“eww… … It’s the head.”
Before I even open my eyes, I frown. My head hurts like it’s about to split, maybe because I drank too much yesterday.
Last night, I went to have a meal with the Cy Club development team to socialize.
At first, I thought we would simply eat and break up. However, as the alcohol went around a few times, the story deepened, and later, the alcohol was poured without a countermeasure.
‘It’s fortunate that today is a holiday, but it would have been terrible if I had to go to work like this.’
When I opened my eyes belatedly and looked around, I saw an old linoleum floor.
The place I slept was not an officetel in Yongin, but my home in Incheon.
A shabby old house with a small kitchen in one room.
The wallpaper is yellow, the ceiling is mottled with moisture, and the linoleum is old and sticks to it.
I wanted to move into a new house as soon as possible, but my mother was always against it, so I put it off every day.
“I don’t understand why you say you like a house like this.”
From noble mtl dot com
Just then, I hear the voice of a man next to me.
“Are you really doing it because you don’t know?”
I turned my head to the back where I heard the sound, and Park Tae-shik was squatting there.
“In this house, memories that have been built up for a long time are melted. That’s probably why your mother is hesitant to leave.”
“You sound like a memory. I was fed up with poverty and was fed up with it.”
“Well, it depends on the person.”
Park Tae-sik opens the refrigerator door and brings out barley tea in a glass bottle.
His behavior was so natural that if someone he didn’t know saw it, he would have thought he was the landlord.
“What about your mother?”
“He left around 9:00. He said he couldn’t help it because of a promise, and told me to take care of you.”
I was looking forward to the hangover soup my mother makes, but it leaks steam.
I am rummaging through the cupboards in search of something else to eat, but I keep feeling stares from behind.
“Why do you keep looking at me? Did you put anything on the back of my head?”
“I want to go sometime.”
“Are you going? Where?”
“Of course it is a company. If you can’t find time on weekdays because you’re busy, shouldn’t you have to work hard even on weekends?”
I must have been impatient because he couldn’t pamper me.
“Did I just wake up?”
“Then wash first. Waking up, washing your body, it’s the same thing. And we can have a meeting while eating breakfast and lunch.”
“Hey, hey, wait a minute. Stop pushing.”
Even if I resist, Park Tae-shik recklessly pushes me into the bathroom.
“Hurry up and wash up. In the meantime, I’ll bring the car.”
“No, why are you in such a hurry? If I don’t take care of it right away, is there anything big about it?”
Park Tae-sik, who was about to go out, stops in front of the door and looks back at me.
“You said yesterday. Let’s grow the Cy Club properly. I am sincere.”
* * *
Park Tae-shik and I stopped by a hangover soup store near our house.
Park Tae-sik suggested that we eat toast together for breakfast, lunch, and even a meeting, but I objected to the end and brought him to the Haejangguk house.
Kongnamul gukbap with steam coming up on the table.
Maybe it’s already lunch time, so my stomach is screaming for rice soup.
“As I said yesterday, the number of daily access to Cy Club is pretty decent. The problem is that accessors only listen to songs or look at pictures, and do not do anything else… … .”
The soup is so hot that it feels like the roof of my mouth is peeling.
First, drop a raw egg and add three or four pieces of diced kimchi to lower the temperature.
“I think it’s okay to put a lot of effort into marketing, even if it costs money. For example, inviting a number of famous celebrities and asking them to decorate their mini homepage.”
Now pour a spoonful into a large bowl of rice and blow on it… … . and! Artistic harmony of hot soup, bean sprouts, and rice.
Like a beggar, I transferred the rest of the soup into a bowl.
“hey! Woohyuk Shin! Are you listening to me?”
“I am listening. They say they’re looking for famous kids and making them write.”
“It’s not about writing, it’s about having them decorate their own minihompy. Kids these days don’t know much about minihompy, so they promote it by letting celebrities use it.”
After inhaling all the rice soup that I transferred to the rice bowl, I said ‘Tak!’ put it down loudly
“That doesn’t work.”
Park Tae-sik’s expression changes to look like old paper that has been left in the refrigerator for several months. I didn’t even listen properly and then said no right away, so there was no choice but to react like that.
I decided to add an explanation so that he could understand.
“Do you remember making an SNS in Neibo before?”
“Did you do that at Neibo? I have no idea.”
“It was serviced under the name Today ME. Twitter and Facebook are popular, so I made it with a similar feeling.”
Park Tae-shik tilts his head as if he still doesn’t know.
“At that time, I recruited a large number of top tier idols, such as GD and Soshi, and had them write for Today ME.”
“so… … How did it go?”
“How did it go? Wouldn’t it be obvious if you haven’t even heard the name?”
“No, I know it’s ruined, but what about recruiting celebrities? Didn’t it work at all?”
“The effect was good. At one time, the server couldn’t stand it, so it wasn’t even a fuss.”
It was said later, but it is said that there were more fans who followed the celebrity than the subscribers that Today ME collected and collected throughout the service.
“If the publicity effect is good, it is successful. But why did you say no?”
“It’s like a double-edged sword. lets think. If most of the new members are celebrity fans, what do you think will happen to the existing regular members?”
“I’m leaving because I feel left out.”
“that’s right. Then, when the celebrity contract ends, even the fans lose their talent and SNS becomes empty.”
