Seoul, South Korea

South Korea's largest mobile chat app Kakao Corporation's CEO Namkoong Whon resigned on Wednesday after failing to calm public anger over not being able to access various services.

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The CEO was indirectly forced to resign after seven months of appointment after millions of users vented anger over outage following a power cut due to a fire at a data centre.

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After a massive outage, the company promised to increase its investment in the data centre. Both former CEO Namkoong and co-CEO Hong Euntaek apologised to people for the inconvenience caused. 

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At a press conference, co-CEO, now CEO Hong said, "We did not prepare for a complete shutdown of an entire data centre." He added, "We will increase infrastructure investment so we can be prepared for shutdown of a data centre or two."

Hong further said that though most of the systems were recovered on Wednesday, some unknown functions remained disturbed and people were not able to do some basic chores, like paying online. 

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Hong said, "While Kakao has become a public service that the majority of the public uses, we've neglected the responsibilities accompanying our status."

The former CEO will remain an adviser to the company. He said, "As the CEO in charge of the business...all thinking revolved around sales and operating profit. Rather than staying in that role, I recognise the gravity of this situation."

Reuters reported him as adding, "For a tech company, the system is like water or air... as (Kakao) has grown rapidly in recent years, we are reevaluating the need for deeper interest and investment in the area." 

As per the company's statement, Kakao is set to invest $460 million to build its own data centres. One of them will be completed by next year. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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