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  "documentTitle": "TAL Education Group (TAL)",
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  "authorName": "Carson C. Block",
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  "presentationDate": "2018-06-13 00:00:00",
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  "notes": "The slide uses a screenshot of a website as evidence of low traffic and poor brand value.",
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      "text": "Shunshun seems a poor choice of a vessel in which to expand an existing, only tangentially related business.",
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      "text": "The below capture from the Waybackmachine.org as of June 21, 2015 (the month before TAL’s investment) gives the impression that Shunshun’s site had little traffic, and we would argue, highly questionable brand value. Shunshun seems a poor choice of a vessel in which to expand an existing, only tangentially related business. Regardless, enter TAL and DFRL.",
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      "text": "Shunshun’s primary founder, Du Zhang, was 19 years old when he left Washington University without graduating to become a tech entrepreneur. Shunshun’s original website appears to have launched the next year, in March 2015 – only four months before TAL transferred DFRL to Shunshun. By June 2015, Zhang determined that the clearinghouse business did not work because the overseas students were unable to dedicate the time to answering the questions, and the advice was perceived as too subjective. (In 2014, Zhang had attempted an earlier – also venture-funded – version of the online overseas study clearinghouse, called Appliter. Shunshun was his second attempt in a year.)",
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      "text": "Footnotes 12-16 detailing website creation date, traffic, and founder background.",
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