Korean Business Tycoon becomes Cyber Asylum Seeker

Doosan Group Chairman Park Yong-maan, who is using social networking services (SNSs) for communication, closed his KakaoTalk account and moved to Telegram.

According to business circles on Oct. 15, the growing controversy surrounding government surveillance made Chairman Park leave a message on his KakaoTalk account on Oct. 9, saying, “I will leave KakaoTalk. So, contact me via Telegram.”

Park is famous for his heavy use of SNSs like Facebook or Twitter to communicate with his acquaintances. His withdrawal from the nation's top mobile messenger app is believed to be caused by the controversy over government surveillance.

An industry source said, “Lawmakers are also switching their current messenger apps from KakaoTalk to Telegram,” adding, “I think that the controversy surrounding government surveillance is the reason for the withdrawal from KakaoTalk.”

With the controversy growing, an increasing number of people are using German-based Telegram instead of KakaoTalk. Some refer to this phenomenon as cyber asylum. Korean subscribers to Telegram have already exceeded 2.6 million.