Lets watch TV together, it could be anything, your favorite drama or something as addictive as a Football match. But don’t you think the idea of getting ready and walking to a friend’s place sounds a bit too tiring? And where’s the fun in all that when you have already watched a countless games together? How about jumping on the Internet bandwagon and having a more social experience? That’s what formed the basis of the launch of Sofanatics. The startup was launched back in February giving users a platform to cheer for their teams.
But I guess the big move ahead came with the FIFA World Cup 2010 with a more improved platform and giving users to chat with like minded fans globally. I am not sure if it would be right to undermine the Finnish Startups efforts but in my opinion it can be called the Social Network for sports, which gives sports fans a platform to connect with others to support their teams. I mean what else could be the purpose of the Fan Battle, the feature which flared to popularity during the World Cup.
The startup has been growing since then and a bigger boost came in when Chelsea FC became the first European Football club to cooperate with them with utilizing the Sofanatics’ chat application on the Chelsea Fan Page on Facebook. Their first media partner is the Finland’s public service Broadcasting Company, another feather in the startups hat. Those are just some big mentions that appear solid on the company portfolio. However what makes us revisit Sofanatics is its recent performance over Premier League and Barça matches. Some of the key highlights were:
- Users from over 85 countries participated in the match related activity
- More than 2000 messages were posted over the weekend
- Facebook activity saw over 1,000 items being shared
The spike is definitely associated to the event that took place but it showed how people are willing to actively participate in discussions or a platform that is dedicated to a particular category. What makes it more interesting is the same users have had a wonderful experience connecting with the like minded and are bound to return whenever the next event takes place.
It will be interesting to see how Sofanatics grows and if its able to score more points amongst the users. Maybe another big event might be of good use?
