With the Time Shop, I Too Am the Greatest Conglomerate of All Time

Episode 61. Fish with bait.(2)

A week after the American PC makers have returned.

All three of them were contacted to invest.

I gathered around and called Daewon hyung and CEO Ohchan Jung to the conference room of the headquarters.

“Everyone, 90 million dollars fell from the sky!”

Daewon-hyung asked.

“What are you talking about? Why is money falling from the sky?”

“haha. Not long ago, American PC makers came to see me. At that time, I said that if I develop an OS for the drill CPU, I will give it to you for free, so I told you to invest in it. The answer came today. I will invest.”

“..Is that investment worth 90 million dollars?”

Daewon made an expression on his brother’s surprise.

“Why did you say you would invest so much money in that OS? Of course, drill works well, but Windows doesn’t support it. That’s why we can’t even use that drill on our computer.”

“This is all thanks to Apple. Apple’s sales have increased tremendously this month. There is little impact in Korea, but American PC makers must have felt a sense of crisis. They couldn’t stay the same because they could see that Apple’s sales were increasing as much as their sales were falling.”

I said to the boss Oh Chan Noon.

“Chief Jung. So I mean. I need to create a desktop OS. After all, Manager Chae Sang-ah will be making something for tablet PCs anyway, so please add more people to develop the desktop OS together.”

President Jung put on an annoyed expression on his face.

“..Sorry, but desktop OS and tablet OS are a little different. First of all, since desktop PCs do not have touch, the interface is different.

“I didn’t mean to just stick with one or two people. You can pull out as many new ones as you like, so please attach as many as you need.”

“If you say it is necessary, I think you will need at least 10 experts. Is that ok?”

“sure. Anyway, I was planning on hiring a hundred more people, so feel free to hire them.”

President Jung asked in amazement.

“A hundred people?”

Now, the number of Hongin Media employees is less than 30, which was surprising.

“yes. You don’t have enough staff right now. It must be busy making the tablet PC OS and the basic programs that run on it, so we have to hire more people. And you have to start a new business.”

“Is this a software-related business?”

“no. I’m going to start a hosting service business.”

Hosting refers to the act of purchasing servers in bulk, lending them to individuals or companies who want to provide services over the Internet, and receiving fees.

“At this time? Of course, we also use server hosting companies, but there aren’t that many people doing business on the internet like us. Would that be money?”

“It is now. But soon, the number of people using the Internet will increase dramatically. Internet service providers will also increase.”

“Did you use the HFC network service from Jurunet in Seoul last year?”

HFC network service is a service that allows users to access the Internet using a cable broadcasting network.

Of course, it can’t be compared with future Internet speeds played in Gbps units.

The maximum speed reached 2Mbps, which was 30 times faster than the 56kps, the fastest modem at the time.

It was stable because it used a wired optical network.

“yes. There is a cable broadcasting network near my house, so I am using it now.”

“It’s incredibly fast compared to using a modem, isn’t it?”

“right. Now I can’t access the internet through my modem.”

“What if the service is spread across the country? Don’t you think the number of Internet users will increase dramatically?”

“I will. But this HFC network service can only be used where cable networks are installed. There aren’t many places in Seoul with cable networks right now, and even if there is a cable network, there is no service in communal apartments. Do you think it will take a long time to spread nationwide?”

“If it is an HFC network service, yes. But soon, other types of high-speed Internet networks will spread across the country. Have you heard of ADSL?”

“no. It’s the first time I hear it.”

“Now is February, so maybe in two or three months, Naro Communications will launch a service called ADSL. Unlike the HFC network, which requires a new optical communication network, communication is performed using the existing telephone network, and the speed is very fast. It will spread quickly.”

ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line).

Because the DSL method uses a separate frequency from voice calls.

Unlike the modem, which hangs up when a call comes in, stable data communication was possible.

The speed was also fast.

ADSL, which means asymmetric here, was a technology designed to speed up the download speed by focusing on downloading rather than uploading data.

“Wow! The world has gotten a lot better. You mean that kind of technology came out?”

“But what about the price? Since you’re using the phone network, isn’t the phone bill expensive like using an existing modem?”

“The price will be similar to the HFC network my brother is using now. I’m going to make about 3,000 won a month.”

“ah. Then, as you say, it will spread quickly.”

“Yes? So, you need to start a hosting business. How much is our shopping mall hosting cost now?”

“More than 10 million won per month.”

“It will go a dozen times more in the future.”

“Dozens of times… billions?”

