14 DAY TRIAL // Zynga, the social gaming powerhouse, is the hottest thing in Silicon Valley at this point and is probably the biggest names to gain recognition after Twitter and Facebook. Its games are played by hundreds of millions of people and its growth is dwarfs anything that has ever come before. But the most impressive thing about it is the amount of revenue is generates. Estimates for 2010 revenue are anywhere between 500 million and 800 million and they’re rising every month.
The New York Times has a piece profiling the company, with a focus on its founder and CEO Mark Pincus. It does a good job describing the ambitious entrepreneur. Like any great Silicon Valley figure, he’s managed to stir quite a lot of controversy while building his company, but even his critics have to admit that he has done a great job with Zynga.
Founded just three years ago, the company is growing at a rate faster than anyone can keep up. Estimates valuate the company at $4 billion to $5 billion, that’s up from around $1 billion a little over six months ago and just a few hundreds of millions a year ago.
In terms of revenue, it’s really anyone’s guess. The NYT uses Inside Network numbers and estimates about $500 million in revenue for 2010. The sum is higher from estimates from earlier this year. TechCrunch rounded up some earlier reports. In April 2010, estimates were at around $450 million. By the next month the figure was $500 million.
Now, according to unnamed sources, Zynga has already made $350 million in the first half of the year so, if that keeps up, it should be on track to make at least $700 million in 2010. Most likely, Zynga’s monthly revenue will increase so even that figure could be conservative. Of course, without any official figures and with such a volatile company and market, it’s very hard to make an accurate estimate. But all signs are indicating that Zynga is making a lot of money these days.