Study places india strategy 17jul09 vfinal

StudyPlaces: India Strategy

ConfidentialStudyPlaces.com

To be the preferred source of information and guidance for Indian students seeking education.

• Market overview• Understanding the Indian student• StudyPlaces key assets• India-focused strategy

Agenda

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• India-focused strategy• Operations overview• Finance• Appendix – Lead Management System

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MARKET OVERVIEW

Market Needs and Challenges

• Student demand for education options• Fragmented education institution market • Large media spend on student acquisition• Slow but steady shift to online media spending

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• Slow but steady shift to online media spending

Education Market Overview• Pent up demand for postsecondary education from India and

neighboring regions. 112M of postsecondary-age students in India with below-average postsecondary Gross Enrollment Ratio of 12% (vs. 22% for China, 17% for Indonesia and 30% for Brazil)

• Local education is a +$11 billion market, with enrolling

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• Local education is a +$11 billion market, with enrolling institutions spending an average of 20% of revenue for student acquisition

• India is the largest supplier of students to the US and is the second largest supplier of students to the global education market. In 2008 $200 million was spent recruiting Indian students; expected to grow to $350 million by 2012

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India Domestic Education Spending

Tuition paid by institution type(in $MM) 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 08-12 CAGR

Private Colleges $6.27 $7.34 $8.58 $10.04 $11.75 17%

Vocational Courses $1.40 $1.71 $2.08 $2.54 $3.10 22%

IT Training $0.23 $0.28 $0.35 $0.44 $0.55 24%

Test Prep $1.70 $2.04 $2.45 $2.94 $3.53 20%

TOTAL $9.60 $11.37 $13.46 $15.96 $18.93 19%

ConfidentialSource: CLSA Education Industry Report.

Education Related Ad Spend in India• With a 17% market share in the first half of 2008 Education is the #1 category

in Print Advertising in India

Rank Category Rank Category

1 Education 6 Corporate / Brand Image

2 Services 7 Durables

ConfidentialSource: AdEx India a division of TAM Media Researchhttp://www.tamindia.com/Mailer/print_advertising/2008/H1-Part1/graph/3.jpg

2 Services 7 Durables

3 Banking / Finance / Investment 8 Personal Accessories

4 Auto 9 Telecom / Internet Service Providers

5 Retail 10 Media

Sample print advertising page

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THE INDIAN STUDENT

The Indian Student

Education OptionsIndia Abroad

Engineering

The Indian Student…is seeking

information about education options…

…through multiple sources.

Print

• Historically primary source of information and advertising medium

Goals

•Maximize career

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Engineering � �

Medicine � �

MBA � �

Law �

Vocational �

Professional cert. �

Test preparation �

TV• Small portion of education ad

money goes to education

Online

• Students shifting to online for information about education options

• Target population already tech savvy and provided with access

potential• Increase short term income

• Improve academic test results

Studying abroad is one of many education options considered by almost every Indian student in light of academic performance, financial resources and time constraints

Indian Students Search Online for Education Information

• India is the #1/2 country for the search terms “MBA”, “Engineering”, “Medicine”, “Study Abroad”, and “Tuitions” • Postsecondary prospective students in India and other target countries are already online, doing research and

seeking information (77% of online users are in age group 19-35)

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KEY ASSETS

StudyPlaces Key Assets

• Management team • Rich and compelling content library, driving organic qualified traffic to

Studyplaces.com• Growing targeted traffic of Indian and other international students –

India leading education site with a Google PageRank of 6 and 180,000 pages indexed

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• Growing targeted traffic of Indian and other international students –approx 400k unique visitors

• Impressive client roster of Indian and international institutions advertising in India: Manipal, NIIT, ICFAI, ETS

• Partnership with leading media outlets in India (e.g., Hindustan Times, LiveMint,NDTV), broadening reach

• State-of-the-art lead enrichment process, delivering qualified leads to both local and international institutions

Content Library

• College directory: detailed information on – 3,245 of the largest institutes in India (out of ~ 21,000 total) – 103 in Australia, 3,829 in the US, and 748 in the UK –

Targeted list of Institutes that Indian students go to– UK content and site in Association with Guardian

