“The investment of $100 million by the 【Natural Standard Fund】 is exactly the same amount as Son Jung-yi’s investment in 【Yaho】. However, the nature of the investments is different. Son Jung-yi invested in 【Yaho】’s main base in the United States, while the 【Natural Standard Fund】 invested to support 【Jungle】’s expansion into the U.S.”
“Does it really say ‘main base’?”
“Yeah, it really says ‘main base.’”
These were the voices of two people that Lee Hyun-woo could hear on the plane back to Korea.
Oh Min-woo was interpreting the 【Wall Street Journal】 as soon as he read it, with Lee Jung-woo asking questions in between.
“Of course, there is another similarity. Son Jung-yi decided the investment while sharing cola and pizza with Jamie Yang, and Joe Murphy decided while having pasta and wine with Lee Hyun-woo.”
“Isn’t that completely made up?”
“It’s true about the pasta.”
“Enough with the useless details, just skip it.”
“Ah, man, these things are more enjoyable when you savor them bit by bit.”
Lee Hyun-woo chuckled.
Do they really enjoy it that much?
Kim Ah-young, who was sitting next to him, seemed to feel the same way.
“The employees seem to be enjoying themselves.”
“Of course. It’s a whopping $100 million, and it’s for expanding into the U.S.”
“Indeed.”
While talking to Lee Hyun-woo, Kim Ah-young regretted not being more proactive.
If she had been a bit bolder, couldn’t 【Guseong】 have also invested in the U.S. expansion?
‘Father won’t be happy.’
Should she consider it fortunate?
“Oh, by the way, does 【Guseong】’s U.S. branch sell servers?”
“Servers? I’m not sure, why?”
“Of course, to make use of them. It seems better to run 【Jungle】’s tech on top of the already familiar 【Guseong】 servers. We can decrease incompatibility issues.”
“Ah…”
Even with the launch of 【Jungle USA】 in America, it seemed they wanted to maintain a connection with 【Guseong】.
Interestingly, ther response was coming from the seat behind them.
“Don’t worry. We will find servers somehow.”
It was naturally Park Min-sook’s voice.
She also regretted going without any achievements.
‘I should have emphasized more to the chairman back then.’
She regretted not stressing enough that being late could lead to regret.
Still, she considered the sale of 【Guseong】’s servers to be a decent compromise.
Considering the growth pace that 【Jungle】 had shown so far, it was unpredictable how quickly 【Jungle USA】 would establish itself in the U.S.
‘Or maybe it will grow faster than in Korea.’
Even though the information age had dawned in Korea, the U.S. was the origin of the revolution.
If ADSL takes off, the demand for servers will explode as well.
If they expand based on 【Jungle】’s supply, wouldn’t they become the winner in a blue ocean?
Just as she thought this, Oh Min-woo and Lee Jung-woo’s voices grew louder again.
“Oh, right! I forgot to contact Ray and Mikhail. I should have checked in with them last.”
“I don’t want to see those guys anymore.”
“Why?”
“We asked them for help so many times, but they insisted on going their own way.”
“It seems like they are getting full of themselves. It feels like just yesterday when they were venting in a chat room about being ignored after proposing their search engine to 【Yaho】.”
“That happened?”
“Yeah, it did.”
“Wow, then our search engine almost had a showdown with theirs.”
“Yeah, it’s a shame we didn’t get to flatten their noses completely.”
“Right. But why did 【Yaho】 ignore them? Their search engine would be much better than the current ones.”
“Maybe they wanted to get crushed by us?”
“Yeah, yeah. Poor 【Yaho】, now that we are entering the U.S., they better prepare to come down from their peak.”
Do these people at 【Jungle】, from the CEO to the core employees, not know fear?
No matter what, they wouldn’t surpass 【Yaho】 in one go.
‘Well, everyone is like that at their age.’
Let’s chalk it up to youthful vigor and passion.
Park Min-sook smiled slightly.
At that moment, at 【Yaho】, Jamie Yang called an executive meeting after reading articles about the 【Natural Standard Fund】’s investment.
He anticipated that 【Jungle】’s entry into the U.S. would be faster than expected and thought it was time to prepare.
“As you may have seen in today’s news, 【Jungle】 has received an investment. Since a new competitor is emerging, I thought we should preemptively respond, so I urgently called this meeting.”
In any other case, it might not have mattered, but 【Jungle】’s entry into the U.S. couldn’t be ignored.
