Infographic: Worldwide Hackathon Figures in 2018 and trends to expect in 2019

Large corporations are increasingly turning to hackathons to meet innovation objectives, as 5,636 public and internal hackathons were organized in 2018 globally, nearly 40% more than in 2016. That’s according to statistics from Hackathon.com, the largest online hackathon community worldwide.  

Corporations are breaking away from tradition and are no longer carrying out months of research, spending long periods of time to develop products and test it on the markets. Instead, they are using internal and public hackathons create innovative business solutions quickly and more efficiently.

64% of hackathons in 2018 were public hackathons, whereby companies tap into the expertise of the developer and startup ecosystem. Surprisingly, only 27% of technology companies organized hackathons this year, while there has been a gradual rise across the manufacturing (12%) and transportation (11%) industries, who are also realizing the benefits of working with external developer and designers to explore multiple ideas for business solutions in minimal time.

Hackathons as a process is becoming a critical part of the organizational culture, as 37% more internal hackathons were in organized in 2018 compared to 2016. This format is gaining more popularity as 18% of financial services institutions, 17% of manufacturing and 16% of retail companies ran internal hackathons this year, as they are profiting from using internal expertise to foster intrapreneurship and boost cross-team collaboration to develop business solutions in order to remain competitive and improve overall working processes.

In 2018, almost 40% of hackathon participants were developers, with engineers, data scientists, and marketers also taking part. In addition, hackathon organizers are increasingly using emerging technologies to generate innovative solutions, with 21% of those using

Artificial Intelligence while 16% used Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, and 12% focused on IoT to help solve problems. Surprisingly, only 9% of hackathons in 2018 were focused on Blockchain.