Chapter 87

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Do you know how many monthly users our Faceweb has?”

Executives gathered in the conference room didn’t answer.

Because they knew he wasn’t asking to hear an answer.

“2.3 billion people. Even excluding duplicate numbers, 2.3 billion members are currently using our Faceweb and InstaLook.”

Truly an enormous number.

Befitting the world’s largest SNS that people worldwide use.

“But do you know how many members PicPic has, which hasn’t even been one year since launching?”

Again there was no answer.

Because they didn’t know.

“About 300 million.”

2.3 billion and 300 million.

Naturally Faceweb led with overwhelming numbers.

“But it’s absolutely not a number to feel relieved about. Because PicPic filled 300 million members instantly less than one year since launching. Conversely, our Faceweb and InstaLook are gradually losing new members. PicPic sucked away all the members who should’ve come to us.”

The thought that since Faceweb currently dominates the SNS market, it’ll continue doing so must be abandoned.

That was exactly what Faceweb founder and CEO Marcus Berg was warning about.

“An app that’s only one year old exceeded 300 million members, and now it’s growing much larger. This is just the beginning. Special measures are needed.”

“But this is a matter you must approach carefully. The reason we couldn’t check PicPic early on is partly because we didn’t expect PicPic would grow this much, but also because there’s a company behind them shaking the global economy.”

In fact, people inside Faceweb also recognized PicPic’s potential.

Because their so-called AI algorithm short-form strategy had tremendous ripple effects.

So there were opinions to check them, but the problem was that the company acquiring PicPic was Gwangwoon.

“Isn’t it already known fact that Gwangwoon and Kangsung move almost as one body? Moreover, they deliberately caused the semiconductor crisis situation to destroy various field markets and take their profits.”

Among business people, there probably aren’t places that don’t know Gwangwoon and Kangsung.

Kangsung being the only Korean electronics company opposing Apple is one thing.

But Gwangwoon’s name was frequently heard recently.

Naturally so.

Didn’t Gwangwoon dominating shipping isolate TSNC to disturb the semiconductor market, and as a result greatly damage companies where servers are very important like Faceweb?

“At first we only thought they were simply trying to dominate the semiconductor market.. But didn’t PicPic tremendously suck away members as our Faceweb and other SNS apps all went down due to server problems? There was intention.”

“That intention being to bring down our Faceweb?”

“Yes. If the White House hadn’t stepped up to mediate, they wouldn’t have supported us with server components to the end. Even that was given very late.”

Thanks to that, PicPic could grow very smoothly.

Since everyone’s SNS was dead, they searched for new apps, and were drawn into PicPic that happened to be marketing globally.

And they settled in while also liking the content there.

At least Faceweb somehow mobilized all means to overcome server problems and got through the crisis well, but other SNS couldn’t.

Competing SNS disappearing is good, but a new predator appearing after devouring them all was never good.

Plus that predator was targeting Faceweb from the start.

Until now, countless SNS apps challenged to bring down Faceweb’s fortress.

Each time Marcus Berg didn’t even spare a glance.

Because whatever they did, he judged they couldn’t pull down Faceweb that already dominated the world from the king’s seat.

But didn’t they say there are no eternal winners or eternal champions?

Like Nokia once dominated the global phone market, but now it’s taken by Kangsung and Apple.

Nothing is eternal.

New competitors always appear to replace that position.

So to avoid falling behind and getting devoured, you must be wary from when the gap is widening. Otherwise PicPic will definitely dominate the global SNS market as Gwangwoon wants.

“But they’re not an easy opponent. Who could’ve dared predict that TSNC as massive as a mountain would collapse like that? Plus importantly, the White House’s stance is currently too favorable toward Kangsung and Gwangwoon.”

It’s the White House that just seized power.

Now is when their strength is greatest.

Even the person called president sitting in the White House has strong crazy tendencies.

Such a White House is now blatantly favoring Gwangwoon.

“This Volmageddon situation. Is it true Gwangwoon was involved?”

“Yes. According to what we found out, Gwangwoon definitely made a big score with Gold Reagan as the lead and left. The SEC covered it up right away seeing the White House name come up.”

“Not even just that. There’s talk Gwangwoon is also behind this Tisla going-private statement situation.”

Marcus also knew well about the Tisla going-private situation.

Wasn’t it the incident that heated up SNS?

“But why is that related to Gwangwoon?”

