Chapter 76: The Kim Shin Effect
Chapter 76: The Kim Shin Effect
Donghak Ants.
A term referring to individual investors buying up Korean stocks whose prices had fallen due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Seohak Ants.
This referred to individual investors who invested in the U.S. stock market.
- Seohak Ants' 3-Month Investment Return Surpasses Famous Hedge Funds.
- What's the Secret Behind the Seohak Ants Who Bought Aggressively Amid Fear?
- New York Stock Market Rises on Earnings Surprise + Hopes of Reopening.
- Total Investment by Seohak Ants Exceeds $25 Billion.
Korea was abuzz daily with the investment successes of its individual investors.
The country was considered a developing nation in finance, relatively marginalized in overseas financial investment compared to its economic scale.
But now, the Donghak and Seohak Ants had emerged, raking in financial gains through aggressive buying.
Securities firms and fund managers seized this opportunity to focus on sales.
- Even while you sleep, your money doesn't. Purchase financial products managed by experts!
- Stocks are at their cheapest today. Don't look for an undervalued point; steadily accumulate shares of good companies.
- Investing in stocks is about growing with the company. If you wait, everyone can become rich.
Financial companies aggressively pushed sales of their own funds.
The public's response to this was utterly cold.
- I got fooled big time in the mid-2000s. You think I'll fall for it again?
- Individual investors are the ones making money, so why are they advertising funds?
- In the stock market, you should always sell when the experts are saying it'll hit 90k or 100k.
- Oh, yeah? So what's your fund's return rate? Is it higher than mine?
- There's an investment adage in Korea. Don't trust reporters and experts. When they tell you to buy, that's the time to sell.
- Just trust Brother Kim Shin. If Brother Kim Shin says buy, you buy without asking questions. Doesn't matter if there's a pandemic or a recession!
- You said not to trust experts. So why do you trust Kim Shin?
- He's a god.
- Can't argue with that, lol.
Despite the spread of COVID-19, the Korean and New York stock markets rose in tandem, allowing many individual investors to earn a lot of money.
The stocks Kim Shin was said to have bought.
Although he hadn't publicly disclosed them, people aggressively bought shares of companies that became known through changes in share ownership, reaping sweet profits.
- Follow Kim Shin.
- If you still haven't bought any, don't get married and have kids. Your children will resent you, asking what you were doing.
And so, even more people began to invest actively.
The amount of money Korean individual investors were pouring into U.S. stocks reached nearly a trillion won every day.
- Brother Kim Shin doesn't say much. He just goes on YouTube and says, "The stock price is low. I'm buying." And from that moment, the price skyrockets.
- Untact, IT companies. Their stock returns are off the charts.
- Trust the Kim Shin indicator. The Kim Shin Investment Index return outperforms all other stocks.
- Did you see the article about Brother Kim Shin's crypto investments? The moment he sold, the crypto market collapsed.
Nevertheless, there were voices of concern.
- Doesn't anyone know? Even Brother Kim Shin has had failed investments.
- Like what?
- Nikola.
- He made a ton of money from that, too.
- You know Brother Kim Shin invested $200 million and made about $4.5 billion, right? Along with Netflix, it was a huge seed money win. How is that a failed investment?
- He invested $200 million and got a 2200% return?
- Yep. And right now, Nikola's stock is jumping even more because it's about to go public.
* * *
- Hydrogen Truck Manufacturer, Nikola, Lists on NASDAQ.
- Nikola Chairman: "Tesla is a Competitor."
- Nikola's Stock Price Surges Frighteningly Fast.
- Fed's Liquidity Supply Flows Toward Tesla and Nikola.
- Nikola Expected to Surpass Ford's Market Cap.
I was invested in the New York stock market and read the newspaper diligently.
It was necessary to grasp the flow of the economy and the changes in the world.
I made it a point to read the articles Lee Jong-yeop painstakingly woke up at dawn to clip while drinking my morning coffee.
