Chapter 104: The End of the Wait
Chapter 104: The End of the Wait
Many people had been eagerly awaiting the launch of Earth Channel.
- There’s been nothing to watch lately. At least now I won’t be so bored.
- A ton of new variety shows are starting. This is the official end of the terrestrial TV era.
- Cable is screwed, too. The production cost per drama episode is five times higher. There’s no comparison.
- Famous writers and producers? Pretty much all of them are with Earth Channel now.
- Did you see the cast list for their new show? It’s the actors from Squid Game. Insane, totally insane.
On every online community in Korea, the conversation was buzzing about Earth Channel.
Dramas and movies starring famous actors were set to premiere on the platform, and popular variety shows were returning with massively increased budgets.
- The game lineup is insane.
- The Vice President there is a serious gamer.
- If I subscribe to the game service for $10, I feel like I’ll never have to buy a game again.
The expectations of Korean viewers and gamers for Earth Channel's launch were at an all-time high.
Even though the service was launching at 2 AM, people from their teens to their fifties were waiting as if it were a World Cup match.
- I’m gonna binge a drama as soon as it opens. They said the whole season is dropping at once, no more weekly waits. It’s awesome.
- I took tomorrow off, LOL. Put in for leave the moment the Earth Channel launch was announced. I was faster than the other guys.
- Vacation mode starts today. I’m going to enjoy all the dramas, movies, and games. Of course, I’m unemployed, so…
- I’m more excited about the visible radio broadcasts.
- Why? Are the female streamers moving to Earth Channel?
Female streamers with beautiful looks were incredibly popular, earning tens of thousands of dollars or more each month through donations.
- I don’t know about the nobodies, but I heard girl groups and actresses are starting visible radio shows on Earth Channel.
- Really?
- From Dream Art Rainbow, it’s rare to find a girl group that isn’t participating, starting with Blackred. They say top-tier actresses are all joining the fray, too.
- Talk about crushing the little guys;;
- They’re out to conquer the market. And bring in foreign currency while they’re at it.
The American media’s interest was also immense.
[ Earth Resource's OTT Project Launches Tomorrow ]
[ The Arrival of a Platform Encompassing All Content: Games, Broadcasts, Music, and Movies ]
[ A New Project from the Victor of Wall Street ]
[ Top Gun: Maverick Confirmed for Release on Earth Channel! ]
- A new OTT service is always welcome.
- What is there to watch? There’s no Marvel series, no crime shows or other famous dramas.
- They say Korean content is the main draw. I guess you can think of it as a global service from a Korean OTT.
- Doesn't seem like there will be many dramas worth watching, then.
- They acquired Paramount, so all of its content will be uploaded. And they’re releasing Top Gun, in particular.
- Gotta watch Top Gun. How much is it?
- Five dollars a month.
- Guess I’ll pay $5 and watch Top Gun. It’s worth subscribing just for that.
* * *
Dream Art Rainbow sent out a flood of press releases to the Korean media.
For Kim Shin, Earth Channel was just one of many challenges.
For Vice President Jeong Beom-tae, his entire career was on the line with this project.
“Reporter Joo, I need you to give us some good coverage this time. An interview? Of course, I can arrange an interview with our actors anytime. Yes. That’s right. You don’t need to worry.”
He personally called every well-known reporter.
He also contacted the CEOs of the agencies whose shares he had acquired.
“From now on, all promotions for our actors, movies, and dramas must be unified through Earth Channel. YouTube? Television? Don’t even think about looking elsewhere. This is a project being handled directly by CEO Kim Shin. If you’re not properly helpful, I will be gravely disappointed.”
He cajoled and persuaded the agency heads, many of whom had started as managers.
It wasn't easy, but his title as the Vice President of Dream Art Rainbow carried that much weight.
“Let’s hold a concert to celebrate the launch of Earth Channel.”
“A concert? I don’t think we can hold one right now because of COVID.”
“We have to do it anyway. We don’t need a live audience. We can just broadcast it live on Earth Channel.”
He even mobilized twelve idol groups to prepare for the celebratory performance.
He was betting everything on how much the public would consume the content created by Dream Art Rainbow.
For the past week, he had been eating and sleeping at the office, not even thinking about going home.
“It’s open.”
2 AM.
When Earth Channel went live, the employees of Dream Art Rainbow were all at the office.
[ Earth Channel Officially Launches ]
[ Earth Channel, Carrying the Future of Korean Content, Sets Sail ]
[ 8 Korean Dramas, 12 Films, and 5 Variety Shows Premiere on Earth Channel ]
Timed with the launch, the promised articles went live.
Jeong Beom-tae tried to access Earth Channel from his computer, but he couldn't connect.
“What’s wrong? Is my computer broken?”
At that moment, employees also cried out.
“I can’t connect to Earth Channel.”
“The site won’t load!”
“Oh, my God.”
Hearing his employees’ words, Jeong Beom-tae’s vision went dark, and he felt like crying.
A server error on the very first day.
He could already picture Earth Channel collapsing under a torrent of criticism from the public and the media.
One minute, then two, passed in excruciating anxiety.
“I still can’t connect.”
“We’re getting a call from Jamsil. The site isn’t loading. Should they proceed with the concert?”
“Tell them to postpone the concert for now. Who’s going to watch a performance with no audience and no viewers?”
About ten minutes passed like that.
Then, access to Earth Channel became smooth.
* * *
Silence fell over the Earth Resource office as Eddie, Oh Myeong-woo, and the programmers stared at their monitors, their fingers flying across their keyboards and mice.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s a total server crash.”
