141 million talking about World Cup on Facebook

NEW YORK — Through one week of the World Cup, Facebook has already seen more people having more interactions about the tournament on the social media site than it had for the Sochi Olympics, the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards combined.

A total of 141 million people have commented about, “liked” or shared posts on Facebook about the World Cup, the company said Friday.

There have been 459 million interactions on it.

Much of the action is international: 85 per cent of the people talking about the World Cup on Facebook are from outside of the United States.

There are 1.28 billion peo- ple on Facebook worldwide, 80 per cent of them living outside the U.S.

“We always see a large level of conversation on Facebook around big sporting events,” said Justin Osofsky, the company’s vice-president of global operations and media partnerships. “But what we’re witnessing around the World Cup has been extraordinary.”

By contrast, the Super Bowl engaged some 50 million people on Facebook, the Sochi games 45 million people and the Oscars 11.3 million people, the social media site said.

Facebook has targeted the World Cup as part of its effort to take on Twitter as a platform for more real-time conversation and news distribution for big events.

Facebook is promoting World Cup-related hashtags, has a special World Cup- related section and heavily promotes celebrity-related posts.

A photo posted by Pitbull, who performed at the opening ceremonies, has received more than 1.2 million interactions, as has a photo posted by Brazilian soccer star Neymar, Facebook said.

Facebook is also working with other media outlets to increase its exposure. One of the most prominent is Univision, the broadcaster with the Spanish-language rights to telecast the World Cup in the United States. It’s featuring details about Facebook postings on its telecast.

For CNN International, Facebook is constantly measuring what topics surrounding the World Cup are getting the most attention.

“In a fundamental sense, we’re just getting started,” Osofsky said.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS The social network’s ‘Trending World Cup’ special feature is available on the web as well as mobile devices. The hub includes the latest scores and game highlights as well as a feed with tournament-related posts from friends, players and teams.