The next day.
The president of Taewoo Entertainment visited the vice chairman's office.
He was President Oh Myung-soo, formerly the head of Taewoo Cinema, but now promoted to lead Taewoo Entertainment.
"Vice Chairman! The ratings were an absolute hit. There has never been a rating like this in cable channel history. The first episode alone hit 3%. At peak moments, it even surpassed 5%."
"A 3% rating is quite impressive."
"It's not just impressive—it's nearly a miracle for a cable channel to reach that level."
Such was the reality of cable broadcasting.
For public broadcasters, even a 10% rating could sometimes spark cancellation discussions.
But on cable, a mere 1% was considered a massive success.
"With our ongoing promotions, the ratings for the second episode should be even better. By the final episode, we might even hit over 15%."
"That sounds like a pretty ambitious goal. A 15% rating on cable is equivalent to over 40% on a public network."
"You say it's ambitious, but I think it's actually conservative. I believe we could even approach 20%."
President Oh swallowed hard.
A 15% rating on cable was essentially a dream rating.
"To improve the quality of the second episode, we'll work through the night editing it."
"It's fine to edit for dramatic effect, but absolutely no manipulation."
"I've already heard that more than once from the head of planning. We've implemented a fair ranking system, and we're even preparing a multi-layered cross-checking system."
The so-called "devil's editing."
That was the term used for misleading edits that could create misunderstandings or distort events.
While it could technically be seen as a form of manipulation, since it didn't fabricate events from scratch, it could be tolerated.
As long as it wasn't outright manipulation, it was even encouraged.
Misunderstandings and conflict made for more stimulating television—and even if the viewers cursed it, they couldn't take their eyes off the screen.
"But you mustn't focus only on the audition program. Please give attention to dramas and film production as well."
"Actually, Director Bong Ho-jun's movie is set to begin filming within two months. And we've signed deals with OTT platforms to co-produce dramas and films."
"I have high hopes for Taewoo Entertainment. We plan to invest even more funds, so President Oh, I hope you'll steer things well."
"I'll do my utmost to live up to your expectations!"
President Oh bowed so deeply that his head nearly touched the floor before leaving the vice chairman's office.
Through the crack in the door, his face was full of anxiety and nervousness.
It was probably because I said I expected the audition program's ratings to reach 20%.
And I had a reason for setting such high expectations.
Today marked the official launch of YouTube, and I had planned to promote it in connection with the audition program.
"Chief! How is the YouTube launch progressing?"
"All major public broadcasters are scheduled to run massive ad campaigns starting today. Radio and newspaper advertisements have already been running."
At last, YouTube—the platform destined to dominate the global video industry—had been unveiled.
But for now, it was still just a fledgling video site with few subscribers.
To attract as many early users as possible, high-quality video content was essential.
"We'll make behind-the-scenes footage from the audition program available on YouTube. That way, fans of the contestants will be able to find and watch them."
"We already have over 100 hours of footage. Only about an hour of it will be aired on TV, so if we release the remaining 99 hours through YouTube, our subscriber count should skyrocket."
"But we can't just upload random raw footage. It needs to be properly edited into ten-minute segments by professional editors."
"I'll mobilize every editor at Taewoo Entertainment to get as many videos edited and uploaded as quickly as possible."
"Start immediately."
The planning chief rushed out of the vice chairman's office.
He was probably already on his way to Taewoo Entertainment to push the editors into action.
But that alone wouldn't be enough.
There needed to be a wide variety of high-quality videos if we wanted users to spend more time on YouTube.
That meant uploading music, entertainment, sports—and especially gaming content.
And for that, I would need David's help.
I picked up my phone and called him.
[Boss! YouTube has finally launched! No matter what channel I tune into, I see YouTube ads. And there are nonstop ads on Google, Amazon, and Facebook too!]
"The advertising seems to be going well. But we're really short on content creators."
That'll probably work itself out over time. As smartphone usage grows, more people will start producing videos.
"I need high-quality videos right now. We need to make music videos available through YouTube."
In the previous timeline, artists would release their music videos on video platforms simultaneously with their comebacks.
Views became a key metric for measuring success.
But now, music videos could only be seen through music TV channels, and if someone wanted to watch a specific artist's video, they had to either check broadcast schedules or buy DVDs.
[If it's music videos from artists under MCA Records, which SAVE Investment is the major shareholder of, then we could make it happen even now. But I'm not sure the artists themselves will be on board. They might refuse, saying it'll reduce their revenue.]
"In fact, it'll increase their earnings. They'll earn ad revenue based on the number of views."
