Facebook F8 is the mostly-annual conference held by the social giant, held for entrepreneurs and developers who develop products involving Facebook.
The 2020 F8 conference was originally scheduled for May 5th and 6th in San Jose, California. But Facebook announced the cancellation of the event due to fears of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
This marks the fourth time Facebook isn't holding its F8 conference, after previously not holding the event in 2009, 2012 and 2013.
The company announced the cancellation in a blog post, with the company’s platform partnerships director, Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, writing:
"This was a tough call to make -- F8 is an incredibly important event for Facebook and it’s one of our favorite ways to celebrate all of you from around the world -- but we need to prioritize the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on. We explored other ways to keep the in-person part of F8, but it’s important to us to host an inclusive event and it didn’t feel right to have F8 without our international developers in attendance."
Approximately 5,000 people attended F8 in 2019, or about a thousand more people than attended the event in 2018 and 2017.
At each of the events, Facebook donated a portion of F8 ticket sales to an organization working to diversify the tech industry.
But since the 2020 event has been called off, "we’re doubling that donation amount to $500,000 and will prioritize organizations serving local San Jose residents," Facebook said.
And instead of hosting local students on site at F8 like it usually did, Facebook said that is working to "provide an F8-inspired experience for those students in lieu of hosting them at the event itself."
According to Worldometer on its coronavirus outbreak page, as of February 28, there were 83,726 confirmed cases of the coronavirus, 2,859 deaths because of the virus, and 36,712 people who have recovered.
With the spread continues since the first time it was discovered in December 2019, the novel Wuhan coronavirus has spread intense fear to everyone across the globe.
And here, Facebook is not taking any chances.
Previously, the social media giant also canceled a marketing summit in Silicon Valley that was supposed to take place in March, and pulled out of both the Global Developers Conference and PAX East, also because of the coronavirus concerns.
Apple, another tech giant in Silicon Valley, expected significant financial losses due to manufacturing and shipping delays. And before that, the 2020 Mobile World Congress which should have been held in Barcelona, had also been called off due to the coronavirus fear.
Because experts at this time believe that the virus isn't containable, and an effective vaccine could take a year or more to completely develop, it’s important for travelers to understand the scope of the outbreak.
The coronavirus has so far appeared in more than 40 countries.