Netflix has become a common name in every household. The company has revolutionized the way people watch T.V. series and movies. The service that once was limited to movie renting is now on the verge of replacing cable television altogether. It allows people to access and watch a large library of T.V. shows, movies and documentaries. They have even introduced interactive shows to enhance their user experience.
One of the most used streaming services throughout the world, Netflix was down for over 11000 users in the United States on late Sunday. Downdetector, an online platform that gives real time information on the status of various websites and services, reported the Netflix outage which lasted for over an hour. As a result of the outage that affected several users on the platform from logging in or watching their favorite T.V. series, lot of them took to social media to express their frustration.
What is an outage?
Just like any other technology based company, Netflix is not immune to technical errors. The hindrance in the supply of a service is termed as an outage, for instance the break in your electricity supply is an electrical outage. An outage, in terms of Netflix, refers to the situation when users are unable to use the platform to its full extent. It could range from not being able to watch a particular show to not being able to login to the platform.
Usually, such services suffer an outage when there are a lot of users trying to access a particular section of the service which was not made to handle that much load. Other reasons might include lack of maintenance, problems with the server and other technical problems.
Previous Netflix Outages:
This was not the first time that Netflix users had experienced difficulties in accessing their favorite entertainment. There have been numerous such instances in the history of the platform. This, however, is not specific to Netflix and other platforms that provide similar services have also had similar experiences. Netflix has always been quick to resolve these issues but there have been times when the outage has lasted longer than usual.
In 2019, the streaming service experienced an outage that lasted for almost two hours. Another outage that disrupted the Amazon cloud services also affected Netflix which uses AWS cloud for its streaming purposes.
Latest Outage:
The outage occurred on Sunday when the finale episode of famous reality dating show, “Love is Blind” was right around the corner. Numerous fans of the show were left disappointed after they were not able to watch the episode and took to social media to express their thoughts. While some of them were quick enough to find clips from famous T.V. shows including The Office and superhit movies to make memes on the situation, others expressed their disappointment. Fans of the famous T.V. show had taken out time from their routine to watch the finale. Some of them took to Twitter claiming they had called off their yoga sessions, skipped gym and music lessons. There were others from outside the United States who were up late at night to watch the show and some who woke up early for the same.
Impact:
Each outage could mean drastic losses for streaming platforms like Netflix. Although, the company is the most used platform, other similar services including Amazon Prime, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, etc also claim a substantial user base. Such circumstances could shift the users from Netflix to other streaming platforms. With the rise in the popularity of this sector, competition among such services has also increased and it is important for Netflix to retain their users to survive the market.
Response:
Netflix took to Twitter and apologized for the inconvenience caused to their users, they further said that the problems would be resolved as soon as humanly possible. The streaming platform’s response has always been transparent and apologetic towards such situation which have helped them maintain a loyal user base in the past. This time too, the platform did not disappoint and soon resolved the problem after which users were able to continue their entertainment.
