Razer expands payments reach with Singapore move
United Overseas Bank (UOB) and Razer are collaborating to launch Razer Pay in Singapore in the next few months, an “e-wallet designed for youth and millennials”.
UOB will provide a suite of payment and cash management solutions to allow top-ups on the Razer Pay e-wallet, as well as processing for Razer Pay’s network of merchants.
Preecha Praipattarakul, SVP for Razer Pay, says: “Razer Pay Singapore is the e-wallet designed for youth and millennials, making it easy for users to transfer money quickly, to top up easily and to pay everywhere.”
In Singapore, top-ups are realised through the eNETs Debit or Credit service, or by transferring funds via FAST (Fast and Secure Transfers) directly to Razer.
The e-wallet aims for a “smoother customer experience online and at point-of-sale terminals”.
UOB and Razer will also explore the use of PayNow Corporate to enable digital payments to both merchants and e-wallet users with just the business’ unique entity number or the user’s mobile phone number, respectively.
UOB will also support Razer’s cross-border foreign exchange (FX) transactions. Razer will be able to access wholesale FX rates when making payments to merchants.
Razer Pay first went live in Malaysia on 4 July 2018, accruing over half a million signups in less than a week.
This e-wallet was developed in collaboration with Malaysian conglomerate Berjaya Corporation Berhad.
From gaming to financial services
Razer is better known for being a gaming peripherals hardware and software manufacturer, so why the move into payments?
This is not the first venture of Razer into payments. Originally, it released Razer zGold, a virtual credit service which allows gamers to purchase virtual goods and items in games, instead of having a publisher-specific currency.
Razer gamers are able to add zGold credits to their accounts and also purchase points across a range of online services, including Steam Wallet, Garena, Sony PlayStation, Spotify, iflix, and Astro NJOI.
This is complemented by Razer zSilver, a loyalty currency which users earn as they spend zGold points.
This move is not particularly surprising, since in the gaming market, and particularly Asia-Pacific, in-game purchases are very common.
However, the change to a mobile e-wallet for retail use is a bit more surprising. Is the company trying to capitalise on the mobile fintech hype, or does this involve a larger plan? From keyboards and mice to an e-wallet – that’s quite the jump.
Interestingly, Razer started manufacturing and selling phones at the end of 2017, after they bought the start-up Nextbit.
My guess? Given the ubiquity of smartphones, mobile games, and free-to-play games on the APAC market, Razer wants to bring all these elements under its roof.
Maybe for the many gamers in the region, it is just a matter of convenience to unify online payments for goods and digital products, as well as digital and mobile retail payments. And that’s where Razer might come in kicking.
