Investor That Can See The Future

Chapter 448

I was forced by Taek-gyu’s hand and headed to the Neo-Teen headquarters building in Pangyo.

I’m already busy, but I don’t know what I’m doing. While riding in the car, Taek-gyu gave a long speech about the harm that piracy can do to the content market.

“Actually, even if Hayoung’s sales fell, there is no problem in making a living. Still, I earn tens of thousands of dollars a month. Money is money, but how unfair would it be if a work like your own child was being mistreated elsewhere?”

“I understand your feelings.”

He even asked me to take down his work, and he even got insulted.

“Hayoung is now the No. 1 Neoteen Webtoon. This is enough for her to be considered as the top 1% of all webtoon writers in terms of income. So, if Ha-young takes this much damage, what about other writers? you’re going to die completely Do you know what kind of ground to draw in webtoons? No, if it’s not fun and the drawing isn’t selling because it’s bad, who’s to blame? You just have to work harder. But, no matter how fun it is to draw, if it doesn’t sell due to illegal reproduction, what can the artist do?”

Gangnam to Pangyo is just a short walk away. While we were talking, we saw a building covered in blue glass, the color that symbolizes Neotin.

Neotin is the largest portal site in Korea. In addition, it is engaged in Internet-related businesses such as SNS, shopping, webtoon and web novel services, and is producing various software.

Is it a general internet company?

The current CEO is Jung Hae-chang, the founder. He is a reclusive entrepreneur and rarely appears in the press or outside events.

That’s why I’ve never met him in person.

Just as each individual has their own personality, so do entrepreneurs. Some presidents cover his body with his luxury goods, and some presidents add soles to his old shoes. Some people brand themselves like Warren Bott and Allen Eberhart, while others build a wall with the media.

Either way, it’s going to fit everyone’s style.

There is no point in contact with us because there is no overlap in business areas. If you can find one, what about the decision to build the largest data center in Korea in Saemangeum?

But anyway, this is something we do in consultation with the government, so it has nothing to do with us.

We parked our car in the basement and went up to the lobby. I could see the staff coming and going with their employee ID cards around their necks.

Because it is an IT company, the clothes are free. No one is wearing a suit, everyone is wearing jeans and sneakers.

The employees sat comfortably and chatted in an open cafe on one side of the lobby. It certainly looks more liberal than financial companies like Golden Gate.

Taek-gyu patted my back.

“character! Go and ask to meet the Neoteen Webtoon manager.”

“Why am I telling you?”

At my question, Taek-gyu pointed to his outfit.

“If I told you, you wouldn’t think I was here to post a webtoon.”

“… … .”

If you knew that, why didn’t you wear something else instead of his sweatshirt?

I had no choice but to go to the information desk next to the central elevator.

asked the female employee.

“What did you come here for?”

You look like you don’t recognize me After all, people usually don’t care much about other people. Unless you have prominent features, you may not even know that a famous celebrity passes in front of you.

“I would like to meet the Neoteen Webtoon manager.”

“Did you make an appointment?”

“no. It’s not that, but I have something to tell you about a webtoon-related issue.”

she said kindly.

“Webtoon submissions are not accepted offline, but only through the site.”

“… … .”

Do I look like that too?

I was forced to reveal my identity.

“My name is Jin-hoo Kang.”

“Yes? Who?”

“After Kang Jin-ho.”

The female employee stared at me for a moment. Her eyes widened, and she immediately let out her scream.

“Damn!”

At that scream, the people in the lobby all looked at this side at once.

Some staff came running.

“What’s up?”

“Why is that, Miyoung?”

“Who is that person?”

She said, pointing at me with a surprised expression.

“Go, Jinhoo Kang!”

“Huh? What… … ?”

“Wow! It’s really Gangjinhu!”

“What’s happening?”

“Come on, wait. Picture!”

In an instant, the lobby became noisy.

* * *

I shook hands with the staff for a while and took pictures. I can’t tell you how warmly they welcome you.

I’m guessing my awareness is like this.

Following the guidance of the staff, we passed the speed gate and went upstairs. Neo-Teen Webtoon is a subsidiary of Neo-Teen as a separate division from Neo-Teen.

After drinking coffee for a while in the meeting room and waiting, the CEO of Neoteen Webtoon and the webtoon team leader rushed into the room.

Perhaps because it is an IT company, the CEO was young, in his mid-40s. His short hair was dyed blue and he wore his glasses. The team leader is a younger woman in her early 30s.

“I’m sorry for suddenly coming without an appointment.”

“no. It is an honor for you to come here. This is Baekhoon Lee, who is in charge of Neoteen Webtoon. This is Park Se-na, team leader.”

I introduced Taek-gyu.

“This is Vice President Oh Taek-gyu.”

They were both surprised by my words. Who would have imagined that he was the vice president of OTK Company looking at Taek-gyu now? Is it some kind of reversal?

“Ah! This is the deputy chief!”

“Invested in OTK Games and created an OTK Award!”

For some reason, he seems to be more happy than meeting me.

CEO Lee Baek-hoon said with a face like a fan meeting his favorite celebrity.

“I saw a lot of activity in the discussion about the leisure department and game regulations the other day.”

Taek-gyu’s face did not go out and his voice was altered, so he went out, but after the video of the discussion was released, the recognition of the vice-president was slurred.

Even among game developers, Taek-gyu Oh was regarded as the Messiah who came to save the Korean game industry.

