EVCin

What happens when Zynga invades my 7-11 around the corner…can off-line user acquisition domination be far behind?

Successful viral marketing promos in FarmVille have been quickly passed along to two other Zynga hits: Cafe World and Mafia Wars. Whether they will see similar traffic boosts remains to be seen.

Users seem to be struggling in finding games in the new Facebook homepage redesign. While there is a lot of promise in the newly introduced games dashboard, further education cannot overcome the fundamental design flaw of not having “games” as a persistent part of the site navigation, visible from every page.

FarmVille bucks the no-growth trend, passing 30 million by twisting the “gifting” mechanism from sending gifts to asking for gifts.

When viral marketing tactics were curtailed by Facebook’s platform and policy updates, the question wasn’t whether developers would take a hit, but how much? And whether those that thrived on aggressive viral tactics would be hurt more than those that didn’t. I look at what appears to be behind those who did well and those that took a major hit.