Chapter 415 |
OTK Games successfully launched Lost Fantasy M and Lost Fantasy Online one after another.
Both games were massive successes, generating hundreds of billions of won in revenue each month. Even after accounting for development, operations, server costs, and fees paid to publishing companies, a tremendous amount of net profit was rolling in.
However, all this money was being poured directly into developing a VRMMORPG and the mergers and acquisitions of companies with related technology.
As if that weren't enough, they frequently funneled money to OTK Company, and this time, it was like they had handed over an all-time high invoice.
To operate an integrated server for 100 million users worldwide, a data center larger than those of Gooble and Facenote combined is needed.
It typically costs about 5 billion dollars to build one data center. Building just 20 of them would cost 100 billion dollars.
"My, my..."
It looked like on top of the 10 billion dollars for game development, more than 10 billion dollars would be needed for building the data center.
And there would be countless other expenses beyond that.
"Hmm, I guess nothing in this world is easy."
"Easy or not, what needs to be done must be done."
To get anything done, you need money, not just passion.
Fortunately, we had diligently invested and earned money over the years. We had reaped enormous profits from the cryptocurrency craze that once swept the world, and after that, we made more money in the crude oil market thanks to the North Sea oil field incident.
But the biggest profit of all was...
"What would we have done without Japan?"
"You got that right."
If we hadn't cleaned out 2 trillion yen from the Nishida Securities order mistake incident, we wouldn't have even dreamed of an investment like this.
Taekgyu nodded his head eagerly for no reason.
"The world will never forget Japan's sacrifice for the sake of the gaming industry."
"I suppose so."
"Though we're the ones who'll be making the money."
"..."
Although our cash on hand had decreased due to various investments, we still had more than enough to invest in the data center.
As expected, this wasn't something you could just whip up because you wanted to; it was a project that would take two or three years at the earliest.
"So, we need to prepare steadily from now on, so that by the time the game is revealed, the servers are running without a hitch. We can't have the great Shigeru, who should be focusing on game development, worrying about such trivial matters, can we?"
It was hardly a trivial matter, but when it came to Ichikawa Shigeru, he was ready to give his liver and gallbladder.
If it weren't for Taekgyu, there would be no OTK Games, no VRMMORPG. It was a stroke of luck for him, if you could call it that, to have met a Deputy CEO like this.
In any case, smoothly handling hundreds of millions of connections while maintaining security is not a job for just anyone.
It's not like I could just develop this kind of technology from scratch now. For the record, I was a liberal arts major, so I don't even know how a server is configured. That's why I decided to acquire related companies.
The problem was that all the well-known companies had already been acquired.
As data became a corporation's most critical resource, the value of related personnel and companies had already skyrocketed astronomically. Gooble, MS, AMZ, and others had competitively bought up those companies for 10 or 20 billion dollars each.
"So what do we do?"
"What do you mean? We have to find the companies that aren't yet known."
There are many related startups and companies. However, picking the gems from the stones is no easy task.
It's just that the success stories are well-publicized; MS and AMZ have had more than a few failed acquisitions. It's common for them to acquire a company for billions of dollars only to have it generate losses.
Taekgyu patted my shoulder.
"But we have your foresight. Now, let's pick one with that foresight of yours."
I replied, bewildered.
"It doesn't just appear because I want it to."
But the moment I said that, my vision suddenly blurred and something scrolled up before my eyes.
...
...
A moment later, when I came to my senses, Taekgyu was staring at me intently.
"Have a good look? What did your foresight say?"
"There's quite a few."
***
I contacted the CEO of ArcIT.
Peter Katsuyo couldn't hide his surprise as he listened to me.
[You're saying you're going to build the world's largest data center?]
"That's right."
[After Silicon Valley and Saemangeum, now a data center... As you know, data centers are completely different from other buildings. You have to vent the heat generated by the servers, maintain constant temperature and humidity, and block dust and pollutants as much as possible. From design to construction, it's the domain of specialized companies.]
"So you're saying it's possible?"
At my question, Peter Katsuyo answered confidently.
