Facebook crashed for millions of users across the world on September 4. Users reported that the social network went offline around 5am (AEST) for about half an hour, and was experienced by in Australia, US, UK, Portugal, Germany, Thailand, and other parts of the world.

Facebook’s official statement

The downtime lasted for about 20 to 30 minutes. According to the social network, the problem was due to an infrastructure configuration. Here is what they had to say:

“Earlier today, we encountered an error while making an infrastructure configuration change that briefly made it difficult for people to access Facebook. We immediately discovered the issue and fixed it, and everyone should now be able to connect. We apologize for the inconvenience and will thoroughly investigate this issue so we can learn from it and ensure that Facebook is there when people need it.”

Facebook’s lost profit

In the second quarter of 2014, Facebook earned $2.91 billion. Therefore, for every minute it’s down around the globe, theoretically, it loses about $22,453 (more, if the browsing time is during peak hours).

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