Facebook's Stadium To Take On Twitter During Sporting Events
To let fans connect during live sporting events, Facebook on Wednesday announced 'Stadium', its dedicated sports hub.
According to Wired, Facebook seeks to create conservations during games even as fans can get scores, follow live commentary and experts. Social media conversations during live sporting events are very common and Twitter has remained the popular destinations for such conversations.
"We've built a place devoted to sports so you can get the feeling you're watching the game with your friends even when you aren't together," Facebook announced on Wednesday. "With 650 million sports fans, Facebook is the world's largest stadium. People already turn to Facebook to celebrate, commiserate, and talk trash with their friends and other fans."
The feature has been rolled out for American football games but will soon support other sports around the world. Stadium aggregates posts, comments and also provides game related TV info.
Pointing to the importance of TV crowd during sporting events, Recode reported that the latest move could be driven by future advertising gains. The social media giant is reportedly partnering with Nielsen to include user conservations in its TV ratings.
Several reports mentioned that Facebook's move could hurt Twitter, ESPN and other platforms that allow conservations during live sporting events. For now, Facebook says it will continue working on Stadium.
"This product makes connecting over sports more fun and engaging, and we will continue listening to feedback to make it even better," the company said.
