Yoon says state should intervene in distorted markets after KakaoTalk disruption

By Lee Haye-ah

SEOUL, Oct. 17 (Yonhap) -- President Yoon Suk-yeol said Monday the antitrust watchdog is looking into the issue of top mobile messenger KakaoTalk dominating South Korea's mobile messenger market, after the service ground to a halt due to a server outage over the weekend.

A fire started the outage at a data center used by Kakao Corp., the messenger app's operator, on Saturday afternoon, causing major disruptions to everything from everyday communication to ride-hailing and public services tied to the app.

The weekend standstill exposed a major vulnerability in one of the world's most wired nations, leading to questions about Kakao's dominance in the communication market and the need for government intervention to address structural flaws.

"I'm a believer in a free market economy that respects the freedom and creativity of businesses, but that is premised on the market rationally distributing resources and income according to a fair and competitive system," Yoon told reporters as he arrived for work.

"If the market is distorted by a monopoly or serious oligopoly, and if that forms something as big as a country's basic infrastructure, I think the state should certainly take the necessary institutional steps in the interest of the people," he said, adding the Fair Trade Commission is looking into the matter.

Yoon promised to work with the National Assembly to draw up necessary measures to prevent and respond to similar incidents in the future.

He also said he instructed Science Minister Lee Jong-ho over the weekend to directly oversee the recovery of Kakao's services and to come up with an action plan for the government.

hague@yna.co.kr
(END)