Money Keeps Piling Up No Matter How Much I Spend

Chapter 87

Translator: Dreamscribe“Do you know how many monthly users our FaceWeb has?”

The executives gathered in the conference room did not answer.

Because they knew the question wasn’t asked to get an answer.

“2.3 billion. Even excluding duplicate counts, we have 2.3 billion members currently using our FaceWeb and Instarook.”

It was truly an astounding number.

Indeed, it was befitting the largest SNS used by people around the world.

“But do you know how many members PicPic has, which hasn’t even been out for a full year since its launch?”

Again, there was no response.

It was because they didn’t know.

“About 300 million.”

2.3 billion and 300 million.

Naturally, FaceWeb held the overwhelmingly superior number.

“But this is by no means a number we can feel secure about. It means that PicPic, which hasn’t even been around for a year, has rapidly amassed 300 million users. On the other hand, our FaceWeb and Instarook are gradually seeing a decline in new members. All the users who should have come to us have been sucked away by PicPic.”

Just because FaceWeb currently dominates the SNS market doesn’t mean it always will.

That was exactly what Marcus Burg, the founder and CEO of FaceWeb, was warning about.

“An app that has only been around for one year has surpassed 300 million users and is now growing even faster. This is merely the beginning. Extraordinary measures are needed.”

“But it’s an issue that must be approached cautiously. The reason we couldn’t contain PicPic in its early stages wasn’t just because we underestimated how much it would grow, but also because there was a company shaking the global economy from behind.”

In fact, there were those inside FaceWeb who recognized PicPic’s potential.

Because the so-called AI algorithm short-form strategy they brought had a tremendous impact.

So there were opinions that they should be kept in check, but the problem was that the company that acquired PicPic was Kwangwoon.

“It’s already well known that Kwangwoon and Kangseong move almost as one. Moreover, they deliberately triggered the semiconductor crisis to destroy various markets and reap benefits for themselves.”

There’s probably no businessperson unaware of Kwangwoon and Kangseong.

Kangseong, being the only Korean electronics company competing with Apple, is naturally well-known.

But recently, the name Kwangwoon was being mentioned more frequently.

It was inevitable.

Kwangwoon, which had taken control of shipping, isolated TSMC and disrupted the semiconductor market, and as a result, companies where servers were critically important, like FaceWeb, were severely impacted.

“At first, we thought they were simply trying to dominate the semiconductor market... but didn’t PicPic rapidly absorb user numbers after our FaceWeb and other SNS apps went down due to server issues? It was intentional.”

“You’re saying that their intention was to bring down our FaceWeb?”

“Yes. If the White House hadn’t stepped in to mediate, they would’ve never provided us with the necessary server parts. And even then, they gave them to us very late.”

Thanks to that, PicPic was able to grow very smoothly.

With SNS platforms down, people searched for new apps, and they were drawn into PicPic, which happened to be conducting global marketing at the time.

And since they were quite satisfied with the content there, they ended up settling in.

FaceWeb at least managed to overcome the server issues by mobilizing all available resources, thus surviving the crisis, but other SNS platforms were not so fortunate.

While the disappearance of competing SNS apps was beneficial, the emergence of a new predator that devoured them all was by no means a good thing.

On top of that, that predator had been targeting FaceWeb from the beginning.

Until now, countless SNS apps had tried to topple FaceWeb’s dominance.

Every time, Marcus Burg hadn’t even spared them a glance.

No matter what they did, he believed there was no way they could dethrone FaceWeb, which had already taken over the world.

But as the saying goes, there is no eternal victor, and no everlasting champion.

Once, Nokia ruled the global mobile phone market, but now it has been overtaken by Kangseong and Apple.

Nothing lasts forever.

There will always be a new competitor to take its place.

So to avoid falling behind and being devoured, they must be vigilant from now when the gap is wide. Otherwise, PicPic will surely dominate the global SNS market as Kwangwoon wants.

“But they’re not an easy opponent. Who could’ve possibly predicted that the colossal TSMC would collapse like that? What’s more important is that the current stance of the White House is far too favorable toward Kangseong and Kwangwoon.”

It’s a newly established administration at the White House.

This is when its power is at its strongest.

To make matters worse, the president sitting in the White House now has a distinctly insane streak.

And such a White House is blatantly turning a blind eye to Kwangwoon.

“This Volmageddon incident, rumor has it that Kwangwoon was involved. Is that true?”

“Yes. According to our findings, Kwangwoon, led by Gold Reagan, definitely made a huge play and pulled out. The SEC covered it up the moment the White House’s name was mentioned.”

“And that’s not all. There’s talk that Kwangwoon is also behind the recent Tesla delisting remark incident.”

Marcus was well aware of the Tesla delisting case.

Wasn’t it the hot topic that set social media on fire?

“But how is that connected to Kwangwoon?”

