Zynga CEO Ping Cass: I hope this is my last venture

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Zynga CEO Mark Ping Cass

Lead: online edition of the US Wired magazine today published an interview with the social game developer Zynga CEO Mark Ping Cass (Mark Pincus). Pincus said he would be actively involved in the mobile field and would seek the advice of Amazon CEO Bezos (Jeff Bezos) in the face of difficulties. Asked about his future business plans, he said he hoped Zynga would be the last company he started.

The following is the full text of the article:

Mark Ping has founded a social networking pioneer called tribe.net, but it is also a social gaming company, Zynga, that really made him famous. The company has made casual gaming a billions of-dollar annual revenue business and has been on the market since last December. While Zynga was aggressively expanding its burgeoning mobile gaming market, the company was interviewed by Wired magazine, which had not yet released its expected results and had not suffered a steep share price. Pincus predicts that, despite his efforts to build a company that is built to grow, he may be challenged by Wall Street in the short term, unable to gain the appreciation of Wall Street.

The following is an overview of the interview:

Q: 5 years ago, you were on this journey, did you ever think of what you can achieve today?

A: From the outset, I thought this could be a chance to cross the globe. At that time, there is no brand in the field of Web game, there is not much market, we all think that this is not the mainstream, that the game needs huge investment.

The most important idea is that if the threshold of the game is lowered, it can be presented directly in front of you, and socially, there will be a lot of people willing to play. In fact, once the threshold is low enough, it will reach a tipping point and people will start playing games. It's kind of like a newspaper comic. If a comic is published in a newspaper, you'll be happy to read it or play crossword puzzles. But there are not many people willing to buy comic books or riddles.

Virtual Goods and free models have been tested in Asia. But the mainstream view is that Westerners do not approve of this model.

Q: How does the social part evolve?

A: After I founded the tribe, I understood something. People hang out on social networks, and I've always thought that as long as the method is right, half of all social networking users will play games. This seems to be a huge opportunity. Sometimes, the chances you see are even beyond your imagination. I started thinking about games in 2007, which is like thinking about search engines in the 1997, and it finally did. Although there are already some established competitors, our aim is not to compete with them, but to attract another group of players who play games for different purposes.

Q: When did you see more opportunities than you imagined?

A: A few weeks after the launch of the Zynga Poker game, we saw the game spread fast and very interactive, and we were all shocked. On the March 7, 2008, when we sell chips, the chances we see are beyond imagination. We said, "Well, this is definitely a huge opportunity." ”

Q: What impact does mobile devices have on the status quo?

A: Mobile devices are ubiquitous, can be used in taxis and airplanes, and can even be stuffed into the corners of the edges. Now you can use it to send emails and do other work.

To make a difference in the Mobile world, we have to move first and move as the center. We first used the Facebook Canvas, the first one to use MySpace. I believe that to win the trust of users, they must devote themselves to the platform they use.

In my opinion, smartphones are more of a catalyst than a nibble. Similarly, Facebook is a catalyst for the game, not a game-market nibble. That's why so many people love Facebook from the start.

Q: You have subverted the game model advocated by EA. Will mobile devices become the next area of subversion?

A: If you do not develop, it will be overturned, it is inevitable. This forces us to lower the threshold of the game and simplify the game because it reduces the use of the keyboard and increases the touch-screen operation. This is good, if we think we have succeeded, we can succeed now, and we will fail. Complacency and pride are common failings of established businesses and must be discarded.

Q: Tim Westergren, CEO of Pandora, said that when you become a public company, you face a Tim Westgrin of people. In your opinion, what is the difference between a public company CEO and a private company CEO?

A: After the company goes public, every interview will be asked: "What do you think of the stock price?" So, the noise is more, and there are many people who have a stronger opinion.

This is a test of focus and discipline. In the long run, investors will be bullish on companies that make sensible long-term investment decisions, even though they may be misunderstood in the short term. I admire CEOs like Bezos, who have succeeded, but the journey is not smooth.

It is easy for Silicon Valley to turn a zero-starting business into millions of dollars, but from zero to billions of dollars is not easy. You have to attract audiences, plan your products, and build your business on this basis, and everything is going step by step, and it's hard to plan for the next decade.

Q: In the "from zero to billions of dollars" journey, when you encounter problems in the important phase, who will turn to?

A: I turn to Bezos every summer. I asked him, "How do you manage such a large business?" ' You should hire people with this kind of experience to learn from them, ' he said. We are trying this practice.

Q: You're an investor, an entrepreneur, and you've worked in Silicon Valley for years, what do you think about the status quo? I mean, there's a lot of panic about the economy.

A: whether there is a bubble, overvalued or too low, can be discussed. But it's all noise. Your gaze should be closer to reality, and you will realize that we are indeed in a historic moment. We're in it, so we don't realize it, but in fact, our productivity is rising dramatically. Each new service can be quickly integrated into the mass market. Today, as long as you move your fingers, you can entertain, work, and even contact friends and family. Ten years ago, none of this was possible.

Q: Are you good at this kind of mechanism can be applied to other enterprises?

A: Of course you can. Many of our practices can reshape or subvert other industries. Integration with Facebook's social elements has great potential. The mobile elements, application patterns, and free Value added (freemium) Models of smartphones also have this capability. These elements can be applied to all vertical areas of the Internet and reshape these areas. It has not been achieved yet. But I believe this is true, from travel to shopping to video.

Q: Have you invested in other companies and how many companies are you going to start in the future?

A: I hope this is the last company I started. (PEI)