GSMA MWC Shanghai 2024 concluded with the show‘s largest ever international participation, welcoming nearly 40,000 attendees from a record 124 countries and territories for three days of innovation showcasing and collaboration.
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00:00John Hoffman, CEO of GSMA. What an absolute pleasure it is to have you on Euronews.
00:05Thank you so much for joining us here at MWC in Shanghai.
00:09We have a lot to talk about, but I know you are very short of time here.
00:13You're a very busy man.
00:14But first of all, I was looking at the numbers, the economic impact of MWC in Barcelona
00:21this year, and the figures are astronomical.
00:24Huge.
00:25I mean, are you expecting something similar here at MWC in Shanghai?
00:30Well, our event in Barcelona is much bigger.
00:32It's about five, six times as big.
00:33But in Barcelona, we just recently announced 502 million euros of economic impact to
00:40Barcelona, Catalonia and Spain.
00:42And since we've been in Barcelona since 2006, we've generated more than 6.9 billion euros
00:50of economic impact and created a lot of part-time jobs, good tech jobs that are coming
00:56in with the event.
00:57Now, here in Shanghai, we're not at the same scale yet, but we'll do another calculation,
01:03independent calculation here after the event.
01:05And I would expect that we'll be, you know, maybe close to 100 million euros of economic
01:11impact here from MWC Shanghai.
01:13That's incredible.
01:14And John, I don't know if you have these numbers at all or even roughly, but what's the
01:18attendance here this year at MWC Shanghai?
01:21So we're only in the morning of day two, a three-day event.
01:25But we're expecting similar to last year, probably around 40,000 people.
01:30So we had last year 8,000 companies participate from 115 countries and territories.
01:35And I would expect similar, if not bigger numbers, you know, for MWC 24.
01:40And you must be incredibly relieved now as well with restrictions having lifted here in
01:45China to see a return to, you know, return to normal.
01:48Exactly. So the pandemic, we were able to hold a couple of MWC Shanghais during the
01:54pandemic. Unfortunately, people from outside of China were not able to attend.
01:58Very Chinese focused.
02:00But last year was our first back in and international delegations attending.
02:05I was able to come. It's so great to bring the international community here, Shanghai,
02:11and have them attend MWC Shanghai.
02:13And there are so many incredible things just walking around the exhibition floor and
02:17seeing all the new tech innovations.
02:19But what are you most excited about, John?
02:21Well, you know, we're seeing a lot under our theme of future first.
02:25We're seeing a lot of innovation out there.
02:27We're seeing technology.
02:28Obviously, China is very advanced in 5G now.
02:335G advanced is taking hold.
02:34China Mobile is one of the global leaders in deployment.
02:37China Unicom, China Telecom are trialing the network.
02:40So we have a lot of roadmap technology issues.
02:44But we also have a lot of other topics, a lot around generative AI.
02:50It's a really, really, really big topic.
02:53And then we've got all of our verticals.
02:54So we've got health vertical.
02:56We've got transportation vertical.
02:57We've got pharmaceutical verticals.
02:59We've got the arts here.
03:01And it's really kind of everything under one roof.
03:06Mobility connectivity is at the core.
03:08But the vertical applications are really going to drive digital transformation.
03:13And that's what MWC Shanghai is all about.
03:16And all of that innovation that we're seeing here, John,
03:19what are the sort of challenges for exporting all of these incredible
03:23technology and this innovation we're seeing, say, to European markets, for example?
03:28The great thing about our MWC series here in Barcelona,
03:32Shanghai, United States and Kigali is we're able to showcase the best and the brightest.
03:37So we see local technology and services innovation.
03:42And then we see international showcasing their activities at the event.
03:47So it's both an inbound and an outbound technology transfer,
03:52kind of best practices.
03:53And, you know, we learn from each other and we challenge and continue
03:58to drive innovation through that challenge.
04:02Talking of innovation, John, as well, when you look into the future, that crystal ball,
04:07what are the trends and things that you're foreseeing based on your intel
04:11and your knowledge of what you're witnessing here today at MWC Shanghai?
04:15You know, we had a discussion yesterday at our digital leaders program,
04:19and we were talking about some of the challenges that are facing not only our ecosystem,
04:23but the global tech ecosystem as well as the global economy.
04:27And I think there was a vote of optimism for technology leading us in the right direction
04:34and then figuring out how to ethically use technology.
04:38You know, we have a lot of work to do.
04:40We've covered most of the world with GSM technology, 2, 3, 4, and 5G.
04:47We're working on, you know, 5.5G, and then obviously 6G will be coming.
04:53But we still have a lot of gaps.
04:55We have some coverage gaps, which we're going to close with non-terrestrial satellite.
05:00But then we have the usage gap, and the usage gap is a very large number,
05:05billions of people that live under the umbrella of digital coverage.
05:09But don't have access to it yet.
05:12It could be because of price, device capabilities, language.
05:16There are many, many factors, and especially gender issues.
05:20We find that women around the world still are not at the same level of ability
05:26to connect to the internet, the mobile internet.
05:28And so those are the kinds of challenges that the GSMA and our colleagues
05:33around the world are working very diligently to help solve.
05:37It won't happen overnight, but, you know, we find that adoption rates of 5G,
05:42we were able to have one billion users of 5G services in three years.
05:48Whereas past technologies took 10, 12, 15 years to reach a billion.
05:53So we're moving very, very rapidly, but we still have to pull along
05:57and help those that are underserved right now.
06:00And I guess that's my hope for the future.
06:03I mean, technology will continue to evolve,
06:05but it's how we are more inclusive and helping solve some of the world's problems
06:10through mobile technology and connectivity.
06:13And that's what gets me up every morning and wants me to come to work
06:18and do good things on behalf of the GSMA and all of our operator members around the world.
06:24John, that's brilliant.
06:25And thank you ever so much for your time and sharing your insights with us on Euronews.
06:29It's been an absolute pleasure.
06:31My honor.
06:32Thank you.
06:32And thanks for coming to MWC Shanghai.
06:34It's a pleasure.
06:35Thank you very much.
06:35Thank you.
06:36Thank you.