14 DAY TRIAL // Zynga has confirmed the rumors that it bought OMGPOP, makers of the hit wonder Draw Something. The iOS and Android app has been a huge hit and has hit some 30 million users in just six weeks after launch, faster than anything before it.
It's currently the top app in most countries and, remarkably, it's also the top app on Facebook, a title Zynga has mostly held for the past few years.
Zynga is clearly the dominant force in social and casual gaming. The company went public a few months ago and is valued at several billion dollars.
But that doesn't mean it can't be disrupted, a company like OMGPOP could come out of nowhere, relatively speaking in this case, and have a monster hit. Zynga is well aware of this and has two big strategies to deal with this.
The first is to copy the popular game and release a clone, the second is to buy the company.
"Today I’m excited to tell you about a new addition to the Zynga family, OMGPOP. This New York-based developer of social mobile games has recently received a lot of attention for their smash hit Draw Something," Zynga's head of mobile David Ko announced.
"It’s been downloaded over 30 million times. Every second three thousand people draw something in 84 countries throughout the world," he added.
There's no official word on the price, of course, but several sources say it was about $200 million. A huge number for a company that was worth a lot less than that six weeks ago and whose fortunes still largely depend on one title, despite the company being six years old.
That said, Rovio was able to turn Angry Birds into a money-making machine, with merchandise, all sorts of tie-ins and even a movie on the way.