“What?”
Earth Resource had never experienced a server crash before.
This was because they operated a grid network linking dozens of large data centers and hundreds of thousands of personal computers.
“A sudden surge of users caused the traffic to exceed our capacity.”
“Huh?”
“Normally, the servers would just slow down. The fact that they crashed instantly suggests the number of concurrent users went far beyond our predictions.”
Oh Myeong-woo’s words brought a mix of joy and anxiety.
It was good that there was so much interest, but if they failed to meet expectations from the start, they could be shunned forever.
“Can we restore it today? Should we post a notice about delaying the launch?”
Since the server itself was down, he wondered if he should post a delay notice on their competitor's site, YouTube.
As he was contemplating this, Oh Myeong-woo spoke.
“Even if we open the servers now, they’ll just crash again. I did prepare plenty of backup servers, just in case.”
“You have backup servers?”
“Of course. I prepared a generous amount just in case. You know those data centers we bought recently.”
Earth Resource had been steadily acquiring data centers.
They had commissioned Isung Group to build new ones, but completion would take at least a year and a half to two years. To keep up with the rapid expansion of their cloud business, they had been securing existing facilities.
Oh Myeong-woo spoke into the microphone connected to his headset.
“Connect the Winnipeg data center.”
The data center in Canada housed 20,000 servers.
“It’s not enough. Connect Vancouver. Montreal, too.”
Data centers near San Francisco and across Canada were activated for Earth Channel.
“For extra capacity, bring San Jose, Quincy, and Quebec online.”
The data centers that had been prepared as backups came online one after another.
As if by magic, the connection to Earth Channel stabilized, and the numbers on the user statistics monitor on the wall began to climb.
[ Subscribers: 3,512
Concurrent Users: 816,361 ]
And two or three seconds later.
[ Subscribers: 6,951
Concurrent Users: 3,519,483 ]
In a fleeting moment, 3.5 million concurrent users.
[ Subscribers: 81,237
Concurrent Users: 9,912,038 ]
Within seconds, the number of concurrent users was approaching ten million.
“It’s already at ten million!”
They had reached their target number of users right after launching the service.
“Yes!”
“We did it!”
The number of concurrent users continued to rise, surpassing 23 million.
Despite it being the dead of night in Korea and a busy weekday morning in the US, a huge number of people had logged on.
“Current subscribers have surpassed four million.”
The concurrent users quickly converted into subscribers.
They had considered offering a one-month free trial like Netflix but decided against it since the basic fee was only $5.
Even as he stared blankly, the subscriber and user counts on the wall kept climbing.
‘This is good.’
At this rate, it seemed Earth Channel wouldn't fail.
* * *
[ Earth Channel Surpasses 20 Million Subscribers ]
[ In One Hour, Earth Channel Exceeds 10% of Netflix's Subscriber Count ]
[ Is Earth Channel's Competitive Edge Its Extremely Low Price? ]
[ A Hands-On Review of Earth Channel ]
Just one hour after the site went live, the American media was churning out articles.
I sat at my desk, sipping a cool can of coffee as I read them.
[ Earth Channel's design is modeled after a television, using a channel-changing format.
Channel 1 features dramas and variety shows, Channel 2 has movies and documentaries, Channel 3 is for personal broadcasts, Channel 4 for games, and Channel 5 for music.
Despite the low price, one gets the impression that a lot of effort was put into it.
It holds the potential for vast amounts of content and new channels to be added in the future... ]
“The reviews aren’t bad.”
“That’s because public opinion is favorable.”
Earth Channel was the hot topic on American online communities.
With a price point overwhelmingly cheaper than its competitors, it was hard for it to get much hate.
If they had focused solely on dramas and movies, the public's reaction might not have been so enthusiastic, but by including personal broadcasting and gaming, it offered a wide variety of content to enjoy.
Famous gamers and streamers from around the world had started broadcasting early on.
Some already had viewer counts exceeding 100,000.
“Looks like a lot of people are starting personal broadcasts, too. Isn’t that Jung-yeon from Blackred?”
“That’s her.”
She was at the top of the viewer rankings.
As expected of a celebrity, Jung-yeon from Blackred was exceptionally beautiful.
Korean girl groups, actors, and various other people were broadcasting on Earth Channel.
“How are the games doing?”
“Subscriptions have passed five million. There are also many games distributed via a download model.”
The goal of Earth Channel wasn't just to make money and be done with it; it was to become a dominant platform that would steadily grow, increase its market share, and rule the market.
A platform that would merge traditional media like dramas, movies, and news with the personal broadcasts of the internet age.
The use of a channel system was meant to signify their intent to secure all forms of content people enjoy as new channels in the future.
Oh Myeong-woo examined the user statistics.
“In terms of content popularity, Top Gun is overwhelming. Most people watch Top Gun as soon as they subscribe.”
Millions of people were watching Top Gun.
Subscribers from the US and Korea browsed the site for a bit before watching the movie.
It was understandable, as many likely subscribed thinking of the $5 fee as the price of a movie ticket.
“And there are a lot of subscribers from Japan and Southeast Asian countries.”
That made sense, given the immense popularity of Korean dramas in Japan and other Asian countries.
“Right now, we have over four million subscribers from Japan alone.”
“That many?”
“There’s also a lot of active traffic from China. At this rate, it looks like we’ll have far more subscribers from Asia than from the US.”
Earth Channel didn't use a country-by-country official launch strategy.
They simply opened the site and provided support for most languages.