Mask Sales Inquiry Service Launched Nationwide...Temporary Server Crash

"Loading Delays Due to Surge in Visitors"
Citizens Experience Inconvenience

Pharmacy information app 'Ddokddak' mask sales information notification screen. The page's server was temporarily paralyzed due to the influx of users. / Photo by Ddokddak application capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suwan] An application (app) and web service that provide real-time information on the locations and sales quantities of public mask sales points such as pharmacies and post offices launched on the morning of the 11th, but the servers were temporarily paralyzed due to connection failures caused by a surge of users.

Starting from 8 a.m. that day, mask inventory inquiry services began on platforms like 'Goodoc' and 'Ddokdoc', causing a surge in website traffic.

The websites posted notices stating, "Loading is delayed due to a surge in the number of visitors," and "Public Data Portal mask inventory inquiries are delayed."

As a result, citizens accessing these websites experienced significant inconvenience.

Currently, real-time mask information is being provided on major portals such as Naver and Daum, as well as on private websites and applications developed by companies like MaskMap, Mask Alimi, and WearMask.

Meanwhile, this mask information is collected by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, which gathers data on mask stock and sales by sales point and provides it to the National Information Society Agency (NIA). The processed data is then supplied to servers operated by Naver Cloud.

Using the publicly available API information, developers can create web pages or apps. Even those who are not developers can access the data.

The NIA requested cooperation from the developer community the day before, asking that "internal use of the public mask API information begin from 7 p.m. on the 10th, and official service start from 8 a.m. on the 11th."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.