14 DAY TRIAL // Social gaming has really taken off this year, following the spectacular rise of Facebook, but much of that rise can be attributed to the sometimes spammy methods these companies used to attract more users. It's no doubt that they worked, Zynga, the largest social gaming company, has a user base comparable to that of Facebook, but the social network is moving to close of some of the ways these companies used to spread their messages. Zynga is already looking ahead and has began testing SMS notifications as a way of keeping the users engaged.
The move is important for Zynga and social gaming in general for a couple of reasons. First, it may be one way of dealing with the fact that Facebook is banning apps from being able to send out regular notifications and app messages will be relegated to a special dedicated section. This move would likely significantly affect the conversion of new users, but also how much existing ones invest in the games. While it won't solve the new users problem, SMS notifications would enable Zynga to notify users in a hard to dismiss way.
Second, it gives the company a bit more independence from Facebook, something it sorely needs. The two companies are largely dependent on each other, but Zynga is in the worst position. It is said that the social gaming company is Facebook's largest advertiser with spending amounting to many millions of dollars, so the social network doesn't want to upset its biggest customer.
On the other hand, Zynga's revenues are mostly from the games it has on Facebook which have over 100 million users at this point and, even though it has games on MySpace and other social networks, it can't afford to lose it's biggest cash cow. And if something were to go sour, Zynga would be the biggest loser. By bypassing Facebook's ways of notifying and engaging with users, with the SMS alerts and the recently launched farmville.com, Zynga is trying to get some healthy distance between the companies. The SMS feature is in testing for now and is live for about 10 percent of Mafia Wars players and only for this game.