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– UK content and site in Association with Guardian• Valuable and unique information for prospective to student,

driving traffic via SEO and relationships with institutes• FAQ/forums –enable online communication amongst students

and indexing for SEO• Result information• Free test preparation

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SEO Successes

- First page results on google.co.in for:• “Study Engineering”• “Study MBA”• “Study Medicine”

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• “Study Medicine”• “Study Law”• “Study Abroad”

- 10% month to month increase in organic traffic

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Client roster

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Media Partnerships

• Distribution deals which allow StudyPlaces to provide content and expertise to other media properties– Hindustan Times, LiveMint (Wall Street Journal),

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– Hindustan Times, LiveMint (Wall Street Journal), NDTV

• Media partners depend on Studyplaces for their online ad inventory

• Increased traffic flow and branding lead to better monetization opportunities

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INDIA-FOCUSED STRATEGY

India-focused Strategy

1. Focus on select markets2. Traffic Acquisition 3. Expand customer base4. Broaden media reach

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4. Broaden media reach

Focus on select marketsTarget Market Focus Rationale

Private Professional Colleges

• Engineering• MBA• Medical • Dental

• Growing number of new professional colleges seeking students to fill seats

• Colleges ready to pay high premium to agents for admission

Vocational Institutes • Service industry job seekers looking for qualifications

• Target high-demand occupations such as pharmaceutical research, animation, hospitality, aviation, financial back office, etc.

• High print advertising spend ready to be converted to online lead

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qualifications • High print advertising spend ready to be converted to online lead generation

Test Preparation • Engineering• Medicine• MBA

• 1.5 million test takers annually representing a $400 million market annually

• Students and families willing to spend to improve outcome

Professional Certification

• Job seekers and current employees

• Low cost and time commitment to improve career opportunities• Demand for certificates with proven ROI: e.g., Project Planning,

Java , ERP

Study Abroad Agent Market

• Candidates considering studying abroad

• International universities source a large portion of their foreign students from India

• Premium pricing for international leads converted into students ($2k per student)

• Agents receive an advertising budget to acquire students.

Current traffic acquisition model

Who are we targeting?

Parents

How do we generate traffic?

Students

Create and promote original relevant content

Optimize search results• #6 pagerank • 180,000 pages indexed

• Ask Studyplaces -30,000+ Questions

• Listing of professional colleges

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Counselors

School /College Teachers

Parents

• NDTV• Hindustan times, Shine

Campus

Working Professional

Integrate StudyPlaces with relevant digital destinations

Partner with leading media platforms

Optimize search results

Acquire PPC when appropriate

• 180,000 pages indexed• Keyword Analysis

• Facebook

• Manage 100,000 keywords across multiple categories

Content development plan

Traffic goals

Position StudyPlaces as trusted source for education options

• Created fully searchable and indexed directory of 2500 India-based institutes

• By type of program, level, geographic location, focus, etc.

• Built professional course vertical channels• Engineering, Medicine, Law, MBA, etc.• Opportunities for additional advertising

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Attract relevant Indian traffic

Indian students

Customize content and experience for the prospective

Indian students

qualification

Develop content that allows for segmentation and lead

qualification

location, focus, etc.

• Developed database of vocational certificate and job training options

GooglePageRank 6

180,000 indexed pages

• Created counseling zone regarding vocational options - moderated forums faqs, expert answers, etc. - to increase stickiness and attract organic traffic

• Created free preparation zone for millions of students testing every for the competitive exams

• Engineering, Medicine• Provide tips, sample exams, exam dates

Vertical Channels

• Targeted vertical channels increases relevance for users and search engines

• Opportunity to create intent-specific “microsites”, thus increasing quality of leads

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Education Directory

• Directory covers 3,245 of the largest 21,000 institutes. Next steps is partnership with Google to create the directory at more granular /city level.

