UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

OR

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.

OR

OR

Date of event requiring this shell company report                     

For the transition period from                  to                 

Commission file number: 001-38587

Aurora Mobile Limited

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

N/A

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

Cayman Islands

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

3/F, Building No. 7, Zhiheng Industrial Park

No. 15, Guankou Road 2, Anle Community, Nantou Street, Nanshan District

Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518052

People’s Republic of China

(Address of principal executive offices)

Shan-Nen Bong, Chief Financial Officer

3/F, Building No. 7, Zhiheng Industrial Park

No. 15, Guankou Road 2, Anle Community, Nantou Street, Nanshan District

Shenzhen, Guangdong, 518052

People’s Republic of China

Phone: +86 755-8388-1462

Email: bongsn@jiguang.cn

(Name, Telephone, Email and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

Securities for which there is a reporting obligation pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act:

None

(Title of Class)

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report:

As of December 31, 2019, there were 77,106,226 common shares outstanding, par value of US$0.0001 per share, being the sum of 60,106,037 Class A common shares (excluding treasury shares), par value of US$0.0001 per share and 17,000,189 Class B common shares, par value of US$0.0001 per share.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.

☐  Yes     ☒  No

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

☐  Yes     ☒  No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.

☒  Yes     ☐  No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files).

☒  Yes     ☐  No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.   ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.

☐  Yes     ☒  No

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow.

☐  Item 17     ☐  Item 18

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).

☐  Yes     ☒  No

(APPLICABLE ONLY TO ISSUERS INVOLVED IN BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed all documents and reports required to be filed by Sections 12, 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 subsequent to the distribution of securities under a plan confirmed by a court.

☐  Yes     ☐  No

TABLE OF CONTENTS

i

INTRODUCTION

Unless otherwise indicated and except where the context otherwise requires, references in this annual report on Form 20-F to:

Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars and from U.S. dollars to Renminbi in this annual report are made at a rate of RMB6.9618 to US$1.00, the exchange rate in effect as of December 31, 2019 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. We make no representation that any Renminbi or U.S. dollar amounts could have been, or could be, converted into U.S. dollars or Renminbi, as the case may be, at any particular rate, or at all.

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FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This annual report on Form 20-F contains forward-looking statements that relate to our current expectations and views of future events. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigations Reform Act of 1995.

You can identify some of these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “is/are likely to,” “potential,” “continue” or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements include statements relating to:

You should read this annual report and the documents that we refer to in this annual report and have filed as exhibits to this annual report completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect. Other sections of this annual report discuss factors which could adversely impact our business and financial performance. Moreover, we operate in an evolving environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for our management to predict all risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

You should not rely upon forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. The forward-looking statements made in this annual report relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this annual report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

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PART I

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

The following tables present the selected consolidated financial information for our company. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, selected consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 and selected consolidated cash flows data for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, which are included in this annual report beginning on page F-1. The selected consolidated statements of operations data for the year ended December 31, 2016, the selected consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2016 and 2017 and selected consolidated cash flows data for the year ended December 31, 2016 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this annual report. Our historical results do not necessarily indicate results expected for any future periods. The selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with, and are qualified in their entirety by reference to, our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes and “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects”. Our consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

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Notes:

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

4

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have experienced rapid growth in recent periods, and our recent growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth.

We started operation in 2012. As a result of our relatively limited operating history, our ability to forecast our future results of operations is limited and subject to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. Our revenue has increased substantially since our inception, but we may not be able to sustain revenue growth consistent with our recent history, or at all. Our revenue growth in recent periods may not be indicative of our future performance. In future periods, our revenue could decline or grow more slowly than we expect. We believe growth of our revenue depends on a number of factors, including our ability to:

We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully accomplish any of these objectives.

We have incurred net losses in the past, which we may continue to experience in the future.

We have incurred net losses since our inception, including loss from operations of RMB92.4 million, RMB92.8 million and RMB147.2 million (US$21.1 million) for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, and net losses of RMB90.3 million, RMB66.2 million and RMB109.8 million (US$15.8 million) for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. These losses reflect the substantial investments we made to grow our business, including commercialization of our platform, development of our AI and machine learning capabilities, improvement of our technology infrastructure, and our sales and marketing efforts. We cannot assure you that we will be able to generate net profits in the future.

We expect to continue to make significant future expenditures related to the continuous development and expansion of our business, including:

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As a result of these increased expenses, we will have to generate and sustain increased revenue to be profitable in future periods. Further, in future periods, our revenue growth rate could decline, and we may not be able to generate sufficient revenue to offset higher costs and achieve or sustain profitability. If we fail to achieve, sustain or increase profitability, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

We generate a significant portion of our revenues from targeted marketing, and the reduction in spending by or loss of our marketing customers could materially harm our business.

The term of the contracts with our advertisers is generally one year, and advertisers may terminate the contracts with us upon the expiration of the term. Those advertisers may not continue to do business with us if we do not create more value (such as increased return on investment) than their available alternatives. If we do not provide superior value or deliver ads efficiently and competitively, we could see a decrease in revenue and other adverse impacts to our business. In addition, expenditures by advertisers tend to be cyclical and subject to changes in overall economic conditions and industry specific events or regulation. Adverse macroeconomic conditions can also have a material negative impact on user activity and the demand for advertising and cause our advertisers to reduce the amounts they spend on advertising, which could adversely affect our revenues and targeted marketing solution business.

The preferred format and technology associated with digital advertising may continue to evolve and may become less compatible with our solutions, which could adversely affect our revenues and targeted marketing solution business.

If we cannot successfully execute our strategy and continue to develop and effectively market SaaS products and targeted marketing that anticipate and respond to the needs of app developers and our customers, our business, operating results and financial condition may suffer.

The market for SaaS products and targeted marketing is characterized by constant change and innovation, and we expect it to continue to rapidly evolve. Moreover, many of our customers operate in industries characterized by changing technologies and business models, which require them to develop and manage increasingly complex mobile application and IT infrastructure environments. Our historical success has been based on our ability to offer high quality in-app functionalities needed by app developers and innovative targeted marketing and other SaaS products with industry-specific and actionable insights for our customers, and the resulting benefits to customers’ businesses and brands. Our success has also depended upon our ability to identify, target and reach customers that need our services and targeted marketing and other SaaS products and successfully convert app developers into paying customers through our sales and marketing activities and then increase the cross-sale among each line of our businesses. If we do not respond to the rapidly changing needs of our customers by developing and enhancing our SaaS products and targeted marketing, developing new products on a timely basis that can address evolving customer needs, and selling and marketing them effectively, our competitive position and business prospects will be harmed.

Additionally, the process of developing new technology and targeted marketing and other SaaS products may be complex and uncertain, and if we fail to accurately predict developers’ and customers’ changing needs and emerging technological trends, our business could be harmed. We believe that we must continue to dedicate significant resources to our research and development efforts. Our enhancement of existing services and targeted marketing and other SaaS products and development of new products could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:

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To the extent we are not able to continue to execute on our business model to timely and effectively develop and market our SaaS products and targeted marketing to address these challenges, our business, operating results and financial condition will be adversely affected.

There can be no assurance that we will successfully identify new opportunities, develop and bring new SaaS products and targeted marketing to market on a timely basis or achieve market acceptance of our services and products, or that products and technologies developed by others will not render our comprehensive suite of services obsolete or non-competitive. Further, we may make changes to our services and products that our customers do not like or find useful. We may also discontinue certain features, begin to charge for certain features that are currently free, such as certain developer services, or increase fees for any of our features or usage of our SaaS products and targeted marketing. If our services or products do not achieve adequate acceptance in the market, our competitive position will be impaired, our revenue may decline or grow more slowly than expected and the negative impact on our operating results may be particularly acute and we may not receive a return on our investment because of the upfront research and development, sales and marketing and other expenses we incur.

If we are not able to continue to gain access to mobile data in the future, our business, operating results and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

By providing services to mobile app developers, we gain access to massive mobile data that we use to develop our industry-specific targeted marketing and other SaaS products. Data is sourced only based on our services provided to developers and primarily consists of unstructured anonymous meta data. Based on our centralized proprietary data processing platform and leveraging our AI and machine learning capabilities, we are able to gain actionable and effective insights from the data and develop a variety of targeted marketing and other SaaS products. Our business plan assumes that the demand for targeted marketing and other SaaS products will increase.

We may not be able to maintain and grow the number of app developers we serve. Furthermore, certain of our app developers may prohibit or limit our access to or use of this data. The broad adoption of certain end-user computer software or programs may pose technical restrictions on our ability to access user data or end-users may dispute our use of the data. Interruptions, failures or defects in our data access and processing systems, as well as privacy concerns regarding the user data, could also limit our ability to analyze data. In addition, our ability to collect data may be restricted by new laws and regulations. If we are not able to continue to gain access to extensive mobile data in the future, we will lose our competitive strengths, and we may not be able to effectively and efficiently offer and improve our existing targeted marketing and other SaaS products or develop new products that respond to the needs of our customers. Accordingly, demand for our solutions may not continue to develop as we anticipate, or at all, and because we derive a substantial portion of our revenue from targeted marketing and other SaaS products, the growth of our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

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If the market for our SaaS products and targeted marketing develops more slowly than we expect, our growth may slow or stall and our operating results could be harmed.

The market for SaaS products and targeted marketing is rapidly growing. Our future success will depend in large part on our ability to penetrate the existing market, as well as the continued growth and expansion of that market. It is difficult to predict customer adoption and renewals of our subscriptions, customer demand for our platform, the size, growth rate and expansion of this market, the entry of competitive products or the success of existing competitive products. Our ability to penetrate the existing market for SaaS products and targeted marketing and any expansion of that market depends on a number of factors, including the cost, performance and perceived value associated with our service and products, as well as potential customers’ willingness to adopt our service and products. If we or other SaaS products or targeted marketing providers experience security incidents, loss of customer or user data, disruptions in delivery or other problems, the market as a whole, including our business, may be negatively affected. If our service and products, especially targeted marketing and other SaaS products, do not achieve widespread adoption, or there is a reduction in demand caused by a lack of customer acceptance, technological challenges, weakening economic conditions, security or privacy concerns, competing technologies and products, decreases in corporate spending or otherwise, it could result in decreased revenue and our business could be adversely affected.

Actual or alleged failure to comply with data privacy and protection laws and regulations could damage our reputation, and discourage current and potential app developers and customers from doing business with us.

Concerns about our practice of accessing, storing, processing and using data from mobile devices, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation, business and results of operations. We are subject to various data privacy and protection laws and regulations in China, including, without limitation, the PRC Cyber Security Law. To protect personal information, these laws and regulations regulate data collection, storage, use, processing, disclosure and transfer of personal information. Pursuant to these laws and regulations, an internet information service provider is required to obtain a user’s consent to collect and use the user’s personal information, and is prohibited from gathering personal information that is unrelated to the services it provides, and the internet information service provider must also inform the user of the purposes, the means and the scope of the information collection and uses. In addition, app operator is required to (i) inform users of the purposes, the means and the scope of information to be collected or used by any third party’s source code or SDK imbedded in its app; and (ii) to provide personal information to any third party via such imbedded source code or SDK only if such information is anonymized and users’ consent is obtained. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Information Security,” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Privacy Protection.”

The PRC Cyber Security Law is relatively new and subject to interpretation by the regulator. Although we only gain access to anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data that is necessary for, and relevant to, the services provided, the data we obtain and use may include information that is deemed as “personal information” under the PRC Cyber Security Law and related data privacy and protection laws and regulations. As such, we have adopted a series of measures in order to comply with the laws and regulations relating to the protection of personal information. We enter into a service agreement with each app developer that uses our developer services in their mobile apps, and we display privacy policies on our official website. Our service agreement and the privacy policies require each app developer to obtain consent from the end users of its apps in connection with data collection and use pursuant to the PRC Cyber Security Law and related laws and regulations. We periodically check the app developers’ own agreements with their end users on a sampling basis, and we remind the app developers to rectify the situation where we find instances of non-compliance with our service agreements, such as their failure to obtain sufficient consents from their end users. Moreover, once the original mobile behavioral data is collected through developer services, our data processing platform immediately stores, cleanses, structures and encrypts the data, and we then utilize AI and machine learning technologies to conduct modeling exercises and data mining and develop targeted marketing and other SaaS products that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers, in aggregated and anonymized form. In addition, we have adopted rigorous data security measures to prevent our data from unauthorized access or use or being retrieved to establish any connection with the device owners’ identities.

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While we take all these measures to comply with all applicable data privacy and protection laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee the effectiveness of the measures undertaken by us, app developers and business partners. The activities of third parties such as app developers and business partners are beyond our control. If our business partners or app developers violate the PRC Cyber Security Law and related laws and regulations relating to the protection of personal information, or fail to fully comply with the service agreements with us, or if any of our employees fail to comply with our internal control measures and misuse the information, we may be subject to penalties. For further information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Privacy Protection.” Any failure or perceived failure to comply with all applicable data privacy and protection laws and regulations, or any failure or perceived failure of our business partners or app developers to do so, or any failure or perceived failure of our employees to comply with our internal control measures, may result in negative publicity and legal proceedings or regulatory actions against us, and could damage our reputation, discourage current and potential app developers and customers from using our services and/or targeted marketing and other SaaS products and subject us to fines and damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Furthermore, the interpretation and application of personal information protection laws and regulations and standards are still uncertain and evolving. We cannot assure you that relevant governmental authorities will not interpret or implement the laws or regulations in ways that negatively affect us. In addition, it is possible that we may become subject to additional or new laws and regulations regarding the protection of personal information or privacy-related matters in connection with the data we have access to and the targeted marketing and other SaaS products we provide to customers. Moreover, as we implement our strategy to expand into selected global markets, we may become subject to personal information protection laws and regulations in the jurisdictions that we expand into. We may also become subject to regulatory requirements as a result of installations of apps integrated with our SDKs by residents of, or travelers who visit, certain jurisdictions, such as the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union. Complying with additional or new regulatory requirements could force us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices. In addition to the regulatory requirements, user attitudes towards data privacy are also evolving, and user concerns about the extent to which personal information is accessible to, used by or shared with our customers or others may adversely affect our ability to gain access to data and provide certain targeted marketing and other SaaS products to our customers. Any occurrence of the abovementioned circumstances may negatively affect our business and results of operations.

We rely on certain ad publishers for our targeted marketing business.

Our revenues from targeted marketing are derived from placing display ads on publisher apps that we do not own. We currently access ad inventory through various channels, including major online media networks and we rely on certain advertisement publishers, such as Yunrui, Pairui and Tencent, for access to a large amount of ad inventory.  Our agreements with these publishers generally also do not include long-term obligations requiring them to make their inventory available to us. As a result, our ability to continue to purchase inventory from these publishers depends in part on our ability to consistently pay sufficiently competitive fees for their internet display ad inventory as well as other factors. Similarly, as more companies compete for ad impressions on major platforms with a large amount of supply of ad inventory, ad inventory may become more expensive, which may adversely affect our ability to acquire ad inventory and resell it on a profitable basis. Any interference with our ability to maintain access to such inventory could materially reduce the amount of ad inventory that our solution relies on in order to deliver ads for our clients. In addition, since we rely on a limited number of publishers for access to significant portions of advertising inventory that our targeted marketing business depends on, the loss of access to ad inventory from one of those publishers would negatively impact our ability to deliver internet display ads for our targeted marketing customers. Any of these consequences could therefore adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

With the expansion of the breadth and quality of businesses that utilize our solution, we expect that our publisher base will grow. In addition, in order to grow our advertiser base, we must expand our access to new sources of internet display ad inventory and maintain a steady supply of this inventory. Our ability to attract new publishers will depend on various factors, some of which are beyond our control. Therefore, we cannot assure you that we will successfully grow our relationships with new publishers or maintain and expand our access to ad inventory through other channels. In addition, even if we do grow our relationships, we cannot assure you that those relationships with publishers will be on favorable terms to us.

Therefore, if we are unable to acquire sufficient ad inventory through stable publisher relationships or intermediaries, our business and results of operations could be harmed.

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Security and privacy breaches may hurt our business.

We currently retain data from other parties, including data from mobile devices in secure database servers .  It is essential for us to maintain the security of data that we store and process properly. We maintain a data security program. Once the original anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data is collected and aggregated, our platform stores, cleanses, structures and encrypts data. We also design and adopt other security controls to protect our data from breaches, including separation of data from external servers by firewalls, granting of limited access to designated employees, and maintaining a proper visit log. See “Item 4. Information On the Company—B. Business Overview—Our AI-Powered Data Processing Platform—Data Security.”

Any security breach and data decryption, including those resulting from a cybersecurity attack, or any unauthorized access, unauthorized usage, virus or similar breach or disruption could result in the loss of the information that we gain access to and store, damage to our reputation, early termination of our contracts, litigation, regulatory investigations or other liabilities. If our data security measures or the data security measures utilized by app developers and customers are breached as a result of third-party action, employee error, malfeasance or otherwise and, as a result, someone obtains unauthorized access to confidential information of developers, customers and app end users, our reputation may be damaged, our business may suffer and we could incur significant liability.