“They say Mylon Tusk had a secret meeting with Gwangwoon Securities President Jeong Jin-ho two weeks before causing that commotion. And Jeong Jin-ho bought large amounts of stakes in stages. They say he bought stakes worth billions of dollars.”

“Wait. So that crazy bastard Mylon Tusk moved per Jeong Jin-ho’s instructions?”

Mylon Tusk is a person receiving great attention in the SNS industry.

What’s SNS’s virtue?

Exactly. Controversy.

And Mylon Tusk was the king of controversy.

But perhaps too intoxicated by his ability to stir controversy, he crossed the line.

He committed fraud saying he’d buy all stakes to go private.

“Though it’s clearly stock price manipulation, Jeong Jin-ho and Mylon Tusk only traded Close AI stakes that day. They say no other connection points could be found. Meaning there’s no trace of goods exchanged.”

“What. Anyone can see it’s suspicious, yet they just passed it over?”

“The SEC must’ve been troubled too. Usually with such stock price manipulation there should be something exchanged, but there was absolutely nothing. Above all, wouldn’t it be troublesome if they dig wrong into Gwangwoon and the White House name wielding power suddenly comes out?”

“Decisively, the bureau chiefs holding positions in the SEC are people newly replaced this time. They have to watch the government’s face even more.”

It was ridiculous.

In American history, has a black-haired foreigner ever been this deeply involved in American finance and politics?

The scary point is not knowing how far this person Jeong Jin-ho’s clutches extend.

“But we can’t just be pushed back like this. Find a way. We must pressure politicians connected to us to stop PicPic’s growth. One thing advantageous for us now. We’re an American company.”

President Trent was always raising his voice that domestic companies must be fostered.

Of course, relations between Faceweb and President Trent weren’t very good, but as he always babbled, shouldn’t domestic companies do well to make America great again?

***

“Mylon Tusk $20 million, and Tisla also $20 million in fines, and furthermore Mylon Tusk stepped down from the chairman seat.”

Due to this Mylon Tusk-related stock price manipulation situation, our Gwangwoon Securities also couldn’t avoid investigation.

But as the SEC found no connection points between me and Mylon Tusk, the case concluded for now, but additional investigation was ongoing.

However, I had no idea Tusk would do such crazy things.

I just invested following intuition.

But the SEC seems to think there’s definitely something between us.

But even I would’ve suspected like that.

The fortunate point is the SEC isn’t conducting strong investigation either.

Seeing they quickly imposed fines on Mylon Tusk, it seemed investigation on our side was mostly dropped.

“The problem is PicPic side. We expected it, but Faceweb’s counterattack is truly fierce. They seem to be trying to completely bury our PicPic with their overwhelming member numbers.”

PicPic’s growth rate is very steep.

Because of that, Faceweb holding 1st place in SNS share started blatantly spreading that our PicPic came from abroad and is arbitrarily extorting precious American citizens’ information.

“Naturally it’s nonsense conspiracy, but people are believing it.”

“Is it affecting member numbers?”

“Nothing noticeable so far. Growth is still good. But if Faceweb keeps spreading talk like that, we’ll inevitably be affected. Plus InstaLook that Faceweb operates is hiring influencers active on our PicPic side en masse trying to reduce our scale.”

Faceweb put up a whopping 2 billion won.

They announced an event saying if influencers active on PicPic come to InstaLook to be active, they’ll select the best and give 1 billion won whole.

“Some people stopped activities and moved to Faceweb because of that. If they continue such aggressive marketing, future damage will be big.”

Showing weight class difference, is that it?

“Then how about we also do the same event, President?”

It was a good opinion.

But we shouldn’t put up the same prize money as Faceweb.

To win, shouldn’t we put up bigger prize money?

“…”

I tried writing prize money amounts.

2x, 4x, 7x.

While still not feeling it.

’10x?’

Right there came a feeling strong enough to shake the pen.

“Then let’s raise prize money to 10x.”

“20 billion won as prize money?”

“They’re asking for a chicken game, we can’t be scared and back down. Plus we made quite a bit of money thanks to Tisla.”

We put in 4 trillion won and earned a whopping 2 trillion won coming out.

20 billion won wasn’t a large amount.

“PicPic did request costs needed for aggressive marketing. How much should I tell them to support?”

This isn’t our securities firm but costs must be delivered at the group level.

“About how much did PicPic request?”

“About 100 billion won.”

I tried writing amounts in the notebook once more.

But this time too, prices kept rising.

