[THE INVESTOR] Kakao is under fire as its mobile messenger KakaoTalk, used by 96 percent of the entire smartphone users in Korea, went offline for around two hours right after the magnitude-5.8 earthquake on Sept. 12.

The mobile messenger’s services were disrupted from 7:45 p.m. to 9:52 p.m., a minute after the earthquake and aftershocks started to rock the nation.

The mobile app was later back in service, but the service disruption has upset a number of KakaoTalk users, who could not send and receive messages and make a call with the mobile messenger during the time.



“As the messenger, which is the main means of communication with others, went out of service for around two hours, I could not talk to my family and friends, which was quite scary,” said Kim Go-eun, a 27-year-old KakaoTalk user.

The messenger operator said a traffic surge caused its servers to malfunction.

Most other mobile messenger services including Line and Facebook Messenger, on the other hand, were unaffected by the earthquake -- the most powerful seismic activity here since the nation started measuring tremors in 1978.

Telecom operators SK Telecom, KT and  LG UPLUS said there was neither any damage to their network nor service disruptions because of the tremor, but there were reportedly delays in mobile network services for around 20 minutes after the earthquake.

By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)