Will Razer be our new Best Companion?

Well, we all know that there are tons of e-wallet, debit, and prepaid cards out there in the market.

They all have their own perks and deals that come along with it.

But honestly, it is not easy to keep track of all of them. Can I just have one, please?

Source: Truegif.com Giphy

Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored article. I am writing this to inform readers about what we could possibly expect from Razer Pay and why it could probably benefit us.

All of us probably know Razer as the leading lifestyle brand for gamers and high-performing software and hardware provider or as an esports brand.

So then why should this concern us?

Because earlier this year, Razer Fintech assembled their own team of Avengers.

Huh wait what? Semo?!

Yeap! You heard that right, they had 4 months prior to submitting the application.

What application??

As mentioned in their press release, they submitted an application for the Digital Full Bank License to be issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Then recently, they unveiled a New Prepaid Card along with Visa to transform the digital payments experience for youths and millennials.

I believe we can probably say that there is no one bank or e-wallet that is targeted only at youths and millennials. This is where Razer is going to have a differentiated approach! They will be targetting this underserved segment through innovative use of technology and strategic partnerships.

Razer Pay Card lights up at payment, LIT or 1337?!

P.S. 1337 = 'leet' is derived from the word elite

Source: Razer

To simply answer the question, YES. It could possibly be our best companion for youths and millennials.

TL;DR: BETA User Razer Pay Card Review and how I think it might play out

Let's first take a deeper look into Razer Fintech.

Razer Fintech was established in April 2018 and operates two verticals, Razer Merchant Services (formerly known as MOLPay) and Razer Pay and it is the financial technology arm of Razer Inc. Its online gateway business itself has processed 2.1 billions of payments in 2019 and 1.8 billions in the first half of 2020. They have seen tremendous growth in their services business making up 15% of their total revenue and providing them with profit margins of around 40~50% which is much more than what their hardware business provides (20% profit margins) as mentioned by the CSO of Razer Inc. and CEO of Razer Fintech.

Over the years, Razer has built themselves a huge fan base with its strong branding amongst gamers.

It is then of course clear that now they like to leverage on this community to build a Global Youth Brand.

However, given that their expertise predominantly lies in hardware, they needed to know their future users (us, youths and millennials) well enough to serve us in this new territory. They are doing so by gathering feedback and understanding our everyday life. Hence the reason why they decided to open BETA testing for 1,337 users before having any official launch.

To clarify, I am a BETA tester myself. I signed up on 6 Oct and received an email a week later to welcome me onto the BETA testing which starts on 19 Oct. Prior to this, I have been using Razer Pay here and there as it is accepted at the newly open coffee shop opposite my house.

Good Move Razer!

I would applaud them for this smart move to role out BETA testing as frankly, my experience on their Razer Pay app has not been that pleasant so far. There is a lot of improvement they have to make. I will go through them below.

Things you get as a BETA tester (now till Dec 31, 2020):

• Gamified rewards

• First dips into the world's first card that lights up on payment

• Increased 10% cashback on RazerStore and Razer Gold purchases

Gamified rewards

This is mainly split into 4 parts:

1. Pay

2. Spend

3. Influence

4. Ultimate Reward

1. Pay

With 5 stages namely making 1, 10, 50, 150 and 300 transactions. With the best reward being a Razer Tartarus Pro worth $206.90. Considering that I have 74 days till this BETA ends, that would mean I need to make an average of 4.05 transactions a day which is kind of a lot. What makes it harder is that the physical card is only going to be shipped to me within 4 weeks and I will have to make do with the virtual card before that.

2. Spend

5 stages as well, spending $50, $200, $2000, $3500 and $6500. This is extremely unrealistic for youths and millennials?! I really find this contradicting with what they first seek to do, serve the underserved segment. Who would spend so much in a span of 74 days, averaging $87.84/day for a youth or millennial that is not making any money? To add on, the best reward for this part looks worse than that of 'Pay'. It is Razer Tactical Backpack V2 worth $199.90.

3. Influence

Exactly what influence means, Razer seeks the help of their fans to evangelize. However, yet another unrealistic goal, with 5 stages namely recruiting 1, 10, 30, 60 and 120 referrals. Unless I am a streamer, how am I suppose to hit 120 referrals? Much less to say, getting the best reward which is Razer Raiju TE worth $239.90.

4. Ultimate Rewards

This can be completed by finishing the first 3 parts and you will get Razer Iskur Gaming Chair worth $749.90.

Table

MY VERDICT for the Gamified Rewards

Not to say that I am mildly disappointed that the ultimate reward is not a laptop but this is pretty much impossible to achieve.

Besides that, their app has been pretty buggy from failed top ups but transaction history showing successful, coupon redemption issue, and buggy payment notification, just to name a few.

**Will updated when I get my Razer Pay Card that lights up! Also, when some of the rewards that I got arrive :)

Still got quite a bit of homework to do but in the right step

I am in high hopes of seeing this ecosystem that Razer is trying to build. Some of their strategic equity partners include:

Sheng Shiong Holdings - Possible discounts or gamified points system for youths and millennials? Something similar to NTUC member?

FWD - Promotional basic insurance plans for millennials that just started working or forming a family?

Carro - Convenient place to look for cars in the future with possible gamified rewards?

Some other partners:

Confidential Airline Partner - Youth and millennial air ticket rates vs budget airline?

JustCo - Just right for the entrepreneurs amongst us (pun intended)

Saxo Markets - Preferential prices for us on their platforms?

But what if they do not get their license?

“Singapore is not the only jurisdiction we’re looking at,” Razer’s co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan, told CNBC in an interview. “We’re also exploring in Europe; exploring in the U.S.”

This is pretty obvious since the other 2/3 of their users are in the U.S. and Europe. Moreover, Razer is also eyeing Malaysia's digital bank license announced by Malaysia's central bank following Singapore with its foothold in the online payment industry.

That is why...

Razer Pay is clearly in its early stage but it is here to stay and we should keep a close look at how it develops since it is catered solely for us, youths and millennials. Who knows it could really just be our next best companion!

I believe their sign up for BETA testing is still open here. Otherwise, you can also download Razer Pay app to create an account with the code "RAZER1" and then sign up from within the app. Cheers!