Chapter 188
Hanshin Group headquarters.
CEO Han Taesung and I took the elevator to the chairman’s office on the top floor.
“Nervous?”
Han Taesung asked.
“A little.”
“Don’t worry. We pulled off the sale, so the Chairwoman should already be somewhat prepared for this.”
Soon, the elevator stopped at the top floor.
Ding.
The doors opened with a short chime.
We stepped out and walked down a long marble hallway.
Paintings and sculptures that looked like they belonged in an art gallery lined the corridor.
Before long, we reached a massive wooden door.
Next to it was the secretarial office, where several staff members were working behind the front desk.
“CEO Han, you’re here.”
The secretaries quickly stood and greeted him.
“The Chairwoman is inside, right?”
“Yes. She’s been waiting for you.”
A middle-aged female secretary hurried to the door and knocked.
When a voice from inside told us to enter, she opened it.
“Please go in.”
“Oh, Chief Jeon.”
Han Taesung spoke as naturally as if he had done this countless times.
“Coffee, please.”
Then he entered the chairman’s office after ordering his drink in advance.
I followed him inside.
At the desk sat a white-haired woman wearing reading glasses and flipping through a folder.
She glanced toward us.
Her nearly silver-white hair seemed to be something she had inherited from her father’s side.
“Chairwoman, I’m here.”
“I have eyes.”
Han Taesung smirked and sat on the sofa in the center of the office.
“Director Min, sit here too.”
I sat beside him.
Han Myunghee soon rose from her desk and joined us on the sofa.
“You brought the contract, right?”
Instead of answering, Han Taesung opened the bag he had brought and placed a folder containing the contract in front of her.
Han Myunghee silently reviewed it.
Then her brow furrowed, and she shot Han Taesung a sharp look.
“Why does the payment completion date take six months?”
“Even for a global corporation, do you think raising seven hundred billion won in cash overnight is easy?”
Han Taesung explained that the first three hundred billion won had already been deposited, while the remainder would be paid in two installments within six months.
Han Myunghee placed the contract folder back on the table with a stiff expression.
Just then, there was a knock.
A secretary entered with coffee, set the cups down in front of us, and left.
After taking a sip, Han Taesung spoke again.
“Now it’s your turn to keep your promise.”
“You remember what you said, right?”
“You told me that if I came back with a signed seven-hundred-billion-won sale contract, you’d keep your side of the deal.”
Han Myunghee remained silent, her head slightly tilted.
Then her gaze shifted toward me.
Only then did her expression seem to ask who I was.
Han Taesung answered before she could.
“He’s the Head of Production at Big Picture.”
“I’ll be bringing him over to Hanshin Media soon.”
“Head of Production?”
Han Myunghee openly looked me up and down.
“He looks awfully young....”
“He’s capable.”
“So how much is this OTT platform or whatever going to cost?”
She ignored me so blatantly that it was almost embarrassing and went straight to the point.
Han Taesung, clearly used to her personality, did the same.
“We’re estimating a minimum of five hundred billion won and up to around one trillion.”
Han Myunghee’s brow immediately narrowed.
“You’re telling me you want to dump all seven hundred billion we just brought in into this one business?”
“No.”
“There’s more.”
“We’re also planning to sell two of the cable channels Hanshin Media owns.”
“That should bring in at least another fifty billion won.”
“We intend to put that into the OTT platform business too.”
Han Myunghee looked beyond stunned.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
Han Taesung nodded.
“Actually, I was hoping to ask for your help with that.”
“You know Hanshin Logistics is trying to expand into home shopping, right?”
“So I thought this might be a good opportunity for Hanshin Logistics to acquire our cable channels.”
Han Myunghee blinked in surprise.
Then her mind visibly began working.
Wait.
If that happens, wouldn’t both sides benefit at the group level?
From Hanshin Media’s perspective, it could cleanly unload a broadcasting business that had become a burden.
And from Hanshin Logistics’ perspective, buying the channels outright could make more sense in the long run than paying yearly leasing fees.
Once she concluded it wasn’t a bad move for the group overall, her expression softened.
“Fine.”
“Let’s say that part makes sense.”
“But why does building an OTT platform cost that much?”
“If you boil it down, isn’t it just showing movies and dramas on phones and computers?”
Han Myunghee said she had even looked into Network Flex, the global OTT service that had recently launched in Korea.
She stared at Han Taesung.
“It’s not just about technically building the system....”
Han Taesung hesitated, as though unsure where to begin.
Then he glanced toward me.
It was my turn to explain.
I took a tablet from my bag, opened the presentation, and placed it in front of Han Myunghee.
