MUMBAI: Social networking website Facebook has begun showing ads on gaming website Zynga which will allow people to see Facebook ads and sponsored stories on Zynga.

The move is seen as a departure from the company‘s earlier position of not distributing ads beyond the borders of its own website. It has given rise to speculation that the social networking giant is mulling an online advertising network.

Facebook has been under pressure to prove the effectiveness and reach of its paid ads and more so since the feeble launch of its IPO on 18 May this year.

Last year, Facebook posted a revenue of $3.7 billion from ads that appear on its site. In light of the criticism advertisers and analysts are piling on Facebook for its ad effectiveness (or rather the lack of it), an ad network could significantly increase the reach of Facebook ads, offering an important new source of revenue growth.

Zynga is a social network game development company headquartered at San Francisco, California. The company develops browser-based games that work both standalone on mobile phones and as application widgets on social networking websites such as Facebook, Orkut, Google+ and Myspace.