“yes. If ADSL is installed, the number of visitors to our shopping mall site will increase tenfold. Besides, we’ll be releasing ni-world soon, and that ni-world will eat up a lot of traffic again.”

Traffic refers to the amount of data transmitted to the server.

“Shopping malls are like that. But are you saying that there will be so many users that Nyworld also has to worry about the cost?”

“In just one or two years, the number of Nyworld users will surpass our shopping mall.”

“Well. Do you mean that you see it that way?”

“yes. Then the hosting cost will increase again. After pouring money into hosting like this, instead of doing something good for others, let’s start our own hosting business.”

In fact, this was the way Yamazon, an American internet commerce company, was doing in the future.

Since we are using a lot of traffic on our internet site anyway, we started a hosting business by creating a huge data center (a space for collecting servers) in order to reduce costs.

The business will generate huge profits of several trillion won per year.

“I know what you mean.”

Then the boss asked me.

“But to run a hosting business, you have to create a data center, and it costs tens of billions of dollars. Are you going to spend all the money you invested this time?”

“yes. Except for the cost of recruiting an additional hundred people.”

“..As the director said, as the number of Internet population increases, the demand for hosting will also increase. But even if that happens, the competition will soon intensify and profit margins will drop again. This is a field that is not difficult to enter if you have capital. How about looking for another good investment?”

I replied with a smile.

“What do entrepreneurs do if they are afraid of competition and avoid it? Besides, I have a winning strategy, so don’t worry too much, Mr. Jung.”

“A winning strategy?”

“yes. I will tell you step by step when the hosting business is ready to some extent. So, please start by creating a data center first.”

One of the areas that I intensively researched before returning was Yamazon Web Service (YWS), a hosting service of Yamazon.

The reason I decided to start a hosting business was because I knew well how YWS succeeded.

“All right. Then we will start by looking for the data center site.”

While me and President Jung were talking.

Daewon, who was alone in his troubles, clapped his hands.

“Yeah, right. I’ve felt a bit uneasy about something before, but now I’ve thought of it.”

“You, weren’t you thinking of releasing the easyOS you’re developing for free anyway?”

“yes. To be precise, the idea was to release an OS for tablet PCs for free.”

“Then you were going to get paid to unlock the OS for desktop PCs?”

“no. I didn’t plan on making it right away, but I was thinking of releasing it for free if I ever do.”

The influence of Microsoft’s operating system, Windows, was already so great that I had no choice but to release my OS for free to break through it.

Instead, I was going to make a profit through the app store attached to the OS.

“by the way? Why did you get paid by PC makers? You said you were going to get it for free anyway?”

“It seems that PC manufacturers are more interested in drilling CPUs than I thought. So I stabbed it once. It was good to give money, and it didn’t matter if I didn’t receive it. But are you willing to give it to me? So I got it. haha.”

“Wow. I can’t find the words to describe this wicked…really you!”

“okay? Shall I return the money to you then?”

“..no. Well, it’s not really necessary, though. What if those companies find out later?”

“So you have to watch your mouth. If anyone asks, we were originally going to sell this for money, so be sure to say so. haha.”

end of February.

Manager Lee Woong-gi of the Naiworld business team visited me.

“Director. Nyworld is now ready to launch.”

“Five! Yes? You did a great job.”

“no. haha. The director gave me a lot of good ideas in the middle of development, so it feels good to have a more complete result than I thought.”

“Doesn’t this team leader look pretty satisfied?”

“yes. In particular, the concept of a mini-hompy was truly groundbreaking. If you can easily decorate your website in this way, people who are not computer savvy will inevitably like our site.”

In the early days of Nyworld, there was no mini homepage.

At first, there were difficulties in recruiting members because there were no significant advantages compared to other sites.

Knowing the answer, I had to put the mini homepage function from the beginning.

The member who liked the function the most was the team leader.

The manager continued with an excited face.

“The mini-homepage alone is attractive enough, but there is also an element of the app center, so our Naiworld will become a site that feels new even as time goes by.”

App Center.

It is a collection of programs that can be used in the site called Nai World or that use the functions of Nai World.

When you install an app in the App Center, you can use it with people you are related to.

Anyone can freely create an app using the developer tools provided by Nyworld and upload it to the App Center.

This app center was one of the biggest factors in the success of the future famous social networking site, Naibook.

“haha. I am also looking forward to this team leader because he is so confident. Is Nyworld already on the server?”

“yes. Until now, it was only open to developers to check whether there were any problems, but now it is ready to be fully open.”

“like. Then, check it one last time until today. Let’s officially go into service tomorrow morning.”