That evening, a call came from Park Ki-ho of 【Nam’s Story】.
He asked when he could visit, so they scheduled it for the next morning. After the meeting the next day, they welcomed him.
Lee Hyun-woo was curious about Park Ki-ho’s young age but refrained from asking, fearing it might create bias.
Instead, he noticed the deep-set eyes, indicating a lot of contemplation.
“I’m the type of person who must repay what I’ve received, so I couldn’t sleep and thought deeply about it.”
“Is that so? But I haven’t given you anything yet.”
“You’ve given me deep inspiration. Even though the giver doesn’t know, and the one repaying does it secretly, it’s unavoidable. But this time is different. You say it’s just business cooperation, but isn’t it actually a favor?”
He was right.
【Jungle】 and 【Nam’s Story】 couldn’t be compared equally.
“So, I thought about how I could repay you. The conclusion was shares.”
“Shares…”
“I don’t know how much our site will grow, but the number of visitors will explode month by month. I can guarantee it.”
He was confident.
And it was believable.
Not because people like gossip, but because Lee Hyun-woo also got hooked on 【Nam’s Story】 and stayed up late the previous night.
“Even if it doesn’t catch up to the value of 【Jungle】, giving you some shares…”
“Alright. I’ll accept. But let’s do it this way. Non-voting shares that you can take back anytime you want from 【Nam’s Story】.”
This meant he wouldn’t interfere in management and could reclaim the shares.
This would make the other party feel more comfortable.
“Thank you.”
“There’s a lot to be thankful for.”
“There’s one more favor I’d like to ask.”
“What is it?”
“The search engine…”
As Park Ki-ho’s voice trailed off, Lee Hyun-woo smiled gently.
From his late-night examination of 【Nam’s Story】, he noticed that the search results were quite inaccurate.
This made Lee Hyun-woo once again respect 【Jungle】’s development team.
In 【Jungle】, you could generally get the desired result with just one search term.
“I’d like to get help from 【Jungle】’s search engine.”
“Ah, that’s really expensive.”
“Yes, that’s why the shares….”
“I’d need at least 20%. And 5% each year.”
At these words, Park Ki-ho’s eyes sparkled.
To forcibly reclaim 5% each year, the amount would depend on the value of 【Nam’s Story】.
The hidden nuance in Lee Hyun-woo’s proposed condition was essentially asking for a high price.
So, Park Ki-ho nodded.
“I’ll make sure to do that. And I’ll strive to reach a value of 10 billion won within four years.”
If that happened, Lee Hyun-woo could earn at least 500 million won plus an alpha in the final year.
‘What was the value of Wikipedia when I was about to die?’
Although he hadn’t checked separately, it would likely have required billions of won to acquire.
‘This is really an efficient investment, isn’t it?’
That afternoon, Lee Hyun-woo visited a real estate office.
“Huh? Is that you?”
The real estate agent’s eyes widened when he recognized Lee Hyun-woo.
“It’s been a while.”
“A while? It’s been less than six months.”
“That’s a while.”
“There are two types of customers in real estate. One is for investment, and the other is for residential purposes. Residential here means a place to live but can also mean a place to work. But it doesn’t seem like you’re here for investment or a place to live today.”
“Yes, that’s right. It’s to expand my workplace.”
“So, it hasn’t been a while.”
“Is that so? Hahaha.”
When Lee Hyun-woo acknowledged his purpose, the real estate agent couldn’t help but be surprised.
How long had it been since they expanded, and they were already looking for a new building?
This was proof that Lee Hyun-woo’s business had grown tremendously.
‘Could it be a scam? Or a pyramid scheme?’
The real estate agent, curious to the point of suspicion, asked.
“How many floors?”
“A clean building with five floors would be good.”
“Five floors? Wow, what kind of company is 【Jungle】?”
Lee Hyun-woo smiled slightly.
The world was changing, but many still didn’t know.
Of course, the real estate agent had heard of the name 【Jungle】 from the media, but he seemed curious about the company’s true nature.
However, since he was around Lee Hyun-woo’s father’s age, he probably wouldn’t understand even if explained.
“Don’t worry, it’s not a pyramid scheme.”
“I figured. Just curious. What kind of company is it? I mean, I’ve heard it’s an internet company, but do they make that much money?”
“I’m just lucky. You should try it someday, too.”
“I’d like to. But how would I know? Anyway, I’ll look for a five-floor building nearby.”
“Yes, please.”
The reason Lee Hyun-woo was looking for a five-floor building was simple.
It was for servers, of course.
This decision was made after confirming the server rental for 【Nam’s Story】 that morning.
Since the server demand seemed higher than expected, he decided to create a temporary data center.
‘Until I build a data center, I’ll have to temporarily house the servers in this building.’
Once the temporary data center was set up with servers, it seemed like a good time to start the cloud business properly.
