Within 20 hours, Razer CEO replaces stolen keyboard intended as gift for boy in Australia

Great publicity for Razer.

Sulaiman Daud | December 24, 2017, 12:51 PM

If you've been on Twitter, you'll know that Razer CEO Tan Min-Liang likes to engage with his customers and the public quite actively there.

You might recall, for instance, the conversation the Singaporean billionaire had earlier this year with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, where he offered to develop technology to help Singapore go fully cashless:

And now, Tan strikes again — mobilising his gaming equipment company to save Christmas for an Australian family whose house got burgled.

We'll explain.

Razer keyboard gift among items stolen

According to a Dec. 22 article by Australian newspaper Manly Daily, a thief broke into a house in the northern Sydney suburb of Dee Why, New South Wales, between the night of Dec. 20 and the morning of Dec. 21 (Australian time).

The mom of the family, one Adela Courteille, said the still-unidentified burglar entered their locked underground garage by breaking through a security door, and then through theirs, and made off with work tools and a credit card, but to her, more importantly, her children's wrapped Christmas presents.

Screenshot from Razer website

And for her 12-year-old son Callum, Courteille had bought a Razer gaming keyboard (it wasn't made clear precisely which model she had bought for him, though). She was quoted saying:

"I can understand tools and a credit card but what is the thief going to do with a Barbie doll, a small play handbag and other tools for our daughter Chelsea?

The presents for our son Callum will be harder and more expensive to replace because they were more specific, like a Razer gaming keyboard. What got me is that they were so obviously children’s Christmas presents. That’s what hurts the most."

Entire operation settled in under 20 hours

Tan heard of the news, and Tweeted this on Dec. 23, at 3:04pm Singapore time:

His minions at Razer got in touch with the family 43 minutes later:

... and sent them not only with a replacement keyboard, but an entire gaming suite as well.

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Tan posted this update just 19 hours and 20 minutes after his first tweet, at 10:24am, on Sunday, Dec. 24:

The Black Widow Chroma V2 keyboard he's pictured holding, according to the Razer website, would ordinarily have set his parents back by an additional S$289.90 otherwise.

And opportunistic Twitter users of course jumped into action:

While others hopped on to bug him about his company's after sales service:

Nice of the newly-minted billionaire, a little over a month after his company was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Nov. 13.

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Top image adapted from Min-Liang Tan's Twitter page.