Singapore-based company Razer’s (RAZFF) attempt to diversify met with a lot of struggles that its digital wallet services had to shut down in the later months of last year.
Razer was once dubbed the “Apple of the gaming world”, but has struggled to live by its claims.
It used to make a great deal out of its own name and products.
While some believed its claims, several analysts laughed at the company’s assertion that it shipped a lot of PCs as channel data revealed that it didn’t actually ship many devices.
Disappointing outcome
When it came to computers, the response was far more mixed than the keyboards and mice.
Afterwards, Razer became a lot more down-to-earth following its IPO when the company had to disclose how many of its items it had sold. The outcomes were disappointing.
Analysts and others who looked at Razer’s profits say the company delivered fewer than 600,000 gaming PCs and laptops compared to its competitors. For some models, just a few hundreds were sent.
Razer’s claims were louder than what its products could deliver.
As a publicly traded firm, it became more difficult to use monikers such as “Apple of the Gaming World,” and Razer needed to pivot.
In 2020, Razer’s CEO Min-Liang Tan stated that the company was a “lifestyle brand” and that the business would place a greater emphasis on non-PC sales.
Trying fintech
To diversify, the company chose payments and fintech, vying for one of Singapore’s highly prized digital banking licenses. However, Singaporean officials rejected Razer’s proposal, confining it to payments, a competitive business with razor-thin margins. Naturally, Razer might seek for a license in a country other than Singapore, such as Malaysia, but it has made no such move to far.
Due to Southeast Asia’s congested payments sector being dominated by Grab, in late 2021 Razer chose to shut down its Razer Pay wallet service.
With its most recent profits, Razer shows that its efforts to shift the firm away from hardware and peripherals have faltered. Software and services made up 10.6 percent of the company’s revenue at the conclusion of the fiscal year.