Razer Gaming Company Teams With Visa For Online Payments

Razer, a gaming hardware company based in Singapore, has partnered with Visa to offer a prepaid card that will let the company’s 60 million users make payments all over the world, according to reports.

Razer, which is worth more than $1 billion and is listed on the Hong Kong Exchange, said it will embed Visa into its e-wallet. The move will enable Razer Pay e-wallet users to make payments wherever Visa is accepted.

The partnership exists for another reason as well: to facilitate the targeting of Southeast Asia’s unbanked populace, which is estimated at around 438 million. The region is also the home to more than 213 million millennials.

“Together, Visa and Razer FinTech have the opportunity to transform the payments experience for not only the gaming community, but many of Southeast Asia’s unbanked and underserved consumers as well,” said Chris Clark, Visa’s regional president for Asia Pacific.

Razer Pay already offers mobile top-ups, virtual credits and the ability to purchase from music and streaming platforms.

“We are incredibly excited with the opportunities that this innovative payment solution serves to millions of consumers, connecting them to an extensive network of merchants globally,” said Razer Co-founder and CEO Min-Liang Tan.

The integrated service is expected to roll out in select countries in Southeast Asia before expanding across the world. Razer, which was founded in 2005, has 18 offices around the globe and headquarters in both Singapore and San Francisco. It is a leading brand for gamers in Europe, China and the United States.

Razer’s Chief Strategy Officer Li Meng Lee told a news outlet that the move is a natural step, and that it hasn’t ruled out the possibility of a physical card in the future.

“For many years, the people who have been making digital payments before it became a sexy word in the last couple of years … (many of them) are the gamers who go to a 7-Eleven, pay in cash and get a pin code to buy virtual skins for the games,” Lee said. “Because of that, we’ve been able to build up more than a million service points across Southeast Asia.”