Kakao shares slump as outage sparks calls for antitrust scrutiny

FILE PHOTO: The Kakao messaging application and the Kakao T taxi booking application are seen on a mobile phone in this illustration photo March 13, 2018. REUTERS/Thomas White/Illustration

SEOUL (Reuters) - Shares of South Korea's Kakao Corp plunged on Monday after a widespread outage in the country's largest mobile chat app triggered a sharp political backlash and calls for increased scrutiny on the company's market dominance.

The outage was caused by a fire at a data centre near Seoul on the weekend and while systems had mostly been restored by Monday, the disruptions to a range of related services from payments to taxis and restaurant bookings have raised questions about public reliance on the app.