PUC founder and managing director Cheong Chia Chieh unveiled plans for some of the segments that PUC is eyeing within the IT industry to tap into growth potential.
KUCHING: Tapping into Malaysia’s growing internet penetration, PUC Founder (MSC) Bhd (PUC) aims to create a seamless digital platform for Malaysians to embrace the digital economy.
Speaking to The Borneo Post recently, company founder and managing director Cheong Chia Chieh unveiled plans for some of the segments that PUC is eyeing within the IT industry to tap into growth potential.
“As expansion to e-content plan, internet radio could be one to exploit in view of the high listenership especially among the youth and Malaysian road users.
They are currently limited to FM and passive broadcasting,” he explained.
“Unlike movie and music, radio content is expected to be live, local and relevant. It is about delivering content that relate to the daily life of Malaysian and not just becoming a music player like most internet radio today.
“It is borderless, so people in Sabah and Sarawak can equally tune in on the same platform and yet enjoy different variety of content or formats.” Another aspect PUC was looking at was Total Payment Solutions, Cheong said.
“Malaysians love to shop and large daily-deal and e-commerce sites have quickly become top destinations online,” he observed.
“E-commerce revenues were $380 million in 2013 and Japanese giant Rakuten who launched in Malaysia less than two years ago estimates this to increase to $530 million in 2017.
“We aim to be a major payment gateway service provider in Malaysia as well as the connector that bring internet users to spend more in the local retail stores.
“As for Digital Advertising, most advertisers will go for advertising solutions that can deliver precision in targeting and ROI.
“Especially when the consumer market is foreseeable to continue to be challenging in 2015 and demand generation should be done by needs and not just awareness.
“Therefore, Digital advertising that supported by Big Data analytics will be essential.
Advertisers will be guided in their marketing plans through smarter programmatic advertising to invest at the right place to engage the right customer at the right occasion.”
Malaysia’s growing internet penetration – among the highest of Asean countries – encourages PUC to tap into this market, taking into account e-commerce seeing positive growth with shopping transactions estimated no less than the more populated neighboring countries.
“However, there is still room to grow given the much lower e-commerce per cent of retail vis-a-vis those of advanced economy like Singapore and China.
“The fact is 70 per cent of Malaysian SMEs do not even have a website, and what more doing e-commerce.
Hence, PUC Founder through its subsidiary EPP Solutions is offering these Malaysian Enterprises an easy entry plan to go for e-commerce and e-payment.”
When asked if they thought there was greater potential in e-content, e-payment and business-to-business social media segments, the CEO responded with a confident “definitely”.
“The boundary for digital businesses is little known. Its advancement and impact on conventional lifestyle (life as baby boomers and Gen-X know), is evident in developed countries – Malaysia will experience the same phenomenon as it progresses in its transformation into a developed and high-income nation.
Furthermore, it is important to note that Malaysia has one of the highest internet penetration in the region.
However, there is not enough local content or efficient payment solutions. For example, we go to internet today to watch foreign content, listen to foreign music and radio more than the local, and we can’t even make payment via mobile phone at local physical stores except few with limited service providers.
Malaysians may own International Class Smart Devices like any other advanced economy but could not effectively use the many features they have already paid for in these devices, unlike that in nations with leading statistics.
Given the current Malaysian business landscape as described (70% of SMEs still offline), we believe O2O solutions is perfect to bridge the digital divide.
Driving the high number of internet users to the high number of physical stores nationwide in Malaysia.
Moreover, Malaysians love to chat on social media and gain insight or experience of peers before making decisions.
Hence, apps embedded with friends’ and public recommendation and reviews would just fit perfectly into the equation.
Lastly, the shopping experience should be enhanced with a cashless and cardless mobile solution.
Allowing an integrated payment option that all contain in just one mobile phone or mobile device, acceptable by all physical stores that makes shopping fast, rewarding and safe.