2015 Mobile World Congress sets new record with more than 93,000 visitors, 9% more than 2014

Barcelona (ACN).- The 2015 Mobile World Congress, which takes place each year in Barcelona, has shattered the records by hosting more than 93,000 visitors from 200 different countries, as reported by event organiser GSMA on Thursday, the last day of the trade fair. This year attendance exceeded by 9% the figures recorded in 2014 and by 45% the number of people who visited the event during its first edition in 2006. The 2015 Mobile World Congress confirmed itself as the global platform for the cell-phone-related industries, where much news and many products were unveiled for the first time by world-class companies such as Samsung, HTC, Sony, Microsoft and Google. Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), Sundar Pichai (Google) and Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia) were among this edition's main speakers. “As we celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, we are gratified by the record-breaking success we’ve seen this year,” said John Hoffman, CEO of event organiser GSMA Ltd.

The four-day conference and exhibition, that took place at the Gran Via and Montjuïc venues of Fira de Barcelona, featured more than 2,000 companies across 100,000 square metres of exhibition space and more than 3,800 international media and industry analysts. According to preliminary economic analyses, its overall impact on the local economy stands at €436 million and it generated nearly 12,675 part-time jobs.

The eventattracted executives from the all over the world and the largest and most influential companies across a wide range of sectors such as informatics and telecommunication but also the automobile industry, finance and healthcare, as well as government delegations. Over 52% of this year’s attendees hold C-level positions, including more than 5,000 CEOs.                

A major highlight of the event was the GSMA Innovation City, conceived as a unique space where attendees could experience technology in context and see how "the internet of things" can improve citizens' and businesses' daily life in a vast array of sectors. It hosted companies such as AT&T, Jasper, KT Corporation, Oral-B, Sierra Wireless and Vodafone, showing the very latest in mobile connected products and services.

What made the 2015 Mobile World Congress especially importantwas not onlythe large number of new products that were presented for the first time but also some of the statements that have been made by the most influential names of the industry. For example: Google Vice President Sundar Pichai’s announcement that the American multinational will start competing with paying telephone providers by launching its own payment service and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s explanation of the company's plan to bring the internet to developing countries and become a globally-used social network.             

The 2015 Mobile World Congressfeatured two important programmes as well: the GSMA Ministerial Programme (which saw record attendance) and the 4 Years From Now (4YFN) international programme. While the first brought together 161 delegations (from 136 countries and 25 international organisations) to discuss regulatory issues, the second was aimed at bringing together start-ups and entrepreneurs with investors, accelerators, incubators and corporations from the mobile ecosystem.

The Mobile World Congress is the cornerstone of the Mobile World Capital, which will be based in Barcelona until 2018 at least; an initiative aimed at converting the city into a leader in the field of mobile technologies, providing backing to different programmes and initiatives throughout the year and aimed at extending the use of technologies into different fields.