More than a carnival for football fans, the World Cup is also a bonanza for many businesses – both the big and the small.

Due to the time difference between China and Russia, Chinese audiences are often glued to their televisions late in the night with snacks at hand. One of China's online food delivery servicers, Ele.me, said that its night snack orders were up 271.1 percent after the football carnival opened.

"Our night snack orders are way up this month, especially during the two days after the World Cup opened. They were up 271.1 percent. Shanghai orders more nighttime snacks than any other city in the country. Crayfish and beer are the most popular. That's the influence of the World Cup," said Zhang Yingqi, PR manager at Ele.me.

Shanghai's fill-in driver services are also thriving, for those who cannot legally drive after a few drinks. 

"I definitely use fill-in drivers these days, since the enforcement of the law on driving after drinking is pretty strict," a football fan told CGTN.

The World Cup always brings business benefits to the host country. The World Cup has contributed 14 billion US dollars to the Russian economy, and a lot of that is from increased tourism, according to media reports.

"We have organized travel packages for more than 5,000 tourists to Russia during the month of the World Cup, twice as many as we did at this time last year. We've also booked more than 100,000 individual trips to Russia from China," Peng Liang, travel data researcher at Ctrip, a Chinese provider of travel services.

Moreover, the economic benefits from hosting the World Cup are not for the short term only. For example, Brazil hosted the World Cup four years ago, and the effects are being felt even today. Brazil's tourism numbers are still up 50 percent over what they were before the Cup.

"The importance of the World Cup will actually be more obvious afterwards, especially for the tourist market. Our August numbers for Russia tours are running twice as high as last year, especially as things will be cheaper after the World Cup. But more importantly, it is because the impact it has on people, influencing their choices for overseas travels. And the World Cup has also led to more Sino-Russian flights, and to the development of Russian travel products," Liang explained.