More than 200,000 people took part in hackathons last year, across 100+ countries. Their efforts bore 13K prototypes and new connections among tech professionals and non-technical staff. Needless to say, the hackathon is a cross-industry trend that cannot be ignored – we should know, they're our specialty. However, up until now, no statistics have existed to quantify these collaborative three-day codefests.
And so, we took the data from our Hackathon.com platform to show you what these events looked like in 2016, plus offer a few insights into how this trend is predicted to look moving forward.
The top 5 countries to host hackathons in 2016 were the English-speaking US, UK, and Canada, followed by Germany and France.
Three-quarters of these events were public hackathons, meaning indie developers and those from various companies were welcome to attend. The goals comprised building a community around a particular technology or market; increasing brand awareness; and getting feedback on a technology or developer portal.
In terms of attendee profiles, almost half were professionals (42.8%), followed by students (21.1%), plus independent developers (18.9%), entrepreneurs (9.6) and those looking for work (7.6%).
The top industries partaking in hackathons included the unsurprising tech industry as the frontrunner, followed by finance, retail, and health.
Looking ahead
As for 2017, we're predicting a rise in internal innovation activity, wherein leadership of corporations will begin to leverage startup strategies to stay relevant, increase inventiveness and enhance overall business practices.
Hackathons will generate startups, not solely ideas that never get touched on again. The modern hack has evolved to support ideas beyond the traditional 72-hour event that hatched it. Thus, incubation and business acceleration programs will arise to help develop projects into actual products.
Furthermore, apps, which were the focus of development for hackathons past, will be replaced by startups and developers on the AI and VR frontiers.
If you're ready to host a hackathon or have any questions related to this post, please contact us.
Pierre-Jean Quenardel
