"Yes!" Hao Jianguo was surprised to hear Boss Huang's words. He had thought that with Boss Huang's personality, he would forcefully enter the US e-commerce market this time and fight fiercely with merchants like Amazon and eBay. Unexpectedly, Boss Huang proactively gave up the idea of competing with them.
"Then, are we going to cooperate with these companies?" Hao Jianguo asked cautiously.
"That's right!" Huang He nodded. "This is also something that will require your hard work recently. I hope you can assemble a specialized team to negotiate with various e-commerce platforms in the US and get them to introduce our Western Mustang Wallet as a payment platform."
"Yes!" Hao Jianguo accepted the task without refusal and then ended the online meeting.
Hao Jianguo immediately began selecting personnel from within the company to form this new negotiation team.
"This might be an opportunity!" Looking at the plan for the new negotiation team he had just drafted, and recalling his previous work, an idea came to mind.
The next morning, Hao Jianguo led his team to the Western Mustang Foundation and found Little Swift. He then explained the task assigned by Boss Huang in yesterday's meeting and said, "The Western Mustang Wallet is your product after all, so I need some professionals to act as my consultants and assist you in your negotiations with various e-commerce platforms."
"In addition, when negotiations involve specialized knowledge, I will also need the help of these professional talents!"
"No problem, Old Hao. Take anyone you like here, except for myself!" Little Swift said generously. Hao Jianguo then began to discuss with some personnel and finally selected several professional technical staff.
Afterward, Little Swift asked casually, "Has that guy Sleepy Bridge been working diligently lately?"
"Don't even mention that guy!" Little Swift shook his head helplessly. "He didn't even come to work yesterday. When someone went to find him in the dormitory, they discovered he had been drunk all night. He's beyond help. If it weren't for his contributions, I would have fired him on the spot!"
"In that case, why don't you let me have this guy?" Hao Jianguo said. "If he continues like this, he'll be ruined. Someone needs to supervise him and give him various tasks!"
"You want him!" Little Swift's expression showed a hint of surprise and unwillingness. Hao Jianguo keenly sensed Little Swift's emotional change.
"Or maybe not, I'm afraid he'll cause you trouble. This guy is really beyond help," Little Swift refused.
"It's precisely because he's beyond help that I must take him!" Hao Jianguo snorted. "Brother, if this Sleepy Bridge continues like this, he will corrupt the entire company's work environment and atmosphere."
"This is my last attempt to save him. Otherwise, I can also take this opportunity to fire him, which would make things easier for you. I know you are a sentimental good person, but everything should prioritize the company's and the boss's interests. The company shouldn't keep such idle people, should it?" Hao Jianguo's words were sharp, and Little Swift found it difficult to refute.
After a moment of hesitation, he said, "Actually, Sleepy Joe still has some use. We are currently very popular, and many clients are trying to poach people from our company. About 1% of employees have already been poached, and the company is in a state of staff shortage. Although Sleepy Joe often drinks and naps, he is very knowledgeable about the company's products, can complete all tasks independently, and can be relied upon in critical moments. Firing him would be a waste!"
"Alright, since you insist, I have nothing more to say. I just hope this is the right decision!" Hao Jianguo did not push further.
In fact, he had never intended to get Sleepy Joe if the person wasn't the mastermind behind the scenes. Getting him would be meaningless, just acquiring a useless person.
And if the person truly was a genius, Little Swift would never let him go. Little Swift's reaction further confirmed Hao Jianguo's guess.
However, Hao Jianguo didn't dwell on Sleepy Joe any longer and continued with the work, as being too focused on a mere useless employee would only arouse suspicion.
The employees Hao Jianguo specifically requested were all smoothly transferred to the group. For over a month, Hao Jianguo focused on negotiating with major e-commerce platforms in the United States.
The US e-commerce industry was about seven or eight years ahead of China. The first online shopping platform appeared around 2004. Currently, there are about two to three hundred active e-commerce platforms... Besides Amazon in its later stages, there wasn't a single large, all-encompassing e-commerce shopping platform in the US at this time. These platforms were almost all specialized.
