Weibo’s Final Four

As the World Cup reaches its final stages, few can argue that the four remaining nations deserve their spots in the semi-finals. The host nation Brazil, takes on the current ranked number two nation, Germany, whilst Argentina is to take on the Netherlands, who impressively swept through the group stages after shattering the defending champions. We decided to take a look at how the final four matched up online over the course of the tournament (12th June – 8th July), and how the Chinese fans predicted the result of each semi-final.

Insights:

Despite Brazil amassing the highest number of mentions, Germany’s national team has over 1.5x the number of flag users than Brazil, a clear representation of active fans online. (Weibo users have the ability to select their favourite nations flag to appear next to their username, and with the ability to change or remove the chosen flag, this feature has become on of the best ways of monitoring the fluctuating interests and activities of World Cup Chinese fans.)

71% of participating Weibo users also predict a Germany victory, compared to only 29% of those in favour of Brazil reaching the final, despite the two teams being declared equal favourites by professional odds analysts.

The second semi-final is a much more even affair with 55% and 45% backing Argentina and the Netherlands respectively and a much smaller difference in flag users.