Techniques used to obtain unauthorized access or to sabotage systems change frequently and generally are not recognized until launched against a target. As a result, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. If an actual or perceived security breach occurs, the market perception of our data security measures could be harmed and we could lose sales and customers.

Moreover, if a high-profile security breach occurs with respect to another SaaS products or target marketing solution provider, our customers and potential customers may lose trust in the security of our SaaS products or targeted marketing generally, which could adversely impact our ability to retain existing customers or attract new ones.

Our business depends on strong brand and failing to maintain and enhance our brand would hurt our ability to expand our base of app developers and customers.

We believe that maintaining and enhancing our “Jiguang” brand identity and increasing market awareness of our company and products, particularly among app developers and publishers, is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our platform, to strengthening our relationships with our existing customers and to our ability to attract new customers. The successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on our continued marketing efforts, our ability to continue to offer high quality products, our ability to maintain our leadership position and our ability to successfully differentiate our products and platform from competing products and services. Our brand promotion activities may not be successful or yield increased revenue. In addition, independent industry analysts may provide reviews of our products and competing products and services, which may significantly influence the perception of our products in the market. If the reviews are negative or not as strong as reviews of our competitors’ products and services, then our brand may be harmed.

In addition, if we do not handle product complaints effectively, then our brand and reputation may suffer, app developers and customers may lose confidence in us and they may reduce or cease their use of our products. App developers and our customers may post and discuss on social media about internet-based products and services, including our products and platform. Our reputation depends, in part, on our ability to generate positive feedback and minimize negative feedback on social media channels where existing and potential customers seek and share information. If actions we take or changes we make to our products or platform upset these app developers and our customers, then their online commentary could negatively affect our brand and reputation. Complaints or negative publicity about us, our products or our platform could materially and adversely impact our ability to attract and retain users and customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The promotion of our brand also requires us to make expenditures, and we anticipate that these expenditures will increase as our market becomes more competitive and as we expand into new markets. To the extent that these activities increase revenue, this revenue still may not be enough to offset the increased expenses we incur. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, then our business may not grow, we may see our pricing power reduced relative to competitors and we may lose users and customers, all of which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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If we fail to keep up with rapid changes in technologies, our future success may be adversely affected.

We utilize AI and machine learning technology and other advanced data technology tools to process data and productize our targeted marketing and other SaaS products. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to the technology development on a timely basis. If we are unable to develop new products that satisfy our customers and provide enhancements and new features for our existing products that keep pace with rapid technological and industry change, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive products and services at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely, such technologies could adversely impact our ability to compete effectively.

Our platform integrates with a variety of network, hardware, mobile and software platforms and technologies, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our products and platform to adapt to changes and innovation in these technologies. If app developers or customers adopt new software platforms or infrastructure, we may be required to develop new versions of our products to work with those new platforms or infrastructure. This development effort may require significant resources, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Any failure of our products and platform to operate effectively with evolving or new platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our products. We must continue to invest substantial resources in research and development to enhance our technology. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a cost-effective manner, our products may become less marketable and less competitive or obsolete, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We may not be able to compete successfully with our current or future competitors.

The market for SaaS products and targeted marketing is intensely competitive and characterized by rapid changes in technology, developer and customer requirements, industry standards and frequent new product introductions and improvements. We face competition in all lines of business. In the future, as we further grow, we anticipate continued challenges from current competitors, as well as by new entrants into the industry including major online media networks, which may enjoy greater resources than us. See “Item 4. Information On the Company—B. Business Overview—Competition.” If we are unable to anticipate or effectively react to these competitive challenges, our competitive position could be weakened, and we could experience a decline in our growth rate or revenue that could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Some of our existing competitors, especially the competitors for our targeted marketing and other SaaS products have, and our potential competitors could have, substantial competitive advantages such as:

We may not compete successfully against our current or potential competitors. If we are unable to compete successfully, or if competing successfully requires us to take costly actions in response to the actions of our competitors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected. In addition, companies competing with us may have an entirely different pricing or distribution model. Increased competition could result in fewer customer subscriptions and transactions, price reductions, reduced operating margins and loss of market share. Further, we may be required to make substantial additional investments in research, development, marketing and sales in order to respond to such competitive threats, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to compete successfully in the future.

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If any system failure, interruption or downtime occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Although we seek to reduce the possibility of disruptions and other outages, our platform may be disrupted by problems with our own cloud-based technology and system, such as malfunctions in our software or other facilities or network overload. Our systems may be vulnerable to damage or interruption caused by telecommunication failures, power loss, human error, computer attacks or viruses, earthquakes, floods, fires, terrorist attacks and similar events. While we locate our servers in multiple data centers across China, our system may not be fully redundant or backed up, and our disaster recovery planning may not be sufficient for all eventualities. Despite any precautions we may take, the occurrence of natural disasters or other unanticipated problems at our hosting facilities could result in interruptions in the availability of our products and services. Any interruption in the ability of app developers or customers to use our services and solutions could damage our reputation, reduce our future revenues, harm our future profits, subject us to regulatory scrutiny and lead users to seek alternative products.

Our servers may experience downtime from time to time, which may adversely affect our operations, brands and user perception of the reliability of our systems. Any scheduled or unscheduled interruption in the ability of users to use our servers could result in an immediate, and possibly substantial, loss of revenues.

We currently host our cloud service from third-party data center facilities operated by several different providers located in China.  Any damage to, or failure of, our cloud service that is hosted by these third parties, whether as a result of our actions, actions by the third-party data centers, actions by other third parties, or acts of God, could result in interruptions in our cloud service and/or the loss of data. While the third-party hosting centers host the server infrastructure, we manage the cloud services through our technological operations team and need to support version control, changes in cloud software parameters and the evolution of our solutions. As we continue to add data centers and capacity in our existing data centers, we may move or transfer our data and our customers’ data. Despite precautions taken during this process, any unsuccessful data transfers may impair the delivery of our service. Impairment of, or interruptions in, our cloud services may reduce our revenues, subject us to claims and litigation, cause our customers to terminate their subscriptions and adversely affect our subscription renewal rates and our ability to attract new customers. Our business will also be harmed if app developers, customers and potential customers believe our services are unreliable.

We do not control, or in some cases have limited control over, the operation of the data center facilities we use, and they are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, floods, fires, power loss, telecommunications failures and similar events. They may also be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism and similar misconduct, and to adverse events caused by operator error. We cannot rapidly switch to new data centers or move customers from one data center to another in the event of any adverse event. Despite precautions taken at these facilities, the occurrence of a natural disaster, an act of terrorism or other act of malfeasance, a decision to close the facilities without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems at these facilities could result in lengthy interruptions in our service and the loss of accumulated data and our business.

Interruption or failure of China’s internet infrastructure or information technology and communications systems of app developers and customers could impair our ability to effectively deliver our products.

Our business depends on the performance and reliability of the internet infrastructure in China and the stability of information technology and communications systems of app developers, customers and publishers. The availability of our SaaS products and targeted marketing, in part, depends on telecommunications carriers and other third-party providers for communications and storage capacity, including bandwidth and server storage, among other things. Almost all access to the internet in China is maintained through state-owned telecommunication carriers under administrative control, and we obtain access to developers’ networks operated by such telecommunications carriers and internet service providers to deliver our developer services. We have experienced internet interruptions in the past, which were typically caused by service interruption of the value-added telecommunications service providers. In addition, since we rely on the performance of our publishers to deliver the ads, any interruption or failure of their information technology and communications systems may undermine the effectiveness of our advertising services and solutions and cause us to lose customers, which may harm our operating results.

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We may not be able to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property, which could harm our business and competitive position.

We regard our trademarks, service marks, patents, domain names, trade secrets, proprietary technologies, know-how and similar intellectual property as critical to our success, and we rely on trademark and patent law, trade secret protection and confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and third parties to protect our proprietary rights. As of December 31, 2019, within China, we have 53 patent applications pending and own 68 computer software copyrights, relating to various aspects of our SaaS products and targeted marketing. In addition, we have filed 82 trademark applications and have maintained 41 trademark registrations and 4 artwork copyrights in China. We have also registered 22 domain names, including www.jiguang.cn . There can be no assurance that any of our pending patent, trademark, software copyrights or other intellectual property applications will issue or be registered. Any intellectual property rights we have obtained or may obtain in the future may not be sufficient to provide us with a competitive advantage, and could be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, infringed or misappropriated. Given the potential cost, effort, risks and disadvantages of obtaining patent protection, we have not and do not plan to apply for patents or other forms of intellectual property protection for certain of our key technologies. If some of these technologies are later proven to be important to our business and are used by third parties without our authorization, especially for commercial purposes, our business and competitive position may be harmed.

Monitoring for infringement or other unauthorized use of our intellectual property rights is difficult and costly, and we cannot be certain that we can effectively prevent such infringement or unauthorized use of our intellectual property. From time to time, we may need to resort to litigation or other proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights, which could result in substantial cost and diversion of resources. Our efforts to enforce or protect our intellectual property rights may be ineffective and could result in the invalidation or narrowing of the scope of our intellectual property or expose us to counterclaims from third parties, any of which may adversely affect our business and operating results.

In addition, it is often difficult to create and enforce intellectual property rights in China and other countries outside of the United States. Even where adequate, relevant laws exist in China and other countries outside of the United States, it may not be possible to obtain swift and equitable enforcement of such laws, or to enforce court judgments or arbitration awards delivered in another jurisdiction. Accordingly, we may not be able to effectively protect our intellectual property rights in such countries. Additional uncertainty may result from changes to intellectual property laws enacted in the jurisdictions in which we operate, and from interpretations of intellectual property laws by applicable courts and government bodies.

Our confidentiality and invention assignment agreements with our employees and third parties, such as consultants and contractors, may not effectively prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of our confidential information, intellectual property or technology and may not provide an adequate remedy in the event of such unauthorized use or disclosure. Trade secrets and know-how are difficult to protect, and our trade secrets may be disclosed, become known or be independently discovered by others. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, unauthorized parties may attempt to copy aspects of our service and solution features, software and functionality or obtain and use information that we consider confidential and proprietary. If we are not able to adequately protect our trade secrets, know-how and other confidential information, intellectual property or technology, our business and operating results may be adversely affected.

We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in our payment of substantial damages, penalties and fines, removal of data or technology from our system.

Third parties may own technology patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and internet content, which they may use to assert claims against us. Our internal procedures and licensing practices may not be effective in completely preventing the unauthorized use of copyrighted materials or the infringement of other rights of third parties by us or our users. The validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights in internet-related industries, particularly in China, is uncertain and still evolving. For example, as we face increasing competition and as litigation becomes a more common way to resolve disputes in China, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims.

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Although we have not been subject to claims or lawsuits outside China, we cannot assure you that we will not become subject to intellectual property laws in other jurisdictions, such as the United States. If a claim of infringement brought against us in the United States or another jurisdiction is successful, we may be required to pay substantial penalties or other damages and fines, enter into license agreements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all or be subject to injunction or court orders. Even if allegations or claims lack merit, defending against them could be both costly and time consuming and could significantly divert the efforts and resources of our management and other personnel.

Competitors and other third parties may claim that our officers or employees have infringed, misappropriated or otherwise violated their software, confidential information, trade secrets or other proprietary technology in the course of their employment with us. Although we take steps to prevent the unauthorized use or disclosure of such third-party information, intellectual property or technology by our officers and employees, we cannot guarantee that any policies or contractual provisions that we have implemented or may implement will be effective. If a claim of infringement, misappropriation or violation is brought against us or one of our officers or employees, we may suffer reputational harm and may be required to pay substantial damages, subject to injunction or court orders or required to remove the data and redesign our products or technology, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Further, we license and use technologies from third parties in our applications and platform. These third-party technology licenses may not continue to be available to us on acceptable terms or at all, and may expose us to liability. Any such liability, or our inability to use any of these third-party technologies, could result in disruptions to our business that could materially and adversely affect our operating and financial results.

Our use of open source technology could impose limitations on our ability to develop our products and platform.

We use open source software in our applications and platform and expect to continue to use open source software in the future. Although we monitor our use of open source software to avoid subjecting our applications and platform to conditions we do not intend, we may face allegations from others alleging ownership of, or seeking to enforce the terms of, an open source license, including by demanding release of the open source software, derivative works, or our proprietary source code that was developed using such software. These allegations could also result in litigation. The terms of many open source licenses have not been interpreted by U.S. courts or foreign courts. As a result, there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a way that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to develop our applications and technology and further commercialize our products and platform. In such an event, we could be required to seek licenses from third parties to continue applying our applications, to make our proprietary code generally available in source code form, to re-engineer our applications or to discontinue the offering of our service if re-engineering could not be accomplished on a timely basis, any of which could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition. In addition to risks related to license requirements, our use of certain open source software may lead to greater risks than use of third party commercial software, as open source licensors generally do not provide warranties or controls on the origin of the software. Additionally, because any software source code we contribute to open source projects is publicly available, our ability to protect our intellectual property rights with respect to such software source code may be limited or lost entirely, and we are unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such contributed software source code. Any of these risks could be difficult to eliminate or manage and, if not addressed, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our technologies may include design or performance defects and may not achieve their intended results, any of which may impair our future revenue.

Our technologies for data processing and solutions are relatively new, and they may contain design or performance defects that are not detectable even after extensive internal testing and may become apparent only after widespread and long term of commercial use. Any defect in those technologies as well as their subsequent alterations and improvements could hinder the effectiveness of our platform, which would have a material and adverse effect on our competitiveness, reputation and future prospects. It is not clear whether China’s existing product liability laws apply to software systems like ours. We cannot assure you that if our technologies are found to have design or performance defects, we will not be liable for product liability claims in China. Although we have not experienced any product liability claims to date, we cannot assure you that we will not do so in the future.

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App developer growth and engagement depend upon effective interoperation with the apps, mobile operating systems, networks, mobile devices and standards that we do not control.

We make our developer services available across a variety of mobile apps, mobile operating systems and devices. We are dependent on the interoperability of our services with popular mobile apps and devices and mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS. Any changes in such app functions, mobile operating systems or devices that degrade the functionality of our developer services or give preferential treatment to competitive services could adversely affect usage of our services. Mobile operating systems or device manufacturers may develop competing solutions which may interface more effectively with their operating systems and devices. In order to deliver high quality services, it is important that our services work well across a range of apps, mobile operating systems, networks, mobile devices and standards that we do not control.

We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing services that operate effectively with these apps, operating systems, networks, devices and standards. In the event that it is difficult for our app developers to access and use our services, our app developer growth and engagement could be harmed, our data resources may be limited and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

If we fail to obtain and maintain the requisite licenses and approvals required under complex regulatory environment applicable to our business in China, or if we are required to take actions that are time-consuming or costly, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

The internet and mobile industries in China are highly regulated. Our VIE is required to obtain and maintain applicable licenses and approvals from different regulatory authorities in order to provide their current services. Under the current PRC regulatory scheme, a number of regulatory agencies, including but not limited to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or MIIT, and Cyberspace Administration of China, jointly regulate all major aspects of the internet industry, including the mobile internet business. Our VIE also provides mobile app data analysis product to both domestic and foreign financial industry clients, and may be considered as engaging in foreign-related investigation business. Under the current PRC regulatory scheme, our VIE may be required to obtain a foreign-related investigation license. Operators must obtain various government approvals and licenses for relevant internet or mobile business. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Telecommunications Services and Foreign Ownership Restrictions” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Foreign-related Investigation.”

We have obtained two value-added telecommunication business licenses covering different scope of operations and a foreign-related investigation license. These licenses are essential to the operation of our business and are generally subject to regular government review or renewal. However, we cannot assure you that we can successfully renew these licenses in a timely manner or that these licenses are sufficient to conduct all of our present or future business.

