What does a massive online giveaway say about Weibo?

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The results of a massive giveaway by one of China's youngest billionaires on the country's Twitter-like Weibo platform have caused a buzz on whether sampling bias was at play.

Wang Sicong, the son of property tycoon Wang Jianlin, decided to celebrate the victory of his eSports club iG at an international tournament in South Korea earlier this month with an online giveaway.

But the million-yuan one-off lottery is thought to have exposed the dark side of Weibo.

The rules were straightforward: Of the Weibo users who re-posted Wang's celebratory post, 113 accounts would be selected, with each receiving 10,000 yuan (around 1,500 US dollars).

Wang Sicong's eSports club iG wins the 2018 League of Legends World Championship in Incheon, South Korea, on November 3, 2018. /VCG Photo

But the results were astonishing: 112 of the total 113 winners were young women living in urban areas.

More than 70 percent of them use iPhone, which only has a single-digit market share in China. And some of the winners have openly stated they are against computer gaming, not to mention eSports.

This has led to widespread speculation that Weibo's "random" selection might not have been... random.

One tech blogger claimed that some users on the platform might have been labeled as "spam" which made them lose in every draw on Weibo.

Wang Gaofei, CEO of Weibo, weighs in on the debate through his Weibo account "Lai Qu Zhi Jian" on November 12, 2018. /Screenshot via Weibo

The debate over the perceived sampling bias took a turn for the worse when Weibo's CEO Wang Gaofei weighed in on the matter.

"The male to female ratio in the draw is 1:1.2... the key is to exclude all the bots from those eligible to win. Users who act even a little bit like bots (for example, only forward (posts), (do not write) original content, (do not) post pictures, etc.) will be demoted in the draw," Wang said on his Weibo account "Lai Qu Zhi Jian" on Monday.

Wang noted that female users are more active on the platform, therefore, male users are more at a disadvantage in this draw.