Zynga Players Donate $1.5 Million to Haiti Earthquake Victims

I have been praising Zynga, the creator of Mafia Wars and other top Free Facebook Apps, for its tremendous success on the social gaming circuit. Launched only in 2007 and in less than 3 years, it is already leading the $2-billion dollar virtual goods market. This San Francisco-based company is giving back and sharing its blessings.

Screenshot of Cafe World: One of Zynga's Games

Zynga launched a fund drive to assists the relief efforts for Haiti quake victims. The company launched virtual goods sales promotion for its top games like FarmVille and Mafia Wars. The company urged its more than 230 million players to buy special game items. Zynga said 100% of the proceeds from this Haiti Relief promo sale will go directly to the United Nations World Food Relief Agency. The UN WFA expressed its thanks to Zynga’s assistance which the agency is going to need in alleviating food shortage in Haiti after a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit the poor country.
Some of the special virtual items in Zynga’s Haiti Relief program were white corn in FarmVille, Haitian drum in Mafia Wars, a Haiti fish in FishVille, and a chip package in Zynga Poker. The developer’s other titles — Cafe World, PetVille, and YoVille — as well as its company homepage also cross-promoted links and special item sales for donators. The company’s fund drive efforts were a smashing success. More than 300,000 Zynga gamers around the world bought $1.5 million dollars worth of white corn, Haitian drum, Haitian fish and poker chips in less than 5 days! These casual gamers proved themselves to be generous and full of sympathy. The money the spent w
This is not the first time that Zynga has extended help Haiti. The company already did previous virtual item sales promotions last December 2009 to raise funds for Haiti charity organizations helping children and women in the impoverished nation.