[Of course. We have experience designing a data center in Dublin, Ireland. Since our own company will eventually need to move our servers there, we'll make it the best.]
"Excellent."
I'm glad I acquired ArcIT.
After ending the call, I summoned the CEO of K Company.
Sang-yeop sunbae was shocked to hear about the data center construction plan.
"Do you need that many servers? So many that even MS or AMZ's clouds can't handle it?"
Taekgyu nodded.
"Of course. It's going to be a success that far exceeds everyone's expectations."
"But a data center isn't something you just build and you're done. How are you going to handle security and operations?"
I handed him a list of 11 companies.
"Acquire these companies."
The companies ranged in size from as few as five employees to as many as several hundred. Their nationalities were diverse as well, including American, Israeli, and Indian.
Sang-yeop sunbae asked as he skimmed the document.
"How did you find these companies?"
"Let's just say it was through expert advice and internet searches."
Some of them were so small that it took some effort to find them. I didn't do it myself, of course; I had Yuri do it.
"Aren't 'Konnectin' and 'Contect' misspelled?"
"I guess companies named 'Connectin' and 'Contact' already existed. It's not like this is a rare occurrence."
"Well, that's true."
It's common for companies to deliberately change the spelling of a name to avoid existing ones. Sometimes they name their company without much thought, and other times a typo during registration becomes permanent.
I mean, look at us, OTK Company...
"Go to the U.S., acquire 100 percent of Konnectin, and then, with Konnectin as the core, acquire the rest of the companies. They'll accept an offer of 2 billion dollars."
Among them, Konnectin was the largest company.
Three months ago, AMZ had offered 1 billion dollars, but the acquisition fell through when Konnectin's CEO held out, refusing to sell for less than 2 billion.
He later lowered the asking price to 1.7 billion, but by then AMZ had already acquired another company in the same industry.
"Well, AMZ did start building its cloud service more than a decade ago. It might be a good idea for OTK Company to build its own data center and migrate the servers of its invested companies. It's like providing cloud services to our own subsidiaries, right?"
"As you know, the manufacturing sector is shrinking globally, while the service sector is growing. We need to prepare for that too."
The content service market is already a playground for giants.
Needless to say about Gooble, AMZ, and MS, even Npple, an IT device manufacturer, turned to strengthening its content services once N-Phone sales began to decline. Their plan is to supply content by utilizing the hundreds of millions of devices already on the market.
Entering a market like this is no easy task. Rather than fighting on a board set by our opponents, we need to set up a new board that is advantageous to us.
We have three weapons.
The first is pornography. FaceIt dug into the pornography market, which large corporations couldn't enter due to their corporate image and shareholder opposition. (Not that they were specifically targeting a niche market, but more because the two founders were porn enthusiasts.)
The second is 'Kainfotainment,' which could be called the fourth screen. Since we possess the device known as the autonomous vehicle, we have an absolute advantage.
The last is gaming.
In my estimation, this is likely to become the final battleground of the content market. And this isn't just my prediction; the IT giants realized the importance of gaming early on and have not spared any investment.
Gooble and Npple strengthened the gaming content on their smartphone OSs, Andrometa and NOS. (In fact, most of the revenue and profit from app stores comes from games.)
MS launched the Xbox and acquired Mojang, the creator of Minecraft, while AMZ acquired Threewitch, which has the largest share of the internet game streaming market.
As time goes on, investment in gaming will only increase, not decrease.
The moment 100 million people worldwide connect to an integrated server, it's no longer a simple game. People create enormous value simply by gathering.
When 100 million users meet and talk inside the game, it becomes an SNS. If they fight, it becomes a sport. If they engage in commerce, it becomes a shopping mall.
It's even possible for everything done on the internet to take place within the game.
If we can make the VRMMORPG a success, we can instantly leapfrog Gooble, AMZ, Facenote, and Disney to become the strongest player in the internet market.
That's why it absolutely must succeed.
***
Sang-yeop sunbae flew to the U.S. on a private jet for the mergers and acquisitions.
Data centers require a massive amount of memory semiconductors. The largest supplier is, of course, Seosung Electronics, and the second is SSK NIX.
