Lee Hyun-woo, CEO of Jungle.
Goo Man-ho was reading the atmosphere of the company and knew Lee Hyun-woo’s management philosophy.
So, although he understood Lee Hyun-woo’s intention to hire many people to reduce the workload of existing employees, he still had one question.
“I understand everything else, but why the part-time employees…”
“As I hired people and worked with them, I found that most of them needed to learn the job from scratch.”
“Ah, yes, that’s true. What you learn in college is different from the reality of the workplace.”
“So, I’m thinking of letting them gain experience part-time first and then establishing a system to make them full-time employees in the future.”
In fact, part-time means more like an internship.
Lee Hyun-woo was convinced that gaining work experience from college would help nurture high-quality talent.
You could say he was trying to adopt a kind of German model.
Fortunately, Goo Man-ho nodded in agreement.
“That’s a good idea. When I came here, I saw that three of the directors are still university students. From the outside, it seemed really unusual, but seeing them work inside, it was impressive. If they graduate and take on multiple projects in the future, I think they could bring about some revolutionary changes.”
“I’m not expecting that much, but as I mentioned earlier, the strategy is to secure skilled talents by letting them gain experience part-time. Particularly, I think we need more part-time employees in the still-weak design part.”
“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind for the university presentations.”
After observing the work done by the design part this time, he realized that people specializing in web design or character design were truly scarce.
The reason was simple.
There were very few institutions that trained them.
Because of this, Lee Hyun-woo thought it might be better to nurture potential talents in Jungle itself.
‘The future web industry can’t be thought of without design.’
Even in Jungle, almost all fields needed the assistance of the design part, and design was being extensively changed in various sectors like portal sites.
However, from Lee Hyun-woo’s perspective, progress was slow, and the workload was heavy.
Naturally, this was also a situation that needed improvement, so he thought they should hire a lot in this open recruitment, from experienced employees to part-time interns.
‘Come to think of it, 3D printing technology also requires design.’
These days, Lee Hyun-woo was fixated on design.
It seemed more like he was subconsciously paying attention rather than consciously.
As time goes by, the first-mover advantage diminishes, and consumers make choices based on very subtle differences.
The public initially gets excited about new things, but as they start to tire, they move to more user-friendly options, and later, they widen their selection criteria to include visually appealing ones.
Instinctively, someone who did this well was Steven Jobs.
Maybe that was why?
The market share of American portal sites was also undergoing continuous seismic shifts.
At that time, Jamie Wang, CEO of Yaho, was lost in thought, looking at the market share of portal sites.
Yaho: 39%
Jungle USA: 28%
Ocean: 14%
Likes: 6%
Macro Soft Network: 5%
Others: 8%
Yaho, which had consistently maintained a high market share of 70 to 80%, barely managed to stay above 50% with the emergence of Jungle USA. However, when Steven Jobs introduced Ocean to the market, it fell below 50%.
By the end of the year, Macro Soft also entered the portal site market, and finally, Yaho’s market share dropped to 39%.
‘This is indeed a real crisis.’
Of course, the market pie itself had grown, so despite the lower market share, the revenue was very high.
However, seeing Jungle USA rising, the top spot was in jeopardy, and now, Ocean also needed to be wary of.
Anyone with a bit of economic knowledge knew that in a market turning from a blue ocean to a red ocean, only the top and their challengers could survive.
Thus, there was a risk of being overtaken by Ocean, and Jamie Wang had been losing sleep recently, thinking about defense strategies.
Seeing his haggard face, his secretary Steve Wong felt something and said,
“How about we incorporate games as well?”
“Games…”
“I heard that Jungle Korea saw better results after launching Go and Omok.”
“Yes, I know. But I don’t think Go and Omok would work in the US.”
Answering, Jamie Wang felt a deep sense of defeat.
‘Jungle is always one step ahead…’
He hadn’t even thought of incorporating games into the portal site.
But then, he remembered why Lee Hyun-woo had no choice but to touch games.
“It really is the platform.”
“Sorry?”
“I mean Hyun-woo Lee. He always emphasized the platform. He used to say that someday, only those who dominate the platform will become the emperors of online. Naturally, we should have predicted the path to the game platform…”
“……”
Steve Wong, seeing Jamie Wang weakening.
‘This is not good.’
Jamie Wang’s strength was ‘adrenaline.’
When excited, he handled business with explosive energy.
However, it was a double-edged sword. If his morale dropped like this, his business energy would hit rock bottom.
This was why sometimes Steve Wong racked his brain to come up with ideas.
But if he were an idea bank, something would have come out of Yaho ahead of Lee Hyun-woo.
‘What should I suggest? What would be good?’
Right now, his mind was filled with the words game and platform.
Consciously or unconsciously, Steve Wong was also aware of what Jamie Wang had said.
“Game and platform… Hmm… Game and platform…, game platform…”
“Huh?”
