Chapter 80: The Efficiency of the Era
Chapter 80: The Efficiency of the Era
Michael Brannan was a student who had graduated from USC and entered UCLA’s graduate school to pursue a master’s degree.
As someone deeply interested in the internet, he had been fascinated by UCLA, which had installed the first node of ARPANET, the predecessor of the internet. Moreover, since the university was strong in internet protocols and network theory, he believed it would help him.
It’s not like it’s completely useless, but...
The problem was that everything was too theoretical. The internet had already become commercialized, and actual usage data was steadily piling up, yet continuing to dig only into theory felt stifling to him.
Internet users are definitely going to explode in number soon.
If that happened, most of the theories they were currently researching would likely become obsolete immediately in the face of overwhelming real-world data.
And he wanted to participate directly in the coming internet age. Because of that, he had been researching various promising ideas, but the problem was that he lacked the courage to boldly challenge them.
For one thing, it felt wasteful to abandon the studies he had pursued in graduate school. More importantly, since internet-related businesses were only just beginning, he expected they would require enormous investment without generating profit immediately, and he lacked confidence in whether he could continuously attract such investment and sustain the business.
After finishing his research and returning home late in the evening, the first thing he did was connect to PC communication services.
The reason he was active on PC communication services was partly to relieve the frustration of being unable to make a decision, and partly because he hoped he might find companions willing to work alongside him.
[You have 1 new private message.]
“Huh?”
The moment he connected, a single line appeared at the top of the screen informing him that a new private message had arrived. It happened occasionally. Most people talked through replies on message boards, but some sent private messages when they wanted deeper discussions.
Or when they want to curse you out.
Being insulted when making strong claims was only natural. Slightly nervous about which type this would be, Michael opened the message.
[Hello. I am Kim Seongcheol, Executive Director of Parallel Soft.]
“What?”
At first, he wondered what kind of company it was.
But I’ve heard that name somewhere before. Ah! The company that made TLF!
Michael was not particularly interested in PC games. He occasionally played console games, but he believed PC games still lacked too much, including graphics.
However, he did not look down on the potential of games themselves, and he was interested in the industry and business side, so he occasionally followed magazines and online posts. TLF had attracted such tremendous attention that he remembered the name.
Why me?
The only explanation Michael could think of was that he had posted opinions highly praising the internet’s potential and talking about generating profits through advertising, so perhaps they wanted advice regarding internet advertising or online promotion.
Come to think of it, Parallel Soft communicates online quite a lot, and they’ve gotten considerable promotional effects from it.
Convinced this interpretation was correct, he continued reading.
However, what was written there was completely different from what he expected.
“Huh? A portal site? A search engine?!”
It stated that they planned to begin a separate internet business unrelated to games, and that they wanted to recruit him into it. A rough proposal was included as well. Someone unfamiliar with this field might not understand a word of it, but to Michael, every term in the proposal slammed directly into his mind.
Michael felt goosebumps spread across his entire body. Complex emotions surged through him from discovering that there was someone with thoughts similar to his own, yet seemingly even more advanced ideas.
In truth, concepts like portal sites and search engines were not that revolutionary. PC communication services already provided similar functions, and many people interested in the internet had likely imagined similar ideas.
Michael himself had already uploaded a prototype site that was nearly identical.
And he had been planning to design a directory-based search engine soon.
But I seriously never expected an offer like this.
Still, it was an attractive proposal. He had interest in business, but hesitated because he lacked confidence in enduring the risks. Yet now an IT company with recognition and capital was planning a business with concepts nearly identical to his own. This was an opportunity to realize his ideas.
Of course, he was not uninterested in money. He knew it would be better if he monopolized everything himself.
However, a company with capital and recognition already possessed more concrete and even more advanced ideas than his own, to the point of already preparing proposals and recruiting people.
If you can’t beat them, join them.
Without agonizing for long, Michael decided to meet them first.
Is this the place?
Michael also lived in LA anyway. Moreover, he had visited Koreatown several times before. When he discovered that Parallel Soft was located in the bustling district he vaguely remembered passing by before, he felt strangely emotional.
Then he finally found a two-story building with a sign reading [Parallel Soft].
He hesitated briefly in front of it. He had come after arranging an appointment, but this would become an important decision in his life, and since he was still only in his mid-twenties, he felt vague fear about the situation.
Still, he was a rational type. Though not exactly the same, he recalled similar experiences throughout his life, such as entering school for the first time, choosing his major, or buying his first car, and then stepped forward.
“Excuse me...”
When Hyein and Seongcheol suddenly saw a gigantic white man with the build of a muscular beast enter the office, they instinctively flinched in surprise.
However, they were already waiting for him due to the appointment, and despite his imposing physique, his face gave off a gentle impression. He was also young, and above all, he himself looked slightly nervous as well, so they calmed themselves and spoke.
