TechCrunch brings a much needed new angle to looking at Zynga’s running away success with the Facebook games market, by comparing the company to a similar sized Japanese social games developer GREE.  In short, their Japanese counterpart is turning a bigger profit on slightly less MAU (monthly average users). Why might you ask? Well the post posits it’s because of GREE penetration into the mobile market.

I have to wonder though if that’s all there is to it.

Of course, any attempt to draw parallels between the Facebook games market and the social games market in Japan is going to be fraught with caveats.  Facebook games and social games in general are driven not only by cold hard cash, but the value of acquiring ‘free’ new customers through sharing. One has to wonder academically if and how the two cultures approach that kind of behavior and what the end value difference is, if any. 

Unfortunately I have never played any of GREE’s games (though please if you have, tell us everything), but I wonder if it’s more than position and GREE’s success is also driven by a variety of game types and designs. Perhaps even, in a bit better quality and more, well- fun.  

Closing note: Zynga is not an evil company. They are a successful company and they are very good at what they do.  I pick on them out of admiration, mostly, though of course there are times we have given out some heavy criticism.  Let’s not also forget, as the Russians say: о вкусах не спорят-  or about tastes don’t argue.  This is just one dude’s ‘fun’ meter.