Kakao co-CEO resigns after mass outage blocks access to 53 million users

A senior executive of Kakao Corp, the operator of South Korea’s largest mobile messaging company, KakaoTalk, is to step down. His resignation comes after a data center fire that disrupted a major weekend and Disabled services Its messenger has 53 million users around the world.

Co-CEO Namkoong Whon apologized after the outage and said he would resign.

“I feel the heavy burden of responsibility for this accident, and I will step down as CEO and lead the emergency disaster response task force overseeing the aftermath of the accident,” Namkong said at a press conference at the company’s office on the outskirts of Seoul. Wednesday.

“We will do everything we can to restore our users’ trust in Kakao and make sure such incidents don’t happen again,” he said, according to a CNBC translation.

Namkoong was appointed CEO in March, according to the company website. Kakao reported 47.5 million monthly active users in Korea during the second quarter. This represents more than 90% of South Korea’s population of 51.74 million, as of November 1, 2021.

Hong Eun-taek, who led the company along with Namkoong as co-CEO, will remain the company’s sole president, according to company deposit.

“We sincerely apologize to everyone who experienced disruption during the outage,” Hong said, bowing to Namkong’s side.

The company’s shares were trading up 4% in the morning session in Korea before the press conference.

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