“They say that two weeks before Milon Tusk made that outrageous claim, he had a secret meeting with the CEO of Kwangwoon Securities, Jung Jin-ho. After that, Jung Jin-ho began purchasing shares in large quantities. Reportedly, he bought shares worth several billion dollars.”

“Wait. Are you saying that Milon Tusk, that crazy guy, acted under Jung Jin-ho’s orders?”

Milon Tusk is a highly noted figure in the SNS industry.

What is the essence of SNS?

It’s agitation.

And Milon Tusk was the king of agitation.

But perhaps because he became too intoxicated with his own ability to stir things up, he ended up crossing the line.

He pulled a scam by announcing he would buy all shares and take the company private.

“It was clearly an act of stock price manipulation, but Jung Jin-ho and Milon Tusk only conducted a Close AI share transaction that day. No other connection has been found between them. In other words, there’s no trace of anything else being exchanged.”

“No, but anyone can see how suspicious this is. And they just let it slide?”

“The SEC must’ve been at a loss too. Normally, stock manipulation involves some sort of exchange, but there was none of that here. And above all, if they went after Kwangwoon recklessly and the name of the White House, which is currently wielding power, suddenly came up, it would’ve been problematic.”

“Most crucially, the directors occupying seats at the SEC were newly appointed in this reshuffle. So they’re bound to be extra cautious around the government.”

It was an outrageous situation.

In American history, had there ever been a time when a foreigner with black hair was this deeply entangled in U.S. finance and politics?

What was frightening was that no one could tell how far the influence of this Jung Jin-ho extended.

“But we can’t just sit back and be pushed aside like this. Find a way. Pressure the politicians connected to us and stop PicPic’s growth. Right now, we have one advantage: we’re an American company.”

President Trump has always raised his voice about the need to grow domestic companies.

Of course, FaceWeb’s relationship with President Trump wasn’t exactly good, but as he constantly preached, shouldn’t American companies thrive in order to make America great again?

***

“They’ve imposed a 20 million dollar fine on Milon Tusk, and the same amount on Tesla. Furthermore, Milon Tusk has stepped down from the chairman position.”

Due to the recent stock manipulation case involving Milon Tusk, our Kwangwoon Securities couldn’t avoid being investigated.

However, since the SEC couldn’t find any connection between me and Milon Tusk, the case was temporarily settled, although a further investigation was still ongoing.

But I had no idea that Tusk would pull such a crazy stunt.

I merely made the investment based on instinct.

But the SEC clearly believes there’s something between us.

And frankly, if I were in their shoes, I would have suspected the same.

The fortunate thing is that the SEC is not pursuing the investigation too aggressively.

Seeing how quickly they imposed a fine on Milon Tusk, it seemed safe to say that the investigation on our side had practically been dropped.

“The problem is PicPic. We expected it, but FaceWeb’s counterattack is quite intense. It looks like they’re trying to completely bury our PicPic by leveraging their overwhelming number of users.”

PicPic's growth rate was extremely steep.

Because of that, FaceWeb, which had held the top spot in SNS market share, began openly spreading posts one day, claiming that our PicPic came from a foreign country and was freely plundering the precious data of American citizens.

“Of course it’s a ridiculous conspiracy, but the problem is people are actually believing it.”

“Is it affecting user numbers?”

“So far, there’s nothing noticeably negative. Growth remains strong. However, if FaceWeb keeps spreading those kinds of claims, it’s bound to have an effect eventually. On top of that, through Instarook, which is run by FaceWeb, they’re aggressively hiring influencers active on our PicPic, trying to shrink our scale.”

FaceWeb had put up a prize of 2 billion won.

They announced an event saying that if influencers active on PicPic moved to Instarook and participated there, they’d choose the best one and give them a lump sum prize of 1 billion won.

“Because of that, some influencers have stopped their activity and moved to FaceWeb. If they continue with this kind of aggressive marketing, the damage will likely grow.”

Was this their way of showing the difference in weight class?

“Then how about we run an event as well, CEO-nim?”

It was a good suggestion.

But we couldn’t offer the same prize amount as FaceWeb.

If we wanted to win, we had to offer a bigger reward.

“......”

I wrote down various prize amounts.

Twice, four times, seven times.

Still, nothing felt quite right.

‘Ten times?’

Right then, I felt a spark that shook the pen in my hand.

“Then let’s raise the prize money tenfold.”

“20 billion won in prize money?”

“They want to play chicken, but we can’t back down out of fear. Besides, we made quite a bit of money thanks to Tesla.”

We invested 4 trillion won and came out with a profit of 2 trillion won.

Twenty billion won was not a big sum.

“There was a request from PicPic asking for a budget to support aggressive marketing. How much should we approve?”

This was something that had to be covered not by our securities firm, but at the group level.

“How much did PicPic request?”

