After finishing work in Japan, Lee Hyun-woo, the CEO of Jungle, returned to Korea.
He took a good rest from Friday night to Sunday.
For the sake of relaxation, he deliberately avoided watching the news.
On his first day back to work on Monday,
“I expected it, but the portal sites in Japan were really no joke, right? They were overloaded from the first day, and buffering constantly,” said Oh Min-woo, eagerly greeting Lee Hyun-woo.
The network is really great.
Even from afar, you can get a rough idea of what’s going on with just one connection.
‘Tae-hyun hyung must have checked it too.’
Lee Hyun-woo remembered telling Kim Tae-hyun, who left early because he was busy, that he would find out the outcome through the connection.
Thinking of that scene made Lee Hyun-woo smile.
“Is it still slow?”
“It has improved a bit, but as I mentioned, buffering is still frequent.”
“They said they would add more servers, but it must not have been easy.”
“They should have prepared in advance.”
“They did prepare, but there were more connections than expected.”
“Then that’s a good thing.”
“Yes, it’s a good thing. By the way, was there any issue in Korea while I was away?”
“Except for the MP3 players selling out every morning, nothing much.”
Lee Hyun-woo chuckled.
“I asked you to look into outsourcing before I went to Japan. How did that go?”
“Outsourcing? Did you really mention that?”
“Yes, increasing production is the solution. But to increase production, we need to build more factories.”
“We are already building more factories.”
“That’s not enough.”
“That’s not enough?”
“Yes, I showed the MP3 player in Japan, in Akihabara.”
When Lee Hyun-woo mentioned the area densely packed with electronic stores, Oh Min-woo’s eyes sparkled.
“How was it?”
“As expected. The response was incredible.”
“Like they were seeing something new?”
“Yes, like they were seeing something new. So we can’t just think about the demand in our country.”
“We have to consider Japan, and even the US.”
“I think we should aim for global production. Speaking of MP3 players, we need to have a meeting. Honestly, that’s a problem for Alpha Cast, and we need to do business through MP3 files. Can you gather the team leaders?”
“Yes, CEO.”
As soon as he arrived at work, Oh Min-woo was glued to him, asking questions and answering, so he couldn’t share the achievements in Japan with everyone.
‘They should share in the sense of accomplishment too.’
After a while.
In the meeting, Lee Hyun-woo revealed that he discussed the entry of Jungle Online and Jungle Music into the Japanese market with Son Jung-yi.
And when he mentioned that the other party was very enthusiastic, people’s expressions brightened.
“Son Jung-yi fully acknowledges Jungle’s business model.”
“Indeed. And it’s clear he considers us an ally.”
“An ally? He’s like a godsend. Honestly, what does Software Bank have besides game distribution? But our company has created diversity through the internet.”
“I completely agree with Team Leader Lee. We don’t need to think naively. From what I’ve seen, Son Jung-yi seems like someone who monopolizes information and moves based on practical gains. The only difference is that he makes decisions quickly. Although, even that is slower than our CEO.”
As Jang Yoo-chul and Oh Min-goo spoke, Lee Jung-woo and Woo Sang-won, who went to Japan with them, added their opinions.
From Lee Hyun-woo’s perspective, these two were also becoming businesspeople.
Previously, they were happy when things went well and wondered why. Now, they question, analyze the cause, and immediately find answers.
However, Oh Min-woo, who did not go to Japan, expanded his thoughts further.
“But for Jungle Shopping and Jungle Music to establish themselves in Japan, won’t they need infrastructure support? Logistics, network, and the processes handled in Korea will conflict with Japanese logistics companies or music producers. Does Son Jung-yi have the capability to achieve this?”
Then Lee Hyun-woo finally spoke up again.
“If they can’t show that level of effort and sincerity, we can’t consider them our business partner. Although they paid money, the next thing they need to show is the negotiation ability Team Leader Oh mentioned. That’s why we partnered with Software Bank.”
“What if they can’t show that?”
“Then, of course, we have to do it ourselves. Right?”
“That would be more challenging.”
“And it might take longer.”
“We had no choice but to rely on Chairman Son Jung-yi.”
“Yes, we had no choice. And we will have to keep partnering with local companies to enter new markets. That’s the surest way to save time.”
Like teaching people about overseas expansion, Lee Hyun-woo repeated questions and answers to reach a conclusion.
At the same time, he instilled ambition.
“One more thing, I have something to tell you all.”
“…….”
“Thanks to your efforts, Jungle is growing rapidly. But our company’s goal should be set with the word ‘record-breaking’ in mind. I plan to make the company worth 1 trillion won by the end of this year.”
“……!”
As an enormous number came out of Lee Hyun-woo’s mouth, the exclamation marks appeared in people’s eyes.
Jungle was already generating tens of billions of won in monthly sales, but even so, the annual sales would barely reach 100 billion won.
Talking about ten times that amount felt like mentioning the peak of a tree they couldn’t realistically imagine.
