Man City Launches Facebook Messenger Chatbot

Manchester City has become the first football club in the world to launch a bot on Facebook Messenger to give fans news about the team.

The messenger works by a user searching for the club on Messenger and then subscribing to updates to follow news about transfers, breaking news, behind-the-scenes videos, smartphone wallpapers and match highlights.

However, unlike other service bots that are used in retail and publishing, it will not respond to questions. Its commands will be a list which shows which new topics a user and subscribe and unsubscribe to.

Diego Gigliani, senior vice president of media and innovation, said: “We are delighted to announce another digital first for Manchester City. Messaging platforms have huge global audiences and our fans all over the world are spending more and more time on them.

“Messaging apps are on the path to becoming one of the most important ways of delivering content directly into fans’ hands, as seen already in China with WeChat, and we wanted City fans to be the first to benefit from this experience on Facebook Messenger.”

It’s an expansion on the club’s efforts to digitally engage fans, with the recent launch of a GIPHY page and hosting a football data hackathon.

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