We may also be required to obtain the personal credit reporting business license. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Credit Reporting.” The PRC government has adopted several regulations governing personal credit reporting businesses. According to the Administrative Regulations on the Credit Reporting Industry, which was promulgated by the State Council and became effective in 2013, “personal credit reporting business” means the activities of collecting, organizing, storing and processing “information related to the credit standing” of individuals as well as providing the information to others, and a “credit reporting agency” refers to a duly established agency whose primary business is credit reporting. These regulations, together with the Administrative Measures for Credit Reporting Agencies, which was promulgated by the People’s Bank of China and became effective in 2013, set forth qualification standards for entities conducting a credit reporting business in China, rules and requirements for credit reporting businesses and operating standards for credit reporting agencies. According to these regulations and measures, no entity may engage in personal credit reporting business without approval by the credit reporting industry regulatory department under the State Council. If any entity directly engages in personal credit reporting business without such approval, the entity is subject to penalties including suspension of business, confiscation of revenues related to personal credit reporting business, fines of RMB50,000 to RMB500,000 and criminal liabilities. We provide financial risk management solutions to financial institutions as well as emerging technology companies based on device-level mobile behavior data. Due to the lack of further interpretations of the current regulations governing personal credit reporting businesses, the exact definition and scope of “information related to credit standing” and “personal credit reporting business” under the current regulations are unclear. It is therefore uncertain whether we would be deemed to engage in personal credit reporting business because of our financial risk management solutions. As of the date of this annual report, we have not been subject to any fines or other penalties under any PRC laws or regulations related to personal credit reporting business. However, given the evolving regulatory environment of the personal credit reporting industry, we cannot assure you that we will not be required in the future by the relevant governmental authorities to obtain approval or license for personal credit reporting business in order to continue offering our financial risk management solutions. Our business may also become subject to other rules and requirements related to credit reporting business, or new rules and requirements (including approval or license regime) promulgated by the relevant authorities in the future. The existing and future rules and regulations may be costly to comply with, and we may not be able to obtain any required license or other regulatory approvals in a timely manner, or at all. If we are subject to penalties for any of the foregoing reasons, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

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Considerable uncertainties exist regarding the interpretation and implementation of existing and future laws and regulations governing our business activities. We cannot assure you that we will not be found in violation of any future laws and regulations or any of the laws and regulations currently in effect due to changes in the relevant authorities’ interpretation of these laws and regulations. If we fail to complete, obtain or maintain any of the required licenses or approvals or make the necessary filings, we may be subject to various penalties, such as confiscation of the net revenues that were generated through the unlicensed internet or mobile activities, the imposition of fines and the discontinuation or restriction of our operations. Any such penalties may disrupt our business operations and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Future acquisitions, strategic investments, partnerships or alliances could be difficult to integrate, and could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value, involve anti-monopoly concerns and adversely affect our results of operations.

We may seek to acquire, or make investment in additional businesses, products or technologies in both domestic and overseas markets. For example, we acquired the MLINK as an intangible asset, from Shanghai Liehong Information Technology Limited Company in March 2019 for a total consideration of RMB8.0 million (US$1.2 million). However, we have limited experience in acquiring, investing in and integrating businesses, products and technologies. If we identify an appropriate candidate for acquisition or investment, we may not be successful in negotiating the terms and/or financing of the transaction, and our due diligence may fail to identify all of the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired business, product or technology, including issues related to intellectual property, product quality or architecture, regulatory compliance practices, revenue recognition or other accounting practices or employee or customer issues.

Any acquisition or investment may require us to use significant amounts of cash, issue potentially dilutive equity securities or incur debt. In addition, acquisitions involve numerous risks, any of which could harm our business, including:

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If we are unable to successfully integrate any future business, product or technology we acquire, our business and results of operations may suffer.

Any loss of key personnel or inability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel may impair our ability to expand our business.

Our success is substantially dependent upon the continued service and performance of our senior management team and key technical, marketing and sales personnel, including our senior management. The replacement of any members of our senior management team likely would involve significant time and costs and may significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our business objectives.

Our future success also depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract, integrate and retain highly skilled personnel. Competition for highly skilled personnel, including, in particular, engineers, is frequently intense. We must offer competitive compensation and opportunities for career growth in order to attract and retain these highly skilled employees. Any failure to successfully attract, integrate, or retain qualified personnel to fulfill our current or future needs may negatively impact our growth.

Allegations or lawsuits against us or our management may harm our reputation and business.

We have been, and may in the future be, subject to allegations or lawsuits brought by our competitors, customers, employees or other individuals or entities, including claims of breach of contract or unfair competition. As of December 31, 2019, there were not any lawsuits in respect of labor disputes pending against us. Any potential allegation or lawsuits, with or without merit, or any perceived unfair, unethical, fraudulent or inappropriate business practice by us or perceived malfeasance by our management could harm our reputation and user base and distract our management from our daily operations. Allegations or lawsuits against us may also generate negative publicity that significantly harms our reputation, which may materially and adversely affect our user base and our ability to attract app developers and customers. In addition to the related cost, managing and defending litigation and related indemnity obligations can significantly divert management’s attention. We may also need to pay damages or settle the litigation with a substantial amount of cash. All of these could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operation and cash flows.

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If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired.

Prior to our initial public offering, we have been a private company with limited accounting personnel and other resources with which to address our internal control over financial reporting. In connection with the audits of our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016 and for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2017 and 2016, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting.

As defined in the standards established by the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, a “material weakness” is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The material weakness that has been identified related to our lack of sufficient financial reporting personnel with appropriate level of knowledge and experience in application of U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting requirements to properly address complex U.S. GAAP accounting issues and to prepare and review our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures to fulfill U.S. GAAP and SEC financial reporting requirements.

We have implemented a number of measures to improve our internal control over financial reporting to address the material weakness that have been identified. We have hired additional qualified financial and accounting staff with U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting experience to strengthen our financial reporting capability, and have improved our monthly closing process, related financial reporting and disclosure procedures. Since 2018, we have also established an internal audit department to enhance internal controls and have engaged an independent advisory firm to assist us in assessing the design and effectiveness of our execution of internal controls in accordance with the compliance requirements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and in improving our overall internal controls and established an audit committee with members who have an appropriate level of financial expertise to oversee our accounting and financial reporting processes as well as our external and internal audits.

In addition, we have started to take a number of other measures to strengthen our internal control over financial reporting, including: (i) continuing to upgrade our financial system to enhance its effectiveness and enhance control of financial analysis; (ii) continuing to establish effective oversight and clarifying reporting requirements for non-recurring and complex transactions to ensure consolidated financial statements and related disclosures are accurate, complete and in compliance with U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting requirements; (iii) continuing to organize regular training for our accounting staffs, especially training related to U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting requirements; and (iv) continuing to obtain advisory services from professional consultants with experience in SOX requirements and internal audit guidance on SEC reporting.

As of December 31, 2019, based on an assessment performed by our management on the performance of the remediation measures described above, we determined that the material weakness previously identified in our internal control over financial reporting had been remediated.

Our independent registered public accounting firm has not conducted an audit of our internal control over financial reporting. It is possible that, had our independent registered public accounting firm conducted an audit of our internal control over financial reporting, such firm might have identified additional material weaknesses and deficiencies. We are subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, required that we include a report from management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our annual report on Form 20-F beginning with our annual report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2019. In addition, once we cease to be an “emerging growth company” as such term is defined in the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our management may conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective. Moreover, even if our management concludes that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, our independent registered public accounting firm, after conducting its own independent testing, may issue an adverse report if it is not satisfied with our internal controls or the level at which our controls are documented, designed, operated or reviewed, or if it interprets the relevant requirements differently from us. In addition, as a public company, our reporting obligations may place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources and systems for the foreseeable future. We may be unable to timely complete our evaluation testing and any required remediation.

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In addition, our internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.

If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner, or if we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. If that were to happen, the market price of our ADSs could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the Nasdaq, SEC or other regulatory authorities.

Our results of operations may be subject to seasonal fluctuation due to a number of factors, any of which could adversely affect our business and operation results.

The historical seasonality of our business has been relatively mild due to our rapid growth but it may increase further in the future. Due to our limited operating history, the seasonal trends that we have experienced in the past may not apply to, or be indicative of, our future operating results. As we grow, our quarterly revenues and operating results may be subject to seasonal fluctuations, depending upon a number of factors which may be out of our control. We may experience weaker demands for targeted marketing business in the first quarter of each year due to the Chinese New Year holidays. Expenditures by advertisers vary in cycles and tend to reflect overall economic conditions, both in China and globally, as well as budgeting and buying patterns in different industries and companies. Advertisers may alternate between periods with major advertising campaigns and periods of relative inactivity. Because most advertising campaigns are short in duration and we typically sign contracts on a campaign-by-campaign basis, it is difficult for us to forecast our results of operations for future quarters. Our quarterly revenues and our costs and expenses as a percentage of our revenues may be significantly different from our historical or projected rates. Our operating results in future quarters may fall below expectations. Any of these events could cause the price of the ADSs to fall. If our revenues for a particular quarter are lower than expected, we may be unable to reduce our operating expenses and cost of revenues for that quarter by a corresponding amount, which would harm our operating results for that quarter relative to our operating results from prior quarters.

We may be the subject of anti-competitive, harassing or other detrimental conduct that could harm our reputation and cause us to lose users and customers.

In the future we may be the target of anti-competitive, harassing, or other detrimental conduct by third parties. Allegations, directly or indirectly against us or any of our executive officers, may be posted in internet chat-rooms or on blogs or websites by anyone, whether or not related to us, on an anonymous basis. The availability of information on social media platforms and devices is virtually immediate, as is its impact. Social media platforms and devices immediately publish the content their subscribers and participants post, often without filters or checks on the accuracy of the content posted. Information posted may be inaccurate and adverse to us, and it may harm our business, annual report or financial performance. The harm may be immediate without affording us an opportunity for redress or correction. In addition, such conduct may include complaints, anonymous or otherwise, to regulatory agencies. We may be subject to regulatory or internal investigation as a result of such third-party conduct and may be required to expend significant time and incur substantial costs to address such third-party conduct, and there is no assurance that we will be able to conclusively refute each of the allegations within a reasonable period of time, or at all. Additionally, our reputation could be harmed as a result of the public dissemination of anonymous allegations or malicious statements about our business, which in turn may cause us to lose users and customers and adversely affect the price of the ADSs.

Non-compliance on the part of third parties with whom we cooperate to conduct business, deterioration of their service quality or termination of their services, could disrupt our business and adversely affect our results of operations.

Our business partners, including publishers and third-party data service providers, may be subject to regulatory penalties or punishments because of their regulatory compliance failures, which may disrupt our business. Any legal liabilities of, or regulatory actions against, our business partners may affect our business activities and reputation and, in turn, our results of operations. For example, we collaborate with third-party data service providers who supplement our dataset and maintain a strict vetting process before engaging such third-party data service providers to ensure the integrity and quality data, but we cannot assure that these service providers have accessed and processed data in a proper and legal manners and any noncompliance on their part may cause potential liabilities to us and disrupt our operations.

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We exercise no control over the third parties with whom we have business arrangements. If such third parties increase their prices, fail to provide their services effectively or in high quality, terminate their service or agreements or discontinue their relationships with us, we could suffer service interruptions, reduced revenues or increased costs, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have granted and may continue to grant share options or other equity incentives in the future, which may result in increased share-based compensation expenses.

We adopted a stock incentive plan in July 2014, or the 2014 Plan, and a stock incentive plan in March 2017, or the 2017 Plan. Under the 2014 Plan, we are authorized to grant share awards for issuance of up to a maximum of 5,500,000 common shares. Under the 2017 Plan, as amended, we are authorized to grant awards for issuance of up to a maximum of 6,015,137 Class A common shares. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, we recorded RMB8.3 million, RMB24.6 million and RMB47.3 million (US$6.8 million) in share-based compensation expenses, respectively. The amount of these expenses is based on the fair value of the share-based compensation awards we granted, and the recognition of unrecognized share-based compensation cost will depend on the forfeiture rate of our unvested restricted shares. Expenses associated with share-based compensation have affected our net income and may reduce our net income in the future, and any additional securities issued under share-based compensation schemes will dilute the ownership interests of our shareholders, including holders of the ADSs. We believe the granting of share-based compensation is of significant importance to our ability to attract and retain key personnel, employees and consultants, and we will continue to grant share-based compensation in the future. As a result, our expenses associated with share-based compensation may increase, which may have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

We may need additional capital, and financing may not be available on terms acceptable to us, or at all.

We believe our cash and cash equivalents on hand will be sufficient to meet our current and anticipated needs for general corporate purposes for at least the next 12 months. We may, however, need additional cash resources in the future if we experience changes in business conditions or other developments. We may also need additional cash resources in the future if we find and wish to pursue opportunities for investment, acquisition, capital expenditure or similar actions. If we determine in the future that our cash requirements exceed the amount of cash and cash equivalents we have on hand, we may seek to issue equity or equity linked securities or obtain debt financing. The issuance and sale of additional equity would result in further dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could result in operating covenants that would restrict our operations. We cannot assure you that financing will be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all.

A severe or prolonged downturn in the Chinese or global economy could materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.

The global macroeconomic environment is facing numerous challenges. The growth rate of the Chinese economy has gradually slowed since 2010 and the trend may continue. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies, including the United States and China. Unrest, terrorist threats and the potential for war in the Middle East and elsewhere may increase market volatility across the globe. There have also been concerns about the relationship between China and other countries, including the surrounding Asian countries, which may potentially have economic effects. In particular, there is significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and China with respect to trade policies, treaties, government regulations and tariffs. Economic conditions in China are sensitive to global economic conditions, as well as changes in domestic economic and political policies and the expected or perceived overall economic growth rate in China. Any severe or prolonged slowdown in the global or Chinese economy may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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We are subject to changing law and regulations regarding regulatory matters, corporate governance and public disclosure that have increased both our costs and the risk of non-compliance.

We are subject to rules and regulations by various governing bodies, including, for example, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is charged with the protection of investors and the oversight of companies whose securities are publicly traded, and the various regulatory authorities in China and the Cayman Islands, and to new and evolving regulatory measures under applicable law. Our efforts to comply with new and changing laws and regulations have resulted in and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and a diversion of management time and attention from revenue-generating activities to compliance activities.

Moreover, because these laws, regulations and standards are subject to varying interpretations, their application in practice may evolve over time as new guidance becomes available. This evolution may result in continuing uncertainty regarding compliance matters and additional costs necessitated by ongoing revisions to our disclosure and governance practices. If we fail to address and comply with these regulations and any subsequent changes, we may be subject to penalty and our business may be harmed.

If we fail to establish branch offices in all areas we operate, we may be subject to penalties and our business operations could be adversely affected.

Under PRC law, a company setting up premises for business operations outside its residence address must register the premises as branch offices with the competent local industry and commerce bureau and obtain business licenses for them as branch offices. As of the date of this annual report, we have not been able to register all the premises as branch offices in the relevant cities where we operate our business, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. We are in the process of applying for the registration of these premises and we cannot assure you whether the registration can be completed in a timely manner. Although we have not been subject to any query or investigation by any PRC government authority regarding the absence of such registration and the net revenue attributable to the operation from these premise is insignificant, if the PRC regulatory authorities determine that we are in violation of the relevant laws and regulations, we may be subject to penalties, including fines, confiscation of income and suspension of operation. If we become subject to these penalties, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects could be materially and adversely affected.

We have limited business insurance coverage.

The insurance companies in China currently offer limited business-related insurance products. We do not maintain business interruption insurance or general third-party liability insurance, nor do we maintain property insurance, product liability insurance or key-man insurance. We consider this practice to be reasonable in light of the nature of our business and the insurance products that are available in China and in line with the practices of other companies in the same industry of similar size in China. Any uninsured risks may result in substantial costs and the diversion of resources, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We face risks related to health epidemics, severe weather conditions and other outbreaks.

Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the influenza A virus, Ebola virus, severe weather conditions or other epidemics or outbreaks. Health or other government regulations adopted in response to an epidemic, severe weather conditions such as snowstorms, floods or hazardous air pollution, or other outbreaks may require temporary closure of our offices. Such closures may disrupt our business operations and adversely affect our results of operations. In recent years, there have been outbreaks of epidemics in China and globally.

In recent years, there have been outbreaks of epidemics in China and globally. In early 2020, in response to intensifying efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Chinese government took a number of actions, which included extending the Chinese New Year holiday, quarantining individuals infected with or suspected of having COVID-19, prohibiting residents from free travel, encouraging employees of enterprises to work remotely from home and canceling public activities, among others. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our business and operating results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the coronavirus and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among others. Substantially all of our revenues and our workforce are concentrated in China. Consequently, our results of operations have been adversely affected, and could be further affected, to the extent that the COVID-19 or any other epidemic harms the Chinese and global economy in general. Potential impacts include, but are not limited to, the following:

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Because of the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, as we will continue to incur costs for our operations, the financial impact related to the outbreak of and response to the coronavirus cannot be reasonably estimated at this time and our revenues during this period are difficult to predict.

We are also vulnerable to natural disasters and other calamities. Fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events may give rise to server interruptions, breakdowns, system failures, technology platform failures or internet failures, which could cause the loss or corruption of data or malfunctions of software or hardware as well as adversely affect our ability to provide content and services on our platform.

Certain of our leasehold interests in leased properties have not been registered with the relevant PRC governmental authorities as required by relevant PRC laws. The failure to register leasehold interests may expose us to potential fines.

We have not registered certain of our lease agreements with the relevant government authorities. Under the relevant PRC laws and regulations, we may be required to register and file with the relevant government authority executed leases. The failure to register the lease agreements for our leased properties will not affect the validity of these lease agreements, but the competent housing authorities may order us to register the lease agreements in a prescribed period of time and impose a fine ranging from RMB1,000 to RMB10,000 for each non-registered lease if we fail to complete the registration within the prescribed timeframe.

