The Zinch platform was started in the US six years ago to help American students find universities at home and abroad, but has since extended its services to Chinese students looking to study abroad. We caught up with founder Sid Krommenhoek.
The PIE: Why did you decide to set up Zinch?
SK: It was an experience I and the other founders had all been through: researching and applying to colleges, and really being confused about what drives the recruitment and selection of students. We felt it was inefficient, like there were factors, qualities, experiences that students have that sometimes go under the radar.
So we wanted to build a system of profiles through which students could convey a more holistic and complete picture of who they were to universities looking to recruit them.
The PIE: Can students actually apply directly or just research?
SK: It’s like a match making tool you use for connecting with new people, much like Facebook or Twitter. On Zinch you’re able in a professional sense to connect with universities or students. Then you take it from there, offline.
“We felt there were factors, qualities, experiences that students have that go under the radar”
The PIE: When did your Chinese operations get going?
SK: Three years ago we launched the site for China, a completely localised version that was tailored to the needs of Chinese students. It is an educational portal for students to both understand the opportunities to study abroad and, in a very thoughtful way, search for schools. It also allows those schools to reach out and connect with Chinese students in a way that we feel leverages technology.
The PIE: How hard was it to set up in China?
SK: I was fortunate to have studied the Chinese language ten years ago so I speak it. But more importantly we had staff who were local and who really knew the market and were able to navigate that process of establishing the company, hiring a team and really building a strategy that was completely customised to China. If it were not for those folks and that team it would have been much more difficult, if not impossible.
“So when you look at the total addressable market in China, we address about a third”
The PIE: And how many students in China are now using your site?
SK: Nearly 300,000. So when you look at the total addressable market, based on data published by the Institute for International Education, that’s about a third of all students considering and in a position to study outside of China.
The PIE: And how many American students do you cater to?
SK: I would say we reach about 30% of college students.
The PIE: Do institutions on your site have to sign up to be listed or is it comprehensive?
SK: Yeah it’s comprehensive; you do not have to sign up. In fact, we encourage any school to join and we have a focus now on the United States, Australia, Canada and the UK. We’re also happy to host video content for schools, and there are direct links to schools’ sites. So it’s comprehensive, exhaustive and user friendly for the students and they can search any institution in those countries.
The PIE: Do you think there’s a growing appetite for studying abroad in the US?
SK: I think that increasingly and globally students realise that having a global perspective and an understanding for different cultures is very important. Whether that means study abroad or taking the time to engage with international students or students from different backgrounds on your campus is very important. My sense is that whether it’s short term or long term, students want to have opportunities to live or study abroad increasingly.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily a “don’t want to study abroad”, just that there are also great opportunities in the US”
The PIE: Do you think US education is helping push that? The American study abroad population is still dramatically underrepresented compared with the German or Swiss for example.
SK: Yeah, that’s a good point. What you do find is more and more schools setting up campuses and branches abroad. And there are some great examples of that. We also see that there are other ways to accomplish this, such as 2+2 programs or sister schools, and many American universities are interested in forging these. But I think we have a way to go; I think there continues to be the need to encourage and properly position the importance of another language, another culture and living abroad.
Having myself lived abroad for several years, I found that in many ways I benefited from interacting with different cultures and it’s sort of played out now. I work with a team in Beijing on a daily basis and if four years ago I had not had the opportunity to engage I would be in a much weaker position right now.
The PIE: What do you think is behind the low US study abroad rates?
SK: Well I think a thing to consider is that there’s a kind of surplus of higher education in the States. If you live in another country, China for example, they have doubled the number of universities in the past five years but they still do not have enough to meet demand. Whereas when you have a system of higher education that’s relatively strong, such as in the US, you know globally it’s compelling to stay in the States.
“We want to continue providing meaningful tools for students in the US but also China and other countries”
That’s why I don’t know if it’s necessarily a “don’t want to study abroad”, just that there are also great opportunities domestically. But as growing markets continue to beef up their own systems you may see more Americans study abroad, in China for example.
The PIE: You think that’s likely?
SK: I think so. In five, ten years down the road it will all look very different and you may find more Chinese students studying domestically too. It’s still a small percentage, less than about half a per cent, of Chinese that studies in America.
The PIE: What does the future hold for Zinch?
SK: We will continue to be laser-focused on providing value to students and we hope that will continue globally to be the case. We want to not only continue providing meaningful tools and services for students in the US but also China and other countries.
The PIE: Which country will Zinch target next?
SK: Several countries are a big opportunity. We hear from schools that are very interested in India, Brazil and Latin America in general. Within South East Asia there are opportunities in South Korea and in other smaller markets like Indonesia and Vietnam, so we’ll see!
