A Zynga Inc executive overseeing one of the social gaming
company's most successful games has left to join Identified, a startup
social network for young professionals.
Brian Chu, formerly the lead
project manager of Zynga's hit CityVille, said Friday he will be vice
president of product at the San Francisco-based startup.
CityVille
had been Zynga's biggest hit over the past year, only recently ceding
its position as the most popular game on Facebook to another Zynga
title, Texas HoldEm Poker.
In recent months, several notable
mid-level executives have left Zynga, which went public in December but
has suffered a steep fall in its stock price. In March Groupon Inc , which runs the daily deals website, poached Curtis Lee, a Zynga director of product management.
Chu said he left Zynga amicably and with "the door open."
"It
was an intense time and very stressful," Chu said. "But I wanted the
opportunity to take on the challenge of something as big as professional
identity and companies like LinkedIn."
Identified, which raised
$21 million in its second-round venture capital financing, claims a
registered user base of 10 million. The startup provides a
resume-building and networking service for young professionals under 30 -
similar to LinkedIn, but with "gamified" features.
Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012