Holiday Leaks and Digital Reckonings
The day after the abusing scandal, most media outlets were on Lunar New Year holiday. Newspapers had suspended publication, but television could not stop entirely, so a skeleton crew of on-duty staff remained to broadcast only brief news segments. Thanks to that, Yoo Jae-won had unknowingly cleared a small hurdle. ID Group's large-scale Jeju Island development plan had leaked to certain outlets. It was not an official announcement, yet a credible tip had surfaced that the president of ID Investment's Korea branch was scouting land in Jeju. The leak had not been orchestrated by Yoo Jae-won. Hwang Jae-hong had traveled to the island while maintaining strict security. Still, after meeting countless landowners to test their willingness to sell, the story inevitably slipped out.
"ID Group, the company that rules the world through IT, is now dabbling in land speculation!" Outlets critical of ID Group, especially Daehan Ilbo, would have seized the story, but with reporters already on holiday leave, no proper articles could be written. Moreover, articles prepared days earlier had been overwhelmingly positive toward ID Group and began flooding out from the first day of the holiday, burying any land-speculation piece. The dominant stories now focused on ID Group's record-breaking Lunar New Year bonuses tied to the Android listing, claims that even dogs in Yeoju carried ten-thousand-won bills, and reports that ID Group's cleaning ladies earned more than department heads at major Seoul conglomerates. Yoo Jae-won's remarks from yesterday's press conference had also been turned into articles, all naturally favorable to ID Group. In fact, most were so effusive that reading them would have made Yoo Jae-won himself blush. With the exception of Daehan Ilbo and a handful of other papers, nearly every Korean media outlet had become openly friendly toward ID Group. It was not ideal, yet many newspapers operated under the mindset that they would repay advertising with favorable coverage. Yoo Jae-won was not unaware that some outlets were shifting rapidly. While spending the holiday at home with his parents and elders, he received a report from the intelligence team and was now on the phone with Hwang Jae-hong.
"It seems we've put out the urgent fire for now." Hwang Jae-hong's voice over the line was relatively calm. When they decided on the Jeju investment, no one had expected security to hold forever. Once the project reached a certain stage, they planned to make an official announcement. What concerned them was the possibility that ordinary people, hearing Yoo Jae-won was investing in Jeju, might pull not just spare funds but money they truly needed. Large investors could endure delayed returns, but those living paycheck to paycheck could not. Controlling the media narrative so such people were not swept up in false excitement was important. There were others who needed careful handling as well.
"When you go to Jeju, please reassure the landowners so they don't become unsettled." The full blueprint for ID Group's Jeju investment had not even been announced yet. If other landowners started stirring with premature expectations, things would only grow unnecessarily complicated. "Ah, I'm not asking you to go right now. Wait until after the holiday."
"Chairman, I'm already at the airport, I'm afraid." Hwang Jae-hong had moved one step ahead. He had already purchased a ticket to Jeju and was calling from the airport.
"You're not taking the holiday off? The people in Jeju will be resting too."
"Of course. I've already contacted the elders there and told them I'm coming to pay New Year's respects. I used to be a field manager, after all. I haven't lost my touch for groundwork. Besides, there's nothing for me to do at home anyway." Yoo Jae-won accepted the explanation. It was unfortunate, but Hwang Jae-hong, who had lost his parents early, had no hometown to return to for the holiday. There were also no nephews or nieces coming to pay respects. His fiancée understood the unique demands of his work.
"Understood. Have a safe trip."
"Yes, Chairman! I'll bring back good news when I return."
"Oh, one more thing!" Just as he was about to hang up, Yoo Jae-won had an idea.
"Yes, Chairman. I'm listening." Fortunately, Hwang Jae-hong had not ended the call first. He never hung up before Yoo Jae-won.
"If anyone insists they don't want to sell, tell them we can develop the land through a cooperative model." A cooperative was essentially a partnership. From the landowners' perspective, they would retain ownership of their land while granting Yoo Jae-won usage rights. Once the area was developed into a tourist destination or resort, they would receive equity in the facilities proportional to their land's value and earn dividends. The model was unfamiliar in Korea, but cooperatives had long thrived in Europe, where sustainable development had been studied earlier. Unlike European cooperatives formed by like-minded individuals, this one would be led by ID Group.
"Ah, I understand exactly what you mean. I'll gauge the elders' intentions first and report back." Hwang Jae-hong, quick to grasp real-estate concepts, understood immediately. No further explanation was needed.
"Who was that on the phone? Tiffany?" his mother asked. She had just been told about his girlfriend when the call came, so the question followed naturally.
"It was President Hwang Jae-hong."
