Facebook and its family of apps - including Instagram, WatsApp, Messenger and Oculus - were down for over five hours Monday, sparking concern and disruption among its users.
Indeed, more than 3.5 billion people use Facebook and its app family to communicate and conduct business. Facebook employees were even cut off from their email, internal communication tools and physician access to the building sites.
While it affected billions around the world and their ability to aimlessly scroll on Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg took the largest hit. The billionaire’s personal wealth fell by more than $6 billion in those few hours, knocking him down on the list of the world’s richest people.
Facebook’s stock plummeted 4.9 percent Monday, sending Zuckerberg’s net worth down to $121.6 billion. This drop placed him below Bill Gates as number five on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Bloomberg reports.
Facebook ironically apologized for the outage on Twitter.
Zuckerberg also issued an apology; however, he did so on Facebook.
“Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger are coming back online now. Sorry for the disruption today -- I know how much you rely on our services to stay connected with the people you care about,” he wrote.
