Chapter 69
Over the weekend, I returned to my parents’ house for the first time in a while and sat down in front of the computer in my room.
Click.
Casually cracking open a can of coffee, I said to Zero, “Zero. Pull up the download numbers for Moment—mainly the U.S. and Europe.”
> Understood.
Complex graphs and numbers blossomed across the monitor.
And at the very top sat the total download count.
Just a little over a week after launch.
We were already closing in on ten million downloads.
Huh. Impressive.
I kept my expression calm, but honestly, I was a little stunned.
I hadn’t expected the numbers to explode this fast.
Users have been promoting Moment to their acquaintances on their own initiative, Master. As the user base grows, downloads are accelerating accordingly.
Zero continued before I could even finish the thought.
What is notable is that the content consumption pattern differs markedly by region.
By region?
Yes.
Zero split the screen and showed me the trending feeds for the United States and Europe.
That was true enough.
The American feed felt hip, polished, and strongly individualistic.
Europe’s feed, on the other hand, was all green grass and waves of uniforms.
Definitely different.
I rested my chin on my hand and stared at the screen.
Maybe that’s because of the audience I targeted when I first spread Moment?
I’d gone after celebrities like Paris Hilton in the United States, and football fans in Europe.
Initial exposure certainly played a large role, but this is also the result of each region’s cultural character. As you said, North America values the expression of individuality, while Europe places greater importance on belonging to a community or club.
Right.
I nodded and looked away.
Asia still isn’t reacting much, is it?
That is correct.
A map of Asia appeared on-screen.
How many smartphones have sold in Korea?
Since the launch of Galleon on April 12, approximately 420,000 units have been sold over the past month.
Four hundred twenty thousand.
For a single model, that was record-breaking, but relative to the entire population, it was still tiny.
Korea’s population is fifty million, so that’s not even one percent yet.
Which meant smartphones were still basically toys for early adopters.
Even so, it is an impressive pace. It is the result of the telecom companies’ subsidy war combined with Seongsam Electronics’ aggressive marketing.
Mm.
And once the iPhone is officially released in Korea on May 5, smartphones will truly begin to take root in Korean society.
Well, that’s good for me, but it’ll be a headache for Seongsam.
Korea was Seongsam Electronics’ home turf.
They had to defend this market to raise the funds needed for overseas expansion.
But now Apple was entering the field, so of course they’d be tense.
That is correct. Once the iPhone is released, Seongsam Electronics is expected to launch not only large-scale marketing but also discount offensives that will border on a war of attrition.
Hearing Zero’s explanation, the shape of things started to come into focus.
Seongsam would fight like crazy to protect its share of the Korean market. They’d start with patriotism-themed marketing and use every trick in the book.
Apple, on the other hand, wouldn’t sit still either, because even if Korea was a relatively small market, it carried value as an IT powerhouse.
At the same time, Seongsam wouldn’t be content to just take the hits.
They’d almost certainly push harder into Apple’s home turf, the United States, and into the global market.
In the end, it’ll just turn into those two going at each other.
People always say when whales fight, the shrimp get crushed.
But that saying didn’t apply to me.
I wasn’t making smartphones. I was making apps for smartphones.
If I had to put it another way, I was the one making the sea where the whales swam.
Either way, it works for me. The harder they fight, the faster smartphones will spread.
Just as I was happily sketching out that future in my head, Zero spoke up again.
Master.
A moment ago, I received an official inquiry from Spain through Lawyer Vincent.
Spain? From where?
Real Madrid Club.
I froze with the coffee halfway to my lips.
Real Madrid?
Real Madrid.
A name even people who know nothing about football had probably heard at least once.
A massive club that came up in every debate about which football team in the world was truly the best.
Personally, I liked baseball a little better than football, but I understood the weight of that name just fine.
Such a huge organization had contacted me.
For a normal businessman, that would be enough to make his heart pound.
Really?
But honestly, I didn’t feel much at all.
Only a few days ago, I’d been eating cup noodles while negotiating with Steve Jobson and taking calls with Vice Chairman Lee Jaeyoung.
I’d grown numb to big names by now.
What did they want? To advertise in our app or something?
No. They want “space” rather than advertising.
Zero summarized Vincent’s call and displayed it on the monitor.
They are asking whether it is possible to create an “official account” or “official page” that can be operated at the club level rather than as a personal account.
