At around 15:40 on October 15, a fire broke out at the SK Data Center (IDC) in Pangyo. Kakao, which uses this data center, had also been damaged, and all services provided by Kakao, including Kakao Talk, a chat service used by most Koreans, Kakao Taxi, Kakao Map, and Kakao Pay, were not available except Kakao Bank. Such server accidents frequently occurred before, but the response was delayed in this accident, and many people complained of inconvenience.

President Yoon expressed concern over the incident, saying, "What will you do if Kakao Talk goes down in an emergency such as a war?" This has led to criticism that many public institutions are currently overly dependent on Kakao, a private company. Some people who experienced inconvenience due to the service provided by Kakao criticized Kakao's monopoly due to the incident. The incident affected many ways, with other apps pushed back by Kakao-based apps at the top of the app store.

In addition, there was criticism that it was already a predicted disaster in that compared to many services operated by Kakao, it does not divide the server and relies on all servers in one place. Naver, which has a server in Pangyo SK IDC, where the fire broke out, was able to prevent significant confusion because other data centers existed. Some netizens criticized, "Why didn't they divide the server when they split the affiliates?"

On the other hand, some point out that the pressure of telecommunication companies is a problem. Instead of lowering the network fee for Kakao Talk, SK made us use the server of the SK affiliate's data center. This claim's evidence can be found in the case of Naver, which used only SK IDC, created a server in Japan, and then SK increased Naver's network usage fee.

Kakao CEO Nam Gung-hoon said he felt responsible for the accident, resigned from his post, and will do his best to prevent disasters by playing the role of a disaster countermeasure subcommittee. Kakao will compensate the victims, advance the completion of the Ansan data center to next year, and complete the data center in Siheung by 2024 to prevent other accidents.

Source: post.naver.com/viewer/postView.naver?volumeNo=34651208. Accessed 19 Oct. 2022.

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