“I’ll briefly explain the approximate budget required for the OTT platform business and where that money will be used.”
I explained that the initial development cost for building the platform itself would be around three billion won.
Software development, surprisingly, wasn’t the most expensive part.
That figure would include planning, UI/UX design, backend and frontend development, QA, and infrastructure setup.
“But after that, we incur infrastructure and maintenance expenses.”
“Those costs scale as the number of users grows.”
“The main expenses are CDN and cloud services such as AWS.”
“These become recurring monthly fixed costs, and at scale they could reach several billion won per month.”
I added that security and DRM licensing would also cost at least tens of millions of won annually, with expenses increasing in proportion to the number of users.
“But those are mostly post-launch costs.”
“They’re barely included in the initial development budget.”
Han Myunghee scrolled through the material on the tablet.
Then she let out a short sigh and gave me an intimidating look.
“According to this, the initial content budget alone is three hundred billion won.”
“And after launch, another fifty to one hundred billion every year?”
“Yes.”
“We can’t give an exact figure yet, but we’re planning to purchase licenses for roughly three thousand films and dramas.”
“And when you include exclusive titles and original productions, we estimate the pre-launch content costs alone could reach around four hundred billion won.”
I added that fortunately, Hanshin Media already held a significant number of licenses from its existing theatrical distribution business.
Thanks to that, we might be able to launch with far more titles than the original target of four thousand.
Han Myunghee thought for a moment before asking,
“So when are you planning to launch?”
“For now, the second half of 2019.”
“Why does it take that long?”
She sounded frustrated.
“As I mentioned, acquiring licenses for the catalog will take a considerable amount of time.”
“Producing our own originals before launch will also take time.”
“And most importantly...”
I told her that Big Picture had secured a content-supply partnership with Network Flex.
“Wait.”
She immediately frowned.
“You’re supplying content to a company that will eventually compete with us?”
Her reaction was almost identical to Baek Seonghan’s.
So I gave her essentially the same explanation.
“So first, you want to use Network Flex to test the global potential of Korean content?”
“Yes.”
“Our goal goes beyond the domestic OTT market.”
“We’re aiming at the global market.”
I also explained that this was the same reason we had built a cooperation agreement with Quantum.
Even after hearing everything, Han Myunghee remained silent for a long time.
Han Taesung and I exchanged glances, both watching her expression.
Then she finally asked,
“So when does it start making money?”
The fact that she was already asking about revenue meant she wasn’t completely against it.
Han Taesung’s lips quietly curved upward in relief.
“We believe we can reach break-even within two years of launch.”
Han Myunghee crossed her arms and fell into thought again.
A long silence followed.
Unable to bear it any longer, Han Taesung spoke first.
“Chairwoman, this isn’t simply about starting another new business.”
“This is about securing the future of Korea’s content industry before everyone else does.”
“We’ll have our own platform and distribute the content we create directly to people around the world.”
“No middle distributors.”
“No third-party margins.”
Han Myunghee looked at him.
“I brought you into Hanshin Media because you’re good at what you do.”
“Making movies.”
“Making dramas.”
“Selling them and making money.”
“But now...”
She pressed her temples repeatedly, as though the sheer scale of the plan was giving her a headache.
“Ha....”
I carefully spoke.
“Chairwoman, if I may say one thing.”
Han Myunghee looked at me.
“In the future, enormous global OTT platforms will flood into Korea.”
“And just as you said, we can still make plenty of money simply by selling them our content.”
“But...”
I took a slow breath.
“They’ll take the content we sell them and make enormous profits around the world.”
“But if we own the platform ourselves, then we don’t only keep the content-sales revenue.”
“We keep the subscription revenue too.”
Han Myunghee’s gaze shifted slightly.
“And there’s one more thing.”
I brought out my final card.
“Chairwoman, do you know why some companies remain subcontractors while others become global brands?”
“What?”
Han Myunghee frowned, clearly wondering where I was going with this.
I continued without hesitation.
“It isn’t simply because they make better products.”
“The difference is whether they own their distribution network and their brand.”
“If you make an excellent product but only supply it under someone else’s name, that company will remain a subcontractor forever.”
“But if you go directly to the market under your own brand?”
“That’s when you gain the chance to become a global company.”
Han Myunghee looked directly into my eyes.
“Korean content is the same.”
“No matter how good our dramas and films are, if they’re consumed only through foreign platforms like Network Flex, then we’ll always remain suppliers.”
“But if we own the platform ourselves, then we become a global media company.”
Han Myunghee’s expression slowly began to soften.
