Exclusive: Ko takes charge of social operations in Zynga reshuffle
Former mobile chief to take over ex-COO Schappert's responsibilities " unknown egaming executive appointed to head up real-money division.
Zynga chief mobile officer David Ko will take responsibility for the operator’s mobile and social games, working alongside a newly-appointed egaming operations director, eGaming Review‘s sister publication Social Casino Intelligence can exclusively reveal.
Ko (pictured, with Zynga New York GM Dan Porter) will work alongside an executive known to have been headhunted from the online gambling sector as the company is restructured ahead of its real-money launch in Q1 2013. While SCi was unable to confirm the identity of the executive, they are known to have come from a European-facing operator, and have already begun work at the company.
Former COO Schappert left Zynga earlier this month just over a year after he was poached from rival operator Electronic Arts. His departure came after responsibility for product development was taken from him by Mark Pincus, in a move which saw Ko and executive vice president of games Steve Chiang reporting directly into the chief executive rather than Schappert.
At the time analyst Michael Pachter of Wedbush Securities condemned the decision to remove the experienced Schappert from product and replace him with Pincus, describing it as an “idiotic” decision which was “probably ultimately going to be a strategic error that bites [Zynga] in the butt.”
The move came within weeks of Zynga confirming plans to enter the real-money gambling sector during its results presentation for the three months ending 30 June. The announcement coincided with a sharp downturn in the operator’s fortunes, with a loss of US$22.8m for the quarter contributing to a total $108.2m loss for the first half of 2012.
The loss was blamed on declining user numbers and delays in the launch of new product. At the time Schappert attributed the decline in player numbers to changes to Facebook’s Feeds and Requests algorithms making established games less visible, to the benefit of new titles. However, the fact that the delayed launch of The Ville “ currently the target of a copyright lawsuit from EA “ occurred under Schappert’s remit led to industry insiders suggesting he was seen as having been responsible for the decline.
Ko originally joined Zynga in October 2010, from Yahoo, where he had spent over a decade as senior vice president of audience, mobile and local. Before joining the digital brand he had worked as a senior associate for Citigroup.
A spokesperson for the company refused to comment on the reshuffle.
This story originally appeared on Social Casino Intelligence.