After market close on Friday, Smartlinx Acquisition Corporation issued a press release regarding their wholly-owned subsidiary, Smartlinx VoIP Networks Pvt. Ltd., which is based in Hyderabad, India. One focus of Smartlinx VoIP Networks is a live tutor program (appropriately called “Live Tutor”) that utilizes software, broadband networks and devices to connect students and teachers for online video education. Smartlinx has partnered with the largest telecom company in India, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), to provide this program using Voice and Video over Broadband (VVOBB) technologies.
A tutor recruitment program was launched February 1, 2010 with a goal of registering 10,000 tutors. The press release was issued to announce that the program is off to a tremendously successful start with 1,500 tutors already registered. Through a very aggressive marketing campaign that spans many levels of media including print, social networks, Out of Home campaigns and traditional radio, Smartlinx plans on reaching the goal of 10,000 tutors by May 2010.
The press release noted specific details regarding pricing, revenues and compensation for the tutors. “A tutor who is willing to teach an average of 9 hours a week and 3 students at a time, using Smartlinx’s one-to-many model, can earn around Rs 10,125 ($225) per month while Smartlinx will charge a connect fees of 2,700 ($60) per month. The student (Class X, IX, XII) just spends Rs 120 ($2.67) per hour which is almost what he/she spends for the transport to have supplementary education in metros now.” Based on these calculations, Smartlinx estimates that it should be able to generate $7.2 million from this portion of their business.
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