Here’s where Americans turned during the global Facebook blackout

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Top line

When Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp went extinct on October 4, Americans switched to dating, finance and games to pass the time, according to a new report from app analytics firm App Annie, giving insight from where millions of people turn when some of the most popular virtual real estate suddenly becomes unavailable.

Facebook was down for hours on October 4.

Getty Images Highlights

On October 4, Facebook and its family of apps, including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram, were turned off for seven hours, with usage in the United States falling 50% below normal levels, according to App Annie.

While many consumers have turned to other social media or communications apps to connect with friends and family (Twitter and Telegram captured 2 million more hours in the United States during the Seven hours than expected), a large number of Americans have turned to apps that offer entirely different services.

Time spent in dating apps increased during the outage, according to data from App Annie, with eHarmony jumping 690%, Scruff 65%, and Hinge 35% from the seven-day average.

There has been a similar resurgence of interest in video content, especially beyond the usual highs of YouTube and Netflix, with time spent on Bravo Now and SHOWTIME up 585% and 370%, respectively, from the previous week.

Investment and cryptocurrency apps also benefited from the outage, the data shows, with Crypto.com (290%), CoinGecko (260%), Webull Stocks (75%) and Robinhood (75%) all showing a boom in interest during the week. before during the outage.

Surprising fact

Facebook usage in the United States has not completely declined, as some users repeatedly attempted to access apps, App Annie said, resulting in time being logged in the app despite the fact that the screen is not refreshed.

Large number

$ 65 million. That’s roughly how much Facebook lost during the hour-long outage, according to a Forbes estimate. An outage later that week brought the figure to around $ 100 million.

Key context

Facebook and its family of apps consistently top the mobile app rankings for the most used apps. The company said the outage was due to a routine maintenance error that took some of its data centers offline, not a hack. He highlighted the heavy reliance on Facebook services around the world, especially for communication and business purposes. Facebook rivals fared well after the outage, according to data from Sensor Tower, with usage on Snapchat up 23%, Twitter 11% and Signal 15%. App Annie said that “current trends suggest that users are returning to Facebook apps due to strong network effects” and existing communication habits.

Further reading

Facebook lost over $ 100 million due to two outages this week (Forbes)

Facebook outage boosted Snapchat, Signal and Telegram – An increase in total usage (Forbes)

Facebook crash highlights excessive global dependence on its services (Guardian)

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