学而思F1-行业分析(16)

教育行业研究

relationship with our teachers does not meet expectations. We generally offer refunds for remaining classes to students who decide to withdraw from a course. Although we have not experienced any significant refunds in the past, if an increasing number of students request refunds, our revenues and results of operations may be adversely affected. In addition, if a significant number of students fail to improve their performance after attending our courses or if their learning experiences with us are unsatisfactory, they may decide not to continue to enroll in our courses, and our business, financial condition, results of operations and reputation would be adversely affected.

We face significant competition, and if we fail to compete effectively, we may lose our market share and our profitability may be adversely affected. The private education market in China is rapidly evolving, highly fragmented and competitive, and we expect competition to persist and intensify. We face competition in each type of services we offer and in each geographic market in which we operate. Our competitors include New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., Juren Education, Ambow Education Holding Ltd., China Xueda Education Ltd., and ChinaEdu Corporation.

Our student enrollments may decrease due to intense competition. Some of our competitors may have more resources than we do. These competitors may be able to devote greater resources than we can to the development, promotion and sale of their programs, services and products and respond more quickly than we can to changes in student needs, testing materials, admission standards, market trends or new technologies. In addition, some smaller local companies may be able to respond more quickly to changes in student preferences in some of our targeted markets. Moreover, the increasing use of the Internet and advances in Internet- and computer-related technologies, such as web video conferencing and online testing simulators, are eliminating geographic and physical facility-related entry barriers to providing private education services. As a result, smaller local companies may be able to use the Internet to quickly and cost-effectively offer their programs, services and products to a large number of students with less capital expenditure than previously required. Consequently, we may be required to reduce course fees or increase spending in response to competition in order to retain or attract students or pursue new market opportunities, which could result in a decrease in our revenues and profitability. We will also face increased competition as we expand our operations. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors. If we are unable to maintain our competitive position or otherwise respond to competitive pressure effectively, we may lose our market share and our profitability may be adversely affected.

Failure to effectively and efficiently manage the expansion of our service network may materially and adversely affect our ability to capitalize on new business opportunities. Our business has experienced significant growth in recent years. The number of our learning centers increased from 30 as of February 29, 2008 to 109 to date. We plan to continue to expand our operations in different geographic markets in China. Establishing new learning centers poses challenges and requires us to make investments in management, capital expenditures, marketing expenses and other resources. The expansion has resulted, and will continue to result, in substantial demands on our management and staff as well as our financial, operational, technological and other resources. Our planned expansion will also place significant pressure on us to maintain the teaching quality and uniform standards, controls and policies to ensure that our brand does not suffer as a result of any decrease, whether actual or perceived, in the quality of our programs. To manage and support our expansion, we must improve our existing operational, administrative and technological systems and our financial and management controls, and recruit, train and retain additional qualified teachers and

management personnel as well as other administrative and marketing personnel. We cannot assure you that we will be able to effectively and efficiently manage the growth of our operations, maintain or accelerate our current growth rate, recruit and retain qualified teachers and management personnel, successfully integrate new learning centers into our operations and otherwise effectively manage our growth. Our failure to effectively and efficiently manage our expansion may materially and adversely affect our ability to capitalize on new business opportunities, which in turn may have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations.

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