Mobile World Congress 2020 was canceled due to the new coronavirus

The Mobile World Congress MWC, hosted by the GSMA Association, is an annual digital product launch event, usually held every spring in Barcelona, ​​Spain.

Due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic this year, such as Ericsson, Samsung, NVIDIA, Nokia, Cisco, and British Telecom have canceled their participation.

The decision to cancel the exhibition was due to the manufacturers’ perception that employees traveling to densely populated areas pose a coronavirus risk, so these manufacturers were not prepared to continue participating in the show.

Although the organizer of the Mobile World Congress previously issued a statement saying that there are still 2,800 manufacturers who continue to participate in the exhibition and will not cancel the exhibition, however, the exhibition was eventually canceled.

“Mobile World Congress – Barcelona” by Allmyapps is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

The conference organizer, GSMA Association held a meeting yesterday to discuss MWC2020 related issues. At present, the closed-door meeting of the Association has had results and announced it publicly.

The result is that MWC 2020 is completely abolished to prevent potential public health issues, and manufacturers who are still willing to participate will no longer be able to participate.

John Hoffman, chief executive of the association, said:

“With due regard to the safe and healthy environment in Barcelona and the host country today, the GSMA has cancelled MWC Barcelona 2020 because the global concern regarding the coronavirus outbreak, travel concern and other circumstances, make it impossible for the GSMA to hold the event. The Host City Parties respect and understand this decision. The GSMA and the Host City Parties will continue to be working in unison and supporting each other for MWC Barcelona 2021 and future editions. Our sympathies at this time are with those affected in China, and all around the world.”

The cancellation of such grand exhibitions is not only responsible to the local residents of Barcelona, ​​but also to the exhibitors and their employees who support Mobile World Congress.

And most of the top technology companies or manufacturers announced their withdrawal from the show in advance, which also makes it too meaningless for MWC 2020 to continue.