Investor That Can See The Future

Chapter 146

The business and entertainment industry also participated in the donation for the savings bank victims.

Including national donations, a total of 54.3 billion was collected. It’s a huge amount for what we raised in a short period of time, but even then, it’s less than 1/20 of the money we threw away.

I don’t know how much it will help, but I hope it will provide some comfort to the victims.

“Chairman Chan-Young Han left the country today.”

I nodded my head at Sangyeop’s words.

“I heard from Chairman Im Jin-yong.”

He said he plans to visit Japanese and German automakers sequentially.

“I am planning to form partnerships with automakers and disclose the patents owned by Eunsung Motors.”

No matter how advanced the quality of Eunsung’s car is, it’s still not comparable to German and Japanese cars. However, compared to other companies, hydrogen cars are not behind.

It is the only mass-production system in the world, and it also has several patents. In particular, the fuel cell stack technology, which can be said to be the core of hydrogen vehicles, is at a unique level.

“Are you going to focus on increasing the market size rather than monopolizing the market?”

“It’s kind of like Nicolas did.”

Of course, the reason for doing this is because there is an increased possibility that the government’s support for hydrogen cars will not go as planned.

In order to attract automakers who are weighing electric vehicles and hydrogen cars to the hydrogen car camp, it will be necessary to present a carrot.

Like Eunsung Motors, and other automakers, everyone seems to be busy developing future cars.

“Maybe the future is closer than you think.”

Who will get there first?

* * *

While politicians are working hard to get behind the savings bank crisis, the season has already begun to feel full of spring. Cherry blossoms were already in full bloom in Busan and Jinhae, and the cherry blossom front was heading north toward Seoul.

I was going to work after lunch because the weather was getting better, but I was sleepy.

I haven’t been particularly busy lately, so my company extended the lunch break to two hours and recommended taking a nap. After lunch, the employees slept in the sleeping room or went out and drank coffee.

Several training programs were conducted in-house.

Even during business hours, if I had no work, I could exercise without noticing it, and I could take a lecture on a foreign language or business.

Employee satisfaction was very high.

Our company is such a good place to work.

I lay on the sofa and thought about getting some sleep, but Ellie came into the CEO’s office.

“Hey, Jinhoo. What are you doing?”

I pretended to work hard for nothing.

“came?”

“I bought some coffee and something to eat.”

“Can I come here without working?”

“There is not much work in the legal team today. And officially, I’m out of the office for work. OTK Company is an important customer of Golden Gate.”

Is it okay to mess around during work hours? Golden Gate is a very good company.

Few people know that we are dating. In the eyes of others, it will appear that they meet for work.

I sat on the sofa. Then Ellie sat right next to me, not opposite her. Now it’s time to sit side by side.

“When I arrived, I saw that there were a lot of flowers in front of the company.”

“It is now spring.”

“Jessica should not stay at work, but get some air.”

Ellie clapped her hands.

“How about going to cherry blossom viewing together?”

I nodded.

“Good idea.”

There is one thing that reminds me of Hyunjoo noona. I’ve been debating whether to talk about it or not, but maybe it’s better to ask?

I carefully flew my luck.

“Henry seems to have someone he likes these days… … .”

Ellie smiled brightly.

“Now you know? You’re completely obsessed with Jessica.”

I was surprised by that.

“Oh! Did you know?”

“of course. You show that you like it that much, isn’t it strange that you don’t notice it anymore?”

“What… … It is.”

I had noticed too. I misunderstood that

“Do you know Hyunjoo noona?”

“Jessica doesn’t know. I have no interest in anything other than work.”

“Well, that’s right.”

Henry’s road ahead will be tough.

Ellie looked at me and smiled.

“It’s nice to be together like this.”

“Me too.”

She’s always pretty, but she looks prettier today. Drinking coffee is strangely alluring. The lips also seem to be very shiny.

I shook my head inwardly.

You can’t do this at work!

… … Come to think of it, this is my company. So would it be okay?

