How Mastercard, Visa, Apple Pay and PayPal performed at the World Cup
A media intelligence analysis by CARMA reviewed 898 articles covering Mastercard, Visa, Apple Pay, and PayPal during the World Cup, finding that trust rather than technology defined brand conversations. Mastercard dominated coverage with 41.4K social mentions and 97.1% positive sentiment, though much was crypto-promotional; its top theme was fraud with 195 mentions. PayPal led in engagement with 100.4K interactions from 10.6K mentions, primarily tied to betting and creator donation content. Apple Pay had the smallest footprint with 950 media mentions and 6.3K engagements, mostly linked to cashless fan zone payments. Visa recorded the lowest share of voice at 4.3K social mentions but highest engagement relative to volume, with balanced sentiment split 51.8% positive to 45.5% neutral, driven by sponsorship and youth soccer initiatives. Betting was the largest overall theme, followed by fraud and scams.
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