New Experience
“Does that mean we’re entering the semiconductor and LCD sectors?” Remington took the lead with the sensitive question. Everyone present was an IT expert, so they all knew full well that entering those two fields would require massive capital investment in production facilities. ID Group certainly had the financial resources, but if anything went wrong, the group’s soaring reputation could plummet, and its financial health could take a serious hit.
“We’ll build the LCD factory ourselves,” Yoo Jae-won said, and everyone leaned in. Some executives nodded as if they had expected it. Choi Kang-wook, in particular, wore an expression that suggested he already knew. That made sense—Choi Kang-wook was the one who had been monitoring Yoo Jae-won’s recent activities in Korea on a daily basis. He naturally knew about the promises made while supporting Jeon Myeong-heon’s election campaign. So he had long been aware of the plan to build an LCD factory in Daejeon.
Other executives had also been watching Yoo Jae-won’s movements in Korea closely, but the difference was that none of them had expected his campaign promises to be fulfilled this quickly. Some had dismissed them as empty words, and even those who believed them never imagined the project would begin so soon.
“In Daejeon, you mean?”
“Yes. We’re going to build a large factory right there.”
Yoo Jae-won answered Choi Kang-wook’s question without hesitation.
“For starters, I’m thinking of a scale that produces at least 100,000 LCD panels per month, and we’ll gradually expand production to aim for a million panels.”
No one except Choi Kang-wook could find words in the face of Yoo Jae-won’s bold scale.
“A million panels a month, correct?”
“Of course. A million a year wouldn’t even cover the U.S. market.”
“Is there a particular reason you decided on such a massive investment?”
Remington was the first to regain his composure and asked cautiously, wondering if this was serious.
“Shell Book.”
The Shell Book that TG had released a few months earlier had performed poorly compared to the Egg series. While the Egg series was still selling hundreds of thousands of units every month, Shell Book was barely exceeding ten thousand units a month.
“No matter how much we want to sell Shell Book, we can’t. It’s because of that damn LCD yield rate. If we can eliminate LCD’s drawbacks, lower the unit price, and supply it in large quantities, Shell Book sales will increase dozens of times over. Plus, using LCD will drastically reduce the device’s portability and thickness. Then demand for Shell Book will skyrocket. And we can apply LCD to other portable devices as well.”
“Isn’t a portable computer the same as Shell Book?”
“No. If it were, I would have called it Shell Book. What I mean by portable computer is a device with an LCD screen the size of a palm. Not only that, but color LCDs will become standard on mobile phones too.”
Since this was an era without MP3 players, Yoo Jae-won glossed over his description of mobile devices. Still, his demand forecast for LCDs was remarkably accurate, and he expressed his determination strongly.
“Understood. I’ll prepare an investment plan.”
“Yes, please do. Regarding LCD technology, talk to Sharp. It would be good to pay a fair price for technology transfer, or forming a joint venture would also work. If negotiations don’t go well, developing the technology independently isn’t a bad option either.”
Yoo Jae-won was confident no matter which approach they took. LCD didn’t rely on any particularly advanced technology. The basic principles were already well known. Moreover, Yoo Jae-won knew technologies that were several times more advanced than current LCD technology. Of course, there would be many trials and errors in turning the theories and technologies in his head into reality, but once the factory was properly built, the chance of failure would be extremely low.
“Instead, for semiconductors, we’ll only handle technology development and design.”
Yoo Jae-won knew full well that even ID Group couldn’t afford to build both a large-scale LCD factory and a semiconductor plant at the same time. Furthermore, semiconductor plants required complete overhauls of equipment for every new process node, which was extremely expensive and carried high risk.
“So, a fabless model.”
At Yoo Jae-won’s words, both Choi Kang-wook and Remington let out sighs of relief. The model of handling design in-house while outsourcing production was already fairly common in Silicon Valley. Recruiting semiconductor experts to build a development team would be challenging, but it was far cheaper than constructing a semiconductor plant.
“Alright, let’s end the meeting here and go eat.”
Company dinners were unfamiliar in America, but ID Group was an exception. From the company’s early days, Yoo Jae-won had frequently treated everyone, so it had become routine. That said, he didn’t force mandatory attendance like in Korea—anyone who wanted to come could enjoy a hearty meal and leave. Besides, Yoo Jae-won was still a minor, so alcohol was prohibited. Today’s dinner with the executives was very wholesome as well.
A few days later.
-Next-Generation Display War! Plasma vs. LCD
-Will LCD Win?
