EdTech Exports and Echo360

Are you an exporter? 

Do you sell your services or products to another country? Maybe you work for or teach in a program that has tuition paying students who live outside of nation in which you live. Perhaps your company sells ed tech services or products outside of our borders. 

I've become somewhat obsessed with exports, as I've come to understand the important of exports in driving economic development, job creation and quality of life.  

I'd like to understand the big picture around U.S. ed tech exports, but to get us started I was hoping to talk about one company - Echo360. 

The lecture capture market is set to tip - with recorded and shared class presentations becoming a standard part of a blended course delivery model.  

Presentation capture is one piece of the blended learning puzzle, and we will look back in a few years and wonder why it took us so long to have ubiquitous lesson recording to complement learning interaction tools such as blogs, wikis, synchronous video discussion, personalized assessment, and simple rich media authoring tools for faculty and students. The LMS (learning management system) is only one enabler of blended learning. We need other platforms that integrate with the LMS to move us into a 21st century learning mode.   

To understand what Echo360 is doing as an exporter I had a good chat with Fred Singer, Echo360's CEO. Here is what is what I learned:

Sales Trends:

• Echo's revenue outside the US and Canada comprised 40% of 2011’s total revenue.
• International clients consist of 30% of Echo’s active client roster.
• Echo's focus historically has been on Australia and UK, although today Echo is expanding to Europe (Germany, Baltic States, Russia), Middle East (Saudi, Qatar and UAE), Asia (Japan, Hong Kong, China, India) and New Zealand.
• Echo360 expects to see steady growth in all non-US territories, but the Middle East and Asia should see the biggest increase with revenue in those territories projecting to double over 2012.

Echo's Market Share for Lecture Capture Outside of the US:

• Australia: Echo dominates nearly 50% of all HED institutions and will continue to see steady growth.
• UK: 50 out of 110 institutions use Echo solutions.  Growth expected despite of the difficult economic circumstances.
• Japan: 9 clients with a 100% increase in 2012.
• Saudi Arabia: Smaller client base but expect to double in 2012.  
• United Arab Emirates: Double digit growth.  Unlike other regions schools in the UAE and Saudi can afford to purchase technology, but require qualified instructors to ensure successful deployment.
• Hong Kong: Echo's client base to double in 2012.

Employment Trends:

• Echo has about 100 total employees, 14 of which dedicated to international business.
• The company has a 9 person office in Perth Australia, 2 in the UK and 3 US team leaders.
• People who work on Echo360's international teams have jobs that range from sales, technical sales, support, development and project management.

Can you share your edtech export story?