Kim Ho-gwang, CEO of Beta Labs and former head of Cyworld Z, speaks to reporters at a press conference on the acquisition and relaunch of Cyworld held at the Courtyard by Marriott Seoul Myeongdong hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap]
Kim Ho-gwang, CEO of Beta Labs and former head of Cyworld Z, speaks to reporters at a press conference on the acquisition and relaunch of Cyworld held at the Courtyard by Marriott Seoul Myeongdong hotel in Jung-gu, Seoul, on Friday. [Yonhap]

As blockchain firm Sigmachain announces plans to relaunch the Cyworld social networking service, questions over the preservation and recovery of data on the platform's original servers have emerged as a central issue.

Kim Ho-gwang, former head of Cyworld Z — the company that previously operated Cyworld — said he visited the LG Group internet data center in Gasan-dong, Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, on Friday to inspect the condition of the Cyworld servers, according to Yonhap.

Kim said his on-site inspection found that while some server racks were receiving power, other servers had been removed from their racks and stored separately.

Kim's side said IDC staff told them at the time that server usage fees had gone unpaid for an extended period. They also said they could not confirm that Sigmachain had modified the existing IDC contract or held any related discussions.

Kim also said IDC officials told him that technical due diligence on the servers would be difficult to carry out unless the outstanding fees were resolved.

Kim said that for solid-state drive (SSD)-based storage devices, prolonged power loss could affect data preservation depending on storage conditions and device status, and called for recovery work to begin without delay.

"The server condition must be checked first and recovery work must begin to ensure that Cyworld users' data is safely preserved," he said, calling on Sigmachain to present a data preservation plan.

Earlier, Sigmachain announced at a press conference that it had acquired an intellectual property license for Cyworld from Cy Communications (Cy Comz) and planned to relaunch the service.

In November 2024, Cy Comz took over the business rights and assets from former operator Cyworld Z and pursued a service relaunch, but ran into financial difficulties and saw its management resign. Sigmachain subsequently said it had acquired the Cyworld-related IP.

At the press conference, Sigmachain said it planned to restore about 17 billion existing data records using its own development team, and said it had the technical capability and funding to do so.

The original domain "cyworld.com" has not been transferred due to ongoing legal disputes, but Sigmachain said it had acquired the IP, trademarks and data excluding that domain.

Kim's side has raised objections to the validity and procedures of the Cyworld business transfer, leaving the two parties at odds.


joze@heraldcorp.com