1.4 billion was also the highest number of calls registered on the messaging platform in a single day. This year, the number of calls on January 1 increased by 50 per cent compared to last year’s New Year’s Eve
Facebook-owned WhatsApp registered over 1.4 billion video and voice calls on New Year’s Eve across the world, according to some statistics revealed by Facebook. This was also the highest number of calls registered on the messaging platform in a single day. This year, the number of calls on January 1 increased by 50 per cent compared to last year’s New Year’s Eve.
Facebook’s other messaging app, Messenger also had a surge in video calls and group video calls over the New Year’s Eve. According to a statement by the social media giant, New Year’s Eve 2020 was the biggest day ever for Facebook Messenger group video calls (3+ people) in the United States. The number of group video calls on New Year’s Eve were nearly twice the amount on average days. The Facebook statement claims that people used the effects feature on the app to celebrate the New Year.
Another statistic showed that more than 55 million live broadcasts were detected on Facebook and Instagram globally on New Year’s Eve.
Caitlin Banford, technical program manager at Facebook said, “Before COVID-19, New Year’s Eve generated Facebook’s biggest spikes in messaging, photo uploads and social sharing at midnight across the world. However, in March 2020, the early days of the pandemic produced traffic spikes that would dwarf New Year’s Eve several times over – and it lasted for months.”
“Behind the scenes, Facebook Engineering came together to drive unprecedented efficiency improvements and make our infrastructure more resilient. This work includes load testing, disaster recovery testing and shuffling capacity. This year, New Year’s Eve looked a lot different, and we had engineering teams across Facebook’s apps, ready to support any issue, so the world could ring in 2021,” he added.
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