It might be 8pm in St Petersburg, Russia, but the Winter Nights conference continues apace.

Akin Babayigit, one of Facebook's strategic partner manager for games in the EMEA, spoke about 'Growing your mobile games with Facebook'.

He was keen to talk up the value of the region, and in particular Russia.

"Our priority [country] globally is Russia," he said, talking about both audience and developer community.

While, more generally, five of top 10 Facebook game devs are from the EMEA region - Wooga, Rovio, Peak Games, SocialPoint, King.com.

Mobile first

Babayigit also stressed how quickly Facebook was moving towards mobile.

"You can be a Facebook developer and make mobile games," he explained.

"If you're a big Facebook game developer, you'll be big on mobile. We consider Supercell to be a key Facebook developer because they're deeply integrated with Facebook."

Of course, neither of Supercell's games is available on Facebook, but Babayigit said it was heavily using Facebook's viral channels and spending money on our new mobile ads units to gain users.

Selling times

Introduced three months ago, these ads already account for 23 percent of Facebook's revenue.

"Facebook drove 180 million downloads via o the iOS and Android app stores in a month," he added.

And in a win-win situation, he said the cost of an install is 40 percent cheaper than other channels, while gamers who use Facebook are more engaged and monetise better.

"Facebook Connected users of Diamond Dash spend eight times more than those who aren't, while for Bingo Bash, its users who connected via Facebook generate 65 percent more sessions.

"Indeed, the game generates 55 percent of its revenue from users who use Facebook services."