We lease premises and may not be able to fully control the rental costs, quality, maintenance and our leasehold interest in these premises, nor can we guarantee that we will be able to successfully renew or find suitable premises to replace our existing premises upon expiration of the existing leases.

We lease all the premises used in our operations from third parties. We require the landlords’ cooperation to effectively manage the condition of such premises, buildings and facilities. In the event that the condition of the office premises, buildings and facilities deteriorates, or if any or all of our landlords fail to properly maintain and renovate such premises, buildings or facilities in a timely manner or at all, the operation of our offices could be materially and adversely affected.

Moreover, certain lessors have not provided us with valid ownership certificates or authorization of sublease for our leased properties. Under the relevant PRC laws and regulations, if the lessors are unable to obtain certificate of title because such real estates were built illegally or failed to pass the inspection, such lease contracts may be recognized as void. In addition, if our lessors are not the owners of the properties and they have not obtained consents from the owners or their lessors or permits from the relevant government authorities, our leases could be invalidated. If this occurs, we may have to renegotiate the leases with the owners or the parties who have the right to lease the properties, and the terms of the new leases may be less favorable to us.

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As of the date of this annual report, we are not aware of any material claims or actions being contemplated or initiated by government authorities, property owners or any other third parties with respect to our leasehold interests in or use of such properties. However, we cannot assure you that our use of such leased properties will not be challenged.

Failure to make adequate contributions to various employee benefit plans as required by PRC regulations may subject us to penalties.

Companies operating in China are required to participate in various government sponsored employee benefit plans, including certain social insurance, housing funds and other welfare-oriented payment obligations, and contribute to the plans in amounts equal to certain percentages of salaries, including bonuses and allowances, of our employees up to a maximum amount specified by the local government from time to time at locations where we operate our businesses. The requirement of employee benefit plans has not been implemented consistently by the local governments in China given the different levels of economic development in different locations. Our PRC entities have not made adequate employee benefit payments and we have recorded accruals for estimated underpaid amounts in our financial statements. We may be required to make up the contributions for these plans as well as to pay late fees and fines. If we are subject to late fees or fines in relation to the underpaid employee benefits, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating some of our business operations in China do not comply with PRC regulations relating to the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties, or be forced to relinquish our interest in those operations.

Foreign ownership of certain parts of our businesses including value-added telecommunications services is subject to restrictions under current PRC laws and regulations. The PRC government regulates internet access, distribution of online information and online advertising through strict business licensing requirements and other government regulations. For example, foreign investors, with a few exception, are not allowed to own more than 50% of the equity interests in a value-added telecommunications service provider and any such foreign investor must have experience in providing value-added telecommunications services overseas and maintain a good track record.

We are a Cayman Islands company and our PRC subsidiary, namely our WFOE, is a foreign-invested enterprise. Accordingly, our WFOE is not eligible to provide value-added telecommunications services in China. As a result, our variable interest entity in PRC, namely Hexun Huagu, holds value-added telecommunications business operation licenses as a value-added telecommunications service provider. We entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Hexun Huagu, or our VIE, and its shareholders, which enable us to (i) exercise effective control over our VIE, (ii) receive substantially all of the economic benefits of our VIE, and (iii) have an exclusive call option to purchase all or part of the equity interests and assets in our VIE when and to the extent permitted by PRC law. As a result of these contractual arrangements, we have control over and are the primary beneficiary of our VIE and hence consolidate their financial results into our consolidated financial statements under U.S. GAAP. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure” for further details.

In the opinion of our PRC legal counsel, Han Kun Law Offices, (i) the ownership structure of our VIE in China and our WFOE are not in violation of applicable PRC laws and regulations currently in effect; and (ii) the contractual arrangements between our WFOE, our VIE and its shareholders governed by PRC laws and regulations are valid, binding and enforceable, and will not result in any violation of applicable PRC laws and regulations. However, our PRC legal counsel has also advised us that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws and regulations. Accordingly, the PRC regulatory authorities may take a view that is contrary to the opinion of our PRC legal counsel.

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If we or our VIE were found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant PRC regulatory authorities would have broad discretion to take action in dealing with such violations or failures, including:

The imposition of any of these penalties would result in a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business. In addition, it is unclear what impact the PRC government actions would have on us and on our ability to consolidate the financial results of our VIE in our consolidated financial statements, if the PRC government authorities were to find our legal structure and contractual arrangements to be in violation of PRC laws and regulations. If the imposition of any of these government actions causes us to lose our right to direct the activities of our VIE or our right to receive substantially all the economic benefits and residual returns from our VIE and we are not able to restructure our ownership structure and operations in a satisfactory manner, we would no longer be able to consolidate the financial results of our VIE in our consolidated financial statements. Either of these results, or any other significant penalties that might be imposed on us in this event, would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Our business may be significantly affected by the newly enacted PRC Foreign Investment Law.

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress adopted the PRC Foreign Investment Law, which became effective on January 1, 2020 and replace three existing laws regulating foreign investment in China, namely, the Wholly Foreign-Invested Enterprise Law of the PRC, the Sino-Foreign Cooperative Joint Venture Enterprise Law of the PRC and the Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law of the PRC, together with their implementation rules and ancillary regulations. The PRC Foreign Investment Law embodies an expected PRC regulatory trend to rationalize its foreign investment regulatory regime in line with prevailing international practice and the legislative efforts to unify the corporate legal requirements for both foreign and domestic investments. However, since it is relatively new, uncertainties still exist in relation to its interpretation and implementation. For example, the PRC Foreign Investment Law adds a catch-all clause to the definition of “foreign investment” so that foreign investment, by its definition, includes “investments made by foreign investors in China through other means defined by other laws or administrative regulations or provisions promulgated by the State Council” without further elaboration on the meaning of “other means”. It leaves leeway for the future legislations promulgated by the State Council to provide for contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment. It is therefore uncertain whether our corporate structure will be seen as violating the foreign investment rules as we are currently leverage the contractual arrangement to operate certain businesses in which foreign investors are prohibited from or restricted to investing. Furthermore, if future legislations prescribed by the State Council mandate further actions to be taken by companies with respect to existing contractual arrangement, we may face substantial uncertainties as to whether we can complete such actions in a timely manner, or at all. If we fail to take appropriate and timely measures to comply with any of these or similar regulatory compliance requirements, our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations could be materially and adversely affected.

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We rely on contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders for substantially all of our business operation, which may not be as effective as direct ownership.

Our VIE contributed 98.9%, 99.4% and 99.3% of our consolidated total net revenues for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. We have relied and expect to continue to rely on contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders to conduct our business. These contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing us with control over our VIE. For example, our VIE and its shareholders could breach their contractual arrangements with us by, among other things, failing to conduct our VIE’s operations in an acceptable manner or taking other actions that are detrimental to our interests.

If we had direct ownership of our VIE, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of our VIE, which in turn could implement changes, subject to any applicable fiduciary obligations, at the management and operational level. However, under the current contractual arrangements, we rely on the performance by our VIE and its shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to exercise control over our VIE. However, the shareholders of our consolidated VIE may not act in the best interests of our company or may not perform their obligations under these contracts. Such risks exist throughout the period in which we intend to operate certain portions of our business through the contractual arrangements with our VIE. If any disputes relating to these contracts remains unresolved, we will have to enforce our rights under these contracts through the operations of PRC law and arbitration, litigation and other legal proceedings and therefore will be subject to uncertainties in the PRC legal system. See “—Any failure by our VIE or its shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them would have a material and adverse effect on our business.” Therefore, our contractual arrangements with our VIE and it shareholders may not be as effective in ensuring our control over the relevant portion of our business operations as direct ownership would be.

Any failure by our VIE or its shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them would have a material and adverse effect on our business.

We refer to the shareholders of our VIE as its nominee shareholders because although they remain the holders of equity interests on record in our VIE, pursuant to the terms of the shareholder voting proxy agreement, each such shareholder has irrevocably authorized our company to exercise his rights as a shareholder of the VIE. However, if our VIE or its shareholders fail to perform their respective obligations under the contractual arrangements, we may have to incur substantial costs and expend additional resources to enforce such arrangements. We may also have to rely on legal remedies under PRC law, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and claiming damages, which we cannot assure will be effective under PRC law. For example, if the shareholders of our VIE refuse to transfer their equity interest in our VIE to us or our designee if we exercise the purchase option pursuant to these contractual arrangements, or if they otherwise act in bad faith toward us, then we may have to take legal actions to compel them to perform their contractual obligations.

All of these contractual arrangements are governed by and interpreted in accordance with PRC law, and disputes arising from these contractual arrangements between us and our variable interest entity will be resolved through arbitration in China. These disputes do not include claims arising under the United States federal securities law and thus the arbitration provisions do not prevent our shareholders from pursuing claims under the United States federal securities law. The legal system in the PRC is not as developed as in some other jurisdictions, such as the United States. As a result, uncertainties in the PRC legal system could limit our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. See “—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system and changes in laws and regulations in China could adversely affect us.” Meanwhile, there are very few precedents and little formal guidance as to how contractual arrangements in the context of a VIE should be interpreted or enforced under PRC law. There remain significant uncertainties regarding the ultimate outcome of such arbitration should legal action become necessary. In addition, under PRC law, awards by arbitrators are final, which means parties cannot appeal the arbitration results in courts, and if the losing parties fail to carry out the arbitration awards within a prescribed time limit, the prevailing parties may only enforce the arbitration awards in PRC courts through arbitration award enforcement proceedings, which would require additional expenses and delay. In the event we are unable to enforce these contractual arrangements, or if we suffer significant delays or other obstacles in the process of enforcing these contractual arrangements, we may not be able to exert effective control over our VIE, and our ability to conduct our business may be negatively affected.

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Contractual arrangements in relation to our VIE may be subject to scrutiny by the PRC tax authorities and they may determine that we or our VIE owe additional taxes, which could negatively affect our financial condition and the value of your investment.

Under applicable PRC laws and regulations, arrangements and transactions among related parties may be subject to audit or challenge by the PRC tax authorities. We could face material and adverse tax consequences if the PRC tax authorities determine that the VIE contractual arrangements were not entered into on an arm’s length basis in such a way as to result in an impermissible reduction in taxes under applicable PRC laws, rules and regulations, and adjust the income of our VIE in the form of a transfer pricing adjustment. A transfer pricing adjustment could, among other things, result in a reduction of expense deductions recorded by our VIE for PRC tax purposes, which could in turn increase its tax liabilities without reducing our WFOE’s tax expenses. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may impose late payment fees and other penalties on our VIE for the adjusted but unpaid taxes according to the applicable regulations. Our financial position could be materially and adversely affected if our VIE’s tax liabilities increase or if it is required to pay late payment fees and other penalties.

The shareholders of our VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us, which may materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.

The shareholders of our VIE include Mr. Weidong Luo, Mr. Xiaodao Wang and Mr. Jiawen Fang. The shareholders of our VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us. These shareholders may breach, or cause our VIE to breach, or refuse to renew, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and our VIE, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to effectively control our VIE and receive economic benefits from them. For example, the shareholders may be able to cause our agreements with our VIE to be performed in a manner adverse to us by, among other things, failing to remit payments due under the contractual arrangements to us on a timely basis. We cannot assure you that when conflicts of interest arise any or all of these shareholders will act in the best interests of our company or such conflicts will be resolved in our favor.

Currently, we do not have any arrangements to address potential conflicts of interest between these shareholders and our company, except that we could exercise our purchase option under the exclusive option agreements with these shareholders to request them to transfer all of their equity interests in the VIE to a PRC entity or individual designated by us, to the extent permitted by PRC law. We rely on Mr. Luo, Mr. Wang and Mr. Fang to abide by the laws of the Cayman Islands, which provide that directors owe a fiduciary duty to the company that requires them to act in good faith and in what they believe to be the best interests of the company and not to use their position for personal gains. If we cannot resolve any conflict of interest or dispute between us and the shareholders of our VIE, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which could result in disruption of our business and subject us to substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

The shareholders of our VIE may be involved in personal disputes with third parties or other incidents that may have an adverse effect on their respective equity interests in our VIE and the validity or enforceability of our contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders. For example, in the event that any of the shareholders of our VIE divorces his or her spouse, the spouse may claim that the equity interest of our VIE held by such shareholder is part of their community property and should be divided between such shareholder and his or her spouse. If such claim is supported by the court, the relevant equity interest may be obtained by the shareholder’s spouse or another third party who is not subject to obligations under our contractual arrangements, which could result in a loss of our effective control over the VIE. Similarly, if any of the equity interests of our VIE is inherited by a third party on whom the current contractual arrangements are not binding, we could lose our control over the VIE or have to maintain such control by incurring unpredictable costs, which could cause significant disruption to our business and operations and harm our financial condition and results of operations.

Although under our current contractual arrangements, it is expressly provided that all these agreements and the rights and obligations thereunder shall be equally effective and binding on the heirs and successors of the parties to the contractual arrangements, we cannot assure you that these undertakings and arrangements will be complied with or effectively enforced. In the event that any of them is breached or becomes unenforceable and leads to legal proceedings, it could disrupt our business, distract our management’s attention and subject us to substantial uncertainties as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

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We may rely on dividends paid by our PRC subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have. Any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiary to pay dividends to us could have a material adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business and to pay dividends to holders of the ADSs and our Class A common shares.

We are a holding company, and we may rely on dividends to be paid by our wholly-owned PRC subsidiary for our cash and financing requirements, including the funds necessary to pay dividends and other cash distributions to the holders of the ADSs and our Class A common shares and service any debt we may incur. If our wholly owned PRC subsidiary incur debt on their own behalf in the future, the instruments governing the debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to us.

Under PRC laws and regulations, wholly foreign-owned enterprises in the PRC, such as our WFOE, may pay dividends only out of its accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise is required to set aside at least 10% of its after-tax profits each year, after making up previous years’ accumulated losses, if any, to fund certain statutory reserve funds, until the aggregate amount of such a fund reaches 50% of its registered capital. At the discretion of the board of director of the wholly foreign-owned enterprise, it may allocate a portion of its after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to staff welfare and bonus funds. These reserve funds and staff welfare and bonus funds are not distributable as cash dividends. Any limitation on the ability of our wholly-owned PRC subsidiary to pay dividends or make other distributions to us could materially and adversely limit our ability to grow, make investments or acquisitions that could be beneficial to our business, pay dividends, or otherwise fund and conduct our business.

We may lose the ability to use and enjoy assets held by our VIE that are material to the operation of certain portion of our business if the VIE goes bankrupt or becomes subject to a dissolution or liquidation proceeding.

As part of our contractual arrangements with our VIE, our VIE holds certain assets that are material to the operation of certain portion of our business, including intellectual property and premise and value-added telecommunication business operation licenses. If our VIE goes bankrupt and all or part of their assets become subject to liens or rights of third-party creditors, we may be unable to continue some or all of our business activities, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Under the contractual arrangements, our VIE may not, in any manner, sell, transfer, mortgage or dispose of their assets or legal or beneficial interests in the business without our prior consent. If our VIE undergoes a voluntary or involuntary liquidation proceeding, independent third-party creditors may claim rights to some or all of these assets, thereby hindering our ability to operate our business, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If the chops of our PRC subsidiary and our VIE are not kept safely, are stolen or are used by unauthorized persons or for unauthorized purposes, the corporate governance of these entities could be severely and adversely compromised.

In China, a company chop or seal serves as the legal representation of the company towards third parties even when unaccompanied by a signature. Each legally registered company in China is required to maintain a company chop, which must be registered with the local Public Security Bureau. In addition to this mandatory company chop, companies may have several other chops which can be used for specific purposes. The chops of our PRC subsidiary and VIE are generally held securely by personnel designated or approved by us in accordance with our internal control procedures. To the extent those chops are not kept safely, are stolen or are used by unauthorized persons or for unauthorized purposes, the corporate governance of these entities could be severely and adversely compromised and those corporate entities may be bound to abide by the terms of any documents so chopped, even if they were chopped by an individual who lacked the requisite power and authority to do so. In addition, if the chops are misused by unauthorized persons, we could experience disruption to our normal business operations. We may have to take corporate or legal action, which could involve significant time and resources to resolve while distracting management from our operations.

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Risks Related to Doing Business in China

Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system and changes in laws and regulations in China could adversely affect us.

We conduct our business primarily through our PRC subsidiary and consolidated VIE in China. Our operations in China are governed by PRC laws and regulations. Our PRC subsidiary is subject to laws and regulations applicable to foreign investment in China. The PRC legal system is a civil law system based on written statutes. Unlike the common law system, prior court decisions under the civil law system may be cited for reference but have limited precedential value. In addition, any new or changes in PRC laws and regulations related to foreign investment in China could affect the business environment and our ability to operate our business in China.

