I Facebook Falls Over

Technology

Facebook Falls Over

Zuckerberg’s brainchild has been through a tough time recently. As it rebrands to Meta to ward off reputational damage, here’s a look at some key figures for Facebook.

On October 4, 2021,

Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down across the globe for more than five hours, affecting over 2.7 billion users. The outage reminded the world how vital the three social media platforms have become, with individuals, communities, businesses, and economies affected.

According to Facebook, the interruption was caused by “configuration changes on the backbone routers.” There was another quick outage a week later on October 8, but it didn’t last long, didn’t affect all users, and didn’t appear to have a dramatic impact.

Here’s a glance at some important numbers for Facebook.

2.7 billion

Over 2.7 billion users were affected when Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp went down for five hours after a massive outage on October 4, 2021.

$5.9 billion

According to Forbes, as Facebook’s stocks declined by about 5% after the outage, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune dropped by $5.9 billion to $117 billion following the incident.

Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune dropped by $5.9 billion to $117 billion following the outage.

$65 million

Forbes estimated that the company may have lost nearly $65 million in revenue, as ads weren’t delivered during the outage.

14hrs

The last big outage was for 14 hours back in 2019, according to the BBC. In its early days back in 2008, Facebook went off for an entire day, according to CNBC.

17

Facebook Inc. was founded 17 years ago in 2004 in Massachusetts by Harvard College students Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

$19 billion

WhatsApp was founded in 2009 by Brian Acton and Jan Koum. According to Forbes, the instant messaging app was acquired by Facebook in February 2014 for $19 billion, making it the largest Facebook acquisition to date.

$1 billion

Instagram was founded in 2010 by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger. It was acquired by Facebook in April 2012 for $1 billion in cash and stock.

60 Minutes

Former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, turned whistleblower in October 2021, telling CBS’s 60 Minutes that she believed the social media giant had contributed to the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 and added that it puts astronomical profits over people.

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Turning Ideas Into Reality

For Grace Najjar, Managing Director of PMI MENA, effective project management can make all the difference – just look at the Middle East.

Grace Najjar, Managing Director

The MENA region is increasingly regarded as a hub of innovation, with the Gulf countries in particular globally renowned for their pioneering approaches to business and community building. For organizations striving to distinguish themselves as leading models of transformation and forward-thinking strategy, there are lessons to be learned from the Middle East.

Today, countries such as the U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, and Qatar are able to navigate the complexities of a rapidly evolving international business landscape and establish new ways of doing business. This innovation stems from ingenuity, talent, and leadership – but it is also thanks to robust investments in project management.

Project management is the use of specific knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to deliver better outcomes, greater value, and, ultimately, help improve business and society. The development of software for an improved business process, the construction of a building, the relief effort following a natural disaster – all are examples of projects in action.

At the Project Management Institute (PMI), we believe that effective project management drives change and spurs success. And as the world of work increasingly demands rapid responses to fast-moving change, the need to cultivate effective project management capabilities is greater than ever.

Simply put, project management is essential to realizing the potential of an idea and bringing it to fruition. This is reiterated by recent history.

Earlier this month, Expo 2020 Dubai finally opened its doors to the world and the site is an accomplishment in itself. Spanning 438 hectares, it is a feat of modern construction and engineering — one that demanded the skills and insights of effective project managers and professionals, particularly in the wake of COVID-19.

Expo 2020 emphasizes just how crucial project management skills are to building success today and in the future.

The world’s leading professional association for millions of project professionals and changemakers worldwide, PMI is committed to empowering communities, businesses, and organizations to turn ideas into reality. Our recently launched virtual hub, Make Reality, celebrates the contributions of changemakers around the globe, including the MENA region’s highly skilled innovators. The hub tells the unique stories of the region’s most innovative thinkers, equipping changemakers with the resources to launch and see through the delivery of truly transformative projects.

In doing so, the hub spotlights what we identify as the “power skills” of project management: the people-centered competencies critical to affecting positive change and driving transformation.

We might have once called these “soft skills”, but that term doesn’t do them justice. As outlined in our Make Reality survey, business leaders pinpoint power skills such as teamwork/collaboration (49%), leadership (40%), and clear communication (32%) as vital to helping their companies successfully contend with and overcome the challenges of COVID-19.

Casting our eyes to the future, we believe that they, and project management in general, will contribute to efforts to build a better and more equitable world.

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