“Thanks, we took a breather. Not only have I been censoring games or the Internet, but there have been more than once or two times that they have imposed nonsensical regulations or sent official messages.

Former Minister Jin Seon-mi visited Neo-Teen several times and gave valuable lessons that portal sites should work harder for gender equality and that the gender ratio of executives should be set to 5 to 5.

The Korean leisure department is working so hard.

Unfortunately, however, after the discussion with Oh Taek-gyu, his popularity plummeted (?), the minister was cut off, and the authority to regulate the game was taken away from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism… … Well, isn’t it self-sufficient?

After saying goodbye, we sat back down.

“Why did you come here for this?”

“Because this friend has something to see other than me.”

“Ah! Vice President?”

Taegyu said.

“I usually enjoy webtoons, but a site called Helto Kak is popular these days.”

When the word Helto Kwak appeared, CEO Lee Baek-hoon’s expression completely changed.

“The deputy chief knows. I’m still going crazy these days.”

“Is the damage that serious?”

CEO Lee Baek-hoon said as if expressing his injustice

“The webtoon and web novel market is growing rapidly by tens of percent every year. In the meantime, we have been increasing our servers to accommodate the increasing traffic, but this is the first time the traffic has decreased. We are actively pursuing overseas expansion and are working on OSMU, such as dramatization and film adaptation, but in such a situation, investment will inevitably decrease.”

“It looks more serious than I thought.”

“You know what’s more exciting? Helto Kak not only uploads webtoons, but also runs a community. If you look at it, even now, articles are being uploaded in real time on the free bulletin board and in the comments section. Watching it for free, recommending it, appreciating it, and cursing it. It’s not a joke, it’s currently the largest comic book community site in Korea. Does this make sense?”

“… … .”

There are famous webtoons in each serial, such as Neoteen Webtin, Lujin Comics, and Three Mix. In order to view these webtoons, you must separately access each site and pay.

However, Helto Kwok has collected webtoons that are said to be popular in Korea in one place and made them available for free viewing. So, the community is bound to grow as well.

Isn’t that exactly how bad things build up good things?

Team leader Park Se-na also said a word.

“Helto Kak is also a problem, but there are not one or two similar sites. There are more than 30 places that we are just checking.”

When Helto Pog hit the invitation, sites that imitated it were popping up to see if other guys also had a stomach ache. If it’s content anyway, scraping it anywhere is enough. Only the writers die while uploading inaccurately here and there.

“If this continues, I think the entire industry may collapse.”

It’s probably a bit of a tantrum, but it must be true that he feels a sense of crisis.

“We are a large company and we are the number one operator, so we can somehow survive even if there is a lot of damage, but some startups with insufficient funds have stopped their services and closed the site.”

CEO Lee Baek-hoon, who was voicing his enthusiasm, asked carefully.

“But why are you interested in this at OTK Company?”

Although Taek-Gyu helped Min Ha-Young get a license for Lost Fantasy, it is Min Ha-Young’s own skill that made her serialize it in Neo-Teen Webtoon.

So, although Neo Teen Webtoon knows that Min Ha-young is related to OTK Games, they don’t know about the fact that she is best friends with the vice president of OTK Company.

What if this fact became known?(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

Taehyung said calmly.

“I looked at Helto Kwak and there was a lost fantasy webtoon. As a fan of Lost Fantasy, not the vice president of OTK Company, can I just keep watching this situation?”

“… … .”

Isn’t it just because of Min Ha-young? Well, it’s probably partly because of the anger towards the bad guys.

However, CEO Lee Baek-hoon, who was unaware of this fact, was amazed.

“Ah, it was. The deputy’s love for games is truly amazing.”

“I know the damage is serious, but is there any solution?”

Team Leader Park Se-na said.

“First of all, Neotin is strengthening monitoring and filtering so that these illegal sites are not exposed. But anyway, if you search on google, it all comes up… … .”

“What about suing or blocking the site?”

“We are constantly suing, and we are also applying to block access to the website. However, even if you block it, you can immediately change the domain and open again. Korean investigative agencies have created accounts such as Facenote and Twitter, which are difficult to use, to promote and announce them.”

CEO Baekhoon Lee said.

“It would be very effective if you just block access to the website.”

“i See.”

In fact, even if you block a website, you can bypass it with a VPN, etc. But less than 1 in 10 people will ever do that. Most of them either give up and don’t watch, even if it’s annoying, or they’ll pay for it.

Taegyu said.

“Then we block all access to illegal sharing sites to prevent damage.”

“We are still making requests, but it usually takes 2-3 months to block them.”

Basically, Internet service providers are not the victims, so they are passive in blocking harmful websites. This is because if you block a legitimate site for nothing, you may be sued by consumers or companies.

“I will ask Internet operators and telecommunication companies to block harmful websites in real time in the name of the vice president.”

However, if the vice president of OTK Company directly asks for cooperation, it will never be easily ignored. Since it is a completely illegal site, there would be no reason not to cooperate.

CEO Lee Baek-hoon was not happy.

“I, would you really like it?

“Those people who ignore the rights of authors should be trampled down.”

The two were so moved by those words that they did not know what to do.

CEO Lee Baek-hoon held Taek-gyu’s hand tightly with an expression that seemed to shed tears.

“I will never forget what the Vice President did.”

Taek-gyu said humbly.

“What. I will definitely catch the Helto Kak operator and feed him bean rice.”