E-fenqi, an online platform offering pay-by-installments travel to college students, has recently received an angel investment of RMB5 million (approx: US$800,000) to speed up its expansion.
College students are keen travelers, according to a CTYS survey, which shows that 85.43% of college student respondents are keen to travel and 47.91% take least one trip a year while 12.66% take more than three trips a year. The market presents massive potential as there are more than 25 million enrolled students in China.Many students choose to take cheap tours but they are often dissatisfied with forced shopping and incompatibility with fellow travelers, leading to more complaints against travel companies. E-fenqi finds a niche to offer college students payment plans for travel to target this market segment.
E-fenqi has two main portals – one is for college students to directly choose customized itineraries and the other portal offers the installment payment solutions that users can use to fund their travels. E-fenqi obtains funding from P2P finance websites through credit transfer and loan the funds to college students. The system allows students to make 3 to 24 small monthly payments to fund each trip. As the loan size is small and students’ parents act as guarantors, the risk is minimized, and E-fenqi boast a default rate of 0% so far.
Another drawcard is the strong social element of E-fenqi’s travel platform, as taking a trip with the platform has now become a shortcut for college singles to find a soulmate. Ever since its launch E-fenq’s service has seen a sudden surge in signups among single college students in Chongqing and Chengdu eager to get to know classmates through an exciting trip.
E-fenqi plans to launch several customized student travel routes in the April Tomb Sweeping Festival. Each route will undergo careful analysis and customization by E-fenqi staff looking to spice up ordinary routes with interesting and interactive points along the way. After securing a strong market position in the student travel segment, E-fenqi will branch out into the lucrative white-collar and outbound tourism markets, a company spokesman said.(Translation by David)
