Chapter 146: Evaluating the Son-in-Law Candidate
Chapter 146: Evaluating the Son-in-Law Candidate
The subscription economy was rapidly expanding.
A model where you pay a fixed fee to receive goods or services was gaining massive popularity.
Of course, companies never did anything that would put them at a loss.
'They offer it for a small monthly fee, but those expenses pile up, and before you know it, you can't save a dime from your paycheck.'
Having not been born into wealth, no one understood the value of a salary quite like I did.
When you're new to the workforce, pulling in two or three million won a month, the world feels like a breeze.
You think you can buy whatever you want and that life is about to level up.
It was a massive delusion born from underestimating society.
'Between work expenses, taxes, pension contributions... even stripping all that away, your lifestyle creeps upward bit by bit.'
Back in the day, expensive fruit was off-limits because of the cost, but with a steady paycheck, you start treating yourself.
You splurge on pricey clothes with credit card installments, open up an overdraft account.
Expenses balloon, and your salary vanishes like cyber money in a game of Go-Stop.
'Kim Sang-gi said he was only happy for two days after payday.'
Of course, the subscription economy had its merits.
If you need certain products or services but lack the cash upfront, what choice do you have?
But for most people, it turns into fixed costs that swell up like getting soaked in a light drizzle.
Spread out into tiny amounts, you barely notice the spending.
From the companies' side, it means steady revenue streams—better than one-off sales.
But converting one-time purchases into subscriptions? Isn't that just like gouging rent money?
- Kim Sang-gi: Hangeul's market cap is around 550 billion. Factoring in a control premium, acquiring half the shares would probably cost about 360 billion.
- Kim Sang-gi: Operating profit last year was 68.2 billion—not bad.
- Kim Sang-gi: But it's not a high-growth company. Does Earth Resource really need to acquire it?
- Kim Shin: Hmm. Not at the stage where I can explain the specifics yet. If their asking price is too high, it'll be tricky.
One reason I liked Kim Sang-gi back at Arcor was that he was a colleague, but more than that, he always delivered on his tasks without issue.
Hangeul might be the go-to word processor in Korea, but on the global stage, it was virtually unknown compared to MS Word.
Sure, now that the entire MS Office suite and even Adobe Photoshop had gone subscription.
It wasn't fair to single out Hangeul.
Still, the software industry gave off this vibe of straight-up scamming their customers.
- Kim Shin: Hang tight for now.
- Kim Sang-gi: OK, got it.
I sipped my coffee and mulled it over.
'Do we really need to drop a fortune on a word processor?'
Snapping up half the shares would likely cost north of 500 million dollars.
The core technology for word processors had been nailed down thirty or forty years ago—ever since, it was just incremental tweaks for usability and features.
"I might have money to burn, but wasting it on something unnecessary stings."
There had to be some angle here.
Seon Jae-yong, the Vice Chairman, was piling on Isung Group work in prep for his U.S. trip.
He met with subsidiary presidents for briefings and got updates from the secretariat on a slew of matters.
Its businesses ranged from raw materials and apparel to amusement parks, insurance, investment, software, advertising, credit cards, shipbuilding, construction, electronic components, security services, pharmaceuticals, hotels, consumer electronics, and semiconductors.
Isung Group had its fingers in pies across every industry imaginable.
"How's Sweden coming along?"
"Yes. We've acquired the old industrial site and construction is underway. Two complexes will be complete this year."
"A full year ahead of schedule."
"With funding secured upfront, we've been able to focus purely on building."
The data centers commissioned by Earth Resource.
Word spread that the Vice Chairman was personally overseeing it, accelerating progress across the group.
As construction ramped up, computer systems, networking gear, and storage from Korea shipped out to Sweden.
"Are the Sweden data centers shaping up to be efficient?"
"We're leveraging the cold Nordic air and sea breezes to slash electricity and water use by over 90%. We've optimized the interior layout too, and by next year—with the tech and know-how we've built up—we expect full self-sufficiency."
A single large-scale data center ran over 700 million dollars.
Earth Resource alone had placed orders for more than thirty this year.
Isung handled the construction in-house and sourced most components, raking in massive profits.
"I'm saying it again: no hitches whatsoever. This is a deal I brought in myself—no embarrassing slip-ups."
"Yes, Vice Chairman."
Deep in the work, a reminder came from the secretariat.
"You have a meeting with Mirae Motors' Chairman in thirty minutes."
"Time flew that fast?"
In his father's era, Isung and Mirae had battled fiercely for the top two spots in Korea.
After the IMF crisis, Isung Electronics surged ahead as the dominant force, while Mirae spun off affiliates and reduced its direct rivalry.
"Jin Chairman. Please, come in."
"Haha, it's been too long."
They met at a Japanese restaurant in Gangnam.
The two group leaders spent ages chatting about the Korean economy and industry at large.
Jin Myeong-il drained his soju glass and remarked.
"Isung Group's growth last year and this year is phenomenal. The way you've turned the pandemic into an opportunity? Impressive."
