​2 mln S. Koreans 'silently exit' from country's favorite messenger group chat rooms in 3 weeks

[Courtesy of Kakao]

SEOUL -- Two million people have "silently exited" from group chat rooms created on Kakao Talk, South Korea's favorite smartphone messenger app with more than 47 million monthly active users, during the first three weeks since its operator added a feature that allowed people to leave chat rooms without notifying other users.
 
It is common to see companies of various sizes operate group chat rooms with up to dozens of workers because company operators can easily send out notifications and work directions. However, if a worker wished to evade an array of messages which he or she does not want to see by exiting the chat room, the exile was notified to everyone else in the group chat.
 
To help people who wished not to receive unwanted messages from their companies or groups but were reluctant to do so, because they would stand out among the group when they exit, Kakao Talk added the silent exit feature in May as a test service. Now, users can choose to leave their chat rooms silently without notifying anyone.
 
Kakao, the operator of Kakao Talk, said that some two million people tiptoed their way out of chat rooms using the silent exit feature between May 10 and May 31. Kakao said that users can leave chat rooms where conversations are stalled in an awkward way or company chat rooms that keep on ringing because of the endless flow of messages.
 
Chung Young-cho, a 28-year-old businesswoman living in the southern city of Daegu, told Aju Business Daily that she is happy to use the silent exit feature without having to let every colleague know that she just left the company chat room.