Chapter 105: The Confident Challenger
Chapter 105: The Confident Challenger
The joys of business.
There was the pleasure of watching a company you own grow and thrive.
[ A New World for $5 ]
[ Earth Channel's Goal is Pleasure Itself ]
[ Earth Channel Now at 57 Million Subscribers, Far Exceeding Market Projections ]
[ A New Storm Lands in the OTT Market ]
[ Earth Channel Server Errors Caused by Global Influx of Users ]
As evening fell, a variety of articles popped up.
How many days at the company could be this satisfying?
The reactions from actual users on Korean internet communities were also positive.
- I thought there'd be nothing to watch, but there's actually a decent amount of stuff.
- It costs 1,500 won to watch one episode of a drama in Korea. So getting the whole service for $5 is pretty cheap.
- A lot of Korean and American movies that had their releases postponed this year are on there.
- You get your money's worth just by watching one movie.
- They have girl group concerts too.
- Idols are streaming, talking about behind-the-scenes stuff. You don't get this experience often.
- Top Gun was better than I expected. It's a bummer there are no American TV shows, but I guess I'll have to watch some K-dramas.
- Watch Squid Game. It's god-tier. Absolutely amazing. Why wasn't a drama like this made sooner?
- Is Squid Game any good?
- Just watch the first episode. You won't be able to look away.
The broadcast and film content were well-received by the public, and the number of people doing personal broadcasts steadily increased over time.
More than 30,000 personal broadcasts had started, with millions of viewers from all over the world.
Over 95% of the streamers were Korean.
A testament to the status of K-pop, perhaps.
The real-time translation program officially supported Korean, English, Spanish, and Japanese.
The translations for many other languages were less polished, but not entirely unwatchable.
"*Sob*. The public just has no taste."
Only Oh Myeong-woo was disappointed.
The game channel he had worked so hard on had significantly lower usage.
Only about 300,000 people were enjoying it.
Even a mobile game launch would easily surpass 300,000 users in Korea alone.
‘Is this the limit of indie games?’
They were fun, but they were games that weren't widely known.
Although he had added large-scale graphics, sound, and content, it seemed it would take time for the public to start enjoying them.
Nevertheless, Earth Channel itself wasn't doing badly.
The $5 and $10 plans.
Over half of the subscribers signed up for the $10 plan, which included all services, including games.
A business success.
He had built Earth Resource on the foundation of Source Coin, and his investments on the New York Stock Exchange had been a series of massive hits.
The immense influence that resulted was now palpable.
"Fox News would like to invite you on."
"Hmm..."
He had received invitations from broadcasters when K-Vaccine was released as well.
But whereas those were requests to explain the vaccine, this time, he would be the main guest.
It was a spot where he could talk about anything he wanted.
The governor of California and high-ranking officials in the U.S. government were also requesting meetings.
"For now, let’s just consider it. Tell them I’m busy for the time being."
"Yes, sir."
* * *
[ Earth Channel Expected to Surpass 100 Million Subscribers This Week ]
[ The Rapid Growth of Earth Channel ]
[ Will Earth Channel, a Latecomer to the OTT Market, Become the Eye of the Storm? ]
A virtuous cycle was forming where media articles were drawing in more users.
"Here’s some coffee."
"Thank you, sir."
He brought coffee to the employees.
He was grateful for their hard work.
- The CEO is making coffee for them.
- I want to work at that company too. If I get a job there, will Kim Shin bring me coffee?
- It's hard to get a job there. Earth Resource is the eye of the storm in Silicon Valley.
PD Seong Ho-jin was filming the scene at the office.
It was for a live broadcast on Earth Channel, not YouTube.
‘I should at least pretend to be working hard.’
He walked over to Oh Myeong-woo's desk for no particular reason and asked a few things.
"Are we short on data centers?"
"We converted the ones we were preparing for the cloud service. But using them for Earth Channel has created a shortage in our surplus capacity."
The cloud service was bringing in a lot of cash, and its business prospects were bright.
"Then we need to acquire more, quickly."
"I’m looking into it. We’ll probably have to utilize the grid network a bit more too."
"Tell me the scale of the data centers you need. I’ll put in a request with Isung too."
- Is this a story about a man with $100 billion putting a data center in his shopping cart?
- And he says he uses Isung as a subcontractor.
- You can trust Isung. They’re small, but they work hard.
- He talks about data centers like he's ordering an internet installation LOL
- If Isung installs the data center, make sure to give them a five-star rating!
The tablet PD Seong Ho-jin was holding showed the viewers' chat.
The chat was scrolling by so fast it was hard to read properly.
"PD Seong. How many viewers are there?"
A promotion for Earth Channel.
He had agreed to do the broadcast after being told that articles would be written if he streamed himself.
He had thought 20,000 or 30,000 viewers would be more than enough.
"Including the relay streams, 800,000 people are watching."
"What did you say?"
"It’s 810,000 now."
"..."
Why were 810,000 people watching such a mundane scene of an office?
He had followed PD Seong Ho-jin's suggestion to do a live office tour, but he hadn't expected this.
[ UnemployedGrad has donated 0.5 Source Coin.
"I want to have an office job too." ]
Donations popped up frequently.