"Ah, President Hwang. He seemed like such a diligent man." When Hwang Jae-hong had first joined ID Group with the title of field manager, his initial assignment had been to accompany Yoo Jae-won's mother. The Seoul Rodeo Team office and the ID Investment Korea branch building had both been purchased after she and Hwang Jae-hong inspected them together. Now that he had been promoted to president, other staff handled those duties, but Yoo Jae-won's mother still remembered him fondly and reacted positively.
"Tell me more about Tiffany." The conversation returned to the main topic. His father also seemed far more interested in Tiffany than in the Jeju investment. They had seen her briefly when they visited America years ago, but at the time they had been too surprised to ask many questions. Now that Yoo Jae-won was home, they were eager to unpack their curiosity.
Yoo Jae-won had no choice but to recount how he and Tiffany had met and begun dating, this time in greater detail than before. His storytelling was engaging, and both parents listened without noticing the time pass. At certain points, however, his usually smooth delivery faltered.
"What do Tiffany's parents do?"
"Is Tiffany a good student?"
"Are you planning to marry Tiffany?"
"Does Tiffany eat Korean food well?"
"Has Tiffany's Korean improved?"
His parents' questions left him momentarily speechless. They had not been dating long enough to seriously consider marriage. More importantly, Yoo Jae-won realized he knew very little about Tiffany's personal background or family. Whenever they met, they talked about recent events, future plans, or amusing stories, never the topics his parents now wanted to know. In truth, Yoo Jae-won did not care whether Tiffany came from wealth. If he wanted to spend his life with her, they would marry; if not, trouble would arise and they would part ways anyway.
"Ah, Tiffany mentioned a family gathering on her mother's side at the end of February. I've been invited. I'll ask plenty of questions while I'm there."
"A family gathering? Won't that be an awkward situation?"
"Our Jae-won has never been the type to feel out of place anywhere. Go and do well."
Yoo Jae-won deflected the immediate pressure by mentioning the February gathering. "Ah, would you like to see some recent photos I took with Tiffany?" He also deployed his backup tactic to shift their attention before they could criticize how little he knew about his own girlfriend.
"Really? Let's see them." The reaction was immediate. No amount of talking could match the power of photographs. Yoo Jae-won opened his Shell Book and displayed pictures of Tiffany, from their Disneyland trip to recent party photos. His parents examined each image carefully. The stream of questions stopped.
"They really do look good together, just like before."
"They certainly do." Yoo Jae-won was pushed to the sidelines as his parents sat side by side, absorbed in the photos. His Shell Book was temporarily confiscated, but there was another computer in the house, so it did not matter.
The next day, after the informal New Year's celebrations ended and the actual holiday began, relatives poured into Yoo Jae-won's childhood home as they always had. A few years earlier he would have had to make the rounds paying respects at each elder's house, but at some point the custom had reversed. When relatives visited, his mother used to become busy, but that too was now a thing of the past. Every guest arrived carrying armfuls of food, so there was no need to cook. Since the family was Protestant and did not perform ancestral rites, there was no elaborate food preparation either.
The highlight of the holiday, the New Year's bows, proceeded without fail. Yoo Jae-won first bowed to his parents, then to his uncle and other elders, receiving New Year's money in return. The children who had come with the relatives then bowed to him and received money in turn. There were far more children than adults, so the arithmetic always ended in the red, but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
Afterward, Yoo Jae-won's computers were transformed into gaming consoles. With so many game development studios under ID Group, games were always plentiful at home. He did not let the young children play adult titles like Doom, however. In January, Nextcom had launched its game service, which was filled with puzzle, board, and card games suited to children's levels. Because the games were online, players could cooperate or compete with others, doubling the fun. Everyone became absorbed. The most popular title was Tetris. Created during the Soviet era, Tetris had simple rules yet was difficult to master, earning it a place among the world's great games. Nextcom's online version featured greatly enhanced graphics plus competitive and cooperative systems.
Creating the game had been easy, but obtaining formal service rights had involved complications stemming from tangled copyright disputes. The creator of Tetris was Alexey Pajitnov, a Soviet citizen, which created the problem. During the Soviet period, individuals could not trade copyrights directly. A state agency, the Ministry of Foreign Trade, handled such transactions instead. Although the ministry existed, its expertise was minimal. The Tetris contracts it produced were extremely loose, and oversight was poor. Among the countless Tetris games released from the 1980s to the present, only Nintendo's version could legitimately claim to have been made under a proper license.
