What happened during the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp outage?
A little black wheel that wouldn't stop turning: On October 4th, 2021, everything suddenly went quiet on the world's smartphones. Between 5 p.m. and midnight CET, Zuckerberg's apps went on strike: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. (we reported ) Users around the world had to find other things to do for a full seven hours, sometimes using new apps in the store. App Annie's data and analytics experts closely analyzed developments during the outage and published surprising findings.
- Suddenly black: Hourly usage dropped by 80 percent
- Seized the moment: crypto and investment apps were booming
- Other entertainment apps served as replacements, and Snapchat experienced a rebirth
The after-work scroll is canceled: Europe is badly affected by the outage
While people in the Asia-Pacific region were largely asleep during the outage, the break-down in Europe took place right after work. Usage didn't completely collapse, however, as many kept trying to open the apps several times an hour and waited a long time to see if anything happened. Hourly usage still fell by 80 percent compared to the same period on other days.
It doesn't work without entertainment: the winners of the “placeholder apps”
In addition to the workplace or the simple means of communication, users spend a lot of time on social media primarily for entertainment. Thanks to the app market, there were many alternative options in this regard, which consumers eagerly took advantage of. But other types of applications also experienced a real boom. In the USA, dating apps, financial apps, especially investment and crypto applications, as well as video streaming apps such as Netflix and YouTube emerged as winners.

Germany cares about its finances – and about love
This looked similar in Germany. The German app Vivid Money, which makes investments in investments and crypto possible, recorded a 525 percent increase in usage time. Many people have taken the opportunity to deal with a topic that may have been pending for a long time. The dating apps from France, iDates and Mambo Dating, recorded an increase of 475 percent and 225 percent. It is also noticeable that Snapchat has experienced a revival. While the app was previously barely able to secure a place on the individual podiums, users spent four times as much time on Snapchat as on Telegram during the 7-hour outage. The absolute increase is therefore far greater than for other social media apps that were used more during the outage.
Source: appannie.com.
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