教育行业研究
we develop will expand our current offerings and increase student enrollment, others may compete with or render obsolete our existing offerings without increasing our total student enrollment. For example, our online courses might attract students away from our
classroom-based courses. If we are unable to increase our total student enrollment and profitability as we expand our course and service offerings, our business and growth may be adversely affected.
If we are not able to continually enhance our online courses and services and adapt to rapid changes in technological demands and student needs, we may lose market share and our business could be adversely affected. Widespread use of the Internet for educational purposes is a relatively recent occurrence, and the market for Internet-based courses and services is characterized by rapid technological changes and innovations, as well as unpredictable product life cycles and user preferences. We have limited experience with generating revenues from online courses and services, and their results are largely uncertain. We must be able to adapt quickly to changing student needs and preferences, technological advances and evolving Internet practices in order to compete successfully in online education. Ongoing enhancement of our online offerings and technologies may entail significant expenses and
technological risks. We may not be able to use new technologies effectively or may fail to adapt to changes in the online education market on a timely and cost-effective basis. Revenues generated from our online course offerings have been insignificant, accounting for less than 1.5% of our total net revenues since we began offering online courses in 2010. We expect that revenues from our online course offerings will increase. However, if improvements to our online offerings and technologies are delayed, result in systems interruptions or are not aligned with market expectations or preferences, we may not gain market share and our growth prospects could be adversely affected.
Our success depends on the continuing efforts of our senior management team and other key personnel and our business may be harmed if we lose their services. Our future success depends heavily upon the continuing services of the members of our senior management team, which includes Bangxin Zhang, our chairman and chief executive officer, Yundong Cao, our director and president, Yachao Liu, our vice president, Yunfeng Bai, our vice president and Joseph Kauffman, our chief financial officer. If any member of our senior management team leaves us and we fail to effectively manage a transition to new personnel, or if we fail to attract and retain qualified and experienced professionals on acceptable terms, our business, financial conditions and results of operations could be adversely affected. Competition for experienced management personnel in the education industry is intense, and we may not be able to retain the services of our senior executives or key personnel, or to attract and retain high quality senior executives or key personnel in the future.
Our success also depends on our having highly trained financial, technical, human resource, sales and marketing staff, management personnel and qualified teachers for local markets. We will need to continue to hire additional personnel as our business grows. A shortage in the supply of personnel with requisite skills or our failure to recruit them could impede our ability to increase revenues from our existing courses and services, to launch new course and service offerings and to expand our operations, and would have an adverse effect on our business and financial results.
Failure to control rental costs, obtain leases at desired locations at reasonable prices or protect our leasehold interests could materially and adversely affect our business. All of our offices and service and learning centers are presently located on leased premises. At the end of each lease term, which generally ranges from two to five years, we must negotiate an extension of the lease and if we are not able to negotiate an extension on terms
acceptable to us, we will be forced to move to a different location, or the rent may increase significantly. This could disrupt our operations and adversely affect our profitability. All of our leases are subject to renewal at market prices, which could result in a substantial rent increase at each time of renewal. We compete with many other businesses for sites in certain highly desirable locations and some landlords may have entered into long-term leases with our competitors for prime locations. As a result, we may not be able to obtain new leases at desirable locations or renew our existing
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