Yoo Jae-won bypassed the tangled Tetris licensing by securing a separate online-use license based on game format rather than platform. Although ID Entertainment was the contracting party, the actual licensing work was carried out on the ground by staff from the Moscow High-Tech Research Institute and Putin himself. Russian matters were best left to Russians, and a powerful political figure like Putin could untangle even the most convoluted issues. Putin had not understood why he needed to involve himself in purchasing a single game, but after the deal closed and a one-million-dollar brokerage commission reached him, his complaints vanished. He even came to view the Tetris license transaction as a convenient way to receive political funds. The money sent to Putin was framed not merely as a fee but also as a donation. Still, Tetris's value far exceeded Putin's expectations. For the next twenty years, ID Entertainment would be the only company authorized to offer Tetris online, and the added value it would generate would surely surpass one million dollars.
"One more round!"
"As many as you like! You'll just lose again anyway." The young relatives shouting for another game had no idea how complicated the story behind their beloved Tetris truly was. In the end, a game only needed to be fun. Yoo Jae-won also enjoyed the holiday while fully immersed in the games.
The day after they had played to their hearts' content, Yoo Jae-won began working from the morning. Unlike the previous day, the house was quiet. He was the first to rise and sat down in front of the computer. The first thing he checked was the investigation report on the incurable-disease children's donation project sent by Jake, the management team leader of 2CH.com.
"We have confirmed that VoteForChild obtained financial gain." The opening sentence was striking. The report then detailed the reasons behind the conclusion. Jake had traced the user VoteForChild, who had promoted abusing on the donation board, in a surprisingly simple way. Without IP tracing or police involvement, he had quickly produced the result Yoo Jae-won wanted. He had simply interviewed the parents of cases that VoteForChild had artificially boosted to receive donations. Since the project began in late summer, there were roughly three hundred donation cases in total, of which about twenty had been selected thanks to VoteForChild's pushing. ID Foundation staff visited the nearest of those twenty cases and conducted interviews. With foundation employees present, the children's parents confessed readily. VoteForChild had approached them first, offering to ensure their case would be selected if they later paid him ten percent of the donated amount.
In the case Jake's team investigated, the child had a heart condition requiring surgery costing several hundred thousand dollars. The parents had been saving through installments. Thanks to VoteForChild, their case was selected, and when the ID Foundation actually paid the hospital bills, they withdrew their savings and sent the money to VoteForChild. They had agreed out of desperation to save their child, and the surgery had succeeded. If they had simply claimed nothing had happened, Jake would have had no answer, but they confessed out of guilt.
Yoo Jae-won immediately opened ID Talk and summoned Team Leader Jake.
"I read the report. Even though it's the first one, it contained everything I wanted."
"I'm glad you're satisfied."
"Since we now have evidence of abusing, suspend VoteForChild's account and post a public notice. Proceed with legal action immediately as well. All winners selected with VoteForChild's assistance will have their qualifications revoked." Yoo Jae-won was decisive when it came to drawing lines.
"Ah, understood." Jake's reply came a beat late. The financial situations of the donation recipients were mostly dire, after all. Yet that did not matter to Yoo Jae-won. Gains obtained through abusing were clearly illegal. If the matter was not handled firmly from the start, it would become impossible to manage later. That did not mean he intended to ruthlessly strip the money away. If immediate repayment was difficult, he planned to offer installment options, treating it like a ten- or twenty-year long-term loan to be repaid gradually. If they showed willingness to repay, he was even prepared to help them find employment.
"There's something else. After discussing with the site team leaders, it seems situations similar to this case are occurring quite frequently." Jake was competent. He had proactively investigated matters without being instructed. He had examined not only the large bulletin boards of ESD.com and Nextcom but also competing sites. The intelligence team under Yoo Jae-won's orders had been conducting similar work, but Jake had moved first and extracted meaningful information from the mountain of data.
"We confirmed numerous instances of advertisements disguised as informational posts, waves of negative comments targeting specific software or products, and manipulation of view counts or recommendation counts." Heat rose in Yoo Jae-won's chest at the report. He was pouring astronomical sums into building infrastructure to spread the internet to more people and expand its reach. People should have been grateful for the cheap access his goodwill provided and used it appropriately, yet so many were already turning the internet into a cesspool. Did they think others refrained because they could not do it? If abusing counted as a marketing technique, then Yoo Jae-won was among the most skilled at leveraging the internet for marketing. The reason he never considered employing such methods was that their side effects were far too severe. If abusing and manipulation became rampant in internet communities, trust would evaporate and the internet's influence and cohesion would plummet. Before the problem became chronic, he needed a definitive way to uproot it. His mind began turning rapidly, yet he could not reach a conclusion. Just as he was about to sink deeper into thought, his phone rang. It was a call from Jeon Myeong-heon.