Zynga Shares Jumped: What You Need to Know

Although we don't believe in timing the market or panicking over market movements, we do like to keep an eye on big changes -- just in case they're material to our investing thesis.

What: Shares of social-game maker Zynga (NAS: ZNGA) jumped today and closed out the day with a healthy 10% gain after announcing its own Zynga Platform.

So what: The move is the first step in weaning itself off of relying on Facebook for the vast majority of its revenue and bookings, which has topped 90% for the past two years. The Zynga Platform will also be available for third-party developers to build games on.

Now what: Interestingly, the platform will still be heavily integrated with Facebook -- and, importantly, still use Facebook Credits as virtual currency, complete with Facebook's 30% cut. It comes as Zynga has also been aggressively expanding into mobile game platforms like Apple iOS and Google Android. While it looks like Zynga will still rely on Facebook even on this new platform, investors are excited that it's one step closer to being less dependent.

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