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teej

>> An ethics lecture from a man whose company

This was written a year before Zynga was formed. I still think he's hypocritical, but let's be clear about the context.

>> sells spyware (Zwinky toolbar)

I have no idea where you got this idea from. Zynga does not make Zwinky, Mindspark Interactive Network does.

>> highly profitable add-ons to games under the pretext of charity (Farmville "donations" to Haiti)?

A 50% charity split isn't shabby. Sure, Zynga should have given 100%, but there are higher profile initiatives with MUCH lower splits. Product (red) is a great example where buying a $150 iPod nets a whopping $10 for The Global Fund.

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Disclosure: Current Zynga employee.

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> Zynga does not make Zwinky, Mindspark Interactive Network does.

But they need distribution, and they got that through Pincus - See: "I did every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues" : http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus...

> Product (red) is a great example where buying a $150 iPod nets a whopping $10 for The Global Fund.

You really can not compare the two. The BOM and cost of production on an iPod is probably $120. The incremental cost of a Farmville credit is thousands of a cent.

Thanks for the source on Zynga's connection to Zwinky. I knew there was some sort of connection, but my face got horribly red when I realized "wait, he's right--Zynga didn't make Zwinky."

> But they need distribution, and they got that through Pincus

Point conceded, I didn't know about that.

> You really can not compare the two.

A fair comparison isn't far out of reach - Shazam (red) only donates 20% of its iPhone app sales. My point isn't about these specific deals, it's that charity-share deals aren't uncommon and a 50% share is above industry standard.

And for what it's worth, Zynga did spike their contributions to 100% after the earthquake hit. Through the sales of items in Farmville, they raised over $1.5M for earthquake relief, more than most NGOs, private companies, and countries.

Ah, somehow I missed the date the article was written. Apologies to Mr. Pincus for making it seem like he was an a priori hypocrite.

Still, I find it a little ironic that he would later say things like, "I did every horrible thing in the book to get the revenues" -- paraphrasing since I don't recall the exact quote.

As far as the charity split is concerned, I agree 50% isn't bad in most cases. However, I imagine margins are essentially zip for Zynga in this case, whereas most charities that take a cut of donations do have high operating costs.

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