Facebook Cancels Conference Over Coronavirus Fears

Coronavirus outbreak is taking a massive toll on lives as well as many other activities. Most recently, the MWC event was canceled over fears of the deadly virus. Now, Facebook will also be canceling its upcoming conference related to global marketing. The Facebook event was scheduled to take place in San Francisco next month.

Facebook Cancels Event

The Facebook global marketing conference was expecting nearly 4,000 attendees. "Our priority is the health and safety of our teams, so out of an abundance of caution, we canceled our Global Marketing Summit due to evolving public health risks related to coronavirus," a Facebook spokesperson said to The Verge.

Coronavirus has infected more than 49,000 people till date and claimed 1,383 lives so far. Right now, the virus does not seem to be spreading widely in other countries besides China. The Facebook Global Marketing Summit was scheduled from March 9 to 12 and was expecting nearly thousands of attendees from various countries.

Facebook's event cancellation is the latest to fall victim due to coronavirus. The Mobile World Congress was also canceled for the first time in over 30 years over similar concerns. In the days leading up to the cancellation, several tech companies including LG, NVIDIA, Vivo, Sony, Amazon, and more had backed out of the show over fears of endangering the attendees.

Moreover, the coronavirus is severely affecting Silicon Valley. Various production units in China have been shut down. Apple retail stores in the country have also been shut down due to the outbreak. Further manufacturing delays and production shortages are taking a toll on the global market.