Angry Birds fly to Facebook

JAKARTA: "Angry Birds", the most-downloaded mobile app of 2011, was catapulted to the world of Facebook on Tuesday in a bid by its Finnish maker Rovio to get one billion people playing the addictive game.

Fans were able to test the new Angry Birds Facebook app online Tuesday morning ahead of its official global launch in Jakarta, the world's most Facebook-connected city.

"With the great success of the Angry Birds game on smartphone platforms, Rovio intends to reach more fans and be on every screen and every platform," Rovio Asia senior vice president Henri Holm said in a statement.

"Therefore, the company developed Angry Birds on Facebook to reach more than 800 million Facebook users worldwide."

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

It has been downloaded more than 700 million times since it launched in 2009 and the birds have become a global phenomenon, featuring on a huge array of merchandise and in popular culture. (AFP)