South Korea: Emergency inspection of messenger service operator launched over frequent outages

Seoul: The South Korean government has launched an on-site emergency inspection of Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s dominant mobile messenger, to assess its network operations after repeated service outages this year, officials said on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Science and ICT sent a team of software and network experts to Kakao’s headquarters in Pangyo, just south of Seoul, earlier in the morning, according to the officials familiar with the matter.

The inspection is aimed at identifying the cause of last week’s service disruption and evaluating the company’s response measures.

This marks the third on-site inspection the ministry has conducted on Kakao this year, reported Yonhap news agency.

In May, the ministry inspected the company twice after KakaoTalk experienced three service outages between May 13 and 21. Following those disruptions, Kakao was ordered to improve the stability of its operation system.

Earlier this month, Kakao said it has implemented preventative measures and submitted further plans to advance its operation system.

However, the recent service disruption, occurring a week after those rectifications were submitted, has raised concerns.

Under current laws, Kakao could face a fine of up to 3 per cent of its revenue if it is found to have failed to comply with the rectification order.

“Kakao’s service disruption a week after it submitted rectification measures means the company has possibly made insufficient efforts to solve the problem,” Rep. Kim Jang-kyom of the ruling People Power Party said.

–IANS