Rebirth 98, the rise started from ripping off Microsoft

Chapter 520 Elon Musk

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

On eBay's platform, millions of furniture, collectibles, computers, and vehicles are published, sold, and sold on eBay every day, and even services and virtual items are also included in the range of salable items Within, the scale of the transaction was astonishingly large.

It can be said that eBay is standing on the cusp of the times, successfully overthrowing the small-scale flea market in the past, bringing buyers and sellers together, and creating a never-ending market.

Tens of millions of users are here to sell what they have in their hands, and at the same time spend money to buy the goods they fancy. This has created a huge demand for transactions.

On a brand-new trading platform such as e-commerce, it is too troublesome to use the existing credit card or bank card to transfer money, and it is even impossible to use cash.

Therefore, the demand for secure online payment services arises as the times require.

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

As the builder of the market platform, as long as the founder of eBay is not stupid, it is impossible not to see the benefits in it, and he will certainly not hand over the lifeline to outsiders.

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

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's meaningless to fight each other, let's join forces. Only in this way can we hope to defeat a strong enemy. Otherwise, wait for eBay's own payment system to do it." Get up, everyone must 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 anything.As the future richest man in the world, he is naturally not a person who is easily encouraged. He is still hesitating and weighing how to do it in order to best suit his own interests.

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

Lu Yiming raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "Okay, you didn't even pour me a glass of water after you've been here for so long, I'm already thirsty."

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

Lu Yiming complained: "The 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 his coffee, seemed to have forgotten about the acquisition, and asked in a chatty tone: "If you make a lot of money, what do you want to do?"

Elon Musk is still worrying about the survival of the company, so where is the time to think about the future?Immediately said: "I don't know, I haven't thought about it yet."

Lu Yiming raised his head slightly, as if he was looking at the sky, and said casually: "I thought about it, the earth is small, and the journey of mankind should be the sea of ​​stars, so if I have the opportunity in the future, I may invest in the aerospace field. Live to see humans colonize Mars."

Elon Musk is less than [-] years old, he is a vigorous age, and his family is also very adventurous.

For example, his grandfather, Joshua Norman Haldeman, was a fierce man. When he got rich, he bought an airplane, then sold all the houses, and drove his airplane in 2. , flew north from Africa all the way to Norway, a voyage of more than [-] miles.

That was [-]!

Looking at it now, the plane 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 constrained by the pressure of life, and those unconstrained things in his mind have not been released yet.

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

A light came in.

Elon Musk's eyes are beaming!

"Your idea is really cool!"

The corners of Lu Yiming's mouth rose slightly, and then he said calmly: "Before colonizing Mars, we can also engage in suborbital flight and space travel. One step closer, we can also develop rocket recycling technology first. After all, the current rockets are disposable. Yes, it is too wasteful. After the rocket recovery technology is solved, the cost of space travel will drop, and I tell you, this is definitely a good business! And these things we can directly cooperate with NASA. Konstantin Qi Olkovsky said that the earth is the cradle of mankind, but mankind cannot be bound in the cradle forever."

Since [-], the United States has become the only superpower in the world.

At this time, the United States still has a little ideal. They really want to become a "beacon of mankind", so we can see that in the 70 years from the 90s to the 30s, American technology, music, movies, etc., All of them are full of romantic feelings, and they have a mind of "reaching and benefiting the world".

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

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

Elon Musk said to Lu Yiming that he felt his blood boiling, and he wanted to devote himself to this right away, as desperate as his grandfather sold all his assets to sail.

At this moment, he no longer knew what X.com was.

What mobile payment?Don't touch porcelain, I'm so unfamiliar!

Elon Musk said to Lu Yiming excitedly: "The newspapers say that you are a cold-blooded butcher, a money-making machine without emotion. I think they are all wrong. You are an idealist. People of all mankind!"

Lu Yiming had a righteous expression on his face, and his whole body seemed to radiate holy light: "Other people's misunderstandings can't hurt me at all, I know what I'm doing, great ideals often require huge amounts of money, so when it comes to making money , I will never be soft-hearted."

Elon Musk deeply agrees with this, saying: "Indeed, the world is material, and any ideal must be based on enough money."

