guess who is offering to fullfill the goal of letting SG become a smart nation?
hint: if u're a gamer, u could be using his brand of gaming mouse(im using one myself):
Min-Liang Tan (
simplified Chinese: 陈民亮;
traditional Chinese: 陳民亮;
pinyin:
Chén Mínliàng) is a Singaporean
entrepreneur. He is best known as the co-founder,
CEO and
Creative Director of gaming hardware company,
Razer Inc. and
CEO of
THX as of May 2017. He directs and oversees the design and development of all Razer products.
[3]Tan was a lawyer before he co-founded Razer with
Robert Krakoff.
[4]
Tan is a board member of
Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS).
[5]
Razer CEO submits ‘two-pronged’ e-payment system proposal to PM Lee
Two weeks after Tan Min-Liang, CEO of gaming tech firm Razer, tweeted to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong that he can roll out a nationwide e-payment system within 18 months, Tan unveiled his two-pronged proposal towards the goal on Thursday (8 September).
In response to Tan’s tweet on 22 August, Lee thanked him a day later and said, “Make me a proposal, and I will study it seriously.”
Tan suggests the Monetary Authority of Singapore to oversee and promote the open framework while Razer will be available to provide feedback and advisory support.
To push for RazerPay, Tan said the company is “putting our money where our mouth is”.
“We will be committing S$10 million and will be putting together a specialised team of Singaporeans to roll it out,” Tan added. Razer is looking to employ Singaporeans in positions including engineers, heads of its business unit, engineering, payment services, and others.
Tan stressed that the motivation behind RazerPay is for the “public good first, and private enterprise second”. If there were a better solution that can be CEF-compliant and lead to Singapore becoming a cashless society within 18 months, Razer will cease its focus on RazerPay. The company will support the “incumbent solution” to avoid a situation of multiple competing standards.
“Our goal is not to have RazerPay succeed – but for Singapore to become a cashless society sooner rather than later,” Tan said.
Tan revealed that he has been overwhelmed by the support and ideas to create a cashless society from Singaporeans. Razer will do its part to make Singapore the most advanced Smart Nation in the world, he said.
Razer keeps promise and submits unified e-payment proposal
Tech company Razer submitted its proposal for a unified e-payment system here yesterday - within the two-week deadline it promised - saying that its aim was to make Singapore a cashless society within 18 months.
Central to its proposal is a common e-payment framework overseen by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This, it said, is to be complemented by an existing or new e-payment solution - potentially its own proposed system - that fits the framework.
Its e-payment solution - dubbed RazerPay - is envisioned as a cloud-based e-wallet which can be accessed through a variety of ways, such as a mobile app, a stored-value card or a chip.
The proposal came about after a brief Twitter exchange between Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Razer chief executive Tan Min- Liang last month, when PM Lee took up Mr Tan's offer to develop a unified e-payment system.
"Make me a proposal and I will study it seriously," PM Lee tweeted Mr Tan. Mr Tan promised to deliver the proposal within two weeks, and has done so.
Razer sent the 36-page proposal to the Prime Minister's Office, MAS and the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office yesterday, making publicly available a nine-page executive summary.
It proposes the setting up of a framework overseen by MAS, given that the authority is in the best position to deal with multiple private sector players. The framework should be open and "interoperable" to unify different payment schemes here. An e-payment solution must then be rolled out to fit this framework.
Razer said it will commit $10 million in seed funding to create the e-payment system, and is aiming for one million sign-ups in 18 months from Oct 1.
It also announced six new job positions to work on RazerPay.
But if a different unified e-payment system gains mass adoption, it said it will drop its focus on RazerPay and support that instead. Razer is best known for its line of gaming accessories and recorded revenues of US$392 million (S$528 million) last year.
Analysts said that while Razer's proposal is strategically sound, it does not flag anything unknown to industry players. Most noted that getting people to use RazerPay might not be easy for the firm. "Simultaneous and quick adoption by customers and merchants might be challenging," said Dr Jan Ondrus, associate professor of Information Systems at Essec Business School.
Singapore University of Social Sciences economist Walter Theseira said that while Razer has accomplished much in the area of consumer electronics, it has no experience in large-scale payment transactions and operations. "Therefore, while their proposal is reasonable, I am not sure that they have the expertise to push it forward," he said.
