Messe Frankfurt is the world's largest trade fair, congress and event organizer with its own exhibition grounds. The organization has 2,500 employees at some 30 locations, generating annual sales of around €661 million. Its services include renting exhibition grounds, trade fair construction and marketing, personnel, and food services. Headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, the company is owned by the City of Frankfurt (60 percent) and the federal state Hesse (40 percent).

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In addition to operating its exhibition center in Frankfurt am Main, the group of companies is represented by a sales network of 30 subsidiaries and more than 60 sales partners in 188 countries worldwide. In 2018, Messe Frankfurt organized 148 trade fairs and exhibitions 101 of which took place abroad. In addition, Messe Frankfurt offers services ranging from stand construction and marketing to personnel services and catering.

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Today's Messe Frankfurt GmbH was founded in 1907 by the City of Frankfurt am Main and 16 Frankfurt citizens as Ausstellungs- und Festhallengesellschaft mbH. The capital of three million gold marks (equivalent to around 21.7 million euros today) was contributed equally by the city and the citizens. Until 1917, the city bought back the private shares in the company following the contract and was the sole shareholder from 1918 to 1951. From 1920 to 1983, the trade fair company operated under the company name Messe- und Ausstellungs-Gesellschaft mbH. The State of Hesse has been a shareholder of Messe Frankfurt since 1951.

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In terms of exhibition space, Frankfurt am Main is the third-largest trade fair venue in the world after the National Exhibition and Convention Center (NECC) in Shanghai and the Hanover exhibition grounds: 11 halls with 372,073 square meters of exhibition space and around 60,000 square meters of outdoor exhibition space are available on 592,127 square meters of floor space.