Popular FarmVille Game Raises $487,500 For Children in Haiti

SAN FRANCISCO – Oct. 20, 2009 – Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, today announced that its FarmVille users have contributed $487,500 towards the welfare of children in Haiti. The “Sweet Seeds for Haiti” program, which has been running for the last three weeks, is an early step in Zynga’s efforts to promote “social goods” where Zynga players purchase virtual items as part of their game play while benefiting the greater global community.

With more than 56 million monthly users, FarmVille is the largest online game. Players tend to their farm plots by harvesting crops from strawberries to eggplants, purchasing items like tractors and combines, and engaging with their neighbors. Under the “Sweet Seeds” initiative, users purchase special sweet potato seeds, of which 50 percent of the proceeds are donated to two non-profit organizations in Haiti that support the health and education of children and their families – FATEM.org and FONKOZE.org. This social goods program builds on an earlier Zynga initiative where players of its YoVille game, a virtual town with 140 million inhabitants, raised donations for the San Francisco SPCA by purchasing bulldogs and tabby cats from the in-game shelter as pets.

“The sheer scope and reach of social gaming to affect people’s lives in a positive way wasn’t even a reality a few years ago,” said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga. “Today, with ‘social goods,’ we are enabling players to unlock their power to change the world and impact the lives of children. ‘Sweet Seeds for Haiti’ is an early step for Zynga with more to come.”

“Zynga has taken ‘networking’ to a whole new level, connecting tens of millions of people to some of the most isolated people in our hemisphere, the women and families of rural Haiti,” said Leigh Carter, executive director, Fonkoze USA. “Thanks to Zynga’s new social strategy, not only can we connect, we can act to eliminate extreme poverty in Haiti.”

“At FATEM, Zynga’s contribution will help make local residents of the town of Mirebalais become self-sufficient by providing one of the most important tools against poverty: education,” said Jacky Poteau, president, FATEM. “Zynga has made it possible for over 500 children to have full access to quality education, and uplift them and their families from poverty.”

Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and the 7th poorest in the world. Zynga’s mission of connecting the world through games is enhanced by the opportunity to support Haiti’s children and their families. For additional information on the recipient organizations, please see www.FATEM.org and www.FONKOZE.org. To contribute, go to www.facebook.com/farmville and play!

About FATEM
FATEM is a non-profit organization based in Mirebalais, Haiti, and originally organized to bring information technology to the people in the region, thus helping with the economic advancement of the area. More recently, however, FATEM recognized the need for a sustainable means by which to support the general education of Haitian children and to ensure that these children have the necessary meals that will permit their young bodies and brains to learn and grow.

About FONKOZE
FONKOZE, based in Port-au-Prince, is an alternative bank for the poor. It is Haiti’s largest micro-finance institution and is committed to the economic and social improvement of the people and communities of Haiti and to the reduction of poverty in the country.

Hits 129 Million Monthly Players

SAN FRANCISCO – Sept. 30, 2009 – Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, today announced that it has more than quadrupled its monthly users over the last six months, making it one of the fastest growing applications on the Internet. In April 2009, Zynga had 30 million monthly active users playing its games, and since then the number has grown to 129 million. Everyday, approximately 34 million users worldwide play Zynga games according to Developer Analytics (www.developeranalytics.com) Zynga estimates its current monthly unique visitors are at 70 million.

Today, Zynga has four of the top 10 games on Facebook:

• FarmVille – the largest game on Facebook lets players channel their inner farmer by enabling them to grow crops, build farms and interact with fellow farmers. FarmVille has grown to more than 50 million users since its launch three months ago, making it larger than the population of Canada and the fastest growing social game on the Internet. Users have built over 40 million farms, more than 20 times the number of actual farms in the United States, and on an average day, players purchase 500,000 tractors to till their land.

• Mafia Wars – the second largest game on Facebook and a Zynga classic lets players become the boss of their own crime family. More than 25 million users play per month and on an average day undertake more than 140 million “jobs.”

• Zynga Poker (formerly Texas Hold’Em) – the number one poker game on Facebook is the place for high rollers and amateurs alike to indulge in poker. An average day finds Zynga dealing about 150 million hands compared to 11 million hands dealt in Las Vegas. On any day and at any time, Zynga Poker hosts 250,000 concurrent players, making it the world’s largest live casual casino and seating more than 3.5 times the audience of the average NFL stadium.

• YoVille – the largest virtual world in social games is the place where users decorate their own apartments, complete with furniture and animals. Today, YoVille has over 17 million residents, a community larger than Mumbai (the most densely populated city in the world), that engage in building their own habitat and hanging out with friends. Since August, residents have purchased approximately 10,000 pets and consumed about 400,000 funnel cakes.

