social networks

On the second day of the Mobile World Congress, which is the largest event of the mobile industry and is currently being held in Barcelona, the GSMA announced the Global Mobile Award winners in more than 30 categories and Blackberry presented a new phone oriented towards the business sector. If Then This That won the Best Overall Prize in the app category and LG’s G3 and the iPhone 6 shared the Best Smartphone award. In the featured keynotes speech, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales remarked on the importance of minority languages on the internet. In addition, Wales presented his project to provide free access to Wikipedia in developing countries, following Monday's announcements by Google and Facebook to also provide internet access to the entire planet.

The new flagship phone from Samsung will come in two models, the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, according to the announcement that the South Korean company made in Barcelona at the beginning of the Mobile World Congress, the largest annual event of the cell-phone-related industries. Microsoft debuted two new mid-range Lumia phones, the 640 and the 640 XL models, which include the new Windows 10. Google announced its intention to enter the carrier market, with a new approach that uses the existent carrier networks and innovative Wi-Fi projects. In addition, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg explained his project to bring the internet to developing countries and connect them through his social network.

The 2015 Mobile World Congress (MWC) will have an economic impact in Greater Barcelona of some €436 million and create 12,627 jobs, figures that beat last year’s results, when the event generated €397 million and 7,220 jobs. The 2015 edition of the MWC, which is the world’s largest event in the mobile and cell phone-related industries, will take place in the Catalan capital from the 2^nd to the 5^th of March. It aims to attract 5,000 more visitors than last year and reach 90,000 attendees. For the second consecutive year, Facebook founder Marc Zuckerberg will participate in the event. Android creator, Sundar Pichai, and Wikipedia creator, Jimmy Wales, will also be some of the most outstanding speakers at this year’s edition.

Early on Friday morning, the "Gran Recapte" ("The Great Collection") - a campaign to collect food donations in order to redistribute it to people in need – began across Catalonia, and will be underway until late on Saturday evening. Organised by Catalonia’s main food bank, El Banc dels Aliments, it collects donations of non-perishable food products such as milk, flour, oil, beans and pasta from organisations and individuals, with the cooperation of many markets and supermarkets. With the help of 20,000 volunteers, this food will then be shared out among up to 250,000 people in the coming weeks. The new President of the Food Bank, Eduard Arruga, believes this year people are more aware of the campaign than ever. In Barcelona, it began at 9.30am and, in the neighbourhood Sants, attendance was already high. 

The new official account completes this summer’s launch of www.fcbarab.com, the newest addition to Barça's online platform that can be enjoyed in seven languages. FC Barcelona launches @fcbarcelona_ara, its official Twitter account in Arabic, reinforcing its leadership worldwide on social networks. The new account joins the sports club’s accounts in Catalan, Spanish, English and French.

The world’s most popular short-message network has included Catalan as one of its 28 official languages. Twitter has opened a Catalan ‘translation centre’ to adapt its content. In the first 24h, more people had registered voluntarily than the number of those who did it within the 6 months after the Finnish version was released. Twitter’s CEO had already announced at the 2011 Mobile World Congress, which is held every year in Barcelona, that the company would do it, but he did not specify a date. Wikipedia opened its Catalan version 11 years ago and Youtube incorporated Catalan in early 2011. Catalan is is the world’s 8th language with the most blogs, the 13th most used language in Wikipedia, and the 14th search language in Google.

Dídac Lee is on the FC Barcelona Board of Directors, charged with managing New Technologies. In an exclusive interview with CNA, Lee considers that it is vital for FC Barcelona to be close to the fans, and social networks are the key to reaching this goal. Thanks to Lee, Barça is now the leading sports club in the field. Lee is a renowned Catalan entrepreneur and the Chinese work culture ethos has influenced him both in his life and work.

FC Barcelona and Tencent have agreed to develop Barça’s brand in China. The deal will allow FC Barcelona to reach a massive audience as well as generate significant revenue.