-ID Group Enters LCD Business with 1.2 Million Panels Annual Capacity!
-Panasonic Weeps, Sharp Smiles!
The 1993 vision Yoo Jae-won had unveiled the previous day was quickly turned into news articles. The next-generation display war had only just begun, with PDP (plasma display) and LCD both building their forces. PDP boasted advantages such as sharp image quality, no viewing angle distortion, perfect black expression, and suitability for large screens. It had even produced 21-inch television models, while LCD was still in its early stages. On the other hand, LCD suffered from severe afterimage problems and poor viewing angles. Manufacturing was also difficult, so its development speed lagged behind PDP.
In this situation, when ID Group announced its large-scale investment in LCD manufacturing, it was only natural that the world’s attention turned toward them. Panasonic, which had been pushing PDP, was greatly flustered, while Sharp, which held key LCD technology, smiled broadly. Simply because the undefeated myth that was ID Group had chosen it, reactions were starkly divided. Even the stock market fluctuated. Panasonic’s stock price fell, while Sharp Electronics’ stock price soared. The media made a fuss. The factory wouldn’t be built overnight, and even if LCDs were mass-produced, PDP would still have its appropriate uses. Neither company could dominate the global market overnight, nor would either go bankrupt, yet the shareholders of both companies found their fortunes reversed due to the media’s unnecessary commotion.
As a result, there was also a surge in behind-the-scenes contacts. People began moving quickly to attract the LCD factory. Whether they did or not, Yoo Jae-won simply went about his work.
“President Henry Samuel, it’s been a while since we met in person.”
It was a meeting with Henry Samuel, president of Nextcomcast. After the brief report on ID Technology’s current status a few days earlier, he must have felt it was insufficient, so he had come all the way to San Francisco himself.
“Yes, Mr. Chairman. I should visit more often, but I haven’t been able to. I apologize.”
“Don’t say that. At ID Group, it’s enough to just do your own job well.”
Though Yoo Jae-won always thought optimistically, the thing he guarded against most was corruption and factional infighting within the organization. Since corruption was a form of incompetence, he naturally struck down anyone caught engaging in it. Alongside that, he considered factional infighting on the same level as corruption. Factions completely contradicted the merit-based system that Yoo Jae-won valued. He absolutely could not tolerate incompetent people rising to the top simply because they had chosen the right side.
Of course, Yoo Jae-won alone couldn’t oversee the entire ID Group organization with thousands of employees. But by establishing unwavering principles regardless of the situation, he could make employees self-regulate and stay vigilant. Moreover, Yoo Jae-won had no intention of relying solely on vigilance or employees’ conscience. He planned to keep the audit team active and would soon create a system to objectively compile employee performance data.
“In that regard, President Henry Samuel, you’re doing 120% well.”
At Yoo Jae-won’s continued praise, Henry Samuel wore a moved expression. It was only natural that he felt energized when his superior not only trusted him with responsibilities but also provided full support.
“Then I’ll give you a proper report this time.”
Since Nextcomcast was a subsidiary of ID Technology, Yoo Jae-won had already heard a brief overview yesterday. But after merging with Comcast, the company had grown to the size of ID Technology itself and had developed into a highly specialized enterprise. Therefore, there were many matters that required direct reports from President Henry Samuel. Thanks to this, Henry Samuel had been in the central United States until just recently and had flown back to San Francisco.
“Currently, Nextcomcast has three major projects underway.”
Following Henry Samuel’s words, a chart created with ID Presentation appeared on the screen.
-Construction of North American Transcontinental Fiber Optic Network.
-Internet service provision using cable networks.
-Digitization of broadcasting systems.
These were projects Yoo Jae-won already knew well. For these, he had decided on an additional investment of three billion dollars. However, there had been some debate about the method. If Nextcomcast had been solely ID Group’s subsidiary, it could have been handled simply through capital contribution, but Yoo Jae-won’s stake was 65%. Since there was no reason to give the remaining 35% stake to those who contributed nothing, an appropriate method had to be found.
The answer was to issue new shares worth three billion dollars and have Yoo Jae-won purchase all of them. Through this, Yoo Jae-won’s stake would increase from the existing 65% by another 20%, bringing his ownership to 85%. In return, Nextcomcast’s capital would also increase by three billion dollars. Naturally, the existing major shareholders whose ownership ratios would decrease were very dissatisfied. Yoo Jae-won’s response was simple. Ignore them. Pressuring them by saying that if they wanted to increase their stakes, they should participate in the capital contribution was sufficient. Since there was no major shareholder who could casually put up three billion dollars like Yoo Jae-won, they could only grumble and complain.
