Western Union Measures Your Online Network Reach

With hundreds of millions of people around the globe connected in social networks such as Facebook, have you ever thought how much netwokred are you in comparison to the rest? Interestingly, Western Union came up with an visual tool answering that specific curiosity through a Network Challenge.

One of the world’s most globally connected companies, Western Union, is celebrating its 160th anniversary by launching a hunt for the most networked person in the world. 

Would that be you? Are you the world’s most globally networked individual?

With 470,000 locations in 200 countries and territories, Western Union is calling for the Philippines’ most globally connected individuals to step forward and take the Western Union Network Challenge at www.westernunionworld.com/yourworld.

The search will be fuelled by a new interactive, online Application called Your World which Western Union has created to mark its 160th anniversary.  It visualizes Facebook fans’ global connections and users receive a score (“World Index”) that shows how globally connected they are. They can compare their ranking against their Facebook friends, against others in their country and against others in the world. 

Each individual’s score will also contribute to the score of the respective country of residence which will provide the ranking of the most geographically connected nations.  The Philippines also has the opportunity to prove to be the most geographically connected nation in the world.

“Western Union is giving Filipinos the opportunity to make a name for themselves in the global community,” said Patricia Riingen, Western Union Senior Vice President for Pacific & Indochina.

“Filipinos have come a long way, venturing out into strange lands, building their personal networks and immersing themselves in new cultures whilst maintaining strong ties with their family and friends back home.

“With the Philippines recently being hailed as ‘the social networking capital of the world’, having nine out of ten online Filipinos on Facebook , it also stands a strong chance of being one of the most geographically connected nations globally.”

“We wanted to find a way to give consumers their own bird’s eye view of their personal network in the world. As well as being a fun way to celebrate the power of human connectivity, Your World is going to create some fascinating insights, and perhaps encourage more of us to reach out to our fellow global citizens,” says Western Union President and CEO Hikmet Ersek.

1 Network data as of June 30, 2011, inclusive of the Vigo and Orlandi Valuta branded services.
2 Source: 24/7 Wall St. (http://ph.news.yahoo.com/ph-named-social-networking-capital-world-says-financial-032100912.html) 

Even local celebrities such as retail entrepreneur and style icon Divine Lee, cultural tour guide and activist Carlos Celdran, and IT expert “Yuga” Abe Olandres have already logged into Your World, challenging friends and ans to beat their rankings.

Curious enough on Western Union's Network Challenge ?  Go to www.westernunionworld.com/yourworld and type in your Facebook login details.