The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 100 The Rapid Advancement of NewPay

Before Zhou Xin joined the Charlie Rose talk show, for the vast majority of Americans, they used Newman products, but did not know that these products had anything to do with Newman.

For Internet practitioners in Silicon Valley who have never dealt with Zhou Xin, Zhou Xin only has a vague image of a genius, and when he is scolded by his immediate boss, he uses it to belittle their targets.

"Newman can think of it, why can't you think of it?"

In general, Zhou Xin has attracted too much hatred, especially among product managers.

In the words of a well-known Silicon Valley CEO, he would rather spend the money of 100 product managers to hire Newman than hire [-] mediocre product managers.

Of course, under the influence of Zhou Xin, the treatment of the product manager group has improved a lot. Everyone realizes that a good product manager can bring huge value to the company.

It's just that the definition of a good product manager is hard to measure.

"When you take Newman as a measurement standard, all product managers will become worthless." This is what Microsoft's executives in charge of MSN said during an internal meeting.

After this episode of Charlie Rose’s talk show was broadcast, Zhou Xin’s image in American became fuller, and she was no longer an illusory entrepreneurial image, especially the tragic childhood experience made people feel a sense of identity.

"This guy, like us, grew up as ordinary people."

The discussion about this program on Quora was divided into the field of TV programs. Charlie Rose, as a well-known host, was invited to join Quora by Zhou Xin after the program ended.

After he joined Quora, a large number of users invited him to answer this question himself.

"How do I see Newman on Charlie Rose?"

Charlie Rose himself responded as follows:
"Thank you for your warm invitation. As the mascot of this show, I will talk about my thoughts.

Most talk shows will have a script, the host and guests will perform step by step according to the script, and some scripts will even tell the host that you should show surprise or fear after the guest answers the question. class annotations.

You can see it as a kind of fact-based script.

But in the Charlie Rose talk show, we only have a general framework and tell the guests that our interview questions will be within this framework.

Since there is no script and no rehearsal in advance, sometimes the guests' answers will lead me to ask some questions outside the framework.

In this interview with Newman, there are many questions that are not within the scope of the frame, which are questions that I want to ask spontaneously. Newman is both sincere and astute.He is the fastest responding group of guests I have interviewed, and he has his own thinking on many issues.

All I can say is that he is the best product manager on the internet, and he deserves that title. "

While the Charlie Rose talk show sparked heated discussions, Quora was invincible in the online community with its unique paid question-and-answer feature.

The Quora craze even affected the traffic of the Riot Electronics community. After the launch of Quora, the monthly increase in the number of users of the Riot Electronics Community was interrupted for the first time.

Quora broke into the top three most visited websites in the United States for the first time in early June.

At the same time, it is full of top talents from various countries.

Quora does not impose restrictions on registered users. Except for users in American, the number of users in the Europa region is the largest.

Users in these other countries will also take the exam and compete with American users.

So much so that American users said that users from other countries should be prohibited from participating in the user registration test.

There are a large number of users around the world who have to take the threshold exam, which is also jokingly called the Quora entrance exam, despite the jet lag.

Take Zhou Xin’s alma mater Yanda as an example, whoever passed the Quora entrance exam and got a gold badge can show it off on the Weiming Lake BBS.

But users in other regions cannot use NewPay, and other countries have not opened up regulatory restrictions on electronic payments.

Especially in Huaguo, it was not until 2005 that Huaguo opened up restrictions on electronic payments and allowed private capital to enter this field.

This has led to the paid question and answer function being an exclusive benefit for American users.

Users in other regions cannot even use this feature.

"Recently, our customer service has generally responded to a question, that is, they also want to use Quora's paid question-and-answer function. Is there any way for us to meet their needs."

This question was posed by Peter Thiel, because the Quora paid question and answer function only opens up one payment option, and that is NewPay.

Users ask Quora's service staff, and they will push the question to NewPay.

Peter Thiel said: "Because the current attitude towards electronic payment in the Europa region, and even most of the world, is very ambiguous, but I want to meet the needs of users.

And I think that the opening of electronic payment is a matter of time for other countries. Can we adopt some way to let users enjoy NewPay's services in advance.

At the same time, is it also for us to cultivate users around the world? "

Peter Thiel got up and wrote in marker on the whiteboard in the back: "Virtual account."

"We can provide users in other countries with the right to register NewPay accounts, for them, nothing more than binding bank cards.

