The Grand Launch of Nextcom
April, the season of Desert Storm, had fully blossomed into spring. The chill had completely vanished from the wind. The frozen ground had thawed entirely, and fresh green sprouts and flowers bloomed, erasing every trace of the barren winter. As trees diligently pushed out new buds in preparation for autumn, Yoo Jae-won’s ID Technology finally launched its new venture on a grand scale.
Nextcom, the next-generation internet-based PC communication service, grand opening!
Nextcom, meticulously prepared throughout the winter, went live at midnight on April 5th amid Korea’s dazzling launch festivities. Because it had acquired Ketel in Korea, the service attracted over 100,000 users on its very first day. Ketel subscribers were granted three months of free access, ensuring the platform never felt empty from the start. Even those who had signed up for Ketel but never logged in connected at least once out of curiosity, keeping simultaneous users in the steady thousands. Once the free period ended, users could either switch to paid service or continue with limited free features, and initial reactions were positive.
In the United States, ID Technology offered one month of free access to subscribers of its private BBS as part of the Security Challenge. The shorter promotion period reflected the fact that far more people stood to benefit than in Korea. Though a substantial marketing and promotion budget had been allocated, resources were not unlimited; the goal was simply to let users taste what next-generation communication could offer.
First-generation information superhighway service ISDN officially launched.
— No subscription fee! No installation fee!
— Flat-rate billing means no surprise phone bills!
Unfortunately, the ISDN service was available only in Korea. Daekom handled equipment installation and network operations, while Nextcom managed marketing by bundling the service with its communication offerings. Korea Telecom collected line usage fees without contributing anything else. Due to the many entangled interests, finalizing the launch timing and pricing for official ISDN service took longer than expected. Still, thanks to Yoo Jae-won’s strong advocacy, the most consumer-friendly rates possible were secured.
ISDN line usage cost 12,000 won per month—more expensive than Nextcom’s paid service alone. Yet it was not entirely unreasonable: 6,000 won covered the ISDN modem rental, and the remaining 6,000 won paid for the flat-rate communication service.
The launches of Nextcom and ISDN created various combinations. Some users subscribed only to ISDN to enjoy high-speed PC communication, while others used their existing modems for Nextcom’s paid service. Of course, the highest-quality experience came from accessing Nextcom over ISDN. To promote it, Nextcom ran television and newspaper ads, erected outdoor billboards, and even distributed flyers. Ever the innovator, Yoo Jae-won also embraced the latest advertising technique: product placement.
While a serious drama was out of reach, trendy miniseries featured male and female leads meeting in a Nextcom chat room and confessing love via a public radio bulletin board hosted on Nextcom. Though the service had not yet officially launched, scenes showed characters making fortunes through stock trading on PC communication. In the dramas, using Nextcom marked someone as ahead of their time; not knowing about it made them seem outdated. The only regret was that broadcasting regulations prevented direct display of the Nextcom trademark. Still, the placements were crafted so anyone interested in PC communication would immediately recognize them.
European Organization for Nuclear Research announces the world’s first web service, WWW!
WWW officially launched alongside Nextcom’s service. Tim Berners-Lee, who unveiled the technology, decided to hold an annual W3 conference to drive continuous development and upgrades. Naturally, ID Technology’s participation was secured, and the company became the conference’s largest sponsor.
Yoo Jae-won of ID Technology made significant contributions to WWW development!
At the WWW announcement event, Tim Berners-Lee lavished praise on Yoo Jae-won. He publicly revealed that Yoo Jae-won had single-handedly developed HTML, the foundational technology behind the WWW, and heaped admiration on ID Technology for freely releasing the source code for the benefit of all humanity.
WWW instantly captured the world’s attention. Hackers welcomed the new playground, while institutions and organizations already running internet services were immediately drawn to the ability to navigate sites with a single address and share information with ease. Universities and corporations rushed to study WWW services and began developing their own browsers using Yoo Jae-won’s source code. Naturally, Korea showed the fastest adoption rate. Koreans were especially sensitive to foreign opinions and took great pride in recognition from prominent figures. When the prestigious European Organization for Nuclear Research granted official certification, the response could not have been more positive. Many people who knew little about Nextcom, ISDN, or the internet decided to try them anyway.
Government sets goal of supplying ISDN to one million households this year!
Ministry of Education considers doubling computer education hours in schools to meet the information and communication era!
ISDN information superhighway rollout to elementary, middle, and high schools includes education on PC communication usage and online etiquette!
By the end of April, the government officially rolled out its long-prepared information superhighway support projects to coincide with Nextcom’s launch.
“They’re really going all out,” Yoo Jae-won remarked as he poured most of the profits from ID Office sales into marketing. Thanks to the effort, subscriber numbers surged by thousands every week. The stock of 10,000 ISDN modems was nearly depleted before April ended, prompting plans for an earlier reorder—then the government’s announcement arrived.