From time to time, we may have to resort to administrative and court proceedings to enforce our legal rights. Any administrative and court proceedings in China may be protracted, resulting in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. Since PRC administrative and court authorities have significant discretion in interpreting and implementing statutory provisions and contractual terms, it may be more difficult to evaluate the outcome of administrative and court proceedings and the level of legal protection we enjoy than in more developed legal systems. These uncertainties may impede our ability to enforce the contracts we have entered into and could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

Furthermore, the PRC legal system is based in part on government policies and internal rules, some of which are not published on a timely basis or at all and may have retroactive effect. As a result, we may not be aware of our violation of any of these policies and rules until sometime after the violation. Such unpredictability towards our contractual, property and procedural rights could adversely affect our business and impede our ability to continue our operations.

Changes in China’s economic, political or social conditions or government policies could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations.

Substantially all of our assets and operations are located in China. Accordingly, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be influenced to a significant degree by political, economic and social conditions in China generally. The Chinese economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the level of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. Although the Chinese government has implemented measures emphasizing the utilization of market forces for economic reform, the reduction of state ownership of productive assets, and the establishment of improved corporate governance in business enterprises, a substantial portion of productive assets in China is still owned by the government. In addition, the Chinese government continues to play a significant role in regulating industry development by imposing industrial policies. The Chinese government also exercises significant control over China’s economic growth through allocating resources, controlling payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policy, and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies.

While the Chinese economy has experienced significant growth over the past decades, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy, and the rate of growth has been slowing since 2012. Any adverse changes in economic conditions in China, in the policies of the Chinese government or in the laws and regulations in China could have a material adverse effect on the overall economic growth of China. Such developments could adversely affect our business and operating results, lead to reduction in demand for our services and adversely affect our competitive position. The Chinese government has implemented various measures to encourage economic growth and guide the allocation of resources. Some of these measures may benefit the overall Chinese economy, but may have a negative effect on us. For example, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by government control over capital investments or changes in tax regulations. In addition, in the past the Chinese government has implemented certain measures, including interest rate adjustment, to control the pace of economic growth. These measures may cause decreased economic activity in China, which may adversely affect our business and operating results.

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We may be adversely affected by the complexity, uncertainties and changes in PRC regulation of internet-related businesses and companies, and any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our business may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

The PRC government extensively regulates the internet industry, including foreign ownership of, and the licensing and permit requirements pertaining to, companies in the internet industry. These internet-related laws and regulations are relatively new and evolving, and their interpretation and enforcement involve significant uncertainties. As a result, in certain circumstances it may be difficult to determine what actions or omissions may be deemed to be in violation of applicable laws and regulations.

We only have contractual control over our website. We do not directly own the website due to the restrictions on foreign investment in businesses providing value-added telecommunications services in China, including internet information provision services. This may significantly disrupt our business, subject us to sanctions, compromise enforceability of related contractual arrangements, or have other harmful effects on us.

The evolving PRC regulatory system for the internet industry may lead to the establishment of new regulatory agencies. For example, in May 2011, the State Council announced the establishment of a new department, Cyberspace Administration of China (with the involvement of the State Council Information Office, the MITT, and the Ministry of Public Security). The primary role of this new agency is to facilitate the policy-making and legislative development in this field, to direct and coordinate with the relevant departments in connection with online content administration and to deal with cross-ministry regulatory matters in relation to the internet industry.

The interpretation and application of existing PRC laws, regulations and policies and possible new laws, regulations or policies relating to the internet industry have created substantial uncertainties regarding the legality of existing and future foreign investments in, and the businesses and activities of, internet businesses in China, including our business. We cannot assure you that we have obtained all the permits or licenses required for conducting our business in China or will be able to maintain our existing licenses or obtain new ones. If the PRC government considers that we were operating without the proper approvals, licenses or permits or promulgates new laws and regulations that require additional approvals or licenses or imposes additional restrictions on the operation of any part of our business, it has the power, among other things, to levy fines, confiscate our income, revoke our business licenses, and require us to discontinue our relevant business or impose restrictions on the affected portion of our business. Any of these actions by the PRC government may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

If we are classified as a PRC resident enterprise for PRC income tax purposes, such classification could result in unfavorable tax consequences to us and our non-PRC shareholders or ADS holders.

Under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementation rules, an enterprise established outside of the PRC with a “de facto management body” within the PRC is considered a “resident enterprise” and will be subject to the enterprise income tax on its global income at the rate of 25%. The implementation rules define the term “de facto management body” as the body that exercises full and substantial control over and overall management of the business, productions, personnel, accounts and properties of an enterprise. In 2009, the State Administration of Taxation, or SAT, issued a circular, known as SAT Circular 82, which provides certain specific criteria for determining whether the “de facto management body” of a PRC-controlled enterprise that is incorporated offshore is located in China. Although this circular only applies to offshore enterprises controlled by PRC enterprises or PRC enterprise groups, not those controlled by PRC individuals or foreigners, the criteria set forth in the circular may reflect the SAT’s general position on how the “de facto management body” test should be applied in determining the tax resident status of all offshore enterprises. According to SAT Circular 82, an offshore incorporated enterprise controlled by a PRC enterprise or a PRC enterprise group will be regarded as a PRC tax resident by virtue of having its “de facto management body” in China and will be subject to PRC enterprise income tax on its global income only if all of the following conditions are met: (i) the primary location of the day-to-day operational management and the places where they perform their duties are in the PRC; (ii) decisions relating to the enterprise’s financial and human resource matters are made or are subject to approval by organizations or personnel in the PRC; (iii) the enterprise’s primary assets, accounting books and records, company seals, and board and shareholder resolutions, are located or maintained in the PRC; and (iv) at least 50% of voting board members or senior executives habitually reside in the PRC.

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We believe that we are not a PRC resident enterprise for PRC tax purposes. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Tax—PRC Enterprise Income Tax.” However, the tax resident status of an enterprise is subject to determination by the PRC tax authorities and uncertainties remain with respect to the interpretation of the term “de facto management body.” If the PRC tax authorities determine that we are a PRC resident enterprise for enterprise income tax purposes, we may be required to withhold a 10% withholding tax, unless a reduced rate is available under an applicable tax treaty, from dividends we pay to our shareholders that are non-resident enterprises, including the holders of the ADSs. In addition, non-resident enterprise shareholders (including ADS holders) may be subject to PRC tax on gains realized on the sale or other disposition of ADSs or Class A common shares, if such income is treated as sourced from within the PRC. Furthermore, if we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, dividends payable to our non-PRC individual shareholders (including ADS holders) and any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or Class A common shares by such shareholders may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 20% unless a reduced rate is available under an applicable tax treaty. It is unclear whether non-PRC shareholders of our company would be able to claim the benefits of any tax treaties between their country of tax residence and the PRC in the event that we are treated as a PRC resident enterprise. Any such tax may reduce the returns on your investment in the ADSs or our Class A common shares.

We face uncertainty with respect to indirect transfers of equity interests in PRC resident enterprises by their non-PRC holding companies.

Pursuant to the Notice on Strengthening Administration of Enterprise Income Tax for Share Transfers by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 698, issued by the SAT in 2009 with retroactive effect from January 1, 2008, where a non-resident enterprise transfers the equity interests of a PRC resident enterprise indirectly by disposition of the equity interests of an overseas holding company, or an Indirect Transfer, and such overseas holding company is located in a tax jurisdiction that: (i) has an effective tax rate less than 12.5% or (ii) does not tax foreign income of its residents, the non-resident enterprise, being the transferor, shall report to the competent tax authority of the PRC resident enterprise this Indirect Transfer.

On February 3, 2015, the SAT issued the Announcement of the State Administration of Taxation on Several Issues Concerning the Enterprise Income Tax on Indirect Property Transfer by Non-Resident Enterprises, or SAT Bulletin 7. SAT Bulletin 7 supersedes the rules with respect to the Indirect Transfer under SAT Circular 698. SAT Bulletin 7 has introduced a new tax regime that is significantly different from the previous one under SAT Circular 698. SAT Bulletin 7 extends the PRC’s tax jurisdiction to not only Indirect Transfers set forth under SAT Circular 698 but also transactions involving transfer of other taxable assets through offshore transfer of a foreign intermediate holding company. In addition, SAT Bulletin 7 provides clearer criteria than SAT Circular 698 for assessment of reasonable commercial purposes and has introduced safe harbors for internal group restructurings and the purchase and sale of equity through a public securities market. SAT Bulletin 7 also brings challenges to both foreign transferor and transferee (or other person who is obligated to pay for the transfer) of taxable assets. Where a non-resident enterprise transfers taxable assets indirectly by disposing of the equity interests of an overseas holding company, which is an Indirect Transfer, the non-resident enterprise, being the transferor, or the transferee, or the PRC entity that directly owns the taxable assets, may report such Indirect Transfer to the relevant tax authority. Using a “substance over form” principle, the PRC tax authority may disregard the existence of the overseas holding company if it lacks a reasonable commercial purpose and was established for the purpose of reducing, avoiding or deferring PRC tax. As a result, gains derived from such Indirect Transfer may be subject to PRC enterprise income tax, and the transferee or other person who is obligated to pay for the transfer is obligated to withhold the applicable taxes, currently at a rate of 10% for the transfer of equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise. Both the transferor and the transferee may be subject to penalties under PRC tax laws if the transferee fails to withhold the taxes and the transferor fails to pay the taxes.

On October 17, 2017, the SAT issued the Announcement of the State Administration of Taxation on Matters Concerning Withholding of Income Tax of Non-resident Enterprises at Source, or SAT Bulletin 37, which, among others, repealed the SAT Circular 698 on December 1, 2017. SAT Bulletin 37 further details and clarifies the tax withholding methods in respect of income of non-resident enterprises under SAT Circular 698. And certain rules stipulated in SAT Bulletin 7 are replaced by SAT Bulletin 37. Where the non-resident enterprise fails to declare the tax payable pursuant to Article 39 of the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, the tax authority may order it to pay the tax due within required time limits, and the non-resident enterprise shall declare and pay the tax payable within such time limits specified by the tax authority; however, if the non-resident enterprise voluntarily declares and pays the tax payable before the tax authority orders it to do so within required time limits, it shall be deemed that such enterprise has paid the tax in time.

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We face uncertainties as to the reporting and other implications of certain past and future transactions where PRC taxable assets are involved, such as offshore restructuring, sale of the shares in our offshore subsidiaries and investments. Our company may be subject to filing obligations or taxed if our company is transferor in such transactions, and may be subject to withholding obligations if our company is transferee in such transactions, under SAT Bulletin 7 and SAT Bulletin 37. For transfer of shares in our company by investors who are non-PRC resident enterprises, our PRC subsidiary may be requested to assist in the filing under SAT Bulletin 7 and SAT Bulletin 37. As a result, we may be required to expend valuable resources to comply with SAT Bulletin 7 and SAT Bulletin 37 or to request the relevant transferors from whom we purchase taxable assets to comply with these circulars, or to establish that our company should not be taxed under these circulars, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

If our preferential tax treatments are revoked, become unavailable or if the calculation of our tax liability is successfully challenged by the PRC tax authorities, we may be required to pay tax, interest and penalties in excess of our tax provisions, and our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

The Chinese government has provided various tax incentives to our VIE in China. These incentives include reduced enterprise income tax rates. For example, under the Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementation rules, the statutory enterprise income tax rate is 25%. However, enterprises which obtained a new software enterprise certification were entitled to an exemption of enterprise income tax for the first two years and a 50% reduction of enterprise income tax for the subsequent three years, commencing from the first profit-making year. In addition, the income tax of an enterprise that has been determined to be a high and new technology enterprise can be reduced to a preferential rate of 15%. The certificate of high and new technology enterprise of our VIE was obtained in November 2016 and expired in November 2019. Our VIE obtained the certificate of high and new technology enterprise in December 2019 with a validity period of three years starting from December 2019 onwards. Any increase in the enterprise income tax rate applicable to our PRC subsidiary or VIE in China, or any discontinuation or retroactive or future reduction of any of the preferential tax treatments currently enjoyed by our PRC subsidiary or VIE in China, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, in the ordinary course of our business, we are subject to complex income tax and other tax regulations and significant judgment is required in the determination of a provision for income taxes. Although we believe our tax provisions are reasonable, if the PRC tax authorities successfully challenge our position and we are required to pay tax, interest and penalties in excess of our tax provisions, our financial condition and results of operations would be materially and adversely affected.

Certain PRC regulations may make it more difficult for us to pursue growth through acquisitions.

Among other things, the Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, adopted by six PRC regulatory agencies in 2006 and amended in 2009, established additional procedures and requirements that could make merger and acquisition activities by foreign investors more time-consuming and complex. Such regulation requires, among other things, that the Ministry of Commerce be notified in advance of any change-of-control transaction in which a foreign investor acquires control of a PRC domestic enterprise or a foreign company with substantial PRC operations, if certain thresholds under the Provisions on Thresholds for Prior Notification of Concentrations of Undertakings, issued by the State Council in 2008 and was amended in 2018, were triggered. Moreover, the Anti-Monopoly Law promulgated by the Standing Committee of the PRC National People’s Congress, or NPC, which became effective in 2008 requires that transactions which are deemed concentrations and involve parties with specified turnover thresholds must be cleared by the anti-monopoly authority before they can be completed. In addition, PRC national security review rules which became effective in September 2011 require acquisitions by foreign investors of PRC companies engaged in military related or certain other industries that are crucial to national security be subject to security review before consummation of any such acquisition. On December 26, 2019, the State Council issued the Implementation Regulations for the PRC Foreign Investment Law, which has become effective on January 1, 2020. The regulations declare that China will establish a foreign investment security review system, and conduct security review for foreign investments which have or may have an adverse impact on national security. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce promulgated the Measures on Reporting of Foreign Investment Information, effective on the January 1, 2020, which provides detailed submission requirements for foreign investors. Foreign investors undertaking a merger and acquisition of a non-foreign investment enterprise in China are required to submit an initial report through the enterprise registration system upon completion of amendment registration for the target enterprise.

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We may pursue potential strategic acquisitions that are complementary to our business and operations. Complying with the requirements of these regulations to complete such transactions could be time-consuming, and any required approval processes, including obtaining approval or clearance from the anti-monopoly authority, may delay or inhibit our ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share.

PRC regulations relating to the establishment of offshore special purpose companies by PRC residents may subject our PRC resident beneficial owners or our PRC subsidiary to liability or penalties, limit our ability to inject capital into our PRC subsidiary, limit our PRC subsidiary’s ability to increase their registered capital or distribute profits to us, or may otherwise adversely affect us.

In July 2014, SAFE promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment Through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37. SAFE Circular 37 requires PRC residents (including PRC individuals and PRC corporate entities as well as foreign individuals that are deemed as PRC residents for foreign exchange administration purpose) to register with SAFE or its local branches in connection with their direct or indirect offshore investment activities. SAFE Circular 37 is applicable to our shareholders who are PRC residents and may be applicable to any offshore acquisitions that we make in the future.

Under SAFE Circular 37, PRC residents who make, or have prior to the implementation of SAFE Circular 37 made, direct or indirect investments in offshore special purpose vehicles, or SPVs, will be required to register such investments with SAFE or its local branches. In addition, any PRC resident who is a direct or indirect shareholder of an SPV, is required to update its filed registration with the local branch of SAFE with respect to that SPV, to reflect any material change. Moreover, any subsidiary of such SPV in China is required to urge the PRC resident shareholders to update their registration with the local branch of SAFE. If any PRC shareholder of such SPV fails to make the required registration or to update the previously filed registration, the subsidiary of such SPV in China may be prohibited from distributing its profits or the proceeds from any capital reduction, share transfer or liquidation to the SPV, and the SPV may also be prohibited from making additional capital contributions into its subsidiary in China. On February 13, 2015, SAFE promulgated a Notice on Further Simplifying and Improving Foreign Exchange Administration Policy on Direct Investment, or SAFE Notice 13, which became effective on June 1, 2015. Under SAFE Notice 13, applications for foreign exchange registration of inbound foreign direct investments and outbound overseas direct investments, including those required under SAFE Circular 37, will be filed with qualified banks instead of SAFE. The qualified banks will directly examine the applications and accept registrations under the supervision of SAFE.

We have requested PRC residents who we know hold direct or indirect interest in our company to make the necessary applications, filings and registrations as required under SAFE Circular 37 and those PRC resident shareholders that hold direct interest in our company have completed all necessary registrations with the local SAFE branch or qualified banks as required by SAFE Circular 37. However, we may not be informed of the identities of all the PRC residents holding direct or indirect interest in our company, and we cannot provide any assurance that these PRC residents will comply with our request to make or obtain any applicable registrations or comply with other requirements under SAFE Circular 37 or other related rules. The failure or inability of our PRC resident shareholders to comply with the registration procedures set forth in these regulations may subject us to fines and legal sanctions, restrict our cross-border investment activities, limit the ability of our wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in China to distribute dividends and the proceeds from any reduction in capital, share transfer or liquidation to us, and we may also be prohibited from injecting additional capital into the subsidiary. Moreover, failure to comply with the various foreign exchange registration requirements described above could result in liability under PRC law for circumventing applicable foreign exchange restrictions. As a result, our business operations and our ability to distribute profits to you could be materially and adversely affected.

