The Big Map of Mobile

Which countries are the powerhouses of the mobile industry? Those of of who have been working in the industry will all have our ideas but we decied to test our own assumptions by analysing the companies that exhibited at Mobile World Congress (MWC) earlier this year. It’s the biggest event in the sector and so ought to be a reasonable barometer of where the action is at.

The results of the analysis are shown on the globe below with the size of the red dot being proportional to the number of companies exhibiting.

The most represented country is Spain but that’s an aberration since the Fira is obviously an easy place to get to for Spanish companies and there’s also a (very) strong representation from the peripheral industries servicing the sector (marketing, events etc.). Next on the list are the United States (355), China (216), South Korea (198 and a big increase on last year), the United Kingdom (178), France (151), Germany (141) and Israel (116).

The numbers then drop to double figures quite rapidly until you get to the 14 countries represented by a single company, from Costa Rica (with the strangely named 2fun2me) to Vietnam (Viettel Group). For those of you who think they’ve spotted an obvious error, that tiny red dot to the right of Madagascar, which appears to be swimming in the Indian Ocean, is Mauritius with two companies exhibiting – who knew!

And if you are wondering what all those companies are selling, we also carried out some analysis on that point.

This is where you start to think it’s time to rename the event. Some of the Babel crew have been attending MWC since the Cannes days and we’ve seen a lot of changes in the industry, and in the event itself, over that time. Regular visitors will know that it’s no longer completely dominated by handsets, operators and network equipment manufacturers. They still play a big part but it’s become an incredibly diverse industry.

If you would like to talk to Babel about support at MWC 2019, any of the myriad other mobile sector events, or ongoing support, let us know here.