Thousands of Twitter users were unable to access the website yesterday following the revelation that Frankie Cocozza has left the ‘X Factor’.
The announcement by ITV bosses caused such a huge surge in traffic to the website that only around two-thirds of those trying to access the website were able to.
Rumours surrounding the 18-year-old contestant’s departure began at around at 13.00 yesterday, when Twitter boasted a 100 per cent availability rate. However by 13.30, this had dropped to 66.67 per cent – due to X Factor fans taking to the website in their thousands to discover more information.
The statistics highlight just how popular social media content has become for those trying to learn more about breaking news stories.
Robert Castley, who is a lead solutions consultant at Keynote Systems, stated that it was crucial for websites such as Twitter to have the capabilities to deal with such surges in traffic.
Speaking to wallblog.co.uk, he said: “Although news such as this X Factor announcement is unpredictable, it’s important that sites are prepared for sudden influxes in traffic volumes rather than becoming unavailable at peak times.
“If site visitors are unable to access the information they need, they’re likely to immediately navigate away to another source. The very appeal of social networking sites is that people can be kept up-to-date with instantaneous information.”
Popdash.com added that last year’s X Factor winner Matt Cardle, ‘Xtra Factor’ host Olly Murs and Cocozza’s mentor, Gary Barlow, were among those using Twitter to react to the news.
