New Employees With an Annual Salary of 1 Trillion Won - Chapter 97
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 97. Rule Maker (2)
Daehyun Delivery and Midopa Department Store.
These were the core axles of the e-commerce platform I was planning.
Through them, I could complete a powerful and rapidly rotating gear structure.
However, there were companies in both the United States and China that had similar gear structures.
They were still incomplete and not functioning properly, but I noticed companies with similar basic frameworks.
“General Manager. Does Tiger Fund hold Amazon equity shares?”
“Of course we do. Amazon was one of the hottest companies before the IT bubble. But now it’s become a hot company in the short selling market.”
Amazon’s stock price was falling day by day.
Compared to before the bubble, it had plummeted by over 50%, and the downward trend was still continuing.
“I’d like to secure Amazon equity shares.”
“It is a company with growth potential. Right now they’re showing losses due to aggressive investments in logistics centers and various infrastructure, but unlike other IT companies, they are building a solid revenue structure.”
“They’re building a slow but stable revenue structure, and there’s very high potential for synergy with the e-commerce company we’ll create.”
The US Market and Korean Market.
Since there were no overlapping areas, mutual prosperity was possible.
So we needed to secure equity shares in advance and build a cooperative structure from now.
“It’s the perfect time to secure equity shares. The stock price has been cut in half.”
“The stock price is projected to continue declining next year as well.”
“We can gradually increase our equity share amount. And we can buy Amazon stocks at bargain prices from financial companies on the verge of bankruptcy.”
Was it because it was the United States?
Amazon had an even more massive structure than the gear structure I had designed.
If I could share Amazon’s gear teeth, the structure I designed could also expand in scale.
Unlike Amazon in the United States.
China’s e-commerce service provider didn’t align with my approach.
“I’ve also found a suitable Chinese investment target. It’s a Chinese e-commerce company similar to Amazon.”
“You seem very interested in e-commerce companies lately. Do you see it as the industry that will grow the most in the future?”
“As internet usage rates increase, shopping-related service providers will inevitably experience significant growth.”
“So what’s the name of that Chinese service provider?”
“Alibaba.”
Alibaba was a service provider with a structure that was by no means small compared to Amazon.
However, it had a structure that wasn’t suitable for creating partnership relationships or collaborative frameworks.
“It seems like a company that hasn’t gone public yet. If we enter as early investors, we could secure a large amount of equity shares at a bargain price.”
“It’s a company that will grow rapidly within the next 10 years. If we invest now, it looks like we could achieve at least 10 times the return.”
Ten times was the minimum.
If we rode the trend well, Alibaba was a company capable of 100 times or even greater returns.
“Let’s proceed with the Alibaba equity investment through Branch Manager Song.”
“I’d like to invest some of the Korea Branch’s operational funds as well.”
“Since this is an investment opportunity that Employee Lee found, we should naturally do that. Would it work to set it as 40% headquarters funds, 30% Asia Branch, and 30% Korea Branch?”
This amount of equity would be sufficient.
If Alibaba were the only investment target, I’d be greedy, but there were still more investment opportunities remaining.
“I’d be grateful if you proceed that way. And another Chinese company called Tencent also seems to have high growth potential.”
“I’ve heard of that one. Isn’t it the company running first place in China’s messenger program industry?”
“That’s correct. It hasn’t gone public yet, but it’s a company that could go public soon.”
It wasn’t simply a messenger program company.
From games to payment systems, it was expanding its reach in various ways, which had many similarities to Rollbook.
“Let’s acquire equity shares. If possible, it would be good to conclude a partnership contract as well.”
“If we can conclude a partnership contract with Tencent, it seems Korean game companies’ expansion into China would become easier.”
“Let’s try to proceed with concluding a partnership contract with Alibaba as well, if possible.”
“Alibaba is fine as is. Unlike Tencent, when the equity value rises later, simply selling it off seems like a better direction.”
The General Manager raised his eyebrows.
My answer seemed to be unexpected.
“We’re concluding a partnership contract with Amazon, so why doesn’t it matter if we don’t conclude one with Alibaba?”
“Amazon’s structure is open, but Alibaba’s structure is closed. So the possibility of connection with Rollbook or the e-commerce companies we’ll create in the future isn’t very high.”
