Zynga 2012 Annual Report Download - page 17

Our Core Values
We were founded on a deeply held passion for games and for family and friends playing together. Our
passion for play is at the core of our mission: to connect the world through games. Our mission and our core
values drive everything that we do: design social games that everyone wants to play, assemble and retain talented
teams, prioritize our opportunities and make investment decisions.
Our core values have enabled us to scale our organization and innovate a new way to play. We encourage
innovation, the creation of compelling game experiences and acting quickly. These factors are critical to
extending our leadership position as we seek to continue building successful franchises. We embrace ownership,
meritocracy, career growth and focus on the long-term to motivate our employees and attract and retain world
class game design, product management, engineering and operational talent. We remain steadfast in our
commitment to surprise and delight our players. We believe our unique company culture serves as the foundation
of our success. Our core values are:
• Build games that you and your friends love to play
• Surprise and delight our players
• Zynga is a meritocracy
• Be a CEO and own outcomes
• Work Zynga smart
• Zynga first; decisions for the greater good
• Always innovate
Research and Development
We believe continued investment in enhancing existing games and developing new games, and in software
development tools and code modification, is important to attaining our strategic objectives. Our research and
development expenses were $645.6 million, $727.0 million and $149.5 million in 2012, 2011 and 2010,
respectively, which included stock-based expense of $200.6 million, $374.9 million and $10.2 million,
respectively. We expect research and development expense to rise due to the increasing required investment to
launch high quality games across multiple devices and platforms.
Government Regulation
We are subject to a number of foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect companies conducting
business on the Internet, many of which are still evolving and could be interpreted in ways that could harm our
business. In the United States and internationally, laws relating to the liability of providers of online services for
activities of their users and other third parties are currently being tested by a number of claims, including actions
based on invasion of privacy and other torts, unfair competition, copyright and trademark infringement, and other
theories based on the nature and content of the materials searched, the ads posted, or the content provided by
users. Any court ruling or other governmental action that imposes liability on providers of online services for the
activities of their users and other third parties could harm our business. We are potentially subject to a number of
foreign and domestic laws and regulations that affect the offering of certain types of content, such as that which
depicts violence, many of which are ill defined, still evolving and could be interpreted in ways that could harm
our business or expose us to liability.
In addition, rising concern about the use of social networking technologies for illegal conduct, such as the
unauthorized dissemination of national security information, money laundering or supporting terrorist activities
may in the future produce legislation or other governmental action that could require changes to our games or
restrict or impose additional costs upon the conduct of our business.
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