Lee Hyun-woo has found someone he loves, and she is Kim Ah-young, the eldest daughter of Guseong Group.
The reaction to this revelation was immense.
News spread rapidly through blogs even faster than through articles.
“Announcing it through blogs is cheating!”
“This is driving me crazy. There’s no scoop effect, is there?”
“It’s over. The excitement is gone. Who would be interested in this kind of thing? It’s the younger generation, and these days most of them use the internet…”
“Damn it, we were late because we were waiting for the desk to approve.”
Overall, the journalists’ reactions were anger and frustration.
Jang Jae-won of Sejong Daily also sent away a subordinate who had been grumbling and sighed.
“Sigh…”
As always, Lee Hyun-woo was like a day goblin.
‘He doesn’t look like that at all.’
Slightly drooping eyes, a friendly smile, and a soft voice.
But he was always unpredictable.
There had been more than a few times when expectations and shocks came together because he caused incidents without any warning.
This time was no different.
They were planning to publish an exclusive in the evening edition, but he had already announced it on his blog beforehand.
‘Is our competitor now blogs?’
Recently, blogs have started featuring advertisements.
Since today’s media lives off advertisements, Jungle’s blog could certainly be a competitor.
No, even more than that.
The company Jungle is so influential that several portal sites were planning to launch blogs.
As the numbers begin to increase, information will be delivered to the public through blogs faster than through the media.
‘In a few years, we won’t be able to predict the media environment.’
Facing such rapidly changing circumstances, they couldn’t help but seek out Lee Hyun-woo, the top expert in this field.
He called him and arranged to meet him at the time he left work.
When he suggested having a simple meal with soju, Lee Hyun-woo readily agreed.
‘Well, it seems that I might become his uncle-in-law.’
At least that was a relief.
Lee Hyun-woo was favorable to Sejong Daily.
Thus, he was featuring Nostradamus’ columns, and he would agree to meetings like this if requested.
At least he didn’t hide behind a social mask.
He answered questions promptly.
However, the first question was,
“Is it certain that our country will face an economic crisis this year?”
“Probably. But, I think it will be smaller in scale than my prediction.”
It wasn’t quite what he wanted to say.
“What? How severe was the crisis you predicted?”
“To the point where the country would be overturned?”
“I can’t imagine that.”
“It’s better not to. And as I mentioned, it won’t be to that extent.”
Looking at Lee Hyun-woo speaking like a prophet, Jang Jae-won raised his soju glass.
Clink! The glasses clashed and the soju went down their throats.
Jang Jae-won took another bite and asked again.
“Ah, that blog you mentioned?”
Finally, the main topic emerged.
Lee Hyun-woo, already aware, smiled and asked back.
“Which one? There are two.”
“Lee Hyun-woo’s blog. No, it doesn’t matter. Are you going to keep doing that?”
“What’s been contracted can be used.”
He was referring to Nostradamus.
These days, since he was writing columns for Sejong Daily, Nostradamus didn’t post much on the blog.
It was a matter of maintaining a kind of code of conduct.
“So, Lee Hyun-woo’s blog will keep posting stuff.”
“It’s boring otherwise.”
“Ugh…”
Jang Jae-won downed another shot of soju, shaking his head.
They continued talking about blogs.
“Did you hear that other companies besides Jungle will also start offering services?”
“Yes, I heard that too.”
“It’s a meaningless question, but you’re not particularly nervous, are you?”
“If it’s a meaningless question, the answer is equally meaningless. No, I’m not nervous. And it’s not just in our country; it will keep appearing overseas as well. For now, Yaho will also likely offer blog services.”
“Really?”
“Yes, when I met Jamie Wang last time, he said they would be doing that.”
“Then what about the money? Didn’t they charge some sort of usage fee?”
“They settled it by saying they’d use the search engine. Thanks to Yaho using it, Jungle’s status has risen even higher.”
“That’s quite generous of you.”
“It’s strategic. They can use it wherever they want. But users will compare. And eventually, they’ll only use the best blog.”
“Quite confident, aren’t you?”
“Speaking of which, even if we fall behind in blogs, it won’t be a problem.”
Jang Jae-won’s eyes sharpened.
From the perspective of someone handling information, he felt that Jungle was preparing something else.
“What is it? Are you preparing something?”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me a bit about it. So I don’t end up being late to the game. I got scolded by a subordinate because of your and Ah-young’s news.”
“Wow, you really have a horizontal relationship, thanks to your time in the U.S. But there’s no big secret. Something new will pop up tomorrow.”
“Really?”
Jang Jae-won, slightly disappointed, raised his soju glass again.
“Ugh, still, let me know. If I know in advance, I can at least help promote it before it comes out.”
“Oh? That’s not a bad idea. But it’s simpler than you think. It’s SNS, something I’ve been emphasizing in every interview.”
“SNS? Isn’t that basically a blog?”
“Similar but different.”
“What kind of explanation is that? You always confuse me with your unfriendly explanations.”
This time, Lee Hyun-woo smiled and raised his soju glass.