Most were American articles, but there were some decent Korean ones worth reading, too.
In just a few months, news from my home country had begun to feel like news from a distant hometown.
"Looks like Nikola has finally listed on the NASDAQ."
"Yes, sir. They believe it will immediately surpass Ford's market cap."
Tesla, too, had once made headlines for surpassing Ford's market cap.
Ford, the great company that first mass-produced automobiles under Henry Ford and turned America into a kingdom of cars.
It had weathered the financial crisis relatively well and was decent at making everything from small cars to large ones, even downsizing engines.
Yet, for some reason, Ford had become the designated punching bag for comparisons.
"We have about $1.2 billion worth of Nikola shares left. We'll need to find someone to sell the rest to."
Although I held meetings and prepared for Earth Channel every day, I always kept an eye on the stock market.
- Total Assets: $20,386,781,297
$20.3 billion.
The returns from stock investments were far greater than the money earned from Earth Resource.
This must be why everyone gambles on hitting it big.
"Jong-yeop."
"Yes, sir."
"Let's have another refreshing bike ride to work today."
"Yes, sir."
I had recently purchased a Rolls-Royce, and Lee Jong-yeop seemed to quite like it.
It was the Cullinan, an SUV model released last year.
Rolls-Royce was synonymous with cars driven by the rich.
'It's a really expensive luxury car.'
But then I heard the price was $320,000.
It was the starting price without options, but it somehow felt incredibly cheap.
For a fleeting moment, I even had the thought, 'Is it okay to sell it this cheaply?' My concept of money was being completely redefined.
When I was poor and born with a dirt spoon, I used to curse the extravagance of the rich.
But now that I was wealthy, spending money on a car didn't seem like a large sum.
Of course, I knew there were limited-edition vehicles costing over $2 million, but I had no intention of buying them, if only because it was too much of a hassle.
In any case, riding a bike to work was much better than being driven in a Rolls-Royce.
I rode my bike with Lee Jong-yeop and got to work early.
"This is so refreshing and nice. It feels just like when I used to ride along the Han River."
"Yes, sir."
"Commuting by bike every day would be nice, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, sir."
* * *
Some things just don't work out, no matter how hard you try.
As I steadily prepared Earth Resource, I realized it wouldn't be easy.
'It has to be entertaining enough for the users.'
People who watch videos.
People who create videos.
People who enjoy games or music.
To target all the content on Earth, shouldn't the ultimate goal be to pursue fun?
"In this age of COVID, let's do something that can bring people joy."
"Yes, sir!"
My current wealth was well over $20 billion, but I felt humbled when I learned how much Netflix invested in content each year.
$15 billion.
That was how much they spent on content in just one year.
Famous Hollywood movies could earn over $700 million worldwide from a single release.
"Compared to American companies, we're really just a corner store."
I was trying to build a comprehensive content platform with an amount equivalent to the box office revenue of a single Hollywood blockbuster.
Nevertheless, there was a reason to be hopeful.
Netflix and Facebook were both small companies when they were first founded.
They were companies that grew by embracing a huge market.
Earth Resource's growth rate was much faster than theirs.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: We've concluded our discussions with the film production companies.
I'd been in touch with Vice President Jeong Beom-tae every day lately.
We had acquired Korean movies and dramas that were released a year or two ago, receiving their consent to release them on our broadcast platform.
We even bought the entire rights to works that were recently released or had their releases postponed due to COVID-19.
In the early days of the broadcast platform, Korean content would be the main feature.
- Kim Shin: What about the girl groups?
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: We are in negotiations with seven entertainment agencies that manage popular girl groups.
K-pop was gaining worldwide popularity.
We decided to host concerts and fan meetings for girl groups and boy groups on our broadcast platform.
We would have to pay for part of the performance costs, appearance fees, and broadcast venue fees, but I judged that we could earn more than enough to cover it.
The specific reason I asked about girl groups was purely because of Oh Myeong-woo's interests.
