Despite $61m MOL buy, Razer still far from realizing its national payments plan

Razer Phone / Photo credit: Razer

When Razer published its plan for a Singaporean national cashless payments system in September last year, reactions ranged from the supportive to the incredulous.

Advocates underlined Razer’s technical expertise and experience of setting up its own virtual currency. Naysayers pointed to the established financial services that it would need to compete against, and dismissed the Razerpay proposal as no more than a marketing stunt.

How would a company known largely for its computer gaming hardware transform the city-state’s highly fragmented payments landscape?

Razer took a big step towards answering that question with its outright acquisition of Malaysian payments company MOL Global, announced this week.

See: Razer’s Tan responds after Nets CEO questions e-payments proposal

The US-Singaporean firm – which held its US$528 million IPO in Hong Kong last November – is paying US$61 million to acquire the 65.1 percent of MOL that it doesn’t already own. It purchased a minority stake in June last year.

Razer said in a statement that the MOL takeover will allow it to completely integrate Razer’s zGold and MOL’s MOLPoints, the two companies’ respective virtual currencies for gamers.

The acquisition will also expedite its Razerpay initiative by assimilating MOLPay, MOL’s digital payments platform.

Stuck in gaming

Razer CEO Tan Min-Liang (L) on stage at Tech in Asia Singapore 2017 / Photo credit: Tech in Asia

Just how vital the MOL acquisition is for Razer’s ambitions in broader, non-gaming payments is open for debate, however.

Like Razer, MOL is more strongly associated with gaming than with other areas where digital payments are relevant.

On MOLPoints, it has partnered with key gamer platforms like Sony PlayStation and Facebook Gameroom, as well as game producers such as Nexon and Wargaming, to monetize their titles and other digital content across Southeast Asia.

Cash for the win?