Lu Yiming asked: "Are you interested in returning to China?"

Pan Ning hesitated for a moment and said, "If I have the chance, of course I want to go back."

Lu Yiming said: "In fact, Xia State has developed very fast in recent years, especially in the field of computers and the Internet. The country attaches great importance to it. If you go back, you will also have the opportunity to flex your muscles."

Peter Thiel, who did not understand Chinese, had no idea that Lu Yiming was poaching in front of him.

Otherwise, you have to jump in a hurry.

You know, Pan Yu is currently the only senior software engineer in the company and is the absolute core of the technical department. If he is poached, it will not be easy to find someone to replace him!

It has to be said that in the field of Internet payment, the United States is once again ahead of Xia Guo.

Before the emergence of PayPal, online payment in the United States was very troublesome. First, users had to own a PAD, which is a handheld computer.

Paypal is different. The payment method has become simple and efficient. Users no longer need a handheld computer to complete the operation. They only need to send an email to transfer money to anyone, even if you do not have an account, as long as you know the other party.

The email address can be successfully transferred.

Although it is still very troublesome in Lu Yiming's opinion, compared with the previous cumbersome steps, this has been done very well.

Currently, the payment system PayPal has been online since 1999, but its promotion has not been very smooth, and the growth in the number of users has even shown signs of slowing down.

Because they have many competitors, such as X.com, which is only four blocks away from Confinity. Elon Musk is very good at operations. The two parties are fiercely fighting in the field of Internet payment, and no one can completely defeat the other.

.

Here, Lu Yiming had just finished talking to Pan Ning, and Peter Thiel said: "Sorry, Mr. Lu, I'm afraid we can't accept your investment. After all, your reputation is not very good."

Lu Yiming is now on the blacklist of many Internet companies, such as Amazon and eBay, which were short-sold by Saltwater Fund.

Especially eBay. Now PayPal relies on eBay to survive. After all, as a payment software, you have to have someone use it, right?

eBay is currently the largest C2C e-commerce platform in the world, with the largest number of potential users, and is the fundamental base that Paypal must seize.

If it accepted Lu Yiming's investment, would eBay still choose to use PayPal as a payment tool?

This is something Peter Thiel has to think about.

Lu Yiming just read the information and knew that eBay is Paypal's main customer, so he smiled and said: "Are you worried that eBay will dump you after I invest?"

Peter Thiel was very straightforward and said directly: "Yes."

Lu Yiming said: "You actually don't have to worry about this. After all, no matter whether you accept my investment or not, eBay will never tolerate your existence. In fact, eBay still has not given up on building its own payment system."

This is actually a matter of course. Just as Jack Ma has launched Taobao, he will definitely launch Alipay. For an e-commerce company, entrusting the vitality of the trading system to others is different from committing suicide.

Peter Thiel's expression was solemn when he heard this, and he did not refute Lu Yiming's words, because this was the fact and could not be refuted.

Lu Yiming continued: "So what you should think about now is how to defeat eBay's exclusive payment software on its home court, and this requires money, a lot of money. As a payment software, PayPal is undoubtedly excellent.

, but excellence alone is not enough, you also need to acquire more users. Of course, the most important point is to continue to maintain the original free strategy to ensure your competitive advantage."

Whether you spend money on promotions to attract more users to sign up for PayPal accounts, or maintain a free strategy to retain these users, you still need to burn money.

But at this juncture, the financing environment for Internet companies is harsh. How easy is it to continue to defraud investors of money?

"I just said, you need money, and I have money. I am very optimistic about your future, but what you are doing now is not good enough. I have ways to make you better."

Peter Thiel was persuaded by Lu Yiming, and he relaxed and said: "I may need to discuss this matter with several other co-founders."

Lu Yiming knew that he couldn't eat hot tofu in a hurry, so he took out two business cards, handed one to each person, and said calmly: "No problem, it should be. You can contact me after you have discussed it."

Lu Yiming is not anxious at all. Although PayPal is very powerful, if they don't agree, he can go directly to Elon Musk.

After Lu Yiming left, Peter Thiel, as CEO, quickly summoned the other five veterans of the company.

Kenny Howery serves as CFO, Max Levchin serves as CTO, Pan Yu and Ross Simmons serve as senior software engineers, and Luke Nosek serves as vice president of marketing strategy.

Peter Thiel said straight to the point: "Mr. Lu Yiming came to our company today and said he wanted to invest in us. What do you think?"

Ross Simmons said: "I don't think so. A profit-seeking capitalist like him will definitely not be able to understand and agree with our ideas."

Pan Yu said: "He won the championship of the ACM International College Programming Competition. He is also a software engineer himself, and I heard that he has a good rapport with Torvalds. He is not a Chinatown capitalist who does not understand Internet technology."

Several people were a little confused. They really didn't know whether Lu Yiming was a software engineer.

Peter Thiel said: "We only have 10 million US dollars left in our accounts now. This money is only enough to burn for two months. The gap is too big."

Pan Yu also said: "Ebay has never given up and wants to kick our payment system out of the game. In order to maintain our current market position and share, we need more publicity funds."

"Yes, actually we have no choice."

In the end, after some discussion, everyone had to bow to reality and planned to accept Lu Yiming's financing.
Chapter completed!