Dubai’s expo bid reached 850 million people via social media

DUBAI // Dubai’s bid to host Expo 2020 reached 850 million people around the world through social media.

And about 1.1 million of them either endorsed or posted content related to Dubai Expo 2020, Fisheye Analytics says.

The company, which has compiled similar statistics for the International Olympic Committee and Fifa, said it had been studying the Dubai bid since 2011.

"None of the other contenders bidding to host Expo 2020 received publicity that came close to that received by Dubai's bid, as far as social media was concerned," said Ashwin Reddy Gayam, of Fisheye.

Mr Gayam said the company had compiled similar analytics for the other candidate cities, but declined to give estimates for their social-media reach.

He did say, however, that Dubai had 3.11 times more support than Izmir, Turkey; 9.58 times more support than Sao Paulo, Brazil; and 12.44 times more support than Yekaterinburg, Russia.

The analytics report for Dubai found that the official Facebook and Twitter pages of Dubai Expo 2020 had 757,235 “likes” and 64,357 “followers”.

About 169,506 tweets mentioned Dubai's bid, while the most popular hashtag, #DubaiExpo2020, was used in 83,703 tweets.

One of the biggest supporters on Twitter was Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, who issued 14 tweets mentioning the Dubai bid, which were re-tweeted 2,243 times.

mcroucher@thenational.ae