Mark Pincus
Founder,
Chief Executive Officer &
Chief Product Officer

Mark is the founder, CEO and chief product officer of Zynga. He founded the company in 2007 with a mission of connecting the world through games, and in founding zynga.org, he also believes that games can do good.

On his way to creating Zynga, Mark started three companies. In 2003, he launched Tribe.net, one of the first social networks. Before that, he founded Support.com, a pioneer in automating tech support, and took it public. In 1995, he launched FreeLoader, the first web-based consumer push company. Mark started his career in new media and venture capital before he discovered his calling as a consumer technology entrepreneur. Mark also made founding investments in Napster, Brightmail, Twitter and Facebook.

Mark graduated summa cum laude from University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School. He is an angel investor in multiple Silicon Valley startups and regularly gives lectures to aspiring entrepreneurs.

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Mark Pincus

« December 2009 | Main | March 2010 »

January 15, 2010

zynga's haiti relief efforts

the zynga team went into action as soon as we learned of the devastation in Haiti.

Here is the update on our efforts and where you can participate:

1.       FarmVille: New White non withering Corn for Haiti, 100% proceeds go to Haiti  

2.       Zynga Poker: Support Haiti 2$ chip package. 100% proceeds go to Haiti

3.       Mafia Wars: Limited edition Haitian Relief Drum available, 100% proceeds go to Haiti

4.       Caféworld: Button linking to Zynga.org

5.       Zynga.com – Donate Here Button live on top of the site

6.       Zynga.org – Announcing Zynga’s Haiti Relief Fund and Donate Here Button

7.      World Food Program (WFP) – Special Zynga Donation Page:
https://www.wfp.org/donate/zynga

Posted at 02:11 PM | | Comments (3)

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January 12, 2010

Relaunching Offers

Starting today, we are bringing back offers around our games to provide our users who don’t have access to online payment methods the ability to make in-game purchases while having a compelling game experience. The offers are from eight companies -- Netflix, Discover Card, Blockbuster, HSBC Direct, Gamefly, Book of the Month Club, SnapFish and The New York Times – all of which have high Better Business Bureau ratings.

We have set up a team that is dedicated to checking the quality of any offer we display. This group reviews each offer and applies a strict set of standards for content and user experience before it can be displayed. We also have technology in place that will regularly check offers to verify that only Zynga reviewed offers are displayed. For more on our standards, visit http://www.zynga.com/contact/advertisingGuidelines.php .  

Over time, we will phase in more companies as they meet our new standards.

Offers represent a valuable channel for advertisers, users and developers. They enable advertisers to sponsor a user's game session or item purchase in return for their attention, affiliation or purchase. For some users, this enables a purchase they could not have otherwise made or justified. For developers like us it represents incremental revenue to fund our games.

In addition, you will be seeing new brand engagement ads tested in our games. PetVille will test ads from Visa, Sprint, xBox, Timberland, MTV, TV Land, CW and HTC. This type of brand engagement will allow users to gain currency in a fast and easy way.

Looking forward, we hope to partner with the industry to develop standards and policies for advertising around social games and virtual goods to ensure that our users have meaningful game experiences from companies they can trust.

Posted at 05:52 PM | | Comments (3)

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Zynga looking for rockstar product managers (again)

We would love to hire people who want to leave banking or consulting with high analytical chops who also loves consumer web products.

Email your resume to ami@zynga.com.

Posted at 03:21 PM | | Comments (0)

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