NEW YORK — Day after day, Facebook captures our best and worst moments, from the birth of a new baby to heated political spats. ADVERTISING NEW YORK — Day after day, Facebook captures our best and worst moments, from the
NEW YORK — Day after day, Facebook captures our best and worst moments, from the birth of a new baby to heated political spats.
So, what got discussed the most in 2014?
The Ice Bucket Challenge and the death of Robin Williams, to name a few.
The list Facebook released Tuesday is a testament to its global reach, given that more than 80 percent of its users live outside the United States and Canada. Worldwide topics — the World Cup soccer tournament and the Ebola outbreak — occupied the top two spots.
But No. 3 was the presidential election in Brazil.
Facebook says some 48 million people had 674 million interactions — status updates, photos, videos, comments and likes — about the highly contested event. That made it the most talked-about election of 2014 — even more than the congressional midterms in the U.S.
“At its best, social media makes the world a smaller place and builds community on a global level,” Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, said in an interview.
Sandberg saw it fitting the World Cup — the world’s most widely watched sporting event — also was the most widely discussed event this year. More than 350 million people had 3 billion interactions about the tournament.
“Historically, (the World Cup) has meant watching it from your TV, from a distance,” she said. “But Facebook and social media made it much more social and much more connected.”
Dwarfed by soccer, the Super Bowl in the U.S. came in at No. 8, with more than 50 million people discussing the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos.
And if that’s not enough sports, the Sochi Winter Olympics squeaked by to make it to No. 10.
From June 1 to Sept. 1, Facebook users shared more than 17 million videos related to the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, a campaign designed to raise awareness and money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined celebrities and everyday users alike to post videos of themselves getting dumped by ice water. All told, those videos were viewed 10 billion times by more than 440 million people.
Former President George W. Bush had the most widely watched video, with more than 39 million views.
For Sandberg, the Ice Bucket Challenge marked an important milestone for Facebook — the explosion of video content on the site.
“I think the Ice Bucket Challenge was the first time a lot of people realized you could shoot a video and share it,” she said.
From July 29 to Aug. 27, the ALS Association raised $94 million, compared with just $2.7 million a year earlier.
The Ebola outbreak also was on a lot of people’s minds this year.
Think Facebook is all cute kittens and BuzzFeed lists?
Well, that’s part of it, but there also was a lot of serious discussion on the site this year. People talked about the conflict in Gaza, the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the shooting of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri.
Facebook, too, had an eventful 2014. The company turned 10 this year, “and that’s clearly a really big deal,” Sandberg said.
She also cited the launch of Internet.org, Facebook’s ambitious project to get everyone in the world connected online, as one of the year’s key moments.
Meanwhile, she said, mobile advertising “became the majority of what we were able to sell and deliver.”