Furthermore, as these foreign exchange regulations are still relatively new and their interpretation and implementation has been constantly evolving, it is unclear how these regulations, and any future regulation concerning offshore or cross-border transactions, will be interpreted, amended and implemented by the relevant government authorities. For example, we may be subject to a more stringent review and approval process with respect to our foreign exchange activities, such as remittance of dividends and foreign-currency-denominated borrowings, which may adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if we decide to acquire a PRC domestic company, we cannot assure you that we or the owners of such company, as the case may be, will be able to obtain the necessary approvals or complete the necessary filings and registrations required by the foreign exchange regulations. This may restrict our ability to implement our acquisition strategy and could adversely affect our business and prospects.

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PRC regulation of loans to and direct investment in PRC entities by offshore holding companies and governmental control of currency conversion may delay or prevent us from using the proceeds of our initial public offering to make loans or additional capital contributions to our PRC subsidiary, which could materially and adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to fund and expand our business.

We are an offshore holding company conducting our operations in China through our PRC subsidiary and VIE. We may make loans to our PRC subsidiary and VIE subject to the approval or registration from governmental authorities and limitation of amount, or we may make additional capital contributions to our wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in China. Any loans to our wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in China, which are treated as foreign-invested enterprises under PRC law, are subject to foreign exchange loan registrations. In addition, a foreign-invested enterprise, or FIE, shall use its capital pursuant to the principle of authenticity and self-use within its business scope. The capital of an FIE shall not be used for the following purposes: (i) directly or indirectly used for payment beyond the business scope of the enterprises or the payment prohibited by relevant laws and regulations; (ii) directly or indirectly used for investment in securities or investments other than banks’ principal-secured products unless otherwise provided by relevant laws and regulations; (iii) the granting of loans to non-affiliated enterprises, except where it is expressly permitted in the business license; and (iv) paying the expenses related to the purchase of real estate that is not for self-use (except for the foreign-invested real estate enterprises).

In light of the various requirements imposed by PRC regulations on loans to and direct investment in PRC entities by offshore holding companies, we cannot assure you that we will be able to complete the necessary government registrations or obtain the necessary government approvals on a timely basis, if at all, with respect to future loans by us to our PRC subsidiary or VIE or with respect to future capital contributions by us to our PRC subsidiary. If we fail to complete such registrations or obtain such approvals, our ability to use the proceeds from our initial public offering and to capitalize or otherwise fund our PRC operations may be negatively affected, which could materially and adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to fund and expand our business.

We may rely on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our PRC subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have, and any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiary to make payments to us could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business.

We are a Cayman Islands holding company and we rely principally on dividends and other distributions on equity from our PRC subsidiary for our cash requirements, including the funds necessary to pay dividends and other cash distributions to our shareholders for services of any debt we may incur. If our PRC subsidiary incurs debt on its own behalf in the future, the instruments governing the debt may restrict its ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to us. Under PRC laws and regulations, our PRC subsidiary, which is a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, may pay dividends only out of its respective accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise is required to set aside at least 10% of its accumulated after-tax profits each year, if any, to fund a certain statutory reserve fund, until the aggregate amount of such fund reaches 50% of its registered capital. Such reserve funds cannot be distributed to us as dividends. At its discretion, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise may allocate a portion of its after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to an enterprise expansion fund, or a staff welfare and bonus fund.

Our PRC subsidiary generates primarily all of their revenue in Renminbi, which is not freely convertible into other currencies. As result, any restriction on currency exchange may limit the ability of our PRC subsidiary to use their Renminbi revenues to pay dividends to us.

The PRC government may continue to strengthen its capital controls, and more restrictions and substantial vetting process may be put forward by SAFE for cross-border transactions falling under both the current account and the capital account. Any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiary to pay dividends or make other kinds of payments to us could materially and adversely limit our ability to grow, make investments or acquisitions that could be beneficial to our business, pay dividends, or otherwise fund and conduct our business.

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In addition, the Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementation rules provide that a withholding tax rate of up to 10% will be applicable to dividends payable by Chinese companies to non-PRC-resident enterprises unless otherwise exempted or reduced according to treaties or arrangements between the PRC central government and governments of other countries or regions where the non-PRC-resident enterprises are incorporated.

Fluctuations in exchange rates could have a material and adverse effect on our results of operations and the value of your investment.

The conversion of Renminbi into foreign currencies, including U.S. dollars, is based on rates set by the People’s Bank of China. The Renminbi has fluctuated against the U.S. dollar, at times significantly and unpredictably. The value of Renminbi against the U.S. dollar and other currencies is affected by changes in China’s political and economic conditions and by China’s foreign exchange policies, among other things. We cannot assure you that the Renminbi will not appreciate or depreciate significantly in value against the U.S. dollar in the future. It is difficult to predict how market forces or PRC or U.S. government policy may impact the exchange rate between the Renminbi and the U.S. dollar in the future.

Any significant appreciation or depreciation of Renminbi may materially and adversely affect our revenues, earnings and financial position, and the value of, and any dividends payable on, our ADSs in U.S. dollars. For example, to the extent that we need to convert U.S. dollars we receive from our initial public offering into Renminbi for our operations, appreciation of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar would have an adverse effect on the Renminbi amount we would receive from the conversion. Conversely, if we decide to convert our Renminbi into U.S. dollars for the purpose of making payments for dividends on our Class A common shares or the ADSs or for other business purposes, appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Renminbi would have a negative effect on the U.S. dollar amount available to us.

Very limited hedging options are available in China to reduce our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations. As of the date of this annual report, we have not entered into any effective hedging arrangements in an effort to reduce our exposure to foreign currency exchange risk. While we may decide to enter into hedging transactions in the future, the availability and effectiveness of these hedges may be limited and we may not be able to adequately hedge our exposure or at all. In addition, our currency exchange losses may be magnified by PRC exchange control regulations that restrict our ability to convert Renminbi into foreign currency. As a result, fluctuations in exchange rates may have a material adverse effect on your investment.

Governmental control of currency conversion may limit our ability to utilize our cash balance effectively and affect the value of your investment.

The PRC government imposes controls on the convertibility of the Renminbi into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of China. We receive substantially all of our revenues in Renminbi. Under our current corporate structure, our Cayman Islands holding company primarily relies on dividend payments from our PRC subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions, can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval of SAFE by complying with certain procedural requirements. Specifically, under the existing exchange restrictions, without prior approval of SAFE, cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiary in China may be used to pay dividends to our company. However, approval from or registration with appropriate government authorities is required where Renminbi is to be converted into foreign currency and remitted out of China to pay capital expenses such as the repayment of loans denominated in foreign currencies. As a result, we need to obtain SAFE approval to use cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiary and VIE to pay off their respective debt in a currency other than Renminbi owed to entities outside China, or to make other capital expenditure payments outside China in a currency other than Renminbi. The PRC government may at its discretion restrict access to foreign currencies for current account transactions in the future. If the foreign exchange control system prevents us from obtaining sufficient foreign currencies to satisfy our foreign currency demands, we may not be able to pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of the ADSs.

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Proceedings instituted by the SEC against certain PRC-based accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

Starting in 2011 the Chinese affiliates of the “ big four” accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, were affected by a conflict between U.S. and Chinese law. Specifically, for certain U.S.-listed companies operating and audited in mainland China, the SEC and the PCAOB sought to obtain from the Chinese firms access to their audit work papers and related documents. The firms were, however, advised and directed that under Chinese law, they could not respond directly to the U.S. regulators on those requests, and that requests by foreign regulators for access to such papers in China had to be channeled through the CSRC.

In December 2012, the SEC instituted proceedings under Rule 102(e)(1)(iii) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 against five Chinese-based accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, alleging that these firms had violated U.S. securities laws and the SEC’s rules and regulations thereunder by failing to provide to the SEC the firms’ work papers related to their audits of certain China-based companies that are publicly traded in the U.S. Rule 102(e)(1)(iii) grants the SEC the authority to deny to any person, temporarily or permanently, the ability to practice before the SEC who is found by the SEC, after notice and opportunity for a hearing, to have wilfully violated any such laws or rules and regulations. On January 22, 2014, an initial administrative law decision was issued, censuring these accounting firms and suspending four of the five firms from practicing before the SEC for a period of six months. Four of these China-based accounting firms appealed to the SEC against this decision and, on February 6, 2015, each of the four China-based accounting firms agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC. The firms’ ability to continue to serve all their respective customers is not affected by the settlement. The settlement requires the firms to follow detailed procedures to seek to provide the SEC with access to Chinese firms’ audit documents via the China Securities Regulatory Commission. If the firms do not follow these procedures, the SEC could impose penalties such as suspensions, or it could restart the administrative proceedings. The settlement did not require the firms to admit to any violation of law and preserves the firms’ legal defenses in the event the administrative proceeding is restarted.

In the event that the SEC restarts the administrative proceedings, depending upon the final outcome, listed companies in the United States with major PRC operations may find it difficult or impossible to retain auditors in respect of their operations in the PRC, which could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, including possible delisting. Moreover, any negative news about the proceedings against these audit firms may cause investor uncertainty regarding China-based, United States-listed companies and the market price of the ADSs may be adversely affected.

If our independent registered public accounting firm were denied, even temporarily, the ability to practice before the SEC and we were unable to timely find another registered public accounting firm to audit and issue an opinion on our financial statements, our financial statements could be determined not to be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act. Such a determination could ultimately lead to our delisting from the Nasdaq Global Market or deregistration from the SEC, or both, which would substantially reduce or effectively terminate the trading of the ADSs in the United States.

The audit report included in this annual report is prepared by an auditor who is not inspected by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and, as such, you are deprived of the benefits of such inspection.

Our independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit reports included in our annual report filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, as auditors of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or the PCAOB, is required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB to assess its compliance with the laws of the United States and professional standards. Because our auditors are located in the People’s Republic of China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities, our auditors are not currently inspected by the PCAOB. On December 7, 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement highlighting continued challenges faced by the U.S. regulators in their oversight of financial statement audits of U.S.-listed companies with significant operations in China. The joint statement reflects a heightened interest in an issue that has vexed U.S. regulators in recent years. On April 21, 2020, the SEC and the PCAOB issued another joint statement reiterating the greater risk that disclosures will be insufficient in many emerging markets, including China, compared to those made by U.S. domestic companies. In discussing the specific issues related to the greater risk, the statement again highlights the PCAOB’s inability to inspect audit work paper and practices of accounting firms in China, with respect to their audit work of U.S. reporting companies. However, it remains unclear what further actions the SEC and PCAOB will take to address the problem.

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Inspections of other firms that the PCAOB has conducted outside of China have identified deficiencies in those firms’ audit procedures and quality control procedures, which may be addressed as part of the inspection process to improve future audit quality. The lack of PCAOB inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from regularly evaluating our auditors’ audits and its quality control procedures. As a result, investors may be deprived of the benefits of PCAOB inspections.

The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our auditors’ audit procedures or quality control procedures as compared to auditors outside of China that are subject to PCAOB inspections. Investors may lose confidence in our reported financial information and procedures and the quality of our financial statements.

As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular China’s, in June 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced bills in both houses of the U.S. Congress, which if passed, would require the SEC to maintain a list of issuers for which PCAOB is not able to inspect or investigate an auditor report issued by a foreign public accounting firm. The proposed Ensuring Quality Information and Transparency for Abroad-Based Listings on our Exchanges (EQUITABLE) Act prescribes increased disclosure requirements for these issuers and, beginning in 2025, the delisting from U.S. national securities exchanges such as the Nasdaq of issuers included on the SEC’s list for three consecutive years. Enactment of this legislation or other efforts to increase U.S. regulatory access to audit information could cause investor uncertainty for affected issuers, including us, and the market price of the ADSs could be adversely affected. It is unclear if this proposed legislation would be enacted. Furthermore, there has been recent media reports on deliberations within the U.S. government regarding potentially limiting or restricting China-based companies from accessing U.S. capital markets. If any such deliberations were to materialize, the resulting legislation may have material and adverse impact on the stock performance of China-based issuers listed in the United States.

Risks Related to The ADSs

The trading price of the ADSs is likely to be volatile, which could result in substantial losses to investors.

The trading price of the ADSs is likely to be volatile and could fluctuate widely due to factors beyond our control. This may happen because of broad market and industry factors, including the performance and fluctuation of the market prices of other companies with business operations located mainly in China that have listed their securities in the United States. In addition to market and industry factors, the price and trading volume for the ADSs may be highly volatile for factors specific to our own operations, including the following:

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Any of these factors may result in large and sudden changes in the trading volume and price of the ADSs.

In the past, shareholders of public companies have often brought securities class action suits against those companies following periods of instability in the market price of their securities. If we were involved in a class action suit, it could divert a significant amount of our management’s attention and other resources from our business and operations and require us to incur significant expenses to defend the suit, which could harm our results of operations. Any such class action suit, whether or not successful, could harm our reputation and restrict our ability to raise capital in the future. In addition, if a claim is successfully made against us, we may be required to pay significant damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, the stock market in general, and the market prices for internet-related companies and companies with operations in China in particular, have experienced volatility that often has been unrelated to the operating performance of such companies. The securities of some China-based companies that have listed their securities in the United States have experienced significant volatility since their initial public offerings in recent years, including, in some cases, substantial declines in the trading prices of their securities. The trading performances of these companies’ securities after their offerings may affect the attitudes of investors towards Chinese companies listed in the United States in general, which consequently may impact the trading performance of our ADSs, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, any negative news or perceptions about inadequate corporate governance practices or fraudulent accounting, corporate structure or other matters of other Chinese companies may also negatively affect the attitudes of investors towards Chinese companies in general, including us, regardless of whether we have engaged in any inappropriate activities. In particular, the global financial crisis, the ensuing economic recessions and deterioration in the credit market in many countries have contributed and may continue to contribute to extreme volatility in the global stock markets. These broad market and industry fluctuations may adversely affect the market price of our ADSs. Volatility or a lack of positive performance in our ADS price may also adversely affect our ability to retain key employees, most of whom have been granted options or other equity incentives.

We cannot guarantee that any share repurchase program will be fully consummated or that any share repurchase program will enhance long-term shareholder value, and share repurchases could increase the volatility of the trading price of the ADSs and could diminish our cash reserves.

In November 2018, our board of directors authorized the repurchase of up to US$10 million of the ADSs or our common shares. Although our board of directors has authorized this program, we are not obligated to purchase any specific dollar amount or to acquire any specific number of shares. The timing and amount of repurchases, if any, will depend upon several factors, including market, business conditions, the trading price of the ADSs or our common shares and the nature of other investment opportunities. As of December 31, 2019, we repurchased approximately US$5.9 million of the ADSs under the share repurchase program . Our share repurchase program could affect the price of the ADSs and increase volatility and may be suspended or terminated at any time, which may result in a decrease in the trading price of the ADSs. For example, the existence of a share repurchase program could cause the price of the ADSs to be higher than it would be in the absence of such a program and could potentially reduce the market liquidity for the ADSs. Additionally, our share repurchase program could diminish our cash reserves, which may impact our ability to finance future growth and to pursue possible future strategic opportunities. There can be no assurance that any share repurchases will enhance shareholder value because the market price of the ADSs or our common shares may decline below the levels at which we determine to repurchase the ADSs or our common shares. Although our share repurchase program is intended to enhance long-term shareholder value, there is no assurance that it will do so and short-term share price fluctuations could reduce the program’s effectiveness.

We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act and may take advantage of certain reduced reporting requirements.

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, most significantly, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 for so long as we remain an emerging growth company. As a result, if we elect not to comply with such auditor attestation requirements, our investors may not have access to certain information they may deem important.

Our dual-class voting structure will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and could discourage others from pursuing any change of control transactions that holders of our Class A common shares and the ADSs may view as beneficial.

We have a dual-class common share structure. Our common shares are divided into Class A common shares and Class B common shares. Holders of Class A common shares are entitled to one vote per share, while holders of Class B common shares are entitled to ten votes per share. Each Class B common share is convertible into one Class A common share at any time by the holder thereof, while Class A common shares are not convertible into Class B common shares under any circumstances. Upon any direct or indirect sale, transfer, assignment or disposition of Class B common shares or the voting power attached to such Class B common shares through a voting proxy or otherwise by a holder thereof to any person or entity that is not an affiliate of such holder, or the direct or indirect sale, transfer, assignment or disposition of a majority of the issued and outstanding voting securities of, or voting power attached to such voting securities through voting proxy or otherwise, or the direct or indirect sale, transfer, assignment or disposition of all or substantially all of the assets of a holder of Class B common shares that is an entity to any person that is not an affiliate of such holder, such Class B common shares shall be automatically and immediately converted into the equal number of Class A common shares.