The two then communicated for a while. Lu Yiming and Elon Musk talked about autonomous driving and wireless communication between heaven and earth, which made Elon Musk fascinated. He wished to disband X.com on the spot and follow Lu Yiming to realize his great ideal. ——For the merger of X.com and PayPal, Elon Musk agreed without hesitation, saying that he would take people to PayPal the next day.

Seeing that it was getting late, Elon Musk still felt unfulfilled, and reluctantly sent Lu Yiming to the office building himself.

The two bid farewell, and Lu Yiming was about to walk towards the car parked beside him, when he suddenly heard a pleasantly surprised voice: "Mr Lu!"

Lu Yiming was startled, and involuntarily took two steps back.When I took a closer look, I found that it was a reporter who was running towards him with a photographer.

"Fuck me, why is there someone squatting on me..."

Lu Yiming was 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 just met Lu Yiming. The reporter naturally had an idea and ran over to interview Lu Yiming.

Recently, Lu Yiming lived in seclusion and seldom showed up, but the legend about him has been circulating in the Jianghu. After all, this is a man who broke the defense of the US stock market.Many people are saying that he has been detained by the FBI, and some even say that he has been secretly executed.

All kinds of gossip spread like wildfire, arousing curiosity.

Now, if we can conduct an interview with him, wouldn't the sales of this issue of the Mercury News directly explode?
Catherine came to Lu Yiming, stretched out the microphone, and said, "Mr. Lu, I'm Catherine, a reporter from the Mercury News! You suddenly appeared in San Jose, are you planning to make a big move?"

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

But at this juncture, Lu Yiming had a thought, and said calmly into the microphone: "I came to San Jose, of course I want to invest here, after all, I am an investor."

When Catherine heard this, she was even more delighted. Not only did she find Lu Yiming today, but she also found out Lu Yiming's investment plan. So this month's bonus should not be tripled?
"Which company does Mr. Lu plan to invest in?"

Lu Yiming, who already had calculations in his heart, did not show any stage fright at this moment, and talked in front of the reporter: "I have already bought 20.00% of the local shares of Confinity, and Confinity will also change its name to PayPal according to my suggestion. .”

Then Lu Yiming also gave Elon Musk a hand by the way: "In addition, I just chatted with X.com's Elon Musk for a few hours. He is a very thoughtful young man with a lot of money in the future. I He even thinks that he can become the richest man in the United States and become an important figure in the world."

Elon Musk, who has not gone far, did not expect Lu Yiming's interview and his affairs. Lu Yiming knew well that he would become the richest man in the United States, so he immediately punished him.

Right now, he is still worrying about X.com's next month's expenses, 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 thinks so, even Catherine, a female reporter from the Mercury newspaper standing in front of Lu Yiming, thinks what she said just now is 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 hot?
Now that it's all over, she doesn't need to bother thinking about how to hype it up, just write Lu Yiming's original words, and it will probably cause a sensation.

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

Lu Yiming said with regret: "I want to buy it, but Musk doesn't sell it. He has great business ambitions, so I can only persuade him to join the PayPal business. PayPal is a great product. , if the bank does not change, we will change the bank. Now the development of the Internet is too fast, and popular shopping and entertainment have been moved to the Internet-such as eBay. But in the payment link, our bankers are too slow to respond, they are arrogant And stupid. So, what we are doing is to break their monopoly and provide the most convenient online payment service for everyone.”

Catherine herself often travels to and from Silicon Valley to interview Internet-related entrepreneurs, so she is no stranger to this industry, so she immediately asked: "I heard rumors that eBay is also working on its own payment system, and it will inevitably have problems with PayPal. Conflict, aren't you afraid that your investment will go to waste?"

Lu Yiming said calmly: "I believe that PayPal will win, because a group of energetic young people have unparalleled wisdom and talents. I can hardly imagine that they will fail."

After the interview was over, Catherine couldn't even wait for the interview she had scheduled, so she called to cancel the appointment, and rushed back to the company to write the manuscript.

The next day, the news hit the newspapers. The founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar, and the female president, Meg Whitman, read the newspaper, and their faces were very ugly.

Lu Yiming's actions obviously disrupted their pace of action.

Pierre Omidyar was particularly upset. After all, eBay was the company he founded alone. Now that he has finally achieved success, how could he just watch someone run amok on his territory?

The existence of PayPal is simply a thorn in his flesh.

