SPH ties up with China's largest online creative services platform for bilingual portal for SMEs

SINGAPORE Press Holdings (SPH) has inked a pact with China's largest online creative services platform to develop the first of its kind business to business (B2B) bilingual platform targeted at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South-east Asia, including Singapore and Malaysia.

The joint venture agreement signed with China's ZBJ Network Inc will see SPH leverage its SME networks in Singapore and the Asia-Pacific region and provide sales and marketing expertise, advertising and publicity on its print and digital platforms, and competitive digital bundling.

On its part, ZBJ Network will provide operational expertise and training, and product and technology development, said the firms in a joint statement released on Monday.

The agreement was signed by SPH deputy chief executive Anthony Tan and ZBJ Network president Wang Nan and witnessed by Singapore's Minister in the Prime Minister's Office Chan Chun Sing and Zhang Guo Qing, mayor of Chong Qing City. The event was held before the Singapore-China Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation (JCBC) Meeting in Beijing.

Mr Tan said: "With this partnership, SPH will provide a one-stop holistic package for local SMEs which are searching for comparable creative services here and from China. Similarly, the businesses in China could also reach out to our service providers here. This is a significant move for both companies, which will in turn forge closer ties between China and Singapore."

Mr Wang said that ZBJ aimed to replicate its online services in the global market to provide professional corporate solutions for SMEs.

"Our users come from 25 countries and regions. In this partnership, ZBJ will leverage our extensive data, creative services, corporate clients and supply chain, to provide design, marketing and business development services to the businesses in Singapore and Malaysia," Mr Wang elaborated.

ZBJ Network operates zbj.com - an online marketplace providing creative services such as logo design, translation, website design and development for businesses. It has over six million registered users and 13 million service providers, with a market share of over 80 per cent and transacted value of 7.5 billion yuan.

The name and contents of the new platform will be announced in late 2017.