Although William Gates and the executives left behind a black history that would be mocked for life, the Windows 95 announcement event ended successfully.
Microsoft aired TV commercials and installed billboards in Times Square, launching a massive product promotion campaign.
On the day of sale, sales were explosive enough to be covered exclusively in the news, and countless 286 or 386-level junk computers were replaced with 486s to run Windows smoothly.
“After installing Windows 95, it’s much easier to use the computer.”
“Now I can use the computer like Oppa.”
Previously, to run Windows, you had to turn on the computer, type “cd windows,” and then “win,” but now you just turned on the power, clicked the Start button with the mouse, and clicked the program you wanted to run with the mouse cursor.
This made it much easier for ordinary people to access computers, marking the beginning of true PC popularization.
Even Mom and Jaeeun, who hadn’t been interested in computers because of the difficult commands despite Jaesung using them, liked playing Minesweeper and card games included in Windows 95.
I can almost hear William Gates’s wealth increasing.
The news endlessly talked about Windows 95 sales and rising Microsoft stock prices.
As soon as Jaesung received $5 million from William Gates, he bought Microsoft stock with the full amount, confident in Windows 95’s success.
He showed the stock purchase right in front of him and left a deep impression on William Gates and the Microsoft employees for several weeks.
Microsoft stock at $5 per share is cheap.
In the future, Microsoft would exceed $500 per share, but during the dot-com bubble, it would stop rising at around $50 and fall.
Jaesung planned to sell Microsoft stock at $10 next year and switch to other rapidly rising companies.
He decided to accumulate Microsoft stock again when it hit bottom after the dot-com bubble burst.
Dad was satisfied with investing in what seemed safe Microsoft rather than risky new ventures and praised Jaesung’s decision.
“James, this new Windows 95 is pretty good. The computer-using population will increase.”
“Mom and my sister are using it well too. Amazon’s customers will probably increase as well.”
Jefferson Bezos, who knew Jaesung had contributed to Windows 95 development while commuting to Microsoft, tried the new version and praised it.
Naturally, since Amazon.com’s business would expand with more computer users, the Windows 95 launch was welcome news to him too.
“More competitors will emerge in the future. It seems good that we preempted before full internet business activation.”
“Yeah. Sales are steadily increasing, right?”
Amazon.com was growing smoothly and had even been interviewed by major economic magazines.
“They came from Time and Newsweek for interviews. They’re promoting Amazon.com for free.”
When Jefferson mentioned economic magazines, something came to mind.
“Do you have any thoughts about publishing?”
“Publishing? Are you trying to publish a book?”
“No, but at summer camp, I happened to read a manuscript a kid brought, and it was really good. The author lives in Scotland and seems to be looking for a publisher.”
“If a bookworm like you is interested, there must be potential. But publishing is completely different from bookstore management, so I don’t have a way to help.”
Jefferson said if interested, he’d introduce well-known publishers, and Jaesung replied he’d think about it.
It’s too wasteful to let it go like this, but I have no excuse to go to Scotland.
The manuscript he happened to read at summer camp was A Song of Ice and Fire, and the novel Jaesung coveted was J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter.
Completed this year but rejected 12 times, it would be published by a small UK publisher late next year for about 2.6 million won in manuscript fee and released in summer 1997, stealing the hearts of children worldwide and making the author the second-richest in Britain and the world’s richest author.
The last news I saw said Rowling’s wealth exceeded 1 trillion won.
The author’s royalties alone over 1 trillion won, and the small publisher that contracted it would grow into a massive corporation from one series.
There’s still time, so I should think slowly. It’s regrettable, but not something I must do.
The money from the Harry Potter series is enormous, but copyrights and related licenses accumulate over 20+ years.
1 trillion in Korean won is large, but to Jaesung, who is investing in IT companies that will grow worldwide and will have 1 trillion dollars in the future, it’s pocket change.
I should give this up. But just in case, I should tip Jefferson.
It would be hard for middle schooler Jaesung to meet and contract J.K. Rowling, but Amazon.com CEO Jefferson, with many publishing connections, might create an opportunity.
Having sorted the Harry Potter series that way, Jaesung finished postponed summer homework in a rush, and with the new semester, advanced a grade.
“I thought middle school syndrome was only in Korea, but American middle schoolers are the same.”
Returning to school after long summer vacation, the kids appeared changed.