“The next administration is very welcoming of Nextcomcast’s bold investment.”
President Henry Samuel’s voice as he reported the current status was full of confidence. Though he was closer to a developer than a manager, he was extremely satisfied with what he was doing now. Building a fiber optic network across the entire North American continent while spreading internet and digital broadcasting was a long-cherished project he had wanted to undertake. Moreover, his position had completely reversed from one where he had to bow his head after being pushed around. Now he was the one receiving estimates while seated.
For the purchase of over 10,000 kilometers of fiber optic cable to be laid across North America, he had received quotes from 3M and Corning. Regarding digital set-top boxes, there was fierce competition among major electronics companies from the United States and Europe. Nextcomcast had five million subscribers, which meant supplying five million set-top boxes—a business worth over a billion dollars even at the minimum price per box. Everyone was rushing in with fire in their eyes. People who had been so difficult to meet before were now coming to him first, so he felt the times had changed every single day.
Naturally, the U.S. government also welcomed the massive investment. No government official would dislike someone spending a lot of money in America.
“Then we should have good news soon regarding internet sharing over broadcast cable networks, right?”
“Yes, you can look forward to it.”
Although they had purchased ADSL technology, they hadn’t yet launched official service. At best, they were conducting pilot service near Silicon Valley, but the response had been extremely positive. The tremendous speed and convenience of sending and receiving programs or data worth tens of megabytes in just a few minutes was something modems or ISDN couldn’t match. Nextcomcast was the only place preparing ADSL service. Since they even held the technology exclusively, Nextcomcast would stand tall as an internet provider for the next several years.
“We also plan to officially launch the email service and personal homepage service that you mentioned, Mr. Chairman.”
In the early days when the internet was spreading, there had been a time when having an email address and a personal homepage was fashionable. Of course, at this stage where there were still few users, it would be too early for personal homepages to boom, but email had many uses. Letter exchanges that took several days by mail could be delivered instantly via email. Exchanging small document files was also easy. For now, it would mainly be used by companies and students, but eventually everyone would have at least one email address.
“We’ve also decided on the marketing direction.”
“What is it?”
At Yoo Jae-won’s curious question, Henry Samuel hesitated for a moment before flipping to the next slide.
“We’re planning a series of commercials that emphasize the role of email in your success story, Mr. Chairman. Conducting major business across the Pacific via email itself is nothing short of a miracle.”
“Huh? Do I have to appear in it?”
“That would be an honor beyond words. Actually, we’re looking for an actor with a similar feel to you, Mr. Chairman, but no matter how similar, it’s difficult to surpass the original.”
It seemed like they were expecting too much from him, but it wasn’t a bad thing. His face was already quite well-known anyway.
“Hmm, I’ll think about it positively. By the way, when providing email service, the domain is important. Have you decided on an address?”
“Well, there’s Next.com, isn’t there?”
From Henry Samuel’s words, it seemed he hadn’t thought of anything else. Moreover, he seemed to think that as more users created email addresses with Next.com, the number of Next.com members would increase, which would in turn increase Next.com’s value. This was typical thinking of the first generation of internet companies. The number of subscribers was the site’s value, which led to absurd mergers, such as the merger between Time Warner and AOL. From Yoo Jae-won’s perspective, AOL’s era was over. Being the largest subscriber base in North America was merely a faded trace of past glory. Time Warner, mistaking inflated numbers for internet influence, had proceeded with the merger using enormous amounts of capital, and it had ultimately ended in failure.
“I think it would be better to create a separate domain dedicated to email service. Something easy to remember, like Email.com.”
“Email.com? That’s certainly intuitive!”
Henry Samuel also agreed it was good. Just in case, he immediately checked the domain, and as expected, no one had registered it. For the time being, the internet was unclaimed territory. Even the valuable domains that had once commanded the highest prices were now available for anyone to register. Email.com was no exception.
“I’m thinking of using email as a prime key for individuals.”
“Prime key?”
“Using a single email address to access all sites that our ID Group will service. It’s what you might call an integrated site ID.”
Only then did Henry Samuel look surprised. Next.com was just one piece of the internet services Yoo Jae-won was preparing. He would be launching various other services in the future, and if each service required separate membership registration, how cumbersome would that be? Replacing IDs with email addresses could reduce resistance to providing sensitive personal information, and integrated services would also become possible. Naturally, member management would be much easier, and it would be far simpler to establish new services on a solid footing.
