The build-up to Mobile World Congress

2.21.19 / 2 min read
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Last week Ovum published their annual ‘What to Expect’ report for the World Mobile Congress, which will run from the 25th-28th February. In this report, Ovum predicted the key talking points for the tech event, as well as the companies expected to make the most impact.

We used Signal’s AI powered media monitoring platform to track MWC’s coverage in the lead-up to the event. Last year, MWC was mentioned in over 36,000 articles in February alone, and the anticipation for this years event is even higher – with 9,000 a week before the event has even started.

Ovum predicted 11 ‘Major Themes’ to be discussed at the event, and 12 companies to keep an eye on. Of the themes listed, 5 related to 5G, 2 to Artificial Intelligence and 1 to each of Augmented Reality (AR), Cyber Security, the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain. We took these 6 AI powered topics and looked at their coverage with MWC over the last 30 days, to see if Ovum’s predictions are in line with news coverage.

5G leads the race for relevance, the abbreviations vie for 2nd place

As it turns out, they were pretty much spot on. 5G has dominated MWC’s coverage, with 6.3k mentions, and justifies being mentioned in half of Ovum’s predictions. AI, IoT and AR have competed fiercely to make up the top three topics, with Blockchain and Cyber Security lagging behind so far. Time will tell how well these themes are actually covered throughout the event.

Are unpredicted companies set to steal the show?

Of Ovum’s ‘12 Companies to Watch’, only 4 make up the top organisations mentioned in MWC’s coverage, listed above. Both Ovum and the news seem to agree that giants in the telecoms industry, such as Samsung, Huawei and Xiaomi, will be making headlines. However, Ovum also name Alibaba, Cisco, SAP and Orange – none of which have broken into the top 50 most mentioned yet. Will these firms find their way into the spotlight once the event is underway, or will they fail to make an impact?

Interested to see which of these companies will live up to the hype, and which surprise topics will appear during the event? We will be reporting daily-wrap ups of  MWC’s coverage throughout the event, ending with a ‘Winners and Losers of MWC’ report at the end of next week. Don’t miss it.