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As it turns out, Ng is having the last laugh. The chief executive officer of Razer Asia-Pacific is now reaping in the rewards of a booming games market which industry analysts say will be worth billions in coming years.
 Ng Chern Ann, CEO, Razer |
“It’s a huge potential… It’s the only industry, other than the pharmaceutical industry, that has been seeing double-digit growth rates,” said Ng, who has been an avid gamer since 1984. “We need to get in and get a piece of the action.”
And that he did, when he and a partner set up the Asia-Pacific operations of U.S. company, Razer, which was originally established in 1999 to design mice that could provide the high level of precision that gamers demand. Ng has since acquired ownership of the U.S. company.
Before the company’s flagship, Razer Viper, was launched earlier this year, the “fastest” mouse in the market could only detect 400 changes of data, or dots per inch (dpi). Viper reads at 1,000 dpi.
“This precision is vital for gamers,” Ng explained. “If you were competing with another gamer who is just 5 milliseconds faster…that’s an edge he already has over you.” And that is the competitive edge that a higher precision mouse can offer gamers.
“We wanted to provide a gaming mouse that catered specially to gamers and created a whole new gaming mouse market… it was unheard of at that time to sell a US$99 mouse but it went down well with the gamers because it was designed specifically for them.” Razer has since shipped 70,000 units of Viper—which currently sells at US$49.95 worldwide and another 10,000 units of eXactMat, a US$29.95 mouse pad that Ng claims further improves a gamer’s precision.
Come October, the company will unveil Viper’s successor, Diamondback, which boasts a read rate of 1,600-dpi. Retailing at US$60, the optical mouse will be available at IT malls in Singapore. Razer already received orders for 200,000 pieces of Diamondback.
“The games market is worth US$20 billion, and that doesn’t even include hardware peripheral sales,” Ng noted. “Penetrating this industry isn’t impossible but you need to have a strong brand and an understanding of what gamers want.”
This article only appears on the Web version of C|Level Asia.
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