“The rise in social gaming reflects the immense popularity of Facebook and the need for people to connect, play and express themselves with others,” said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga. “While it is still early in social gaming, the success of our games with the user community underscores the sheer size and potential of this new movement which will finally let fun become the biggest way people interact.”

More than 11 Million Virtual Farmers Play FarmVille Daily

SAN FRANCISCO – Aug. 27, 2009 – Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, announced today that its wildly popular FarmVille game is the largest and fastest growing social game in history with more than 11 million daily active users. Since its launch on June 19^th, 2009, FarmVille has attracted more than 1 million new daily active users a week, on average.

FarmVille is a light, fast and fun game where players create and manage their own virtual farm. Like all Zynga games, FarmVille lets you play, invest and express by plowing, growing and harvesting a variety of crops for money and game points. Players also have options to invest in their farms by purchasing fruit trees and farm animals such as pigs and cows, and compliment their crops with other farm assets such as barns, windmills and greenhouses. Nurturing the farm is the key to success for players and their network of fellow farmer friends–those who tend their crops diligently will see their farms flourish and their bank accounts swell. Players’ friends are a key element of success in FarmVille.

“FarmVille demonstrates the huge market potential of social gaming – in just 9 weeks the game has become a cultural phenomenon,” said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga. “No other application has achieved what this game has in such a short amount of time. Who would have guessed that FarmVille is now the biggest online game in North America and quickly becoming the biggest online game in the world.

“FarmVille’s growth is nothing short of spectacular and a clear indicator that we have a winning formula for giving players around the world a virtual farming experience that they truly enjoy,” said Mark Skaggs, VP and GM of Zynga’s Social RTS studio. “By combining the best elements of social gaming, with people’s instinct to nurture, we’ve created an incredibly fun, wholesome and rewarding experience.”

San Francisco – August 6, 2009 – Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, today announced the closing of the acquisition of MyMiniLife, Inc., a social networking site that allows you to build and decorate environments. As part of Zynga’s active growth strategy, the company is seeking to integrate the MyMiniLife staff and technology into Zynga’s industry leading teams and technology.

“We’re constantly looking for the highest quality talent and technology to help us build our business,” said Mark Skaggs, VP and GM of Social RTS at Zynga. “The MyMiniLife technology and team is a perfect complement to the top notch teams here at Zynga.”

Zynga currently has 20 million daily active users and 68 million monthly active users.

“We’re very excited to join Zynga and help grow the business in any way we can,” said Sizhao Yang, CEO of MyMiniLife. “We’re looking forward to being an integral part of Zynga’s leadership and growth moving forward, and are happy to have supported FarmVille’s amazing success with MyMiniLife’s technology.”

Reynolds Heading Up Zynga East, Expanding Presence on East Coast

San Francisco – June 30, 2009 – Zynga, the largest developer of social games, today appointed Brian Reynolds to the newly created position of chief designer. Reynolds will lead the product development team and will be responsible for developing new social strategy games.

Reynolds, an eighteen-year industry veteran, is recognized as one of the industry’s most talented and productive game designers and was honored by PC Gamer as one of 25 “Game Gods.” Reynolds played a key role founding two successful videogame studios: Firaxis Games and Big Huge Games and masterminded the design of several smash hits including Civilization II®, Alpha Centauri®, and Rise of Nations®, as well as Catan® for Xbox360 Live Arcade. Reynolds’ videogames have sold over six million copies worldwide.

“Brian is not only of the most widely respect game designers, he is also uniquely gifted in that he has mastered the art of programming,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and founder, Zynga. “Brian’s dual specialty gives him the substantial advantage of being able to bring his own visions to life. He has built a reputation for finely tuned game-play.”

“Zynga is one of the most dynamic companies that will have a profound impact on how people connect through games,” said Brian Reynolds. “On top of this, Mark has a created a team of some of the smartest and most talented people in games and I am thrilled to come on board at this exciting time in the company’s growth.”

Reynolds will head up operations at Zynga East, expanding the company’s presence on the East Coast. In 2009 this office will begin with 12-15 employees, including game designers, web developers (PHP, MySQL, Flash), artists, and producers. Based in Baltimore, Md., production efforts will be focused on creating new social network games on Facebook and other platforms–particularly games with a strategic emphasis.

Zynga Expands Their Catalog with a Free-to-Play Social Farm Game

SAN FRANCISCO – June 23, 2009 – Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, announced the launch of a new farm simulation game, FarmVille, which will allow players to build and grow the farm of their dreams, with the help of their friends.

With this exciting new offering, Zynga brings its leading social game design to the broadest mix of Facebook users yet. FarmVille allows players to build and customize their farm from the very beginnings, plowing the land, and choosing what they want to grow from a large variety of crops such as strawberries, eggplant, wheat and soybeans. The farm is then theirs to cultivate how they choose. Players will also have options to purchase farm animals such as pigs and cows, and compliment your crops with other farm assets such as barns, windmills and greenhouses.

