Angry Birds to conquer the Facebook world

"Angry Birds", the most-downloaded mobile application of 2011, was catapulted for the world of Facebook inside a bid by its Finnish maker Rovio to acquire 1 billion persons playing the addictive game.


True on the game's quirky theme, a bird flung at a pig over a giant screen marked its official Facebook launch in Jakarta, the world's most Facebook-connected city.

The company's strategy is for ones game - that is certainly popular as an application game on many smartphones and tablet computers across numerous platforms - being accessible "on all screens & screen sizes", Rovio Asia senior vice president Henri Holm told AFP.

Scores of fans attended the Valentine's Day launch in Jakarta, quite a few of them clicking photographs on their smartphones.

In the game, players fling colorful and grumpy wingless birds from a slingshot into smarmy egg-stealing pigs.


It has been downloaded for over 700 million times since its launch in 2009 as well as the birds have turned out to be a global phenomenon, featuring on the large array of product or service and in popular culture.

The quantity of players is most likely to surpass 1 billion with Rovio now offering a brand new version of the game with a lot more levels and interactive features to around 845 million Facebook users.

Rovio doesn't disclose how many Angry Birds applications had been downloaded in Indonesia. But the country's adore for the game is obvious within the ubiquitous paraphernalia in malls, from Angry Birds cellular phone covers to infant jumpsuits.


"Facebook has a lot more that 800 million users, so we're confident we can get 1 billion people playing soon," stated by Holm, donning a red Angry Birds hoodie.

The new application allows players to compete with their Facebook buddies for high scores, send gifts to friends and accomplish more precise and strong targeting by purchasing new "power-ups".

Rovio has in recent months focused on growing its line of merchandise, Holm said.

On display at the launch, just before an all-girl band crooning tunes, were Angry Birds pencil cases, lunch boxes, T-shirts and stuffed toys, as well as cookbooks and wristwatches.

"There are launch events in other cities, like Mumbai and Bangkok, but the official launch is in Jakarta as the Facebook capital of the world," Holm said.

More than 17 percent of Indonesia's 240 million individuals are on Facebook, and Jakarta alone has more than 17 million Facebook accounts, in accordance with Holm.

"That is over four times the accounts in New York and virtually twice the quantity of the second city on a list," the Rovio official said.

Second to Jakarta is Istanbul with 9.6 million Facebook accounts, and third is Mexico City with 9.3 million, based on social networking trackers Socialbakers.com.


Indonesia as being a whole has 43.1 million Facebook accounts, generating the site's third-biggest user base right after the United States of America with 155.7 million and India, which just surpasses Indonesia with 43.5 million users.

Rovio isn't alone in recognizing the industry capability of Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim region and Southeast Asia's largest and fastest growing major economy.

Internet giant Yahoo! set up an office in Indonesia in 2009, and famous social networking and e-commerce internet website Multiply says it plans to move its headquarters from Florida to Jakarta.

Rovio was a little-known company just before its Angry Birds took flight.

It had previously launched 50 games with successes such as mobile versions of "Burnout" and "Need For Speed".

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