Jamie Yang’s desire to prepare a bit ahead of time was evident.
“It seems that 【Jungle】’s strengths lie in its search engine and content. Therefore, I think we should strengthen our search engine and diversify our content to counter them before they enter the U.S.”
“In that sense, there were those two people from 【Stanford】 who contacted us the other day. They came regarding a search engine but we sent them away due to the time and cost involved in implementing something new.”
“Ah… right. I remember. Was it two months ago? They were confident they could make something much better than our current search engine if we invested in them.”
The executives glanced at Jamie Yang while discussing.
At that time, Jamie Yang wasn’t interested in a new search engine for the stated reasons.
But now, faced with a formidable rival in 【Jungle】, is he suddenly intrigued?
He quickly spoke to his assistant who was present.
“Let’s try to locate them once more.”
“Ah…”
“Why?”
Seeing the assistant’s disappointed expression, Jamie Yang raised an eyebrow.
“Recently, I heard that they succeeded in developing the search engine but stopped further work. They got interested in something else.”
The people being discussed here are Ray Burin and Mikhail Face.
The assistant, having judged them to be good talents, had been keeping track of their whereabouts.
In hindsight, it was unfortunate that Jamie Yang had been indifferent at that time.
He had recently heard that both 【Jungle】 and 【Pineapple】 had tried to recruit them.
The assistant wasn’t the only one who found it unfortunate.
“Ah…”
“Such a shame.”
“I heard they were recognized as geniuses at 【Stanford】.”
“Can’t we try to persuade them again now?”
“It will be difficult. Even though top companies offered them good conditions, they are preparing for a startup.”
The assistant’s words deepened the regret on many faces.
On the other hand, Jamie Yang wasn’t one to dwell on regrets.
“Let’s not dwell on missed opportunities. If we think too long about the bus that has passed, we might miss preparing for the one that’s coming. Let’s develop the search engine independently. What do you think?”
“Yes, understood. We will do our best.”
“Jamie, since it’s come to this, how about accelerating our entry into the Asian market simultaneously with the search engine development?”
“I agree. They say the best defense is a good offense. Rather than just watching 【Jungle】 enter the U.S., it might be better for us to actively approach the Asian market.”
“Personally, I think it might be better to preemptively occupy markets where 【Jungle】 hasn’t entered yet. Let’s prepare for Korea and Japan at our current pace, and speed up our entry into Taiwan and Hong Kong.”
“I agree.”
“Yes, me too.”
“I think the same.”
With various opinions converging, Jamie Yang nodded.
He, too, didn’t want to let 【Jungle】 dominate the market any longer.
“Alright. Then let’s decide to expedite our entry into Taiwan and Hong Kong and push forward immediately.”
Of course, this would require money.
Honestly, 【Yaho】’s current performance wasn’t as high as its listed stock.
In fact, 【Amazones】 was generating several times the revenue, resulting in comparisons among IT companies.
Jamie Yang needed to attract investors again.
‘Well, Wall Street will invest again anyway.’
He wasn’t particularly worried about securing investments.
He had heard that there was a lot of idle money on Wall Street recently.
Meanwhile, there were quite a few reporters gathered at Gimpo Airport.
They had also heard the news about 【Jungle】 that had become a hot topic in the U.S.
However, the news hadn’t been reported domestically yet, and upon hearing that Lee Hyun-woo was returning, they rushed to the airport after getting approval from their editors.
Since they all knew each other’s faces, they chatted while waiting for Lee Hyun-woo to arrive.
“Why is our editor so slow? We might end up reporting the news about 【Jungle】’s investment later than other newspapers.”
“We’re the same. But I heard one just broke.”
“What? What broke?”
“The article. The one about 【Jungle】 receiving investment from the 【Natural Standard Fund】.”
“That’s already out? Who was that quick? Did they send a special correspondent to Silicon Valley?”
“It’s a small outlet. An internet-based newspaper called 【E-Daily】.”
“Ah, damn. These days, those places publish articles too quickly.”
“Yeah, it’s a pain. Especially with foreign news, we’re always behind.”
“Right. We investigate and write the articles, then cross-check, let the editor review, and then print. But they just translate and post it online.”
“That’s why I’ve been suggesting we need to publish a digital newspaper quickly.”
“Me too, me too.”
“Even if we publish a digital newspaper, can we really keep up? The world is changing too fast; it seems like we can’t compete with internet news outlets.”
