How to Start a Publishing Business in Indonesia: A 2025 Guide
With a population exceeding 280 million people, Indonesia is the largest market in Southeast Asia, offering tremendous opportunities for entrepreneurs. The country’s demographic advantage is particularly appealing for the publishing industry—almost 50% of Indonesians are under the age of 30, with a significant proportion being students and young professionals who consistently require educational materials, digital content, and reference books.
The Indonesia publishing industry continues to show steady growth, generating an estimated USD 500+ million annually in 2025, fueled by rising literacy rates, government investment in education, and the increasing demand for both print and digital publishing.
This combination of a large youth-driven market, a growing middle class, and digital transformation makes Indonesia a highly attractive destination for establishing a publishing company. Entrepreneurs can tap into multiple sectors, including educational publishing, e-books, academic research materials, magazines, and digital media platforms.
In this article, we’ll provide a step-by-step guide on how to set up a publishing business in Indonesia, covering legal requirements, company incorporation, licensing, and market opportunities to help you launch successfully.
Why to Set Up a Publishing Business in Indonesia?
Publishing is one of the economic sectors that is rapidly developing in Indonesia, attracting various investors to venture into it. Aside from the general publishing business that offers physical printings, Indonesia is experiencing a substantial demand for digital materials in parallel with technological advancements that have stimulated the growth of the e-publishing business in the country. Now is the perfect opportunity for you to invest in your own publishing company in Indonesia!
Although there is an amassing amount of platforms that allow writers to publish their works independently nowadays, this should not deter you from setting up your own company. Having an established company will enable you to offer assurance to the writers who subscribed to your service that couldn’t be obtained through the method of self-publishing. Some of the advantages are:
- Conveys professionalism and expertise
- Protects yourself, your work, and your assets in case of a lawsuit
- Management of your intellectual property
- Tax write-offs benefits
- The legal entity to properly contract to co-write and to license
- Future opportunities to publish books by other authors
- Relevant authorities in a publishing company in Indonesia
How to Set Up a Publishing Business in Indonesia?
The good news is that establishing a publishing company in Indonesia is open to both local entrepreneurs and foreign investors. Whether you are an Indonesian national or based overseas, you can legally participate in the industry, provided you comply with the country’s regulations.
For foreign business owners, the first step is to obtain approval from the Indonesian Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM/Ministry of Investment), which serves as the government-appointed body responsible for regulating and facilitating all investment activities in Indonesia. This approval is essential before you can incorporate your company, as it ensures your business structure and capital meet Indonesia’s investment requirements.
In addition to BKPM, publishing businesses fall under the oversight of key industry authorities:
- The International Publishers Association (IPA): Works with Indonesian publishers to align with global publishing standards and practices.
- The National Press Council (Dewan Pers): Governs press-related regulations, ensuring media outlets uphold journalistic ethics, professional standards, and the freedom of the press in Indonesia.
These authorities not only set the framework for legal compliance but also safeguard intellectual property rights, press freedom, and ethical publishing practices. For entrepreneurs, this means navigating both business incorporation requirements and industry-specific licensing obligations before launching operations.
How to Register a Publishing Company in Indonesia?
The following steps sum up the procedure for business owners to register their own publishing company in Indonesia:
- Obtain permission from the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).
- Apply for a business license.
- Acquire a registration certificate.
- Gather all required licenses and certificates for official approval for the institution.
- Register with the National Press Council.
- Deposit the compulsory share capital amount into a corporate bank account under the name of the business owner.
- Obtain and fill out the company incorporation form.
- Submit the company incorporation form along with the required documents and licenses.
- Decide on the type of published materials the company will focus on, including newspapers, magazines, journals, books, manuals, and others.
- For a digital publishing company, the material published can be in the form of electronic, online media content, and CDs.
- Perform a regular assessment of the legal requirements to ensure compliance once the business is up and running
So, What Are You Waiting for?
With the emergence of new writers and interests daily, it is safe to assume that there won’t be any lack of demand for printed or digital material in Indonesia. Serving as one of the biggest cultural melting pots in South East Asia, materials, regardless of the language in which they are printed, share equal chances to thrive just as much as those that are published in the Indonesian language.
