Kakao apps hit with service outage due to fire at data center

A passenger walks at the office of Kakao Bank. [NEWS1]

 
Kakao’s major services including instant messenger Kakao Talk, ride-hailing app Kakao T and Kakao Bank suffered a service malfunction on Saturday due to a fire at a data center, the company officials said.
 
In a post on Twitter, Kakao said that its repair work may continue well past midnight, indicating that the services won’t return to normal within today.  
 
The blaze broke out at around 3:33 p.m. at the building of SK C&C located in Pangyo, just south of Seoul, they said. The building also houses the data centers for Naver and Kakao.
 

An error notice of Kakao Talk [SCREEN CAPTURE]

 
Other service failures were also reported at Kakao’s online payment unit Kakao Pay Corp. and its gaming platform Kakao Games.
 
Naver also said a partial disruption was reported at its shopping services, including Shopping Live. 

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