About iBossa

A behind-the-scenes look at iBossa, BOSSA's new digital extension for helping the public select education agencies across China.

BOSSA has lead China's study abroad preparation industry as the professional association of verified education agencies since 2004. Independently ran with nearly 300 members, BOSSA ventures newly into cyberspace to help the public identify qualified, reputable education agencies, all in one place.

With thousands of both new and existing education agencies participating the market, the public's biggest pain point is not in finding suitable agencies, but deciphering which ones to solicit.

What as the inspiration behind launching the iBossa platform?

Throughout our 16-year experience of dealing with students, parents and universities in China, we have found that finding agencies is not their main problem, but selecting. Hence they usually come to our association for advice on choosing agencies. Our belief is that both an endorsement and understanding of our members agencies helps them build trust with parents and students. That is the inspiration behind our platform, iBossa.

What have you done for pre-launching?

We analyzed 96 hours of users' and discovered that per day, averagely 2.72 million users partook in studying abroad searching or engaging behaviours.

Departing from traditional offline channels and online paid exposure, we took a big data analysis approach.

Initially we analyzed insights from 350 million internet users. Among theses insights, we use a big data analysis approach to identify potential users of iBOSSA from those who demonstrate interest in studying abroad.

How did you get agents onboard?

BOSSA and COSSA members encompass 300 education agencies across China. As an added benefit to their membership, agencies can opt in to have their company profiles featured on the platform

Since BOSSA is based in Beijing, we chose here as our launching ground.

China's largest-scale agencies are also headquartered in Beijing and are or planning to enlist on iBossa, as well as several small and mid-sized agencies.

How are you attracting potential users?

Several methods: First, we promote lectures via live seminar or webinar to Chinese universities, and sometimes banks and insurance companies, through iBOSSA. Second, we share our information on other relevant platforms. Finally, we can identify the potential users from other providers' database and introduce ourselves.

Simultaneously, we contact those potential users on behalf of BOSSA, and inform them of our role as an agency association; our members, and the launch of iBossa. If the users grant us permission to recommend our member agents, we introduce them to register for free on iBossa, and we send them the BOSSA-COSSA member agencies directory.

The difference between iBossa and other platforms is that we do direct marketing to parents and students, and do not rely on advertising.

Can international educators also engage on iBossa?

Our co-founding partner has 18,000 institutional listings and their basic information will be readily available. Educators will be allowed to enhance their listing information with further content, articles and videos, to help build awareness and updated information.

The study abroad market is unique in China. A majority of students begin preparing studying abroad through education agencies. BOSSA & COSSA members account for two-thirds of all agencies.

Thus iBossa will separately feature educators and agencies. This helps educators seem more trustworthy and less confusing for the user.

Currently we are working on the service details of educators. First we will start with agencies then the educators. The educator service pack of iBOSSA should be ready by the end of this month.

iBossa: Solutions for studying abroad with confidence

iBossa is available for download on
WeChat as a mini-app

Visit https://ibossa.intsch.cn/

About iBossa

iBossa is co-founded and operated BOSSA (Beijing Overseas Study Service Association) and INTSCH (Instro Online & Intranet) a big data and AI-reliant service committed to the international education industry.

iBossa aims to provide students and parents with high-quality member institutions and outstanding consultants to conduct study abroad consulting services. Also, by featuring the most comprehensive institutional information of 18,000 institutions, iBossa enables students, parents, and advisors to search and learn about educators more widely and ably. BOSSA guarantees the quick handling of complaints and customer service for all users.