The
WhatsApp message app had its most serious crash to date only days after a historic Facebook buyout deal which has rocked the industry. The crash led to new WhatsApp owners Facebook apologizing to users. According to a Facebook/WhatsApp statement, server problems were behind the issue.
Facebook announced last week that it would purchase WhatsApp and bring its 450 million users under its footprint at a cost of 16 billion US dollars – an amount that has raised eyebrows in the industry. Purchasing customers in this fashion is very reminiscent of Internet industry behavior that occurred before the great Dot Com bubble burst in the 1990s.
WhatsApp avoids the costs related to sending SMSs and the service is currently available for a 1$ a year subscription fee. According to Facebook, 70% of the WhatsApp user base uses the app on a daily basis. The app’s problems were first reported on Twitter and the service was down for around two and a half hours. WhatsApp’s problems were though apparently a boon for privacy and security focused competitor Telegram, who reportedly added “millions of new users” as a result of the outage.
Did you experience the outage? Let us know the details. Add your comments below.
