Whon Namkoong, Co-CEO of Kakao Corp. speaks. , during a press conference in Pangyo, South Korea, on Wednesday, October 19, 2022. Namkoong resigned after a widespread outage from Korea’s most popular messaging and social media service. . Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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 53 million users worldwide.
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 team that is 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.
Co-CEOs Whon Namkoong (left) and Hong Eun-taek (right) bow before leaving a press conference in Pangyo, South Korea on October 19, 2022. Namkoong resigned after a weekend outage for millions of users.
Seong Joon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images
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.
This is urgent news. . Please check back for updates
