Razer delivers on proposal for universal e-payment system in Singapore

Singapore

SINGAPORE'S move towards a cashless society got a fillip on Thursday, as tech firm Razer submitted the proposal it promised for a unified e-payments system, and Alibaba said it has launched its mobile payment service, Alipay, at Changi Airport.

In Razer's proposal - parts of which were made public in an executive summary - the company proposed to develop and deploy a new e-payment solution, RazerPay.

Razer said that its new solution aims to be interoperable (that is, it will work with all other e-payment solutions), and to benefit the public first, and private enterprises second.

Razer will commit S$10 million in seed funding for RazerPay. Razer chief Tan Min-Liang said in a Facebook post on Thursday: "We are putting our money where our mouth is."

Mr Tan had, two weeks ago, made a commitment to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong over Twitter for Razer to deliver a proposal within 14 days to help advance Singapore to a cashless society within 18 months.

In its proposal, Razer detailed a two-pronged approach. First, it will provide ongoing feedback, development and advisory support for a common e-payment framework (CEF) that will be managed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

"By providing an open framework and requiring interoperability, this would create an open, shared bridge between all funding sources and merchant acquisitions in Singapore."

Razer added that MAS is the right entity to oversee the setup of such a framework as Razer is a private-sector participant and the proposed CEF would require the management of multiple private sector participants.

Second, Razer will spearhead support for an e-payment solution that may take the form of an existing or new private sector e-payment solution (such as Alipay or Tenpay), or its new e-payment solution, RazerPay.

Razer said: "We do not necessarily think that RazerPay should be, or must be, the said e-payment solution for Singapore.

"Any e-payment solution that can transform Singapore into a cashless society in the most efficient and effective manner should be supported, as long as the said e-payment solution is in line with the CEF established by the MAS."

Razer said that if a CEF-aligned, third-party e-payment solution is rolled out and achieves mass adoption here, Razer will cease the focus on RazerPay and support the former.

It also said that it will hire Singaporeans for senior management roles for its RazerPay initiative - to ensure a "Singapore-first perspective".

Founded in 2005, Razer is a gaming hardware company headquartered in San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Alipay is now available at more than 78 shopping and dining outlets in Changi Airport; the mobile payment service had been progressively offered as a new payment mode by Changi Airport tenants since May.

With this new partnership between Alipay and Changi Airport Group (CAG), Alipay will become the first Chinese mobile payment partner of the airport.

Alipay will be made available as a payment mode at the new Terminal 4 too, when the latter begins operations from Oct 31, 2017.

On Thursday, a joint marketing agreement was also inked by Alipay and CAG to offer customised, targeted shopping and dining offers to Chinese passengers using Alipay.

Both Alipay and CAG will use big data to create passenger-centric content for Chinese passengers, providing them with details on ongoing promotions and location-based information on retail options at the airport.

Alipay, an e-wallet service that is currently available to only China banking users, reportedly has over 520 million active users.

Last month, Alipay said that it would soon extend its service to Singapore banking users too, as it signed a deal with a Singapore startup to increase the number of Alipay acceptance points here.