"D-Did you just say you're going to make money with Minihompy?"
Unable to hide his confusion, CEO Choi Do-seon adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses with one hand as he asked. Seok-won nodded.
"That's right."
Looking around at the attendees, who were all wearing expressions of disbelief, Seok-won spoke calmly.
"What do you think the most basic function of Minihompy is?"
"It's basically like a diary. A place to store personal photos and writing in cyberspace."
When Choi Woong answered, he nodded.
"That's right. It's like a photo album or a diary. The difference from the existing ones is that these records are uploaded to cyberspace and can be seen by other people too."
Since it was something everyone already knew, they all nodded along.
"Women like to decorate their diaries or planners with stickers and things to make them look pretty, right? We use exactly that point. We sell items for a fee that let people decorate their own unique Minihompy."
"Hmm…."
After pondering with a serious expression, CEO Choi Do-seon cautiously rephrased his words and pointed out the issue.
"If we go by what you're saying, it would certainly create a new revenue model, but wouldn't it be difficult for that alone to generate enough sales to cover the losses?"
"Of course it would. That's why we're going to add one more element that will make users even more invested in decorating their Minihompy."
Choi Do-seon, who seemed surprisingly well-versed in this industry as well as the cyber world, was inwardly taken aback and looked at him with eyes full of anticipation.
"And what would that be?"
The other attendees, too, had shifted from tension to curiosity and interest, focusing on the discussion.
It felt several times more engaging than their usual idea meetings.
"We'll offer an avatar service, based on the concept of 'another you' in the online world."
"By avatar… do you mean something like the character you create when you play a game?"
"Exactly. Like I just said, before you start a game, you choose a character that fits your own tastes, right? Gender, hair color, even race."
As employees of an IT venture company, they all tended to like games, so they seemed to get it right away, and voices started chiming in from here and there.
"Yeah, that's true."
"It's so important that I've deleted and remade my character several times just because I didn't like how it turned out."
"And on the other hand, if you make it really well, you feel that much more satisfied."
Watching the employees chatting animatedly, Seok-won spoke.
"Users are that sensitive about their player characters because, inside the game, they're their alter ego and their virtual self."
The employees all nodded, clearly agreeing.
"If we don't just stop at letting them create an avatar on their Minihompy, but let them freely change clothes, accessories, and fashion items like dressing up a doll, don't you think users will open their wallets?"
Impressed by the brilliant idea, CEO Choi Do-seon said in admiration,
"I'd only been thinking about making money through ads or affiliate marketing, but creating paid items and selling them… that's truly an ingenious idea."
Director Woo Gwang-cheol, his face flushed with excitement, also started firing off ideas.
"If we add not just clothes, but also hairstyles and hair-dye options, the range of items we can sell as paid content will grow even more. We could also release new designs every season and sell those."
"That's a good idea."
Then Park Jung-hoon, who had a big, burly build, spoke up as well, his eyes shining as if he had never been stiff and reserved to begin with.
"How about letting users raise pets, like dogs or cats, in addition to fashion items?"
"Hm. Pets?"
"Yes. As the Tamagotchi craze back in the day, we let them feed and raise them inside their Minihompy. We give basic feed each time they log in, and as paid options, they can increase the growth speed or buy more feed."
"That's a good idea."
"Th-thank you."
Having received praise, Park Jung-hoon bowed his head with an excited expression.
Once the ice was broken, everyone started offering their ideas one by one, and in the middle of it all, Seok-won spoke.
"How about not just using avatars, but also letting people set their favorite songs as background music on their Minihompy? There are a lot of fans of singers, so I think users would really like it."
"There certainly would be a lot of people who'd enjoy that, but if we use background music, wouldn't we first run into copyright issues?"
When CEO Choi Do-seon voiced his concern, he replied as if it were no big deal.
"Even now, telecom companies already offer paid services that let you change your pager or phone ringtone to any song you want, right? If we sign contracts where we share a certain percentage of the revenue with the copyright holders, just like that, there won't be any problem."
"Ah. That would work."
CEO Choi Do-seon relaxed and nodded, looking reassured.
On top of that, Seok-won was already planning beyond simply signing contracts with record labels to provide songs. He was even thinking about creating an independent platform that would distribute digital music and offer streaming services, like Apple's iTunes or a service like Mango that would be created later.
'Come to think of it, there's already MusicStar in Korea playing a similar role.'
It was the country's first music streaming service company, which had started operating the year before.
However, at this point, the rights to digital music were still not clearly sorted out, and many people were illegally downloading and listening to MP3 files.
Because of that, record labels and entertainment agencies that held the master rights, in other words, the rights to play the music, were filing lawsuits, and the company was facing serious difficulties.
'If we acquire MusicStar and, instead of limiting ourselves to domestic music, sign digital music service contracts with major record labels and musicians around the world, including the U.S., we could dominate the digital music market even before iTunes.'
Persuading big-name record labels with their high noses in the air and famous musicians one by one to sign digital music distribution contracts was obviously not going to be easy.
However, since they already owned the major record company Sony Music through the Eldorado Fund, they were in a more advantageous position than other companies.
Seok-won set that plan aside in a corner of his mind for the moment, looked at the attendees, and said,
"No matter how good an idea is, it's completely useless if people don't actually use it."
