If, last night, you were using social media to express your thoughts about the election, you were seemingly in good company. Data shared by broadband network firm Sandvine today reveals that Facebook and Twitter both saw bumper increases in traffic compared to their usual evening levels.
To be more specific, Facebook’s traffic rose by almost 30%, while Twitter’s more than doubled. These findings were just some of many that Sandvine has gathered about the election night’s effect on the Internet. The company’s methodology involved use of a sample US fixed access network that was located on the east coast and, reportedly, has previously fairly reflected national web traffic.
Nonetheless, it looks like many people might have been, through smartphones, tablets and laptops, using social media primarily to comment on events rather than keep track of those events. For that, they might have stuck to TV; total peak traffic on the web was actually down by about 15%, which Sandvine says was likely due to TV being favored over the web for watching election results.
