Yesterday- like many of you- I was just about done with the DBA assignment. One of my group members was just about to hand it in, while I was quickly cooking some pasta. After a half an hour I noticed I hadn’t heard anything from him yet. I tried sending him a text through WhatsApp but it didn’t deliver. Upon reading the news I learned that Facebook, Whatsapp and Instagram were all down.
Over the night I caught myself still trying to unconsciously open Whatsapp or Instagram, and suddenly it made me think: Are we putting too many eggs in one basket in terms of communication?
At the point of writing, Facebook has 2.9 billion users worldwide (Statista, 2021), Instagram has one billion (Statista, 2021) and Whatsapp has two billion users (Statista, 2021). In the Netherlands alone, Whatsapp has 12.4 million active users, Facebook has 10.4 million and instagram 5.9 million on a population of 18 million people (NOS, 2021).
At the same time, KPN- one of largest network providers in the Netherlands- saw an “abnormal rise” in network usage, at one point even having four times the amount of activity as normal (Boogert, 2021). Even Signal, one of Whatsapp toughest competitors, could not handle all the new user requests due to Whatsapp being down (Signal, 2021).
Yesterday, the problem appeared to be a problem in the internet infrastructure that is supposed to enable the communication between Facebook’s data-centers (Isaac & Frenkel, 2021). In 2019, when Facebook was down for an entire day, the problem was a change in server configuration (Isaac & Conger, 2019). In between these times, Facebook has been the focus of multiple DDoS-attacks that try to cripple the networks, as are many competitors.
Now I know what you might be thinking: Here is yet another crusader fighting against the monopoly that is Facebook, but you’re wrong. Facebook is cruising at these heights because we all like their service, whether in the forms of WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook. It is simply a question of supply and demand: we like low-key informal contact with friends from the comfort of our own couch, and they provide that service better than their competitors.
I’m simply posing a question that only you have the answer to. Are you too dependent on one provider? Are you prepared for what to do when the next server goes down, possibly for a longer time? In my opinion, we create a lot more breathing room for ourselves when we diversify our way of communication. Software and data security is ever-growing and ever-growing more complex, to the point where we integrate it so much in our day-to-days -sometimes to the point where it becomes part of our muscle memory- that we have little fall-back for when something goes wrong.
Pasta turned out great by the way.
References:
Isaac, M., & Conger, K. (2019, 15 maart). Facebook’s Daylong Malfunction Is a Reminder of the Internet’s Fragility. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/technology/facebook-whatsapp-outage.html
Emerce. (2021, 5 oktober). WhatsApp kapot, Nederland massaal terug naar sms. https://www.emerce.nl/nieuws/whatsapp-kapot-nederland-massaal-terug-sms
Isaac, M., & Conger, K. (2019, 15 maart). Facebook’s Daylong Malfunction Is a Reminder of the Internet’s Fragility. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/technology/facebook-whatsapp-outage.html
Isaac, M., & Frenkel, S. (2021, 5 oktober). Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp Were Down: Here’s What to Know. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/technology/facebook-down.html
NOS. (2021, 4 oktober). Wereldwijde storing WhatsApp, Facebook en Instagram, “het lijkt goed mis”. https://nos.nl/artikel/2400380-wereldwijde-storing-whatsapp-facebook-en-instagram-het-lijkt-goed-mis
Statista. (2021a, juli 7). WhatsApp – Statistics & Facts. https://www.statista.com/topics/2018/whatsapp/
Statista. (2021b, september 7). Instagram: distribution of global audiences 2021, by age group. https://www.statista.com/statistics/325587/instagram-global-age-group/
Statista. (2021c, september 10). Facebook: number of monthly active users worldwide 2008–2021. https://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/
Hi Martijn, great blog! I really like your introducing question whether we are putting too many eggs in one basket in terms of communication. I would say that we do we indeed. On the other hand, the simplicity of using just a handful of applications and the associated network effects draw us towards the applications that were not available yesterday. Thus, in my opinion the fact that people will use just a small selection of applications is a natural equilibrium. With this notion in mind, do you think the events of yesterday are likely to occur more often in the future?
Interesting blog post Martijn! Also very relatable because yesterday I was exactly thinking the same question; are we putting too many eggs in one basket in terms of communication? It was such a big disaster for the company. Facebook stock fell by 5%, and Mark Zuckerberg lost is estimated to be $7 billion. Not only Facebook, but countless other companies lost sales with Facebook being down. According to the website monitoring group Downdetector, it was the largest failure it had ever seen, with over 10.6 million problem reports worldwide.
It’s felt so strange that we weren’t able to contact any team members to discuss the DBA deadline. In the end, my team and I ended up creating an imessage groupchat, but if someone didn’t own an iPhone, this wouldn’t even be possible. I think yesterday tells us that we should rely on more communication platforms and that diversifying is probably a good idea. Not only from a personal perspective but also from a business perspective. You rely on many things you don’t own yourself, which can heavily impact your business. For example yesterday, the customer support of many shops were disrupted, planned announcements were stopped and many ads were put on a pause. All outside of your own control.
Sources:
– https://www.reuters.com/technology/facebook-instagram-down-thousands-users-downdetectorcom-2021-10-04/
– https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-04/zuckerberg-loses-7-billion-in-hours-as-facebook-plunges
– https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/04/technology/facebook-down.html
Exactly! We resorted to old fashioned email in the end, felt like we were blown back years in terms of communication
Like many, I think yesterday was a true revelation on how ingrained the usage of the apps is in our daily life. I also agree with you that firms like facebook control to much of communication platforms. However, I do feel that Facebook is not adding significant value to the respective brands. I already liked Instagram and Whatsapp before they were acquired by Facebook. Therefore I would say the firms could be split up again without losing the functionalities that we love but still decreasing our dependencies on a single firm. It is not about the dependencies on a firm but the regulations that allowed a firm as facebook to dominate such a prominent part of our communications is the real issue.
Very interesting, I believe the United States currently has a case running about splitting up Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram for being a Monopoly.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-28/facebook-wins-dismissal-of-u-s-states-monopoly-lawsuits
Hi Martijn,
What an interesting post! Like you and many others, I encountered the same problem yesterday and it made me realize that our dependency on Facebook (and Whatsapp and Instagram) might be too high. Therefore, I completely agree with you and I think that diversifying our way of communicating might help us to avoid these situations in the future. Reading the questions you posed, I was also wondering whether you have any ideas on how we could effectively diversify the way we are communicating? I believe this might be a challenging task since – as you have already mentioned- we all like the services provided by Facebook.
Either way, it’s nice to see that you share some statistics as well. This once again confirms how important Facebook has become for us. Another interesting thing I found is the fact that the huge power of Facebook has become a serious issue for other businesses too. Due to its monopoly position, the service is posing a threat for other businesses and consequently harms the innovation and reduces competition. All things considered, I think it’s perhaps time to regulate the power of Facebook more.
Unfortunately I dont have any other ideas. For me to switch away from Whatsapp to a competitor takes a lot of people, as I only want to have 1 communication app, not two. What amazes me the most about social media platforms though is that none of the companies that succeeded Facebook (instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat) have the same ability to convey pure information. Think about birthdays, events you could track and share, blogs you could read. After Facebook there has been no app that could convey that much information.
Really interesting read Martijn! You’re posing a real critical question here. I experienced the same kind of problems and I was also wondering on different ways to come in contact with people. Soon, I came to the conclusion that there are not that many other possibilities. The vast majority of society is relying on a handful of companies. On the one hand this is very useful because everyone is on the same platform. But on the other hand, it cause a lot of problems like we all saw a few days ago…