Baek Byung-yeul is a journalist at The Korea Times focused on cultural content, including films and cultural events in South Korea. You can contact him at baekby@koreatimes.co.kr to share your insights.
Companies scale down participation in CES over Omicron fears
Seen are visitors and event participants at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Jan. 5, 2020. Yonhap
By Baek Byung-yeul
By Baek Byung-yeul
The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) will take place on-site in January for the first time in two years, but Korean companies taking part in the world's largest tech show are downsizing their participation due to growing fears over the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.
The event will be held in Las Vegas from Jan. 5 to 8, featuring around 2,100 exhibiting companies from around 160 countries to share their latest technologies. The 2022 CES has raised high expectations, as it will deal with emerging technologies, including blockchain, non-fungible tokens and digital health.
However, due to the surge in infections from the Omicron variant, companies here are reducing the number of employees sent to Las Vegas or changing their plans instead to join the show virtually.
Omicron has now become the dominant variant of COVID-19 in the U.S., accounting for 73 percent of new infection cases last week, according to the public health authorities there.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Monday (local time) that a nearly six-fold increase in Omicron's share of infections occurred in just one week. Before the emergence of Omicron, Delta had been the dominant variant, accounting for more than 99.5 percent of infections until the end of November.
Companies are expressing concerns about sending large numbers of employees to CES not only because of the risk of being exposed to virus infections overseas, but also because of the burden of personnel management, as their employees will have to self-quarantine for 10 days upon returning to Korea.
To prevent the spread of the new variant, health authorities here decided that inbound travelers must undergo a 10-day mandatory quarantine regardless of their vaccination status until Jan. 6.
“We've decided to downsize the number of employees attending CES because it is too risky to send a big group. We don't exactly know how to deal with it if one of our employees is infected with the variant there,” an official from a local home appliance company said, adding that they will also join the event both offline and online.
Not only Korean companies, but also U.S. companies are also canceling or downsizing their attendance at the event.
Amazon, Meta, Twitter and Pinterest announced their absences due to Omicron concerns, adding that they are searching for ways to take part in the event virtually.
“Out of an abundance of caution and care for our employees, we won't be attending CES in person due to the evolving public health concerns related to COVID-19,” said Meta, which operates Facebook as well as Instagram and WhatsApp.
Twitter also said in a statement that “we've decided to cancel our in-person presence at CES next month.”
Despite the concerns, high-ranking executives of Korean firms seem to still be planning to attend the tech show in person, given that it is a good opportunity to gain global attention.
Hyundai Motor Group Chairman Chung Euisun is known to be considering attending CES. For the previous 2020 event, Chung shared the automotive group's vision to transform into a mobility group and its plans to advance into urban air mobility in the long run.
SK Chairman Chey Tae-won and his younger brother Jae-won, who was appointed recently as co-CEO of the group's battery-making unit SK On, are also known to be considering attending CES.
For Samsung Electronics, CES will be the debut stage for Vice Chairman Han Jong-hee. Han, who led Samsung's TV business, was promoted recently to vice chairman and CEO leading the company's DX division, which supervises its home appliances, TVs and mobile businesses.
At the event, Han will deliver a keynote speech on Jan. 4 to share the company's responsibility as one of the leading global firms as well as its future business vision.