According to the today’s newspaper, one of the major English conversation school in Japan filed for bankruptcy. The name of the school is Geos, which had 329 branches and 36,800 students prior to bankruptcy. Reading the message by the executive person of Geos, we notice that in the process to the bankruptcy, there is an element related to the advertising budget.
The causal flow can be described as follows:
the current economic crisis → a decline in the number of students → cuts of advertising budget → the drastic decrease of the number of new students —> bankruptcy
If I remember correctly, another famous school that filed bankruptcy in 2007 used to spent about half of its revenue on advertising.
“used to spend”
That must send shock waves through the industry. Did they use Brits and Americans as teachers? I have no comparison as to an appropriate percentage for advertising budgets, but to spend half of one’s revenue seems a bit much.
Ditto.
You are such a quick learner! (Unless you simply happened to choose that word, in which case it’s eerie.)
Yes, they employ Brits and Americans as teachers.
The subprime mortgage crisis in the US —> Geos bankruptcy in Japan → ?
I am quite sure that companies like Live Mocha and Rosetta Stone that raise money on the stock exchange also spend most of their money on advertizing. We, at LingQ, spend all of our resources on development and dealing with our users. Building a brand can be a bottomless pit. We are the plodding tortoise of online language learning.
English schools need to hit the books / Geos bankruptcy typifies an industry faced with changing market, bad economy
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/20100423TDY03T02.htm
“The advent of new types of learning tools, including online English conversation programs and software for mobile phones, also have made competition fiercer within the industry.”(Daily Yomiuri Online)
I like the plodding tortoise named LingQ.
A company’s filing for bankruptcy does not necessarily mean that it is going to disappear from the industry . Another company has taken over many of its branches.
PS
If we had edit function on this forum, I could change the proposition in the title of this thread as follows:
of → in
Everlasting corrections:
edit function → an edit function
We are plodding tortoises with our netbooks and iPhones and skype headsets…There may be scope for a new LingQ logo there! Can we have it on a tee-shirt please? I’d like a union flag on the shell of mine.