Zynga Releases Chinese-Language Version of Texas Hold'em

Three months ago, Zynga Beijing was created with the acquisition of XPD Media, a small developer in the Chinese capital. Now its first product is out, a translation of Zynga's Texas HoldEm Poker for the Chinese-language markets. Right now, those only include Taiwan and Hong Kong, because Facebook is mostly banned in China itself. Other reports incorrectly state that Zynga's game will be available in China. Combined, Taiwan and Hong Kong account for 11 million of Facebook's 500 million users, as measured by our data service Inside Facebook Gold. This morning, we looked into Taiwan's user demographics and found that its users, many of whom visit Facebook for the games, tend to be in their mid-twenties -- not a bad market for Zynga to tap into. But a potential base of 11 million users, whether good gamers or not, isn't enough to swing the needle for Zynga, which still has over 200 million monthly active users. Further, Zynga is going up against established titles like Boyaa's 德州撲克 (translated, simply Texas Hold'em Poker), which is Facebook's largest Chinese-language game with 3.2 million users (we looked at it and two others this morning). So at best, Zynga can expect a few million users for its localized version of Texas HoldEm. Zynga probably isn't trying to capture a lot of users at this point, though. The Chinese version of Texas Hold'em is the company's first localized game ever, and as such likely serves two purposes. The first is as a tester to see how worthwhile it is to localize big games like Texas Hold'em for any foreign market. Second, the release should give Zynga a better idea of how its games will do with Chinese-language users, for a potential advance into mainland China at a later date. Doing so is quite difficult, as foreign companies need a Chinese partner with some ownership interest. As with Zynga's acquisition of Conduit Labs, announced this morning, the company didn't offer any official statement.

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Zynga Releases Chinese-Language Version of Texas Hold'em

Chris Morrison

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Chris Morrison