All Things Digital

Since I posted an interview with Social Gaming Network’s Shervin Pishevar today on the announcement of his $15 million funding, it seems only sporting to post this lively video interview I also did with his main competitor, Mark Pincus of Zynga, recently too.

Zynga, named after Pincus’s dog, is one of the two main social-gaming networks that are competing for audience by offering highly interactive games of all kinds. Its aim is to be more engaging and create a series of addictive games that users will return to again and again.

Pincus, who also founded the Tribe social-networking site, is a longtime entrepreneur. I met him way back when as a reporter at the Washington Post when he and Sunil Paul launched one of the few start-ups–Freeloader–in the D.C. area.

And I can report that Pincus is as jumpy and energetic today as he was 15 years ago.

He has certainly been busy lining up a spate of fancy investors, garnering $10 million in funding in January, including from: Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group, Avalon Ventures, Pilot Group, along with personal investments from Silicon Valley players Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel.

Zynga, which is larger than rival SGN, claims 2.3 million total daily active users across Facebook, with its Texas Hold’em game being the largest it offers. Other games include Sea Wars, Blackjack, Attack! and Scramble.

As I said in my SGN post, while BoomTown often makes fun of viral apps, most of which are faddish and juvenile, the better-made gaming apps actually are likely to be a real business over time, as long they remain engaging and fun to play as the classic real-life games are.

Zynga plans on making money through ads, including creating its own ad network for other gamers, as well as via the sale of virtual goods and premium offerings.

Here’s a chat with Pincus at Zynga’s offices (Pincus owns the building, by the way, which also houses a bunch of other Web 2.0 start-ups) in San Francisco:

Today, in yet another episode of the Web 2.0 lottery, Social Gaming Network grabbed $15 million in funding for its widgety gaming apps that are popular on Facebook and other social-networking sites.

The round, led by Greylock Partners, Founders Fund, Columbia Capital and Novak Biddle Venture Partners, will go toward expanding its offerings, which include the popular Warbook, and also its network for other developers to create and publish online games on.

SGN grew out of Webs.com, which used to be known as Freewebs.

While BoomTown often makes fun of viral apps, most of which are faddish and juvenile, the better made gaming apps actually are likely to be a real business over time, as long they remain engaging and fun to play as the classic real-life games are.

After all, who ever gets sick of Candyland?

SGN’s games are not quite that, focusing more on strategy and bang-bang that 12-year-old boys of any age so love, but, CEO Shervin Pishevar promises, with increasingly rich features and better graphics.

The business plan? Advertising, of course, especially sponsorships, as well as the sale of virtual goods and premium offerings.

SGN’s other popular online games include FightClub, StreetRace, Jetman, Text Twirl and Free Gifts. It has 1.1 million daily active users mostly across Facebook, but also on Bebo, hi5, and MySpace.

In the space, its main competitor is Zynga (here is a post and video with its founder, Mark Pincus). Naturally, the two bicker back and forth in the blogosphere about size and quality of games.

But it seems to me that there is room for both, so the fighting seems like a lot of noisy, well, game-playing.

Here’s Pishevar talking about the sector: