KakaoTalk 'Outage' Leads to Threefold Increase in Line Users

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Over the past weekend, when the KakaoTalk 'outage' incident continued due to the SK㈜ C&C data center fire, the number of users of messaging applications competing with KakaoTalk, such as Line and Telegram, surged.

According to the results of a sample survey conducted on Korean smartphone users aged 10 and above (Android · iOS) by the app and retail analysis service 'WiseApp · Retail · Goods' on the 17th, the number of KakaoTalk users on the 16th was 39.05 million, a decrease of 2.07 million compared to 41.12 million users on the 14th, before the fire occurred.

On the other hand, the number of users of messaging apps excluding KakaoTalk, such as Line, Telegram, and Facebook Messenger, surged. The messaging app with the largest increase in users was Line, which grew from 430,000 users on the 14th to 1.28 million users on the 16th, approximately tripling.

Following Line, the app with the next largest increase in users was Telegram, which increased by 220,000 users from 1.06 million on the 14th to 1.28 million on the 16th. Facebook Messenger also increased by 190,000 users, from 1.22 million on the 14th to 1.41 million on the 16th.

The messaging apps with the largest increase in installers were Line, Telegram, Facebook Messenger, KakaoTalk, and WeChat, in that order. Among these, the number of Line installers increased significantly by 720,000, from 2.91 million on the 14th to 3.64 million on the 16th.

As the KakaoTalk error persisted over the weekend, many users sought alternative services, which is analyzed to have caused the surge in users of these messaging apps.

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