News Article # 3: Facebook blames long outage on ‘server configuration change’

Date: March 14,2019 (article written by Thomson Reuters)

Link: https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/facebook-instagram-outage-cause-1.5056807

Summary: Facebook Inc. said that it had restored service to its main app and Instagram, after the world’s largest social network suffered a major outage that frustrated users across the globe for about 24 hours. It also said it was considering whether to refund advertisers for lost exposure due to the problems, which internet outage trackers showed affected users in Europe, Japan, and North and South America. “Yesterday, a server configuration issue made it difficult for people to access our apps and services. We are 100 per cent back up and running and apologize for any inconvenience,” a Facebook spokesperson said. Facebook makes tens of millions of dollars in advertising revenue every day.

Stakeholders: & how different people/organizations can be effected

Advertisers- (-) Advertisers faced a huge loss because of the major outage. They couldn’t advertise their product because of the outage and also they lost money which they had spend on the advertisement.

Facebook- (-) Facebook had to refund advertisers for lost exposure. Also, so many people got frustrated across the globe for about 24 hours which had a negative impact on facebook.

Users- (-) Users got frustrated because they couldn’t use the service for 24 hours. A server configuration issue made it difficult for people to access our apps and services.

Other Apps- (+) Other apps like Instagram, snapchat etc. got benefitted from this outage because people used their services more. Also, more advertisers will go to other apps for their advertisements.

Shares- (-) Shares of Facebook dropped by 2%.

Personal Opinion: I don’t think that it should be such a big issue for Facebook because it is worldwide and people who are using Facebook, they will continue to use it. It could’ve affected Facebook for 24 hours but now everything’s fine. So many people complained about it on Twitter but I don’t think that they stopped using Facebook. Definitely, other apps like twitter, snapchat and Instagram benefitted from this outage.

Question: Do you think that this major outage affected Facebook? If yes, then, in what way? Explain.