I was about to grab Ellie’s hand, but suddenly her intercom rang.

At this moment?

I got the intercom first. It was a senior Sangyeop.

“What happen?”

[I’m meeting the founders for startup investment in the meeting room right now, and I thought it would be nice to meet you in person.]

We have had great success with startup investments. Therefore, even now, K Company is continuously discovering and investing in new startups.

Most of the time, the K-company representative Sangyeop senior makes the decision, but seeing that he asks to meet in person, is it a pretty good company?

“I’ll come right down.”

Ellie asked.

“What happen?”

As I explained, Ellie nodded her head.

“I remember the time when we met and invested in a hotel meeting room in the past.”

Come to think of it, that was the first time I met Ellie.

“Can I go with you?”

“of course.”

* * *

In the meeting room, three young men in their early 20s were sitting together with Sangyeop senior. When I went inside, they jumped out of their seats.

Probably everyone knows my face. You’ve seen it on TV once. Then Ellie followed her, and her eyes widened.

I said hello first.

“nice to meet you. This is Jinhoo Kang.”

The young people introduced themselves.

During that time, I met several startup founders, many of whom were in their 20s, but none of them were younger than me.

However, only Yang Du-seok, who can be called the representative, is the same age as me, and Kim Hyeon-gyu and Jo Baek-hyun are younger than me.

Senior Sangyeop pointed to Yang Doo-seok and said.

“All three are students at Korea University. This friend is from the math department. I have the same class number as you.”

“To the senior, he is a junior in the department.

“I’ve brought them to the club room a few times before, so you’ve probably seen them.”

“Ah! Do you remember?”

Hyungyu Kim majored in Computer Engineering and Baekhyun Cho majored in Visual Design. They got to know each other in the school start-up club, and now they are gathering in Yang Doo-suk’s own room, and they are living in a camp, not a camp.

Jo Baek-hyun said with emotion.

“I hear a lot of stories from seniors at school. It is an honor to meet you like this.”

After the greeting, Yang Doo-suk started talking in earnest.

“I am developing and testing an app called Pool Riding.”

“What kind of app is it?”

“It is an on-demand ride-sharing service. You can think of it as similar to Iver.”

Iver is the world’s most famous and largest ride-sharing service provider. Although it is a privately held company, it is currently valued at $80 billion.

In the form of connecting the driver who has registered the vehicle and the passenger who is close to the vehicle, consumers can use it as conveniently as a call taxi, and individuals can actually run a taxi business as long as they have a vehicle.

However… … .

“It would be illegal to transport passengers for a fee in a private vehicle in Korea.”

It’s okay to have other people in your car. But if you burn it for money, it becomes illegal.

Not only paid transportation, but even mediation is prohibited. For this reason, Iver was also expelled from the Korean market due to illegal controversies.

For reference, most countries, including the US and Europe, are doing well.

Yang Doo-seok nodded as if he knew.

“There is only one exception. It’s a carpool that we ride together to and from work.”

To prevent traffic congestion and reduce fuel consumption during commuting hours, the government made an exception to paid transportation.

“However, this ‘commuting to work’ is also up to interpretation.”

At the time the law was enacted, the commuting hours of companies were somewhat constant. However, now, depending on the introduction of the flexible working system and the characteristics of the industry, there are cases in which people go to work in the evening or leave for lunch.

If the scope of ‘commuting to work’ is broadly defined, it is possible to provide a ride-sharing service under the name of carpool.

After hearing the explanation, I nodded.

“That’s a good idea. Who came up with it?”

Kim Hyun-gyu and Jo Baek-hyun looked at Yang Doo-seok. But in reality, he looked embarrassed.

“Actually, I wasn’t the first to come up with the service.”

“of course?”

“Eunsung Motors developed it first and even implemented a beta service.”

The concept of the sharing economy emerged in earnest after the financial crisis. It can be said that the value of a product arises from its use, not from its possession. Just like the car is there to run on the road, not to park it in the parking lot. However, the actual driving time of the car is less than an hour out of 24 hours.