• Continued effort to add content to increase usability and relevancy

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relevancy

Directory Content by Category 1Q09 2Q09 3Q09 4Q09 2010Engineering 1,940 2,025 2,110 2,200 2,550 Medicine 145 195 250 300 500 Law 15 20 30 60 190 Coaching 125 155 190 220 350 MBA 750 850 950 1,050 1,450 Total 2,975 3,245 3,530 3,830 5,040

Comprehensive MBA Listings

• Comprehensive listing allows for custom searches by– Degree level, – Country/cities– Specialization

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– Specialization– Part-time or full-time

• Additional opportunity for display advertising

Result/Placement and Test Prep Apps

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Approx 20% of organic traffic generated through free test prep application

Low-cost app to attract qualified traffic right when students ready to make an education decision

Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Unique Visitors 807,074 799,658 921,735 1,003,038

Organic Visits 412,987 438,032 618,019 741,081 830,011 929,612 1,041,165 1,166,105 1,306,038 1,462,762 1,638,294

Page views 4,043,906 3,359,279 3,603,615 4,070,820

Online marketing spend (USD)

$84,264 $79,951 $83,471 $50,093

2008 2009 2010

Traffic Numbers and Projected Goals

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Registered Users added

80,108 52,834 55,144 47,056

Organic traffic growth

12% 6% 41% 20%

Registered Users added

10% 27,421 25,664 22,608 19,579 21,537 23,691 26,060 28,666 31,532 34,685 38,154

Page views per user 5% 5.0 4.2 3.9 4.1 4.3 4.5 4.7 4.9 5.2 5.4 5.7

Estimated partnership traffic

from NDTV, HT, Live Mint and others

150,000 225,000 337,500 506,250 759,375 1,139,063 1,708,594 2,562,891

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SALES STRATEGY

Sales Overview

• Current Focus– Top 100 of institutes in the top verticals: Private College,

Vocational, Test Prep, and Study Abroad categories (see pipeline)

– Wins already include Manipal, ICFAI, HT, etc.

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– Wins already include Manipal, ICFAI, HT, etc.

• Forward Focus– Broader reach of institutes in the same verticals– Geographic expansion: sales presence in South, West, and

East– Aggressively target other big media spenders

Sales Processes

1. Pipeline and revenue forecast management using salesforce.com

2. Weekly team meetings with status updates and review of key metrics

3. Prospecting of potential leads through online and offline media

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media4. Stringent management of collections vs. invoicing

• India has a higher bad debt percentage so we collect 50% upfront for all unproven customers

5. Monthly/Quarterly review of quotas vs actuals

Sales Methodology

1. Market Research• Review all Edu ads placed in newspapers across top

10 metros• Interns collecting data from offline/online sources

2. Pipeline Creation: Pipeline generated with Location, Tier, and Category of prospect

3. Pipeline Distribution:

Market Research

Pipeline Creation

Field Sales & Telesales

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3. Pipeline Distribution: • Pipeline distributed to Field Sales where there is a

sales presence (Delhi NCR, started in Mumbai & Hyderabad).

• Telesales distribution (details next slide)

4. Prospects called for closure

Weekly review of metrics: call rates, appointment rates, close rates, etc.

Field Sales & Telesales

Qualified Inquiries

CustomersCustomers

Current Status (India)

• Current customer count: 54 (excluding Hindustan Times partnership)• Repeat (47), New (7) • Professional Private College (9)

• Study Abroad (32)

• Test Prep (3)

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• Average Revenue per Customer: Rs. 26,435 (US$550)

• Test Prep (3)

• Vocational (8)

• Other (2)

Hindustan Times Overview

• #1 newspaper in North India, #2 nationally• Deal terms:

• Hindustan Times sales team reselling StudyPlaces

• HT sales team to incudle StudyPlaces as a

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• HT sales team to incudle StudyPlaces as a strategic component of media sales targeted in the Education Vertical

• 50% revenue share• Marketing spend pre paid at start of campaign

Relevant Content for

students

Hindustan Times Overview

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Leads, Applications

for Admissions

Counseling services –

online/ offline

Helping in student

placements

• 14 live deals in 1st month:• WCTM • Ameer Engineering • Ameer Medical • Aureole • Career Access

Hindustan Times Results

• IRS • Picasso Animation • R V CORRESPONDENCE • RIMS • Stencil

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• EYK Consultancy • ILADA

• Total deal value at Rs. 8 Lacs (USD $16,000)• Average deal value at $1,150

• Study Abroad • YES

Sales Growth Plan (India)

