With most of the world still forced to stay indoors, the gaming world in all its colourful, action-packed glory has become a ‘beacon of light’ to many. Given this recent spike in demand for gaming, ZeusX, a Singapore-based digital marketplace for gamers all over the world, is looking to ramp up its growth with more varied product offerings and aggressive user acquisition.
e27 recently sat down with ZeusX founder Alex Tay to share his startup journey, the opportunities and challenges he faces in terms of attracting investors, clinching potential customers, and marketing.
The hurdles of being the ‘new face’ in the startup crowd
Newly established startups have to deal with several ‘birth pains’ of being new. For instance, they have to get people to understand what their business is all about and prove their reputation. Also, for marketplace platforms such as ZeusX, they must learn the ropes of seamlessly onboarding their initial partners.
While the young startup has not been immune to all of these, ZeusX utilised those disappointments and rejections as opportunities to improve their methods, product, and services.
On attracting potential customers, gaining visibility, and building trust by tapping into a reputable platform
Apart from product development, one hurdle many businesses must tackle is gaining visibility in the marketplace or ecosystem.
“In terms of attracting potential customers, the biggest challenge is that we are really new and trying to tackle an area where gamers are already wary of scams,” shares Tay. “So the number one question in their mind is — “Is ZeusX legit?”
“And because awareness and branding was a top concern, it’s important that people know about us from a reputable source and understand that we are not a fly-by-night operation,” the ex-corporate continues.
“We wanted to find a media platform which is not only reputable but is also well-known for covering startup movements in the region. Collaborating with e27 to address our top concerns was quite a no-brainer. We definitely achieved our original goal to promote ZeusX as a known startup, and had pleasant surprises in gaining visibility from investors too.”
Addressing the need to build trust among their users, Tay expresses that they “built a series of safeguards to ensure that buyer payments are only released to the seller upon successful delivery and validation of the item.” Additionally, they are adding more verification mechanisms for sellers and working with payment processing providers in filtering off problematic cards or transactions preemptively.
Key advice for those who are planning to take a leap into the same industry
“This is a bit cliché, but if you’re following your passion, it will become your engine of motivation all by itself,” Tay begins.
For Tay, this passion began at an early age of nine. “I was so enthralled with Super Mario Bros on Nintendo, and Archon and Battle Chess on PC that I wanted to be a games developer before I knew it was a real job. It motivated me to read those thick computing books even before I entered secondary school,” Tay confesses.
“Getting a desktop PC in my early teenage years also unlocked a whole new world for me. I mean, how amazing is that — being able to control colourful characters inside electronic screens?”
Get motivated by passion, but one must pursue entrepreneurship with a problem to solve and a clear monetization strategy
“The gaming industry is growing at an unbelievable rate and there is always room for more innovation. Just remember to have a clear monetization strategy from the on-start,” Tay continues.
As an avid gamer himself, who had also transacted in secondary platforms, Tay was really surprised to see most of the trades still taking place on forums, Reddit, and maybe some websites. “There have been limited innovations in this space when you compare it to the progress happening in e-commerce and even for sneakers trading.”
This was where Tay stumbled upon an old problem — there wasn’t any trusted central gaming platform where gamers can trade with peace of mind and get what they need easily.
Additionally, it was during a conversation with his friends when Tay realised that large-prized e-sports such as DOTA catered to only one per cent of gamers.
“So we asked ourselves, what about the rest of everyday gamers — the other 99 per cent? Is there a way for us to create a better living out of gaming, or even help to generate more value to our community? I carried these questions with me ever since that day.”
“The market is really fragmented,” shared Tay. “I followed the recent developments and thought I can apply both my passion and past expertise in creating that gamers’ marketplace that I’ve always envisioned.”
What’s next for ZeusX?
With more people gaming online than ever, there has also been an increase in customers and sellers who want to convert their efforts into cash. “Our approach,” shares Tay, “is not going to change much, but in order to help fellow gamers in need — ZeusX has decided to waive all sales fees until at least 30th June so that we also contribute back to the community.”
He went on, “In this unprecedented time, where COVID-19 is ravaging the globe and forcing people to stay home (and thus play more games), we do get a lot of interest all over since we are a gaming startup. Handling all these attention isn’t a bad problem to have, but we also don’t want to be distracted from the most important thing now, which is to product-fit our platform based on feedback.”
“Expanding our product offerings, introducing more payment options, and ramping up marketing efforts to acquire more users. ZeusX has a strong focus on mobile gaming and Esports games, so expect a good mix of the latest trending mobile game items as well as items from evergreen games too over time. Do watch out for us!”
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ZeusX recently partnered with e27 for a campaign to help level up their game. We can share your story at e27, too. Engage the Southeast Asian tech ecosystem by bringing your story to the world. Visit us at e27.co/advertise to get started.
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