At that, the people who had been chattering away all fell silent at once.
Next year, when the number-one company pushed ahead with monetization while ignoring user backlash, a huge number of netizens would leave and flow into Cyworld.
Thanks to that, their size would grow naturally, but Seok-won had no intention of just sitting around and waiting until then.
"The fastest way to put Minihompy, which will become our killer content, front and center and attract a massive number of users, is to do marketing using celebrities."
"Do you mean running ads with celebrities as models?"
"No."
When Seok-won shook his head, CEO Choi Do-seon and the other attendees looked puzzled.
"Rather than running ads like TV commercials, it would be more effective to naturally expose celebrities and sports stars actually using Minihompy themselves."
Director Woo Gwang-cheol immediately caught on and let out a low exclamation.
"So you're planning to promote Minihompy while at the same time naturally drawing in the fans of those celebrities!"
"If fans flock in to see the celebrities' Minihompies, it works as promotion and increases the number of users at the same time. We could literally kill two birds with one stone."
CEO Choi Do-seon, too, looked amazed, as if wondering how anyone could come up with such an idea.
"Truly a brilliant idea."
"This is exactly the kind of advertising that suits us perfectly, isn't it?"
"To think there was a method like that… I never would have imagined it."
Not just the two of them, but the other attendees as well were looking at Seok-won with shining eyes.
In truth, from Seok-won's point of view, this kind of influencer marketing, using the fans that celebrities already had to rapidly boost brand recognition and sales, was something he was very familiar with.
'Compared to traditional advertising, you can see results immediately at a much lower cost.'
Muttering to himself, Seok-won leaned back and said to CEO Choi Do-seon,
"If we focus on idols who have lots of young fans that are already comfortable using the internet, we'll see an even bigger effect."
"I understand exactly what you mean."
Once the direction was set, it was as if a dam had burst, and fresh ideas poured out of the attendees one after another.
Watching everyone participate actively in the discussion without a single exception, Seok-won wore a satisfied expression.
What he had thought would be nothing more than a simple first meeting after the acquisition had, before anyone realized it, turned into a heated strategy session.
Only after nearly two hours had passed did Seok-won finally wrap things up and leave the conference room together with CEO Choi Do-seon and Director Woo Gwang-cheol.
The team leaders who remained behind looked slightly worn out from what had turned into an impromptu marathon meeting, but their faces were filled with anticipation and hope rather than fatigue.
Park Jung-hoon, who had been gulping down bottled water from the table, looked around at the other team leaders with a flushed face.
"He really lives up to being called the Midas touch of Silicon Valley. I figured he'd have quite a bit of knowledge about IT too, but this is beyond my expectations."
Across from him, Son Hyun-deok nodded in agreement.
"Seriously. I never thought he'd come up with a way to use Minihompy like that."
Choi Woong leaned forward over the table, his face full of anticipation.
"You heard he said he'll invest another ten billion won next year, right? As expected, the richest tycoon in the world really is on another level."
Thinking about the size of the investment, an amount they wouldn't even have dared to dream of in the past, smiles spread across the other team leaders' faces as well.
"That's right."
"I told you, he didn't just acquire our company for no reason. He had a plan all along."
"Exactly."
The five team leaders sitting around the long conference table felt reassured, knowing that Seok-won wasn't just someone with a lot of money, but someone who had a clear plan for how to grow the company backing them.
At the same time, as Cyworld continued to grow, their expectations swelled with the hope that they, too, would get to enjoy the fruits of that success.
***
Leaving behind CEO Choi Do-seon and Director Woo Gwang-cheol, who had come all the way out to the front of the building and were bowing their heads, the Maybach carrying Seok-won glided smoothly into motion.
The sky was heavily overcast, as if snow might start falling at any moment. Just as the Maybach was merging onto the main road, he felt a vibration from inside his pocket.
Seok-won took out his phone, checked the name on the screen, and immediately answered.
"Did the results come in?"
Then Landon replied in a slightly subdued voice.
[Both sides' representatives ended the talks without reaching an agreement, just as feared.]
Caught off guard by the unexpected result, Seok-won frowned with the phone still pressed to his ear.
"Are they meeting again tomorrow?"
[Judging by the fact that lawmakers who had postponed their Christmas vacations and stayed in Washington are now starting to leave, it looks like the negotiations have completely collapsed.]
"With the November unemployment rate announced at 5.7%, fears of a recession are already high. Now that the stimulus package has fallen through, the stock market is going to be shaken badly."
[There's one more piece of bad news.]
"What is it?"
[Just a moment ago, the president of Argentina announced his sudden resignation, taking responsibility for the economic collapse.]
"...!"
[As soon as the news broke, the Argentine peso plunged sharply, and in the Tokyo market the yen sank to 129.42 yen per dollar, down one yen from the previous day.]
Adjusting his grip on the phone, Seok-won asked,
"What's happening with government bond prices?"
[With rumors spreading that the Argentine government is going to declare default along with a currency devaluation, everyone is dumping their government bonds, and prices are plunging.]
Since this was good news for the Eldorado Fund, which had taken short positions on Argentine bonds, Seok-won curled one corner of his lips upward into a deep smile.