[But I've heard the revenue per view is less than 0.1 cents. If people can watch the music videos on YouTube, they'll probably buy fewer albums or digital downloads. I don't think they'll like it.]
That was an expected response.
This was still an era where people didn't yet understand the disruptive power of YouTube.
"It's what you'd call a low-margin, high-volume model. Only fans buy albums, but with YouTube, anyone with even a slight interest in the music will end up watching. In the broader context, artists will earn more, especially the popular ones—their revenue will see the biggest increase."
[That might be true once YouTube has more users, but right now, the user base is still small.]
"So are you saying it's impossible?"
Surprisingly, David was showing hesitation.
"Impossible? Nah, I wouldn't say that. I'll start by releasing music videos from artists under MCA. And if there's pushback, we'll just offer a bigger contract bonus to smooth things over."
"Also, negotiate with sports channels to release highlight videos on YouTube."
[When you say sports channels, do you mean like basketball and soccer?]
"Exactly. And also reach out to the committees for international events like the Olympics and World Cup to secure contracts to upload highlight videos on YouTube."
This was the fastest way to drive mass traffic in a short time.
Especially since sports fans typically watched both the full game and the sports news afterward.
They did it to catch highlight clips of their favorite teams—and from now on, YouTube could replace traditional sports news for that purpose.
[Wow, this is going to take a major cash injection.]
"It won't be as costly as you think. We're not buying full broadcasting rights—just highlight video rights. Plus, fans recording and uploading game clips themselves won't violate copyright laws, so that side will grow naturally on its own."
[So there's no issue if it's not footage from broadcast networks but from individuals. Got it. I'll get in touch with the committees right away and work on signing those contracts.]
David was about to hang up.
At that moment, another thought struck me, and I quickly spoke up.
"Also, coordinate with Google so that YouTube videos appear first in the search results—of course, only when they're relevant to the search term."
[Alright, I'm really hanging up now.]
David ended the call.
I had truly leveraged every possible promotional tool at my disposal.
At this rate, we would be able to attract users even faster than we did before my regression.
Of course, reaching the same level of popularity as before would still take time—there was no getting around that.
Early dawn.
I was in Captain Kang's office, watching an American public broadcasting channel with a can of beer in hand.
"I didn't know the CEO was interested in rocket launches. I watch documentary channels from time to time myself, but science channels aren't really my thing, so I don't watch them often."
"It's a bit surprising to hear that from someone with a military background."
"Well, it's not like the Korean military has any weapons we could really call rockets, right?"
The footage we were watching over beer was of the Falcon 1 launch.
Falcon 1—the rocket into which Musk and his team had poured all their passion.
But I already knew the outcome wasn't good. Still, now that history had changed, I clung to the hope that maybe—just maybe—it would succeed this time and watched the screen intently.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! It's not supposed to go like that, is it?"
"So it ends like that, after all."
Falcon 1 crashed into the ocean less than 30 seconds after liftoff.
Still, it couldn't be considered a total failure.
At the very least, it had soared upward for about 30 seconds.
"I've heard building a single rocket costs tens of billions of won. That money just went up in smoke. Or rather, sank into the sea."
"They'll learn from failure, step by step. Honestly, the fact that they built something like that at all is practically a miracle."
"Even so, it's a terrible waste of money."
Captain Kang made his criticism clear as he watched the failure unfold.
He likely wasn't the only one criticizing Musk's failure.
NASA, which had provided the launch site and even lent factory facilities, was probably being much more vocal in its condemnation.
There was a good chance they would no longer allow the use of their launch pads or facilities.
"You could say the money spent so far doesn't even count. If they want to succeed, they'll have to invest several times that amount going forward."
"What kind of lunatic would invest that much in a private company? No sane person would throw money into something like that."
"Are you saying I'm crazy? I'm the one who's invested the most money in that company."
"Oh—uh—I'm so sorry! I had no idea! I shouldn't have spoken so recklessly. Really, I'm sorry."
Captain Kang choked on his beer as he hurried to apologize.
It was just a joke, but his reaction was a bit too dramatic.
"No need to apologize so much. I invested knowing they'd fail."
"But aren't you the kind of person who only invests in businesses that succeed?"
"Isn't it fine as long as the final result is a success? It doesn't matter how many times you fail along the way. That kind of failure is what allows a caterpillar to become a butterfly."
Before long, I should go visit Musk with something to eat.
The harder things are, the better he needs to eat to keep his strength up—
That way, he'll be able to make me an enormous amount of money.