Nurturing the farm is the key to success for players and their network of fellow farmer friends: those who tend their crops diligently will see their farms flourish and their bank accounts swell. Players’ friends are a key element of success in FarmVille.

“We’re really excited about FarmVille. The farm category in social gaming has shown amazing growth over the past couple years, especially in Asia,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and founder of Zynga. “There is something universally appealing about farming which speaks to large, diverse audiences. FarmVille will take what players love about the farm genre, and add a mixture of new and delightful features and design elements that have been so successful for us in our previous games.”

Steven Lurie Named General Manager of the Mobile Group; Roy Sehgal Named General Manager of the New Game Studio

San Francisco – April 30, 2009 – Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, announced today two additions to its executive team. Steven Lurie has been named general manager of Zynga’s Mobile Group and Roy Sehgal has been named general manager of a recently created game studio that has yet to be officially named. Lurie will spearhead Zynga’s mobile division and will oversee development of all iPhone applications and be responsible for new digital revenue opportunities. Sehgal will be responsible for building out a strategic studio within Zynga focused on the development and operation of next-generation Zynga games.” Both will report to founder and CEO Mark Pincus.

Lurie joins Zynga from MHS Capital, an early-stage venture capital fund backed by leading entrepreneurs and industry leaders. Prior to MHS, he was CEO of Advice Company, which operates multiple leading Web sites including FreeAdvice.com, the most visited legal and insurance information advice site for consumers, and AttorneyPages.com, a national directory of qualified attorneys. Lurie is a veteran of venture-backed start-ups and has played key executive roles at Ingenio and Microsoft.

Sehgal joins Zynga from MTV Networks where he served as vice president of premium games and services as well as vice president of consumer products and strategy for MTVN’s Nickelodeon Kids & Family Division. At MTVN, he played a key role in managing and growing several of the world’s largest casual game websites and brands such as AddictingGames.com, Shockwave.com, NickArcade.com and MyNoggin.com. Previously, Sehgal held senior executive roles at venture-backed startups and public companies in the online and digital media industry including Atom Entertainment, InfoSpace and July Systems.

“This is an exciting and pivotal time in Zynga’s history and we’re making two, very strategic additions to our executive team to help us continue to best serve our players,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and founder of Zynga. “Steven and Roy are outstanding additions and we’re excited to add executives of this caliber to accelerate our growth even further.”

Company bolsters management team with execs from Yahoo!, Electronic Arts, and Yandex Labs

San Francisco – June 9, 2009 – Zynga, the largest developer of social games, today appointed several new members to its executive team to help oversee the company’s casual and mobility group, game development, general counsel, human resources, and business operations departments. The new team includes Reggie Davis, Robert Goldberg, Vish Makhijani, Colleen McCreary, and Mike Verdu.

“We were looking for a team with the strongest possible combination of leadership, business skills, and relevant experience in various fields to create a powerhouse ecosystem,” said Mark Pincus, CEO and founder of Zynga. “Working together, these five individuals will address our users’ needs, and their dynamic leadership, business insight, and rich experience will help Zynga take huge strides in the social gaming space.”

Reggie Davis joins Zynga as general counsel. Davis spent nine years of his career at Yahoo!, most recently serving as vice president of network and exchange operations, and prior to that was associate general counsel at the company. Davis will be responsible for overseeing Zynga’s legal department.

Robert Goldberg officially joins Zynga as senior vice president of business operations, which includes revenue management, sales, marketing, business and corporate development, partner management and studio services. Goldberg brings over 25 years of senior management experience at industry leading media, e-commerce, enterprise software companies and venture capital firms, including Idealab and NBCi.

Vish Makhijani joins Zynga as senior vice president of casual and mobility. Makhijani was previously CEO of Yandex Labs, a Russian search company, and prior to that had a long career with Yahoo!, with his last position as senior vice president, Yahoo! Search. He brings with him a wealth of experience to help Zynga capitalize on web and social network opportunities.

Colleen McCreary joined the company in March as chief people officer. Previously, she spent five years at Electronic Arts (EA), where she was global corporate human resources director as well as the head of university relations, community relations, and diversity, and worked with EA’s studios around the world. Prior to EA, McCreary spent several years at Microsoft in a number of different roles.

Mike Verdu joins the company as vice president of game development. Verdu most recently served as vice president and general manager of Electronic Arts Los Angeles where he oversaw major franchises such as Command & Conquer, Medal of Honor, and The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-earth. Prior to that, he led EA’s real-time strategy gaming business. His past credits include key roles on games that have sold more than 20 million copies in aggregate. Verdu brings his passion for the social gaming space and will be focused on helping Zynga scale its abilities with respect to people, process, and product.