“True. While we’re contemplating how to write the article, they’re already typing away.”
“Sometimes it seems better to be fast rather than accurate.”
“That’s exactly what places like 【E-Daily】 aim for. That’s why they’re popular among the younger generation.”
“But they don’t get any subscription fees, right?”
“So what? They make up for it with advertising fees.”
“True…”
“Besides advertising, I heard they also have several investors wanting to fund them.”
“I would too if I were them. With just one editor-in-chief and a few journalists for each field, how much could it cost? Just salaries, rent… and what else?”
“A junior who went to such a place said it’s just search engine costs and cloud costs.”
“Ah, that? They use the service provided by 【Jungle】, right?”
“Yeah, it’s very inexpensive.”
“Wow, should I just quit and start an internet newspaper?”
“You’re thinking the same as me. These days, the laws have changed a lot, so it’s not that hard to start one.”
“Isn’t this all thanks to Lee Hyun-woo?”
“Right. Honestly, Lee Hyun-woo is turning Korea into an information society.”
“I heard something strange the other day.”
“What was it?”
“Lee Hyun-woo created the ADSL, the high-speed internet environment, to provide MP3 files and supported the development of MP3 players on the side.”
“No way.”
“It’s true.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I directly asked CEO Jung Sung-woo of 【Alpha Cast】.”
“Wow, Lee Hyun-woo is amazing. This is like 【GB】 creating affordable washing machines to sell synthetic detergent.”
“That story makes it more relatable. Right.”
The anecdote about 【GB】 developing affordable washing machines because people only used laundry soap when they released synthetic detergent was a famous corporate tale.
With this comparison, 【Jungle】 seemed impressive to the reporters.
“Speaking of which, I personally think 【GB】 is better than 【Guseong】. At least they don’t copy others.”
“Reporter Yun, are you saying this because 【Guseong】 recently announced they’re entering the cloud service?”
“That’s one thing, and I heard they’re also preparing to make MP3 players. They enter any market that makes money.”
“But these days, 【GB】 is doing the same. If servers sell well, they make servers. They might follow with MP3 players too.”
“Small and medium-sized businesses will suffer again.”
“Not necessarily. 【Alpha Cast】 is moving very quickly. They outsourced production and are even exploring entering the Japanese market recently.”
“Oh? Really? Wow, a small business is pushing forward with a big company mindset.”
“Could this be because of Lee Hyun-woo’s advice?”
“Could be.”
“Speaking of advice, I know another rumor related to Lee Hyun-woo.”
“What now?”
“There’s a rumor that Lee Hyun-woo is dating 【Guseong】’s eldest daughter.”
“No way. No matter how great Lee Hyun-woo is, don’t you know that conglomerates arrange marriages among themselves?”
“Even if she likes him, Chairman Kim Sung-moo would never approve.”
Their chatter had now shifted to Lee Hyun-woo’s personal life, specifically his love life.
Though they were mindlessly chatting, they didn’t notice one reporter listening intently.
‘Soon, Lee Hyun-woo will come out with Ah-young.’
He was Jang Jae-won, the youngest brother of the owner of 【Sejong Daily】.
He had already heard from his eldest brother.
That Kim Sung-moo was very fond of Lee Hyun-woo and might consider him for a son-in-law.
- Although his background is a bit lacking, Lee Hyun-woo seems more than suitable for Ah-young.
Jang Jae-won agreed.
Having been a correspondent in the U.S., he knew well about Lee Hyun-woo and 【Jungle】’s future potential and thought that Kim Ah-young might actually be the one with lesser conditions.
‘There are a few newspapers that don’t care about 【Guseong】’s influence.’
Some of the chatting reporters knew about the relationship between 【Guseong】 and 【Sejong Daily】, but they didn’t stop their chatter.
He had heard that some deliberately gossiped more, hoping to be silenced with money later on.
“Oh? Lee Hyun-woo is coming out!”
Jang Jae-won’s thoughts were interrupted.
At someone’s shout, he turned his gaze to see Lee Hyun-woo coming through the gate.
And then.
“Oh? That woman!”
“Isn’t that the eldest daughter of Chairman Kim Sung-moo?”
“Take pictures! Take pictures!”
“Yeah, just take them!”
The feared situation occurred.
Seeing Kim Ah-young coming out next to Lee Hyun-woo, camera flashes started going off.
Click, click, click!