And stopped at exactly the same figure as before.

“..Let’s go with this also at 10x.”

Then employees’ eyes all widened at once.

“1, you mean putting 1 trillion won all into marketing costs?”

“Yes. It’s PicPic achieving explosive growth. Whether to rise more from here, or get devoured by Faceweb. It seems at this crossroads, getting devoured here won’t work.”

It’s PicPic that filled 300 million members in one stroke.

But the more explosive growth shown, the more vulnerabilities.

However, if we get through this crisis well, PicPic will become the mainstream SNS going forward.

Looking at current growth, it was absolutely not a dream.

A Korean-owned SNS becoming a giant dinosaur surpassing Faceweb.

***

“..The more I think about it, the angrier I get.”

Mylon Tusk who received tens of millions of dollars in fines didn’t regret his actions.

He did think whether he crossed the line too much.

But hearing shorters tormenting him got completely smashed, even that slight regret disappeared.

But what actually made him angry was for a different reason.

Gwangwoon Securities.

No. It was because of Jeong Jin-ho.

“Suddenly bought large amounts of stakes to go long. Then before I got caught, he also hit massive shorts in advance?”

Who does Tusk hate most?

Exactly bastards hitting massive shorts on his company.

But Jeong Jin-ho did that.

Up to making money from longs was understandable.

But after making all that money, he got greedy again hitting even shorts and profited greatly again.

Thanks to that, only Tusk became the world’s bastard, grinding his teeth enough to bolt upright from sleep.

How exactly should he repay this?

“They say he’s been at odds with Faceweb lately..”

Should he cooperate with that side?

No.

There’s one more method.

“Deal with the SEC.”

When investigated last time, he testified only doing stake trading with Jeong Jin-ho.

That there was no scheme.

Because saying there was something between the two would truly be planned stock price manipulation, not ending with just fines but requiring handcuffs.

That’s why he desperately said no.

Plus it was truly no.

But punishment regarding Tusk already ended.

Didn’t he coolly get fined?

He stepped down from chairman seat too.

Then if he deals with the SEC here to slightly lower fines and pushes that he and Jeong Jin-ho truly conspired for stock price manipulation?

“…”

Of course, there really is nothing between them.

But if he testifies like that, the SEC gets justification to obsessively cling to Gwangwoon.

Even so, he wanted revenge on Jeong Jin-ho who dared play with his company.

So he set up a separate meeting with SEC officials.

“..Wh-what. What’s this.”

While agonizing how to frame a scenario to hit Jeong Jin-ho’s back.

An incident burst that flipped all media and SNS.

“Personal information leak?”

Exposure came out that about 100 million people’s personal information leaked from Faceweb.

Originating from a personality analysis app spread in cooperation with Faceweb by some company, this was a major incident where not just simple personal information, but information of people currently friends automatically went to other companies and spread everywhere.

Faceweb knew this fact but tried quietly burying it.

But couldn’t stop insider exposure.

At first they desperately denied saying it wasn’t that much, but as additional exposures burst consecutively, it was ultimately revealed as fact.

Not one or two people leaked, but a whopping 100 million people’s information.

The US government also quickly stepped up, and ultimately not only full investigation of Faceweb officials but even public hearing schedule for Marcus Berg was set.

“…”

Seeing this situation that grew uncontrollably with one exposure, Mylon Tusk swallowed dry saliva.

“To call it coincidence, the timing is..”

Originally it was an incident that could’ve been buried all along.

But the moment Faceweb started actively attacking PicPic, such a thing suddenly burst.

The strange tale spread that if you join Faceweb all your information gets stolen, people quitting exploded, and they naturally started being absorbed into PicPic.

Some might not think deeply saying it’s an incident that would’ve burst someday.

But not Tusk.

This was clearly someone’s intention.

And who would that someone be?

“Jeong Jin-ho..!”

Momentarily goosebumps rose enough to make his spine chill.

Gwangwoon that ruthlessly crushed forces that were bothersome or interfering since Deutsche Bank times.

Jeong Jin-ho was always at that center.

Didn’t even the SEC investigate halfheartedly this time ultimately hesitating for fear of the White House behind him?

Sharp-witted Tusk could read that subtle fear in investigators’ eyes.

“Th-this isn’t the time.”

He immediately canceled the meeting set with SEC officials.

Then let out a relieved sigh.

If he’d rushed to the SEC to cause trouble without pondering more, what would’ve happened after..

Just thinking about it was terrible.