Zynga expands to China, sans Facebook

NEW YORK — Zynga, the company behind popular Facebook games like “CityVille,” is taking that game to China. Since Facebook is blocked in the country, it’s partnering instead with local Internet portal Tencent.

Zynga Inc. said late Monday night that it launched “Zynga City” in China.

“CityVille,” which has players tending to virtual cities, is the most popular game on Facebook according to AppData, which tracks apps on the social network.

It is played by more than 80 million people a month.

San Francisco-based Zynga makes most of its money by charging small amounts of money for virtual items in its games. In 2010 this earned the company a profit of $90.6 million. It filed for an initial public offering this month.