
Razer Plans to Target its Young Gaming Customers with New Financial Products
Video gaming giant Razer has applied for a digital banking licence in Singapore. Its Razer Fintech arm is eventually planning Razer Youth Bank and experts predict Razer will target its 60-70 million strong software user base with its new financial products.
The development is indicative of Millennial and Generation Z serving industries converging as companies diversify, especially into the new world of digital finance. The confluence of gaming, gambling and cryptocurrencies, new virtual currencies, is a leading example. A gaming company jumping into banking services is another, just like social media giant Facebook which is developing its own cryptocurrency. Finance is no longer the realm of just banks and increasingly technology giants who influence the lives of young generations, and gamers, have their eyes on how else they can serve their customers.

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Moving into “lifestyle” and financial services
Razer pitches itself as the “leading lifestyle brand for gamers,” it has a global fan base and an ecosystem of hardware, software, and services. Razer software users, including IoT platform Razer Synapse, RGB lighting system Razer Chroma, and game optimizer and launcher Razer Cortex, have 60 million or more registered users. Razer has already developed credit services for gamers under Razer Gold and has an e-wallet called Razer Pay.
Razer, as per Bloomberg, has now partnered with a number of Singapore based entrepreneurs and Asian billionaires in its banking ambitions under Razer Fintech. It follows companies like Alibaba’s Ant Financial and Tencent who have recently obtained banking licences in Hong Kong.
Singapore will decide the winners of five digital banking licences in mid-2020. The digital banking licences will create virtual lenders in Singapore. Southeast Asia’s digital lending market is expected to reach a value of $110 billion by 2025 and about 40% of Singapore’s population have limited access to financial services, this figure is greater in other parts of Asia.
The end goal for Razer Fintech appears to be to launch Razer Youth Bank, targeted at 12-35-year olds, which Razer says will be the first bank of its kind. Lee Li Meng, Razer CEO, says “youth and millennials are underserved even in a crowded space like Singapore.” Jefferies analyst, Ken Chong, predicts:
“Upon obtaining the license, we believe Razer would leverage on its 70 million registered user base across its software offerings to cross-sell more financial products. This would likely include insurance and wealth management products offered by Razer’s ecosystem partners, while Razer would contribute its traffic and data of its core user base of game enthusiasts.”
Razer officially operates from Singapore and San Francisco and it has retail stores across the globe including in London and Las Vegas. It’s likely that Razer will look to grow its financial presence globally too. It’s known that the gaming giant has been looking in recent years to reduce its reliance on revenue from hardware peripherals. Razer Fintech already has around 200 employees.
Southeast Asia is also the fastest growing games market in the world. Mostly mobile-first, the increasing availability of smartphones and the implementation of 5G will likely fuel fast future growth for the region.
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