Author: Linjiangxian

Founded in 1995, eBay has now become a giant company in the C2C field and the undisputed industry leader.

On eBay's platform, millions of furniture, collectibles, computers, and vehicles are listed, sold, and sold on eBay every day. Even services and virtual items are among the items that can be sold.

Within, the size of the transaction was astonishingly large.

It can be said that eBay is standing at the forefront of the times, successfully overturning the smaller flea markets of the past, bringing buyers and sellers together, and creating a market that never rests.

Tens of millions of users sell their things here, and at the same time spend money to buy the products they like. This back and forth creates huge transaction demand.

On a new trading platform like e-commerce, it has become too cumbersome to use existing credit cards or bank cards to transfer money, and it is even impossible to use cash.

Therefore, the demand for secure online payment services has emerged.

Whoever can meet the transaction needs of these users will become the dominant player in the online payment field and achieve unimaginable success in this brand-new industry.

As the builder of the market platform, as long as the founder of eBay is not stupid, he will not fail to see the benefits in this, and he will definitely not leave his life in the hands of outsiders.

So whether it is Peter Thiel or Elon Musk, their biggest competitors are not actually each other, but the dominant giant in the C2C field - eBay.

Even without the appearance of Lu Yiming, the merger of the two companies is the general trend. After all, for smart people, there is often only one optimal solution that can be chosen.

Seeing that Elon Musk seemed to be hesitant, Lu Yiming said: "It makes no sense to fight alone. Let's join forces. Only in this way can we have hope of defeating our powerful enemies. Otherwise, wait for eBay's own payment system to be implemented."

Get up, everyone will die."

Elon Musk has to admit that what Lu Yiming said is right, but it is impossible for him to sell X.com to Lu Yiming without saying a word. As a person who will become the world's richest man in the future, naturally he will not be an easy person.

As for the person who was encouraged, he is still hesitating and weighing what to do to best suit his own interests.

Elon Musk asked Lu Yiming: "Do you want some coffee?"

Lu Yiming raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "Okay, it took me so long to come in and you didn't even pour me a glass of water. I'm already thirsty."

Elon Musk asked his secretary to come in and make two cups of coffee, and the rich aroma of coffee instantly filled the entire office.

Lu Yiming complained: "This coffee is very good. I went to the FBI a few days ago and they didn't even have coffee, they only provided orange juice. This is really too much."

Lu Yiming drank coffee and seemed to have forgotten about the acquisition. He asked in a casual tone: "If you make a lot of money, what do you want to do?"

Elon Musk is still worried about the company's survival. How can he have time to think about the future? He immediately said: "I don't know, I haven't thought about it yet."

Lu Yiming raised his head slightly, as if looking at the sky, and said casually: "I have thought that the earth is small, and the journey of mankind should be the stars and the sea, so if I have the opportunity in the future, I may invest in the aerospace field. I hope that in my

In my lifetime, I will be able to see humans colonizing Mars with my own eyes.”

Elon Musk is not yet thirty years old, he is at an energetic age, and his family is also full of adventurous genes.

For example, his grandfather Joshua Norman Haldeman was a fierce man. When he got rich, he bought an airplane business, then sold all his houses. In 1952, he flew his airplane

, flew all the way north from Africa to Norway, a journey of more than 22,000 miles.

That was 1952!

From today's perspective, the airplane at that time was just a kite with an engine installed!

Growing up in such a family, one can only imagine how crazy Elon Musk would be.

Now, he is limited by the pressure of life, and the wild things in his mind have not yet been released.

However, Lu Yiming's words were like a sharp sword, cutting a gap in his suppressed madness.

A ray of light came in.

Elon Musk’s eyes are shining!

"This idea of ​​yours is really cool!"

The corner of Lu Yiming's mouth raised slightly, and then he said calmly: "Before colonizing Mars, we can also engage in suborbital flight and space travel. Going one step further, we can also develop rocket recycling technology first. After all, today's rockets are disposable

Yeah, it’s such a waste. Get the rocket back

After acquiring technology, the cost of space travel has dropped. Let me tell you, this is definitely a good business! And we can directly cooperate with NASA on these things. Konstantin Tsiolkovsky once said that the earth

It is the cradle of mankind, but mankind cannot be bound to the cradle forever."

Since 1992, the United States has become the only superpower in the world.

At this time, the United States still had some ideals. They really wanted to become a "lighthouse for mankind." So we can see that in the thirty years from the 1970s to the 1990s, American technology and music,

Movies, etc., are all full of romantic sentiments and have a certain ambition to "make great achievements and benefit the world".

In terms of music, a large number of idealists such as Jackson were born.

In terms of movies, classics such as "ET", "Star Wars", and "2001: A Space Odyssey" all came from this period.

When Elon Musk said what Lu Yiming said, he felt his blood boiling and he wished he could devote himself to it right away, just like his grandfather who sold all his assets to go sailing.

At this moment, he no longer knows what X.com is.

What kind of mobile payment? Don’t bother me, I’m so unfamiliar!