An official page? Like a fan page on Facebook?
That is correct.
Zero brought up Facebook’s page function as an example.
It was a separate section used by companies and brands for promotional purposes.
It is not only Real Madrid. Major clubs such as Barcelona and Manchester United have also begun flooding us with similar inquiries. Seeing fans voluntarily promote the platform with the “Match Day” filter, the clubs seem to have realized the need from their side as well.
Hmm…
I folded my arms and thought it over for a moment.
Making something like a fan page wouldn’t be technically difficult.
I could just carve out another business section, or provide a separate page UI like Facebook did.
But.
That’s not great.
I shook my head.
The core of Moment was its mood and its unity.
Everyone was supposed to post and share photos using the same frame on the same black background.
But if companies came in, customized pages to their tastes, and started slapping banners everywhere?
It would get messy.
There was a real risk of the platform’s identity collapsing.
But it’s not like I can just reject the offer, either.
A gigantic club like Real Madrid had come asking on its own to create an official account.
That alone was an enormous promotional opportunity. There was no reason to kick away good fortune that had rolled right into my lap.
I don’t want to give them a separate page…
Wait.
What they really want is the authority of saying, “We really are Real Madrid,” right?
Then there was no need to separate the spaces at all.
Didn’t I just need to prove they were who they said they were?
…Ah.
A good idea flickered in my head.
The kind future SNS platforms would use. But in 2009, it was still an unformed concept.
Zero. I can’t make them a separate official page. It’d ruin the platform’s design.
Then shall I decline the request?
No. Instead, let’s make a counteroffer.
I said with a light laugh, “Tell them to make a normal account first. Then we’ll certify that the account is official.”
…
“Nothing fancy. Just a small badge next to the ID, saying this isn’t fake—it’s real. Something like an Official Verification Mark.”
Zero ran the numbers for a moment, then delivered a positive response.
An excellent idea. It preserves UI consistency while securing the “credibility” clubs and companies desire.
“Right? And from the fans’ perspective, it’s also nice to be able to tell whether the account I’m following is a fake or not.”
One stone, two birds. No—three, maybe.
I pictured a blue check mark in my head.
And while we were at it, I thought we might as well make it more detailed.
It’d be boring to hand everyone the same badge.
Zero, let’s divide the verification marks into tiers too.
Are you referring to tiers?
Exactly. We’ll stir up their competitive instincts—not just for big groups like Real Madrid, but for individual stars too.
I ran a hand over my chin and kept thinking.
Zero, if we introduce an official verification system on Moment, won’t organizations and individual stars beyond Real Madrid start wanting it too?
Undoubtedly. Only by receiving an “official” certification can they distinguish themselves from impersonation accounts and prove they are the real thing.
Mm. Exactly.
I nodded and went on.
But giving the same blue verification badge to an account with ten thousand followers and one with a million feels a little boring.
So you wish to differentiate them.
Exactly. Say fifty thousand followers… no, smartphone penetration still isn’t very high, so let’s lower the threshold a bit. Fifty thousand gets a bronze badge. One hundred thousand gets silver. One million gets gold. We’ll change the verification color according to follower count.
Zero understood my intent at once.
You intend to provoke the competitive instincts of clubs and stars.
Exactly.
I smiled.
Stars, companies, clubs—they’re all creatures that live on attention by nature. It’s already embarrassing if they have fewer followers than their rivals, but imagine if my badge is a dull bronze while theirs is shining gold? They won’t be able to stand it.
Comparing them by numbers alone didn’t hit hard enough.
But if the rank insignia next to their profile changed color, that was a different story.
Those badges would be medals, and soon enough, status itself.
And… one more thing.
I held up one more finger.
Every time they hit symbolic milestones like fifty thousand, one hundred thousand, or one million followers, we should send them a physical trophy too.
Understood. You are referring to something like YouTube’s “Gold Button.”
Exactly. That’s it.
Once a channel gathered enough subscribers, YouTube sent out a plaque, the Play Button.
Unboxing videos of creators showing off the buttons YouTube had sent them were content in and of themselves.
If I remember right, YouTube started handing those out around 2012. But right now it’s 2009.
It was a marketing idea that didn’t exist yet.
I was going to claim it first.
Then big clubs and stars will work like crazy to outdo each other and collect more followers.
