[Column] When Will Kakao's 'Outage' Label Finally Be Removed?

Around 1 p.m. on the 27th, a citizen is attempting to make a reservation using both the Naver and Kakao apps, which now allow checking and booking of leftover COVID-19 vaccines.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] The words most familiar to reporters covering Kakao are 'national messenger' and 'outage.' From the first day of the pilot operation of the COVID-19 leftover vaccine inquiry system, errors occurred in KakaoTalk's service, inevitably attaching the label 'outage.'

When searching for leftover vaccines in the KakaoTalk Shop (#) tab to use the leftover vaccine reservation service that started at 1 p.m. on the 27th, either a blank screen appeared or a message indicating connection issues was displayed. Kakao even temporarily took down the leftover vaccine tab. The error lasted for about two hours that day.

Kakao explained this by saying, "Due to a sudden surge in traffic, the service on KakaoMap was not smoothly implemented." However, this situation is hard to understand. It implies that there was no prior preparation for the traffic expected for the COVID-19 vaccine service, which is a matter of national interest. The Naver app, which provided the same service, operated normally that day. Criticism that Kakao's response was complacent is inevitable.

The 'traffic' issue that Kakao cites as the cause is also recurring repeatedly. The 'KakaoTalk Wallet,' a service for storing ID cards and certificates, also experienced errors as users flocked from the first day of its launch. The KakaoTalk Wallet was an ambitious project personally overseen by co-CEOs Yeo Minsu and Cho Sooyong, but it bruised its pride from the start.

Periodic outages of KakaoTalk have long become routine. On Children's Day, the 5th, KakaoTalk experienced errors for over two hours, causing significant inconvenience to users. Because the error occurred late at night, many users did not realize it was an error and ended up deleting and reinstalling KakaoTalk, losing all their data. KakaoTalk also experienced outages twice in March last year, as well as in July and November.

As the national messenger used by 45 million people, the damage caused is considerable. Of course, some argue that one cannot complain about damages regarding a free messenger service. However, Kakao earns enormous revenue from various businesses such as advertising, shopping, and content using KakaoTalk. In the first quarter of this year, Kakao's sales reached 1.258 trillion KRW, and operating profit was 157.5 billion KRW.

Some point out that while Kakao quickly and easily adds new services to KakaoTalk, it has not improved its ability to operate them stably. CEO Yeo stated in Kakao's first ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) report the day before, "We will do our best for a better world created by technology and people." We hope Kakao will also strive to improve 'KakaoTalk,' the national messenger.

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