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Mr. Weidong Luo, our founder, the chairman of our board of directors and our chief executive officer, beneficially owned an aggregate of 7,171,333 Class A common shares (including 71,333 Class A common shares represented by 107,000 ADSs) and 17,000,189 Class B common shares, which represent 77.0% of our total voting power, as of February 29, 2020. Therefore, Mr. Weidong Luo has decisive influence over matters requiring shareholders’ approval, including election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or sale of our company or our assets. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and could discourage others from pursuing any potential merger, takeover or other change of control transactions that holders of our Class A common shares and the ADSs may view as beneficial.

The dual-class structure of our common shares may adversely affect the trading market for the ADSs.

S&P Dow Jones and FTSE Russell have announced changes to their eligibility criteria for inclusion of shares of public companies on certain indices, including the S&P 500, to exclude companies with multiple classes of shares and companies whose public shareholders hold no more than 5% of total voting power from being added to such indices. In addition, several shareholder advisory firms have announced their opposition to the use of multiple class structures. As a result, the dual class structure of our common shares may prevent the inclusion of the ADSs representing our Class A common shares in such indices and may cause shareholder advisory firms to publish negative commentary about our corporate governance practices or otherwise seek to cause us to change our capital structure. Any such exclusion from indices could result in a less active trading market for the ADSs representing our Class A common shares. Any actions or publications by shareholder advisory firms critical of our corporate governance practices or capital structure could also adversely affect the value of the ADSs.

If securities or industry analysts cease to publish research or reports about our business, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding the ADSs, the market price for the ADSs and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for the ADSs will be influenced by research or reports that industry or securities analysts publish about our business. If one or more analysts who cover us downgrade the ADSs, the market price for the ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease to cover us or fail to regularly publish reports on us, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which, in turn, could cause the market price or trading volume for the ADSs to decline.

The sale or availability for sale, or perceived sale or availability for sale, of substantial amounts of the ADSs could adversely affect their market price.

Sales of substantial amounts of the ADSs in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of the ADSs. As of February 29, 2020, we had 77,148,685 common shares outstanding, comprising of (i) 60,148,496 Class A common shares (excluding treasury shares), and (ii) 17,000,189 Class B common shares. Among these shares, 26,412,978 Class A common shares are in the form of ADSs, which are freely transferable without restriction or additional registration under the Securities Act. The remaining Class A common shares outstanding and the Class B common shares will be available for sale, subject to volume and other restrictions as applicable under Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act. Certain holders of our common shares may cause us to register under the Securities Act the sale of their shares. Holders of the convertible notes issued by us on April 17, 2018 may also cause us to register under the Securities Act the sale of their Class A common shares issuable upon conversion of the convertible notes at the then applicable conversion price, which is initially US$11.7612 per common share, subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments. Assuming all the notes are converted into our Class A common shares at this initial conversion price, we would issue an aggregate of 2,975,897 Class A common shares to the holders of the convertible notes. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in ADSs representing these shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act immediately upon the effectiveness of the registration. Sales of these registered shares in the form of ADSs in the public market could adversely affect the market price of the ADSs.

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Our memorandum and articles of association contain anti-takeover provisions that could have a material adverse effect on the rights of holders of our Class A common shares and the ADSs.

Our current memorandum and articles of association contain provisions to limit the ability of others to acquire control of our company or cause us to engage in change-of-control transactions. These provisions could have the effect of depriving our shareholders of an opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over prevailing market prices by discouraging third parties from seeking to obtain control of our company in a tender offer or similar transaction. Our board of directors has the authority, without further action by our shareholders, to issue preferred shares in one or more series and to fix their designations, powers, preferences, privileges, and relative participating, optional or special rights and the qualifications, limitations or restrictions, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may be greater than the rights associated with our Class A common shares, including common shares represented by ADSs. Preferred shares could be issued quickly with terms calculated to delay or prevent a change in control of our company or make removal of management more difficult. If our board of directors decides to issue preferred shares, the price of the ADSs may fall and the voting and other rights of the holders of our Class A common shares and the ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

The voting rights of holders of ADSs are limited by the terms of the deposit agreement, and you may not be able to exercise your right to vote the underlying Class A common shares represented by your ADSs.

Holders of ADSs do not have the same rights as our registered shareholders. As a holder of ADSs, you will not have any direct right to attend general meetings of our shareholders or to cast any votes at such meetings. You will only be able to exercise the voting rights which are carried by the underlying Class A common shares represented by your ADSs indirectly by giving voting instructions to the depositary in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. If we instruct the depositary to solicit voting instructions, then upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try, as far as is practicable, to vote the underlying Class A common shares represented by your ADSs in accordance with your instructions. If we do not instruct the depositary to ask for your instructions, the depositary may still vote in accordance with instructions you give, but it is not required to do so. You will not be able to directly exercise your right to vote with respect to the underlying Class A common shares unless you withdraw the shares, and become the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date for the general meeting. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice of the meeting to withdraw the Class A common shares represented by your ADSs and become the registered holder of such shares to allow you to attend the general meeting and to vote directly with respect to any specific matter or resolution to be considered and voted upon at the general meeting. In addition, under our current memorandum and articles of association, for the purposes of determining those shareholders who are entitled to attend and vote at any general meeting, our directors may close our register of members and/or fix in advance a record date for such meeting, and such closure of our register of members or the setting of such a record date may prevent you from withdrawing the underlying Class A common shares represented by your ADSs and becoming the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date, so that you would not be able to attend the general meeting or to vote directly. If we ask for your instructions, the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. If we will instruct the depositary to solicit voting instructions, we will give the depositary at least 30 days’ prior notice of shareholder meetings. Nevertheless, we cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote the underlying Class A common shares represented by your ADSs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out your voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to direct how the underlying Class A common shares represented by your ADSs are voted and you may have no legal remedy if the underlying Class A common shares represented by your ADSs are not voted as you requested. In addition, in your capacity as an ADS holder, you will not be able to call a shareholders’ meeting.

We are entitled to amend the deposit agreement and to change the rights of ADS holders under the terms of such agreement, or to terminate the deposit agreement, without the prior consent of the ADS holders.

We are entitled to amend the deposit agreement and to change the rights of the ADS holders under the terms of such agreement, without the prior consent of the ADS holders. We and the depositary may agree to amend the deposit agreement in any way we decide is necessary or advantageous to us. Amendments may reflect, among other things, operational changes in the ADS program, legal developments affecting ADSs or changes in the terms of our business relationship with the depositary. In the event that the terms of an amendment are disadvantageous to ADS holders, ADS holders will only receive 30 days’ advance notice of the amendment, and no prior consent of the ADS holders is required under the deposit agreement. Furthermore, we may decide to terminate the ADS facility at any time for any reason. For example, terminations may occur when we decide to list our shares on a non-U.S. securities exchange and determine not to continue to sponsor an ADS facility or when we become the subject of a takeover or a going-private transaction. If the ADS facility will terminate, ADS holders will receive at least 90 days’ prior notice, but no prior consent is required from them. Under the circumstances that we decide to make an amendment to the deposit agreement that is disadvantageous to ADS holders or terminate the deposit agreement, the ADS holders may choose to sell their ADSs or surrender their ADSs and become direct holders of the underlying common shares, but will have no right to any compensation whatsoever.

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ADSs holders may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to claims arising under the deposit agreement, which could result in less favorable outcomes to the plaintiff(s) in any such action.

The deposit agreement governing the ADSs representing our Class A common shares provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, ADS holders waive the right to a jury trial of any claim they may have against us or the depositary arising out of or relating to our shares, the ADSs or the deposit agreement, including any claim under the U.S. federal securities laws.

If we or the depositary opposed a jury trial demand based on the waiver, the court would determine whether the waiver was enforceable based on the facts and circumstances of that case in accordance with the applicable state and federal law. To our knowledge, the enforceability of a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver in connection with claims arising under the federal securities laws has not been finally adjudicated by the United States Supreme Court. However, we believe that a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver provision is generally enforceable, including under the laws of the State of New York, which govern the deposit agreement, by a federal or state court in the City of New York, which has non-exclusive jurisdiction over matters arising under the deposit agreement. In determining whether to enforce a contractual pre-dispute jury trial waiver provision, courts will generally consider whether a party knowingly, intelligently and voluntarily waived the right to a jury trial. We believe that this is the case with respect to the deposit agreement and the ADSs. It is advisable that you consult legal counsel regarding the jury waiver provision before entering into the deposit agreement.

If you or any other holders or beneficial owners of ADSs bring a claim against us or the depositary in connection with matters arising under the deposit agreement or the ADSs, including claims under federal securities laws, you or such other holder or beneficial owner may not be entitled to a jury trial with respect to such claims, which may have the effect of limiting and discouraging lawsuits against us and / or the depositary. If a lawsuit is brought against us and/or the depositary under the deposit agreement, it may be heard only by a judge or justice of the applicable trial court, which would be conducted according to different civil procedures and may result in different outcomes than a trial by jury would have had, including results that could be less favorable to the plaintiff(s) in any such action.

Nevertheless, if this jury trial waiver provision is not permitted by applicable law, an action could proceed under the terms of the deposit agreement with a jury trial. No condition, stipulation or provision of the deposit agreement or ADSs serves as a waiver by any holder or beneficial owner of ADSs or by us or the depositary of compliance with any substantive provision of the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

Because we do not expect to pay dividends in the foreseeable future, you must rely on price appreciation of the ADSs for return on your investment.

We currently intend to retain most, if not all, of our available funds and any future earnings to fund the development and growth of our business. As a result, we do not expect to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Therefore, you should not rely on an investment in the ADSs as a source for any future dividend income.

Our board of directors has complete discretion as to whether to distribute dividends, subject to certain requirements of Cayman Islands law. In addition, our shareholders may by ordinary resolution declare a dividend, but no dividend may exceed the amount recommended by our directors. Under Cayman Islands law, a Cayman Islands company may pay a dividend out of either profit or share premium account, provided that in no circumstances may a dividend be paid if this would result in the company being unable to pay its debts as they fall due in the ordinary course of business. Even if our board of directors decides to declare and pay dividends, the timing, amount and form of future dividends, if any, will depend on our future results of operations and cash flow, our capital requirements and surplus, the amount of distributions, if any, received by us from our subsidiary, our financial condition, contractual restrictions and other factors deemed relevant by our board of directors. Accordingly, the return on your investment in the ADSs will likely depend entirely upon any future price appreciation of the ADSs. There is no guarantee that the ADSs will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which you purchased the ADSs. You may not realize a return on your investment in the ADSs and you may even lose your entire investment in the ADSs.

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You may not receive dividends or other distributions on our Class A common shares and you may not receive any value for them, if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to you.

The depositary has agreed to pay to you the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian receives on Class A common shares or other deposited securities underlying the ADSs, after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of Class A common shares your ADSs represent. However, the depositary is not responsible if it decides that it is unlawful or impractical to make a distribution available to any holders of ADSs. For example, it would be unlawful to make a distribution to a holder of ADSs if it consists of securities that require registration under the Securities Act of 1933 but that are not properly registered or distributed under an applicable exemption from registration. The depositary may also determine that it is not feasible to distribute certain property through the mail. Additionally, the value of certain distributions may be less than the cost of mailing them. In these cases, the depositary may determine not to distribute such property. We have no obligation to register under U.S. securities laws any ADSs, Class A common shares, rights or other securities received through such distributions. We also have no obligation to take any other action to permit the distribution of ADSs, Class A common shares, rights or anything else to holders of ADSs. This means that you may not receive distributions we make on our Class A common shares or any value for them if it is illegal or impractical for us to make them available to you. These restrictions may cause a material decline in the value of the ADSs.

You may experience dilution of your holdings due to the inability to participate in rights offerings.

We may, from time to time, distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire securities. Under the deposit agreement, the depositary will not distribute rights to holders of ADSs unless the distribution and sale of rights and the securities to which these rights relate are either exempt from registration under the Securities Act with respect to all holders of ADSs, or are registered under the provisions of the Securities Act. The depositary may, but is not required to, attempt to sell these undistributed rights to third parties, and may allow the rights to lapse. We may be unable to establish an exemption from registration under the Securities Act, and we are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to these rights or underlying securities or to endeavor to have a registration statement declared effective. Accordingly, holders of ADSs may be unable to participate in our rights offerings and may experience dilution of their holdings as a result.

We will incur increased costs as a result of being a public company, particularly after we cease to qualify as an “emerging growth company.”

We are now a public company and expect to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, and Nasdaq, impose various requirements on the corporate governance practices of public companies. As a company with less than US$1.07 billion in revenues for our last fiscal year, we qualify as an “emerging growth company” pursuant to the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include exemption from the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, in the assessment of the emerging growth company’s internal control over financial reporting and permission to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies.

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We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some corporate activities more time-consuming and costly. After we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the other rules and regulations of the SEC. For example, as a result of becoming a public company, we will need to increase the number of independent directors and adopt policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. We also expect that operating as a public company will make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. In addition, we will incur additional costs associated with our public company reporting requirements. It may also be more difficult for us to find qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. We are currently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules and regulations, and we cannot predict or estimate with any degree of certainty the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.

In the past, shareholders of a public company often brought securities class action suits against the company following periods of instability in the market price of that company’s securities. If we were involved in a class action suit, it could divert a significant amount of our management’s attention and other resources from our business and operations, which could harm our results of operations and require us to incur significant expenses to defend the suit. Any such class action suit, whether or not successful, could harm our reputation and restrict our ability to raise capital in the future. In addition, if a claim is successfully made against us, we may be required to pay significant damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

You may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through U.S. courts may be limited, because we are incorporated under Cayman Islands law.

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Law (2020 Revision) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against our directors, actions by our minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States. Some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States.

Shareholders of Cayman Islands exempted companies like us have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records or to obtain copies of lists of shareholders of these companies. Our directors have discretion under our current articles of association to determine whether or not, and under what conditions, our corporate records may be inspected by our shareholders, but are not obliged to make them available to our shareholders. This may make it more difficult for you to obtain the information needed to establish any facts necessary for a shareholder motion or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest.

As a result of all of the above, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of our board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the United States.

Certain judgments obtained against us by our shareholders may not be enforceable.

We are a Cayman Islands exempted company and substantially all of our assets are located outside of the United States. Our current operations are conducted in China. In addition, our current directors and officers are nationals and residents of countries other than the United States. Substantially all of the assets of these persons are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for you to bring an action against us or against these individuals in the United States in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under the U.S. federal securities laws or otherwise. Even if you are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands and of China may render you unable to enforce a judgment against our assets or the assets of our directors and officers.

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As an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, we are permitted to adopt certain home country practices in relation to corporate governance matters that differ significantly from the Nasdaq listing standards; these practices may afford less protection to shareholders than they would enjoy if we complied fully with the Nasdaq listing standards.

As a Cayman Islands exempted company listed on the Nasdaq Global Market, we are subject to the Nasdaq listing standards. However, Nasdaq rules permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, may differ significantly from the Nasdaq listing standards. We have elected to rely on home country practice to be exempted from the corporate governance requirements that we have a majority of independent directors on our board of directors and the audit committee of our board of directors has a minimum of three members. We have utilized, and intend to continue to utilize, the foregoing exemptions from the applicable corporate governance requirements, and we do not have a majority of independent directors and our audit committee consists of two independent directors instead of three. As a result, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they would otherwise enjoy under the Nasdaq listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

We are a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq Stock Market Rules and, as a result, may rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements that provide protection to shareholders of other companies.

We are a “controlled company” as defined under the Nasdaq Stock Market Rules because Mr. Weidong Luo, our founder, the chairman of our board of directors and our chief executive officer owns more than 50% of our total voting power. For so long as we remain a controlled company under that definition, we are permitted to elect to rely, and may rely, on certain exemptions from corporate governance rules, including an exemption from the rule that a majority of our board of directors must be independent directors or that we have to establish a nominating committee and a compensation committee composed entirely of independent directors. As a result, you will not have the same protection afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to these corporate governance requirements.

We may be classified as a passive foreign investment company for U.S. federal income tax purposes, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. Holders of our ADSs or Class A common shares.

Depending upon the value of our assets, which is determined based, in part, on the market value of our ADSs, and the nature of our assets and income over time, we could be classified as a PFIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes. A non-U.S. corporation, such as our company, will be classified as a PFIC for U.S. federal income tax purposes for any taxable year, if either (i) 75% or more of its gross income for such year consists of certain types of “passive” income or (ii) 50% or more of the value of its assets (based on the basis of a quarterly average) during such year produce or are held for the production of passive income (the “asset test”). Although the law in this regard is not entirely clear, we treat our consolidated VIE as being owned by us for U.S. federal income tax purposes because we control its management decisions and are entitled to substantially all of the economic benefits associated with it, and, as a result, we consolidate its results of operations in our consolidated U.S. GAAP financial statements. If it were determined, however, that we are not the owner of the consolidated VIE for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we may be treated as a PFIC for the current taxable year and any subsequent taxable year. Assuming that we are the owner of our VIE for U.S. federal income tax purposes, and based upon our income and assets and the market value of our ADSs, we do not believe we were a PFIC for the taxable year ended December 31, 2019 and do not expect to be a PFIC for our current taxable year or for the foreseeable future.