“Mr. Brannan?”
“Ah. Yes. That’s me.”
“Welcome.”
Michael felt that the Asian man who appeared to be the company president was smiling almost excessively brightly, but since he seemed welcoming, Michael relaxed and sat where he was guided.
“I am Jung Hyein, the company president.”
“Ah. Yes. I’m Michael Brannan.”
After formal introductions, he learned that the president was a woman, and the man was a director as well as the president’s husband.
“As we stated in the written proposal, we are preparing a new business. We judged that the thoughts, vision, and abilities you demonstrated align very well with it.”
“Ah. Thank you. I was also surprised because your company’s plans were similar to what I had envisioned.”
They had not talked for very long, but Michael’s answer was essentially the same as expressing his intent to join.
“However, there are several things I would like to ask before joining.”
“Yes? Please go ahead.”
“I’m curious why you considered a search engine rather than a directory. I’ve heard of web crawling too, but it seems to require considerable development and operational resources, so I judged that it wasn’t suitable for the current era.”
Michael had already half decided to join, but precisely because of that, he worried that Parallel Soft’s plans might be too idealistic and collapse before being properly realized.
And although Seongcheol had not known it, technologies like web crawling mentioned in Insu’s proposal had already been proposed at MIT, and recent prototypes had already been created. Seongcheol himself only learned this while researching patents recently.
Still, they were able to apply for patents involving inverted indexing and distributed crawling technology. The concepts themselves were already under discussion, but they patented the concrete implementation methods.
Although Insu had created the concrete designs, they were almost at the level of scribbles, so Seongcheol and Hyein had needed to properly analyze, study, and systematize them in order to turn them into patent documents.
It really felt like writing a thesis again for the first time in ages.
Thanks to that, even if Seongcheol did not understand actual development, theoretically he had reached a level similar to Insu’s, or perhaps was even better in terms of organization.
“Yes. A directory method may be suitable for now, but we predict the internet will grow explosively in the near future.”
“...”
Michael looked silently at him as if asking him to continue after Seongcheol’s somewhat vague statement, and Seongcheol responded by continuing.
“There are already people who have gained online experience through PC communication services and the like. Computers are spreading rapidly, web browsers are being developed, and the internet has many advantages over PC communication services, such as being open and easy to participate in. Considering all of this, we believe websites may increase to over ten thousand within the next year or two.”
“Ten thousand...”
Michael thought it sounded somewhat exaggerated, but still possible.
And once it exceeds ten thousand, manually collecting them really would become difficult. It would even become exhausting to inspect everything individually after collecting it.
Furthermore, if websites increased that much, unnecessary junk pages would also likely increase, so search and classification would need to become automated for that reason as well.
He still could not say with certainty which side was correct, but what mattered was confirming that the other side’s arguments also possessed logic and evidence underneath them.
And while he was uncertain about growth happening that rapidly, he agreed that the internet itself would expand.
Then automated systems will be necessary eventually anyway.
It felt like they were simply developing things a little faster.
It’s not like they need to deploy bots immediately after development.
Instead of immediately running bots, he could probably persuade them to use the directory method until automation became efficient. After all, the other side themselves had admitted earlier that directories might be better for now.
“So? Did that answer your question?”
“Ah! Yes. Thank you for answering.”
And so Michael shook hands with the waiting Hyein and joined Parallel Soft.
Seongcheol continued searching for the remaining person who would help launch the web portal project. In truth, Michael seemed capable enough to handle both the PM and system architect roles alone for the time being, but this project was not a short-distance sprint.
Perhaps it would be manageable for a short while, but as time passed, the burden would intensify, and since they were not immediately pressed for time, he continued searching persistently.
Then, through Michael, who had recently joined, he learned about internet-related seminars and realized that it would be comparatively easy to find people with specialized knowledge there.
“They’re researchers, but these days ISPs are growing rapidly, so quite a few people are feeling that the internet era is right around the corner.”
Michael judged that the impatience he felt was not his alone.
Because of that, Seongcheol found himself attending seminars he had never imagined, cramming difficult technical knowledge into his head.
“Excuse me. I’m Kim Seongcheol from a company called Parallel Soft.”
“Ah. Yes.”
There were certainly many people who appeared capable. However, contrary to his hopes, he could not recruit anyone immediately.
“I’m sorry. I have no intention of belonging to a company.”
He could not hear their inner thoughts, but there were probably many reasons for rejection. Perhaps they wanted to focus on research, believed it was still too early for internet businesses, found Parallel Soft insufficiently appealing, or planned to establish companies of their own.
Regardless, Seongcheol refused to give up and continued searching for people.
And then, at one internet-related seminar—