Various Damages Including KakaoTalk, KakaoPay Payments, and Mobility Services
Clear Compensation Announcement Possible Only After Identifying Error Causes and Scale
Ruling and Opposition Parties Push to Summon Chairman Kim Beom-su as Witness at National Assembly Audit
KakaoTalk experienced a service disruption starting around 3:30 PM due to a fire that occurred the previous day at the Pangyo data center. Photo by Yonhap News
[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] KakaoTalk, which experienced a service outage, has restored some of its functions. The so-called 'KakaoTalk blackout' incident led to various cases of damage such as 'Kakao Taxi booking errors,' 'kickboard fare explosions,' and 'Gifticon payment failures.' It is an unprecedented case for a platform company to cause such a large-scale, long-term outage. Since there are few precedents and the terms of service vary by service, it is expected to take time before a clear announcement of the compensation scale for damages is made.
On the 16th, Kakao announced that the recovery of some services is delayed. As of 8 a.m. that day, Kakao released the recovery status of KakaoTalk and Kakao services. According to this, the KakaoTalk message sending and receiving function has been restored, but sending talk channels and image and video files is not possible. Kakao stated, "Normalization work is currently ongoing, but please understand that message sending and receiving may still not be smooth."
Kakao announced on the morning of the 16th that the restoration of some services is being delayed. Photo by Daum screen capture
Also, since the service is not fully restored, some users are reportedly complaining about damages caused by Kakao service errors. One user expressed frustration after incurring costs amounting to hundreds of thousands of won while using Kakao Mobility services.
At around 9:15 p.m. on the 15th, when the Kakao service blackout occurred, an anonymous post appeared on the online community 'Everytime' titled "I am the person who wrote about returning the Kakao kickboard earlier, and the current fare is 106,500 won." The poster later added at 1:31 a.m. on the 16th, about four hours later, "(Kickboard) fare has surpassed 500,000 won, and it was parked next to Hakjeong Station, but someone took it and it is now in front on the side." They also asked, "Will I be able to get a refund?" Another netizen posted a similar message saying, "The scooter (electric kickboard) won't end."
Kakao Mobility provides shared personal mobility (PM) services such as electric and regular bicycles and electric kickboards. For bicycles, usage automatically ends when the lock is engaged. However, for kickboards, users must access the application (app) and press the 'End Use' button. Due to the error, app access was not smooth, so it was recognized as continuous use of the kickboard, causing the fare to increase.
Complaints about KakaoTalk gift usage also continued. According to online communities, one netizen raised their voice saying, "I went to a family restaurant to use a gift voucher received via KakaoTalk, but I am stuck and cannot leave." Others said, "I was supposed to pay (using Kakao services), but KakaoPay did not work at the restaurant, so my friend ended up paying."
There were also citizens complaining about Kakao taxi call errors. One citizen expressed frustration, saying, "Kakao taxi calls are not working." Various complaints about Kakao service errors, such as "KakaoPay remittance messages are not reaching the recipient," also surfaced.
On the afternoon of the 15th, firefighters are conducting extinguishing operations at Building A of the SK Pangyo Campus in Sampyeong-dong, Bundang-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi Province, where a fire broke out. Photo by Yonhap News
◆ Paid services will be compensated, but...
Given the situation, attention is focused on compensation for damages caused by Kakao service errors. According to the industry, Kakao is still identifying the cause and scale of the error, so it is expected to take time before a clear calculation of the compensation scale is made.
Kakao explains that paid services such as KakaoTalk Emoticon Plus or Daum Premium Mail service will compensate users in case of outages. Article 12, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 2 of the 'Kakao Paid Service Terms' states that compensation can be made "in cases where normal service provision is hindered due to power outages, information and communication equipment failures or malfunctions, excessive usage, or communication interruptions."
Article 17 explains the refund method when paid services are terminated or cannot be provided. Services that are completed with a single use after payment are refundable only within one year from the purchase completion date, and for subscription-type services, refunds are made excluding the amount corresponding to the usage days and refund fees.
However, since most services are free and detailed terms differ even for paid services, it is expected to take time to know the exact compensation standards.
Kim Beom-su, Chairman of Kakao, briefly closes his eyes during the National Assembly audit of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups held on October 7 last year. Photo by Yonhap News
◆ An unprecedented incident related to Kakao services overall
Yang Hyun-seo, Vice President of Kakao, announced that about half of the servers at the SK Corporation C&C Pangyo Data Center, where a fire occurred the previous day (15th), have been restored. Vice President Yang told reporters at the fire site on the 16th, "We have about 32,000 servers here, using this as the main data center," and added, "Currently, about 16,000 servers have been restored."
Regarding full service restoration, he said, "The manual originally calls for recovery within 20 minutes, but the amount of server loss is so large," and it is difficult to say exactly how much longer it will take for services like KakaoTalk to be fully restored. He added, "Since the entire power supply was cut off, it is taking a lot of time to switch traffic despite redundancy measures."
Meanwhile, the National Assembly plans to summon Kim Beom-su, Chairman of Kakao, as a witness for the National Assembly Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee (STIBC) audit on the 24th. According to ruling and opposition parties on the 16th, the STIBC is expected to hold a plenary session on the 17th and approve a proposal to add Kim and Park Seong-ha, CEO of SK C&C, among other Kakao executives, as additional witnesses.
Democratic Party STIBC Secretary Cho Seung-rae said in an interview with a media outlet, "Since this concerns all services related to KakaoTalk, the owner should appear at the audit and apologize to the public." He added, "We need to hear from the group about why the recovery was not quick, the background of the accident including backup network construction, and future plans and positions. Also, we will ask how damages caused by this blackout incident will be compensated."
Meanwhile, Kakao stated, "All Kakao crew members will do their best to restore all functions as quickly as possible so that everyone can return to a convenient daily life." They also said, "We sincerely apologize once again for the inconvenience caused to many people due to the data center fire," and reiterated, "We will do our utmost to restore all functions as quickly as possible so that everyone can return to a convenient daily life."
Kakao experienced widespread service outages for a long time starting around 3:30 p.m. the previous day due to the fire at the Pangyo Data Center, causing inconvenience to many users.
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