Draw Something loses users, the cost of "Zing" falls

Almost any developer whose game will get the first places in the tops of applications for mobile devices will certainly try to purchase Zing. If the deal does not take place, then the mobile application giant will release a similar game itself. The company operates according to the old and well-known scheme: you can not win - buy them, you can not buy - clone them. A similar fate was prepared for OMGPOP and their Draw something: the developer agreed to sell Zinge his application for $ 200 million, which at that time seemed like a good deal, since Draw Something was explosively popular.

Indeed, a month and a half after the release, there were 35 million registered users in the application, and the game provided 1 billion ad banners per day. The game was easily knocked out in the first lines of “App Store” and “Google Play”, it seemed that a new “Engry Birds” appeared.
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However, it is reported that over the last month, the Draw Something application has lost about 5 million daily users, that is, usability has dropped from 15 million at the time of the purchase of the Zingoy application to 10 at the beginning of May. The fall, of course, did not go unnoticed. The number of monthly users also falls, that is, precisely those casual players who play regularly, if not drunkenly.


(Please note that the App Date data is based on Facebook logins, which are optional for the game, although they give an idea of ​​the trend.)

Zinga has already begun to monetize the application: advertisers are offered a paid placement of words as a hidden word for drawing. Imagine, for example, “Pepsi” or “Doritos” as a word that you need to draw in sufficient detail so that your opponent can guess. In addition to the colors of the palette, the game does not have any virtual items that could be sold to players for real money.

The problem was that in the “Zing” they did not bother to make sure that “Draw something” has any permanent interest for players who easily lose interest in the two hundred million application because of repeated or ambiguous and ambiguous words , the presence of analogues, fatigue from this similarity to traditional picchenari and an annoying monetization scheme. And the company paid for it - the stock price fell almost twice in March.

Who remained in the black from the Zing miss? Of course, the company "OMGPOP", which sold its game around the peak of its popularity and, therefore, cost. If they wondered even a month with the purchase, they could lose a lot in price. Now it became obvious that such a purchase was tantamount to investing in a brand, the popularity of which passes on.