How can you become a star without money?

Chapter 77 Even a great roc needs to ride the wind, let alone ordinary mortals.
There are three things that Koreans cannot escape in their lives: death, taxes, and three stars.

Therefore, Princess Yi Boo-jeong's status as a powerful figure in Goryeo was practically invincible.

Wang Yao was able to contact the person Chi Ming couldn't reach simply by mentioning it to Secretary Jin.

After leaving SM Entertainment, there was still some time before the dinner that Deng Wendi had arranged, so Wang Yao asked Secretary Kim to take him to visit Kim Beom-joo, the most important person on this trip to Korea.

He was the only one in the future to break the monopoly of the old Korean conglomerates, and at one point surpassed the three-star leader to become the richest man, creating what is known as the Korean version of the 'Penguin Empire'.

Even WeChat once borrowed his Kakao monetization model, making him a legendary figure whose life experience is quite similar to that of Zhang, the founder of ByteDance.

However, Kim Beom-joo is currently an unlucky guy. He was one of the earliest entrepreneurs in Korea to start an internet business. His first pot of gold came from resigning from his job at Sanxing and founding the first online card and board game platform at the time. He capitalized on the Koreans' love of playing cards and billiards and accumulated more than 1000 million users in just a few years.

With 10 million users in 2001, when the population of Korea was only over 40 million, it was undoubtedly one of the most popular platforms at the time. However, it was also affected by the dot-com bubble and encountered the same predicament in monetization as Tencent at the time.

However, Kim Beom-joo found Lee Hae-jin, a colleague who was also starting a business at the time. Lee Hae-jin had founded a search engine called NAVER, which later developed into the world's fifth largest search company, with a status equivalent to Baidu.

After a heart-to-heart talk over drinks, the two decided to merge their companies, naming it NHN Corporation. Over six years, they transformed it into the largest internet company in Korea at the time, even managing to repel Google's encroachment on Korea.

Kim Beom-joo is a very ambitious person. Perhaps he felt that he could not realize his ambitions in Korea, a land ravaged by conglomerates, so he began to march into the United States and established a branch in Silicon Valley.

In 07, he resolutely (questionable) sold all his shares in NHN, cashed out $10 billion, immigrated to the United States, and started a new business. However, he unfortunately encountered the financial crisis, and almost all of his money went down the drain.

However, this kind of unyielding person did not give in. Instead, he discovered a new market: the iPhone. The popularity of Apple smartphones made him realize that this was a product that could revolutionize the world.

So he sold all his assets again and returned to Korea to start a new business, which was the mobile chat software Kakao Talk. It should be considered one of the earliest companies in the world to make mobile chat software at that time.

MiTalk and WeChat both claim that they were inspired by Kik, but in reality they are closer to Kakao Talk. Especially later, Tencent directly invested in Kakao and borrowed its profit model from its official accounts and mini-programs.

As for Fetion, strictly speaking, it is a product of the 2G era. It is more like a promotional tactic to reduce SMS costs and stimulate user spending. Moreover, it relies on the operator's SMS gateway's closed monopoly on communication, which is fundamentally different from Internet products such as Kakao, WhatsApp, WeChat, and MiTalk.

Wang Yao has always admired small-town exam takers and ambitious outlaw heroes, so he was very interested in Jin Fanzhu. He hadn't had the chance to meet him in his previous life, so he naturally wouldn't miss this opportunity.

If he visited as an ordinary investor, Kim Bum-joo might not have paid much attention, because entrepreneurs of his caliber have connections in both Korea and Silicon Valley. Investment requires more than just money; it requires resources and solutions.

But now that Wang Yao is using Li Fuzhen's influence, coupled with his existing plan, the situation might be much better than expected.

Jin Fanzhu's company was more rudimentary than he had imagined. Perhaps because he was an engineering student, he didn't have high requirements for the office environment. A large group of people were crammed into a 100-square-meter office, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of 'overtime work'.

He was a workaholic when he was with Three Stars, and was probably one of the earliest people to believe that 007 could change one's fate.

