Employees who saw the cell phone Lee Hyun-woo took out were momentarily stunned and couldn’t say anything.
Then, after a brief pause, each of them said something.
“Are you giving us this cell phone?”
“Wow, really… I don’t know what to say.”
“Isn’t this expensive?”
“Yes, it’s definitely expensive. It must be over a million won.”
“Uh… I haven’t been working here for long…”
“This cell phone is for work use, not personal use.”
Finally, Lee Hyun-woo added the reason for giving out the phones.
Of course, unless there was some eavesdropping device, one couldn’t differentiate between work and personal use.
“You’ll need to visit 【DaeHan Telecom】 personally to activate it. The company will subsidize 100,000 won per month for the charges.”
With this kind of measure, they wouldn’t use it recklessly.
But maybe because it didn’t feel real yet?
People just blinked for a moment.
Now, these people were practically Lee Hyun-woo’s devotees.
“Wow…”
“Thank you.”
“Thank you.”
“This is really expensive…”
“Uh… I really haven’t been working here for long…”
After repeatedly saying thank you a bit late, they seamlessly took Lee Hyun-woo’s directions even in the resumed meeting.
“Is the server okay?”
“Yes, but we need to keep checking due to the explosively increasing users.”
“It looks like we can’t buy one at a time anymore. What about the personnel we talked about last time?”
“We’re mainly looking for graduated seniors, but it doesn’t seem easy.”
Seeing his younger brother Lee Jeong-woo answer with an apologetic expression, Lee Hyun-woo thought he would have to continue using interns.
It was still a time of employment boom.
Unless a cold wave hit, it seemed hard to find people.
“Then, look into the juniors. Two people. One for day and one for night.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Therefore, the two of you will also have to work in shifts.”
Recently, Lee Jeong-woo and Jang Yoo-cheol had mostly been working overtime due to increased workload.
Lee Hyun-woo, who had once died from overwork, was not pleased with this.
So, he planned to hire two more people.
His younger brother Lee Jeong-woo quickly responded to his older brother’s directions.
“I’ll be returning to school next semester, so I’ll take the night shift.”
“Okay, then Jang Yoo-cheol will handle the day shift. Oh, and we also plan to hire one more sales representative.”
Everyone nodded as if it was natural.
Even Lee Jeong-woo made a flattering comment.
“How hard must it have been for you, CEO, to be going around all this time? It seems like you can start letting go bit by bit.”
“And we’re also going to get a warehouse.”
“What?”
“We can’t keep piling things up at home. There will be more orders, and we’ll handle things other than Clones CDs, so it’ll be difficult without a warehouse. By the way, we need to order another 100,000 CDs.”
“No matter how well Clones are doing, we’ve already ordered 50,000 copies. Another 100,000 seems too much.”
“Who said it was Clones CDs?”
“What?”
“You know Lee Man-soo, right? The MC and singer.”
“Oh… I know…”
“There’s a rumor that he started an agency last year and is preparing a boy group.”
Hearing Lee Hyun-woo’s words, Lee Jeong-woo looked at Han Se-jin.
It was an unspoken question asking if he had heard the same rumor.
Of course, Han Se-jin shook his head.
So, Lee Jeong-woo quickly asked his brother.
“When are they debuting?”
“I don’t know that, but as I mentioned earlier, we need to stock up on other albums in the meantime. And we’re not just a one-time album selling site anymore. We’ll sell books and expand our product range. We absolutely need a warehouse.”
“Oh, okay…”
In the end, Lee Jeong-woo backed down again.
Lee Hyun-woo smiled slightly as he watched him.
‘How could people know? That Lee Man-soo’s 【MS Entertainment】 will make a big splash with the boy group Candy Boy.’
So, he had to pretend to leak future information once again.
They would debut in the fall, so there was still some time.
In the meantime, they planned to purchase other singers’ albums in batches of 10,000 and sell them online.
The same would go for books.
He would recall the best-selling books from each publisher.
Living life twice made this too easy.
‘But the most urgent thing is a sales representative.’
Now that Han Se-jin had learned quite a bit, he could handle concert tickets and direct album purchases on his own, but with Lee Hyun-woo constantly expanding operations, it was inevitable that he would be overwhelmed.
“Alright, meeting adjourned! Please post the announcement right away!”
“Yes, understood!”
Maybe because of receiving the cell phones?
People seemed to be acting more efficiently.
Jang Yoo-cheol immediately started managing the site, and Lee Jeong-woo promptly posted a notice on the website following his brother’s direction.
Yoo Jin-young and Jung Joo-hee also answered phone calls more kindly.
Lastly, Han Se-jin said,
“I’ll be visiting 【MS Entertainment】.”
He was going to a place that was still busy preparing for the boy group.
Lee Hyun-woo nodded and smiled.
‘Indeed, sometimes you need to give out candies.’
Since they were making a lot of money, he decided to prepare surprise gifts occasionally.
The next day, on his way to work, Lee Hyun-woo bought a newspaper from a newsstand.
『【Jungle】 promoting a new lifestyle through online auctions and shopping』
He picked up the newspaper as if hypnotized by the headline that caught his eye. The content seemed quite satisfying as well, making Lee Hyun-woo smile with contentment.
