Software company Sinorbis has announced an expansion to Europe and North America in a bid to help institutions optimise their digital presence to reach prospective students in China.
The company has not disclosed its revenue forecast but said that it is planning to grow by more than four times by 2025. Annual recurring revenue has grown 115% since the beginning of the pandemic, it said.
Expansion into European, UK and US markets, as well as Canada, will be key, a Sinorbis spokesperson told The PIE.
“We’re focusing on the UK, CA and US markets because of the speed of initial uptake we’ve seen from these markets,” they said.
“But Sinorbis has clients all over the world, and we plan on expanding our horizons further across the next few years.”
The MarTech start-up says that is has ‘cornered the Australian and New Zealand market’, only losing one client in the region during the pandemic.
There is still “massive demand” in China for Australian education, despite mobility between the two countries restricted with “limited flights and ongoing travel restrictions within China”.
“We’re optimistic Australian universities are in a strong position to see further recovery,” the spokesperson said, pointing to a recent QS survey suggesting almost half of prospective Chinese students saw Australia’s handling of the pandemic as a boon.
“We’re optimistic Australian universities are in a strong position to see further recovery”
With a strong digital presence, some Australian clients have managed to increase international student revenue during the pandemic, Sinorbis added.
Founding marketing director of music app Shazam and former CEO of the IAB in Australia, Vijay Solanki has joined the company as its first chief marketing officer. Sinorbis hopes to triple its staff presence in the US and the UK in “the near future”.
Raising a total of $9.4 million in funding to date – the latest of which was $2.7m in August 2021 – Sinorbis reminded of the need to reach prospective students in China.
“Independent modelling published in our recent UK Chinese student trends report shows 50,000 Chinese students will apply to undergraduate courses at UK universities by 2030 – which is an increase of around 70%,” CEO and founder Nicolas Chu said.
“It’s critical that UK universities build a strong engagement with these students, who are more than ever relying on Chinese social platforms to communicate and socialise.”
With the world’s main source of international students, institutions must recognise the need to connect with students in China, Sinorbis continued.
“China is a market with consistent, strong demand for global study. But the global higher education sector is more competitive than ever. Universities can’t take that demand for granted – it’s not ubiquitous.”