"Mr. Wang, my humble abode is simple." Kim Bum-joo has the typical Korean male appearance, with single eyelids and squinty eyes, and a rather kind smile.

"I apologize for disturbing you, President Kim." Wang Yao shook hands and apologized.

"No, no, what is the relationship between Mr. Wang and President Li?" Jin Fanzhu asked somewhat bluntly.

“My sister is her friend. Let me introduce myself first. I founded a mobile game software company in China. I asked Sister Fuzhen to help me find out if there were any successful companies in Korea that I could visit and learn from, and she recommended you,” Wang Yao said with a smile.

"Oh, oh, oh, I'm flattered. My achievements in the gaming industry have long been relegated to the dustbin of history. Young people these days are much more capable. I'm not very familiar with President Li, but I used to work with her husband," Jin Fanzhu explained with a smile, pouring himself a cup of tea and asking, "Mr. Wang, you work on mobile games? Smartphones?"

Seeing that Wang Yao was young, he assumed it was a family business.

“Yes, we’re currently focusing on the iOS and Android markets.” Wang Yao nodded.

"Oh? I didn't expect Mr. Wang to also be optimistic about the smartphone market?" Jin Fanzhu was somewhat surprised.

By 2010, smartphones had gained some influence globally, but they were far from being mainstream. He hadn't seen many companies in Korea doing related business; there were some with iOS, but almost none with Android.

Because Android hardware devices have seen explosive growth since the beginning of this year, there are still various messy systems vying for dominance in the market. The milestone in Android software development was driven by the profitable success of Angry Birds.

"Yes, because I'm quite interested in electronic devices. After getting into smartphones, I felt that with the development of semiconductor hardware, mobile devices will become an inseparable part of everyone's body, and adding various functions to that part will create a huge market," Wang Yao said seriously.

"An inseparable organ." Jin Fanzhu's small eyes lit up. He pondered the sentence for a moment, and finally exclaimed, "That's so well said! Mr. Wang is the first person to share my view. I've been back for almost a year now."

My friends are all saying that the mobile market has limited prospects, and that developing mobile software requires a lot of effort, which is far less worthwhile than developing PC software. What's that Chinese saying again? Oh, great minds think alike!

“Times are progressing, and each generation has its own mission.” Wang Yao smiled. “Judging from your tone, President Kim is also interested in mobile software development?”

“That’s right, this is the software I’ve developed that’s about to be released. Mr. Wang, take a look.” Jin Fanzhu excitedly took out two iPhone 3G phones and handed them to him, tapping on a black 'TALK' icon.

The interface uses a two-column structure, with the contact list on the left and the chat window on the right, similar to the SMS interface, presumably to increase user immersion.

The bottom has three functional sections: Friends, Groups, and Settings.

This was almost the standard introduction template for early social networking software of this type.

Jin Fanzhu excitedly introduced the functions to Wang Yao, demonstrating how to send messages, and emphasizing the voice call function.

This is also the core function that gives him confidence in the software: making voice calls in Korea is about ten times cheaper than traditional calls. This is definitely attractive to users, especially young users, and can greatly promote the social frequency of young people.

"Wow, that's amazing!" Wang Yao exclaimed in amazement, holding his slow-responding phone.

"Interesting, isn't it?" Jin Fanzhu was very satisfied with Wang Yao's reaction.

Yes, we want to absolutely amaze young people.

His software is almost finished with internal testing and is expected to be released next month, so he is not worried about leaks. After all, even if someone wanted to copy this software, it would take at least five or six months, by which time he would have already succeeded.

"President Kim's software will definitely revolutionize the Korean, no, even the global communications software market," Wang Yao exclaimed.

"Not at all. I'm just one of the explorers. I've seen many companies in Silicon Valley making this kind of software. But I think my advantage is the voice call function, which I consider to be my original creation," Jin Fanzhu said with some pride.

“With this feature, young people won’t have to worry about phone bills when making calls.” Wang Yao nodded. “However, voice calls are connected in real time, which consumes a lot of signal and data. If it could be converted to sending voice messages, just like sending text messages, it would be even more convenient.”

Wang Yao's seemingly casual remark nearly caused Jin Fanzhu to drop his teacup.

