The next day, should I call it a return visit?
Kim Ah-young visited Lee Hyun-woo’s house.
And the meeting for the marriage proceeded swiftly.
The person who was most eager to hurry things was Jang Hee-jin, so she communicated with Kim Ah-young to set a time, and using the excuse that Lee Hyun-woo might get busier, they quickly set a date.
Thus, the two faced the meeting far quicker than the process of dating, and a week later, when both families met over the weekend, the conversation quickly turned to skipping the engagement ceremony and discussing marriage.
Typically, in such meetings, the in-laws take the lead.
At first, Jo Young-sook, who seemed less talkative compared to Jang Hee-jin, later actively shared her opinions, suggesting that next year would be better than this year, which was marked by a superstition about the number nine, and confirmed the wedding for the first half of the next year.
All the discussions and agreements were smooth.
So, after the meeting ended and Lee Hyun-woo and Kim Ah-young spent some time alone, smiles blossomed on their faces.
“I’ll do well.”
Kim Ah-young laughed at Lee Hyun-woo’s sudden resolve.
“What, are you saying that already?”
“I’m promising myself as well. That I’ll do well.”
“I think you’ll do well. I should do well too.”
“Yes, let’s prove that our choice wasn’t wrong, by showing our strong marital bond quietly, so that others will always be envious.”
“Hey, what, are we loving and marrying to show off to others?”
“Huh? Of course not. We’re not doing it to show off. But if we bind ourselves to such words, won’t we try harder to keep our promises? More precisely, I can’t afford to neglect our family and become workaholic.”
“I don’t think you’ll do that. Don’t worry too much. And a man should have some big ambitions. I liked it when you said you wanted to surpass Billy Kates of Macro Soft. I’ll support you until then, so don’t worry.”
Kim Ah-young revealed the words she had pledged recently in front of Lee Hyun-woo.
In other words, even though Lee Hyun-woo wasn’t a fool, she vowed to support him perfectly like Princess Pyeonggang, so that Lee Hyun-woo could stand at the pinnacle of the world.
Unaware of this, Lee Hyun-woo laughed.
“It seems like it’s not far off.”
Of course, there was still quite a gap, but he felt certain after seeing the public offering of Jungle Japan.
Time was on his side.
No matter how much Billy Kates had secured the operating system market, could he compete with Lee Hyun-woo, who knew the future trends?
Moreover, there were only favorable conditions for Lee Hyun-woo and Jungle going forward.
Once Jungle USA and Jungle Korea go public sequentially, they might not catch up to Billy Kates, but they could get close.
In fact, Macro Soft was not just sitting idle, but that was more of a problem.
Even so, except for the operating system and office software suite, Macro Soft hadn’t achieved much success with anything else.
They had some success with console games, but even that was first entered by Yaho.
“Since catching up is just a matter of time, let’s advance it and aim for early retirement.”
In reality, Billy Kates was contemplating various moves as he observed the rapid growth of Jungle in real-time.
The ambitiously launched portal site Macro Soft Network continued to increase its market share due to the initial flashy promotions, but it resulted in taking away Yaho’s market share more than Jungle USA’s.
The management gave it significance, but Billy Kates had a completely different perspective.
“The world doesn’t recognize anything but a monopoly.”
This was his business philosophy in running Macro Soft.
Crush all competitors and monopolize the market to seize the distant future!
In that sense, the portal site battle had just begun, but he couldn’t be satisfied.
“It’s time to consider acquiring a game company.”
“Acquiring a game company?”
Smith Balmer, who was often Billy Kates’ conversation partner in the company, responded.
He was already a candidate for the next chairman of Macro Soft.
“Don’t you know that Jungle recently launched a game?”
“Yes, it came out just the other day.”
“The English version did, but the Korean version was already released and is immensely popular.”
“Yes, I’ve heard about that. But we also distribute games, right? Surely, you don’t mean to develop them ourselves?”
When Space War was released in Korea, Age of Civilization started being distributed by Macro Soft in the U.S.
The response was not bad in its own way.
However, from Smith Balmer’s perspective, it was just pocket change, and he showed a lukewarm reaction.
“Game CDs don’t sell as much as Windows, do they?”
“The comparison is misplaced. Compared to Windows, nothing sells well. The price is different too.”
The sales of Windows 95 had exceeded 40 million within a year of its release.
Even if a single game CD sold just one-tenth of that, it would be a record, making it incomparable.
Moreover, the price was more than twice as much.