Zynga Brings The Most Popular Social Vampire Game to iPhone, Allowing Gamers to Start a Vampire Clan and Dominate the Living

San Francisco – June 4, 2009 – The epic battle to create the largest immortal empire has finally arrived on the iPhone. Zynga (www.zynga.com), the largest developer of social games, today announced the launch of Vampires: Bloodlust, a mobile version of its popular fantasy game – exclusively for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Vampire Wars is a proven commodity on social networks with over three million active users per month across social networks like Facebook and MySpace.

Vampires: Bloodlust features an all new contemporary gothic art style that includes new artwork, music and sound effects. Enhancing the experience through art and design, the game features intense audio tied into every mission and action that players make. Immortal empires are built with blood, health, stamina, and rage, and equipped with attack, defense and movement abilities to fight with other clans in the game. Players can also track their friends’ progress through a ranking ladder and real-time newsfeed that is sure to trigger the thirst for blood.

“The enhanced art style is a perfect example of how we continue to bring innovation to games on the iPhone,” said Mark Pincus, CEO, Zynga. “We were the first to bring a truly social gaming experience to the platform and will continue to deliver a gaming experience the leverages the tremendous power of the iPhone.”

Vampires: Bloodlust is available on any iPhone with EDGE, 3G or Wi-Fi access as well as the iPod touch. The game application is free and premium versions ranging from $10 to $40 will be available soon. The game is located in the iTunes store at: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=316438305&mt=8

Poker Powerhouses Offer Everyone a Seat at the Table by Hosting Tournament on Facebook

San Francisco – May 14, 2009 – Zynga, the largest developer of social games, today announced a strategic alliance with the World Series of Poker (WSOP) to leverage poker fan bases from both worlds. Zynga and WSOP will work closely to bring the largest online and offline poker brands and communities together.

Zynga’s free-to-play Texas Hold’Em Poker game is Facebook’s top game application with over 12 million monthly active users. As part of this alliance, Zynga will host several “Shootout” tournaments on their Texas Hold’Em Facebook application, offering two skilled poker winners the chance to win a seat* in the WSOP Main Event, where fame, fortune and the richest prize in sports awaits the victor.

“We built our Texas Hold’Em Poker game into the largest game on Facebook by keeping an eye on what is important to our players,” said Mark Pincus, CEO of Zynga. “We know that poker is a lifestyle which includes playing online and offline, and watching it on TV. This partnership is an opportunity to bring those worlds together.”

“Any poker player knows the Holy Grail is to win the Main Event of the World Series of Poker,” said Craig Abrahams, World Series of Poker vice president. “Now for the first time, we’re reaching fans in a new way, through Zynga’s platform. Players from all over the world can play the free Texas Hold’Em game from the convenience of their own living rooms, and win a seat* to the biggest poker tournament in the world.”

This once in a lifetime VIP WSOP prize package includes roundtrip airfare to Las Vegas, three nights’ accommodations at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, a backstage tour of the WSOP venue and a day pass to the VIP player’s lounge. The “Shootout” tournaments begin on June 8 and will run through June 22. Eighteen winners from the tournaments will be randomly selected to play in the Final Showdown on June 29-30. Two VIP WSOP winners will be announced on July 1 where they will be whisked off to Las Vegas for a seat at the table. Please visit www.zynga.com/wsop for more information, details on how to enter, and to view the published tournament dates, schedules and Official Rules.

*Subject to eligibility and rules. Rules and eligibility information available at www.zynga.com/wsop on or before June 1, 2009.

ABOUT THE WSOP

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the largest, richest and most prestigious gaming event in the world awarding millions of dollars in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet, globally recognized as the sport’s top prize. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker’s longest running tournament in the world, dating back to 1970. In 2008, the event attracted 58,720 entrants from 124 different countries to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and awarded over $180 million in prize money. The creation of the new delayed Main Event final table more than doubled ratings on ESPN year over year. The WSOP in December, 2008 was named the 7^th most admired sports brand in North America by the Turnkey Sports Survey, trailing only the older and more established NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR and PGA Tour among sports properties. In addition, the WSOP has experienced groundbreaking alliances in broadcasting, digital media and corporate sponsorships, while successfully expanding the brand internationally with the advent in 2007 of the World Series of Poker Europe^SM. For more information on the World Series of Poker, please visit our website at www.worldseriesofpoker.com or www.twitter.com/wsop.

About Zynga

Zynga is the largest social gaming company with more than 9.5 million daily users and 45 million monthly users. Zynga’s games are available on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Tagged, Yahoo!, the iPhone and iPod Touch, and include Texas Hold’Em Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Vampires, Street Racing, Scramble and Word Twist. The company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, IVP, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Pilot Group, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel. Zynga is headquartered at the Chip Factory in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.zynga.com or www.twitter.com/zynga.

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