On Facebook, World Cup gets more love than Super Bowl, Olympics

Facebook's effort to promote the social media site as a real-world conversation tool during the World Cup has paid off, with 141 million users engaged

By: Michael Hatamoto | Internet & Websites News | Posted: Jun 20, 2014 8:45 pm

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The World Cup has been great for Facebook, because members are discussing the soccer tournament using the social media website more than the Super Bowl, Sochi Olympics and Academy Awards combined. So far, more than 141 million users have "liked," commented or shared posts/photos about the soccer tournament, Facebook said.

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The 2014 Super Bowl had 50 million Facebook users engaged, and the Sochi Olympics saw 45 million people, while the Oscars garnered attention from 11.3 million. However, Facebook wants to keep users engaged with as much content during the World Cup, using its platform to deliver news and real-time conversations among users.

"We always see a large level of conversation on Facebook around big sporting events," said Justin Osofsky, Facebook VP of global operations and media partnerships. "But what we're witnessing around the World Cup has been extraordinary."

Not surprisingly, 85 percent of Facebook conversations focused on the World Cup originated from outside of the United States - 80 percent of the 1.28 billion Facebook users live outside the U.S.

NEWS SOURCES:Cbsnews.com