“Instead, think about this: with a small development cost, you can make game lovers go crazy. Just like Nintendo or Sonic did.”
“Hmm…”
“It’s no coincidence that Yaho announced their entry into console games. If Jungle teams up with them and focuses on games, it could shake the ecosystem we’ve built at Macro Soft.”
“Surely not…”
The ecosystem of Macro Soft’s operating systems and office software was solid.
To Smith Balmer, the idea of it being shaken was unimaginable.
Thus, he thought Billy Kates was overly worried.
Billy Kates, displeased with Smith Balmer’s thoughts,
“At first, you thought the platform and content from Jungle didn’t overlap with ours, right? But now, they’re gradually encroaching on Macro Soft’s domain. They entered the web browser market, then developed a PDA operating system. Recently, they’ve been attracting developers’ attention with open programming languages through software tools they service themselves. The next step could be targeting game developers.”
“You mean they would make games with the software tools they provide?”
“Aren’t they already partnering with Yaho to make console games? We must not think in our terms. We need to think from their perspective to foresee the direction they’ll take. Currently, there seems to be no correlation between console games and online, but what if they attempt it?”
“……”
“And what if such online-integrated console games sell at least as well as Space War?”
“Hmm…”
“Then numerous developers will start using Jungle’s software tools alongside the ones we provided. If that happens, can our monopolistic ecosystem remain unshaken?”
Listening to Billy Kates’ kind explanation after a long time, Smith Balmer finally saw the whole picture.
He clearly understood the reason behind venturing into game development.
“Although I know developing games right away is a stretch, considering the uncertainties of the future, it would be better to acquire a few companies as a form of insurance. Don’t you think?”
Nodding.
“How about Balance Studio?”
“Huh? Isn’t that the company that made Age of Civilization?”
“Yes. At least a star developer of that caliber. Besides them, Storm wouldn’t be a bad choice either.”
Storm was also a star developer famous for the Fantasy Craft series.
Acquiring both companies mentioned in the conversation, or even just one of them, would enable Macro Soft to sufficiently compete with Jungle.
Smith Balmer nodded once more, expressing admiration with his words.
“Phew, there’s certainly a gap between you and me. While I may be adept at seeing the present, I can’t match your foresight. If you leave, Macro Soft might squander all we’ve built.”
“Hahaha, that won’t happen. Even if we just protect our operating system, our company can remain the world’s top IT firm for about ten years. But once a competitor catches up, the real competition will begin.”
“Then at least hold out for ten years. I need to learn from you to be able to compete with them.”
“Well, I can’t say for sure how long I’ll stay in this position, but one thing is certain: if the gap with our competitors widens, I’ll hand over the chairmanship to you.”
“Why would you say such a thing?”
“I’m serious. By then, managing from this position might no longer be fun.”
“Good grief, then should I start cheering for other competitors to catch up? I can’t do that, so I already feel overwhelmed.”
Actually, Billy Kates had been talking about retirement for quite some time.
Fortunately, after meeting Lee Hyun-woo last year, he seemed to rekindle his passion and postponed retirement.
Even now, he still seemed to enjoy the competition more than the idea of retiring.
But since he planned to retire after defeating the competitors and making them hit rock bottom, Smith Balmer found himself in the ironic position of cheering for the competitors to step up their game.
The problem was that a trigger for his retirement could arise even without that.
And that starting point occurred in an unexpected area soon after.
『Department of Justice indicts Macro Soft for violating antitrust laws!』
This issue arose because of the bundling of a web browser with Windows 97.
The market share of this operating system was approaching 95%, and naturally, many computers came with Internet Ex Cross pre-installed.
In fact, the reason the existing web browser Navigator couldn’t hold out was due to Macro Soft’s forced bundling.
Moreover, as Jungle released Forest into the market, Navigator was phased out, but at least Forest used a consumer choice method like downloads.
『Forced bundling is an unfair practice that kills competitors』
The Department of Justice is now holding Macro Soft accountable for this.
Seeing the situation unfold suddenly, Smith Balmer went to Billy Kates to devise countermeasures.
“It came sooner than I thought. It seems I should hand over my position to you soon.”
Billy Kates greeted his friend with an expression that the inevitable had arrived.
And then he said,
“In order to avoid damaging our web browser market share, I think I need to step down.”
Realizing that this was an opportunity for Forest to increase its market share, he concluded that the best move was to quickly hand over the chairmanship and manage Macro Soft from behind the scenes.
