Facebook Cancels Global Marketing Summit on Coronavirus Fears

Facebook said on Friday it had cancelled its Global Marketing Summit scheduled for next month in San Francisco due to coronavirus-related risks. The event, scheduled for March 9 to March 12 at the Moscone Center, was expected to see over 4,000 participants.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we cancelled our global marketing summit due to evolving public health risks related to coronavirus," a company spokesman said.

Earlier this week, Mobile World Congress (MWC), the annual telecoms industry gathering in Barcelona, was cancelled after a mass exodus by exhibitors on coronavirus fears.

Major US tech companies including Facebook, Cisco Systems, and AT&T had pulled out of MWC.

Other events postponed or cancelled include Chinese Grand Prix, the Black Hat information security conference's Asia summit, London Metal Exchange's annual Asian gathering in Hong Kong, and Art Basel's annual art fair in Hong Kong, among others.

The virus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has killed over 1,300 people so far and infected more than 63,800 people on the Chinese mainland.