Everyone was waiting for Lee Jung-woo, curious.
So when Lee Jung-woo shared the conversation he had with his older brother, everyone gave a thumbs up.
“That’s amazing.”
“You did really well.”
“You’re a genius, a genius.”
What they all wanted was the same: for Lee Hyun-woo not to leave Jungle just yet.
“Strangely, I want to see Jungle surpass Macro Soft in market capitalization before sending off the CEO.”
“I hope he stays even after that.”
“That’s what we all want, but you know he’s been talking about retirement for a long time, so it’s tough.”
“Yes, I know. This seems like a temporary measure. When he came out, I could see it in his eyes that he was determined.”
All of them met Lee Hyun-woo about nine years ago, and they had never seen him fail once he put his mind to something.
So they were curious.
What would happen if Lee Hyun-woo drove Jungle at full power?
Everyone started salivating at the thought.
Naturally, this was due to their overflowing expectations.
“Is it because I’m Korean? Somehow, I feel like if our chairman sets his mind to it, Jungle can surpass Macro Soft in market capitalization.”
“Are you serious, just Jungle alone, excluding Jungle USA and Jungle Japan?”
“Yeah, even excluding them.”
“No matter how you look at it, our country’s economy and stock investment limits are a factor. How can we surpass Macro Soft listed on the U.S. stock market?”
“Yeah, I agree with that, but somehow I feel like our chairman could overcome that gap.”
Hearing the conversation between Oh Min-woo and Jang Yoo-chul, Woo Sang-won chuckled.
Then he spoke.
“Sure, it’s because you’re Korean. You know that’s what they call ‘national pride’ these days, right?”
“I know.”
Recently, that term has been widely used in a negative sense, but Oh Min-woo continued speaking without paying any attention.
“Our chairman actually created Silicon Beach in Jeju Island. As a result, more and more world-renowned IT companies are setting up shop in Jeju Island. They are also expanding the airport and port, and when that’s completed and the population increases, who knows if Jeju Island will become the economic and logistics hub of Asia?”
Spitting as he talked, no one responded to his words from that point on.
Also, knowing that giving him attention would make him more excited, people started to leave their seats.
“I think I’ll head in now.”
“Me too. I have a lot of work to do.”
“See you next time. I’m leaving now.”
In the end, Oh Min-woo was left alone, shouting inwardly.
“Our chairman will someday make Korea the center of the world! Yes, absolutely!”
A week passed. In the meantime, Jungle’s total smartphone sales exceeded one million units.
Even though Lee Hyun-woo hadn’t done anything personally, the stock price was soaring thanks to these sales.
‘I feel both happy and sad.’
‘Somehow, it feels like the chairman’s retirement is getting closer.’
Woo Sang-won and the CEOs of the subsidiaries all thought this way, but should they consider themselves lucky?
Soon, a period of adjustment came. A so-called bubble theory, claiming the stock price had risen too much, swept the market.
A week later, people evaluated this phenomenon with very subtle nuances in a gathering.
“It’s not a bubble.”
“Absolutely not. I’d like to tell those who are selling stocks to realize their profits now.”
“After the adjustment, they’ll buy again at the low point, I guess.”
“One conclusion is certain. Due to the scale of Korea’s economy and investment, there are clear limits. It seems difficult to hit a market capitalization of 150 trillion won easily.”
They talked dryly and mechanically about the situation where the stock price wasn’t rising anymore.
There was a reason for this atmosphere.
If it kept rising, Lee Hyun-woo might start talking about retirement again.
But they couldn’t welcome it if it fell, as it felt like the marketability of the smartphone that Jungle had put a lot of effort into was being undervalued.
A few days later, new news decorated the portals,
“GB Electronics to launch a smartphone in the first half of next year!”
This news also spurred the adjustment period for Jungle.
Had they perhaps been timing it while watching the success of Jungle’s smartphone?
“They’ve been preparing and now they see the smartphones are doing well, so they’re declaring their entry.”
“It’s a bit annoying, isn’t it?”
“It’s a fast follower strategy. There’s no other way.”
“But for the fast follower strategy to succeed, they have to come out with something that addresses the trial and error of our smartphone.”
“Of course.”
“Then it has to be incredibly innovative, I wonder if they have the confidence.”
Eventually, they were talking in a way that belittled GB Electronics.
This was a kind of confidence. A conviction that no smartphone could surpass Jungle’s Blossom.
So Woo Sang-won concluded as follows.
“We’ll see when the smartphone from Guseong Electronics comes out soon. Even if the technology is similar, there’s something that can’t be mimicked.”
In fact, the release of Guseong Electronics’ smartphone was imminent, and when an existing phone manufacturer announced plans to release or enter the smartphone market, the market tended to wait and see.
This meant they wanted to see who the winner would be before buying stocks.