Even Oh Min-woo, who always talked about outrageous goals, stuck out his tongue.
“Our CEO, who makes us work limited hours and enforces mandatory leave, tells us to make the company worth 1 trillion won by the end of this year. My mind is blank.”
“A goal is a goal. But I think we are almost there.”
“Really?”
“Of course. Why? Think about how much people would invest if we listed our company on the stock exchange. The potential value might be comparable to Software Bank.”
“Ah….”
“Ah….”
“Ah….”
This time, people let out a chorus of admiration.
Even a simple comparison made it clear that Jungle was bound to grow more than Son Jung-yi’s company.
“Exactly. Surpassing Software Bank is just a matter of time. With our entry into the music business through Jungle Music after portal sites and online shopping, the weapons we have are enormous. The cloud also shows promising signs.”
“I agree. Software Bank might become the top internet company in Japan, but we are on the verge of entering the US and Taiwan markets. If we aim for Hong Kong next, people with money won’t be able to resist investing.”
“Maybe that’s why Diamond Fund and Nobuyuki Securities sent emails last year saying they wanted to invest in our company.”
“Looking at it that way, a 1 trillion won company value doesn’t seem that difficult. In fact, considering Software Bank’s market cap of several trillion won, it’s reasonable to view our company’s value as 10 trillion won.”
“Team Leader Kang, that might be an overstatement. There’s the difference in economic scales between Japan and Korea.”
“Well, it’s just a way of speaking.”
Finally, people were crossing the bridge of unreality like Lee Hyun-woo.
A smile appeared on Lee Hyun-woo’s lips.
Originally, a company worth 1 trillion won, as mentioned by Lee Hyun-woo, is called a ‘Unicorn Company’ in the future.
It was not strange for Lee Hyun-woo to aim to reach that in two years.
‘Coming from the future, if I can’t even do this, I should be dead.’
Honestly, Lee Hyun-woo didn’t mention it in the meeting earlier, but his goal for next year was to reach a 10 trillion won company value, making it a Decacorn.
In other words, he aimed to reach a 1 trillion won value this year and make it a reality to have a 10 trillion won company next year.
‘I should aim to go public around that time.’
Though it wasn’t necessary, the reason for raising capital through an IPO was the feeling that numerous competitors would emerge around that time.
Lee Hyun-woo’s imagination reached the point of implementing over-technology to surpass them and break through the sky.
As people frequently encountered Lee Hyun-woo, their dreams seemed to grow more ambitious too.
Coincidentally, that day, Jung Sung-woo, CEO of Alpha Cast, and Kim Yoon-soo, CEO of One Computer, visited Jungle.
And that too, around Lee Hyun-woo’s quitting time.
“We came to have a drink of soju after a long time…”
“I was also curious about the news from Japan…”
“That’s what I was going to say…”
“Let’s go, both of you!”
In the end, Lee Hyun-woo took the two of them to a nearby bar.
As he told them about what happened in Japan, Jung Sung-woo’s face brightened.
“If MP3 music starts to be distributed in Japan, the export market for MP3 players will open up!”
“Of course.”
“What about the network infrastructure? We could sell our modems in Japan too?”
“That too, of course.”
“And next is the US and Taiwan?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“Wow, how far do we have to sell? No wonder everyone wants to invest in us.”
“Wait, someone wants to invest in you, hyung?”
“Yes, and not just in Korea, but from the US.”
“Wow, One Computer also received contact!”
“It sounds like you also have news, CEO Jung?”
“Yes, we also received investment offers from the US and Japan. Actually, I came to Jungle to discuss it with CEO Lee, but I was hesitant and only now brought it up.”
Hearing their stories, Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes widened slightly, then returned to normal.
‘It was expected.’
It was slightly faster than he expected, so he was a bit surprised.
But there was still much to do.
“You need to be careful when accepting investments, you know?”
“I’m already discussing it with my father.”
“Then that’s one less worry. Your father seems well-versed in these contracts. But CEO Jung, you should be cautious before signing anything.”
“Yes, I came here because I thought accepting it rashly might cause problems.”
He probably knew already and came to get consent from existing investors like Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ah-young.
“And also the outsourcing companies. From what I found, it doesn’t seem difficult for companies that produce car stereos to manufacture MP3 players.”
“Right. The production system is similar, and they have relevant know-how.”
“Yes, and they can match the yield rate. So after looking into a few places, they were very favorable. They even said they wanted to jump in immediately during the first meeting.”
“Wow, we’re already talking about outsourcing companies? Wow, CEO Jung is also going to be sitting on a pile of money.”
“Oh, it’s not that much. But given that our CEO Lee is involved, we can’t be satisfied with the current scale. We should at least aim to become like One Computer, right?”
“Hahaha, at this rate, our three companies might become the leading conglomerates in Korea someday. Cheers to that!”
“Cheers!”
“Cheers!”
As he clinked glasses, Lee Hyun-woo laughed.
‘We’ve already caught the wave. As Yoon-soo hyung said, we might become a unicorn soon enough.’
