[Itaewon Tragedy] Naver and Kakao Establish Online Memorial Space

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Naver and Kakao have created online spaces to commemorate the victims of the Itaewon tragedy.

On the 31st, Naver placed a banner with the phrase "Deepest Condolences" and a memorial ribbon for the victims of the accident to the right of the search bar on its main page. The same banner was also added above the search bar on the mobile application’s main screen.

Clicking the banner allows direct access to a memorial board and related real-time news. The memorial board displays a black-and-white chrysanthemum image along with the message "We mourn the victims of the Itaewon accident," and asks visitors to pay their respects by attaching a memorial ribbon for the victims.

Users can participate in the memorial by clicking "Attach Memorial Ribbon," but no separate comment function is supported. At the bottom of the screen, a black ribbon and partial IDs of users who have paid their respects are shown.

As of 10 a.m., more than 138,000 people had participated in the online memorial on the Naver app, which began late the previous afternoon.

Kakao has provided a link to the memorial page in the "Kakao Now" section, which appears at the bottom of the screen when selecting the "More" tab at the far right of the messenger app KakaoTalk.

Clicking the image that says "We express our deepest condolences. Please leave your memorial message" opens a "Daum News" page where users can write memorial comments.

However, unlike regular news comments, only the fixed phrase "We sincerely pray for the deceased’s happiness in the afterlife" can be posted. Kakao explained, "To prevent any possible secondary harm, only the designated memorial phrase can be used."

This page can also be accessed by clicking the memorial banner displayed at the top right of the main page of the portal site Daum. Currently, about 20,000 comments have been posted on Kakao’s memorial page.

Additionally, KakaoBank is showing a popup with the message "We express our condolences for the Itaewon human casualty accident" on its app’s start screen to offer sympathy and comfort.

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