Kakao co-CEO resigns after service crash

Kakao co-CEO Namkoong Whon apologizes after the company’s services crashed over the weekend at a press conference held Wednesday morning at the company's office in Pangyo, Gyeonggi. [PARK EUN-JEE]

 
Kakao co-CEO Namkoong Whon resigned on Wednesday after the company’s services crashed over the weekend when a fire broke out at a data center in Pangyo, Gyeonggi.
 
Namkoong made the announcement at a press conference Wednesday at the company’s office in Pangyo, near where the blaze broke out.  
 
Whon and co-CEO Hong Eun-taek issued an apology for the crash that affected a broad range of services including KakaoTalk, Kakao Pay, Kakao Bank and Kakao Games.  
 
Kakao servers were knocked out as a result of the fire at the data center that started Saturday afternoon. The company’s messenger and services offered by related companies were unavailable, degraded or intermittent for more than 10 hours as backup systems failed to kick in fast enough.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]