The sharing economy is the concept of consuming a product by several people.

There are several advantages of reducing resource wastage and rational consumption, but it is not very pleasant from the point of view of the manufacturer.

In the past, several cars were sold to several people, but now the sharing economy system has opened a world where one car is used by several people.

In fact, car-sharing services are developing, and car sales are gradually slowing down. The immediate decrease in sales is also a problem, but the bigger problem is that it is highly likely to lead to a trend rather than temporary.

For this reason, automakers are looking for various ways to find a breakthrough. One of them is to directly enter the sharing service using their own vehicle. For this reason, Eunsung Motors is also said to have actively moved by investing in rental cars and car-sharing companies.

“Then why didn’t they release it?”

“The taxi industry protested.”

The development of new industries inevitably causes collisions with existing industries.

Cars pushed out wagons, digital cameras pushed film cameras, and smartphones pushed out feature phones.

The sharing economy has recently emerged.

Airbnc, which shares vacant homes, collides with existing accommodation businesses such as hotels, and Iver, which provides ride-sharing services, collides with the taxi industry.

Even when Iver entered Korea, the taxi industry strongly opposed it.

The vote-conscious politicians accepted the opinions of the taxi industry and actively cracked down on them, and Iver withdrew from the Korean market. It was, in fact, an exit.

Eunsung’s domestic market share is over 70 percent. The taxi share is even higher, close to 80 percent.(Read more @ wuxiax.com)

The taxi industry did not want new competitors to enter the already saturated market.

Therefore, he threatened to boycott if the carpool service continued, and under the pressure, Eunsung Motor stopped the service just before launch. Right now, the loss from the taxi industry’s backlash will be greater than the profit that can be gained through the service.

But ride-sharing is a global trend.

In the United States, not only Iver but also a company called Raft was established, and in China, Dada Chuxing, and in Southeast Asia, Crab dominated the market.

In foreign countries, this also causes backlash and confusion in the taxi industry.

Isn’t there a law in another country that bans paid transportation of passengers? The reason that the service is not completely blocked despite various controversies is because the benefits to consumers are great.

However, in Korea, it was illegal and completely banned. However, this does not mean that the taxi industry has dramatically improved its services in line with the changing times. We are just continuing our business as we have been doing.

The streets are full of taxis, but every weekend evening there is a war in Gangnam to catch them. The refusal to take only long-distance passengers is still there.

Consumers will want to allow iver to expand their options, but the government is still looking at the taxi industry.

Large corporations were not easily moved because of their relevance to existing industries. On the other hand, we are more liberal about that. This is because there are not many links with existing industries in the first place.

I’ve been thinking

It is illegal to transport passengers in your own car for money, but it is legal to rent a car. So, what will happen when driverless cars become a reality with the development of autonomous driving technology?

Autonomous driving will change the landscape of not only automakers, but also all industries related to automobiles, such as taxis, rental cars, and transportation network services.

Of course, some people won’t like this change, but you can’t stop the flow.

I saw Sangyeop senior.

“I would like to invest.”

Sangyeop senior laughed as if he knew it would be the case.

“You said you’d be fine.”

My words brightened the faces of the young founders.

“Thank you. I will do my best.”

I told Sangyeop senior.

“Your senior will discuss the details and then decide.”

“Okay.”

“I will get up first.”

I left the meeting room with Ellie and got on the elevator.

Seeing my expression, Ellie asked.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think it’s great.”

When I was in school, all I had to do was get a job, but the students in the same school are starting their own businesses and dreaming of success.

Looking at this, I think times have definitely changed.

You said you were doing it in your bedroom?

In the United States, it is common to start a business in a garage. Nffles and Guble, which have grown into global companies, started out in small garages.

However, in Korea, the residential culture is mainly apartments, so there are no garages. So, are you working together in a small dorm room?

As the elevator reached the top floor, a good idea suddenly came to mind.