Top of the big era

Zhou Buqi chatted with Dan Schulman for more than two hours and even drank four cups of coffee.

gained a lot.

This is the CEO invited by Zhou Buqi. Not only is he an absolute direct descendant, he is also considered a half direct descendant. He is much more reliable than PayPal's existing management.

The two sides talked a lot, especially the development history of PayPal, which really surprised Zhou Buqi.

When PayPal started, there were many competitors.

One of its competitors is called X.com, whose founder is Elon Musk. The project Musk initially worked on had no business overlap with PayPal. What Musk wanted to do was a "financial supermarket."

It is in X.com, a supermarket, where users can buy stocks, funds, bonds, futures and other products, as well as financial products launched by banks, insurance products such as car insurance and life insurance, and online loans. .

Speaking of this, Zhou Buqi felt a little dazed.

You know, that was more than ten years ago.

The business it does is similar to Alipay more than ten years later.

However, the timing was wrong.

Musk started building a financial supermarket too early, which resulted in their "supermarket" not being opened at all. Later, they transformed into a payment business to compete with PayPal.

The calls went back and forth, and both parties spent too much money.

After sitting down to discuss it, we simply merged.

This is where PayPal comes into being.

Because PayPal has a history of failure in opening a financial supermarket, their main focus has been on the payment business over the years.

Innovation is far from enough.

In contrast, Boss Ma chose the right time. After the mobile Internet entered thousands of households and Alipay became a national-level super App, he successively launched many financial products, turning Alipay into a "financial company". supermarket".

PayPal is very worried and dare not try it easily.

Zhou Buqi has to pull Alipay into a successful case, follow the rhythm of Boss Ma, promote PayPal, and open the "financial supermarket" that Musk did not open more than ten years ago.

Of course, this also has something to do with eBay.

In the past few years, PayPal, as a subsidiary of eBay, has had little autonomy. Even if it wants to develop some innovative businesses like Alipay, eBay may not allow it.

Now that PayPal and eBay have separated and are going to be spun off and listed separately, Boss Zhou has become the chairman of the board of directors, and even the CEO has been replaced... many people's thoughts are aroused.

Dan Schulman is more cautious.

Zhou Buqi used Bitcoin to explain the power of the Internet, and solemnly reiterated, "After PayPal is listed, in addition to the payment business, the most important thing is to open a financial supermarket!"

Dan Schulman said worriedly: "Is it too rash?"

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "This is not a cross-border online transfer. It's totally fine. Don't be too anxious. You should know more about Jack Ma's Alipay. Just follow his rhythm and follow his rhythm. He's done it. If he fails, we will follow suit; if he fails, we will watch from behind."

"That's good!"

Dan Schulman's eyes lit up and he felt that this strategy was very reliable and safe!

That works!

This is the difference between origins in different regions. He comes from Wall Street on the East Coast. He pursues making money and making the most money with the least risk. He does not have the deep-seated pride of Silicon Valley.

It would be a bit troublesome to select a top genius from Silicon Valley as CEO, or to continue to use the previous David Marcus as CEO.

Let them follow Alipay, let Alipay take the lead, and PayPal follow behind. They can't afford to lose that person!

Dan Schulman is different.

Face, image, dignity, etc. are all bullshit. Making the most money at the minimum cost is the greatest responsibility to the company, the board of directors, and the shareholders.

Zhou Buqi felt at ease and felt that the CEO was well chosen. He smiled and said, "If anything happens, you should talk to Jack Maduo. He has many capable people. If you can borrow some help from him, A few... or even moving a team over here will make it much easier in many cases.”

Dan Schulman nodded, "As you said, PayPal is a centralized product, no better than blockchain cryptocurrency. PayPal's business is best to carry out Internet-based innovation within the framework of traditional financial services. Once you cross the traditional financial framework, things can easily go wrong."

Zhou Buqi deeply agreed, "Yes, you have to grasp this balance. You are an expert, and you must know more about finance than these people in Silicon Valley."

Dan Schulman is not modest, "The financial industry has been developing for hundreds of years, and many financial giants have also been developing for hundreds of years. The current financial framework is already at the very edge of the financial industry. It has crossed the line. There may be unimaginable risks. For example, someone suggested to me that PayPal will start P2P lending business next.”

"this is not OK!"

Zhou Buqi had a black line on his forehead.

Dan Schulman said with a smile: "Of course not. In the traditional financial industry, loan business requires a mortgage, either an asset mortgage or a credit mortgage. What is the logic of P2P lending? Internet platforms can combine deposits and loans. More convenient connections are a huge advantage of the Internet over traditional financial institutions. However, the Internet cannot solve the bad debt risks that traditional financial institutions cannot solve!"

This is the difference between domestic and foreign countries.

What Dan Schulman said is based on a financial empire like the United States and the developed European countries that extend to it.

It's different in China.

The domestic financial industry is not that mature, the mechanism is imperfect, the industrial structure is imperfect, and the level of financial institutions is also uneven. There is not even a basic social credit system based on the financial industry.

Without a credit system, of course there would be no credit loans.

Even if the world's richest man like Zhou Buqi wants to borrow money domestically, he must have real collateral. But it's different in the United States. Submitting relevant information shows that your asset information is good and your credit rating is excellent. You don't need any collateral at all. You can get a good loan by relying on your credit.

Therefore, Alipay can do some business outside the domestic financial system in China.

The domestic financial industry is not perfect. Alipay can do some innovative businesses to supplement and strengthen the domestic financial industry and patch up the domestic financial industry.

PayPal is no longer good in the U.S. market. Wall Street is very powerful, and it is simply not the turn of PayPal, an Internet industry, to repair or supplement the U.S. financial system.

Just do things honestly and step by step within the framework of the American financial system.

The significance of PayPal is to take many financial services that could only be done offline and rely on manpower in the past and put them online in a lower cost and more convenient way.

P2P lending obviously breaks out of the traditional financial system in the United States.

This is very dangerous.

Blockchain cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have also jumped out, so Bitcoin is also very dangerous. At least Dan Schulman is not prepared to touch this industry.

There are some conceptual conflicts here.

PayPal is an Internet company in Silicon Valley. Many people have dreams and want to change the world! Even if it cannot change the world, it must at least change the financial industry.

If we can only produce products and services within the existing financial industry framework, many people will be dissatisfied and feel that their hands are tied, and internal conflicts will arise.

At this stage, the most important thing for PayPal is to go public.

But Zhou Buqi has already seen it. After it goes public, he will have to devote more energy to paying attention to PayPal and give full support to Dan Schulman so that he can lead the company's management and follow new strategic ideas and business routes. develop.

We cannot be as conservative as eBay in the past, nor can we allow those Internet people to have their own wild ideas.

We need to open a financial supermarket.

We can only sell some products in the existing financial system, and products outside the system such as P2P loan projects and blockchain cryptocurrencies are not among them.