Episode 195. Proper preparation.
Lim Chan-kyung, managing director of the marketing department of Damoye Communication, asked Jae-woon.
“LTE-A, is there a technology that hasn’t been released yet?”
“yes. This is a technology that has been saved in case a competitor strikes back. By applying this, the transmission speed can be at least doubled compared to now, so competition with WiBro will not be too difficult.”
Lim Chan-kyung groaned inwardly.
‘Um…you’re such a perfect monster…’
“..LTE alone is a very groundbreaking technology, but I never imagined that you were preparing for more technology than that.”
“In this age of endless competition, technology or people are eliminated the moment they stop. As you can see from this situation, even if it’s a great technology like LTE, there are no exceptions. If you want to survive, it is natural to prepare for the front or the front.”
“It’s true, but just because you’ve prepared for the future doesn’t mean that preparation always works, doesn’t it?”
“Of course it is. In fact, there are winners and losers. Those who are well prepared and those who are not. Fortunately, I have quite a talent for preparing something. haha.”
“You seem to have enough. So when do you plan to release that LTE-A?”
“When Doosung Telecom officially launched the WiBro service, I think that would be the right time.”
Hearing those words, Im Chan-kyung thought to herself.
‘Huh…you know all too well the moment when the other person hurts the most…the head that once seemed like a wall that could not be overcome is now pitiful..’
“..okay”
“Before the official release, upgrade the system in advance to use LTE-A technology. We will gather all the dedicated communication equipment and prepare them for you.”
#Everyone entertainment meeting room.
I was speaking alone with President Kim Su-chan.
“The Batman series, produced in collaboration with TC Comics, was a huge hit, and the investment returns on Hollywood films were good, so the current entertainment capital has exceeded 2 trillion won.”
“No, it’s only been 6 years since we started with 3 billion won, but it’s already over 2 trillion won? Mr. Kim. You worked too hard. haha.”
President Kim smiled with a humble face.
“As I said, I am still a little confused. Of course, it was more thanks to the help the president gave me than I did well, but it’s still heartbreaking to see that the entertainment industry has grown so much together.”
“Chairman Kim also suffered a lot. In any case, when the amount of funds is that large, it may be necessary to proceed with a new project, except for the investment in the film that is possible as it is now.”
“That’s right. President, do you have any thoughts?”
“yes. This time, let’s make a drama that targets Dflix’s overseas subscribers.”
“When you say overseas, are you referring to the United States?”
“I’m not necessarily referring to the United States, but I think that would be the best place to start.”
“If the United States is the target, we will have to find actors and directors through Hollywood, and we will need more than 10 times more money than making a domestic drama.”
“So we are just starting. If it’s 2 trillion won, you can make more than 10 dramas with a production cost of 100 million dollars at the same time with the remaining amount even after completing the movie investment for a year, right?”
Although Dflix had quite a lot of Korean dramas.
Considering the overseas market, that was not enough.
This is because the East and the West have different races and different histories, so their sensibility is also very different.
Most of the popular Korean dramas focus on the romance of the characters.
In the United States, dramas that reveal various types of human relationships based on detailed and extensive storylines were popular.
For example, ‘Prison Break’, which was a hit until season 5, was mainly a story that developed intricately by combining a national conspiracy and jailbreak, and the proportion of romance was extremely low.
So, in order to continue to hold onto the American market, we had to make a separate drama that suited the American sensibility.
When asked to pour over 1 trillion won on the drama alone, President Kim made an expression that said he was tired of it.
“Um…the president seems to think that the OTT (real-time streaming service) market will grow significantly in the future.”
“Right. In the US market alone, close to 70% of the population will use OTT services in the future. Just a simple calculation, if those people pay only $10 a month, that’s $1.4 billion in monthly sales. Assuming we ate the global OTT market, monthly sales could be over $10 billion. Compared to that, Article 1 is nothing.”
As if surprised by the $10 billion, President Kim was only blinking.
“From now on, most of the money I make from Dflix and Enter will be reinvested in content production. Without new content, subscribers cannot be retained, and above all, when strong competitors appear, the winner will be determined by who has more original content.”
“okay. We will prepare well and make great dramas that can captivate American viewers.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, but if you have any problems, feel free to tell me. We will fully support you.”
I was listening to the moves of Chinese display companies from President Kim Chan-myung.