A cogwheel whose groove size and specifications don’t match at all.
If you try to force such gear teeth to fit together, the speed would actually slow down and create a lot of vibration.
So there was no need to force collaboration with places like Alibaba where the specifications don’t match.
Using a strategy of securing equity shares and then selling at the peak would be beneficial for both sides.
“I understand what you mean. But we’ll need to hurry a bit. There are rumors that Japan’s SoftBank is keeping an eye on Alibaba.”
“Even if they offer better conditions, we must become the largest investor.”
“Song Sang-yeon and I will handle this matter ourselves, so don’t worry too much about it. Employee Lee just needs to focus on the negotiations with the WA executives who will be visiting in a few days.”
The negotiation with WA management was moved up.
It seemed they were getting anxious as Soccer 2001 Online Version continued to break sales records.
The more urgently they approached, the more advantageous it was for us.
Impatient people tend to dig wells hastily, and the more urgent someone is, the higher the chance they’ll make mistakes.
***
WA Senior Vice President Daniel Cutter arrived in Korea.
He was someone who had full authority over global contracts and partnership agreements, and also had the authority to stamp contracts.
“Nice to meet you. I’m Lee Jung-hoo, Deputy Branch Manager of Tiger Fund Korea Branch.”
“Nice to meet you. I’m Daniel Cutter. Chairman Robertson isn’t here, is he?”
Vice President Daniel kept looking around nervously.
He seemed to have participated in negotiations with Chairman Robertson in the United States, and showed signs of being wary that Chairman Robertson might suddenly appear.
“The Chairman is at the US Headquarters.”
“I heard some strange rumors somewhere and was worried. There’s a rumor going around that if you go to Tiger Fund Korea Branch, Chairman Robertson suddenly appears in the negotiation room.”
It must be a rumor spread by Apple.
To ease Vice President Daniel’s worries, I firmly closed the conference room door.
“Now no one will be able to come in.”
“Ahem, it’s a bit awkward to say this, but Chairman Robertson conducted negotiations so unreasonably that we had quite a hard time.”
Was he happy to be negotiating with me instead of the Chairman?
Once we proceed with the negotiation, he’ll find out, but he’ll actually miss negotiating with the Chairman.
“First, let me give you a brief report. Soccer 2001 Online Version recorded ten million dollars in monthly sales. And the number of users exceeded 400,000, rising to second place in Korean PC Bang market share.”
“These are certainly amazing numbers. We didn’t expect the online version to be this popular either. Actually, there was quite a bit of opposition within the company. If we had tried this in the US Market first, it probably would have been difficult to push through at all.”
The online version launch was possible because it was Korea.
Unlike the United States, Korea was a small-scale market, and they probably allowed it since we would conduct the experiment on our own without using their money and manpower.
“Is there still a lot of internal opposition now?”
“After receiving the sales report, such talk completely disappeared. How could they oppose when sales are more than 10 times higher than expected?”
“We settled all advance payments with the first month’s sales, and starting from this month’s sales, 60% of net profit will be deposited to WA as per contract.”
Some people call games comprehensive art.
But game companies were ultimately corporations, and especially larger game companies thirsted for profit generation.
High sales were needed to work with many people, and massive funds were also required for developing new games.
“So the company has decided internally that we need to go with a two-track approach.”
“By two-track, you mean continuing to sell the existing package product while also releasing the online version, right?”
“That’s correct. The online version released in Korea has such high quality that we heard it could be launched in English-speaking countries right now just by changing the language.”
Vice President Daniel was gradually getting to the main point.
He was pouring out words that were full of meaning, essentially asking us to just hand over the online version that Neo Marvel had developed.
“While Neo Marvel developed the game, Tiger Fund led various aspects from the monetization structure to the design. Especially for the monetization structure, we were able to create a perfect system by bringing in various experts in finance, accounting, and other fields.”
“Our accounting firm confirmed that it’s a monetization structure that only a financial company could create.”
“And Tiger Fund holds all the related patents as well.”
It was a kind of warning.
A warning not to even think about taking the online version for free.
Vice President Daniel wasn’t someone lacking in perception, so he immediately presented a new proposal.
