[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Kakao announced on the 30th that it will accept document submissions for four weeks until February 27 to provide support funds for small business owners affected by the SK C&C data center fire, according to the service disruption damage support principles established by the ‘1015 Damage Support Council’.
Kakao will first begin accepting documents from small business owners who reported through official channels between October 19 and November 6, and will conduct additional submissions for two weeks from February 13 to 27. Existing applicants were guided on the document submission process via email and KakaoTalk messages, and information about the additional submission period and methods will also be announced on the Small Business Federation website.
Kakao focused on making it as easy as possible for small business owners to submit documents. An official chatbot was established that allows users to receive submission guidance and complete the submission in one go. Additionally, all channels including the customer center webpage, phone, and mail will be open to facilitate convenient document submission for small business owners. To this end, about 100 counseling staff have been added, and a dedicated customer center will be operated.
Small business owners need to submit documents such as ▲small business owner verification certificate ▲proof of sales damage due to the disruption ▲proof of Kakao service usage ▲a copy of a bank account under the business name or representative’s name. Although document submission is required due to unavoidable legal reasons, the verification process has been simplified for the majority of damage cases related to KakaoTalk messages and KakaoTalk Channel disruptions, allowing confirmation through simple service usage screen captures. By searching for and adding the official chatbot ‘Kakao 1015 Small Business Support Center’ on the KakaoTalk Channel, users can attach captured or photographed images of the relevant documents.
According to the principles established by the ‘1015 Damage Support Council,’ Kakao will provide ▲30,000 KRW for sales loss amounts of 300,000 KRW or less ▲50,000 KRW for amounts exceeding 300,000 KRW but not exceeding 500,000 KRW, and ▲additional support will be considered after damage verification for cases exceeding 500,000 KRW. The support funds are planned to be paid by the end of March after reviewing the submitted documents.
In addition, Kakao will run a program in February to provide free cash worth 50,000 KRW, which can be used to send about 2,000 KakaoTalk Channel messages, to support small business owners operating on the Kakao platform. Any small business owner can apply for the free cash through a separate webpage.
Song Ji-hye, Head of KakaoTalk Division at Kakao and a member of the council, said, “We apologize once again for the inconvenience and damage caused to business activities due to the service disruption, and we will do our best to complete the payment of support funds to fulfill our social responsibility and promote win-win cooperation with small business owners.”
Meanwhile, Kakao announced the damage support plan for the SK C&C data center fire service disruption established by the council on December 29 last year. The council decided to proceed by distinguishing between general domestic users of Kakao’s services and business partners who suffered business damage due to the disruption. Accordingly, from January 5 to 20, a pledge report containing the cause of the disruption and recurrence prevention measures, along with three types of emoticons, were provided to the entire nation.
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