It sounded impressive at first, but the reality was more modest. Doubling computer education time, for instance, meant little when schools currently held classes only once a month, or at most once a week. Still, supplying ISDN to school computer labs was welcome. What pleased him even more was the etiquette education. The 21st-century internet culture had become so chaotic that the term “netiquette” had emerged. Right now, PC communication culture was only just beginning, so online toxicity had not yet appeared. Teaching proper etiquette to children who would one day treat networks like air gave Yoo Jae-won hope that the excesses of his previous life might be avoided.
“As expected, internet articles are more convenient than paper newspapers.”
The medium carrying the government’s breaking announcement was none other than Nextcom’s own news page, which he operated. Since its launch on April 5th, Korean daily newspapers and broadcast articles had begun appearing on the Nextcom news page. Once the New York Times signed a news supply contract with Nextcom, even the reluctant Korean newspapers changed their stance. The terms mirrored those with the New York Times: media outlets provided articles for a fixed fee, and Nextcom could display them however it wished. The clause prohibiting arbitrary editing of headlines or content remained identical.
Yoo Jae-won organized the received articles into Nextcom’s news page. Instead of separating them by newspaper, he structured pages by section—politics, economy, society, and entertainment. Articles were ranked by click count and recommendations and featured prominently on the front page, while lower-ranked pieces appeared only within their respective sections.
The contracts with media companies were flat-rate. Higher rankings did not yield extra payment; as long as the agreed number of articles was delivered, the promised sum was paid. Consequently, sensational headlines designed solely to boost clicks were avoided for now.
“Ah, a typo.”
Spotting an error while reviewing the remaining articles, Yoo Jae-won immediately activated the editing function and corrected it. The current limitation was that uploading articles remained entirely manual. Few media outlets had online article editing systems in place. It would have been ideal if reporters could write on computers, submit to the desk, and have articles automatically forwarded to Nextcom. Instead, when morning papers arrived or breaking news aired on television, Nextcom’s news staff had to transcribe everything by hand. As a result, over ten professional stenographers were now employed exclusively for the Nextcom section. Combined with mainframe management, customer inquiry handling, bulletin board moderation, and news service stenographers, nearly fifty additional hires had been made. The employee count had grown to rival the scale of ID Technology itself.
Nextcom currently operated as a subsidiary of ID Technology, but Yoo Jae-won planned to spin it off once the service matured in a few years.
“Hmm, shall we check the U.S. news now?”
Yoo Jae-won typed www.next.com/us into the address bar of Nextcom’s dedicated client and pressed enter. The client supported everything from VT mode to HTML on a single screen, making page transitions effortless. The Korean-filled display instantly switched to English.
“The U.S. cumulative visitor count has already surpassed 100,000!”
Whenever he connected to Nextcom, Yoo Jae-won checked the visitor counter first. Watching the numbers climb daily was his greatest pleasure. Yesterday’s count of around 70,000 had now exceeded 105,000—an incredibly steep rise. At this pace, the milestone of one million visitors might arrive before August.
The sight of the 100,000 figure sparked an idea.
“Ah! How about holding an event with a big prize for the one-millionth visitor?”
Digging through his memories, he recalled how various websites, once they began proliferating, had run events based on visitor counters—awarding major prizes to the millionth visitor or users who hit lucky numbers like sequences of 7s. He vividly remembered the complaints when sites slowed under the sudden influx of users racing to reach the target number. It had seemed trivial at the time, but for promoting Nextcom, it felt like an appropriate event. Jotting the idea in his notebook, Yoo Jae-won returned to the news page. His gaze naturally drifted to the top of the screen. Because the highest-clicked articles in each section rose to the top, the upper area instantly revealed what issues Americans considered important.
— Britain arrests Iraqi attempting to smuggle nuclear components!
As expected, Middle East stories dominated the top spot. Clicking the headline revealed that an Iraqi had been caught trying to smuggle core components of a nuclear warhead’s remote detonation device out of Britain. Because the parts were essential to a nuclear warhead, the story implied Iraq was developing nuclear weapons and sent shockwaves through the international community.
The British spy arrest had occurred only hours earlier, yet Iraqi President Saddam Hussein immediately issued a response statement.
— Nuclear components incident is a conspiracy by great powers!
— Iraq possesses high-performance chemical weapons and has no need to develop nuclear bombs!
— If Israel attacks Iraq under the pretext of nuclear components, we will destroy half of Israel with chemical weapons!
President Saddam Hussein’s reaction was more than fiery—it was outright violent. The incident also marked the first time he personally mentioned the chemical weapons that would later haunt him. With Middle Eastern tensions rising, oil prices climbed slightly from $17 to $18 per barrel, though the upward trend did not continue and soon reversed. To Yoo Jae-won, the situation in the Middle East appeared increasingly serious, yet the United States and other nations seemed not to fully grasp the danger. Curious about how people of this era perceived the matter, he subtly asked Remington whether he was concerned about Iraq.