Elon Musk said to Lu Yiming with excitement: "The newspapers say you are a cold-blooded butcher and a money-making machine without emotions. I think they are all wrong. You are an idealist and a person with a lot of ambitions in your heart."

All human beings!”

Lu Yiming had a righteous expression on his face, and his whole body seemed to be spreading a holy light: "Others' misunderstandings cannot hurt me at all. I know what I am doing. Great ideals often require a huge amount of money, so when it comes to making money,

, I will never be soft-hearted."

Elon Musk deeply agrees with this and said: "It is true that the world is material, and any ideal must be based on enough money."

The two then communicated for a while. Lu Yiming talked to Elon Musk about autonomous driving and wireless communications between heaven and earth, which made Elon Musk fascinated. He wanted to disband X.com on the spot and follow Lu Yiming to realize his great ideals.

—— Regarding the merger of X.com and PayPal, Elon Musk agreed without hesitation and said that he would take people to PayPal the next day.

Seeing that it was getting late, Elon Musk still felt that he still had something to say, so he reluctantly sent Lu Yiming down to the office building.

The two said goodbye, and Lu Yiming was about to walk to the car parked aside when he suddenly heard someone shouting in surprise: "Mr. Lu!"

Lu Yiming was startled and took two steps back involuntarily. When he looked closely, he found that it was a reporter running towards him with a photographer.

"Oh no, why are there people squatting on me here..."

Lu Yiming was extremely speechless.

Appearing in front of him was a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News named Catherine.

She came here originally intending to interview another young entrepreneur, but unexpectedly she happened to meet Lu Yiming. The reporter naturally had an idea and ran over to interview Lu Yiming.

Recently, Lu Yiming has lived in seclusion and rarely appeared in public. However, legends about him have been circulating in the world. After all, this is a man who has broken the US stock market. Many people are saying that he has been detained by the FBI.

, some even said that he had been secretly executed.

All kinds of gossip spread like wildfire, arousing curiosity.

If we could conduct an interview with him now, wouldn't the sales of this issue of the Mercury explode immediately?

Catherine came to Lu Yiming, stretched out the microphone, and said: "Mr. Lu, I am Catherine, a reporter from the Mercury News! Are you planning to make any big move when you suddenly appear in San Jose?"

In the past, Lu Yiming would definitely not have accepted this kind of interview.

However, at this juncture, Lu Yiming had a thought and spoke to the microphone calmly: "Of course I came to San Jose to invest here. After all, I am an investor."

When Catherine heard this, she was even more happy. Not only did she sneak into Lu Yiming today, but she also dug out Lu Yiming's investment plan. So this month's bonus shouldn't be tripled?

"Which company does Mr. Lu plan to invest in?"

Lu Yiming, who had already made some calculations in his mind, showed no stage fright at this moment. He spoke freely in front of reporters: "I have bought 20% of the local shares of Confinity. Confinity will also change its name based on my suggestions."

For PayPal Inc."

Then Lu Yiming also gave Elon Musk a thumbs up: "In addition, I just chatted with Elon Musk from X.com for a few hours. He is a very thoughtful young man with a bright future.

He even thinks he can become the richest man in the United States and a very important figure in the world."

Elon Musk, who had not yet gone far, did not expect that Lu Yiming's interview would involve him. Lu Yiming knew full well that he would become the richest man in the United States, so he immediately ignored him.

Now, he is still worried about X.com Company's expenses next month. Not to mention becoming the richest man in the United States, even becoming the richest man in this office building is probably not enough.

Not only Elon Musk thought so, but even Katherine, a female Mercury News reporter standing in front of Lu Yiming, felt that what he just said was outrageous.

But she is a reporter, and the more outrageous the topic, the more she likes it.

After all, if the topic is not outrageous, how can it be popular?

Now that it's better, she doesn't need to worry about how to hype it up. She can just write Lu Yiming's original words and it will probably cause a sensation.

Catherine immediately asked with a flushed face: "Since Mr. Lu admires Musk so much, has he already reached some kind of deal?"

Lu Yiming said with regret: "I wanted to buy it, but Musk wouldn't sell it. He has great business ambitions, so I could only convince him to join the PayPal business. PayPal is a great product.

, if the bank does not change, we will change the bank. Now the Internet

It is developing too fast, and popular shopping and entertainment have been moved to the Internet - such as eBay. But in the payment process, our bankers are too slow to respond. They are arrogant and stupid. So what we are doing is to break the

Their monopoly provides the most convenient online payment services to everyone."

Catherine herself often travels to Silicon Valley to interview Internet-related entrepreneurs, so she is no stranger to this industry. She immediately asked: "I heard rumors that eBay is also working on its own payment system. It will inevitably have conflicts with PayPal."

Conflict, aren't you afraid that your investment will be wasted?"

Lu Yiming said calmly: "I believe PayPal will win because of a group of energetic young people with unparalleled wisdom and talent. It's hard for me to imagine that they will fail."
To be continued...