On the Day of the 'Meoktong Incident,' Naver Line and T Map Smiled... KakaoTalk Felt 'Chimul'

On the 15th of the Pangyo Data Center Fire
KakaoTalk Usage Time Halved, Naver Line Doubled

[Photo by Mobile Index]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Hye-sun] On the 15th, when the 'Pangyo Data Center Fire' caused the 'Kakao Outage Incident,' the usage time of KakaoTalk was halved, while the usage time of Naver Line more than doubled. The usage time of other KakaoTalk services such as KakaoT and KakaoPay also sharply declined.

According to the mobile index compiled by big data platform company IGAWorks on the 18th, the total usage time of KakaoTalk users on the 15th (combined Google Android and Apple iOS) was about 10.41 million hours, a sharp drop of 44.41% from about 18.73 million hours the previous day. The daily active users (DAU) also decreased by 1.75% to about 34.3 million. This is the shortest daily usage time since Mobile Index began aggregating data on the two major mobile operating systems in May 2020.

Recently, on weekends or holidays, the total usage time of KakaoTalk has mostly been between 12 million and 14 million hours. This is the first time it has dropped to the 10 million range. The average usage time per user also fell to 18.2 minutes, down 13.97 minutes from the previous day. This is also the first time KakaoTalk’s per-user usage time has dropped to the 10-minute range since the aggregation began. The total usage time of Kakao Mobility’s service apps such as taxi, designated driver, bike, and kickboard, called 'KakaoT,' also fell by 38.17% compared to the previous day. Usage time decreases were also notable in KakaoPay (-56.12%) and KakaoPage (-50.72%).

On the other hand, most competitor apps enjoyed a spillover benefit. Line’s daily total usage time surged by 108.28%, from about 92,000 hours on the 14th to about 192,000 hours on the 15th. Daily active users also increased by 118.34% to about 966,000. Naver app usage time rose by 11.69%, and Naver Series increased by 15.32%.

Woody, a joint venture between Uber and T Map Mobility, saw usage time increase by 353.51% to about 15,000 hours, and daily active users rose by 230.72% to about 147,000. T Map also saw a 20.51% increase in usage time. Telegram, however, saw a 10.3% decrease in usage time on the 15th.

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