But Meg Whitman, known as the "Queen of Online Flea Markets", did not dare to ignore the existence of Lu Yiming, and said solemnly, "We are in trouble."

Originally, PayPal was very difficult, but now that Lu Yiming stepped forward, the pressure on the two of them was even greater, but there was nothing they could do.

And equally helpless, there is Dominic Burton in New York, who has had a very bad life recently.

On this day, early in the morning, Dominic Burton got up and got ready to go to work. His wife Cassie McMillan said with some concern: "Honey, why did you go to the police station so early? Recently, you You go out early and come back late, and you sleep less than six hours a day, what case is worth investigating like this?"

The son, who was eating oatmeal, ran over and hugged Dominic Burton's thigh, and said in a childlike voice, "Daddy, catch the bad guy."

Dominic Burton hugs five-year-old son, says: 'Yes, Daddy's catching bad guys'

"When I grow up, I want to catch bad guys with my dad."

After saying goodbye to his wife and son, Dominic Burton drove to the police station with a sullen face.

Just walking into the police station, Lancelot Harrison called him into the office directly, and said: "We have been investigating for a whole month, and now we have to stop here."

The Bureau of Investigation was ordered to search for Lu Yiming's criminal evidence everywhere, but naturally found nothing.

The source of Lu Yiming's funds is extremely clean, after all, it was provided by Epstein.

Moreover, the investment was indeed invested in saltwater funds, and everything was within the framework permitted by law. Even the short-selling method itself was "cleaner" than many Wall Street fund companies.

Lancelot Harrison sighed, and said: "There is a lot of pressure in the bureau now, let's stop this matter, we have to prepare to close the case, otherwise there will be no way to explain."

Although behind the investigation bureau, it is not that no one supports them to continue the investigation.

But the problem is, you have to find out the evidence, or nothing can be done.

If he dared to act recklessly, those protective umbrellas that Lu Yiming found behind his back were definitely not vegetarians.

Dominic Burton was indignant. He clearly knew that Lu Yiming was the culprit of all the incidents, but he couldn't be brought to justice. He couldn't accept such a result.

"I see."

After exiting Lancelot Harrison's office, Dominic Burton felt more and more upset when he thought about it, and immediately drove to Lu Yiming's residence.

Although Lu Yiming's whereabouts seemed to be kept secret, Dominic Burton worked for the FBI!

Not long after, Dominic Burton came to the door of the villa where Lu Yiming lived.

In the house, Lu Yiming, who got the news, walked out of the house with a smile, opened the door of the villa to Dominic Burton himself, and greeted Dominic Burton cordially as if meeting a long-lost friend: "Good morning, Mr. Burton. Come on, don't Standing at the door, it’s windy outside, but it’s warm inside.”

In the villa, the fireplace was burning hot and very comfortable.Lu Yiming asked enthusiastically: "You are a rare visitor, what would you like to drink? Coffee or cola or orange juice? Or beer? Maybe, how about brandy?"

Dominic Burton said with a sullen face: "The investigation is over, but I will never give up. I will keep watching you until you show your flaws."

Although his position is hostile, Lu Yiming still admires people like Dominic Burton very much. He poured him a cup of black tea, sat in front of him, and said lightly: "I'm going back to China soon, so I'm very happy." Everything in the United States has nothing to do with me, not to mention that even if you stare at me, you can't change anything."

Dominic Burton looked unconvinced, and just about to refute something, Lu Yiming shook his head and continued: "The problem is not me, but the rules of the game in the American stock market, so no matter what I do or not, the tragedy that should happen It's still going to happen. If someone is going to make the money, why can't it be me?"

These words gave Dominic Burton a bad feeling, as if this stock market crash would happen again in the future.

Holding the teacup, Lu Yiming smiled calmly and said, "You will understand in the future. Let us wait and see who is the one who really caused the big trouble."

Lu Yiming was looking forward to the subprime mortgage crisis in [-]. It would be an unprecedented short-selling feast.

After tea, Dominic Burton went away.He felt that he really hadn't thought about it, so he ran over to tell Lu Yiming about it.

He couldn't fight Lu Yiming, and it was even more impossible for him to take out his gun and kill Lu Yiming directly.

Now even the continued investigation of Lu Yiming has been terminated.

Dominic Burton was indignant, but helpless.

This world is so magical.

(End of this chapter)