Something to ‘Like’: Facebook Launches ‘Trending World Cup’ and ‘Facebook Ref’

Facebook Ref was born on July 1, 1968, joined Facebook on May 16, 2014, and he’s very excited for the World Cup.

With the World Cup set to kick off on Thursday, Facebook has created a campaign around Facebook Ref, who is tasked with informing users throughout the tournament. The company has launched a series of videos starring Facebook Ref, which will continue throughout the tournament. He has even taken to responding to fans’ comments. When told by a fan that he should color his hair, Facebook Ref responded: “Red or Yellow?”

“The Ref will be providing colorful commentary and updates about the World Cup fan experience,” a Facebook spokesperson tells Lost Remote. We are not revealing anything further about the kind of content that he’ll be posting, but you can see the kind of posts that are already live today at facebook.com/FacebookRef.

In addition to Facebook Ref, fans can follow the World Cup at facebook.com/worldcup. ‘Trending World Cup’ will allow viewers to see real-time posts from friends who are also watching matches and have shared their posts. Real-time game and score updates, data visualizations of fandom on Facebook, and posts from key figures and media outlets will also be available.

‘Trending World Cup’ also features a Fan Map, which shows the popularity of top players throughout the world. Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo is well represented on the Fan Map. Ronaldo is one the most liked public figures on Facebook overall, boasting 84 million likes.

“We know that more than 500 million people on Facebook are either connected to a football/soccer team or player by “liking” their Facebook Pages, so we anticipate a massive volume of conversation during the tournament,” says the Facebook spokesperson.