Some had grown unrecognizably tall due to puberty, others had tanned dark brown from somewhere.
“James, long time no see. You’ve grown too?”
“Yeah? If there’s this much difference even after I grew, how much did you grow?”
“I grew 10cm during vacation.”
Precocious American kids had grown remarkably.
Jaesung had steadily stimulated growth plates to grow taller than in his previous life, taking proper nutrients and maintaining regular sleep, but couldn’t keep up with American kids’ growth.
Asians age slowly, so height will keep growing.
The kids weren’t just physically bigger; unlike first grade when they still seemed elementary, they now showed some teenage appearance.
“What did you do?”
“Mostly stayed in Seattle, went to summer camp for a bit.”
Since it was a school for wealthy families’ children, most spent summer in Europe or other US areas, and many went to summer camps.
Kids bragged about what they did during vacation, and Jaesung, not wanting to join middle school second-years’ boasting, ended up having the best vacation.
“Present what you did during vacation.”
“I went to Disney World in Florida.”
“I visited my grandma’s house in Italy.”
The teacher assigned presenting vacation activities as homework, and Jaesung showed Walmart summer school photos and briefly explained.
“Isn’t that Austin from the Mickey Mouse Club?”
“Britney and Christina are there too!”
“You recognize? Mickey Mouse Club members did join the summer camp. But that’s not important—this is the photo of me receiving the outstanding completion award.”
The kids went wild hearing he spent summer camp with Mickey Mouse Club members they watched daily, and rumors spread school-wide quickly.
“I’m jealous. I want to go to camp with Austin too.”
“Do you really contact Brian?”
“Britney and Christina are close with your sister?”
The Mickey Mouse Club’s popularity was far more explosive than Jaesung expected, and even unfamiliar kids came asking to see photos.
Thanks to that, Jaesung became the student who had the coolest (hip not yet emerged) vacation and started middle school second year as a special student following first grade.
“Even changing grades, nothing much changed.”
Last year was somewhat fun learning new American curriculum and unfamiliar subjects, but having self-studied all middle school material, he spent class time reading other books.
The teacher knew Jaesung was reading other books but didn’t say much since they were mostly unproblematic classics and his test scores were always perfect.
“Oh! It finally came out.”
With Amazon.com office moved, living ordinary days, the long-awaited site finally appeared on the internet.
“Hello?”
“You’re the one who listed a broken laser pointer on Option Web?”
“Yes. Are you looking to buy the pointer?”
“No, I’m interested in the site.”
Pierre had test-listed a broken laser pointer as the first item on his internet auction site.
He thought no one would buy, but soon someone contacted saying they’d buy.
Pierre Omidyar asked why he wanted it, and he replied, “I’m a person who professionally collects only broken laser pointers.”
Judging market need after this transaction, Pierre decided to grow the site seriously.
The laser pointer hadn’t sold yet, and though a bit early, Jaesung immediately expressed investment intent.
“I don’t understand saying you’re interested in the site.”
“The idea of selling items on the internet seems good, so I want to invest. Don’t you plan to expand the business properly?”
“Well. I just made the site, and I don’t plan to make it big yet.”
The site wasn’t famous yet, and Jaesung seemed the first investment offer.
The problem was Pierre not yet planning to dive into business seriously.
“The laser pointer will probably sell soon. If you want to make the site properly, contact this number. I’ll send this email too.”
“If you’re that interested, how about meeting in person to talk?”
Seeing Jaesung seriously interested, Pierre said to come to his home in San Jose, California, to talk.
“I have personal circumstances making a visit difficult—could you come to Seattle instead?”
“It’s burdensome to go to Seattle. Do you have any basis for me to trust you?”
“I’m the co-founder of the recently successfully started Amazon.com. And I invested early in Yahoo, helping it grow.”
Hearing he invested in Yahoo, the most visited online site now, piqued Pierre’s interest.
“I know Amazon.com started in Seattle—can I meet founder Jefferson Bezos too?”
“If you tell me the visit date in advance, I’ll tell Jefferson. I’ll make sure you meet.”
Pierre had read articles with Jefferson’s interviews and was interested in him who successfully started online business.
“Understood. With you saying that, I feel confident in my site too. I’ll go to Seattle.”
Jaesung successfully persuaded the CEO of Option Web (which would expand seriously in Korea too), and coordinated his Seattle visit schedule.
TL NOTE: ALL THE CHAPTERS ARE RETRANSLATED
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