House introduces bipartisan bill on AI in banking and housing
The bill would require a report on how these industries use AI to valuate homes and underwrite loans
Read more...Who would have guessed—in an age of rapidly advancing technology—that one of the most popular online games would be a game about good old fashioned farming?
Zynga, one of the biggest social gaming developers, just hit 100 million monthly users across its various games on Facebook.
Much of Zynga’s success is owed to one of its newest games, FarmVille, a real-time virtual farming game quietly released on Facebook in mid-June. Users choose crops to plant and purchase all sorts of equipment with which to tend their harvest. As All Facebook reports, farm gaming is looking to be a big business on Facebook. They count nine different farming applications, just in the site's top games. All the farming applications combined see 72 million active users a month.
Zynga’s product differs from some other farming games, however, in that it provides a better social experience by encouraging users to interact with their Facebook friends within the game.
“FarmVille demonstrates the huge market potential of social gaming – in just 9 weeks the game has become a cultural phenomenon,” said Mark Pincus, founder and CEO of Zynga.
Capitalizing on the virtual goods market, FarmVille allows users to purchase in-game cash and coins with a credit card, through PayPal, or via various other payment system. Zong, for example, allows users to pay with their mobile numbers, appending the charges to their cell phone bill.
Today, FarmVille alone sees over 11 million daily active users and has, since its launch, attracted 1 million new daily active users a week, on average. With 30 million monthly active users, FarmVille makes up nearly a third of Zynga’s massive user base.
Less than a month ago, we reported that Zynga had reached the already-impressive milestone of 72 million monthly users. As the social gaming company has now rocketed past the 100 million mark, Zynga leaves no doubt that it is the most popular social gaming developer out there. Making up well over a third of Facebook’s 250 million member count, the Zynga user base shows no signs of slowing its growth.
The bill would require a report on how these industries use AI to valuate homes and underwrite loans
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Read more...Startup/Business
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Zynga is the largest social gaming company with 8.5 million daily users and 45 million monthly users. Zynga’s games are available on Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster, Yahoo! and the iPhone, and include Texas Hold’Em Poker, Mafia Wars, YoVille, Vampires, Street Racing, Scramble and Word Twist. The company is funded by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, IVP, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Pilot Group, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel. Zynga is headquartered at the Chip Factory in San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.zynga.com.
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Zong is the leading mobile payments platform for sellers of digital goods and services. Its frictionless payment experience converts shoppers into buyers at rates up to 10 times greater than traditional payment methods. Zong leverages direct connections with mobile network operators around the world to provide a secure payment solution with unrivaled connectivity and service quality. Zong is the mobile payment provider for Facebook Credits and also works with hundreds of leading destination sites, such as Gaia Online, IMVU and Playdom. Reaching over 2 billion mobile users, Zong provides localized payment capabilities in over 30 countries in 16 languages. Zong is the only mobile payments platform that combines the high conversion rates of carrier billing with the low costs and flexibility of payment card networks. Zong is based in Menlo Park with offices in Paris and Geneva, and is backed by Matrix Partners, Advent Venture Partners and Newbury Ventures. For more information, please visit www.zong.com.