DISRUPTIONS IN KAKAO SERVICES

[Anchor Lead]

Korea's tech giant Kakao's internet services have been back on line in phases since Sunday morning. Saturday's fire in its data center caused service disruptions that inconvenienced many users over the weekend. The problem is that some of the services still haven't been restored. Police are working together with the National Forensic Service to identify the cause of fire.

[Pkg]

Kakao service disruptions greatly inconvenienced people throughout the weekend.

[Soundbite] Kang Seong-il(Yongin Resident) : "I could send messages but not image files. I wanted to share some photos but I couldn’t. I used another messenger service to make an appointment."

[Soundbite] Kim Min-ji(Seoul Resident) : "I couldn’t log on to a Daum cafe linked to Kakao Talk. My friend told me to check on her multiple profiles."

Kakao Talk was recovered in about ten hours since the service went down. But photo and video transmission functions resumed just Sunday night while the firm's cab calling service was restored Sunday afternoon.

[Soundbite] Yang Hyun-seo(Kakao Vice President) : "It takes a long time to rebuild the servers and convert them to traffic. Please understand that I can’t tell you exactly when the services will be restored."

All this trouble began when a fire broke out in a data center in Pangyo where Kakao servers are located. The fire was extinguished in eight hours, but since power is supplied in phases after safety has been ensured, it is taking some time to completely restore all services. Police reported that the fire started in one of some thirty supplemental power suppliers in the electricity room three floors underground. The first round of forensic work concluded that electrical factors associated with the power suppliers and batteries caused the fire. The police and the National Forensic Service conducted a joint investigation Monday morning to find the exact cause. This is Kakao's largest service failure since the Kakao Talk messenger app was launched in 2010.