Kakao Bank, Kakao Pay shares tumble as fire disrupts services: report

All services under Kakao were severely affected by the data center fire.

The shares of Kakao Corp and its affiliates fell after a fire affected services nationwide.

Kakao Bank, the internet-only lending arm of the South Korean messaging company, saw its share prices drop 7.43% to KRW16,200 on the Korean Composite Stock Price Index or KOSPI, the country’s main bourse, according to a report by Yonhap.

Shares of Kakao Pay, which offers mobile payment and digital wallet services, were also hit with a 9.14% decline to KRW32,800.

Shares of Kakao had dropped 8.17 percent to 47,200 won (US$32) as of 9:30 a.m. on the KOSPI, the country's main bourse.

The company was hit with a fire in one of its data centers near Seoul, which reportedly caused one of the country’s worst server outages that affected not just the banking and payment services, but also messaging and transportation.