Zynga Goes Local

Although Zynga has made its mark on online social media sites, such as Facebook, it has jumped off the digital screen into the physical world.

Zynga, the gaming company that owns and develops online games, is now selling pre-paid game cards at dozens of major U.S. retailers for their games. Some of these major retailers include 7-Eleven, Best Buy, Target, and GameStop – all of which are big corporate companies that will sell gift certificates to nearly 13,000 stores. Of course, the most popular games we all expect to see and recognize will have corresponding gift cards available such as FarmVille, YoVille, and Mafia Wars.

Zynga, following the steps of Playdom targeted in Walgreens and British retailers, started developing this idea last fall and hopes to garner revenue from a dual stream. For those who do not have a credit card or bank account can now purchase money and take control of their status; this is a great marketing tactic especially if a large sector of the target audience consists of young teens not yet responsible for owning their own account.

This strategy will help establish and popularize itself even more as it continually rolls out more games and reaches a larger demographic. With over 67 million global users and 235 active users reported per month, Zynga doesn’t look like it’s going to crash anytime soon. In fact, the gaming site raised $180 million last December.

Now that’s a pretty penny…