For reference, Seosung Electronics and SSK NIX, whose main products are memory semiconductors, benefited greatly as IT giants competitively expanded their data centers over the years.
Taekgyu spoke as if lamenting.
"But our Chairman is already in prison. Still, it's a relief to hear he's doing well and is healthy."
Usually, when chairmen go to jail, they suddenly develop all sorts of chronic illnesses and apply for a stay of execution or medical bail.
I don't know why chairmen who usually look so robust suddenly fall so ill the moment they're incarcerated, but one can't help but feel a sense of respect that they managed to lead their groups with such frail bodies.
But Chairman Im Jin-yong wasn't feigning illness and was doing just fine. He was reportedly eating well and getting along with the other inmates.
Whether he was genuinely good-natured or just pretending to be, it was a wise choice. Thanks to it, public opinion was becoming more favorable.
"I should probably meet with the president of Seosung Electronics' semiconductor division."
***
While rumors that OTK Company was placing a massive semiconductor order with Seosung Electronics and searching for a data center site spread worldwide, someone was struggling with a weekly deadline.
Min Ha-young looked miserable.
'Ugh, I should have done this earlier.'
It was a regret she had every time a deadline came around, but it was also a recurring event.
When a deadline looms, even non-existent concentration tends to appear. Thanks to this, Min Ha-young was able to send her manuscript just in the nick of time.
Collapsing onto her bed to catch her breath, she soon came to her senses.
"Ah! The appointment is today."
Min Ha-young shed her shabby tracksuit, washed up, and picked out the prettiest clothes she owned. Then, she slung a bag over her shoulder and headed to the meeting place by subway.
Arriving first, she sat in a café, rubbing her sleepy eyes. She had pulled an all-nighter yesterday, so drowsiness washed over her even after drinking coffee.
Just as she was about to fall asleep, Min Ha-young saw someone arrive and quickly opened her eyes.
"You're here?"
She was about to stand up and greet him warmly but froze.
"Ah... you came today too."
At that, the other woman brushed back her jet-black hair and spoke.
"As it happens, I was free today as well."
Unlike the plainly dressed Min Ha-young, this woman with a glamorous, celebrity-like appearance was named Yang Ha-na. Draped in expensive brands you've likely never heard of, a sense of luxury exuded from her every move.
The important question was, why on earth was she here?
For the record, this meeting was a pretext for Min Ha-young to meet Taekgyu by asking him to look over her webtoon story. But at some point, Yang Ha-na started joining them, pretending it was a coincidence, and now she attended as if it were a regular gathering.
From Min Ha-young's perspective, it was just baffling. But she couldn't exactly stop someone who wanted to come.
"Aren't you busy?"
Yang Ha-na said with a smile.
"No matter how busy I am, I have to come. I like the Lost Fantasy series too. It's hard to talk about it if not for gatherings like this, right?"
Min Ha-young bit her lip.
'Hmph! Since when was she such a fan of Lost Fantasy?'
Min Ha-young had thought that in terms of hobbies, Yang Ha-na couldn't possibly keep up with her. But that was underestimating her.
Upon learning that their common hobby was gaming, Yang Ha-na had clung to a game console for over a month, pulling all-nighters to clear every single Lost Fantasy game. And now, she was playing Lost Fantasy Online.
Furthermore, she frequently contacted Taekgyu, asking for advice on character builds.
Only then did Min Ha-young realize she was up against a formidable opponent. Not that Yang Ha-na thought any differently.
As soon as Yang Ha-na appeared, the men in the café started glancing at the table where they sat.
Amidst a terribly awkward atmosphere, the person they were waiting for finally arrived.
Oh Taekgyu spotted the two and waved cheerfully.
"Oh! You're here already."
But he hadn't come alone. A Caucasian woman was with him.
The woman, with cute, freckled face and brown bobbed hair, was named Anneke. She was an exchange student currently studying at Korea University, and, believe it or not, a Norwegian princess!
In that moment, Min Ha-young and Yang Ha-na had the exact same thought.
'Why is she here with him?'