Org Structure (Highlighted already hired)

Head India Sales

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Regional Head, Delhi

Sales Managers

Regional Head,

Chennai

Sales Managers

Regional Head,

Kolkata

Sales Managers

Regional Head,

Mumbai

Sales Managers

Sales Growth Plan (India)

Cumulative headcount at end of each period:

2009 2010 2011

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 CY Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 CY Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 CY

6 6 9 12 12 15 18 21 24 24 27 30 33 36 36

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OPERATIONS

Business Operations

• 20,000 students visit portal daily

• Every day, 2,000 unique students fill up their information to enquire about a

specific course/ country/ vocational institute/ college etc.

• All these enquires reside in our database

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• All these enquires reside in our database

• These enquires/user data are sold as

• Verified Exclusive Lead

• Verified Shared Lead

• Counseled Lead

• Complimentary Enquires (for advertisement buyers)

• E-mail Campaign Product

Lead Management System (LMS)

• Order Entry in LMS triggers campaign planning and lead inventory for starting the delivery

• Campaign once deployed create leads, in parallel delivery starts with the matched leads in inventory (re-verified)

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verified)• LMS gives a powerful basic and exact matching

functionality based on order parameters and several business rules

• LMS workflow handles the delivery of leads right from the order entry

LMS – Workflow

Order Entry

DeliveryBasic Match

Exact Match

Lead Verification

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Lead requirement &

Campaign planning

Campaign deployment

Lead Database

L M SLeads created

Student fills in aspiration

In San Francisco

Amitabh NagpalCEO

Pankaj BenganiVP, Business

Development & Sales

Executive

Sr. Sales ops Team

Organizational Structure

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Naini SinghDirector Sales,

India

5

Deepti ChitkaraSr. Manager

Counseling Ops

3

Pankaj BatraArchitect

Virender BishtDirector

Engineering

10

Harpreet Singh Sr. Manager,

Business Ops &Finance Control

14

Saurabh ShakyaSr. Manager, Prod

& Mkt

4

Mayank Kumar, Sr. Manager Content Ops

3

Support Functions HR & Admin

7

Unless exception noted, all

employees in New Delhi,

India

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PLAN AND FINANCE

Additional initiatives

1. Sales: Expand sales team in India 2. Product & engineering: Expand product offering to

enable to service students better3. Partnerships: Invest in partnerships with MSN,

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3. Partnerships: Invest in partnerships with MSN, Yahoo for traffic acquisitions

4. School Counseling: Expand reach in to schools for counseling sessions to High schools students

5. Content Acquisition: Increase content depth in each stream – Engineering, Medicine, Law, Medicine Vocational courses

Operating PlanTraffic Customers Operations

3Q09 • Partner with media companies• SEO- Improve keyword density

on targeted pages for 100 keywords that drive traffic

• Focus on HT• Strengthen Delhi Team (hire

regional head)

• Add few more engineers (SysAdmin and Infrastructure)

4Q09 • Partner with coaching institutes • Offer Scholarship• SEO – measure the previous

keywords and add another set of keywords

• Create 1 new key channel relationship

• Continue supporting HT• Build out Chennai & south India

territory

• Build out 5 more headcount in televerification team

• Expand content team by 3 to focus on content collection and service Google partnership

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keywords territory• Recruitment on MBA vertical

service Google partnership

1Q10 • Partner with coaching institutes• Create additional channels in

Retail and Pilot Training

• Hire regional head Mumbai & Kolkata

• Formalize direct sales presence in all 4 regions

• Recruitment on MBA vertical

• Add management level finance and marketing operations staff

• Expand Counseling staff

2Q10 • Partner with other publishers• Create more channels to attract

students in other verticals

• Recruit customers in other vocational programs

• New office space needed either Q2 or Q3

• Expand televerifcation staff as needed

Financial SummaryStudyPlaces CY 09 CY 10 CY 11

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 CY 09 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 CY 10 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 CY 11

Revenues

Lead Revenues

Domestic Leads 65,133 83,201 148,400 239,000 535,733 300,800 394,400 500,200 606,000 1,801,400 715,800 825,600 935,400 1,045,200 3,522,000

