In 2020, Facebook experienced a 6-hour outage (its worst since 2008), which also brought Instagram and WhatsApp offline. For many American users, going to Twitter and making memes was an appealing option. However, the outage was much more terrifying in other parts of the world due to WhatsApp’s status as critical infrastructure. How Whatsapp Global Southwodinskygizmodo.
According to some reports, WhatsApp world, the Facebook-owned app, has more than 2.5 billion users worldwide and is the most popular messaging app in more than 100 countries. WhatsApp is the go-to texting alternative in developing countries with underdeveloped (or prohibitively expensive) telecom options. The app is used by 90% or more of the population in seven countries: Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Argentina, Malaysia, Colombia, and Brazil.
Those residing in the United States and Canada— You may be familiar with Facebook as an awful site with an awful design that is full of awful people, and the less time spent on it, the better. However, if you live in Brazil, Uganda, or any other country in the “Global South,” Facebook’s services are more than just apps. In fact, they aren’t even apps. They are services. They combine communication and commerce, newspapers and yellow pages. So you’re not relieved when it all comes crashing down in one fell swoop. You’re terrified. And if you have family members on the other side of the North/South divide, they’re probably worried as well.
WhatsApp is the smartphone messaging app that Facebook purchased for about $22 billion last year, and it accounts for nearly 11 percent of all traffic to and from mobile devices in Africa. This demonstrates how popular WhatsApp is across the continent, owing in large part to the fact that it allows people to exchange texts without paying high carrier fees. It also demonstrates that people are using the service for purposes other than texting. It, like other messaging services, allows you to exchange photos and videos. This year, the company expanded the service to include Internet phone calls, mirroring services such as Skype.
The internet is evolving differently in the developing world than it is in the United States. Because network and phone technologies aren’t as mature, and people have less money to spend on technology, low-bandwidth messaging apps like WhatsApp have become the primary gateway into the Internet as a whole. Web browsing accounts for 22 percent of mobile traffic in Africa, roughly twice as much as WhatsApp. However, no other individual service even comes close to WhatsApp’s numbers. It’s not YouTube. Certainly not BitTorrent. Not even Facebook.
Facebook is also very popular in the United States. It accounts for more than 16% of mobile traffic and more than 2% of wired traffic. That is, it has evolved to embrace the online video trend. And it means that the general public is embracing the trend from within Facebook. The company is not without flaws. But it understands how to evolve with the times. Others should pay attention. This does show the fact that how big names have to keep on growing so that they can right decisions to move forward.