Before that, Lee Hyun-woo, newly confident in 【Jungle】’s search engine’s superiority, called Han Se-jin and Kang Dong-ho.
Then he informed them about the uses of the search engine.
Lee Hyun-woo wouldn’t have mentioned this for no reason, so the two immediately instructed their teams to submit reports.
“Find all the websites that could utilize the search engine.”
It wasn’t a time-consuming or difficult task.
It was just a matter of typing on a keyboard in front of a computer.
“For just company websites, there might be no need for a search engine…”
“Media companies definitely seem to need it.”
“That’s right. And universities too.”
“Shouldn’t public institutions also have it?”
“Public institutions would be the best.”
“Oh, right. Public institutions are ideal. Should we try to break into that?”
“Let’s write the report and submit it first.”
“Yes, understood.”
The reports, completed in less than a day, were submitted to the two team leaders the next day.
“Media companies, universities, public institutions. They all look good.”
“I’m not satisfied.”
“Why?”
When Kang Dong-ho frowned, Han Se-jin tilted his head.
“If it were me, I wouldn’t have written it this way.”
“Are you suggesting selling to competitors? Is that it?”
“Not impossible.”
Before the era of high-speed internet, 【Jungle】’s success had already led to a significant number of online shopping and portal sites.
Now, with ADSL subscriptions increasing daily, the number of new sites was enormous.
“We need to confirm the differences between our competitors and us first. If there are no technical differences, providing it might just help them grow.”
“You’re right. We should ask the technical team.”
“The team leaders, Lee and Oh, would probably know best about the search engine.”
“But let’s also ask Team Leaders Woo and Jang. They might have different opinions.”
Indeed, the four team leaders had distinct perspectives.
Woo Sang-won stood out for his stability, based on rich experience.
In contrast, Lee Jung-woo scored high as a flexible, business-oriented developer.
Unlike the two, Jang Yoo-chul excelled in empathy and was the best at explaining things.
Lastly, Oh Min-woo, who enjoyed development, didn’t bother to understand non-development tasks.
Thus, their responses varied.
“The technical gap in search engines won’t be easily closed. Even if they use ours, the trial and error and development know-how make it hard to catch up. They might even request solutions for issues that arise from using our search engine.”
This was Woo Sang-won’s response.
“That’s a good idea. We could increase prices by delaying updates slightly. We could also differentiate between free and paid updates. This needs some thought.”
As expected, Lee Jung-woo was the type to think about how to make more money.
“I think other companies can’t overcome 【Jungle】 due to differences in content and products, not the search engine. We have products and entertainment exclusive to our site. I wouldn’t give up on the blog… So, just push forward confidently.”
Jang Yoo-chul’s soft-spoken explanation was indeed easy to understand.
“Well, I don’t know. Hmm, I’d just sell it to everyone. Lower the price and offer it to any website.”
Finally, Oh Min-woo’s answer, given without a gram of soul, was thrown out without a plan.
But this also sparked Kang Dong-ho’s competitive spirit.
“Providing another competitor to our rivals, creating a mutually dependent relationship, might not be a bad idea. Making every website use our search engine.”
“Haha… Are you becoming like Team Leader Oh?”
“I’m serious. And securing the market share for our search engine seems beneficial, doesn’t it?”
“Now that you mention it, the CEO did talk about market share a few times.”
Of course, he had often resolved to win the market share battle when expanding to the U.S. later, not just in Korea.
Han Se-jin also repeatedly read and reflected on that part in his notebook.
In the end, he nodded.
“Alright. Let’s take on the challenge.”
The next morning.
The two went to see Lee Hyun-woo.
“Using the search engine on all websites? There must be places where it’s not necessary.”
“Yes, but we believe once it’s integrated into the website, it will be used.”
“I agree.”
“Moreover, the search engine doesn’t wear out. If we lower the price and charge monthly, we believe it can generate additional profit.”
“This falls under sales, so I’ll start working on it right away.”
“Don’t you both already have a lot of work?”
“No, it’s fine. We’ve recently hired quite a few employees, so it’s a good opportunity for training.”
“Yes, me too.”
Originally, Han Se-jin was working on developing low-cost cosmetics exclusively for 【Love Cosmetics】 and 【Jungle Shopping】, while Kang Dong-ho was laying the groundwork for expansion into Taiwan and Hong Kong.
So, he didn’t want to overload them and had only mentioned the search engine’s uses to think it over slowly.
“Understood. Don’t overdo it.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“We’ll get started right away.”
As always, they had to prove their worth in the company 【Jungle】.
Compared to the tech development team, sales was a less visible part of 【Jungle】.
So, they threw themselves into any opportunity that arose.
‘Does the environment nurture people’s abilities?’
Lee Hyun-woo chuckled as he watched the two leave, full of determination.
