In the era of popular gold mining in the sinking market, Razer clearly stated that he refused.
In 1998, Singaporean lawyer Chen Minliang flew alone to South Korea to investigate an e-sports competition called Battle Top. He has just co-founded a company that makes innovative gaming mice with his partners. At that time, the senior manufacturers of the mouse industry ridiculed Chen Minliang, “Who would need a mouse for playing games?” In order to save money, Chen Minliang did not live in the hotel, but chose to eat and live in the Internet cafe, which also allows He is more fully aware of the Korean computer peripheral environment and Korean gamers.
The founder of Battle Top is Korean Battle Lee. The appearance of Chen Minliang surprised him because the Battle Top was not famous at the time, and Chen Minliang was the first foreigner who ran over and wanted to talk about cooperation. Later, Battle Top changed its name to WCGC(World Cyber Game Challenge), and then it was reduced to WCG. It is this famous event that led the first wave of the century to sweep the global game industry. E-sports boom.
The company that Chen Minliang founded in 1998 is the “Light Factory” Razer Razer, which is familiar to hundreds of millions of players and e-sports enthusiasts in the world. Some faith-level fans have neck, shoulders and arms. You can even see the logo tattoo of the Razer brand.
Thunder snake started from a game mouse, and slowly developed game headphones, game keyboards, game notebooks, and game mobile phones in the mobile game era. In recent years, Razer has successively developed game software platforms, lighting effects systems, and payment systems. The non-hardware sector has grown faster than hardware peripherals, and is close to 40% of the company’s revenue share. If you still think of Razer as a pure hardware company, I am afraid it is not accurate enough.
The current Razer is actively implementing its business expansion strategy. The cooperation between Razer and the game giant Tencent has spread all over the game mobile phone service, mobile game launcher, technology alliance, etc. This is an extension of the strong tradition of the Razer game e-sports.
And Razer also has its own payment app: Razer Pay. This mobile payment newcomer, which was just launched in July 2018, is difficult to enter the Chinese market of Wechat and Alipay, and Razer Pay is popular in emerging markets in Southeast Asia. According to Razer Financial, with 7-11 and Starbucks and other retail stores, Razer Pay has more than one million physical payment points in Southeast Asia and $1.4 billion in total payments in 2018.
This year, Razer just announced a new car with China.The company has cooperated to launch a limited edition model with only 88 units. Razer hopes to use this kind of cross-border cooperation to make itself a real e-sports brand, not just to print the logo of a game on its own mouse. .
Razer CEO and co-founder Chen Minliang
As a veteran gamer and entrepreneur, Chen Minliang has been a pioneer in the development of Razer for more than 20 years. He still spends fifty or sixty on the latest work “Comprehensive War: Three Kingdoms” released by Creative Assembly Studio this year. hour. In recent days, he interviewed Chen Minliang, CEO and co-founder of Razer. He used to refer to ordinary players, e-sports enthusiasts and professional e-sports players as “gamers” and defined Razer as a “game.” A company, and proud of itself is one of the hardest nuclear gamers.
Not a cost-effective company
: This year’s 5G, cloud games are hot topics in the industry. What products and strategic layout does Razer have?
Chen Minliang: Let’s talk about history. When I was making a gaming mouse, many people laughed at us and said that no one needs a gaming mouse. After about three or four years, many people began to plagiarize and said they wanted to make a gaming mouse.
When we made gaming notebooks, many notebook companies said that who would spend money to buy a notebook that specializes in games, and the price is expensive. They ridiculed us for about two years, and soon they started plagiarism two years later.
Mobile, our first mobile phone specifically for gamers, others will keep up after six months.
I think we have become a brand that many companies will follow and follow. Although we have not released mobile phones in mainland China, we have done very well abroad. Many Chinese mainland manufacturers have been inspired by the Razer and released a lot of game phones. I think this is a very good phenomenon. We drive the entire market, not just focusing on one product.
There are a lot of different game phones on the market, but there are not many products that really understand the gamers.
: Why is Razer not actively promoting game phones in the Chinese market?
Chen Minliang: Razer usually focuses on the North American market and the European market first, because these are ourMore preliminary market than the core. Our notebook was first released in North America in 2010 and 2011, and it really cut into the Chinese mainland market last year. Because unlike other companies, we are not a hardware company, but a company that provides gamers with the entire game ecosystem.
Therefore, we usually will release the after-sales, channel, and customer service before releasing (the corresponding product). It may be easier to do in North America, and in China, we need a little time to understand the channels here. We are a high-end brand, not only a product, but also a good customer service, after-sales work.
: But the game phone, other manufacturers are pushing faster, Tencent has cooperated with ROG this year, including black sharks, they also specialize in pushing some mobile phones, and then Game maker optimization. Then you will not worry, when the Razer comes in, the Chinese market is already a bit saturated?
