Logo images of Naver (left) and Kakao

Naver and Kakao, the nation’s top two internet companies, suffered malfunctions for hours due to a spike in traffic after President Yoon Suk Yeok issued his short-lived martial law decree.

After Yoon made the sudden declaration at 10:23 p.m. on Tuesday, the Naver Cafe platform for community discussions experienced access issues on smartphones, which were resolved after midnight. Even after access normalized, some functions such as posting and editing comments experienced disruptions until they fully recovered at around 1:20 a.m. on Wednesday.

“We found no reasons for the error other than a sudden network traffic increase,” a Naver official said.

Naver News, the company's news platform, also experienced a temporary outage. “Due to a traffic surge, the news comments system switched to emergency mode for about 20 minutes starting at 10:45 p.m. last night and started operating normally,” the official added.

Several Kakao services, including the Daum portal, also suffered accessibility issues, largely hit by the traffic surge.

Critics say that the online platforms operated by Naver and Kakao are required to bolster their readiness for national emergencies as they are considered the only communication channels for the public.

“Last night, citizens first went to Naver and Daum to check the news. It means that the two portals effectively function as national communication infrastructure,” said Wi Jung-hyun, a professor of business administration at Chung-Ang University.

“They have the characteristics of being public goods but both experience service malfunctions too often in emergencies. This issue should be taken more seriously and the companies must invest in data stabilization to prevent recurrence, like Google does.”

Both Naver and Kakao have ramped up efforts to boost server capacity as well as enhance emergency response through simulation training. But a sudden surge in user traffic often leads to service malfunctions, fueling public anxiety, especially in emergency situations.

According to Naver, user traffic hit a new high late Tuesday following Yoon’s martial law declaration. The exact figure was not revealed immediately.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)