Several widely used online platforms, including Spotify, Discord, and Google services, experienced outages on Thursday afternoon, according to tracking site Downdetector.
The disruptions appeared to stem from an issue with Google Cloud, which also affected some services connected to Cloudflare. While Amazon Web Services was listed by Downdetector as having problems, Amazon stated that its systems were functioning normally throughout the day.
Cloudflare clarified that the root cause of the disruption was a Google Cloud outage and emphasized that its primary systems were not impacted. “A limited number of services at Cloudflare use Google Cloud and were impacted. We expect them to come back shortly,” a representative said in an email. The company also noted on its service status page that its Workers KV data storage platform was offline due to an issue with a third-party provider.
Google confirmed the disruption and said it was investigating the cause. Later in the day, a spokesperson confirmed all Google Cloud services had been restored, stating: “Following a disruption to a number of Google Cloud services, all products have now been fully restored.”
Cloudflare also indicated that affected services were beginning to recover by Thursday afternoon. When asked about the issue, Spotify directed attention to Google’s Cloud status page.
According to Downdetector, the outages peaked with around 46,000 Spotify users, 14,000 Google Cloud users, and 11,000 Discord users reporting issues. Other platforms, including Snapchat and Character.ai, were also reportedly affected.
Google Cloud is a major force behind internet infrastructure, powering a significant portion of global web traffic. In 2018, the company stated that its services handled approximately 25% of the world’s internet activity. While not as large as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud still commands about 12% of the global market, compared to Microsoft’s 21% and Amazon’s 30%, according to Synergy Research Group.
This isn’t the first time a cloud provider outage has triggered widespread web disruptions. A 2021 AWS outage impacted food delivery services and smart devices, and a similar incident involving Cloudflare caused service interruptions in 2020.
In recent weeks, other major platforms have also faced outages, including ChatGPT and social media network X.
