Barça launches first social network in Russian

FC Barcelona has taken another step closer to its fans around the world on social networks and will now be able to directly address Russian speaking fans in their own language. Now, Barça announces its first official Russian-language community through Viber, the messaging app that is the Club’s official communication channel, in which fans will be able to access special content and experiences.

The new channel, the first Barça social network in Russian, will be launched at a virtual online meeting with the participation of first team players Antoine Griezmann, Frenkie de Jong, Miralem Pjanic, Sergiño Dest and Clément Lenglet, who greeted the supporters in Russian and put their knowledge of the country to the test in a true or false quiz.

The event also involves different Russian bloggers, fans and representatives of the sports world, who will enter a live discussion about different football and Barça matters.

Through this community, fans will be able to keep up with all the latest news and information from FC Barcelona in Russian and access different benefits and contests, such as the ‘Vote and Win’ competition in which fans can vote for the best player of the match, with signed shirts on offer to the winners. There is also a series of special stickers for members of the community based on pictures of the players. A series of intra-community activities are also being prepared such as the chance to spend ‘A day with a Legend’ in virtual format.

Viber, the direct messaging app created by Rakuten, FC Barcelona’s Main Global Partner Global Partner for Innovation and Entertainment already has Viber communities in English, Spanish and Arabic, as well as a chatbot in 15 languages; the total audience of the club’s Viber channels is just a bit under 7 million fans.

With the addition of Russian, Barça is now using eleven languages on social media to communicate with its global fan base and offer them personalised contents in keeping with their tastes and interests, namely Catalan, Spanish, English, French, Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Turkish, Indonesian, Portuguese, and now Russian.

Viber and FC Barcelona’s cooperation kicked off in the 2017/2018 season, and Viber has served as the Club’s official channel of communication since. To connect with the fans, FC Barcelona and Viber work together to offer season new initiatives including:

• Meet & greet the players - An exclusive Q&A with FC Barcelona Antoine Griezmann, Marc- André Ter Stegen, Frenkie de Jong, Miralem Pjanic, Sergiño Dest and Clément Lenglet, in which they answer 5-10 pre-selected questions from fans., posted exclusively through the communities.
• Vote & win - Viber users are granted a monthly opportunity to win autographed 2020-21 jerseys by voting the best player of the match.
• Fan stars - fans will have the opportunity to be the stars of the community every month by sharing their personal story and journey in connection with the Club.