MQ:  It’s called juesheng.com and we list international education opportunities mostly in the US but we’re looking to expand. It’s very similar to qunar.com which is listed in the States and has been valued at around USD$4bn.  We want to do the same in the international education industry. I am one of two founders, the other co-founder, Dixon, is also the CEO and used to be the Vice President of Marketing at qunar.com.

The PIE: What is qunar.com?

MQ: It’s the largest search engine model for tourism in China. Around 86 of their vendors get revenue from Qunar of over USD£1million. And they help their vendors to succeed.

The website goes beyond the conceptual understanding of study abroad. Study abroad is a theme of what we do

The PIE: How many visitors do you have to your website?

MQ: It’s very close to 80,000 daily visitors, although we only started a year ago. The page views are around 220,000 daily.

The PIE: What types of opportunities do you promote- universities, language schools?

MQ: Actually, the website goes beyond the conceptual understanding of study abroad. Study abroad is a theme of what we do. For example, if parents say ‘I want my kid to go to Harvard’ and the kid is three years old – there is a long route to go and you need a strategy on how to place your kid successfully into Harvard.  Along this long road you have to, for example, find your kid language teachers, study tours, etc.

The PIE: So you’re offering long-term bespoke services?

MQ: Yes. We don’t focus on the school aspect of international education. We focus on the options. Option one for Chinese kids is to go to Chinese schools. Option two is to go to foreign schools. But if you go to Chinese schools, the industry is not going to help you to apply to Chinese schools, but it’s a long road to go and along the road you have to buy all kinds of things. The same thing if you go to a foreign school– along the road you have to buy different services, products, provided by the vendors.

The PIE: How did you establish the website in the first place – how did you meet the partners in the US, and the prep schools in China?

We’re different from the traditional agent because we’re not just recruiting students for them, we discuss the institution’s vision in the China market

MQ: I had some work experience as a strategy consultant for some American universities like the University of San Francisco and Johnson & Wales University, the business school at Fordham University. Based on my past work helping them to succeed in China and increasing their recruitment from several students to hundreds, I have a vision to share with the partners. We’re different from the traditional agent because we’re not just recruiting students for them, we discuss the institution’s vision in the China market and we help them to transform that vision into a road map and an execution plan in about three to five years. Based on this road map and execution plan, we advise them on how to use our website to succeed in China through the internet.

The PIE: How do you make money?

MQ: Basically we charge by media exposure based on three models. For example, if you come to the China market we expose you to hundreds of media and we charge media exposure fees and campaign fees. We charge CPS: Click Per Sales. We share revenue, we charge CPC [cost per click].

The PIE: You don’t actually charge commission to institutions?

MQ: We charge commission – CPS is a commission-based model.

The PIE: How have you managed to become so widely influential in such a short space of time?