In the first place, social media is like a diary where you write something you like.
If you ask them to use it because of a contract, even celebrities only use it for promotional purposes and do not leave a sincere message.
“To do celebrity marketing, you have to make the celebrities write because they want to.”
“It is easy to say. To put it bluntly, who would be a celebrity who would come to Psy without users and voluntarily write?”
I agree. The current state of Psy was like an old soup restaurant on the verge of closing with only a sign saying ‘open’.
‘To be honest, with the current Cy Club, there is no chance of success even if we pour marketing money into it.’
Eating soup and reminiscing about old memories.
How successful SNSs after Tweet and Facebook were serviced, and how they achieved success.
* * *
Park Tae-shik, who had been fussing about being in a hurry since morning, kept his mouth shut after eating hangover soup.
It must have been a shock that the celebrity promotion card I had prepared so ambitiously didn’t work.
“How long are you going to stay like that? Ride quickly.”
I drove myself to an officetel complex near Gangnam Station.
“Where are you going now? Isn’t this the direction of the company?”
“I go to a place that will make Cy Club fun.”
“what?”
The boy’s eyes, which had been depressed until just now, went blank.
“I told you. If you want to do celebrity marketing, you have to make the celebrities write because they want to.”
Just in time, the navigation system spits out a notification that you have arrived at your destination.
I pushed the car deep into the officetel parking lot.
“To do that, the first step is to create interest in our service.”
“What are you making here… … .”
“Follow me at once. Because it’s hard to explain.”
The building we arrived in was in the form of small offices attached to each other.
The companies I moved in were mostly start-ups, and I went into the office on the 5th floor with a company called [Winkle].
Although it was a Saturday, there were no empty seats in the office.
This is a typical IT startup landscape.
“excuse me. Do you have a boss?”
Employees who heard my voice stuck out their heads.
Among them, a man who appears to be in his early 40s stands up.
“I am the boss… … What did you come for?”
“I am Daniel Sheen, CEO of WHTS Company.”
“Ah, yes… … I am Kim Jun-pyo of Winkle.”
The ambiguous expression of the president suddenly brightens when he sees the business card. It must be because the phrase “Investment Company” was stamped on my business card.
“I came here because I was interested in seeing your app.”
“aha. You see. Please sit down.”
While the boss makes coffee himself while we sit down, Park Tae-sik mercilessly stabs me in the side.
“Hey, Shin Woo-hyuk. You don’t have to tell me what you’re doing here.”
Instead of answering, I installed the company’s app on Park Tae-sik’s phone.
Winkle.
To put it simply, it is a startup that makes a camera app.
Unlike regular camera apps, it was popular among teenagers because it could decorate the background like a sticker photo or add moving effects to photos.
“Are you trying to add photo effects to the Psy app?”
“I think so.”
“Will adding one of these create unprecedented popularity? I don’t want to have any effect.”
While Park Tae-shik is browsing the app, President Kim Joon-pyo returns.
With a cup of coffee in each hand.
“We only have Americano in our office, would you mind?”
“I like Americano.”
“Ah, I’m glad. ha ha ha.”
Questions follow as I sip my coffee.
“By the way, is WHTS Company an overseas investment company?”
“you’re right. We recently acquired Acorn Coin and Cy Club, have you not heard of it?”
“aha! Somehow the name sounded familiar, so it must have been a famous company.”
“How were we famous?”
Kim Jun-pyo laughs awkwardly. At one time, there was a lot of news that Acorn Coin was a scam, so it wouldn’t be famous in a good way.
“I don’t know what you heard from the outside, but we took over Cy Club seriously to grow it. We already have additional funds secured.”
“I heard that you hit the jackpot with virtual currency. They say it would have made billions of dollars even if it didn’t work… … Is that true?”
“I have to go up one more unit from there to make it roughly the same.”
Surprisingly, Kim Jun-pyo’s waist straightened. I didn’t know it was such a huge success.
“I will be straightforward. We would like to install your camera app on Cyclub.”
“Are you saying you want to form an alliance?”
“I want to proceed with equity investment. What do you think of the boss?”
“If you do, I will be grateful.”
Kim Jun-pyo quickly gets up and grabs my hand. It was a reaction as if he was grabbing at least the rope of salvation.
After that, we talk a little more about investment and technology, and leave the office with the rest of the issues to be continued on Monday.
While leaving the building and going to the parking lot, Park Tae-shik’s expression is not good.
“why? What do you not like?”
“It’s not like that, but as I said before, I was wondering if putting a sticker on a photo would change anything. And when I checked, there are many other similar apps besides here.”
“that’s right. There are many similar apps in the App Store.”
“Then why did you come here?”
“I’ve been looking around, but this place has a lot of stickers that can decorate something in the video.”
I can’t say the sticker quality is good, but there was a possibility that it could be improved enough depending on the investment.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“To push Psy into a video-specific SNS.”
Park Tae-shik said for a long time that he couldn’t come up with an image, ‘Um… … .’ Make a sound and open your mouth.
“It’s fresh, but can it become popular?”
“It will be. Trust me.”
It is still unfamiliar service in 2015, but it is a short video service that will soon jump to Facebook and YouTube following TikTok.
I plan to use this card to the fullest to revive Cy Club.