As soon as Lee Hyun-woo mentioned expanding into the U.S., Lee Jung-woo’s eyes widened.
This changes everything.
Combining studying abroad with managing the U.S. branch of 【Jungle】.
How exhilarating!
While he was daydreaming, his brother’s voice rang out again.
“What do you think? Not bad, right?”
“Of course, CEO. I’ll work hard from now on.”
Lee Jung-woo answered energetically and stepped outside.
His changed mindset reflected in his expression.
He was even whistling.
Shortly after, Oh Min-woo, who was preparing to leave work, approached him, curious.
“Hey, Lee Jung-woo. What’s up? Something good happen?”
“Manager Oh, this is the office.”
“You’re speaking informally too.”
“Tch, I don’t have time to talk to you.”
“What’s up? Tell me, tell me. Did you pick up a girl at the nightclub or something?”
“That brain of yours… No, it’s something much better.”
“Much better than that?”
“I have a dream now. To go for an MBA in the U.S. later. Not the basketball league, but M! B! A! You might have heard of it.”
Oh Min-woo’s eyes sparkled.
“Isn’t that a graduate management course?”
“Oh? You know.”
“Of course, I’m good at English. I skimmed through it online once.”
“As expected… You must be a genius. It’s amazing how you read and interpret English so fluently.”
“Would you really call that genius? Our textbooks are in the original language.”
“That’s true, but it’s related to our major, so we’re used to the vocabs now. By the way, listening to you makes me realize, I didn’t even know what an MBA was when I told our CEO I wanted to go.”
“You are going?”
“After dropping out of college. I also told him you were quitting school.”
Oh Min-woo immediately exploded in frustration.
“Hey! How could you bring that up?”
“I had no choice. Hope you understand.”
“Damn, you always blab…”
With a displeased expression, Oh Min-woo continued.
“…and ignorant. Do you know that an MBA is a graduate program? You need a college degree and work experience to get in.”
“I know, I heard from my brother. Listening to him, I realized how hard it is to find information.”
Lee Jung-woo easily acknowledged.
He seemed determined to have a broad mindset if he was going to be the head of 【Jungle】’s U.S. branch.
Then he spoke.
“Anyway, we’re a portal service providing a sea of information, but it’s hard to find such data. We need to improve this.”
“One person’s knowledge has its limits.”
“That’s why I was thinking…”
Lee Jung-woo’s expression turned serious.
“I suddenly had an idea flash through my mind.”
“What is it?”
“Just like you and my brother told me things, what if users of 【Jungle】 could explain things to each other? There are times when someone knows more than me.”
“That’s a good idea. People would visit 【Jungle】 more often. But there should be some benefit for those who answer.”
“Right. To encourage answers, we should give something. Ah, so many ideas are coming to mind, it’s driving me crazy.”
“Me too.”
“Huh? What’s up? Why are you taking off your clothes?”
“Talk about this and then leave? No way. If something interrupts in the middle, I can’t sleep.”
“Shall we work on it together then?”
“Deal!”
If Lee Hyun-woo were there, he would have quickly organized their ideas.
Why?
Because what they were discussing was the core concept of the portal’s collective intelligence service, Knowledge-In.
The next day, Lee Hyun-woo was surprised again when two team leaders visited him.
It was his brother Lee Jung-woo and Oh Min-woo.
“What is it today?”
“We didn’t come because of complaints.”
“Yes, listen to this.”
“While receiving guidance from you yesterday, we felt the limits of acquiring information.”
“Yes, it’s ironic that we work at a portal site providing information.”
“So, we thought about it. Can’t we incorporate shared information from multiple people into our portal?”
“It’s not impossible. If someone asks a question, others who know the answer can respond.”
“Then we might need a new section for questions and answers.”
“Yes, with footnote hyperlinks. Also, increasing visibility could help boost visitor numbers. What do you think?”
Listening to their ping-pong conversation, admiration flashed in Lee Hyun-woo’s eyes.
‘The aspects of portal services from my past life keep resurfacing.’
After hearing their entire proposal, Lee Hyun-woo responded with satisfaction.
“Good, you can go ahead and implement it.”
“Wow, our CEO is always so decisive.”
“Didn’t you know? That’s how my brother is.”
“Please make a distinction between work and personal life.”
“Oh, sorry.”
“Besides this old-fashioned attitude, he’s the perfect boss.”
Ignoring Oh Min-woo’s not-quite-complaint, Lee Hyun-woo began to further engage with the Knowledge-In idea.
“Let me add one more thing. Simply encouraging people to answer is a bit weak, how about giving points and titles?”
“Points and titles?”