“Around 100 billion won.”

Once again, I wrote down the amount in my notebook.

And once again, the number kept rising.

Then it stopped at the exact same figure as before.

“......Let’s go tenfold with this too.”

At that, the staff’s eyes all widened at once.

“Y-You mean we’re putting in 1 trillion won, all for marketing?”

“Yes. PicPic is experiencing explosive growth. The question is whether it will keep rising or get swallowed up by FaceWeb. It’s standing at that crossroads now, and we can’t let it get devoured.”

PicPic had amassed 300 million users in a flash.

But the more explosive the growth, the more vulnerable spots there were.

However, if it could overcome this crisis, PicPic would become the next dominant SNS.

Looking at its current growth, that was no dream.

A Korean-owned SNS would become a massive giant surpassing FaceWeb.

***

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

Even after receiving tens of millions of dollars in fines, Milon Tusk didn’t regret his actions.

He did think, “Maybe I went too far”, but

After hearing that the short-selling pests who had tormented him had been completely wiped out, even that slight regret vanished.

But what really made him angry was something else.

Kwangwoon Securities.

No, it was Jung Jin-ho.

“He suddenly bought up shares in bulk and went long, and before I got taken down, he shorted massively again?”

Who does Tusk hate the most?

The bastards who short his company in massive quantities.

And Jung Jin-ho had done just that.

He could understand making money on the long position, but

After making all that money, he got greedy and went short, making another huge profit.

As a result, only Tusk ended up looking like a total scumbag, and it made him grind his teeth hard enough to jolt awake in the middle of the night.

How was he supposed to pay this back?

“I heard he’s been clashing with FaceWeb lately...”

Maybe it would be better to cooperate with them instead.

No, wait.

There was one more way.

“Make a deal with the SEC.”

The last time he was investigated, he testified that he had only made a stock transaction with Jung Jin-ho.

That there was no plan behind it.

Because if he claimed there was anything between the two of them, it would become an outright case of coordinated stock manipulation, which wouldn’t just end with a fine but would get him locked up in handcuffs.

That’s why he desperately denied everything.

And it was true, they hadn’t plotted anything.

But Tusk’s punishment was already over.

Hadn’t he been hit with a massive fine?

He had even stepped down from his chairman position.

So what if he now made a deal with the SEC, lowered the fine a bit, and accused Jung Jin-ho of conspiring with him to manipulate the stock?

“......”

Of course, there was truly nothing between them.

But if he testified that way, the SEC would then have a legitimate reason to go after Kwangwoon persistently.

He wanted to take revenge on Jung Jin-ho, who had dared to toy with his company, even if it meant doing that.

So he arranged a private meeting with SEC officials.

“...W-What is this?”

While trying to devise a scenario to hit Jung Jin-ho from behind.

A massive incident broke out that flipped the media and social networks upside down.

“Data leak?”

A whistleblower revealed that the personal information of about 100 million users had been leaked from FaceWeb.

It originated from a personality analysis app distributed in cooperation with FaceWeb by another company, and it didn’t just involve personal information, it also automatically sent data about the user's friends and connections to another company, and that information spread everywhere. A major scandal.

FaceWeb had known about this but tried to bury it quietly.

However, they couldn’t stop an internal whistleblower.

At first, they denied it, saying it wasn’t to that extent, but as more revelations came out, it was eventually confirmed as true.

It wasn’t just a few people, 100 million people’s data had been leaked.

The U.S. government quickly stepped in, and not only was a full-scale investigation into FaceWeb officials launched, but even a public hearing was scheduled for Marcus Burg.

“......”

Watching the incident spiral out of control from a single whistleblower, Milon Tusk swallowed dryly.

“For this to be a coincidence... the timing is...”

This was a case that could have stayed buried.

But the moment FaceWeb began aggressively attacking PicPic, this incident suddenly exploded.

As rumors spread that joining FaceWeb meant all your information would be exposed, a wave of users began canceling their accounts, and they naturally began migrating to PicPic.

Some might say it was a matter of time, and that it would’ve happened anyway.

But Tusk didn’t think so.

Someone had definitely orchestrated this.

And who could that someone be?

“Jung Jin-ho...!”

A chill ran down his spine, so intense it gave him goosebumps.

From the Deutsche Bank incident onward, Kwangwoon had crushed any force that got in its way or annoyed it.

And at the center of it all had always been Jung Jin-ho.

Even the SEC’s lukewarm investigation earlier was likely due to their fear that the White House was backing him.

Tusk, who was quick to pick up on such things, had seen that subtle fear in the investigators’ eyes.

“Th-This isn’t the time for this.”

He immediately canceled the meeting he had scheduled with the SEC officials.

Then let out a deep sigh of relief.

Had he rushed into the SEC without thinking things through, who knows what would’ve happened afterward...

Just imagining it was horrifying.