“Ugh, but I’ve been explaining SNS so much lately that I’m tired. To summarize, the difference between a portal site’s blog and SNS is purposefulness.”
“Purposefulness?”
“Yes, in a portal site, the social relationships between individuals and others aren’t important, right? People look at blogs, participate in cafes, and do other things in their spare time…”
“Wait, I think I get it. So SNS is entirely aimed at social relationships.”
“Correct. You’re the quickest to understand among the people I’ve met so far.”
It’s true.
Explaining SNS to others usually took a long time.
There were times he got tired of explaining.
He thought that unless you experienced it, you couldn’t grasp what SNS was.
“But you should be tense. SNS is practically like personal media.”
“Really? I can’t quite grasp it.”
“Think about the blog post where I revealed my relationship with Ah-young.”
“I take back what I said about not grasping it! I get it now. Damn it!”
A rare curse slipped out of Jang Jae-won’s mouth.
Thinking about it, it was clear that the existing media would take a hit.
“If celebrities and famous people announce their personal news on SNS, the value of articles will be completely lost.”
“Not completely lost. But there will be more journalists copying from SNS.”
“Hahaha…”
Jang Jae-won laughed hollowly.
It reminded him of what his subordinate had said earlier.
- Since information about the two of them was posted on a blog, what do you think people will say? They’ll naturally say we copied the post that Lee Hyun-woo personally uploaded.
Maybe because of that memory, or because of the alcohol, his body trembled.
“You’re really a bad person.”
“Hahaha, I’m sorry. But I feel like I need to tell you what I told Jamie Wang.”
“What did you say?”
“A cooperative competitive relationship.”
“A cooperative competitive relationship?”
“Yes, portal sites and SNS will have to form a cooperative competitive relationship with the media in the future. Both sides will have to work hard for that.”
“I don’t understand that either.”
“Yes, this time you’ll have to experience it. Actually, even I find it hard to predict how the world will change after SNS emerges.”
Half true.
Because he had experienced such a world.
The other half was that he didn’t know the aftereffects that would come earlier than expected in this life.
‘That’s why it’s more exciting.’
Anyway, if he preoccupied everything that would come out in the future, what would the famous founders of the past live on?
Suddenly, he began to have these questions.
Especially, he couldn’t help but think of Zuke Marker Burg this time.
In this life, Face Note would be released by Lee Hyun-woo first.
To be precise, Jungle, meaning Oh Min-woo, created it, and Lee Hyun-woo would properly spread it to the world.
‘Anyway, in my second life, I saw many people take different paths.’
A pro gamer became a singer, and an internet cafe owner became a genius developer.
Meanwhile, the developers of Single created a P2P site, and Steven Job was devoting all his energy to developing a portal site.
In fact, a few days after Jungle announced the launch of SNS, Pineapple threw down the gauntlet to Yaho and Jungle with a new portal site.
‘This should be fun.’
What shape would a portal site developed by Steven Job take?
This too was a point of interest for Lee Hyun-woo.
Meanwhile, at that time, Kim Ah-young was also posting on her blog like Lee Hyun-woo.
The beginning was quite similar to the post on Lee Hyun-woo’s blog.
- I have found someone I love.
But it was more explicit than what Lee Hyun-woo wrote the day before.
Anyone who read this could feel this way.
- Lee Hyun-woo loves me, but my love for Lee Hyun-woo is greater.
A little later, someone knocked on the door.
“Yes.”
“It’s me, unnie.”
The youngest, Kim Na-yoon, who had sparkling eyes, quickly came over and said,
“You know that friends’ blog posts get notified right away, right?”
“Only when you’re logged into the computer.”
“That’s right. So, your blog post is asking me to read it.”
Kim Ah-young smiled gently.
With a look that said there was nothing to fear now.
“This is a big deal. Our family pursues a mysterious veil of secrecy, but at this rate, the daily life of a chaebol will be fully revealed.”
“Not daily life. Hyun-woo and I will probably just reveal this much and not write more.”
“Really? Did you discuss that with Hyun-woo oppa?”
“We didn’t specifically agree. But if the interest continues, it will be burdensome for both of us.”
“That’s strange. Then why did you post it?”
“To make it clear between us.”
“Huh? What do you mean? Ah, I get it. He’s mine, I’m his. So it’s for announcing it to the world.”
Kim Ah-young smiled, acknowledging it.
At that time, in Kim Sung-moo’s office downstairs.
Seeing his daughter’s public declaration of a relationship following Lee Hyun-woo’s blog post the previous day, he couldn’t help but feel very complicated.
‘This is shaking the family tradition.’
Because of the person Kim Ah-young was dating, the mystique they had maintained was about to be uprooted.
Should he let this continue?
In fact, there was no way to stop it.
The person most actively blogging was the youngest, Kim Na-yoon.
‘Since I can’t stop Na-yoon, it’s hard to say anything to Ah-young.’
He sighed involuntarily.
“Sigh…”
There’s no choice.
This must be the flow of the times.
He decided not to watch the internet for a while.