It was an article based on the interview he had given last time.
‘Our company is being mentioned more and more on TV and in newspapers.’
What did this mean?
Frequent exposure would lead to many more site users.
Although it was something he could confirm by checking the visitors, there was another thing he could verify in the morning.
“This was posted less than twenty-four hours ago, and already 100 people have applied.”
Jang Yoo-cheol’s excited voice indicated that many users were applying.
Seeing this, Lee Hyun-woo made a bold decision.
“We need to hire two developers and three more general employees.”
“What?”
“We need someone to assist Han Se-jin in sales, someone to manage inventory in the warehouse, and someone to handle promotions and marketing. I think these positions are immediately necessary.”
Was this what explosive growth meant?
It hadn’t been long since they hired female staff for phone operations, and now they were looking to hire three people to share various tasks and even two programmers.
The business that started in late winter or early spring was expanding tremendously as late spring or early summer approached.
‘But the interviews will be a hassle.’
Now that they were growing, they couldn’t just hire anyone, so he immediately thought about how to reduce the interview workload.
The solution was simple.
The first round would filter candidates online instead of in person.
For example,
‘If at least they could send their introduction via email and I could read it?’
It seemed possible to filter out many candidates.
So, he called out two names.
“Lee Jeong-woo and Jang Yoo-cheol.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Can we add an email feature to our website?”
“Email? Of course, we can.”
So far, 【Jungle】 only had a messaging feature.
Since they were planning to add another server anyway, Lee Hyun-woo thought it might be a good idea to activate email as well.
“What I mean is different from electronic mail in PC communications.”
“Then specifically what are you referring to?”
“Allowing users of other services to send us emails. Also, we need to increase the capacity a bit.”
“Creating an email is not difficult, but allowing users of other services to send to us might be challenging.”
“Technically?”
“No, not technically. That’s not difficult. But other companies are so exclusive….”
The other companies mentioned in the conversation between Lee Hyun-woo and the two were actually PC communication service providers.
In this era, the four major PC communications were 【Cheonri】, 【Now】, 【Hi】, and 【Uni】.
“Exclusive…”
“To use PC communications, you need to pay a membership fee of 10,000 won and a monthly fee of 9,900 won. Although the membership fee has become nominal, service providers who charge for their services are unlikely to allow free email on a site like ours. They don’t even do it among themselves.”
“Then what if our free-to-join 【Jungle】 also offers ‘email’ for free?”
“What?”
“CEO?”
“This seems worth trying.”
Lee Hyun-woo’s face brightened.
A free email service on a free membership site.
“If we do well, we could absorb a huge number of PC communication users. Don’t you think?”
Lee Jeong-woo and Jang Yoo-cheol expressed concerns about Lee Hyun-woo’s somewhat aggressive target.
“If we offer for free what others charge for, it could cause problems.”
“Yes, that’s right. They might consider us as enemies.”
“Through auctions and shopping, we’ve already significantly lowered product prices. If you think as you do, then even Yongsan Electronics Market, 【GuSeong】 or 【GB Electronics】, and even big and small record shops might see us as enemies. Isn’t that so?”
“Well, that’s true…”
“That’s true, but…”
“Moreover, it will be the same in the future. Are you saying we shouldn’t enter that industry because we fear creating enemies? That’s nonsense. The same applies to technology. If we offer for free what others charge for, more people will come to us. This is business. The number of users on an online shopping site is directly related to sales. Isn’t that right?”
“…”
“…”
Both of them fell silent.
It wasn’t a look of acceptance.
Lee Hyun-woo realized he couldn’t convince them all at once.
As expected, they cautiously brought up another concern.
“It’s hard to gauge how much we need to expand the server.”
“The tail might end up wagging the dog.”
“That’s true.”
“No, CEO, aren’t you taking this too lightly?”
“We can’t just live off the land. If we keep expanding servers that cost a million won endlessly, we might end up spending all the money we’ve earned on that.”
“Both of you seem quite negative. Why can’t you see the bright side?”
“What?”
“As I mentioned earlier, if the number of users increases, the exposure of the products we sell will also be significant. If we earn from that and expand the servers, it will create a virtuous cycle. Right?”
“That’s true, but…”
“But somehow, the word ‘free’ makes me nervous.”
It seemed more so because it was an uncharted path.
Of course, this applied to them.
Lee Hyun-woo had already come from the future.
‘Guys, in the distant future, all emails are free. There’s even a portal site that lost its number one spot because it charged for it.’
Nothing increases user numbers explosively like offering something for free.
“Alright, the manager has made a decision, so the two of you should follow it.”
“Yes, CEO…”
“Understood.”
“And for now, please announce that applicants should send their introductions via message by the end of this week.”
“Yes, I will.”
Still, Lee Jeong-woo didn’t oppose it as strongly as before.
Perhaps it was because of the influence of Clones.
Seeing this, a relaxed smile grew on Lee Hyun-woo’s face once again.
‘Anyway, because of me, who has experienced the future, our company is bound to succeed.’
