MWC 2020 might be in trouble as another company bails due to coronavirus outbreak

The Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona in late February, is the world’s largest mobile technology event, with nearly all major phone makers holding conferences and announcing new products at the show.

This year, however, not all is going according to plan. On Tuesday, Korea’s LG announced it won’t be participating in the MWC this year. 

“With the safety of its employees, partners and customers foremost in mind, LG has decided to withdraw from exhibiting and participating in MWC 2020 later this month in Barcelona, Spain. This decision removes the risk of exposing hundreds of LG employees to international travel which has already become more restrictive as the virus continues to spread across borders,” the statement on LG’s website said. 

LG said it would be holding separate events in the “near future,” where it will announce its mobile product lineup for 2020. 

It’s a fairly big blow for the MWC, where LG has traditionally had a strong presence, often announcing flagship phones during the show. 

But LG is not the only major company that’s pulling out of the MWC. The Verge reported Tuesday that China’s ZTE has canceled its press conference as well. A company spokesperson told the outlet that ZTE tends to be “an overly courteous company” which doesn’t want to “make people uncomfortable. 

In a statement on its website Monday, the GSMA — the association that organizes the MWC show — said everything is proceeding as planned, citing “minimal impact” on the event thus far. GSMA listed a number of measures to be implemented at this year’s event to minimize potential spread of the coronavirus, including an “increased cleaning and disinfection programme across all high-volume touchpoints,” increased onsite medical support, as well as providing exhibitors and staff with necessary guidelines and training. The association also added several additional measures this week, which include installing new signage on the site to remind attendees of hygiene recommendations, implementing a microphone change protocol for speakers, and communicating advice to attendees to adopt a “no-handshake policy.”

This year’s MWC is planned for Feb. 24-27, a bad timing given the current coronavirus outbreak which left 492 dead and more than 24,500 infected in 25 countries. Typically, a MWC is a massive event with over 100,000 attendees and numerous tech companies coming to launch products and do business. But if the coronavirus outbreak worsens in the weeks to come, more companies might bail out or postpone their events. 

Tech giants such as Apple put travel restrictions in place for employees in China, and Google has temporarily closed its China office due to the outbreak. Apple doesn’t do MWC, and Google doesn’t have a particularly strong presence there, at least not directly. 

But Huawei, which typically has a strong showing at the MWC, has already postponed its developer conference from February to March. Xiaomi, which was supposed to reveal its Mi 10 before a live audience in China on Feb. 11, has reportedly opted for a live streaming event instead. Both companies, alongside China’s Oppo, Vivo, and Lenovo are expected to have events in Barcelona; should the cancellations continue, this year’s MWC might be in serious trouble. 

I’ve asked Huawei, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo about any potential change to their MWC plans and will update this article when I hear back.