its revenue has skyrocketed.
Here are 11 more interesting stats we found from Zynga’s IPO filing:
1. Zynga’s generated a lot of money in its history. “We have launched the most successful social games in the industry in each of the last three years and have generated over $1.5 billion in cumulative bookings since our inception in 2007,” the company said in its S1 filing.
2. Zynga has been profitable since 2010. In 2009, the social gaming company lost $52.8 million on $121.5 million in revenue. But the company earned $90.6 million in profit on $597.5 million in revenue last year.
3. Zynga’s revenues are skyrocketing. In Q1 2011, Zynga earned $235.4 million in revenue. That’s up from just $100.9 million in Q4 2010, meaning the company’s revenue more than doubled in just three months.
4. CEO Mark Pincus has absolute control over Zynga. While he only owns 16% of the company’s Class B shares, he also has 100% of Zynga’s class C shares. That means he has absolute voting control and will retain it even after the IPO.
5. We waste lots of time in Zynga games. 38,000 virtual items are created every second. More importantly, Zynga’s players spend a total of 2 billion minutes on the service every day.
6. Zynga boasts 416 million interactions between its users every day. “Historically, our players have created over 4 billion neighbor connections,” the company said in its filing.” We’re not sure what constitutes a neighbor connection, but fostering billions of connections per week is impressive.
7. Zynga makes almost all of its money through virtual goods. In 2008, online games and virtual good sales brought in $5.3 million in revenue while advertising generated $14.1 million. In 2010, those numbers flipped: Zynga made $574.6 million from virtual goods and its online games and just $22.8 million from advertising. The online game revenue likely includes partnerships (such as GagaVille) but it’s still one of the few online companies not dependent on online advertising.
8. Zynga has a lot of employees. As of May 31, 2011, Zynga has 2,268 full-time employees. To support them, Zynga has leased a 345,000 square foot facility in San Francisco.
9. Owen Van Natta is well compensated. Zynga’s EVP, the former CEO of MySpace and the former COO of Facebook, earned $43.2 million in 2010, mostly in the form of stock options and awards. David Wehner (CFO) earned $18 million, while Steven Chiang (co-president of Games) took home $28.9 million. Pincus earned just $520,000 in 2010, but given his giant stake in the company, he doesn’t need too much cash.
10. Zynga is still dependent on Facebook. Zynga gives 30% of its game revenue to Facebook, the same percentage Apple requires for inclusion on the app store. In fact, the word “Facebook” appears more than 200 times in the S1 filing. We’ve even created a word cloud (above) from the S1 to show that Facebook is, by far, the most mentioned company in Zynga’s S-1.
11. Zynga’s user base hasn’t grown in the last year. This is the stat that will worry investors. The company had 236 million monthly active users in Q1 2010, the exact same mount it had in Q1 2011. It actually had more daily active users in Q1 2010 than Q1 2011. We suspect that it’s due to the rapid rise of FarmVille. It’s difficult to consistently create hit games at that level.
More About: cityville, farmville, ipo, Zynga2. Zynga has been profitable since 2010. In 2009, the social gaming company lost $52.8 million on $121.5 million in revenue. But the company earned $90.6 million in profit on $597.5 million in revenue last year.
3. Zynga’s revenues are skyrocketing. In Q1 2011, Zynga earned $235.4 million in revenue. That’s up from just $100.9 million in Q4 2010, meaning the company’s revenue more than doubled in just three months.
4. CEO Mark Pincus has absolute control over Zynga. While he only owns 16% of the company’s Class B shares, he also has 100% of Zynga’s class C shares. That means he has absolute voting control and will retain it even after the IPO.
5. We waste lots of time in Zynga games. 38,000 virtual items are created every second. More importantly, Zynga’s players spend a total of 2 billion minutes on the service every day.
6. Zynga boasts 416 million interactions between its users every day. “Historically, our players have created over 4 billion neighbor connections,” the company said in its filing.” We’re not sure what constitutes a neighbor connection, but fostering billions of connections per week is impressive.
7. Zynga makes almost all of its money through virtual goods. In 2008, online games and virtual good sales brought in $5.3 million in revenue while advertising generated $14.1 million. In 2010, those numbers flipped: Zynga made $574.6 million from virtual goods and its online games and just $22.8 million from advertising. The online game revenue likely includes partnerships (such as GagaVille) but it’s still one of the few online companies not dependent on online advertising.
8. Zynga has a lot of employees. As of May 31, 2011, Zynga has 2,268 full-time employees. To support them, Zynga has leased a 345,000 square foot facility in San Francisco.
9. Owen Van Natta is well compensated. Zynga’s EVP, the former CEO of MySpace and the former COO of Facebook, earned $43.2 million in 2010, mostly in the form of stock options and awards. David Wehner (CFO) earned $18 million, while Steven Chiang (co-president of Games) took home $28.9 million. Pincus earned just $520,000 in 2010, but given his giant stake in the company, he doesn’t need too much cash.
10. Zynga is still dependent on Facebook. Zynga gives 30% of its game revenue to Facebook, the same percentage Apple requires for inclusion on the app store. In fact, the word “Facebook” appears more than 200 times in the S1 filing. We’ve even created a word cloud (above) from the S1 to show that Facebook is, by far, the most mentioned company in Zynga’s S-1.
11. Zynga’s user base hasn’t grown in the last year. This is the stat that will worry investors. The company had 236 million monthly active users in Q1 2010, the exact same mount it had in Q1 2011. It actually had more daily active users in Q1 2010 than Q1 2011. We suspect that it’s due to the rapid rise of FarmVille. It’s difficult to consistently create hit games at that level.
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