SEOUL -- One Saturday afternoon around two years ago, South Koreans were thrown into a panic when internet platform Kakao suddenly stopped its services due to an outage at a data center. The disruption lasted 24 hours and caused chaos, with tens of millions of users unable to withdraw money, buy groceries on e-commerce platforms, hail taxis or send messages to family and friends.
The incident starkly underscored just how big Kakao's influence had become in the nation, as well as how risky it was to rely on a single company for key services. But life without Kakao is still unimaginable for many in South Korea, even as the business grapples with legal troubles, fines and growing public antipathy over its market dominance and track record of aggressive takeovers.
