Beleaguered company, Zynga Inc., (NASDAQ: ZNGA) whose shares have been hammered in 2012 due to slowing sales-growth and company’s slow transformation towards mobile computing amid mass departure of some high-profile executives, confirmed on Monday that it will be closing down its operations in Japan.
Even though Zynga’s Chief Executive, Mark Pincus had hinted at shuttering down of company’s operation in Japan, earlier in October, the official confirmation came from Kenji Matsubara (CEO, Zynga Japan) through his Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) post.
Written in Japanese, the message said that Zynga will be winding up its operations in Japan by the end of January 2013 even as the CEO thanked customers.
Zynga Japan, which was launched in 2010 with a $150 million financial backing from Softbank, looked all set to capture one of the world’s biggest gaming markets. Nonetheless, Matsubara, who worked previously for Hitachi, and Oracle before joining Zynga and gaming company Tecmo Koei failed to make any impression in huge but extremely competitive market.
Although Zynga’s Japanese division had significant resources until last month, the company abandoned three of its four Japanese titles which as an indication of possible closure before the confirmation arrived on Monday.
If we log on to Zynga Japan website then only thing which will be seen displayed now is a short message which says that January 31st, 2013 will be the last day of operation. Interestingly, Zynga’s U.S. website does not mention anything about the shuttering of the Japanese operations, for the time being.
Zynga’s failure in Japan does not mean that social gaming market as such was struggling. In fact, local gaming providers such as DeNa and Gree are witnessing sturdy growth in the domestic market. Both these companies are also working towards boosting their traction in the social gaming market by expanding in international markets.
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