www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-faceboo -> www.techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-faceboo/
But what he didn't say in that blog post is that Zynga has been scamming users from the beginning quite intentionally as part of their revenue model. Rather, he pointed much of the blame at middlemen offer companies: "We need to be more aggressive and have revised our service level agreements with these providers requiring them to filter and police offers prior to posting on their networks."
Startup@Berkeley mixer, admitting that scamming users was part of Zynga's business model from the start. I think everyone sort of knew that this was exactly Zynga's gameplan.
We've taken the relevant section of the video, roughly starting at around the 10:40 mark, and embed it below. From the video: I knew that i wanted to control my destiny, so I knew I needed revenues, right, fucking, now. So I funded the company myself but I did every horrible thing in the book to, just to get revenues right away. I mean we gave our users poker chips if they downloaded this zwinky toolbar which was like, I dont know, I downloaded it once and couldn't get rid of it.
com" What you want to bet that it really isn't CNN but some scam site? These clicks cost about $3 or more a pop, so Google is still making big money off of rebills.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:20 am PST no, he's not going anywhere. He clearly had no idea this would all blow up way down the road. But by taking a leadership position now he'll absolutely be forgiven.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:26 am PST And someone who operates like a used car salesman takes that attitude with him wherever he goes. Not only are their games shitty, shameless copies of other shitty games, their attitude to their users is that of preying on suckers, and their company is a sweatshop.
November 6th, 2009 at 3:26 am PST I am tired of the shallow apologies that leaders give when they're caught. If Mark Pincus was truly sorry for scamming users, he would return all revenues generated from scammy offers. Some moral systems have the concept of penance: giving back to those who have been hurt to demonstrate genuine regret. Until leaders give penance, apologies are just empty words, and the same beat will go on...
November 6th, 2009 at 10:39 am PST Was this even an apology? I didn't watch the entire video, but as far as I can tell the lesson I've learned is that I really need to start screwing people so that I can have more freedom. This seriously looked like a how-to video and not an apology.
November 6th, 2009 at 5:29 am PST So the moral of the story is: Do whatever you can to get rich, screw your users, create "super" stock to control your investors, push out competitors or buy them with "offers they can't refuse" and in the end, it's going to be "OK" because you've turned over a new leaf.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:25 am PST Thats how the get rich quick, make money online gurus have been doing it for years. On the old search engines, then on Google, now on Facebook, they are everywhere, you can't throw a click online without hitting one.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:55 am PST It is unfortunate that this was the path he took to get where he was, but wasn't MySpace started by shady characters? He is not without taint, but what he chose to do now is important. Especially now he has a compelling company and is a market leader.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:31 am PST I dunno, but I can tell you now that for the first time I believe this guy can take a whole freagin' industry down. Best advise is for everyone involved to come clean now and be humbled.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:19 am PST This only highlights the issues that are created when potential investors demand large shares of companies if they are not generting revenue shortly after day one of operations. You lie, cheat, steal, and do whatever it takes to generate revenues so that you can receive an investment deal that will allow you to "Control your own destiny" Never mind that you scamed users to do this. I think that there is a need to create a kind of "Best Practices" pact that sites sign on to be a part of. If you do scam than you are off the list of "Best Practice" sites and your scam tactics are documented and published to the site. This can bring a very much needed level of tranparency to the process.
November 6th, 2009 at 11:11 am PST "By siging on you agree that you will not scam users" yep, that would be a start, get the CEO to say it in plain English. There are already codes of conduct that ethical networks belong to - so he actually need to change the companies they use as advertisers - scammy networks will house scammy offers - it's all about MONEY - they don't give a toss if you are a happy,friendly social networker type person or a hillbilly teenager - they just want to rip you off then blame the customer for being GREEDY. At the moment they are taking the blame, but their scam buddies are already thinking of ways to tweak the plan - end result - people are still gonna be ripped off. Good to highlight it occasionally - but scamming is deeply ingrained in the Internet profit machine - Google make money from it - they all do - they are surviving the recession by taking money out of little kids wallets - they are the exact type that would steal food off a hungry baby in order to survive - that is real business - they are laughing their heads off at anyone that buys from them - like the 409 scammers.
We already know MySpace has been missing revenue target like crazy, and this is before the current "Scamdal" (see, I just coined a new word) hit. In some circle, these people are heralded as the "Golden Boys of Web 20'', their companies' eye-popping growth got them financial magazines write-ups and TV interviews by pandering hosts. If Facebook survives this "scamdal", the smiling golden boy owes a you huge debt.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:50 am PST Entertain a hypothetical here: if the former OfferPal CEO were to be very polite in the conference and said to Mike things like, "You're right, Mr Arrington, we're aware of these scams, and we will clean them up." There would be no sensational video, and possibly only a much subdued blog post by Mike, and Zynga and Facebook would continue business as usual. But then all it takes is one pissed-off parent, one clever lawyer, one class-action lawsuit, or worse, one energetic district attorney, and the whole house of cards will fall, a la, Enron.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:19 am PST Our man Mike wakes up one fine morning, questions the CEO of a scammy company, she in turn rips him apart verbally (not logically), our man Mike gets pissed off and starts digging stuff to prove they all are scammy and in the climax "twittergate" Mike becomes the ethical police of the Internetz.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:31 am PST This is getting so old and boring - is there another story out there... Obviously Zynga is the undispted leader and everyone else - especially the losers at Slide,are jealous.
November 6th, 2009 at 6:28 am PST I find it very ironic that TC constantly talks about the end of old media (an how they represent the future of media), and then shouts to the rooftops when the "major media" picks up a story that they started.
November 6th, 2009 at 8:03 am PST Finland's equivalent of Reuters, STT also ran a story* on Nov 3rd about virtual gaming, concentrating on Zynga & Farmville. It included one chapter where shady sides of the business were discussed.
November 6th, 2009 at 12:51 am PST So it sounds like if the revenue tumbles sufficiently -- that Pincus has no ethical problem running whatever offers are necessary to get back to the top -- its all about controlling one's destiny.
November 6th, 2009 at 2:53 am PST Why is it up to facebook? Why are we always looking to other people to parent us in terms of morals? do you know how angry it makes people to download toolbars from hell.. do you know how annoying it is to click on an ad and be taken o a shitty site.. cause each person who gets scammed is less likely to purchase stuff online... the CEO is a joke cause what consequences will he face..
November 6th, 2009 at 1:23 pm PST Because businesses (and people in general) are not driven by a code of ethics, they are driven by money. In any ecosystem where there...
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