I thought the same as well, but I've been to Shanghai Expo and it was actually quite an experience even though every line was at least 2 hours, until VR and haptic feedback can truly build life-changing experiences, going to the Expo is actually quite interesting. I think its more a marketing and branding issue.

As the article mentions, for the developing world (where people can't necessarily easily travel to anywhere anytime), they still have some relevance. For us, it's also a good opportunity to develop business with developing countries. Then again, they don't always have very open markets, so this applies more to folks in fields that are already largely multi-national.

Anyone authoritatively speaking of "nobody" and "everybody" automatically makes me think less of them.

> With internet and TV I don't think there are any new things to be learned from an expo. Same for trade shows.

You can't see the benefit of new VR or stereoscopic displays from home.

You can't see the difference in wider and deeper color gamuts from home.

You can't hear the difference from new positional audio systems.

You can't experience any new tech that involves a physical aspect, like tactile feedback for VR, from your home.

With internet and TV, most people are limited to whatever their crappy sRGB 1080p 60Hz displays and stereo speakers can show them.

When did people care and why do they care less now?

Yeah. You can think of a World Expo as a very poorly implemented web site. You have to travel to the data, not the other way around.

Before we could instantly ship data anywhere, it made a ton of sense to put many things in one location so you'd only have to travel to one place, but now it's rather pointless.

I agree, the idea behind the expo was to have worldwide showcases for stuff most people would not have been able to see otherwise, but with the internet that seems pretty useless.

Showcasing just for the show is a little bit outdated, I suppose they could pivot around some concept, like major sporting events are still very popular(Olympics and World Cup).

Maybe we'll reinvent it in VR.