I guess this is applicable to any social media platform or other similar systems. Is it because there are always bugs to address, so it’s never really running smoothly, or other reasons?
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I actually really like this question because it forces you to think about what’s really involved in a business like this.
For the most part it can but at some point, security may become an issue.
A codebase will also often have long-standing bugs, for which a workaround requiring people is usually taken until there’s a fix (which also requires people). Each fix can potentially introduce what are called regressions, and then you are back to having bugs to fix. Good codebases have strong testing frameworks to help minimize this risk. A company may choose to hire quality assurance people for testing. These people may also be developers or at least have a strong command of the space in general.
Scaling the platform can be automated to some extent using tools like Kubernetes, though it turns into a rather complex task that commands highly skilled engineers. There are some gotchas there with how to handle sensitive information as well.
You may also be doing some data analysis to best provide information to your advertisers, and that can easily involve some technical talent.
Caching (storing frequently accessed information aside for ready use) is a beast in itself. This has implications on performance. Outages are a pretty obvious need for resources.
There are also other reasons like if the platform enters a new market, the language support and will need to be introduced. Or if a greater focus on disability issues is taken, then your user interface would need to support that. If there’s a new device that is introduced (say, an iPad)
interface support for that may be desired.
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