I made sure to select the three girl groups that guy had picked, no questions asked.
- Kim Shin: I'd like to secure some movies and documentaries. I want to use the broadcast platform frequently myself.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: Yes. We will secure experienced film company employees and start contacting overseas content providers.
- Kim Shin: How are our original productions coming along?
Dream Art Rainbow was also developing its capabilities as a production company.
I hadn't pushed them until now, but I was curious if they had made any progress.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: We're in pre-production for several projects that have been floating around as just screenplays for years.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: There were some good projects that were delayed because of various investment situations, production scales, or actors' schedules not lining up.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: We also acquired a project that Netflix had confirmed for investment and was in the process of casting and pre-production before it was halted due to COVID.
- Kim Shin: Netflix?
Netflix's original content.
I had discovered it in the U.S. and started watching it frequently while traveling through various countries because of its convenience.
At first, I watched because it was fun, but I surprisingly ran out of things to watch quickly. And that's how I got into their original content.
'It's just a pile of B-grade stuff.'
I thought they weren't spending much money on their original productions, but looking at the annual investment figures, that wasn't the case.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: It's an original production, but in our opinion, the story is provocative and quite good.
- Kim Shin: Is that so?
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: Yes. It's packed with provocative elements like gambling, death, and competition, so I think viewers will like it.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: It's a drama, but it was so provocative that it could never have been made by KBS or MBC, so it was shelved for a long time.
- Kim Shin: And then it got investment from Netflix instead of a Korean company.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: Yes. Standards overseas are much more lenient, and they say that with the money it takes to make one episode in the U.S., you can produce an entire series in Korea.
Talking about it here and there made me curious.
- Kim Shin: What's the name of that project?
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: It's *Squid Game*. The name is a bit childish, but the story is good. And we've cast some great actors.
- Kim Shin: Ah. I see.
I wasn't expecting much.
But since Dream Art Rainbow had confirmed the production, the owner in America couldn't just halt it.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: Other projects from the drama production department have also been scheduled for release one after another.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: Since you mentioned launching a broadcast platform, we've prepared many works that we think will be popular abroad.
- Kim Shin: Like what?
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: Dramas about apocalypses, zombies. Things of that nature.
- Kim Shin: So, Korean-style stories.
- Vice President Jeong Beom-tae: Yes. For now, we plan to push the provocative angle.
Vice President Jeong Beom-tae had worked at a small investment firm for a long time.
Even though I had given him a generous budget by Korean standards, he was actively pursuing the production of films and dramas with provocative subjects.
* * *
Team Leader An Myeong-guk took the subway to work.
It was a familiar and tedious office life.
After finishing his simple morning tasks, he went up to the rooftop as usual to chat with the employees.
"I'm resigning."
"What?"
"I'm leaving Arcor to find a new dream."
"Hey, you crazy..."
Team Leader An, who was about to start cursing at Kim Sang-gi's words, hesitated for a moment.
"Did you happen to get a call from Kim Shin?"
He asked just in case, remembering Lee Jong-yeop's situation. Otherwise, Kim Sang-gi wouldn't be announcing his resignation so confidently.
"That's right. Hehe."
"He wants you to come to America too? You're not that good at English, are you?"
"I have to stay in Korea. Someone has to protect our country, right?"
"What did he ask you to do?"
"He's planning to create a gaming team in Korea, and he said he doesn't have anyone trustworthy, so he asked me to be the general manager. With an annual salary of 300 million won."
"Goddammit."
Team Leader An couldn't help but let a curse slip out.
He had poured his youth into Arcor and accomplished many things.
An office worker's value is determined by their salary.
His salary, which felt like it would never rise, had stagnated around 80 million won, and due to COVID, even that was confirmed to be cut by over 30% this year.
"Should I process your resignation right away?"
"Yes. Well... it would be great if you could shorten the handover period as much as possible."
"What's there to hand over in this COVID era? Just say your goodbyes and get out of here, man."
"Hahaha. Thank you."