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Kakao vice president says rollback of KakaoTalk update is 'technically impossible'

Published: 15 Oct. 2025, 09:48

Kakao Vice President Woo Young-kyu, far left, takes an oath at the parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee at the National Assembly in wetsern Seoul on Oct. 14. [YONHAP]

Kakao Vice President Woo Young-kyu said it is "technically impossible" to roll back the recent KakaoTalk update that sparked backlash among users.

Woo made the remarks during a parliamentary audit by the National Assembly’s Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee on Tuesday, in response to a question from Democratic Party lawmaker Hwang Jung-a about whether the update could be reversed due to widespread user complaints.

“What we consider a rollback doesn’t mean reverting the app version from 2.0 to 1.0, but rather going from 2.0 back to 2.1,” Woo said. “Returning completely to a previous version is very difficult.”

He added, however, that by the fourth quarter, Kakao plans to restore the Friends tab’s default view to the original alphabetic order, while the current feed-style posts will be made accessible through a separate menu.

Woo also noted that users who have not yet updated the app are still using the previous version, but warned that this could pose issues in terms of after-sales service. “We are fully aware of the user inconvenience and are closely reviewing the situation. We will make improvements soon,” he said.

Addressing claims that the rollback was being withheld for advertising revenue, Woo said, “I’ve heard those claims being made externally, but they are not true.”

On criticism that short-form video content is being indiscriminately exposed to minors and that personal information is being collected without consent, Woo said Kakao is following guidelines from the Personal Information Protection Commission, which prohibit the collection of behavioral data for personalized ads from users under the age of 14.

“For users aged 15 and older, we collect and use non-identifiable behavioral data,” he added. “If identifiable behavioral data is to be used, we will follow the commission’s recommendations and obtain prior consent.”

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]