"I see Mirae Motors as the cornerstone driving the future mobility era."
They traded compliments back and forth.
Then: "I hear your business ties with Kim Shin are rock-solid. Choosing collaboration over competition as Isung's head? Bold move. Surprising, even."
Jin was genuinely moved by Vice Chairman Seon Jae-yong's decision.
Just last summer, headlines blanketed the news about Kim Shin raking in fortunes. The reactions from the young chaebol third- and fourth-gen heirs?
"Give me that shot... I'd crush it."
"Kim Shin just lucked out with COVID. Nailed the vaccine play, bet against the crashing stocks. Guy's got horseshoe-up-the-ass luck."
Plenty dismissed him or stewed in envy and pipe dreams.
Seon Jae-yong never waved around his title as Korea's richest. He joined hands with Kim Shin.
That news quelled the young heirs' antics.
Seon Jae-yong smiled.
"Kim Shin CEO is exceptionally capable. Partnering with someone who can scale Isung Group? Only makes sense."
"Spot-on judgment."
Jin Myeong-il hadn't dropped by just to kill time.
Seon Jae-yong had guessed as much, though pinpointing the agenda was tough.
'Mirae Motors won't dive into vaccines or electronics.'
Their businesses had precious little overlap these days.
Jin Myeong-il cut to the chase.
"You've met Kim Shin a few times—give me your honest take on him. My daughter... she's taken with him."
"Pardon?"
It was the biggest shock Seon Jae-yong had all year and last.
Even when COVID first hit Korea, he hadn't been this rattled.
'Daughter... Jin Yoo-kyung? She's into Kim Shin?'
The Mirae Motors Chairman was infamous as a doting girl-dad.
Rumors swirled in business circles about Jin Yoo-kyung's beauty and talent.
With Kim Shin's youth, marriage wasn't out of the question.
'If those two actually tied the knot, how should Isung position itself?'
His mind raced, but Seon Jae-yong shared his standing assessment of Kim Shin.
"He's a frightening man."
"Frightening? Coming from Isung's top dog. What do you mean by that?"
Seon Jae-yong paused in silence.
As group head, he rarely voiced raw thoughts aloud. Faking it to Mirae Motors' Chairman would show through in a heartbeat.
Given the generations-long ties between the groups, laying out his genuine view wasn't hard.
"Ordinary folks get devoured by sudden wealth."
"True enough."
Chaebols knew better than anyone the spellbinding pull of money in a capitalist world.
Students lose interest in studies; office workers numb to the grind.
They chase thrills denied to the average Joe—luxury, booze, gambling, women, drugs. Common pitfalls.
Windfalls make hard work unappealing, and lives crumble.
"Kim Shin CEO wasn't devoured. He turned it into seed money for investments."
Jin Myeong-il recalled his daughter's glowing praise and cracked a fond smile.
"He's got killer instincts as an investor. I admire that."
"We've spent thirty-plus years building knowledge and experience as heirs. Kim Shin launches a U.S. venture and soaks up more in one or two years than we've gathered. Our Isung Electronics lab in San Francisco reports Earth Resource pulling in top-tier talent nonstop."
"Top-tier talent?"
"Kim Shin's rep has Earth Resource pegged as the hottest ticket in American tech."
For Korean chaebols, the U.S. market was a love-hate affair.
Mirae Motors first exported cars there in the '80s.
Leveraging low prices, they sold 160,000 the first year, 260,000 the next—a smash hit. Then the mockery rained down.
[Disposable cars]
[Cars where everything that sticks eventually falls off]
[Junk]
Mirae's quality couldn't hang with U.S. or Japanese makers, and without a service network, it was sales-only folly.
The cheapo image dogged Mirae Motors in America for over twenty years.
It took a 10-year/100,000-mile warranty and building an Alabama plant to claw back quality and image.
Naturally, that sparked endless gripes about reverse discrimination back home in Korea.
"Succeeding in the States, eh."
"More like conquering the world."
Jin Myeong-il grinned as if picturing a star son-in-law, then sobered up.
"But what exactly do you mean by 'frightening'?"
He hadn't forgotten Seon Jae-yong's opening line.
"Ever hear of a quantum jump?"
"I've heard the term, but not the details."
"It's a physics concept. Picked it up running an electronics firm. Means not inching forward, but leaping up in massive discrete bounds."
In Seon Jae-yong's eyes, Kim Shin was pulling off one impossible quantum jump after another.
The successes so far were jaw-dropping. What if they kept stacking?
He'd bolt ahead like Google or Apple, leaving everyone in the dust on the world stage.
Jin Myeong-il grasped it instantly.
"Frightening, alright."
"Exactly. He doesn't chase outsized ambitions. He pursues what he wants, and markets spring up around it."
I tore into a Yoplait at the Earth Resource office.
Tastes don't shift easily—stuff you loved as a kid still hits in your thirties.
"Namnam."
I licked the lid clean on instinct, and my ears started itching.
"Who's badmouthing me?"
[Evaluating the Son-in-Law Candidate] End