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Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
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`Clos
`
`Social Games:
`How The Big
`Three Make
`Millions
`
`Michael Arrington
`
`@arrington?lang=en / 3:16 am
`
`PDT • October 26, 2009
`
`comment
`
`Comment
`
`Zynga
`
`Playfsh
`
`Playdom
`
`San
`Francisco,
`CA
`
`London,
`UK
`
`Mountain
`View, CA
`
`$39M
`
`$21 Million $0
`
`Esimated
`$200M
`
`CrunchBase
`Profle
`
`Location:
`
`Money
`Raised:
`
`Revenue:
`
`Rumors:
`
`Esimated
`$75M
`Possible
`acquisition
`talks with
`EA
`
`Esimated
`$60M
`
`Raising
`Venture
`Capital
`
`Strong
`2010 IPO
`candidate
`facebooktwitterlinkedinmailCopy Share LinkCopy Share Link
`
`
`
`
`
`
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 1
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`
`Key Apps:
`
`Facebook:
`Farmville-
`61M
`Mafa
`Wars-
`25.8M
`Yoville-
`19.8M
`Texas
`Hold Em’
`Poker-
`18.3M
`
`Facebook:
`Pet
`Society-
`20.5M
`Resaurant
`City-17.3M
`Country
`Story- 8M
`135 million
`total
`insalls for
`all games
`
`Myspace:
`Mobsers
`-14M
`Bumper
`Stickers-
`11.7M
`Own Your
`Friends-
`10.1M;
`Facebook:
`Sorority
`Life-7.1M
`Mobsers
`2-3.5M
`Poker
`Palace-
`1.5M
`
`So much for the frs generation of big
`Facebook/MySpace social application
`sartups. Slide and RockYou both got
`huge valuations in venture rounds. But a
`new generation of application developers
`has taken center sage and are racking
`up big revenues and their own eye
`popping valuations: Zynga, Playfsh and
`Playdom.
`
`All three own popular social games on
`Facebook and MySpace. Zynga’s i
`Farmville has 61 million monthly users.
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 2
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`Playfsh’s i Pet Society has 21 million
`monthly users on Facebook. And
`Playdom i has 16+ million monthly
`users of Mobsers on MySpace and
`Facebook Combined.
`
`All three companies are getting a ton of
`press and invesor attention. Zynga
`wants to go public next year. Playfsh
`probably already got bought by EA for
`$400 million or more. And Playdom
`probably raised an unannounced big
`chunk of venture capital over the
`summer.
`
`These three companies may be
`generating as much as $300 million
`annually on sales of virtual goods. Need
`a shotgun to do that next job on
`Mobsers? No problem. Pay with a credit
`card, paypal, or your mobile phone and
`it’s all yours. And people are obviously
`very willing to buy these virtual goods.
`Nothing new there.
`
`The goal of all of these games is to get
`to a higher level, and generally have
`more fun growing things or killing things
`faser than your friends. Get addicted to
`the free version, then sart spending to
`move things along more quickly. Once
`people are committed, it’s easy to get
`them to pay. You can read all about it on
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 3
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`
`Business Week.
`
`Except Business Week didn’t mention
`the dark side of the business at all.
`
`All three companies are willing to give
`game currency in exchange for ofers.
`Sign up for Netfix. Buy a ringtone
`subscription. Or energy drinks. Sign up
`for a credit card. Get car insurance. Take
`an IQ survey that requires a $9.99/month
`mobile subscription to see the results.
`We even found one for arthritis
`medication. Here’s how it all looks. One
`executive we spoke with says that 70%
`of total revenue from these applications
`may come in from lead generation, not
`direct payments. Netfix alone will pay
`$30-$40 for a free trial (requires credit
`card).
`
`Three companies control mos of these
`lead generation ofers: TrialPay (appears
`to have the mos legitimate ofers),
`Oferpal and SuperRewards.
`
`There’s nothing wrong with basing a
`business of of lead generation, although
`some of the ofers are pretty sketchy
`(long term credit card or mobile
`subscriptions for little or no value). And
`the FTC does tend to take a swipe at
`them periodically. But the bigger problem
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 4
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`is that advertisers may not be getting
`much for their payouts. As the higher
`quality advertisers bail, pressure to add
`the scam artiss increases.
`
`The cycle of all of these games is pretty
