ONE Championship's Exponential Growth Reflected in Increasing Social Media Reach

Wazzup Pilipinas!

In the 21st century, social media has become the game-changing marvel within communication. Today, people and organizations remain connected and updated through various forms of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs to mention only a few.

Aside from accessible communication, social media has also made an integral impact on many industries like entertainment, business and sports. It has turned into a catalyst for success by empowering people and fueling ideas.

Social media is transforming sports and sports businesses. Although businesses traditionally seek to benefit from hospitality, sponsorship and networking, social media offers greater reach and direct engagement.

By engaging fans via social media, sports rights holders can open new communication channels with their audience that can be measured and valued as a new commercial opportunity with sponsors.

The aforementioned platform has been likewise used by the constantly-growing world of mixed martial arts (MMA). Given how little exposure the sport received in its early stages, its rise in popularity over the last 25 years is nothing short of a phenomenon.

A large part of MMA’s success worldwide comes down to its aggressive social media strategy, with platforms such as Facebook and Twitter aiding its mainstream development.

Since its inception in 2011, ONE Championship has been utilizing the flexibility of social media to promote its unique brand and to tap a wider audience.

Along with the rise of MMA as a whole, ONE Championship has taken the sport in Asia to new heights. The biggest local and global brands in the world have been attracted to ONE and a number of key partnerships have formed over the years.

The list includes Disney, Marvel, LG, Kawasaki, Panasonic, Haier, Universal Music Group and Tune Talk, to name a few. The company’s ability to form deals that are mutually beneficial to all parties has been essential in its growth.

With innovative content and marketing initiatives, ONE Championship has been able to bring world-class MMA action much closer to diehard and loyal fans.

Asia’s largest sports media property has further extended its influence on Facebook, which has 1.79 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2016.

In 2014, ONE Championship’s total reach on Facebook was 75 million. It grew to 926 million in 2016, having an exponential growth rate of 1,134%.

On the other hand, its total impressions raised the bar up high in 2016 with a 268% progress. From 352 million impressions in 2014, 2016 had an astonishing figures of 1.3 billion.

ONE Championship also released an array of informative and in-depth videos in 2016, which gained 130 million views in total. It grew significantly from 312,000 in 2014.

Meanwhile, ONE Championship had 454,000 shares on Facebook in 2016, flourishing from modest numbers of 16,000 in 2014.

At the time of publication of this article, ONE Championship’s official Facebook page has 3,078,730. It is expected to broaden its leverage on Facebook with its blockbuster 2017 schedule.

Being the biggest MMA promotion in Asia, ONE Championship’s ability in producing relevant and top-of-the-line content is undeniable. From short profile infographics, interesting interviews, to thrilling teaser videos, ONE Championship fans have followed the brand and conveniently made the organization’s social media one of the leaders of online sports content.

ONE Championship followers found touchpoints that enabled them to connect with their favorite MMA stars and even interact with their heroes behind the scenes through their posted stories.

Its relevance and talkability among the target market – fans and athletes alike – have furthered ONE Championship’s growth and led its way to becoming the greatest sports media property in Asia.

ONE Championship’s strategy of creating unique content has also helped them build successful partnerships with both mainstream and modern media platforms, which in return resulted to the expansion of its social media audience through captured audiences from one partner to another.

For years now, ONE Championship has been developing fruitful collaborations with leading media companies around the globe, including FOX Sports, Setanta, MNC, Astro, Thairath TV, ABS-CBN and OSN.

2017 promises to be even better in terms of viewership and popularity as ONE Championship lays out plans for new markets.

For its second event in 2017, ONE Championship returns to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 10 February to hold ONE: THRONE OF TIGERS at the 12,000-capacity Stadium Negara.

The monumental event will feature the absolute best in local and international MMA talent, accentuating a tremendous headlining bout between hometown hero Ev “E.T.” Ting and lightweight veteran Kamal “Prince of Persia” Shalorus.

Hontiveros to PNP: How Can You Implement War on Drugs When You Can't Control Your Own Men?

