On Oct. 15, the mobile chatting service Kakaotalk experienced yet another technical failure, and millions of users were unable to use the service for more than a day. This technical failure resulted from a fire in Pangyeo, Gyeonggi, where the data center for Kakao was located. Due to this problem, users were unable to use the service from anywhere between 10 hours to two days. Businesses, not to mention some government networks, had to halt due to this system failure, which posed the question: "Are Koreans too dependent on Kakao?".
 Discomfort over Kakaotalk chatting services was not the only negative effect of the malfunction of Kakao. Small and large businesses also experienced financial losses, and taxi drivers affiliated with Kakao Taxi (KakaoT) were among those who were highly impacted. As this crash of Kakao happened during the peak hours when demand for taxi cabs are the highest, many taxi drivers who depend on daily wages suffered losses. Although Kakao announced that it would offer some form of compensation for these losses in the near future, this longest-ever malfunction of Kakao services resulted in widespread skepticism over the heavy reliance on Kakao.
 Due to the convenience of the mobile chatting service Kakao provided, the company grew until it started to expand to include new areas such as banking and transportation services. It quickly rose to be one of the most influential companies in Korea, and currently, approximately 83.6% of the Korean population is currently using Kakaotalk. This massive number shows how many Koreans, not to mention Korean businesses, are dependent on this mobile service. 
 In response to the malfunction of Kakaotalk, there have been discussions about dispersing the data centers for Kakaotalk. Although there was a similar technical failure 10 years ago due to a problem with the power systems of the data center, Kakao failed to prevent future incidents. The dispersion of the data center may lower the possibility of Kakaotalk completely crashing for a long period of time. In addition, there have been opinions from politicians and users that there should be restrictions on the market monopoly that Kakao has established. In order to prevent similar accidents from happening, both Kakao and the National Assembly should actively strive to create specialized solutions.