Chen Minliang: I have never been worried. We waited for six or seven years to bring gaming notebooks to the Chinese mainland market, and now growth is already faster than everyone else. The gamer will be able to distinguish between good products and ordinary products. If you copy someone, you don’t really understand why you design a product like this.
I give an example. When we first launched the Naga Vatican mouse, I became the laughing stock of the whole market. People said that you put a mobile phone next to the mouse. Do you think people will buy it? Every other company has now copied it. In addition, we also found a partner like Tencent.
So I think if Razer is a pioneer and really understands the gamer, then we don’t have to worry about the market. I believe that the wine is not afraid of the deep alley, good products can withstand waiting and scrutiny.
: Back to the topic of the Chinese market, I myself as a player, users of Razer, including going to the market to understand, I think Razer is a high-end brand. So, will Razer always maintain the position of such a service core and high-end players in the Chinese market? Now the concept of “sinking market” is very hot. Some manufacturers will choose to serve more consumers in cities and rural areas below China’s third- and fourth-tier cities. The mobile phones they use may be Xiaomi, VIVO, OPPO, and they may not have heard of it. With the snake, they may not even have a PC.
Chen Minliang: I should not (go to sink market), we are very focused on the first-tier city market where high-end players gather. When I started the Razer, it was not because of money. If you want to make money, we can do some very basic and cost-effective products tomorrow. Putting a sign should be very hot.
But I am myselfIt has always been a player and this is my interest. If you are really designing a product for yourself, you will design the best product, you will not will compromise, will use the best materials, the best Technology. But if you want to sell products, you may sell some cheaper ones, and you will compromise many details and qualities.
I would rather say that Razer is a relatively small company, but it is better to make products.
A lot of people said on my facebook, Min (Chen Minliang), you might as well make a cheaper headset, a cheaper notebook. I said, you can buy cheap everywhere, you don’t have to come to me. But he said that I want to buy Razer products now, but it is cheap. I said that if it is a product of Razer, it will not be cheap. If you want to have the best things, it will not be cheap.
: You won’t tell the user that this is a price/performance item?
Chen Minliang: No, I will say very directly that we are not a cost-effective company. If you want to buy the best, our technology should be the best. At the same price, you should not buy a better product. However, if we pay great attention to the price/performance ratio, then we are not a cost-effective company.
It’s also a cool feeling to make a drink
: Will cooperation with game makers such as Tencent make the sales of Razer products break through?
Chen Minliang: There is no difference. Working with game makers will give gamers a better experience than selling more.
Most of the users who buy our products are because they are Razer, which represents a high-quality product. It also represents a belief for fans, not just the logo or pattern elements of certain games. On our products. Frankly, that usually doesn’t sell very well.
This may not be the same as other companies. Some companies cooperate with game companies, put their logos on the headphones, and make joint names. They are doing very well, but our effect is just like, why? Because the people who buy our products usually don’t buy the IP of the game.
: The same price, the joint name will not sell better?
Chen Minliang: Yes, it’s still a lot worse. Most of the products we buy are because we want to buy a product of Razer.
: They are users of Razer, not the IP of these games.
Chen Minliang: Right, so they buy our products and are also suitable for playing any games. They would rather not put other IPs on it. They are more inclined to the Razer brand.
: Razer cooperated with electric vehicle manufacturer Weilai this year. First of all, why did you choose the electric vehicle industry to do such cross-border cooperation? Second, among so many electric car companies, why choose Weilai?
Chen Minliang: We used to work with another car company. This company is called Königsegg. It is a company of my Swedish friend.
At the time, Koenigsig looked for me and said that he wanted to make custom laptops for engineers and designers, because the performance test of the car would connect the computer and use our products. I said that I like your car very much, and I can make a car with a Razer cooperation. So we made a black and green Razer version of the super sports car.
Why is this time here? Razer is usually optimistic about other innovative and technologically savvy companies. Weilai is one of them. We are very optimistic about its electric car, Wei may also know that Razer is a dazzling lifestyle brand among gamers and young people. We chatted and thought we could cooperate to make a customized version of the car.
: But this collaboration does not mean implanting game features in traffic scenes?
Chen Minliang: We can also add in the future, of course, the premise is that it does not affect security. Now a lot of games have been cut into the car entertainment, called “in-car entertainment.” We have a subsidiary called THX, THX’s audio technology has been placed in Ford’s car, and maybe Chroma (Razer’s lighting system) will also be placed in the car.
Razer Chroma
Razer has become a life brand. We like to work with other companies with similar cultures and concepts.
For example, there are many excellent business notebook brands in the world. If these brands launch an energy drink, would you drink it? I believe most consumers won’t, because it’s too weird. Instead, Razer launched an energy drink in North America, which is very hot now. why? Because the drink of Razer gives people a very cool feeling, it seems that they will be a hundred times more energetic.
Thunder snake game ecology
: I understand that the Razer will do more cross-border things later, instead of focusing on hardware?
Chen Minliang: We must do anything