Razer

Razer as a company was founded in 2005 by Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff, though its DNA reached back to the late-1990s Boomslang mouse, an early product aimed squarely at competitive PC gamers that had built a cult following. Where rivals sold hardware, Razer set out to sell a culture, wrapping precision engineering in aggressive industrial design, a distinctive triple-headed snake logo, and an unapologetic "for gamers, by gamers" ethos.

The company's core has always been the input device. Mice like the DeathAdder and Naga, and keyboards using its own in-house mechanical and optical switches, became staples of esports and enthusiast setups. Razer also popularized synchronized RGB lighting through its Chroma ecosystem, turning glowing peripherals into a defining aesthetic of the modern gaming desk, for better or worse.

Razer expanded well beyond mice and keyboards. It launched the Razer Blade line of premium thin gaming laptops, dabbled in phones and tablets aimed at mobile gamers, acquired the fabled but defunct THX brand, and built out headsets, microphones, and streaming gear. It went public in Hong Kong in 2017 before later being taken private again, and it cultivated a software and services layer, from its Cortex launcher to a fintech and rewards arm, that few peripheral makers attempted.

Razer remains active and independent, one of the most valuable and recognizable pure gaming-hardware brands in the world. Its significance is as much cultural as technical: it proved that peripherals could be aspirational objects, that a mouse could carry a lifestyle, and that the green Razer logo on a laptop lid or headset could mark its owner as a gamer at a glance.