“Let me be honest. We didn’t expect this level of success either. So here’s our proposal. How about adjusting the publishing equity shares to 5:5? Wouldn’t that be fair enough?”
“May I make a different proposal?”
“By all means.”
“How about we keep the Korean publishing structure as is, but instead we take 10% of the equity shares in overseas markets that use the online version?”
It was a proposal that could never be accepted.
10% of the global market was a much larger revenue scale than all of Korea.
Still, I made this proposal to gain control of the negotiation.
“We absolutely cannot accept those terms.”
“Considering the patent license costs, it’s by no means an excessive condition.”
“In that case, it would be much better to create a new online version from scratch.”
“Can you really handle that? It requires money, time, and manpower – is it necessary to take on all those risks?”
“….”
Vice President Daniel fell silent for a moment.
To break his silence, I presented a new condition.
“Then how about this? We’ll go with the original proposal of 5:5 Korean publishing equity shares. But in addition, how about the condition of signing additional Korean publishing contracts for other games?”
“Those terms are definitely open for discussion. What games do you want?”
“We want to have priority negotiation rights for Korean publishing, on the condition that we fully support the online version.”
“That sounds like you mean we’d have to unconditionally give Korean publishing to Neo Marvel whenever you want it.”
It could be seen as an arrogant condition.
It was a condition that they would have to give us Korean publishing rights unconditionally without negotiation whenever we requested it.
“Where else could you find partners as reliable as Neo Marvel and Tiger Fund Korea Branch? Especially in Korea, we can confidently say there’s no better publishing game company than us.”
“Certainly, looking at the investment scale alone, it’s more trustworthy than other Korean game companies. Even so, Neo Marvel and Tiger Fund picking publishing games like shopping could be problematic internally.”
I wanted to bring only profitable games.
More precisely, Neo Marvel could only grow in the direction I wanted by publishing games that could apply online monetization structures.
“There seems to be a misunderstanding. I meant we want to publish games that suit Neo Marvel’s characteristics. And we plan to make all such published games into online versions, with Tiger Fund investing everything from investment funds to personnel.”
“Hmm, that’s something I’ll need to think about.”
It wasn’t a bad proposal at all.
That’s why Vice President Daniel fell into contemplation, and to ease his concerns, I proposed a more specific amount.
“Tiger Fund plans to invest over 500 million dollars in Neo Marvel sequentially. Much of the investment will be used for creating online versions of publishing games.”
“With Tiger Fund investing this much, there’s no reason to hesitate further. Good! Let’s go together. This time, let’s draw a proper big picture.”
“And I’d like to discuss the contract period as well. A 5-year contract alone makes it difficult to maintain a continuous partnership. I’d like to extend the period to 10 years – would that be possible?”
The period extension could also be a sensitive matter.
However, since it wasn’t a part that involved actual money, quick agreement was possible.
“If we add a few contract termination conditions, the period extension is definitely possible.”
“Of course we’ll accept that. And Tiger Fund plans to expand investments throughout Asia, including not just Korea but China and Japan. We’ll also help as a partner for WA’s Asian expansion.”
It was something I said with the Asia Branch in mind.
The General Manager and Branch Manager Song were already discussing with various IT companies in China and securing equity shares.
Among them were companies related to game publishing like Tencent.
“I won’t refuse Tiger Fund’s help. There aren’t many trustworthy partner companies in Asia, so it’s always a concern.”
“I hope we can be good partners for not just 10 years, but 20 years, even over 100 years.”
The negotiation concluded with a handshake.
A 10-year contract extension, securing 50% equity shares, and even rights to publish other games.
It was a negotiation where we gained a lot from just one online version success.
Annual Salary 1 Trillion New Employee Chapter 97
E-book Publication Date | 2025.11.27
Author | Seo Oh
Publishers | Heo Heung-beom, Park Geon-won
Publishing House | Poten
Address | [04783] 10th Floor, 8 Yeonmujang 11-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Phone | 02-6320-8500
Fax | 02-6320-8585
ISBN | 9791175305892
List Price | 100 won
ⓒ Seo Oh 2025
This e-book is a copyrighted work protected by copyright law.
This e-book is published under the author’s contract, and unauthorized reproduction, copying, distribution, and sharing are prohibited without written consent from both parties.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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