Zynga desktop ARPU 5x higher than mobile

Zynga is having trouble cashing in on its growing presence on mobile phones, claims an independent estimate.

Mary Meeker’s latest State of the Internet presentation has shed light on problems facing developers in capitalising on the current mobile trend.

Despite rapid growth in the mobile sector, the web still has a mobilbe eCPM (revenue per 1000 views) that is five times lower than the average on desktop.

This matches the report’s estimated annual revenue per user for the social gaming giant Zynga, which sees an annuaul average revenue of $25 per user on desktop as opposed to $5 on mobile.

As mobile continues to increase its share of web traffic, this could become more of a problem for Zynga and other companies which have yet to find a strategy that makes mobile users as profitable as desktop.

Not all the news was gloomy, as the report shows it is possible to grow mobile ARPU quickly, citing GREE as an example of how a single game, Tanken Driland, was responsible for a $5 climb in the average.

In addition, Meeker predicts that mobile ARPU will evenutually overtake desktop, as evidenced by Japan’s CyberAgent, which claims to have beaten its desktop ARPU in December of last year.