Facebook Cancelled its F8 Developer Conference

Coronavirus continues to affect business worldwide, and specialized events seem to be its first victims. Facebook's annual F8 Developer Conference was cancelled due to fears about the Covid-19. The company said it plans to hold a series of smaller local and online events instead.

The conference is a key part of Facebook’s calendar and a place where the social media giant typically unveils new features for its suite of apps and services and sets course for the year ahead. This year's edition was set to be held in May in San Jose, California.

“It was a tough call, but we need to prioritise the health and safety of our developer partners, employees and everyone who helps put F8 on,“ Facebook’s director of platform partnerships Konstantinos Papamiltiadis said in a blog post. “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.“

Papamiltiadis said the main gathering will be replaced by a combination of smaller, locally-hosted events along with videos and live streamed content. Additional details about these will be released in the coming weeks. The move follows the cancellation of MWC Barcelona 2020 earlier this month, and comes as companies across the globe brace for expected headwinds caused by the virus.