Some platforms sold books exclusively, some sold used goods, and others specialized in digital products, clothing, and various other professional e-commerce networks. Hao Jianguo had to negotiate with each of them individually.
Fortunately, this was the most dazzling period for the Western Mustang Foundation. The whole world knew that the wallet held a large amount of funds. Most importantly, there were many users who had opened online banking accounts and topped up their wallets with cash. They were very eager to cooperate with such an online bank.
After all, this cooperation did not require exclusivity. Relying on a source of funds and users was an excellent thing.
While the smaller platforms were easy to handle, trouble finally arose when it came to dealing with the "Big Three."
These three giants were Amazon, eBay, and Walmart.
Amazon's primary business was books at the time, but it was gradually moving towards becoming an all-encompassing e-commerce platform.
eBay was also advancing towards becoming a global commercial platform, but it was still mainly focused on used goods and online auctions.
Walmart, needless to say, was the absolute king in the retail and hypermarket sectors, even becoming the number one company on the Fortune Global 500 list at one point. Its history in the e-commerce industry even predated Amazon by a year.
These three were the dominant platforms in the US e-commerce sector at the time. However, none of them were easy to deal with. Hao Jianguo's negotiation team was repeatedly met with closed doors.
Walmart, ranked third, rejected the Western Mustang Wallet with a simple reason: it conflicted with their business philosophy.
In the eyes of Walmart's operators, Walmart's e-commerce platform was designed to better serve Walmart's offline customers. They did not need to actively acquire more customers online because over 80% of consumers in the United States were already Walmart customers. They did not need to pay attention to the meager incremental growth online.
Therefore, Walmart's shopping platform did not use any e-commerce software or payment tools but rather its own Walmart membership card. Customers could obtain membership cards at Walmart's physical stores across the country, top them up, and become Walmart members.
When shopping on the Walmart e-commerce platform, customers could directly log in with their Walmart membership accounts and use the balance in their membership cards for purchases, a process that did not require the assistance of any online banking or payment software.
Thus, when Hao Jianguo and the Western Mustang Wallet team visited, they couldn't even meet with Walmart's senior management. A mid-level manager met them, explained their operating policy, and then dismissed them without even offering a chance to negotiate.
Compared to Walmart, Amazon, ranked second, had a much better attitude. Hao Jianguo even met directly with Amazon's chairman, Bezos, on his first visit, and they talked for an entire morning in Bezos's office.
This seemed like a very good start, but it put both parties at odds.
Bezos did not reject the Western Mustang Wallet's integration, but his ambition was even greater: he wanted to directly acquire Western Mustang Wallet's payment business.
That's right, just when Boss Huang, in his rare kindness, wanted to cooperate with the local powers, they wanted to swallow Boss Huang's beloved asset in return.
Although Bezos was very generous, offering a full $300 million to acquire all of Western Mustang Wallet's business, the condition was that Western Mustang Foundation and Western Mustang Bank must sign a 20-year fixed cooperation agreement with Western Mustang Wallet, sharing their users with Western Mustang Wallet without any obstruction.
Good heavens, this was a direct attempt to buy Western Mustang Foundation's user database and traffic for 20 years with $300 million. Bezos had truly mastered the game of online e-commerce.
Hao Jianguo naturally could not agree to such terms, as he knew Boss Huang's conditions. Then Bezos stated that if they didn't want to sell, that was fine, but for every customer who successfully transacted through Western Mustang Wallet on the Amazon platform, Western Mustang Wallet would have to pay Amazon a 0.3% transaction fee as compensation.
Good heavens, this was even better! They actually wanted to fleece Boss Huang. Hao Jianguo had to express his admiration, and the negotiations naturally broke down.
As for eBay, Hao Jianguo learned the latest news upon arrival: eBay had acquired a company called PayPal. This was also a payment company, but they didn't have their own online bank. Instead, they partnered with more and larger banks, serving as an intermediary tool for online payments. Oh, by the way, the founder of this PayPal was named Musk!