"Over 1,200 Cases Reported in 5 Days of 'Kakao Outage' Impacting Small Businesses... 'Sales Decline and Existing Customers Leaving'"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Dong-hyun] It has been revealed that small business owners engaged in the 'transportation industry' such as taxis and freight, as well as the 'food service industry' such as chicken and pizza, suffered significant damage due to the 'Kakao outage' incident that occurred on the 15th.

The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business collected 1,254 damage reports from small business owners related to the Kakao outage incident from the 17th to 2 p.m. on the 21st.

By industry, the transportation sector (taxis, freight, etc.) accounted for the highest proportion of damage at 33.57%. This was followed by the food service industry (24.19%), wholesale and retail (13.99%), service industry (16.52%), and others (10.1%).

Additionally, paid services such as KakaoT Pro Membership, Melon, and Tableling accounted for the largest share of damage at 57.4%. Damage to free services such as KakaoT general calls, KakaoMap, KakaoTalk, and KakaoPay payments also accounted for 39.98% of the total.

In particular, small business owners experienced difficulties as access to the KakaoTalk 'Channel' service was not smooth. Even when searching for brand channels on KakaoTalk Channel to find products to purchase, the administrator channels were suspended, making it impossible to confirm orders, reservations, or inquiries.

A chicken franchise store located in Yongin-si, Gyeonggi Province, usually had sales of 1.5 million KRW on weekends related to KakaoTalk Gift Coupon. However, due to the Kakao outage, KakaoTalk Gift usage was unavailable, resulting in no related sales. A beauty consulting company in Seocho-gu, Seoul, which operates on a 100% reservation basis through KakaoTalk Channel, reported that existing customers left due to the system outage.

Other damage cases included parking lot operations being paralyzed due to server downtime of Kakao Mobilian parking barriers, and delivery agencies based on KakaoMap being unusable, causing sales to drop to one-quarter.

A representative from the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business stated, "The damage report submission period related to the Kakao outage incident has been extended by one week from the original schedule and will be accepted until the 31st."