The newspaper was the conservative rival of Sin Po and was closely associated with the Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan and the Chinese Officer system.
Perniagaan's history is closely associated with the Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan, an Indonesian Chinese reformist and educational movement that opened branches in many cities in the Indies during the first decades of the twentieth century.
[4] A notable contributor of articles to this early version of the newspaper was Lie Kim Hok, the "Father of Sino-Malay"—a Chinese newspaperman and poet of an earlier generation.
[8] Lauw apparently had some disagreements with the owners of Perniagaan because around 1910 he started to discuss founding a competing paper with Yoe Sin Gie, who worked as a bookkeeper for the company.
[9] During the period of Gouw Peng Liang's editorship, the historian and journalist Liem Thian Joe worked for the paper.
[10] For a time in 1918, J. R. Razoux Kuhr, who had previously been editor of Sin Po, was appointed editor-in-chief of the paper, but he left before the year was ended.