But we can give him a dummy account.

For users on Quora, after they are asked questions, money will be transferred to his virtual account, and he cannot withdraw cash or recharge.

But he can use the money on the virtual account to complete the payment action.

For example, he can use the money to buy Riot Games products, ask other users questions, and even buy items on Amazon as gifts to his friends in American. "

At this time, Amazon has not yet started to expand its cross-border business.

"That is to say, for users in other regions, the NewPay account is no different from American users except that they cannot recharge and withdraw cash.

As for recharging, they can also adopt some marginal methods, such as transferring money to the American user through a bank card, and then the American user transfers money to his NewPay account.

We can't do this, but regular users can.

This bypasses the supervision, and also cultivates customers for us in advance, which greatly expands NewPay's influence territory. "

The concept of virtual accounts was definitely a genius idea in 1999, which perfectly bypassed supervision.

Zhou Xin thought, no wonder PayPal was able to achieve the final success. Peter Thiel also has a keen sense of smell, and he can find ways to satisfy users to bypass supervision in products.

Sometimes Internet companies that follow the rules too will be eliminated. Baidu's follow the rules in many fields in later generations has proved this point.

Zhou Xin nodded: "Very good idea, I think there is no problem.

But the only place where there is risk is in how to avoid fraud.

Because all our users are bound to bank cards at present, and bank cards need their real information, so every transaction has traces to follow.

Once the virtual account registration is opened, the mailbox can directly register the NewPay account, and the NewPay account can complete the transfer.

At present, the registration of the entire mailbox is completely unrestricted, and we cannot supervise the transfer of virtual accounts.

Once fraudulent behavior occurs, we cannot cooperate with regulators to trace it.

The supervision of small-scale fraud will not intervene, but the size of NewPay determines that once similar incidents occur, it will definitely not be a small-scale behavior.

So I would like to make a few requirements. Overseas users must register with their mobile phone number when registering. Riot Games has already negotiated with telecom operators in major countries.

Just keep talking.

Overseas users can only register through their mobile phone number, and secondly, when initiating a transfer to an overseas account, a second confirmation is required and a warning is given to the user.

We need to do what we can.

Then, by the way, I would like to emphasize one point here, that is, NewPay needs to benchmark banks, not Internet companies, in terms of risk control and user management. "

While NewPay is conducting a new round of exploration in the field of product innovation, the negotiation with EBay is also coming to an end.

The main resistance to NewPay's access to EBay comes from the person in charge of Billpoint within EBay. She believes that EBay should only use its own payment software instead of NewPay.

The field of electronic payment is a field with high potential. If NewPay is adopted, Billpoint will no longer be able to stand up.

NewPay itself is crushing Billpoint in terms of the number of users, user quality, and user activity. If EBay does not allow Billpoint to monopolize, then Billpoint's acquisition will be in vain.

"I want to ask you how long it will take for Billpoint to go online? How long will our users have to endure the traditional check and money order payment?"

"It will take half a year at the earliest. We are already stepping up development. If we double our developers, the time can be shortened, but it will take October at the earliest.

Because electronic payment involves information security and financial security, we need adequate testing. "

Originally, eBay did not officially launch the market until March 2000 after acquiring Billpoint.

EBay is struggling internally whether to wait for Billpoint or use NewPay directly.

The valuation of NewPay has doubled, and now it is valued at 20 billion U.S. dollars. If you can cultivate a payment software, even if it is not as good as NewPay, then the valuation must be half of NewPay, 10 billion U.S. dollars.

Isn't it good to grow Billpoint by yourself?This is the view of the Billpoint supporters.

Another faction believes that the introduction of NewPay will not affect their cultivation of Billpoint.When Billpoint is not yet online, NewPay is used first, and then the two are used in parallel after Billpoint is online. After users gradually get used to Billpoint, NewPay will be eliminated at one time.

In this way, neither party will be delayed.

At this time, Amazon and some e-shopping platforms have already connected to NewPay. After these e-shopping platforms connected to NewPay, both sellers and buyers expressed their enthusiasm.

Compared with traditional payment methods, electronic payment is much more convenient.

EBay users do not only use EBay, they also use other e-shopping platforms, and comparisons are harmful.

A large number of EBay users have said that if there is no NewPay, they will no longer use EBay.

　Today's Chapter 1

　　
　
(End of this chapter)