To All,
This is one of the latest articles to be found that is read by industry experts. I'll comment on this and the the significance of the acquisition of the recently acquired patents in the near future.
Read page 7 of the '97 annual report. Then read the patents(see Yahoo thread #1125). They have patented the MOST integral function of eSchool. There are ramifications beyond education with these patents.
Any patent that secures an internet function, as you all know, is priceless in today's market.
Electronic Education Report
Business Intelligence on Opportunities in the Educational Software Industry
Scholastic Holds Off Furious Charge By ACTV TO Remain Nation's Largest Online Curriculum Provider
By signing a number of large state and district-wide contracts, Scholastic Network (New York, NY) retained its title of the nation's largest K-12 online curriculum provider for the second year in a row in 1997, according to EER's exclusive Largest K-12 Online Curriculum Providers index. Scholastic, which provides content for a number of disciplines, captured 30% of the online curriculum market on revenues that grew 20% to approximately $3 Million in 1997, EER estimates (see table on page 3).
EER included in this ranking only online services that provide instructional content to schools via subscription. As a result, referenced-based services like that of Infonautics (Wayne, PA) and Encyclopaedia Britannica (Chicago, IL) were not included.
The overall market segments boasted rapid growth of 25% in 1997, while the top eight companies, which own 92% of the market, combined for revenue growth of 49.6%. The top eight companies increased their share of the market from 76.9% to 92% in 1997, indicating that the leading players in this emerging market have started to weed out the non-competitors. Evidence of this was the recent shut-down of Ingenious (Englewood, CO), which tied for 5th in last year's EER ranking (see related story on page 4).
Rapid growth in 1997 may also mean that the market could be on its way to realizing the revenue explosion of $30 Million to $50 Million that company officials expect by the year 2000. EER estimates the total market was worth about $10 Million in 1997. Company executives told EER that last year's strong performance was fueled by a surge in funding for school technology, much of which was used to wire classrooms for Internet access. As a result, more teachers are looking for safe, branded instructional content on the Web.
Scholastic, which in 1997 signed contracts to supply its Scholastic Network to schools in Indiana, Illinois and Florida, survived a furious charge by newcomer ACTV NET (New York, NY) which made a splash in its debut placing second on EER's ranking with estimated sales of about $1.3 Million. ACTV NET is a division of satellite TV programmer ACTV, and produces a virtual classroom environment called a eSchool Online, which is written entirely in Java and can be used on any computer platform.
ACTV NET signed a number of large contacts in 1997 totaling $1.1 Million, including deals in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, New York and Georgia. The company also has contracts with schools in Massachusetts, Texas and California.
Simon & Schuster (New York, NY) through its subsidiary Computer Curriculum Corp. (Sunnyvale, CA), ranked third with 11.5% of the market in 1997, losing 2.3% of its market share, primarily due to inroads made by ACTV. CCC's revenues grew only 4.5% in 1997 to $1.2 Million. CCC publishes two subscription-based Internet services, CCCnet and Edscape.com. Both offer core curriculum and lesson plans for students and teachers. |
