Mobile World Congress will be a ghost town this year

Amazon, Ericsson, LG, Nvidia, Sony, TCL, ZTE. That’s the list of major tech companies who have fully or partially withdrawn from this year’s Mobile World Congress. 

All of the companies above cited the ongoing coronavirus outbreak as the reason. Sony, which announced its withdrawal early on Monday, said in a statement that the decision was “difficult,” but that the company is placing the “utmost importance on the safety and wellbeing of our customers, partners, media and employees.” TCL, whose announcement went public just minutes ago, is canceling its press event, but will still showcase its mobile devices at the event. 

Numerous companies, both big and small, are still planning to attend (albeit some, reportedly, in a decreased capacity). But have we reached a point where going forward with the event is pointless?

Mobile World Congress Barcelona, a massive annual event with a typical attendance of more than 100,000 people, is far from Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak originated and has taken the most lives. But it is a major meeting point for people traveling from all over the world — many from China — and not an ideal place to be during a virus outbreak.

The Wuhan coronavirus has so far infected more than 40,000 people, and at least 910 have died. There’s much we don’t know about the virus, and no amount of safety measures can guarantee safety to participants at this point. The death toll, as well as the number of infected people, is rising daily, with no sign of stopping or slowing down. 

New safety measures may not be enough to stop exhibitors from withdrawing

The GSMA, which organizes the MWC, said on Feb. 9 it has implemented additional measures to reduce the coronavirus danger, including temperature screening, banning access to travelers from China’s Hubei province, and requiring all travelers who have been in China to demonstrate proof they have been outside of China for at least 14 days. Given that the event officially starts in fifteen days — and that’s excluding one or two typical press days, in which journalists are invited for pre-briefings in Barcelona — this will make it hard if not impossible for some companies to attend. 

All danger of actually contracting the virus aside, what good is the MWC if the major players aren’t attending? 

The withdrawal of LG and Sony is particularly troubling as both companies planned to have a booth and hold a press conference announcing new smartphones. At least one of them was likely to do press pre-briefings in Barcelona ahead of the event. Now, none of that will happen — LG will announce new smartphones at a later date, and Sony will announce new Xperia products via a videoconference on Feb 24. LG and Sony booths, typically among the largest and the most attractive at MWC, won’t be there this year, either. 

This is a huge loss for MWC, as journalists, analysts and other attendees will not be able to see new (or any) products from these two companies at MWC 2020. 

The two largest smartphone makers in the world, Samsung and Huawei, are still due to attend, as are Xiaomi, Lenovo, Oppo and Vivo, among others (note that five out of six companies on this list are Chinese). But given the danger of the virus itself, complicated travel due to flight restrictions to and from China, and the latest slew of stringent measures implemented by GSMA itself, I would be surprised if none of the companies on this list withdrew from the event. 

At this point, the event is officially still on. But as major exhibitors leave on a daily basis, it’s getting harder and harder to justify the trip.