“Then we’ll need to integrate the members of ID Talk and Nextcom into Email.com as well.”
At Henry Samuel’s quick understanding, Yoo Jae-won nodded. It wasn’t difficult. Currently, Nextcom IDs were being used together with ID Talk, so it would be easy to convert by simply adding Email.com to them.
“But don’t force it. If we give users the choice, they’ll decide for themselves.”
Integration was good for the company, but it might not be particularly necessary for users. Forcing it would only cause unnecessary backlash, so it was much better to leave it to the users’ choice. As the number of services that could use the integrated ID increased, users would convert on their own without any pressure.
Afterward, Yoo Jae-won spent another hour sharing his vision for Nextcomcast with President Henry Samuel.
“While the internet is important, we can’t neglect our core business of cable broadcasting either. Even if major sports broadcasting rights contracts seem expensive, sign them if at all possible.”
MLB, NBA, and NFL broadcasting rights were expensive, but they had to be acquired. Broadcasting rights were killer content that determined the number of cable subscribers. Moreover, while they were only slightly expensive now, broadcasting rights would become increasingly expensive over time. By the 2000s, it wouldn’t be strange if the broadcasting rights for those leagues had one more zero added to the current figures. Even if they had to pay a slightly high price now, securing long-term contracts early would be far better.
If it were up to him, he would have wanted to secure the English Premier League as well. But while American football was extremely popular in North America, soccer had no interest at all. If Nextcomcast’s business area included Asia, Premier League broadcasting rights would have been a good item, but since they were only servicing North America, it would have been a waste of money.
“Since you’ve come all this way, shall we have a meal together?”
“Yes, I was looking forward to it. I heard the steak you treat us to, Mr. Chairman, is incredibly delicious.”
After finishing their conversation, Yoo Jae-won offered a meal, and Henry Samuel didn’t refuse. From the next day onward, Yoo Jae-won returned to his usual self. Commuting to ID Technology headquarters was now over, and he began handling work from his home study using a computer. He wrapped up the status report from ID Investment with a simple video chat. Major matters such as Nikkei index investments and acquisitions of Japanese companies with high growth potential had already been handled, and the stock market was in a calm state. Directing the balance situation of ID Investment and preparations for new investment products through video conference was sufficient.
There was no reason to go to school either, since winter break had begun. School would resume at the end of January, making for a short break of just over a month. Of course, there were some professors who continued to come to school for research activities. But there was no one conducting research on semiconductor materials, which was what Yoo Jae-won was interested in, so there was no reason to go to school.
“Hmm, should I try contacting her?”
What Yoo Jae-won was fiddling with was Tiffany’s contact information. But he didn’t really have anything to say if he called. Asking if she was using the bicycle well seemed awkward, and suggesting they meet for coffee felt ambiguous.
“Well, if there’s a connection, I’ll see her again later.”
After briefly contemplating, Yoo Jae-won cleanly set it aside and focused on his computer. He opened the ID Web Browser and searched for materials by browsing the web pages or Gophers of prestigious engineering schools such as Georgia Tech, Caltech, and UC Berkeley. What he was looking for was prior research on semiconductor material optimization—specifically, whether there was any existing research on the copper interconnect technology he would soon introduce to the world.
Stanford had shown no one researching the technology, but other schools might be different. If someone at another school was conducting similar research, he planned to offer them a position in the semiconductor division he would soon establish. If not, he would simply do a one-man show.
The search was tedious. Unlike the typical internet environment of the 21st century, everything was text-only, and each university had different categorization criteria, making macro operations impossible. Most critically, some universities had slow internet speeds.
“Huh?”
Nevertheless, Yoo Jae-won didn’t lose focus, and eventually he achieved results!
“It exists!”
After diligently entering keywords and searching, the results surprisingly yielded one hit.
“Hmm? But it’s MIT.”
The problem was that the school where the paper appeared in the search results was MIT. If Stanford was the prestigious engineering school of the West, MIT was the prestigious university of the East. Located in Boston, it was at the opposite end from Stanford. Geography would likely be a significant issue when trying to recruit.
“Hmm? This person is…?”
The name was also familiar. The author of the paper titled “A Technique to Improve Semiconductor Device Performance by Adding a Thin Insulating Film Between the Wafer Substrate Surface and the Underlying Layer,” which had come up in Yoo Jae-won’s search, was Lisa Su.