They had enabled a donation feature for streamers, similar to YouTube or Twitch.
The only currency accepted here was Source Coin.
[ KimShinsWife has donated 2 Source Coin.
"I love you, Kim Shin!" ]
His face momentarily stiffened at the nickname.
He was startled, thinking Han Chae-won had sent it, but it seemed to be just a username.
The trauma from Han Chae-won was too intense to disappear in just three years.
"Sir, How about giving us a tour of the company?"
"Shall I?"
At PD Seong Ho-jin's request, he took on the role of a guide for Earth Resource.
The company occupied four floors of the building.
The shopping mall division, computing, cloud services division, game division, Earth Channel division, and so on.
- This company is so nice.
- It's clean, and the office supplies are all top-of-the-line.
- The employees' dress code is so casual.
- They're eating pizza in the office. But why is the pizza so big?
- The majesty of American pizza...
He let out a small laugh reading the chat.
One of the things that had surprised him when he came to America was the size of American pizza.
People in Korea who could eat a regular-sized pizza by themselves would probably be full after one or two slices in the U.S.
"This is Allison. She's in charge of the shopping mall division."
"Hello, everyone. I'm responsible for the shopping mall at Earth Resource."
Key employees.
He also introduced the viewers to employees who were interested in being on camera.
- That redhead who just walked by is gorgeous.
- Her figure is definitely not that of an ordinary person.
- Wow, there are a lot of beautiful employees.
There were indeed many beautiful women at the company.
While most of the programmers were male, the service and support teams had many female employees.
Earth Channel, being in the content business, had a particularly high ratio of female employees.
Even within Earth Channel's drama and film production departments, women made up more than half the staff.
"This is the PC bang. We made it for employee welfare, but because of COVID, it's closed and not in use."
"I see."
The company tour took only about thirty minutes.
It was just a matter of looking around the office and greeting a few employees.
In fact, he had done company tour content on YouTube several times before.
"Sir, We have over a million viewers now."
"Really?"
He could now understand how celebrities on variety shows felt when they worried about airtime.
A lot of people were watching, but there was nothing much to do.
Earth Channel had just set sail.
Imagine the CEO ruining it with a broadcast...
"What should I talk about?"
He asked the viewers what they wanted to hear.
- Business talk!
- The movies that will be released on Earth Channel.
- More like investment talk. I'm curious about the forecast for the New York Stock Exchange and the crypto market.
- Investments are the real deal.
- If Kim Shin talks about the economic forecast, it would have a global impact.
- The fund managers on Wall Street will have to watch.
- Forget them, what about the domestic fund managers? I wonder what those idiots at Mirae Asset are doing. Did they take our fees and go on vacation? Buy a house?
- Tell us about your love life!
- We call him Kim Shin hyung so casually. I heard he's the number one person American broadcast stations want to book.
Just as the viewers were suggesting topics to fill the airtime...
“Sir.”
"Yes."
Lee Jong-yeop, dressed in a suit, approached him.
- It's Lee Jong-yeop!
- His executive assistant, Lee Jong-yeop.
- He's tall and handsome.
Quite a few viewers recognized Lee Jong-yeop.
Apparently, he had appeared in the news always following Kim Shin around when they were in Korea.
"What is it?"
He was anxious, wondering if a service error had occurred on Earth Channel.
"Tom Cruise is coming this evening."
"Where?"
"To San Francisco. He says he has something to discuss with you over dinner."
* * *
For the past two years, Jim and Kwon Do-jin had been steadily creating new coins.
"Estelle is already over three dollars?"
"Yes. It's rising like crazy."
This year, so many altcoins, led by Bitcoin, were getting attention that people were calling it "crypto season 2."
Until a few months ago, they had to do a lot of promotion to attract investors even after listing on an exchange.
Now, trading volume exploded and prices soared the moment they were listed.
Jim's eyes gleamed.
"This is an opportunity."
"Of course it is."
Kwon Do-jin smiled confidently.
During the last crypto boom, they had very little money.
Seed money is crucial for investment and business, but they had started with only a few hundred million won.
As they turned that money into hundreds of millions of dollars, what had they thought?
‘If only our initial investment had been 10 billion won.’
A new coin was like a fisherman's net.
No matter where you cast it in the sea, you'd catch a net full of big fish.
He regretted that if they had just had 10 billion won, they could have made tens of times more money.
He thought their fortune would have multiplied several times over if crypto's popularity had lasted just six, or even three, more months.
And now, the day had come when the public's interest in cryptocurrency was rekindled.
"Do-jin, what’s our net worth right now?"
"Over 1.3 billion dollars."
The funds they had invested in Source Coin had grown steadily, just as they had expected.
In the crypto market, 1.3 billion dollars was a colossal sum.
The crypto world is a place where you can turn 100 million into 10 billion.
No one knew how much 1.3 billion dollars could become.
"Do-jin, if we play this opportunity right, we can become billionaires worth tens of billions of dollars."
"Of course. The coin market is ours."
Kwon Do-jin thought of Kim Shin, who was frequently in the news.
How he had envied the man who succeeded at everything he touched.
Looking at Kim Shin’s record, he had only been making money for three years.
‘There’s no rule saying I can’t become richer than Kim Shin.’