My Buddy: Providing Essential Information To International Students In United Kingdom

Market Research Analysis

The business idea has been developed to start a new mobile application named ‘My Buddy’ for the international students in United Kingdom. This mobile app would provide all kind of information to the international students visiting UK such as accommodation, getting to residence from airport, applying from NI number, UK banking, getting student jobs, GD registrations, social life and community, UK phone connection, getting rail card or oyster card, rent guarantor service, sending and receiving money abroad, applying driver license, student discounts on cinema’s restaurant, clothes, PSW visa information, BRP, and places to visit in London and UK. The business would provide all forms of information required by the students after visiting a strange nation.

The market research has been conducted with the help of questionnaire in which around 20 questions have been asked. The result of the survey shows that more than 67% of international students want this mobile app. As they think, it would benefit them with helpful information so that they can live in UK comfortably.

The businesses will be linked to several other form of businesses throughout UK which provide services to the international students. This mobile application will help the UK businesses to grow as the majority of the international students will use this service.

Our business will not have to face direct competition as there exist no such mobile application in the market that would provide all types of information at one app. The business would be the first mover in the market which gives an advantage to attract large number of customers that could generate higher revenue for the firm. however, there are several indirect competitors in the market focusing on international students such as lecture capture apps like Sound Note, Office Lens; revision apps such as StudyBlue (Shustack 2019); exam preparation app such as BenchPrep (Jayamohan et al. 2017).

The political condition of the United Kingdom is considered to be stable that would allow the business to run smoothly and efficiently. The factors that affects the stability of the country include rule of law, low or controlled corruption, and the effectiveness of the government policies. UK is one of the most powerful countries of the world having influence over global issues such as economic, social, economic, military, cultural and scientific. However, Brexit has caused certain disruptions between UK and EU. It is believed that the move will result in the prosperity of the country. Overall, the political stability in the UK would help ‘My Buddy’ to operate its business smoothly withing the UK.

The GDP growth of UK during the year 2021 was 6.76% when compared to the last year. The country’s economy was affected by the global coronavirus pandemic. However, the economy is one of the fastest recovering nations all over the world. With the removal of restrictions in the movement of people, international students are coming back to UK which will serve as an incentive to our business.

According to Worldometers, the current population of UK is 68,508,355. The statistics shows that around 556,625 students studying in UK are international students (TclGlobal., 2022). The number of foreign students has grown by 23.66% when compared to the last year. The UK’s education system keeps on updating with every passing year. The rise in Unemployment rate and the inflation rate has resulted in higher per-capita income of the country.

Competitor Analysis

The United Kingdom is one of the most technically advanced nation all over the world. It has established relationship with most of the developed countries through which it can acquire most advanced technologies from all over the world. The technologically advanced nations provide excellent opportunity for the entrepreneurs to set up their businesses. Our customers would mainly use our services through the mobile application. Currently, almost every individual in the United Kingdom have their own smartphones.

Every Businesses in the UK are required to comply with the Employment Act, 1996 with respect to minimum wage, sick pay, maternity leave, holiday pay (Rolf, Reilly and Meryon 2022). The Equality Act 2010 also protects the people from discrimination because of gender, race, color or any other differences.

The government of UK is spending huge amount of fund on preventing environmental issues through spreading information about recycling, eco-friendly products and services, use of less plastic and so on. Our business would run mostly with the computer technology and mobile applications. It will not have any form of negative impact on the environment of UK.

Bargaining power of the customers

The bargaining power of the customers would be low as the company would be the first mover in the field of providing vital information to the international students. In addition, the subscription price charged by the company would be kept low so that the students would be ready to pay for acquiring vital informations. Generally, it becomes difficult for the international students to get them acquainted in the new environment. Our mobile application would be providing hassle-free information to the students.

The bargaining powers of the suppliers would be low as the business would not require any form of raw materials for its business. However, the business would need to reach mobile app developer for developing the desired mobile applications. There are numerous mobile app developers in UK which gives the opportunity to negotiate with the developers (Connor and Andrews 2018).

The threat from substitute is moderate for the business as there exists several substitute mobile apps that could attract international students.

The industry competitiveness in the mobile application sector is high as there are numerous apps that could gain attention of the potential customers. In order to remain competitive in the market, the company would keep the subscription fee low.

The threat of new entrants for this market is high as new competition could emerge in the next few months after seeing the success of the business.

The unique selling proposition of the company is that it will provide all type of information required by the international student at one place. In addition, the business would charge reasonable price from its customers for delivering vital informations.

The business has high potential for growth as the number of international students visiting UK has been increasing at a very high rate. The personalized service to the premium users would serve as an advantage for the firm.

• Through its unique features and the successful market research, it is assumed that the company would be able to attract 5% of the total international students in the first year of operation within UK.
• The company would charge £5 per month for regular service and £7 per month for premium service in which personalized information will be provided.
• The revenue from regular service is expected to grow at the rate of 20% annually and the premium service revenue would grow by 15% per annum.

The long-term plan is to attract 70-80% of the total international students entering into UK and expanding its business in other countries such as Canada and United States in the next five years of operation.

References

Jayamohan, H., Sinha, A., Krishnakumar, R., Edwards, H.S., Younis, T.A., Trevithick, J.D., Patel, K.D. and Bartsch, M.S., 2017. Library preparation for the Oxford Minion sequencer with “ASPIRE”: automated sample prep by indexed rotary exchange. In 21st Int. Conf Miniaturized Syst Chem Life Sci MicroTAS (Vol. 2020).

O’connor, S. and Andrews, T., 2018. Smartphones and mobile applications (apps) in clinical nursing education: A student perspective. Nurse education today, 69, pp.172-178.

Rolf, S., O’Reilly, J. and Meryon, M., 2022. Towards privatized social and employment protections in the platform economy? Evidence from the UK courier sector. Research Policy, 51(5), p.104492.

Shustack, L., 2019. Power up your education with innovative technology. Lillee Smith Gelinas, MSN, RN, FAAN Executive Editor, Professional Outreach Leah Curtin, RN, ScD (h), FAAN Editorial Director, p.32.

TCL Global (2022). In 2021, UK international student statistics. Available at: https://www.tclglobal.co.uk/in-2021-uk-international-student-statistics/#:~:text=Statistics%20show%20that%20the%20total,outside%20of%20the%20European%20Union. (Accessed: 7 April 2022).

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