Even experts couldn’t easily say which side was superior.
On a broadcast, the following outlook emerged.
- Jungle’s smartphone Blossom is causing a storm in the market, but it seems like it will face strong challenges from now on. This is because companies that have been making phones for a long time have accumulated a lot of know-how. I can guarantee one thing though… Guseong Electronics’ smartphone will not be much different from Blossom in terms of functionality. In fact, it might come out later and address some shortcomings.
Lee Jung-woo and Oh Min-woo, who were watching this program together, clicked their tongues.
“Why doesn’t that so-called expert get it? It’s not about the functionality.”
“Absolutely not. If that were the case, why did Pineapple’s computers, e-book readers, and MP3 players all fail?”
“Exactly. Even though Guseong Electronics makes the best AP (mobile CPU), they haven’t built an ecosystem like we have…”
Besides the two watching the broadcast, the core employees of Jungle felt that was the biggest difference.
“No matter how good the device is, what’s the use if you can’t do much with it? Tsk tsk tsk.”
It seemed overconfident, but shortly after Guseong Electronics’ smartphone was released, Jungle’s smartphone began to be reevaluated.
It was undoubtedly a good smartphone, but Guseong Electronics’ lacked an established ecosystem.
For example, someone with an account on Jungle Music could purchase a song on their computer and download or stream the same song on any device connected to that account without additional payment.
This was just one example, and the numerous platforms and content from Jungle worked most easily and effectively on Blossom.
On the other hand, Guseong Electronics’ smartphone overlooked this aspect of “connection” when it was launched.
Of course, those who were adept with devices could do anything, but such purchasers were only a small fraction.
Sometimes they were caught by telecom contracts, sometimes they recognized the trend of smartphones, and sometimes they bought devices out of curiosity, but couldn’t operate them properly. These people inevitably called Guseong Electronics to ask how to use their devices.
As a result, Guseong Electronics’ call center was flooded with calls, and after realizing this point late, Guseong Electronics continued holding countermeasure meetings, but concluded internally that easy “connection” was difficult with the current device.
The immediate choice was to lower the price.
It had an effect.
Although they lagged behind Jungle in terms of sales volume, they sold 200,000 units within a month of release.
However, everyone in the industry knew.
Jungle had not just a technical knockout but a KO victory.
As soon as this result came out, Lee Hyun-woo did not stay quiet.
He immediately called reporters to Jeju Island and asked them,
“Does anyone know how many mobile phone manufacturers there are in the world?”
Someone immediately raised their hand to show off their knowledge, so he called on them.
“It was identified as over a thousand in the last survey.”
“Yes, that’s correct. Then how many of them originally didn’t make telephones?”
This time there was no answer. There were no journalists who had studied that in depth.
“It seems the question was difficult. Then let me ask you this. Out of those over a thousand mobile phone manufacturers, how many originally made telephones?”
Again, there was silence. The journalists closed their mouths, not because they didn’t know the answer, but because it was ambiguous to answer.
However, it was clear that among the large and small companies that manufactured phones, few had originally made telephones.
At this point, Lee Hyun-woo started to convey the facts.
“As you all know, Nokia, which makes the most mobile phones in the world, wasn’t a telephone-making company. At least Motorola, the second largest, made walkie-talkies, so it could be related to phones.”
“…”
“I think many of you are starting to get what I’m trying to say. The top phone-making company didn’t become the top mobile phone company. Applying this to Jungle, we can say this: although we weren’t originally a phone-making company, we have already become the top in the world with our smartphones.”
Some journalists chuckled.
Currently, the only companies that had launched smartphones were Jungle and Guseong Electronics, so if the former was number one, the latter was number two.
In other words, since there weren’t enough manufacturers to statistically analyze yet, Lee Hyun-woo’s proud statement would need verification far in the future.
Even so, it was clear that Jungle was leading the way, and the probability of it becoming the company that sold the most smartphones worldwide was high, as Lee Hyun-woo mentioned.
Most importantly, it was clear why Lee Hyun-woo was making such a statement now.
He was saying that the current market judgment was wrong.
To announce this, he had called the reporters.
Thinking this far, the journalists’ ears once again caught Lee Hyun-woo’s voice.
“Similarly, Jungle is planning to launch another world-leading product in a different field soon. That is the tablet PC. I had mentioned this before releasing our smartphone, right?”
The journalists’ expressions turned serious.
Come to think of it, Jungle still had another card to play.
“Journalists, you’ve been relying too much on the opinions of experts. Experts said that consumers wouldn’t have the purchasing power when smartphones first came out, and even when they sold well, they insisted on waiting to evaluate properly after other phone companies’ products were released. They might say something similar this time, but I’m not saying you shouldn’t reflect their opinions. I just ask that you also consider my opinion equally… That’s why I gathered you all here.”
