On 4 October 2021, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp experienced a global outage, plunging a large portion of social media into darkness. We offer four takeaways from the experience.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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On Monday, 4 October, and for about six hours, major online platforms owned by Facebook Inc., including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, were offline worldwide. It meant that these services were not available for the 2.9 billion monthly active users of Facebook, the 1.3 billion of Facebook Messenger, the 1 billion active users of Instagram, and the 2 billion monthly active users of WhatsApp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From all reports, it appears that the outage was due to errors made during routine server maintenance, which not only affected Facebook Inc.\u2019s very public platforms, but also those used internally within the organisation. However, with Instagram and WhatsApp, in particular being offline, many of us had a lot of free time on our hands, and a lot of time to think. Here are four lessons we believe can be learnt from the outage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The outage started around 11:40 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (GMT -4) and ended around 6:30 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time. It thus meant that the late-morning, lunch, afternoon and early evening social media fix that many of us enjoy was not available. However, outside of accessing social media, for what other important activities \u2013 measured in time spent \u2013 do you use your smartphone?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The odds are that the time spent on any other activity pales in comparison to the amount many of us spend on social media, and by extension, entertainment. According to BroadbandSearch<\/a>, on average, we spend 58 minutes and 53 minutes per day on Facebook and Instagram respectively, and 28 minutes a day on WhatsApp. Moreover, the average person spends 145 minutes every day on social media, whilst those between 16 and 24 years olds spend about three hours a day (Source:\u00a0 Letter.ly<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although systems malfunction and outages can and do happen to the best of us, for companies as well resourced as Facebook, which was recently valued at USD 1 trillion (Source: HYPERBEAST<\/a>), a six-hour outage seems almost incomprehensible. There is still a lot of speculation by industry pundits about why the outage happened, but for us mere mortals, an important takeaway is the importance of comprehensively addressing business continuity, and ensuring that suitable and adequate redundancies are in place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For many Caribbean micro, small and even medium enterprises (SMEs) social media and the instant messaging platform have become the primary way in which they connect with consumers. They promote their business solely on Facebook and\/or Instagram, or send messages to a broadcast list they have created on WhatsApp. Should an individual want to engage them \u2013 to make an appointment, or need more information on a product or service, or express a desire to purchase \u2013 this is all done via Facebook, Instagram and\/or WhatsApp. However, with all of these platforms down on Monday, it would have meant that business also ground to a halt for a lot of SMEs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For SMEs that run their business on social media exclusively, it is likely that outside of these platforms, they have no other way to connect with consumers, such as phone numbers or email addresses. Hence, in the not-too-distant future should another outage occurs that is longer thanMonday\u2019s event, the consequences could be dire for some businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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For this point, the focus is not on social media, per se, but rather instant messaging and WhatsApp. People are no longer calling each other via the mobile\/cellular service provider, but rather, via WhatsApp. However, it was interesting to several of my contacts that signed up to Telegram on Monday, and those who had to resort to sending text messages and making traditional telephone calls, which had become the exception than the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having said this, and with WhatsApp back on track, it is unclear whether people are using platforms like Signal and Telegram more. The odds are they are not, since by all reports, WhatsApp\u2019s service is working smoothly. However, each platform has its own unique features and its quirks, for which some (slight) adjustment may be required. Besides the sense of not having all of one\u2019s eggs in one basket, getting familiar with other instant messaging platforms is useful, and it fosters a certain flexibility, and ease in pivoting when the need arises.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Image credit:\u00a0 Boyan Chen (Pixabay<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n