[Book in the News] What If the Kakao Empire Shakes? ... How to Deal with the 'Betrayal of Digital'

How Platforms Dominate the Real World
Examining the Boomerang Effects of Technology Worship

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] "I actually like that KakaoTalk wasn't working."

Last weekend, an unprecedented incident occurred where Kakao's major services were simultaneously paralyzed due to a data center fire. Recovery efforts continued throughout the weekend, and citizens expressed frustration and complaints. Amid this, there was an unexpected reaction. Whether leaving work or on the weekend, people felt relieved to be freed from the 'KakaoTalk hell'?the forced 24-hour connection to work. The 'Kakao outage incident' evoked and made people feel these contrasting responses. It showed how much we have depended on and been bound by the platform company that has grown so large it can now be called the 'Kakao Empire.'

Kakao started its service in 2010 as a free chat application (app). Since then, it has expanded its business into areas closely related to citizens' daily lives, such as mobility, entertainment, banking, and electronic payments. Initially a simple chat app, it has now become an essential tool used for communication at work and school, taking taxis, making payments, and even for livelihoods. Rather than using the platform for convenience in real life, it is an 'inversion situation' where the real world is controlled by the environment and logic constructed by the platform.

Professor Lee Kwangseok of Seoul National University of Science and Technology diagnoses in his book that platforms have gone beyond influencing reality to gaining control over the order of reality. In particular, 'sharing platforms' that effectively supply, allocate, and mediate goods or services to those in need "grip workers' livelihoods and labor rights and threaten labor rights," he points out.

For example, the taxi and delivery industries are controlled by the operating policies of sharing platforms like 'Kakao Taxi' or 'Baedal Minjok.' However, taxi drivers and delivery riders, who are platform workers, do not have a typical employer-employee relationship with the sharing platforms. Labor management and evaluation are controlled by service counts, customer ratings, and reviews. In this structure, the labor of platform workers is "merely a resource traded for buying and selling," and workers are "pushed into a vulnerable state without protections for basic labor rights," the author explains.

This inversion situation where digital controls reality becomes even more pronounced when a giant platform shakes, as in this 'Kakao incident.' With Kakao's major services suspended, the entire nation experienced a sudden 'communication blackout,' office workers faced disruptions in their work, and taxi drivers had to stop operating. Financial services also experienced inconveniences.

The author warns to examine not only the sweet fruits of growth brought by technology but also the boomerang effects of technological worship. Perhaps this 'Kakao incident' is a warning toward the era of platform competition that neglects the value of human labor.