Philippines-based firm Ubersoft has launched a new Facebook application for its ad-funded mobile game service Swoopin.

The application lets users choose from 800 free games and either download the titles themselves, or send them to friends on Facebook. The files are sideloaded onto phones, rather than sent direct.

It's one of the first ad-funded mobile game services to try Facebook distribution, as far as we know, but surely more will follow.

Sites like GameJump, Hovr and 123play can learn much from the way music start-ups like iLike have prospered on Facebook, with applications that quickly outstripped the traffic to their original websites.

For ad-funded services, wide distribution is everything, so tapping into people's social networks on Facebook seems a logical next step. Not least because it automatically allows word-of-mouth to kick in, since people can display their favourite titles on their profiles, and recommend them to friends.

For now, Swoopin only has 16 daily active users for its Facebook application (it's only just launched) but expect to see more ad-funded mobile game firms investigating Facebook in the coming months.

Check out Swoopin's Facebook application by clicking here.