Top of the big era

Compared with the partner found from Microsoft, Lao Ma is definitely more trustworthy. Next, Zhou Buqi went with him to meet with Dan Schulman, the senior vice president of American American Express.

American Express is an American financial giant.

The most famous product is, of course, American Express’ Centurion Black Gold Card, referred to as “American Express Black Card”. This is a credit card, but it is a symbol of identity and status. If you don’t have enough identity or status, you can’t do it even if you have money and connections.

Zhou Buqi remembered that he seemed to have signed and processed several documents.

I don’t know who is using it now.

Ning Yaxian should have one in her hand, Aunt Xue should also have one, and Sun Wanran seems to have one as well. As for Shi Jinglin, Zhen Yu, and Bao Shan, they all have enough status, so they can do it themselves if they want to.

After meeting Dan Schulman, Zhou Buqi discussed martial arts with him.

Don't tell me, this big-nosed American really understands.

It's not like those foreigners who only talk about Bruce Lee and Jacket Cheng when it comes to martial arts. He actually has a lot of research on Baguazhang. He also said that he has been practicing Baguazhang for seven or eight years and is very good at boxing.

Boss Ma smiled and said, "I testify! The last time we competed, I did a set of Tai Chi, but it was really not as good as his Baguazhang."

Zhou Buqi became more and more certain of Boss Ma's vision.

This is very important.

I don’t reject Chinese culture, but Boss Ma also loves traditional martial arts. The two of them have a lot in common. If he is really appointed as the CEO of PayPal, it will be much smoother to promote PayPal to imitate Alipay in the future.

Next, we talked about performance.

Zhou Buqi asked curiously: "I heard that you led a new project at American Express?"

Shulman said with a smile: "Indeed, after I sold Virgin Mobile to Sprint three years ago, I quickly switched to American Express, and then started a new project, which is the American Express Bluebird card that is very popular in the market now. ."

Zhou Buqi didn't know what this was, "Bluebird card? What is this?"

Schulman said: "It's a... um, prepaid card."

"Prepaid card?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows.

Can this thing become popular?

With a prepaid card, you deposit money into your bank card first and then spend it.

In Europe and the United States, the most popular ones are credit cards, and American Express Black Card is a credit card. There is no need to deposit money in advance with a credit card, as long as you have credit, you can swipe the card without any collateral, swipe the card first to pay, and then pay the money.

Schulman said: "American Express's traditional banking business is difficult for some young people, especially students. Without a job or a stable income, there is a lack of certain credit protection. However, these young people also need some high-quality Financial services. Especially when it comes to discount strategies, many middle-aged and elderly people don’t care and can’t understand some complex discount packages. But young people are different. They will be happy because of a discount of a few cents.”

Zhou Buqi immediately became interested.

Serve young people!

This is very internet!

It is in line with the positioning of Ziweixing's core user group.

Boss Ma smiled and said nothing. He had already asked all the questions that needed to be asked. Many of Schulman's operational ideas on Bluebird Card are actually very similar to many of Alipay's ideas.

The difference is that Schulman is launching a real bank card, while Alipay is doing mobile payment in a cardless mode.

Zhou Buqi said: "How does this Bluebird card work?"

Schulman thought for a moment and said with a smile: "For example, Wal-Mart and Carrefour, as large supermarkets, are competitors and will actively attract customers. Blue Bird Card can sign an exclusive cooperation with Wal-Mart and require Walmart provides certain discounts to all purchases made by Bluebird card users.”

"Well, it is indeed suitable for young people."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

After Bluebird Card has signed an exclusive cooperation with Walmart, users can get discounts when using Bluebird Card to make purchases at Walmart.

In this process, American Express successfully promoted their Blue Bird Card to young users. Walmart also bound these young consumers through its binding relationship with the Blue Bird Card. In the process of using the Blue Bird Card, young people I also got real benefits.

It can be said that many parties benefit.

This indeed caters to the market needs of young people to a certain extent.

The payment markets in Europe and the United States are basically dominated by credit cards.

When banks promote credit cards, they also have similar cooperation. When using credit cards to make purchases, there will be certain discounts.

This promotes social phenomena that stimulate consumption through business models.

When users become accustomed to using credit cards for consumption, they will gradually overspend.

There are no processing fees for credit cards, and there is no interest if the payment is completed before the repayment date. However, once the repayment date is exceeded, an interest-bearing loan will be formed, and the interest will be very high, with the annual interest rate being around 25%.

The cost of bank credit card business is not low. There are settlement fees, card fees, interest on fund advances, etc. These fees do not need to be borne by consumers, but are borne by the financial institution that issued the credit card.

So how do they make money?

It relies on the fact that some people swipe their cards too much and cannot afford to pay back the loan, and then pay high interest on this part of the loan.

In fact, it was “Huabei” that Alipay later created.

Banks have been working hard in China for decades and launch various promotion policies and preferential strategies every year. However, the credit card system and social credit system that could not be built were easily implemented by Boss Ma in just a few years through Alipay.

Within those few years, there was a certain consumption boom in the country and the economy was developing very well. But all the money has been taken away by Alipay, and the bank can't even drink soup. How can this be done?

Later it was restricted.

The consumption craze among the people has cooled down rapidly.

Later, when the economy got worse and he wanted to boost the economy by encouraging and stimulating consumption, Boss Ma had already moved away.

The United States is the world's largest consumer country, and this is actually supported by the financial service system established by financial giants like American Express.

The Bluebird card is a nice little innovation.

Dan Schulman is also quite proud of this.

But in Zhou Buqi's view, this is all child's play, at least compared to what Alipay is trying to do, it's really nothing. Fortunately, this person's innovative spirit and focus on young people deserve recognition.

For PayPal to develop in the future, the first thing to do is to cooperate with major financial institutions in the United States to bring their existing financial services to PayPal's online platform.

If you are an Internet person, you really lack such connections.

At least in the past few years, PayPal has had too little cooperation with traditional financial institutions. PayPal is more like a payment tool rather than an online financial platform.

Schulman is indeed a good choice.

He is the senior vice president of American Express, and he has also developed the American Express Bluebird Card, which is very successful and influential in the industry. I am looking forward to relying on him to open up the relationship between PayPal and traditional financial institutions.