This was the picture I wanted.
Whether it was Real Madrid or some celebrity, they’d receive a gold trophy for one million followers, display it in the locker room, and post photos of it.
Would Barcelona just sit still after seeing that?
They’d beg their fans to help them gain followers so they could get the same trophy.
Just to win trophies, they’ll promote Moment even more aggressively on their own. And fans will drag in their friends just to hand that trophy to the star they support.
Right now, Moment’s most urgent task was user acquisition.
Functionally, aesthetically, trend-wise—we were ahead of Facebook in every respect except one: head count.
Of course, given the physical limits of smartphone adoption, we wouldn’t catch Facebook’s user numbers overnight.
But if we built an image as the far trendier, far cooler platform of the in-crowd… then no matter how hard Facebook tried to copy and chase us, it would be uphill all the way.
Why were luxury brands luxury brands?
Not because their functions were better. Because they had brand value everyone wanted.
I intended to make Moment the luxury brand of SNS.
An SNS everyone could use, but that was unmistakably a premium label.
In that sense, using the rivalry of those high-and-mighty Hollywood stars and giant clubs is a fantastic strategy.
And then—
Official verification isn’t something we just hand out to anyone. We should make it so only people above a minimum follower count can apply, and even then, not give it out just because the numbers are high… only to the real ones I personally recognize.
Moment was the platform I had created.
Everything that happened inside it—power, hierarchy, order—had to remain under my control.
I’d build a world where I could make someone real by attaching a badge, or fake by withholding it.
Even if influencers or organizations wanted to advertise on Moment, they’d have to get my permission first.
Let ordinary users have freedom, but control the powerful ones.
That, I thought, was real power.
This sounds like a great idea… but Zero, is it okay technically and in terms of design?
I was about to ask Zero’s opinion just in case.
But before I’d even finished speaking, several images popped up on the computer monitor.
…Huh?
On the screen were sleek verification marks already separated by color, along with 3D mockups of hefty, luxurious-looking trophies.
How about this design?
…Fast.
It had even produced the design before I asked.
Zero must have judged that this plan would succeed as well.
The design was flawless—clean, elegant, and without a shred of clutter.
Shimmering trophies stamped with Moment’s signature lens-shaped logo.
I could already see the stars desperate to get their hands on them.
Perfect. Let’s go with this.
Even this alone would have been an excellent plan.
But now that the board had been set, I wanted to make the game even bigger.
Zero. Once the official verification system is ready, you’ll contact Real Madrid through Vincent, right?
Yes. We will first guide the clubs that have already inquired, one by one.
Good. Then when you do, casually slip something to Real Madrid’s contact—quietly, very quietly.
I said with a sly smile, “Tell them Barcelona, their rival, is also getting ready to make an official account and receive a verification mark.”
You intend to provoke their competitive instincts.
Of course.
Watching people fight and watching fires burn are supposed to be the two most entertaining things in the world.
And the more intense the fight became, the more money I made as the one who set up the arena.
From here on out, go ahead and destroy each other… no, I mean promote the hell out of yourselves.
Moment.
＊ ＊ ＊
Monday morning, Madrid, Spain.
Real Madrid club offices.
The heat from Saturday’s comeback win was still lingering in the building.
Even though it was Monday and the afterglow hadn’t yet faded, the air in the marketing team’s conference room was cool and serious.
Standing near the table, Team Leader Garcia asked, “We received a reply from Moment? About the official page?”
In response, the staff member handling the matter answered while reading the printed email.
“Yes. We received an official reply from Another Technology, the operator of Moment. To get to the point… they say a separate official page cannot be created.”
“It can’t?”
“Yes. They rejected the idea of a corporate page on the grounds that it would damage the platform’s unity.”
“Hah.”
Garcia’s face twisted.
To think Real Madrid had made the proposal and they still said no—it was absurd.
I didn’t know this company also made FreeChat and Crazy Bird… but now that I see it, they seem to think their own success has made them untouchable.
Then the staff member continued.
“Instead, they proposed another option. An ‘official verification’ system.”
“Official verification?”
“Yes. They said we’d make a normal account, and they’d attach a verification mark proving that our club is the real one.”
Garcia folded his arms.
That kind of thing already existed on Facebook and Twitter. Not bad.
“What are the conditions? They won’t just verify anybody.”
