Signage for Paytm is displayed at the One97 Communications Ltd. headquarters in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Thursday, May 14, 2015. One97, which operates PayTM, think they have an edge as the country is now in the midst of a smartphone boom, and younger Indians are shunning branches and turning to apps for their banking needs, mirroring global trends. Photographer: Kuni Takahashi/Bloomberg | Photo Credit: KUNI TAKAHASHI
Messaging app Signal and homegrown fintech platform Paytm took potshots at WhatsApp and Facebook after multiple Facebook-owned services suffered a temporary global outage on Friday night.
Multiple Facebook-owned services including Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp faced a major global outage on Friday. The outage also affected Facebook’s gaming products. The issues began around 10:50 pm IST (1:30 pm EDT) on Friday.
WhatsApp rival Signal claimed it witnessed a surge in registrations.
“Signal registrations are through the roof; welcome everyone! Solidarity to the folks working on the WhatsApp outage. People outside of the tech industry will never understand how weird it sounds when someone says that they are “looking forward to some weekend downtime,” Signal tweeted from its official account after the outage.
Paytm also took the opportunity to share its take on monopolies.
“Your Internet is fine. It’s the apps. Now you know why monopolies are a bad idea,” Paytm tweeted from its official account.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma has been critical of WhatsApp on previous occasions. Earlier this year had criticised WhatsApp and Facebook, alleging the companies of “abusing their monopoly” when WhatsApp had introduced its new privacy policy.
“They say, market has power. We are the largest market. Here in India WhatsApp / Facebook are abusing their monopoly & taking away millions of users’ privacy for granted. We should move on to @signalapp NOW. It is up to us to become victim or reject such moves,” Sharma had tweeted in January.
The controversial privacy update had also led to a massive surge in usage for Signal earlier this year. The app garnered popularity and had been endorsed by the likes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
WhatsApp suffered a temporary outage that lasted around 45 minutes.
Downdetector, a service that tracks internet outage recorded over 22,000 user reports for issues with WhatsApp on Friday night.
“Thanks for your patience, that was a long 45 minutes but we are back! #WhatsAppDown,” WhatsApp tweeted from this official account around 12:11 am IST on March 20.
Published on March 20, 2021
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