The first software that can send voice messages should be Talkbox, which will be released next year.

"Send a voice message?" Jin Fanzhu asked in surprise.

“Yes, it’s like sending a recording so you can listen to it anytime. Sometimes words can’t express emotions and can easily lead to misunderstandings. Voice calls also have limitations. If there were a voice recording function, it would avoid a lot of misunderstandings. Is it technically difficult to implement?” Wang Yao nodded and asked with a puzzled look.

In the process of starting a business, creativity is actually the least valuable thing, because most ideas and inspirations have something to draw inspiration from. Only when an idea is put into practice does it have value.

But sometimes, when a creative idea meets the right opportunity, its value becomes immeasurable.

Wang Yao threw out the bait, now it was up to Jin Fanzhu to see if he could connect. "Text replaced with voice, damn it!" Jin Fanzhu suddenly snapped.

How could he not have thought of that!

This method can not only greatly reduce traffic costs, but also stimulate more interaction, which is of great help to user retention in software.

He came from a gaming website background, and the points-based ranking system was his secret to attracting and retaining a large number of users. Therefore, he was more aware of the importance of this idea.

This is what has the potential to revolutionize communication and social interaction.

The difference between real-time voice communication and non-real-time voice communication, just one word, is the difference between two completely different industries!

This almost redefines how humans express themselves in mobile scenarios!

"Mr. Wang, you are simply a genius!" Jin Fanzhu's gaze toward Wang Yao held a hint of greed.

He originally thought Wang Yao was a rich second-generation heir who was acquainted with Li Fuzhen through family connections and had come to visit and learn.

But now it seems that this pretty boy who looks just like an idol is a creative genius!
"Huh?" Wang Yao feigned surprise. "Did I say something wrong?"

“No, you’re absolutely right. It might even change the social media industry.” Kim Bum-joo swallowed hard, unable to express himself clearly.

"I was just saying, I hope President Kim doesn't take offense. This software is fantastic, but the icon is a bit ordinary and not very memorable," Wang Yao added.

"Memory point?" Jin Fanzhu was taken aback.

"Yes, I majored in media studies. There's a concept called visual symbols, which means that people associate information with symbols. For example, the little red dot when you send a message represents an unread message, right? That's a kind of visual symbol."

"We can directly borrow those bubble images from text messages, change the color, and that way, without educating users, viewers will immediately understand what it's about just by seeing the image, making later promotion much easier," Wang Yao continued.

Jin Fanzhu is a tech geek and doesn't currently have a marketing or packaging company, so he doesn't pay much attention to these details, but he can understand what Wang Yao is saying, which gives him a new impression of Wang Yao.

After his company went bankrupt in 2008, his assets shrank several times. After selling his assets in the United States, he returned to start a business with less than five million US dollars. In almost a year, the development cost was about 100,000 US dollars. The remaining four million US dollars were used to support software operation and customer acquisition, because the early stage of Internet projects is a model of burning money to buy users.

However, if we were to develop a new 'voice sending' feature, it would likely require significantly more costs, and he does indeed want to find a COO with operational capabilities and a strategic mindset.

Unfortunately, Wang Yao looks too young and probably doesn't have much experience.

However, one could inquire about the family's strength. He was reluctant to cooperate with Korean investors because he sold his shares and left NHN earlier due to the tactics of local Korean conglomerates.

Therefore, he prefers to seek foreign capital for this venture.

“Mr. Wang and I hit it off immediately. May I ask if your family has any other business interests besides the game company?” Jin Fanzhu asked.

"Oh, you have experience in both manufacturing and media. Actually, besides learning about your experience in the gaming industry, I also wanted to ask you about social media platforms."
"Since you were one of Naver's partners before, do you think there's still a chance for platforms like Myspace?" Wang Yao asked solemnly, continuing to add buffs to himself.

When you're out in the world, you have to choose your own identity. Even though I haven't become Deng Wendi's partner yet, I'll start collecting some interest first.

Even a great roc needs the wind to rise, let alone ordinary mortals.

Don't be afraid to boast; isn't the point of living to fulfill the boasts you've made?

