How PTS Publication Builds a Multi-million e-Commerce Empire

PTS Publication

PTS Publication began in 1988 when the founders, Ainon Mohd and Prof. Emeritus Abdullah Hassan formed a consultancy services company focused on publishing, creativity and thinking skills. Their earlier corporate clients include Bank Negara Malaysia, Malayan Banking (Maybank today), ESSO (ExxonMobil), Shell, Telekom Malaysia, and a list of government bodies.  

Both founders had been prolific writers, with a string of books written and published by other publishers, but it wasn’t until 2000 they decided that PTS would begin publishing books and embark on a journey that would, within a decade, make PTS one of the most recognised publishing brands in the country.

PTS Publications

In the same year, Arief Hakim Sani, who would ultimately run the show in PTS when the founders decided to slip into the company’s board and leave the day-to-day running to younger bloods, joined the helm.

Today, with over 10 subsidiaries, PTS (which changed its name in 2012 from PTS Consultants to PTS Media Group) employs over 150 people and generates between RM30 and RM40 million of sales annually.

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E-books in Scholarly Publishing: Malaysia’s Perspective

E-books have been revolutionising all publishing sectors, and the scholarly publishing is no exception. The article attempts to evaluate how the electronic publishing and e-books have been progressing among the scholarly publishers in Malaysia, particularly in the tertiary education market.

Image: Huffington Post

For almost a decade or so, scholarly publishers in Malaysia have been trying to figure out ways to capitalise the rise of e-books.

But the struggle has been real, with several factors hindering their progress. Some of these include challenges in identifying optimised formats, executing the right pricing strategy, exerting control on the e-book size, encrypting the digitalised contents, and getting the e-books out to worldwide users. 

The situation is about to take an optimistic turn in 2012. On 4-5 December 2012, the inaugural ASEAN Ebook Conference was held in Kuala Lumpur, garnering participants from Malaysia and neighbouring countries including Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The two-day event was co-organised by the National Book Council of Malaysia (MBKM) and the Malaysian Book Publishers Association (MABOPA), taking place at Vistana Hotel Kuala Lumpur.

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#MyCyberSale 2015: 28 Sept – 2 Oct 2015

mycyberSALE-logo

#MyCyberSale, an online sales event organised by Multimedia Development Corporation (MDeC), will be coming up again this year, following a successful inaugural run of the same event last year.

It is claimed to be the biggest online sales in Malaysia.

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