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"Lumalabas na walang kontrol ang PNP superior officers sa kanilang mga subordinates, tapos gusto nilang ituloy ang war on drugs?"

This was the statement issued today by Akbayan Senator Risa Hontiveros during today's Senate's investigation on the kidnapping and murder of a Korean national involving members of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

Hontiveros made the observation after PNP Chief Ronaldo Dela Rosa admitted that many police senior officers are afraid of their subordinates.

"Masakit man sabihin pero inaamin ko na marami kaming junior officers na siga, bastos, undisciplined… depende sa degree of influence," Dela Rosa said.

Dela Rosa made the remark after he was quizzed by Hontiveros on why Senior Police Officer4 (SPO4) Roy Villegas is afraid of Senior Police Officer3 Ricky Sta. Isabel. The PNP Chief said that Villegas was merely following the instructions of Sta. Isabel regarding the incident.

Hontiveros however said that this could also be an excuse to downplay the existence of a conspiracy involving high and low police officers in the kidnapping and murder of the Korean national. "Both can be true. Some PNP superior officers may have no control over their subordinates, and in this particular case, a pathetic excuse to dismiss accusations of conspiracy," the senator said.

Hontiveros said that Dela Rosa should seriously rethink the police force's war on drugs. "The PNP Chief's admission is extremely alarming but not surprising. If PNP superiors have no complete control and influence over their subordinates, it is expected that the government's war on drugs will be gravely abused by its implementors," the senator said.

"Pandora's box of pure evil"

"The kidnapping and murder of a Korean national under so-called Tokhang for Ransom is the terrible consequence of a human rights-deficient anti-drug campaign. The government's war on drugs opened a Pandora's box of pure evil," Hontiveros added.

Globe Blocks More Than 165 M Spam/Scam Messages in 2016

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Following an accelerated campaign versus unwanted spam/scam messages, Globe Telecom blocked more than 165 million of such messages in 2016, aided by the use of a comprehensive and fully automated mechanism to rid its network of unwanted and unsolicited text messages. In parallel, Globe also disconnected from the network last year around 1,700 prepaid numbers found to have been used as a source of spam/scam messages.

“Our new blocking mechanism has proven to be very effective in preventing transmittal of unwanted spam and scam messages. We are now closer, more than ever, to having a spam-free network and the combination of technology, skills, and malasakit to customers made this possible. Notwithstanding the significant progress we have achieved in our anti-spam campaign, the company remains committed in further stepping up our drive against spammers to keep our network consistently free of these annoying and unwanted messages,” Globe Chief Information Security Officer Anton Bonifacio said.

The company’s currently blocking mechanism, which was established in February last year, involved the establishment of a new hardware and software solution that can filter up to 1 billion SMS a day. With the new anti-spam solution, Globe is now able to prevent transmittal of spam/scam messages being sent to the Globe network but are originating from other networks.

Following the expansion of the company’s anti-spam/scam campaign to include similar messages coming from other networks, the average number of blocked messages rose to 1.1 million/day in November. About 75% of such messages originated from spammers using other networks (35% Smart, 40% Sun) while the remaining 25% were sent thru the Globe network, Bonifacio said, adding that the mechanism now covers majority of the company’s postpaid and prepaid customers totaling 65.4 million at the end of September 2016.

To keep its customers from receiving spam and scam messages, Globe operationalized in September 2014 an automated filtering functionality that reduced the number of such messages going through the Globe network. Such mechanism has since been upgraded and expanded to effectively prevent transmittal of spam and scam messages coming from other networks. By design, the filtering mechanism can be reconfigured to address the kind of spam and scam messages that goes through the Globe network.

Aside from blocking spam and scam messages from going through the Globe network, the telecommunications provider also blocks from the Globe network prepaid numbers found to be consistent source of spam and scam text messages. Some of these numbers were subject of complaints reported through the http://www.globe.com.ph/stopspam where customers are simply required to provide all the details of spam and scam messages they received on their mobile devices. Numbers that are verified to be a constant source of spam messages are then disconnected from service.