[Chapter 862: Unable to Solve Payment Issues, Everything Was Up in the Air]
Copying or not, in the realm of the internet, it was hardly a big deal; essentially, everyone was just recycling ideas. The earliest imitator of Amazon was not Jack Ma; it was actually the bookstore Dangdang. Unfortunately, if that was all one could do, it was pretty much useless.
Look at Amazon now, it was practically the American version of Alibaba and JD.
Americans were actually quite adept at imitation; otherwise, they would still be herding cattle. The American continent had once been a wild frontier, and without borrowing from Europe, industrialization would have been impossible.
Why not just grab PayPal early on? After all, Elon Musk was already lamenting in the bathroom, so taking another idea from him wouldn't be a big deal. His imagination was wild enough; who knows, he might just invent a new toy.
If William White didn't have his bank, he probably would've done just that already. The prepaid email service's recharge was tied to those point cards, which was incredibly inconvenient. If there was an established online payment platform, there would be no need for such hassles.
However, point cards were more reliable than phone cards. The smaller Baby Bells had been badly hit by this trend. Fake cards were more common than real ones.
Don't be surprised; it wasn't just Hawkeye doing this business; Sicilians and buddies from Chinatown were at it too.
Since Little Tanner had told him about this, William White had been incredibly torn. He could create long-distance calling cards with password rules; of course, he could also figure out his point cards. It was just that demand wasn't large yet, but with the rollout of ICQ and other online games, that demand was bound to grow.
Cough, it was time to do something. Tsk, that'd be an easy fix.
Jeff Bezos looked at the plan in his hands, feeling quite reflective. He was somewhat relieved about his decisions. If he had turned this down, you could forget about seeing this proposal in front of him.
Who in the shopping website game didn't know the importance of payment? In the current situation, what people cared about wasn't even about Amazon.
Sure, audio-visual products and books weren't making money. Yet, they had one big advantage: a low barrier to entry.
Wow, this was leveraging Amazon to build up PayPal. Jeff Bezos, having dabbled in investment funds, understood perfectly. This was a brilliant idea.
That 5%? Fine, given how large the investment was, he couldn't really complain. If he could get a piece of the pie, it was based on mutual interests.
"Tom, I agree. Let's work together smoothly."
"That's the spirit, buddy. Honestly, the company's investment department didn't agree; they preferred to find an independent bank to operate. Cough, if it weren't for the boss having connections to a large banking institution, you wouldn't even get a taste of this good fortune."
"It can't be that bad, right? It wouldn't impact the brick-and-mortar banking system," Jeff Bezos replied, looking puzzled. He didn't doubt Tom's exaggeration; in reality, the guy across the table didn't understand any of this.
"Buddy, you've got to look at this with a developmental perspective. Do you know how many internet users will be around in the future?
A cross-border and cross-platform payment tool surely could expand its functions, right? For instance, it could offer guarantees between buyers and sellers, similar to an LC function. If you don't trust the seller, I worry about not getting paid.
Alright, my platform could serve as a guarantee for both of you at 0.5%, reasonable, right?"
"Good idea, solid business."
"Of course, the valuations we're discussing now are absurd; once this contract gets signed, the value will double as soon as you walk out the door."
"Alright, cheers to our partnership."
Jeff Bezos had no doubt; he even thought that doubling might still be an understatement. To him, both Amazon and PayPal had greater growth potential than Netscape in the future.
Haha, if this guy shared these thoughts with William White, it might just leave someone in stitches. You've got to be kidding, Netscape, even if not the largest internet bubble, was close enough. In William White's eyes, a billion was impressive; a thirty billion valuation was just insane.
Under these circumstances, such a valuation was unreasonable without any competitors.
If Bill Gates were that easy to deal with, William White would have dominated him long ago.
Upon signing the contract, the two put aside their plans for a post-signature celebration. Neither of them could have imagined what this contract would ultimately mean for them.
Wasn't everyone talking about the virtual economy? From that moment on, there was a bond between online and offline.
They could sell products without needing any storefronts or staff. Businesses sold more products while consumers enjoyed bigger discounts.
Of course, Amazon wasn't Alibaba, and America wasn't China. There was no chance of rapid development.
Do you know why some sites were so cheap? Fake products? Cough, that wasn't important. If you paid over a hundred bucks for an LV, there was no way you'd get a real one unless the owner was confused and mistakenly sent out the only sample.
Taxation was the key issue; all successful small product markets originally benefited from tax incentives. Saying this is a bit euphemistic; actually, it was about not paying taxes at all.
There used to be a joke about a guy selling lighters who got caught for not paying taxes. The officials solemnly asked him why he wasn't paying taxes, claiming you should know the country can't thrive without them.
"Sir, if everyone paid taxes, I'd be fine. If ten are committing tax evasion, they might catch half; the other half has a fighting chance. If I paid full taxes, I'd lose money on every sale; ten times over would still not be enough."
Of course, later these things didn't exist anymore. You could afford to be careless with the first bucket of capital, but that wouldn't hold for later.
Speaking of which, the Post-90s and Post-00s truly had it rough. They couldn't catch a break, and the skyrocketing housing prices were firmly pinned on their heads.
"Selling books? What's that all about?" The boss of Morgan Stanley felt a bit dazed, sensing that the world was getting murkier. A DVD caused chaos in Hollywood, and now they were investing in a book-selling venture.
"Cough, I'm not really sure. The guy named Jeff Bezos is somewhat of a well-known figure on Wall Street."
"Wall Street?" The old guy's headache intensified; what in the world was going on, wasn't a book seller supposed to be a cultured person? How did all this tie in with Wall Street?
"Andy, clarify this for me--who exactly is this guy?"
In the old guy's view, Jeff Bezos must have lost his mind; why venture into tech if he was thriving on Wall Street?
"Online payment?"
"Yes, I asked around, and while there's a demand, no one seems optimistic about this business."
"So our bankers aren't looking at this favorably? Ugh, even if I don't get this business, I'm inclined to trust William White's judgment.
There's been a lot of things the bankers didn't favor; didn't they also look down on William White?"
Andy didn't know how to respond; looking back, it seemed William White hadn't actually lacked funds back then. His seeking help from those bankers was merely a performance art. Or rather, it was to confuse the Hunter family.
You succeeded; however grim things were initially, someone would still praise you excessively. If William White fumbled, then that overconfident clueless rich kid would be his only label.
In this story, the ones duped were the banks and the Hunter family. As for William White?
In any case, the more outrageous he presented things, the more successful he looked; weren't success stories always like this? If it couldn't be sensational, where would the story be?
Jeff Bezos learned the hard way about people's fickleness. Observing the crowd of flattering bankers, he couldn't find the words. Just a month ago, they had been totally indifferent to him.
*****
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