"Myspace? Your family has connections with media groups?" Kim Bum-joo was shocked to hear this.

Having spent so many years in Silicon Valley, he naturally knew about this company. Back then, it was a behemoth that overshadowed Facebook and Twitter, and its acquisition by the media group for $6 million caused quite a stir.

“Yes, my sister is Deng Wendi.” Wang Yao smiled modestly.

"Huh? Hiss~" Jin Fanzhu gasped.

Deng Wendi has a bad reputation among Chinese people, but for Kim Bum-joo, who grew up in a capitalist environment, Deng Wendi is full of positive energy.

The New York Times called it "an Eastern interpretation of the American imperial dream," which the Chinese scoffed at, but the colonists in Korea and Japan studied it word for word.

"I think it's a real shame about the Myspace platform. If its operational approach had been more youthful and flexible, there might not have been a Facebook in the future," Kim Beom-joo said with deep respect.

Even his posture has become much more upright, and he unconsciously uses honorifics when he speaks.

Myspace and Facebook both started as social networks for acquaintances, but the former was too eager to make money and its practices were unethical. It not only added ads but also inexplicably added many strangers to users' following lists, just like Sina.

"What if Myspace entered the mobile era ahead of schedule?" Wang Yao asked.

"This is indeed a transformative attempt, but it depends on the operational strategy. Is Ms. Deng preparing to take over this project? Or will she be collaborating with President Li?"

"To be honest, Twitter and Facebook are already deeply ingrained in Korea, and Myspace is too weak in terms of competitiveness," Kim Beom-joo said with some curiosity.

Korea has its own "Baidu" and "Tencent", but not its own "Weibo". In the Weibo field, which is a mess, Twitter came first, and then Instagram, which controlled all of Korea's entertainment and social information.

Wang Yao's proposed reforms to Myspace are essentially aimed at making it a competitor to Instagram.

Originally, Wang Yao's invested company, Xingyou Technology, was also planning to create Mulan Street, a project that was meant to rival Xiaohongshu and Instagram, in addition to games.

If Deng Wendi is sensible and willing to contribute more money, then Wang Yao can simply use the money from Myspace to create both the international version of Instagram and the domestic version of Xiaohongshu.

“Indeed, but if we have someone like President Kim who is willing to promote the widespread adoption of mobile apps in Korea, we might be able to hitch a ride on that wave,” Wang Yao complimented.

Jin Fanzhu seemed quite pleased with Wang Yao's flattery, waving his hand and laughing, "Mr. Wang, you flatter me. I'm just a middle-aged self-made entrepreneur. However, if we had really started planning for mobile devices earlier, we might not have been without a chance."

After all, we all believe that mobile devices are the future, and PCs, due to their limited hardware usage scenarios, will inevitably be replaced by mobile devices.

The biggest problem with PCs is device limitations. Even with laptops and the increasingly portable iPads of the future, they are still far less convenient than mobile phones.

“I greatly admire President Kim’s talent. I initially thought the Myspace project was quite good, but it can’t compare to Kakao at all. I noticed that President Kim’s office environment is very simple. No offense intended. Are you facing any business problems? Perhaps I can help.” Wang Yao spoke frankly with a warm smile.

He practically told me outright that he wanted to invest.

If Wang Yao were just an ordinary nouveau riche, Jin Fanzhu might have considered it if he was short of money. But now that Wang Yao has shown his strength, he is on par with him, or even looks down on him. So he has to seriously consider it.

Not only is he a creative genius with ideas, but he also has some real marketing expertise, and his family now has considerable influence.

Hmm, isn't this a great partner?

What's worse is that he's also so handsome!
God is so damn unfair!
　感谢幻化成灵、中华再次伟大、脉脉不得语、王牧于野、Tangy、qsdmy、上城归藏、岚峰竹影、降至冰点的心、chuc1979、wll80、毓妖、匪夷我思、明明之空、总大将、双手插兜不知道什么是对手、低调进行曲、风云北起、书友20220129234202104、书友20221109221108084、书友20180709114249884、书友20230731184153790的月票支持~！

　　
　
(End of this chapter)