The first Popular Bookstore was set up in 1936 by Chou Sing Chu in North Bridge Road, focusing on retailing Chinese books and stationery. In March 2006, Popular Holdings was the main organiser of BookFest@Singapore, the first Chinese-language book fair ever held outside of China. In May 2006, Popular Holdings staged the inaugural BookFest@Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. It is a platform for established publishers to showcase their latest publications and renowned authors to meet and interact with the readers. The inaugural BookFest@Hong Kong was organized in 2008. By 2009, the annual BookFest has become a major event of the book industries in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Board of directors
Popular is headed by Chou Cheng Ngok, who is the Group chief executive officer and Executive Director of the Group. Lim Lee Ngoh heads the operations in Malaysia and Singapore, while her counterpart in Greater China is Poon Chi Wai, Ponch. Desmond Wee Guan Oei is the Non-Executive chairman and Executive Director of the Board and other directors include Lim Soon Tze, David Chia Tian Bin and Christopher Chia. Former directors include Ching Ging Oong, Poh Ping Tek, Ching Cheng Pong, Ang Tuak Liak, Vangatharaman Ramayah and Chim Choon Cheng.
Group of Companies
The Group currently carries out its publishing activities through subsidiaries operating in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Canada. Its bookstore operations currently have a network of over 130 Popular Bookstores in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. It now has its core businesses in retail, distribution, publishing and e-learning.
Retail
Back in 1936, Popular focused on the retailing of Chinese books and stationery. It has now expanded its product offerings to include English books, Malay books, textbooks and assessment books, Gadgets & IT products, household appliances, titbits, stationery, multimedia products and many more. It currently has stores in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
Bookfest
POPULAR held its first BookFest in 2006. It had started out with the objective of promoting the reading of Chinese across regions and bringing in the foremost works of Chinese literature.
Distribution and Publishing
In 1999, POPULAR Group set up a purchasing office in Taiwan to purchase Chinese books for Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. With the expansion of the business, Popular Book Company Ltd was established in 2003 as a subsidiary of POPULAR Group. POPULAR Group now exports Chinese books in Taiwan, distributes books to Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong through around 188 POPULAR outlets. Novum Organum, also a subsidiary of POPULAR, is the distributor for the Group’s house brands and focuses on the book markets in Singapore and Malaysia.
E-Learning
POPULAR made an early foray into e-Learning in Hong Kong, with the establishment of Popular e-Learning Ltd. in 2000. It provides e-Learning software and solutions to schools in Hong Kong, South East Asia and Taiwan. In 2001, Guangzhou Cyber Progress Information Technology Limited was established to support PeLH in its efforts.
Controversies
In 2017 the Popular Holdings company Popular Book Company Canada received criticism for publishing a book that asserted that people native to North America, "agreed to move to different areas to make room for the new settlements." Once the controversy gained popular attention Popular Book Company Canada announced that they would immediately recall all of the books and work with First Nations to improve, "understanding how best to write about this part of Canada’s history so that our materials are accurate."
