Razer Inc. is a company in Singapore that makes gaming peripherals. It is headed by its co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Min-Liang Tan. He recently talked about his Razer and how it has expanded into the fintech sector.
Razer’s first product was a gaming mouse. It now makes several gaming peripherals. Its latest product is the Razer Iskur, which is a gaming chair. The Iskur became so popular that it sells out every time more stock is created. It also has gaming software, such as Razer Cortex, Razer Synapse and Razer Chroma RGB.
Razer has benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic, Min-Liang Tan said. Since people are staying home more, they are playing video games more often. He said his team at Razer knows what gamers want because they all play games, too. They are constantly coming up with innovative products that help improve the gaming experience.
His favorite product of 2020 is the Razer Sneki Snek Plushie. This character is based on a sketch one of his company’s designers drew for their child. The Sneki Snek became the mascot of Razer. People around the world have created memes about it and even have it as a tattoo. They decided to make it into a plushie since it’s so popular.
The Razer Sneki Snek Plushie was also released to help the environmental conservation effort. Razer partnered with Conservation International, which is a nonprofit with a three-decade track record of helping the environment. For each plushie sold, 10 trees are saved. The original goal was to save 100,000 trees. There have been over 120,000 trees saved.
When COVID-19 emerged, Razer helped support its business partners by giving them US$50 million. This was done through the company’s ZVentures, Razer Gold and Razer Fintech platforms. The money came in the way of investments, financial contributions, access to Razer’s products and services, and cash-flow support. Razer also dedicated some of its manufacturing capacity to making surgical face masks.
Min-Liang Tan said Razer is now in the consumer fintech space. It started by creating Razer Pay, which is a digital payment solution now used across Southeast Asia. His company next launched a digital bank. Razer Fintech is a popular offline-to-online digital payment network. Created in 2018, it has processed billions of dollars in transactions.
More recently, Razer Youth Bank was launched. Its target market is millennials and younger. People in these age groups are very familiar with Razer and see it as a lifestyle brand for gamers.
As CEO of Razer, Min-Liang Tan directs and oversees the development of its products and services. He was born in Singapore and now lives in San Francisco. He earned a law degree at Singapore Law School, but decided to pursue a career in the gaming industry rather than be a lawyer. Business Insider named him to their “The 25 Most Creative People in Tech” list. Kotaku put him on their “The Kotaku Power 40” list.