China Education Alliance Announces First Quarter 2015 Financial Results

HARBIN, China, May 16, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- China Education Alliance, Inc. ("China Education Alliance" or the "Company") (OTCQX: CEAI), a China-based education resource and services company, today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2015.

Financial Highlights for the First Quarter of Fiscal 2015

• Total revenues decreased by 74% to $0.2 million.
• Net loss of $7.4 million.
• Loss per share was $0.70 per fully diluted share.
  

First Quarter Review:

Revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 decreased by $0.5 million, or 74%, to $0.2 million from $0.7 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2014.

The decline in revenue for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 was a result of decline in revenue across all of our business. We believe the main reason was our continuously weakening brand recognition in the main targeted market and increased competition from new competitors. In addition, in the middle of 2014, the local government in Harbin announced policies prohibiting teachers of public schools from engaging in any tutoring/training activities outside of public schools. Since all the teachers previously hired by Tianlang were public school teachers, Tianlang had to cut its class offerings dramatically as a result of these policies, which directly affected our revenue for the training center division. Although we strive to locate and hire qualified non-public school teachers, we are unable to restore our teaching/training operations to the same scale within a short period of time as the quarter ended March 31, 2014. We do not foresee any notable improvement on our training center division for the coming quarter due to the limited availability of qualified non-public school teachers.

However, we believe the rise of the online education industry in China presents a good opportunity for us to improve and develop our online education business. We have been focusing on the development and promotion of our online education business and successfully launched the China Education Cloud Platform (the "Platform") in 2014.

During the initial operation period of the Platform, we offer free access to the Platform to teachers and students with an aim to quickly develop the user base, establish an interactive teaching and learning platform and to achieve a leading position within the industry. After this initial promotion period, we will share with teachers and educational institutions the platform usage, maintenance and service fees paid by students. Our plan is to contract up to one thousand educational institutions and reputable teachers in China by the end of 2015. To date, we have entered into agreements with over 100 schools and educational institutions that will use our Platform and services to offer live or on demand online courses. We hope that the Platform will start to generate revenue upon expiration of the one year free trial period. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to sign up educational institutions and teachers as planned and if we fail, our revenue will be adversely affected.

Our overall cost of revenue decreased by $0.2 million or 17% to $1.2 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, from $1.4 million for the prior year. Cost of revenue for the online education division decreased $0.03 million or 3% to $1.01 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015, from $1.03 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The slight increase was primarily due to the increase in purchase of study materials as a result of the increased market price since the end of 2014. While we strive to provide high-quality and update-to-date online materials, we continue to control cost of revenue for the online education division by closely monitoring the variable costs while maintaining fixed costs at a stable level. Cost of revenue for the training center division decreased by $0.3 million or 69% to $0.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2015 from $0.4 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2014. The decrease in cost of revenue was mainly due to a decrease in teacher's salary as our teachers are paid by the number of classes they teach and there was a decrease in classes we offered during the first quarter of 2015 particularly the significant decrease in the course offerings of Tianlang as compared to the same period in 2014.

Gross loss was $1.0 million for the first quarter of 2015, an increase of $0.3 million, or 41% from $0.7 million for the same period in 2014. Selling expenses decreased by $0.3 million or 26% to $0.9 million for the first quarter of 2015, from $1.2 million for the prior year. Selling expenses were 470% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2015 compared with 167% in 2014. The decrease in selling expenses was mainly due to the decrease in direct labor cost for selling classes of our onsite training centers. We expect our selling expenses to increase because we will incur marketing and advertising expenses to promote our Platform in order to quickly develop a large user base.

Administrative expenses increased by $1.5 million or 40%, to $5.2 million for Fiscal 2014, from $3.7 million for 2014. This was mainly due to the increase in labor costs for the ongoing maintenance of the Platform, as well as development expenses for the Platform related functions. In the future we expect the administrative expenses to remain at this level because we will incur ongoing research and development expenses for the maintenance and further development of the Platform.

Net loss was $7.4 million, or negative return of $0.70 per share basic and diluted, for the first quarter of 2015, as compared to net loss of $6.0 million or negative return of $0.56 per share basic and diluted, for the same period in 2014.

Financial Position

At March 31, 2015, we had cash and cash equivalents of $16.4 million, a decrease of $6.3 million or 28%, from $22.7 million for the prior year mainly due to significant losses from operations.

As of March 31, 2015, the Company had no long-term debt.

About China Education Alliance, Inc.

China Education Alliance, Inc. (http://www.chinaeducationalliance.com) is a leading educational services company offering high-quality instructors and online education materials for students between the ages of 6 to 18 and adults (university students and professionals) aged 18 and over. Divided into two segments, students and graduate professionals, our business model delivers the skills and knowledge necessary to excel in a rapidly growing and highly competitive China. The Company provides students in the first segment with online education materials sourced from top tier schools and famous instructors for download, as well as online training and tutoring services. With teaching centers located across China, the Company also offers hands on training and tutoring to aid Chinese students pass the two most important tests they will face in their educational careers: the senior high school entrance and college entrance exams. In the second segment for graduates and professionals, China Education Alliance provides vocational training courses in subjects including IT, administration, multimedia, as well as several professional training programs.

Safe Harbor Statement

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Certain statements in this press release, constitute forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, without limitation, statements regarding our ability to prepare the company for growth, the Company's planned expansion and predictions and guidance relating to the Company's future financial performance. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs and are not a guarantee of future performance but they involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements, which may include, but are not limited to, such factors as unanticipated changes in product demand especially in the education industry, pricing and demand trends for the Company's products, changes to government regulations, risk associated with operation of the Company's new facilities, risk associated with large scale implementation of the company's business plan, the ability to attract new customers, ability to increase its product's applications, cost of raw materials, downturns in the Chinese economy, and other information detailed from time to time in the Company's filings and future filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Investors are urged to consider these factors carefully in evaluating the forward-looking statements herein and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements made herein speak only as of the date of this press release, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of them and the Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the company's expectations.

For more information, please contact:

China Education Alliance, Inc.
Ms. Cloris Li
Chief Financial Officer
Email: cloris@edu-chn.com
Phone: +86-151-6841-0854

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/china-education-alliance-announces-first-quarter-2015-financial-results-300084129.html