Impact of COVID-19 on Cost and Profitability---Taking the Service Agency for Studying Abroad as an Example

After the outbreak of COVID-19 since the beginning of 2020, people were more cautious about the decision to study abroad. Objectively, it was difficult for people to get visas and buy air tickets because of the inconvenience of going abroad caused by the fuse of flights. Subjectively, people were worried about COVID-19 infection, so they tried to avoid leaving their country. As an intermediary, the business mode and the profit model of service agencies for studying abroad were also affected to some degree. In order to figure out how the costs and profitability changes according to COVID-19, many researchers had done some investigations on students who are prone to study abroad. From the perspective of economics, the costs of agencies were found to be rising significantly due to the uncertainty of COVID-19. It included fixed cost, sunk cost, opportunity cost and variable cost. But from another perspective, if an agency could adapt to the new situation as quickly as possible and grasp the new opportunities to offer a wider range of services, it might greatly increase its profits instead. Faced with this, agencies should focus on improving service quality and constantly expanding new service, such as language courses, career planning and internship training. Through cooperation with more high-level universities and famous enterprises at home and abroad, they could provide customers with more comprehensive services, as well as gain more profits.