Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

I have just surprisingly learned that the Chinese online education service provider – Cerbibo, has recently announced to sell 53% of their shares for the total of 10.3 million Yuan, which is only equivalent to 1.51 million US dollars. It seems the other 47% shares will also be given to the buyer for the completion of the transaction. Cerbibo is co-founded by Blackboard (the leading provider of e-Education enterprise software applications and services in America and Europe) and CERNET (China Education and Research Network, the largest Education network service provider in China). It was seen as the “dream marriage” in the Chinese e-Learning industry when the company was first formed back in October 2003. However they seems have tumbled upon some serious marketing difficulties in China.

According to the information published on the China Beijing Equity Exchange website, the total asset value of Cerbibo is 12.4 million Yuan (US $1.82 million), company debt exceed 8.8 million Yuan (US $1.29 million), the appraised value of the company is only 1.88 million Yuan (US $275,660). The annual income of Cerbibo in 2007 was 16.67 million Yuan (US $2.65 million), but the total profit was in the negatives: -1.75 million Yuan (US -$0.28 million), which means the company was operating at a loss.

I think Cerbibo’s down fall is the result of the philosophical and structural differences in the e-Learning industry between east and the west. For example, through the past exchanges with the Chinese institutions, I have observed that the Chinese online education industry focuses strongly on:
- synchronous teaching/learning methods
- heavy media components in all online courses
- mobile technology being used in eLearning
- learners appreciates flexible learning with a low cost operational infrastructure

However, the core software provider of Cerbibo, Blackboard in this case, has always focused on enterprise level solutions, self-study aspects and completely neglected the area in media and mobile technologies. Their synchronous teaching tools stay put with text chat! On the other hand, the back bone service provider CERNET is too big of a giant to provide the right marketing directions for Cerbibo. This also raise an alert to the mother company of Cerbibo - Blackboard Inc. Ever since they acquired WebCT, the company has grown so big and so fast. Can they keep their finger on the pulse of the global e-Learning marketplace? We shall wait and see...

PS. Neither Blackboard nor CERNET has publicly announced anything in regard to the share transfer, all information were collected through the China Beijing Equity Exchange office. The original source of this news is in Chinese which can be found here:
http://it.sohu.com/20080818/n258963630.shtml