Kakaotalk is an application for text messages launched in March 2010. It has become a significant part of daily life nowadays as 94.4% of South Koreans use it as the main method of digital communication. In the afternoon of October 15th, a fire at Kakaotalk’s data center in Pangyo affected its services, and the system went down for 11 hours. According to a Korean business outlet economic review, the interruption of the service was the longest in the company's history, while users could not access the app at all. 

The slow recovery process of the system marks Kakao's lack of owned server infrastructure and its high dependence on the data center. As a company providing applications used by most of the population in South Korea, having a backup plan for unexpected situations is significant. However, the fire at the data center represents how Kakao lacks a well-distributed backup system. As an incident from a private company is practically affecting the national communication system, South Korean president Yoon Suk-Yeol made public comments. He said, “If a monopoly situation causes market manipulation, the government should take systemic action.” President Yoon is opening the possibility for the government to act against a private company. 

Kakao services are up and running again, but they could not avoid the aftermath of an unprecedented accident. The stock price of Kakao tumbled as the share price dropped more than 9%. Even though the system recovered, the country’s dominant messaging app could not avoid the financial loss. At the press conference, Euntaek Hong, head of ESG at Kakao, mentioned that the company plans to invest 325 million dollars to build its own data center next year to avoid the interruption of the service happening again.

심예준 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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