Mr Tan fully accepts the challenge ahead set out for the company. "When we set out to disrupt the gaming industry, no one believed we could pull it off either," he said. "We are not in the business of talking but doing, so let's see if Singapore is a cashless society in 18 months - whether RazerPay is successful or otherwise."
A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 08, 2017, with the headline 'Razer keeps promise and submits unified e-payment proposal'. Print Edition | Subscribe
Singapore
Razer proposes two-pronged approach to transform Singapore into cashless society
Read more at
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news...-approach-to-transform-singapore-into-9194686
The first is to provide feedback and support for a common e-payments framework managed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the other is to support an existing or new e-payment solution, including RazerPay.
SINGAPORE: Keeping true to his word to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the CEO of consumer tech company Razer on Thursday (Sep 7) submitted a proposal to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO) on how his firm plans to roll out a unified e-payments system within 18 months.
Razer CEO Tan Min-Liang had on Aug 22 tweeted Prime Minister Lee an offer to come up with a plan. This came after Mr Lee had said in his National Day Rally that Singapore will
go bigger on e-payments, in line with its Smart Nation ambitions.
Mr Tan then also said on Twitter that a number of
top industry experts have come on board the project.
According to an executive summary posted on Razer's website on Thursday, the proposal is two-pronged: To provide ongoing feedback, development and advisory support for a common e-payment framework (CEF) or something similar that is managed by the MAS, and to support for an e-payment solution - whether it is an existing solution or its mooted RazerPay system.
In terms of the framework, Razer said this should be an open one for interoperability by having features such as common APIs (application programming interface).
"For avoidance of doubt, as Razer is a private-sector participant and the said CEF would require the management of multiple private-sector participants, we believe that the MAS is the right entity to oversee the establishment of such as framework, as well as set the policies and regulations that would govern such a framework," it said.
It added that it will form a Razer E-Payment Advisory Board, which will consist of "esteemed and independent experts from the banking, payment, technology and legal fields who will provide insights and recommendations to ensure alignment with the Singapore Government's objective for a cashless society".
It intends to announce the composition of the advisory board "shortly" and welcomes participation from any Singaporean with the relevant experience.
Mr Lee acknowledged the proposal in a tweet on Friday. "Thanks for submitting this proposal! We will study it thoroughly, together with MAS," he wrote.
In response to media queries, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it received Razer's proposal on Thursday afternoon and will "study it carefully".
"The proposal is in line with our vision for interoperable and pervasive e-payments enabled by Unified Points-of-Sale and SGQR Code," a spokesperson for MAS said.
RAZERPAY INITIATIVE
Razer also said it is incumbent on the private sector to establish and roll out an e-payment solution for Singapore that is in line with the CEF, in that it is not a closed proprietary system.
"While there are many existing e-payment solutions in varying levels of maturity in Singapore, none of them have committed to adhering to the CEF at this time (as it has not been established in a holistic fashion by the MAS at the time of writing)," the tech company said in its proposal.
To address this, it is proposing to develop and deploy RazerPay and will commit S$10 million in seed funding for this initiative and hire Singaporeans to head the start-up. It added that it will be rolled out with a view that at least 1 million e-wallets will be opened within 18 months of Oct 1, 2017 - that is by May 1, 2019.
That said, it noted that as long as there is a rival solution that is in line with the CEF and achieved mass adoption, Razer will cease its focus on RazerPay and support that solution.
"The reason for the foregoing is that our objective is a public goal, not a private endeavour - that is to advance Singapore to a cashless society within 18 months - and it is not for Razer to profit from such an objective," it said.
In a Facebook post announcing the proposal, Mr Tan said he was heartened to see many Singaporeans step up and extend their desire in helping to pioneer change.
"With regard to this, and to foster a Singaporean-first perspective, we’ve posted the core team member openings here
www.razerzone.com/sg-epayments. We will also be opening up more positions once the leads are filled as this is a massive endeavour," he wrote.
"I am open to hearing any feedback from you – because this isn’t just a Government initiative, this affects all of us as Singaporeans. Let’s make it happen. For Singaporeans. By Singaporeans."
On Friday, Mr Tan gave an update on Twitter saying that it has received more than 200 applicants to join its e-payments initiative. "Now who said Singaporeans are apathetic!" he wrote.