教育行业研究
offer new courses on a timely basis and in a cost-effective manner, our results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.
If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand, our business and operating results may be harmed.
We believe that market awareness of our "Xueersi" brand has contributed significantly to the success of our business, and that maintaining and enhancing our brand is critical to maintaining our competitive advantage. If we are unable to successfully promote and market our brand and services, our ability to attract and enroll new students could be adversely impacted and, consequently, our financial performance could suffer. We mainly rely on word-of-mouth referrals to attract prospective students. We also use marketing tools such as the Internet, public lectures, outdoor advertising campaigns and distribution of marketing materials to promote our brand and service offerings. In order to
maintain and increase our brand recognition and promote our new service offerings, we have increased our marketing personnel and expenses over the last several years. A number of factors could prevent us from successfully promoting our brand, including student dissatisfaction with our services and the failure of our marketing tools and strategies to attract prospective students. If we are unable to maintain and enhance our brand or utilize marketing tools in a cost-effective manner, our revenues and profitability may suffer.
Moreover, we offer a variety of courses to primary, middle and high school students in some of the largest cities in China. As we continue to grow in size, expand our course offerings and extend our geographic reach, it may be more difficult to maintain quality and uniform standards of our services and to protect and promote our brand name. We cannot provide assurance that our sales and marketing efforts will be successful in further promoting our brand in a competitive and cost-effective manner. If we are unable to further enhance our brand recognition and increase awareness of our services, or if we incur excessive sales and marketing expenses, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
Our historical financial and operating results, growth rates and profitability may not be indicative of future performance.
Although we commenced operations in 2003, our significant growth in terms of employees, operations and revenues has occurred since 2008. Our total net revenues increased from $8.9 million in the fiscal year ended February 29, 2008 to $69.6 million in the fiscal year ended
February 28, 2010. Any evaluation of our business and our prospects must be considered in light of the risks and uncertainties encountered by companies at our stage of development. In addition, the after-school tutoring service market in China is still at the early stage of development, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business and future prospects. Furthermore, our results of operations may vary from period to period in response to a variety of other factors beyond our control, including general economic conditions and regulations or government actions pertaining to the private education service sector in China, changes in spending on private education, our ability to control cost of revenues and operating expenses, and non-recurring charges incurred in connection with acquisitions or other extraordinary transactions or under unexpected circumstances. Due to the above factors, we believe that our historical financial and operating results, growth rates and profitability may not be indicative of our future performance and you should not rely on our past results or our historic growth rates as indications of our future performance.
If our students' level of performance falls or satisfaction with our services declines, our annual retention rate may decline and our business, financial condition, results of operations and reputation would be adversely affected. The success of our business depends on our ability to deliver a satisfactory learning experience and improved academic results. Our tutoring services may fail to improve a student's academic performance and a student may perform below expectations even after completing our courses. Additionally, student and parent satisfaction with our services may decline. A student's learning experience may also suffer if his or her
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