Whon Namkoong, co-chief executive officer of Kakao Corp., speaks during a news conference in in Pangyo, South Korea, on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2022. Namkoong resigned after a widespread outage took out Koreas hottest messaging and social media service. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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A top executive at Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, will step down. His resignation comes after a fireplace at an information center led to a mass outage over the weekend and disrupted services for its messenger’s 53 million users worldwide.
Co-CEO Namkoong Whon apologized following the outage and said he would resign.
“I feel the heavy burden of responsibility over this incident and can step down from my position as CEO and lead the emergency disaster task force overseeing the aftermath of the incident,” Namkoong said at a press conference at the corporate’s office within the outskirts of Seoul on Wednesday.
“We are going to do our greatest to revive our users’ faith in Kakao and be sure that incidents like these never occur again,” he said, in accordance with a CNBC translation.
Namkoong was appointed CEO in March, in accordance with the corporate’s website. Kakao reported 47.5 million monthly energetic users in South Korea throughout the second quarter. That is greater than 90% of South Korea’s population of 51.74 million people, as of Nov. 1, 2021.
Co-CEOs Whon Namkoong (L) and Hong Eun-taek (R) bow before they depart a news conference in Pangyo, South Korea on Oct. 19, 2022. Namkoong resigned after an outage over the weekend locked out thousands and thousands of users.
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Hong Eun-taek, who led the corporate alongside Namkoong as co-CEO, will remain the only real head of the corporate, in accordance with a company filing.
“We sincerely apologize to all people who have suffered from the disruptions throughout the outage,” Hong said as he bowed alongside Namkoong.
Shares of the corporate traded 4% higher in South Korea’s morning session ahead of the press conference.
