How Much Money Does Facebook Lose Every Hour It's Down?

For most, social media is a staple in everyday life. According to Uswitch, Americans average 325 hours scrolling on Facebook, and that number doesn't include other social media platforms. People have been so dependent on their daily social media consumption that they become disgruntled when the site goes down. Although rare, there have been a few instances in the past few years where Facebook became inaccessible to users, and it was a detriment to the company as well.

In 2019, per Capital & Celeb News, Facebook — as well as WhatsApp, Messenger, and Instagram — experienced a blackout that lasted at least 14 hours. Users around the world were affected, and the company's stocks plummeted 2% as a result. The downtime cost Facebook approximately $90 million in revenue in just 14 hours. Millions of businesses — both small and large — that advertised on the platform lost money as well, as they lose consumer engagement without Facebook (via The Verge).

On October 4, 2021, Facebook, as well as other services it owns, became inaccessible approximately before 12 noon ET. Users were met with an error page when they logged into the sites. Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone posted on Twitter just a few minutes after noon to address users and said that they were working on fixing the issue, as reported by Engadget. By 4 p.m. ET, the company had lost about $60 million, as estimated by Fortune.

Facebook has reported a revenue of $29.08 billion in the second quarter of 2021, which is equivalent to earnings of $319.6 million per day. With the downtime, Facebook lost approximately $13.3 million per hour. Services were restored more than six hours after the initial error reports, and according to a network monitoring service, it was caused by a Domain Name System failure. No other information was given on the matter.