“From last week, VOE started producing LCD monitor panels. You’re looking for a vendor right now, so it’ll probably be on the market within this month. And other Chinese display makers like ESOT are likely to start operating their lines one by one early next year.”
“okay? So I guess the time has come.”
President Kim said with a hardened face.
“..the chicken game you mentioned then, you are going to start now.”
“yes. It is difficult to delay it any further. VOE has to drop the price before selling the panel. From now on, lower the price of the monitor panel to a level where you won’t only lose money.”
“If we lower the price of the monitor panel, the demand will increase significantly in the future. Increase the production by increasing the line utilization rate accordingly. If that happens, the production cost can be further reduced, and when the production cost falls, the panel price will be lowered again. If panel prices continue to drop in this way, the damage to Chinese competitors will grow exponentially.”
“..even if the damage is increased like that, it will be around 500 billion won per quarter at most. Can we survive with the support of the Chinese government?”
“Right now, there are only two 5th generation lines. However, if you follow the 7th, 8th, and 10th generations later, then there will be 2-3 trillion in quarterly deficits. Besides, Chinese display makers aren’t the only ones with VOE, right?”
At my words, President Kim patted his palm.
“Ah… I forgot that 8 display companies, including ESOT, RKC, and Juenma, are preparing for production. In addition, there are signs that additional display companies will be established here and there, so the subsidy will be huge in China as a whole.”
“Right. We’ll need more than $20 trillion a quarter in display subsidies alone to respond to our pricing. Even after one year, this is at least 80 trillion won, and no matter how rich the Chinese government is, it would be burdensome to continue to support such an amount in one field called display.”
Being a large country is both an advantage and a weakness.
Because I had to support so many places.
“okay. I understand what you mean.”
“However, the sooner you finish this chicken game, the better, so you have to prepare well. Is the work to increase the production efficiency of the LCD line going well?”
President Kim nodded without hesitation.
“yes. Especially since a lot of good engineers from RG Display these days have moved to this area, the pace of progress has accelerated quite a bit.”
“okay? In a way, it’s a company that is no different than an enemy, but it’s amazing that so many people have come to this side…”
“As the chairman said, it seems that VOE has no intention of using the Korean line, so it seems to have been poorly managed. Engineers who were disappointed with this have applied for support, and thanks to this, we have easily recruited talented LCD experts. The thing that can’t be ignored as RG is that he knows a lot of know-how that we don’t know. It has been a huge help.”
“RG Display is a competent company, so it is natural. The reason RG is in such a situation is that our TM Display’s technology is relatively superior, and it’s not because of a lack of it. Anyway, VOE has already done something good for us. haha.”
“Are there any problems with the OLED line operation?”
The second way to win the chicken game.
It was OLED that was prepared to execute ‘Have the stamina to last longer than competitors.’
When I started the chicken game, I had to think that LCD would not make any profit for a while, so I needed an alternative source of income to supplement it.
The OLED line was going to do that.
“The development of the OLED panel for D-Phone 3 has been completed and mass production has begun since last month. This year, only the loss is barely avoided, but when the D Phone 3 is officially released next year, we expect to see a full-fledged profit from that point.”
“Right now, the main demand for OLED panels is IT, but other demand will increase rapidly in the future. We will start expanding the OLED line early next year, so please prepare in advance.”
“..you already had line expansion in mind. Okay. We will finish the foundation work on the site next to the existing OLED line.”
“yes. Once the game of chicken starts, every day will be difficult. I hope you are doing well.”
President Kim replied to my words with a face full of confidence.
“Leave it to me. President. I’ll show you what an iron wall defense is.”
“I will only trust Mr. Kim. haha.”
Meeting room at VOE headquarters in Beijing, China.
President Wang Shuo frowned upon receiving the report from the sales team leader.
“An operating loss of 3 billion yuan (500 billion won)? What nonsense is that? No matter how much it sells at a lower price than TM Display, can there be such a loss in just 3 months?”
The yield is also low as the line has just been completed.
I expected that it would suffer a loss because the quality of the panels it produced was inferior compared to its competitors.
The amount was very different.
At the most, I was thinking 5-10 billion yuan.
It was quite unexpected that it would go well beyond that three times.
After hesitating for a while, the sales manager answered.
“..Actually, from October, TM has lowered the price of the monitor panel by 30%. Inevitably, we lowered the price below that, and the deficit widened a lot…”
Tung!
It’s like being hit by an unexpected counter in a boxing match.
Wang Shuo felt his head go blank.