“Two conditions. At least fifty thousand followers. And… a club or star that passes the screening according to Another Technology’s internal standards.”
Garcia tilted his head at that.
“They give out verification marks according to internal standards? What standards?”
“I asked for specifics too, but they didn’t tell me, saying the standards were confidential.”
“Seriously.”
Garcia let out a dry laugh, clearly annoyed.
They wouldn’t even explain the screening criteria and still expected to do things their own way.
There’s arrogant, and then there’s this…
But he soon nodded as if it didn’t matter much.
“Well, it won’t matter. There’s no way the world’s best club would fail some screening anyway.”
That wasn’t arrogance. It was fact.
There was no such thing as an “internal standard” on this planet that could reject Real Madrid.
“Then make the account right away and apply. Once we get the verification mark, start promoting it immediately.”
Garcia waved a hand and issued the order.
But instead of heading back to his seat, the staff member extended another sheet with an awkward look.
“Um… Team Leader. There’s one more thing you should see.”
“What now? Another condition?”
“Apparently the color of the official verification mark changes depending on follower count.”
“…What?”
Garcia’s eyebrow twitched.
“The mark changes based on follower count? Facebook and Twitter don’t do that. How does it work?”
“At fifty thousand followers, one hundred thousand, one million… the color and design of the verification mark change by tier. Another Technology sent over mockups. It’ll make more sense if you see them.”
The paper the staff member handed over contained tiered verification badge designs from Moment.
Bronze for fifty thousand, silver for one hundred thousand, and a brilliantly shining gold for one million.
The moment Garcia saw the designs, he understood instantly. This wasn’t just verification.
“Those are rank insignias.”
“…Yes. In effect, it’s a tiered system.”
This was a serious problem. If it were just a simple “official account” label, no issue. But if there were ranks, the story changed completely.
What if we’re wearing silver and some other club… say Barcelona… is wearing gold?
Just imagining it was awful.
That wouldn’t be a mere difference in SNS followers. It would be a matter of club pride.
The whole world would see it and think, “Real is beneath Barça.”
Just as Garcia’s eyes sharpened, the staff member poured oil on the burning pride of the team leader.
“And… they also said they’d give out trophies.”
“…Trophies?”
“Yes. They’ll produce and send physical trophies when an account reaches fifty thousand, one million, and ten million followers.”
The staff member flipped to another printout.
There, in shadowed silhouette, was the shape of a trophy that hadn’t yet been finalized.
Even as a mere outline, it was seductive.
A trophy. What was that word?
To a football club, to football people, it meant something different entirely.
It was the reason for being, history itself, the holy grail that must be won.
But until now, trophies belonged to the players and the club.
League titles, Champions League titles.
Those glories belonged to the players on the pitch and the manager.
The marketing team was only a supporting cast, there to polish and present it.
But this was different.
This trophy would be our trophy, won solely through the marketing team’s ability to gather fans.
“…I want it.”
Possession burned in Garcia’s eyes.
He wanted it badly.
He wanted to place that trophy in the most visible spot in the office.
Then the staff member delivered the final blow.
“And… when I called the office they referred to as Another Technology’s ‘secretariat,’ the person on that side casually added one more thing.”
“What thing?”
“That the competing club, Barcelona, is already preparing to open an official account too.”
Before the staff member had even finished speaking—
Crack!
The pen Garcia had been holding snapped in two.
Barcelona?
Those bastards were after it too. That trophy.
Garcia shoved back his chair and sprang to his feet.
“…Start it right now.”
“Pardon?”
“Make the account and start promoting it now!”
His voice thundered through the conference room.
“Spread the word to the entire world that Real Madrid’s official account is on Moment! Facebook, Twitter, the official website—everything! If you have to, use the club broadcast and the radio channels too!”
Garcia’s eyes were blazing.
They looked even wider than when Raúl took that free kick on Saturday.
“The follower count has to be higher than Barcelona’s, no matter what. If we lose by even one follower, all of you better be ready to write apology statements. Do you understand?!”
“Y-yes, sir!”
“And anyone among you who hasn’t downloaded Moment yet, do it now. Then follow our club account and tell everyone around you too!”
“Yes, sir!”
The staff fled in a panic.
If yesterday’s El Clásico had been the players’ war, then from today onward, the war of the club’s marketing team had begun.