“……?”
“If it’s a game platform, doesn’t something come to mind?”
“What… are you suggesting Yaho also create a game platform?”
“Of course, we should do that too, but what I mean is that there’s a commercial platform that predates the game platform of a portal site.”
“What could that be…?”
“Obviously, it’s something we used to play a lot when we were kids.”
“Are you talking about Ninendo?”
“That’s right, exactly! Console games. That market isn’t a red ocean yet!”
“It did boil over once and then reorganized after the Atali incident.”
Atali, once known as the king of console games, had oversaturated the market with low-quality games, leading to consumer abandonment and eventually its downfall, paving the way for Ninendo’s dominance.
“Anyway, right now, there’s no clear console game leader other than Ninendo and Play Game, right?”
“There are a few console games, but those two hold the market. But why do you keep mentioning this…”
“How about we try it?”
“What? But strictly speaking, we’re online-based, so it doesn’t match with consoles…”
“Let’s think differently.”
“Oh… how?”
“Let’s try connecting console games with online.”
Steve Wong’s pupils shook.
It seemed quite plausible.
“In fact, looking at Go and Omok from Jungle, the fun seemed to come more from competing with others online rather than the game itself. Wouldn’t it be similar for consoles?”
“I think I’d enjoy online-connected console games more than internet Go or Omok.”
“Exactly!”
“The problem is whether it can be technically supported…”
“A console is structurally similar to a computer. If it can connect to a LAN cable, it’s possible.”
There were more obstacles to overcome, but setting a big goal and finding a way to achieve it seemed feasible.
Feeling like a path was opening up, Jamie Wang’s adrenaline surged from his hormone glands.
“I need to contact Chairman Son right away. When I visit Japan, I need to see if we can form a technical alliance with Ninendo or Sonic.”
“Yes, I’ll reschedule the appointments.”
Seeing Jamie Wang brimming with energy again, Steve Wong gave a wry smile.
‘Online console games… If done well, it might open a new blue ocean.’
Of course, the idea of online console games was quite new, but compared to the game project being pursued by Jungle, there was a long way to go.
The next day, a demonstration of Space War was held at Jungle.
Lee Hyun-woo insisted on being the player and sat in front of the computer, with his opponent being Team Leader Goo Ja-sung, who was known as a game enthusiast within the company.
For reference, Goo Ja-sung was a talent who received attention from Lee Hyun-woo and Woo Sang-won with his bold idea of incorporating games like Minesweeper into the portal site during the first open recruitment of Jungle.
Naturally, when Go or Omok were developed, Lee Jung-woo put him under his wing, and during the development stage of Space War, they collaborated, finally producing a masterpiece.
“Huh? No, this is… Isn’t it too much? A trench attack?”
“You didn’t pay attention to your surroundings, Team Leader. You were only gathering resources.”
“Gosh, you care too much about winning. This game is about gathering resources, upgrading technology, and producing advanced units! If you do this, there’s nothing to show…”
Goo Ja-sung couldn’t finish his sentence.
While being swayed by the trench, he lost all his attack units, and as soon as the threat disappeared, Lee Hyun-woo began a relentless offensive, killing all the workers.
“GG, please!”
“Wow, even though you’re the CEO, this is a trick…”
“Yes, sorry for the trick. Anyway, since you lost, please don’t show an ugly side and GG.”
“Ugh! Can we have another match?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll choose the Earth race next time.”
“Then I’ll choose the Alien race.”
In fact, Goo Ja-sung had been playing as the Divine race when he got defeated.
Perhaps the balance of the Earth race would be better, so he chose this way.
“GG, please!”
“Ugh!”
This time, he was overwhelmed by the infinite expansion and overwhelming numbers of the Alien race.
And then.
“Best of three!”
“Call!”
In the final match, Lee Hyun-woo, playing as the Divine race, crushed and melted Goo Ja-sung’s Alien race.
“GG, please!”
“Ugh!”
With his confidence greatly boosted, Lee Hyun-woo KO’d Goo Ja-sung and looked back.
“Is there anyone who wants to challenge?”
“……”
Silence filled the room. No one was confident enough to win against Lee Hyun-woo.
In the end, Lee Hyun-woo stood up and spoke to his younger brother, Lee Jung-woo.
“Hey, this is really fun.”
“Of course, it’s fun when you win…”
“Anyway, I think this will sweep not only Korea but also the world once it’s released. So make sure to pay attention to the CD production.”
“You mean to produce a lot?”
“Of course.”
Lee Hyun-woo was convinced after playing the complete version of Space War today.
This life’s Space War would hit the world even harder than Space Craft from his past life.
‘If Space Craft gets released in the US, that would be fun too.’
It wasn’t entirely impossible.
It also appeared in 1998 in his previous life.
‘It won’t be exactly the same, but if it’s fun, that’s all that matters.’
