The Perak-Born Founder of Sahibba and Saidina
Have you ever heard of or played the games Sahibba and Saidina, which are so popular in our country? Many of us today are familiar with these games, which have become synonymous with educational play since our school days.
For our loyal readers at orangperak.com, the company that produces the popular Sahibba and Saidina games is Syarikat Permainan Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (SPM). Known by the abbreviation SPM, it is the largest indoor game company in Malaysia, with annual sales reaching 300,000 sets per year. This figure clearly demonstrates a proud achievement, and today, the company has successfully produced approximately 60 types of educational games that provide many benefits to players. Syarikat Permainan Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. was founded on June 26, 1976, by a Perak native named Ting Sie Bing. The establishment of the company began when its founder was still a teacher at an industrial training institute.
The idea for this business actually has its own unique backstory. One day, Ting Sie Bing saw some of his students arranging Malay syllables using a Scrabble set, even though the game was originally intended to be played in English. From that moment, Ting Sie Bing realized there were leftover letter tiles after a game of Scrabble was finished. For example, the letter 'A' appears three times more frequently in Malay than in English. Realizing this, Ting Sie Bing began adapting the Scrabble game into a Malay version. Before creating Sahibba, he took the drastic step of studying the Malay dictionary to determine the frequency of letters needed to successfully produce the Sahibba Malay edition that we see on the market today.
You might not know that behind the Sahibba game we see today, Ting Sie Bing spent about 4 years conducting research on the game. He ignored all the criticism from people who thought his research was strange, viewing it instead as a challenge. Today, the Perak-born founder of Sahibba and Saidina, Ting Sie Bing, has successfully popularized educational games that are highly popular in our country, and through the establishment of Syarikat Permainan Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., he has captured the interest of players across several generations.
