Battle of the GIFs! Zynga Launches GIFs Against Friends on the App Store for iMessage

SAN FRANCISCO, April 20, 2017 -- Zynga (Nasdaq:ZNGA), a leading social game developer, today announced the launch of GIFs Against Friends, the ultimate mobile party game and the company’s latest addition to its iMessage app collection, which includes Words With Friends. Developed in collaboration with Tenor, the largest and fastest-growing mobile GIF sharing platform, the group game is available to play today within Apple’s Messages app and can be downloaded today on the App Store for iMessage.

“As one of the foremost game publishers on the App Store for iMessage, we’re constantly looking for new ways to innovate on how mobile users are playing and communicating,” said Mark Kantor, General Manager at Zynga. “Inspired by all of the ways that people are using GIFs to express themselves, GIFs Against Friends is a brand-new social game that’s perfect to play right within an iMessage conversation. We’re proud to partner with Tenor, the leading mobile GIF platform, in reimagining how people are connecting by bringing this engaging, entertaining GIF competition directly into the conversations players are already having with their friends and family.”

GIFs Against Friends curates the perfect GIF through a deep integration with Tenor’s full search API, allowing players to access the entire collection of hilarious, iconic GIFs. In GIFs Against Friends, players kick off the GIF gameplay by sending a pre-selected or custom prompt to friends directly in Messages. Once they’ve received the prompt, up to 32 players can anonymously submit their choice for the most fitting GIF to the entire group. The group chat judge then selects the funniest, most relevant or undeniably accurate GIF and crowns the ultimate GIF champion. At the end of each round, the winning GIF is shared within the iMessage conversation for the whole group to see.

“Messaging is quickly becoming a primary way people communicate and socialize with friends, and Tenor is defining a visual language for this new medium,” said Frank Nawabi, co-founder and head of business development at Tenor. “GIFs Against Friends is a great example of how Tenor helps people communicate their thoughts and feelings, better than words ever could. The new iMessage app taps into the Tenor Emotional Graph, which is built on our 200+ million daily GIF searches. Zynga’s vision for Message games is exciting, and we’re pleased to team up to bring GIFs Against Friends to players everywhere.”

GIFs Against Friends is the latest addition to Zynga’s iMessage apps group, joining pop culture favorite, Words With Friends. As one of the leading game publishers on the App Store for iMessage, Zynga’s collection of iMessage apps also includes Games With Friends, a portfolio of 12 unique, bite-sized entertainment experiences, and Boggle With Friends.

GIFs Against Friends is available to play for free today on the App Store for iMessage. For more information, follow GIFs Against Friends on Facebook.

Game logo and images can be found here: https://zynga.box.com/s/nau8jimdn5nyre0k5p1h95afcw8obn32

About Zynga Inc.
Since its founding in 2007, Zynga's mission has been to connect the world through games. To-date, more than 1 billion people have played Zynga's games across Web and mobile, including FarmVille, Zynga Poker, Words With Friends, Hit it Rich! Slots and CSR Racing. Zynga's games are available on a number of global platforms including Apple iOS, Google Android, Facebook and Zynga.com. The company is headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., and has additional offices in the U.S., Canada, Finland, U.K., Ireland and India. Learn more about Zynga at http://blog.zynga.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

About Tenor
More than 200 million people each month use Tenor to add tone to their mobile messaging conversations by adding GIFs that visually communicate their thoughts and feelings -- better than words ever could. We process more than 200M search requests daily and have used this data to build the Tenor Emotional Graph, which powers our GIF Keyboard app and GIF sharing for partners including Apple iMessage, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Twitter, Google Gboard, Kik, LinkedIn, Kika, TouchPal and others. Learn more about becoming a Tenor GIF API partner at http://www.tenor.co/api.

Contact
Erin Smith-Cheng
[email protected]
(650) 224-2462

Michelle Cox
[email protected]
(415) 823-7574

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including those statements relating to, among other things, the launch of GIFs Against Friends, the game's success and the game's features (including gameplay and social features).  Forward-looking statements often include words such as "outlook," "projected," "intends," "will," "anticipate," "believe," "target," "expect," and statements in the future tense are generally forward-looking. The achievement or success of the matters covered by such forward-looking statements involves significant risks, uncertainties, and assumptions. Undue reliance should not be placed on such forward-looking statements, which are based on information available to us on the date hereof.  We assume no obligation to update such statements.  More information about these risks, uncertainties, and assumptions are or will be described in greater detail in our public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), copies of which may be obtained by visiting our Investor Relations web site at http://investor.zynga.com or the SEC's web site at www.sec.gov.