Which of these do you know?
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Despite our well-acclaimed (sometimes rigid) education system and world-renowned Changi Airport, Singapore may not necessarily excel when it comes to producing quality brands that perform on the world stage. However, with National Day just around the corner, we did some probing and found some local household names that have gone on to do bigger things beyond this island-state. These brands have muscled their way through the bigger players within their industry to build a name for themselves and simultaneously put Singapore on the world map.
7. Razer
For those in the non-gaming community, you may have heard of the brand Razer, thinking that it was another overseas gaming hardware manufacturing company. Though headquartered in San Francisco, California in the United States, Razer’s roots began right here on this sunny island when former lawyer Min-Liang Tan and the GM of the now-defunct Kärna, Robert Krakoff met to work on the world’s first gaming mouse – the Razer Boomslang. In 2005 after securing huge investments from Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka Shing and Singapore’s Temasek Holdings, the duo launched Razer and went on to build a global gaming ecosystem revolutionised with their hardware and software products. Now, the company that is said to be worth a staggering US$1 billion accounts for approximately 30% of the global video game mouse and keyboard business according to Ed Zhao, an analyst at video game research firm Eedar. While it might not be known to many Singaporeans, we can proudly say that one of the world’s largest gaming manufacturer originated from this tropical nation.
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