“Exactly. For example, give 50 points for answering a question, and the questioner gives at least 10 points to the answerer. As these points accumulate - 100, 500, 1,000, 2,000, etc. - we could assign titles and ranks to stimulate the competitive nature of Koreans. What do you think?”
“Good idea!”
“Then what titles should we use?”
“Something just flashed in my mind.”
“What is it?”
“Beginner, Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master….”
“Hey, Oh Min-woo! Have you been reading martial arts novels? You’re using them just as they are.”
Listening to their conversation, Lee Hyun-woo smiled and made a decision.
“Manager Oh’s suggestion isn’t bad.”
“Really?”
“Yes, portals are inherently tied to subcultures.”
“Subcultures?”
“Martial arts, fantasy literature, and such. Comics, serialized manga, and games are all considered subcultures.”
“Talking to you makes my knowledge feel shallower, hyung.”
“Not hyung, CEO.”
“Hey, you call him hyung sometimes too!”
“Not lately.”
As they bickered again, Lee Hyun-woo intervened.
“Alright, enough. Don’t forget to separate work and personal matters. Act as the team leaders you are.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“By the way, can you handle this while working on your current projects?”
“Of course. Our main tasks are online auctions and shopping anyway.”
“Right. Plus, we’ve hired new employees, so we have extra manpower.”
“Technically that’s not true.”
“We certainly do.”
“Again, again… in front of me, separate work and personal matters strictly and stop arguing.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Alright. Since you two say you can handle it, I’ll leave it to you. Understood?”
“Yes, CEO.”
“Yes, sir!”
Watching their enthusiastic responses, Lee Hyun-woo smiled, realizing he couldn’t stop them.
“By the way, how early are we launching the Knowledge-In service?”
Though not an IT specialist, Lee Hyun-woo never neglected analyzing success factors.
In the past, 【Navy】 became legendary and established its presence with just the Knowledge-In service.
Thus, introducing the Knowledge-In service in the 1996 Korean portal market, where 【Jungle】 had no competitors, would lead to absolute dominance.
“Considering this, shouldn’t Silicon Valley be coming to us instead?”
Did his words become reality?
A reply came to the email he had sent the previous day, discussing a study tour to Silicon Valley, with a surprising proposal.
【Dear Lee】
The recipient was a company called 【Alta Vista】.
This company was already one of the rising stars in the U.S., also located in Silicon Valley.
Since they also dealt with search engines like 【Jungle】, Lee Hyun-woo thought they could be helpful, thus he sent the email.
【We were very surprised to receive an email from your company. Actually, we frequently visit 【Jungle】’s webpage, and we are always impressed. Although we don’t understand the language, the overall layout is very eye-catching. The more we look at it, the more sophisticated the design seems, which piqued our curiosity about the company behind this portal site. So, when we received your email, we were very excited…(abridged)… Therefore, we are reaching out to ask what you think about establishing a mutual business collaboration to maximize our exchanges. Oh, of course, the talents visiting from your company are always welcome, and we can share insights into the core values of 【Alta Vista】 as well… (abridged)…】
After reading the email, Lee Hyun-woo was momentarily dazed.
Multiple thoughts swam in his mind.
“Business collaboration and mutual exchange? More than that, they already know about us?”
It was 1996, and although there weren’t many portal sites globally, it was unexpected for a small Korean portal site to be on the radar of a U.S. company.
“No, I should have expected it. How else would Son Jung-yi have known about us?”
For a Korean IT company to be known overseas, it had to be proven through marketability.
Though newly-formed, 【Jungle】 had rapidly grown, changing the hegemony of the Korean information and communications era.
The successful landing of ADSL had already been demonstrated through test trials.
Thus, Lee Hyun-woo needed to approach this with more confidence.
He quickly replied to the email.
The message was long, but the core points were as follows:
First, tell us specifically what mutual business collaboration entails, i.e., what 【Alta Vista】 can offer us.
Second, after hearing their proposal, we will consider what we can offer 【Alta Vista】.
Third, if both parties agree, we can proceed with the business collaboration.
Fourth, once the business collaboration is confirmed, we will send people to 【Alta Vista】, and they should send people to us as well.
Fifth, even if the business collaboration isn’t confirmed, we can start with mutual visits and personnel exchanges.
After sending the email, Lee Hyun-woo called a meeting of all team leaders near the end of the workday.
“I have good news.”
What’s it about this time?
Curiosity was evident in everyone’s eyes.
In fact, it was more expectation than simple curiosity.
Because whenever Lee Hyun-woo mentioned good news, it was never something small or trivial.
“You all know about the American company 【Alta Vista】, right? They have proposed a business collaboration.”
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”
“……!”
An array of exclamation points filled their eyes.
