Global student accommodation booking platform, Student.com, has announced a name change in China, and a business synergy with a Chinese travel platform to help students book more than just accommodation.
The company will now trade under the name ‘Xue Lü Jia’ in China, which translates to “home for a student’s journey”.
“Previously, our name in Chinese literally translated as ‘overseas student apartments’,” Joanna Zhu, head of brand and social marketing at student.com in China, told The PIE News.
“It was a natural decision for us to create a more unique identity for our company”
“It was more of the description of the products students can book through our platform, but not a real brand name. With our rapid growth in China, it was a natural decision for us to create a more unique identity for our company.”
The company has also announced a partnership with Chinese travel platform, Qyer, to offer scholarships for students to travel and work abroad.
The 2017 Youth Project, which aims to ‘support young people to explore the world’, is offering a number of monetary prizes for students to go towards their overseas study experience. The top prize will see one student win 20,000RMB.
Other prizes include, vouchers worth 1,000RMB and 500RMB for booking on Student.com.
Other organisations involved in the project, include Zhihu, a question and answer online community website, and Ofo, a bicycle sharing app.
At the start of last year, Student.com received a large chunk of investments totalling $60m from venture capital firms.
In total, the company has seen $70m of investment since its inception in 2011.
The company traded under the name Overseas Student Living at the time.
Student.com now lists properties from over 400 cities worldwide.
