BARCELONA -- Some 2,400 global companies will participate in the Mobile World Congress, an annual mobile device exhibition held in Barcelona from February 26 to February 29. With the theme titled "Future First," exhibitors will present artificial intelligence and other high-tech solutions during the four-day event visited by more than 90,000 people.
The annual tech event, run by the mobile industry network Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA), is one of the largest information technology events along with the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States and Germany's Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin. According to GSMA's chief marketing officer Lara Dewar, about 40 percent of the participants in 2024 are not directly related to telecommunications and mobile sectors but encompass adjacent industries.
GSMA said on February 25 that this year's MWC themes include "Going Beyond 5G," "Connecting Everything," and "Humanizing AI." Chinese tech giants, such as Huawei and Xiaomi, will also take part in the MWC 2024. Huawei will unveil its 5.5G mobile communication service, which is around 10 times faster than 5G. Xiaomi will display the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, equipped with a 50-megapixel telephoto lens.
Meanwhile, 165 South Korean companies will attend the exhibition. This is the fifth-largest number after Spain (696), the U.S. (432), Britain (408), and China (288). Alongside conglomerates such as Samsung Electronics, KT, and SK Telecom, small and medium-sized enterprises and startups will exhibit innovative technologies.
South Korean entrepreneurs, including SK Group's chief Chey Tae-won and Samsung's mobile experience business head TM Roh, will visit event venues to explore cooperation with foreign businesses. The number of S. Korean participants in the event reached its peak at 222 in 2019, just before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, it declined to 108 in 2022 and rose slightly to 130 companies in 2023.
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