`sandard. Get new users playing for free,
`give them incentives to message all their
`friends to signup, hit them hard for cash
`or lead generation for revenue, and
`move them up the levels. Rinse. Repeat.
`
`CrunchBase Information
`Zynga
`Playfsh
`Playdom
`Information provided by CrunchBase
`
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`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 5
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`
`Email *
`
`checkmarkCopy
`
`Tags
`crunchbase
`playdom
`crunchbase
`Zynga
`
`Playfsh
`
`crunchbase
`
`Tesla picks Ausin for its
`next U.S. factory to build
`Cybertruck, Semi truck,
`Model Y
`Kirsen Korosec
`2:38 pm PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Tesla sretches proft
`sreak to four quarters,
`gains 6% in after-hours
`trading
`Kirsen Korosec, Alex Wilhelm
`1:36 pm PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Featured Article
`Don’t let VCs be the gatekeepers of
`your success
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 6
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`
`Kevin Henderson
`12:40 pm PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`YC-backed Glimpse helps
`Airbnb hoss make money
`through product
`placement
`Anthony Ha
`11:58 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Featured Article
`Go SPAC yourself
`Alex Wilhelm
`11:38 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`WhatsApp to pilot projects
`to deliver credit, insurance
`and pension to users in
`India
`Manish Singh
`10:46 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Mobalytics raises $11M
`and adds eye tracking
`metrics to its automated
`gaming coach
`Devin Coldewey
`10:24 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 7
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`
`Apple digs in heels over
`its App Store commission
`sructure with release of
`new sudy
`Sarah Perez
`10:11 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`GEDmatch confrms data
`breach after users’ DNA
`profle data made available
`to police
`Zack Whittaker
`10:01 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Apple sarts giving
`‘hacker-friendly’ iPhones
`to top bug hunters
`Zack Whittaker
`10:00 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Kudo raises $6M for its
`real-time translation and
`video conference platform
`Alex Wilhelm
`9:25 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Less than two weeks left
`to save big on Disrupt
`2020 passes
`Alexandra Ames
`9:24 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Refect wants to help you
`automate web tesing
`without writing code
`Ron Miller
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 8
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`
`9:16 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Extra Crunch
`extra-
`crunch-
`e
`Diaspora Ventures
`explains how AngelLis’s
`rolling venture funds work
`Romain Dillet
`9:03 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Amazon launches new
`Alexa developer tools
`Frederic Lardinois
`9:00 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Dexterity exits sealth with
`$56.2M raised for its
`collaborative warehouse
`robots
`Brian Heater
`8:32 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Messenger’s new privacy
`controls let you secure
`your chats via Face ID or
`Touch ID
`Sarah Perez
`8:13 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 9
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`
`Extra Crunch
`extra-
`crunch-
`e
`Messenger tools can help you recover
`millions in los revenue
`Baruch Labunski
`7:56 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Extra Crunch
`extra-
`crunch-
`e
`What you need to know before selling
`your company’s sock
`Peyton Carr
`7:45 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
`Spotify and Universal sign
`new licensing deal, will
`partner on development of
`
`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 10
`
`

`

`Social Games: How The Big Three Make Millions | TechCrunch
`marketing tools
`Sarah Perez
`7:21 am PDT • July 22, 2020
`
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`https://techcrunch.com/2009/10/26/social-games-how-the-big-three-make-millions/[7/22/2020 2:46:31 PM]
`
`Supercell
`Exhibit 1017
`Page 11
`
`

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