International Leads 83,079 88,900 108,850 162,900 443,729 208,350 246,600 269,802 284,193 1,008,945 299,919 317,103 335,881 356,399 1,309,302

Total Revenues 148,211 172,101 257,250 401,900 979,463 509,150 641,000 770,002 890,193 2,810,345 1,015,719 1,142,703 1,271,281 1,401,599 4,831,302

Cost of Goods

Lead Acquisition

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Online Marketing 84,185 14,079 102,900 157,892 359,055 196,549 242,623 285,050 321,834 1,046,057 358,464 393,670 427,598 460,397 1,640,129

Total COGS 84,185 14,079 102,900 157,892 359,055 196,549 242,623 285,050 321,834 1,046,057 358,464 393,670 427,598 460,397 1,640,129

Gross Profit /(Loss) 64,027 158,023 154,350 244,008 620,407 312,601 398,377 484,952 568,359 1,764,288 657,255 749,034 843,683 941,202 3,191,174

SG&A

Total Sales Costs 50,876 45,932 56,024 63,804 216,636 56,353 81,195 100,804 121,192 359,543 136,518 144,362 165,101 185,841 631,821

Total Operations Costs 30,779 30,680 34,331 35,631 131,420 37,631 44,090 47,467 47,944 177,132 54,980 61,457 66,293 72,070 254,800

Total Technology Costs 55,500 42,548 47,159 63,159 208,365 77,159 83,159 83,159 83,159 326,634 83,159 83,159 83,159 83,159 332,634

Total Marketing Costs 17,246 26,303 33,750 35,750 113,049 36,750 36,750 38,250 38,250 150,000 45,750 45,750 47,250 47,250 186,000

Total Admin and Operations Costs 216,026 157,323 219,536 225,777 818,662 235,182 243,971 247,337 248,907 975,397 257,342 254,821 255,075 255,328 1,022,566

Total SG&A 370,426 302,786 390,800 424,120 1,488,133 443,075 489,164 517,016 539,452 1,988,706 577,748 589,548 616,877 643,647 2,427,821

Operating Profit (Loss) (306,400) (144,764) (236,450) (180,112) (867,725) (130,474) (90,787) (32,065) 28,907 (224,418) 79,507 159,485 226,806 297,555 763,353

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APPENDIXLEAD MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Order Entry

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Order Entry

Order Search

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A Typical Order Entry

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Corresponding Sub-order

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Basic Match Operation

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Basic Match Operation

Basic Match

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Tele-Verification

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Tele-Verification

Elements for Verification

• Data Correctness– Mandatory parameters

• Contact Details (email, phone)• Category and Course• Destination Country (for Study

• Intent Verification

– Expected Year and Month of

joining

• Intakes (e.g. for US Fall and

Spring are marked with intent

Yes)

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Abroad)• Target State/City • Education Level• Mode of course (part time, full time,

distance learning)

– Premium parameters• Work Experience• Subjects in last education

Yes)

Verification Calls• Intent Yes • Intent No

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Exact Match and Lead Delivery

Distribution (LMS)

• Shared– Can be contacted by multiple partners through

StudyPlaces (4 partners)

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• Exclusive– One student-one partner

Exact Processed Match

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Partner Testimonials

I have a long and steady relationship with StudyPlaces. The lead quality is great and so is the customer service… Mr. Suneet, Director – FatehEducation

StudyPlaces has delivered what it promised. The concept was new but it is here to stay. Target Consultancy

We are very happy with studyplaces.com leads quality. In fact last year we got 12 students from

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We are very happy with studyplaces.com leads quality. In fact last year we got 12 students from study places leads and we have already converted two students from this year leads. We used to invest lot of money in newspaper advertisement but we never got such a good response. Studyplaces.com is a very cost effective medium. We are getting students in such a low cost in comparison of other media. Best thing about studyplaces.com is that we are paying for per response only as other media never take guarantee of response.

Studies in Russia

We have been using services offered by StudyPlaces for last 6 months. The branding and quality of leads provided by StudyPlaces remain unparalleled. All the best, StudyPlaces.

Mr. Atul Goel, Director – OGIS