Also, this is a good way to have students to do the self-study using our technology, get access to our teaching system using the hardware, their learning machine.So this is also something very new and it’s a new model and new product, but also gaining a lot of interest from our customers and we are also using our existing channel, like all the local schools and learning centers to rollout these new products and also get — getting satisfactory retention and renewal of tuition fees and also this is a business that we are also feeling confident to contribute more and more revenue, and also have good profitability as well.And next to these two — actually these two already contribute vast majority of our educational new initiatives. And we do have confidence in several other ones like the study tour business, campaign business, which actually have some negative impacts during the pandemic period in last one year, but we are confident for the future for this new initiative, because the high demands we are seeing from local markets.And also — we also have very strong resources to develop this new business and together with several other ones that we have mentioned on the call.
So we have — we keep making efforts on developing all these new initiatives and hopefully all these directions can — are all right and also contribute more and more meaningful revenue and profit, okay.Stephen Yang And let me answer the — your last question about the cultural tourism. I think some of you may have read the online that Michael said that we are considering the expanding the cultural tourism business. I think it’s indeed a big potential in the country. And as you know, we do have a lot of teachers, some of them are star teachers.I think going forward by leveraging our teachers’ knowledge in general studies, cultural studies, and history. I think we believe we would be able to offer out one-off that can’t cultural tourism offering, combined with the entertainment and the educational — the cultural education for all age groups, the kids, the college students and the, like, the old people, right, and for all ages.And in addition, I think, we may also be able to leverage our distribution channel, like, Tung-Jung Hsieh, East Buy and the other online streaming channels within the company.
And also we do have a lot of schools and learning centers as the distribution channel for the new business. But now, we are still at a very early stage of the planning and evaluating the new business at the moment. So if we have any updates, we will keep you updated. Thank you.Candis Chan That’s very clear. Thank you.Operator Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from the line of Linda Huang from Macquarie. Please ask your question, Linda.Linda Huang Hi, management. This is Linda from Macquarie. My question is quite simple. My two question is regarding for our cash, because I still see that we keep pouring up the cash and already operating cash flow generation abilities also quite strong. So the reason to the share buyback, have we think about use the other ways such as like a special dividend to return to the shareholder?
So that will be the first one. And the second question is regarding for all the non-academic tutoring business. So, Sisi, just mentioned about that when we also see very good retention rate. So what is this retention rate now and how does it compare to the regulation period? Thank you.Stephen Yang Thank you, Linda. And as you know we announced $400 million share buyback program last year. So till now we will purchase the $157 million and from the open market to repurchase a share back. And I think our thinking is about the evaluation. At this time, we should see the share buyback.Historically, sometimes we bought the share back, sometimes we will pay the special dividend. So this time, the share buyback, next time I think it depends on the decision made by the Board of Directors next year.And to the retention rates for the non-academic course.
I think for the non-academic children’s’ the courses, the retention rate is over 70% in this quarter. It was solely were driving up the retention rate compared to before. And for the intelligence learning system devices, I suggest that you are using the renewal rates that’s over 60% already. Thank you, Linda.Linda Huang Thank you very much.Operator Thank you. Next we have a follow-up question from the line of Candis Chan from Daiwa. Please go ahead, Candis.Candis Chan Great. Hi, Sisi and Stephen. I just wanted to follow-up on the profitability, because you just mentioned for new businesses eventually they are now contributing very strong revenue and also the good profitability. Can you share a little bit more on the margins of the new businesses, particularly for the non-academic tutoring or the intelligence system devices?
Thank you.Stephen Yang Yeah. I think the new business — overall, the new businesses the margins over 10% already. We started businesses at the — just a 15 month, 16 months ago. So it’s quite new business. And but we — as we said, we made cautiously about the investment — new investments of the new business. So it takes less time to make profitable for the new business. And I think we are — I think we expect that the margin of new business were going up — will go up in the Q4 and the next — the new year and that’s okay. Was it clear?Candis Chan Yes. Yeah. That’s very helpful.Stephen Yang Thank you.Candis Chan Thank you.Stephen Yang Thank you.Operator Thank you. Our next follow-up question comes from the line of Felix Liu from UBS.
