Boyish-looking Tony Pua wants to retire by 30. And he’s only 28.

But for this Internet hotshot, such statements are no less unreasonable than the over 50 clients in his digital portfolio.

Valued at an estimated RM14mil, Cyber Village Sdn Bhd is the brainchild of Pua who saw the vast potential of SMEs in the growth of e-commerce.

"We first started as an Internet learning centre in 1997 and by the end of the year, we ventured into e-commerce.

For the virtual marketplace to enjoy phenomenal growth, he explained that it was crucial for small and medium scale industries to also play an active role in e-commerce.

"If you just have the big companies participating, you’ll never get a vibrant e-commerce environment," said Pua from his trendy Mont Kiara office.

Pua has carved a niche in the Internet consulting scene

And for the MSC-status Internet specialist, there has been no looking back since. From an initial team of 19 it has grown to a workforce of 50 comprising of web designers, web application developers, business analyst, consultants and e-business managers.

Touting itself as The Dot Com Consultants, Cyber village can surely count on its list of successful dot coms when it comes to the field of e-commerce consulting and project development.

Pua is humble when asked to name any success stories, saying that they are relative varying according to their market niches, although he quickly mentions two outstanding e-merchants.

One of them is myflowers.com.my, Malaysia’s first online florist and the largest in Asia Pacific with a global network that includes Singapore, Philippines, Hong Kong, Thailand and New Zealand.

"Last year, myflowers racked in a six-figure revenue from its Internet sales alone. Quite remarkable really considering your neighbourhood florist earns around RM50,000 a year.

Another dot com that shot to stardom was watchesplanet.com, the nation’s first watch e-retailer. Within a year of business, sales reportedly reaped in RM1.3mil.

"Realistic mindsets are important. Some companies fall into the danger of setting up websites that have no relevance to their core business.

"It’s also a matter of good planning and marketing strategy. From a sales perspective, e-commerce allows merchants to use Internet technologies to sell to a wider market," he said.

For Tony Pua, an Oxford graduate in politics, philosophy and economics, the wide grin that flashes across his face appears to reflect the sunny days ahead. Web whizkid and workaholic – he clocks in a 13-hour seven days a week marathon – Pua can after all pension into a life of luxury before he hits 30.