Zynga losses slow, but struggles emerge elsewhere in quarterly earnings

Zynga’s second-quarter earnings were released today, and while the company saw some success with Words with Friends, Social Slots, and Zynga Poker, the social giant still says it has work to do in bolstering its financial results. 

In a press release, Zynga states that its GAAP quarterly revenue totaled out at $182 million for the three month period ending June 30th, which was a slight decline from $200 million the same quarter in 2015. However, it only suffered a net loss of $4 million, which is a major improvement from its $26 million loss in its second quarter last year.

Overall, Zynga’s results paint a company trying to adapt to the dramatic changes in the mobile and social gaming markets. Zynga’s Non-GAAP bookings (payments made in its free-to-play games) hit $175 million, which the company says is neutral year-over-year, but surpasses expectations for the quarter. (Non-GAAP numbers tend to be used by analysts). 

Those bookings per daily active user have increased year over year, meaning players are spending slightly more on Zynga games than they were this time last year. However, both the number of daily and monthly active users dropped year over year by 15 and 26 percent respectively, despite the strong revenue results. 

Zynga’s operating expenses also dropped 15 percent, as Zynga says it’s working to “do more with less,” especially in its marketing costs. In addition CEO Frank Gibeau added in an investor Q&A that he’s been keeping an eye on the release of Pokemon Go, and is “inspired” by what it’s done for the mobile games market.