However, no assurance can be given in this regard because the determination of whether we will be or become a PFIC is a factual determination made annually that will depend, in part, upon the composition of our income and assets. Fluctuations in the market price of the ADSs may cause us to be classified as a PFIC for the current or future taxable years because the value of our assets for purposes of the asset test, including the value of our goodwill and unbooked intangibles, may be determined by reference to the market price of the ADSs from time to time (which may be volatile). If our market capitalization subsequently declines, we may be or become classified as a PFIC for the current taxable year or future taxable years. Furthermore, the composition of our income and assets may also be affected by how, and how quickly, we use our liquid assets. Under circumstances where our revenue from activities that produce passive income significantly increases relative to our revenue from activities that produce non-passive income, or where we determine not to deploy significant amounts of cash for active purposes, our risk of becoming classified as a PFIC may substantially increase. Furthermore, because there are uncertainties in the application of the relevant rules, it is possible that the Internal Revenue Service (the “IRS”) may challenge our classification of certain income or assets as non-passive, or our valuation of our goodwill and other unbooked intangibles, each of which may result in our company becoming classified as a PFIC for the current or subsequent taxable years.

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If we are or become a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. Holder (as defined in “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations”) holds the ADSs or our Class A common shares, certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences could apply to such U.S. Holder. See “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations—Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules.”

Shenzhen Hexum Hungu Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Hexun Huagu, was incorporated in May 2012. The current shareholders of Hexun Huagu are Mr. Weidong Luo, Mr. Xiaodao Wang and Mr. Jiawen Fang, holding 80%, 10% and 10% equity interests in Hexun Huagu, respectively.

In May 2012, UA Mobile Limited was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands by KK Mobile Limited, a company wholly owned by Mr. Weidong Luo. UA Mobile Limited set up a wholly-owned subsidiary KK Mobile Investment Limited in Hong Kong in June 2012. In April 2014, we incorporated Aurora Mobile Limited in the Cayman Islands as our offshore holding company to facilitate financing and offshore listing. Subsequently, Mr. Weidong Luo transferred his entire ownership of UA Mobile Limited to Aurora Mobile Limited. In June 2014, KK Mobile Investment Limited established a wholly-owned subsidiary in China, JPush Information Consultation (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., or Shenzhen JPush.

On August 5, 2014, we obtained control over Hexun Huagu through Shenzhen JPush by entering into a series of contractual arrangements with Hexun Huagu and its shareholders. We refer to Shenzhen JPush as our WFOE, and to Hexun Huagu as our VIE in this annual report. Our contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders allow us to (i) exercise effective control over our VIE, (ii) receive substantially all of the economic benefits of our VIE, and (iii) have an exclusive call option to purchase all or part of the equity interests in and assets of our VIE when and to the extent permitted by PRC law. As a result of these contractual arrangements, Hexun Huagu is our consolidated variable interest entity, which generally refers to an entity in which we do not have any equity interests but whose financial results are consolidated into our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP because we have effective financial control over, and are the primary beneficiary of, that entity. We treat Hexun Huagu and its subsidiaries as our consolidated affiliated entities under U.S. GAAP and have consolidated their financial results in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, those contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in terms of providing operational control.

On July 26, 2018, the ADSs representing our Class A common shares commenced trading on Nasdaq under the symbol “JG.” We raised from our initial public offering approximately US$68.0 million in net proceeds after deducting underwriting commissions and discounts and the offering expenses payable by us.

Our principal executive offices are located at 3/F, Building No. 7, Zhiheng Industrial Park, No. 15, Guankou Road 2, Anle Community, Nantou Street, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518052, People’s Republic of China. Our telephone number at this address is +86 755-8388-1462. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is located at the offices of Maples Corporate Services Limited at PO Box 309, Ugland House, Grand Cayman, KY1-1104, Cayman Islands. Our agent for service of process in the United States is CCS Global Solutions, Inc., located at 530 Seventh Avenue, Suite 909, New York, NY 10018.

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Our Mission

Our mission is to improve productivity for businesses and society through harnessing the power of mobile big data to derive actionable insights and knowledge.

Overview

We are a leading developer service platform in China. Through our developer services, we reached approximately 1.36 billion monthly active unique mobile devices, accounting for approximately 90% of mobile device coverage in China, in December 2019. From these mobile devices, we gain access to, aggregate, cleanse, structure and encrypt vast amounts of real-time and anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data. We utilize artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to derive actionable insights and knowledge from this data, enabling our customers to make better business decisions. We are proud to have received the “Best Social Marketing Case Study in Finance” and the “Best Big Data Marketing Case Study in Gaming” from Phoenix ADX Festival 2019, the “2018 Annual Global Award for Outstanding Achievement On Big Data Application Platform” from iiMedia Research, the “2017 Best Technology Company Award” from CCTV-Securities News Channel and have been recognized as the “2016 Most Influential Big Data Service Provider” from 36Kr, a well-known technology news platform in China, for our targeted marketing.

We provide a comprehensive suite of services to mobile app developers in China. Our developer services easily integrate with all types of mobile apps and provide core in-app functionalities needed by developers, including push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service (SMS). Our services had been used by approximately 506,182 mobile app developers in a great variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, education and healthcare, as of December 31, 2019. We are the partner of choice for many major internet companies, as well as leading consumer brands. The number of mobile apps utilizing at least one of our developer services, or the cumulative app installations, increased from over 707,000 as of December 31, 2017 to over 1,076,000 as of December 31, 2018 and further to over 1,452,000 as of December 31, 2019.

Since our inception through December 31, 2019, we have accumulated data from over 33.6 billion installations of our software development kits (SDKs) as part of our developer services. We only gain access to selected anonymous device-level data that is necessary for, and relevant to, the services provided. Once the original mobile behavioral data is collected, our data processing platform then stores, cleanses, structures and encrypts data for AI-powered modeling exercises in an aggregated and anonymized fashion. Our developer services can be integrated into multiple apps on the same device, which allows us to receive device-based data from different and multiple dimensions, both online and offline. We believe that our data is differentiated in its volume, variety, velocity and veracity.

AI and machine learning are the key technologies we utilize to gain actionable and marketing effective insights from our data and to develop and refine our targeted marketing and other SaaS products. Leveraging these technologies built upon our massive and quality data foundation, we have developed a variety of solutions that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers in a number of different areas. Our core solutions include:

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Collectively, the developer services and other SaaS products are termed SaaS Products.

We are also in the process of developing and launching other new solutions that will further leverage our data and insights to increase productivity for additional industries and customers.

We have built a robust technology infrastructure to support the usage of SaaS products and targeted marketing throughout China on a real-time basis. We have developed a proprietary network of over 8,123 servers strategically located around the country to provide high-quality and cost-effective services across all telecom providers throughout China. This extensive and carefully designed server network allows us to provide customers with real-time access and usage of our Software-as-a-service (“SaaS”) products and targeted marketing with great stability, immense speed and high reliability.

Our Business Model

We are a leading developer ecosystem service platform in China. Our business model is built upon our massive and quality data foundation, which we have established by leveraging the comprehensive suite of developer services we provide to mobile app developers in China. Our developer services provide core in-app functionalities, including push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service (SMS), verification and device connection. Through our developer services, we gain access to selected and anonymous device-level data that is necessary for, and relevant to, the services provided. Our centralized data processing platform stores, cleanses, structures and encrypts data that was collected and aggregated. We utilize AI and machine learning technologies to conduct modeling exercises and data mining in order to gain actionable and effective insights from the data. Based on our data foundation and leveraging our AI-powered centralized data processing platform, we have developed a variety of other SaaS products that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers.

Developer Services

We provide a comprehensive suite of services to mobile app developers in China. Our developer services provide core in-app functionalities needed by developers, including push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service (SMS), verification and device connection. The functionalities of our developer services are delivered in the form of SDKs that contain ready-to-use source codes and allow for simple integration into a wide variety of mobile apps. We also offer application programming interfaces (APIs) that create connectivity and automate the process of message exchange between the mobile apps and our backend network. Moreover, we also provide app developers using our services with an interactive web-based service dashboard, allowing them to utilize and monitor our services through simple controls on an ongoing basis. Our developer services easily integrate with all types of mobile apps and support all major mobile operating systems, including iOS, Android and Winphone. Through these functionalities, developers are able to accelerate the development and deployment of their apps into the market and focus their efforts on optimizing their app operations and improving end-user experience.

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Our developer services had been used by a cumulative number of approximately 506,182 developers in mobile apps in a wide variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, education and healthcare, as of December 31, 2019. The number of mobile apps utilizing at least one of our developer services, or the cumulative app installations, increased from over 707,000 as of December 31, 2017 to over 1,076,000 as of December 31, 2018 and further to over 1,452,000 as of December 31, 2019. Almost all of the app developers who use our developer services use our push notification services, and a portion of those developers also use other developer services in addition to push notification. We believe as we expand and deepen our relationship with developers, more developers will utilize multiple services we offer. We are proud to have received “2018 Best Big Data Application Award” from China Electronic Commerce Committee and “the “2018 Annual Global Award for Outstanding Achievement On Big Data Application Platform” from iiMedia Research in 2018, and have been recognized as the “2018 Brilliant Business Partner on Tencent Social Network KA Service” by Tencent and as “2018 Top 20 Fin-Tech Service Platform of Banking Industry” by Yibencaijing in 2018, and as the “Best 2016-2017 SaaS Service Provider” by China SaaS Application Conference Committee in 2017.

Our developer services are standardized to maximize efficiency and cohesiveness of operations. Our developer services are built upon our proprietary common module JCore, allowing developers to easily integrate additional and multiple functionalities provided by our developer services, as well as enabling us to react to market change and customer demand by developing and adding additional functionalities quickly and cost-effectively.

JCore—Foundation of Our Developer Services

Our developer services are built as modules on top of JCore. JCore powers and seamlessly integrates with our other service functionality modules and provides uniform code-level support to other modules. The modularity brought by JCore allows developers to conveniently integrate additional modules, enabling mobile app developers to scale their business, reducing app development costs and improving efficiency.

JCore provides key functions that are shared across all of our developer services modules, including dynamic loading, which uploads and downloads code-level communications to and from servers, logging and uploading error messages, protecting core source code from leakage and tampering, and securing data sharing.

We integrate the basic and commonly used code-level functionalities, such as transmission protocols and dynamic loading, into JCore, and build our developer services based on JCore. This enables us to focus on addressing the specific needs of app developers, develop new services and add new functionalities to existing services quickly and cost-effectively and reduce potential errors.

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JPush—Push Notification

Our push notification service, JPush, effectively enables developers to deliver notifications across different formats and different types of internet access devices. Push notifications are a critical tool in mobile strategy as they go directly to the top of the notification stack for mobile users and the resulting higher open rates of push notifications drive increased engagement, retention and monetization. The challenge for app developers in effectively communicating with end users is establishing and maintaining a message distribution network from scratch that can meet the real-time communication demand generated by a growing mobile app user base and, at the same time, save costs. As the telecom networks in China are fragmented and inefficient in connecting with each other, the message distribution network required by the developers must be able to deliver messages across and between all of the China telecom networks effectively and efficiently. Establishing and maintaining such a message distribution network can be costly, time-consuming and technically challenging. JPush, leveraging our technology infrastructure and our strong technological capabilities, provides effective solutions to those challenges. See “—Technology Infrastructure.”

Through JPush, developers can push customizable messages and rich media messages. Rich media includes advanced messaging functionality such as emoji, picture messaging and localized languages. Developers can also push notifications to a target group of end users classified by tagging those users automatically or manually.

We also share statistics regarding delivery results with developers that use JPush, including their history of notifications pushed. Other performance statistics include cumulative number of notifications transmitted, number of users who open the app, the time users spent in the app, daily active users (DAU) and the number of users who are using the app in real time. As part of the VIP premium package, certain developers choose to pay for additional capabilities, including the ability to monitor the results of transmissions in real time and access in-depth customized statistical reports.

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Leveraging our technology infrastructure built upon a network of over 8,123 servers strategically located across China, JPush enables timely and reliable delivery of notifications, which can translate into a more engaged and larger active user base for developers and, ultimately, scalability of their businesses and higher return on their investment. JPush pushed over 23.9 billion messages to various app end users on an average daily basis in the three months ended December 31, 2019 .

Currently, we offer a basic package of push notification services free of charge, and we charge subscription fees, primarily on a monthly basis, for our VIP premium package. Compared to the basic package, the VIP premium package includes more real-time pushes, more offline message storage, exclusive high-speed channels for VIP push notification traffic and customized SDK features.

JAnalytics—Data Analytics

JAnalytics enables developers and business decision makers to quickly understand the operating performance of their apps and customer base. Leveraging our data analytics capabilities, we are able to process large amounts of device-level mobile behavioral and app operational data in an aggregated and anonymized fashion and generate market trend reports, industry rankings and other customizable statistical reports, allowing app developers to understand their own market position.

JAnalytics includes basic and customizable service offerings. For our basic service offering, we have ready-to-use event models for real-time querying. Events typically relate to device owners’ in-app behavior. Based on the event type selected by the developer, JAnalytics processes and distills data to generate statistical reports. Our customizable service offering gives developers the flexibility to change the data dimension and the event type according to their choices.

Developers can review JAnalytics results on our proprietary dashboard and receive some results on their own backend system through APIs provided by us. Currently, we offer JAnalytics free of charge.

JMessage—Instant Messaging

Our real-time internet-based instant messaging services, or JMessage, enables developers to easily embed instant messaging functionality into their apps. Built upon JPush’s robust message distribution system, JMessage provides end users with stable and reliable chat features. JMessage features customizable personal chats, group chats and chat rooms. JMessage also supports rich media messaging, voice messaging, pictures, files, offline messaging and location sharing.

Similar to JPush, we currently offer a basic package of instant messaging services free of charge, and we charge subscription fees, primarily on a monthly basis, for our VIP premium package. In comparison to the basic package, the VIP premium package allows for more message exchanges, higher frequency usage of API, more chat rooms and dedicated communication channels.

JSMS—SMS

Our SMS services, or JSMS, enable developers to easily integrate SMS text message functions for authentication and serves as an incremental channel for user communication in addition to JPush. Leveraging our strong message distribution system and telecom operators’ networks, we provide fast and reliable delivery of messages to end users with low latency. Developers can also programmatically send, receive and track SMS messages. We charge a fee for JSMS based on the number of messages delivered.

JShare—Social Sharing

Our cross-platform social sharing services, or JShare, enable developers to quickly integrate social sharing functionality, such as the ability to share content with selected apps or to authenticate using credentials from another platform. Developers can also track end users’ sharing behavior based on the analytics function integrated into JShare. Currently, JShare is offered free of charge.

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JVerification—One-click Verification

Our fast integration and one-click verification services, or JVerification, enable developers to quickly verify the cellphone number without verification code to improve conversion rate and user experience by integrating three major telecommunication operators in China. We provide stable and convenient access so that developers can quickly complete SDK integration without additional development cost. We charge a fee for JVerification based on the number of messages delivered.

JMLink

Our JMLink is an enterprise-level deep linking service. It creates a highly effective way to improve user growth and activity. JMLink, with its deep link technology, helps direct customers to service with one-link. Short linking service could be integrated into the shared contents. When end-users click the link, targeted app installed on the device would be awakened and the corresponding page would be loaded on the app. JMLink helps promote conversion rate of products and services, thereby improving user growth and activities.

Private Cloud-based Developer Services

While most of our developer services are provided through public-cloud servers, we also provide fee-based private cloud-based developer services. Our private cloud-based packages are designed to provide customizable services to app developers who want a more controlled software environment and more comprehensive technology and customer support. Currently, we offer a private cloud-based service option to our JPush and JMessage customers. We charge a fee for the private cloud-based packages on a project basis and a monthly fee for the ongoing maintenance of the private cloud.

Others

We seek to develop more innovative services to meet the evolving demand of app developers. For example, we have customized our push notification services customers.

Our AI-Powered Data Processing Platform

By providing services to mobile app developers, we gain access to and aggregate massive amounts of anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data that we use to develop our industry-specific solutions. We only gain access to selected device-level data that is necessary for, and relevant to, the services provided based on our agreements with app developers and the consents they obtain from end users. Our developer services can be integrated into various apps on a single device which allows us to receive data from different and multiple dimensions, both online and offline. The data received through developer services primarily consists of unstructured metadata.

We also collaborate with third-party data service providers to supplement our dataset and maintain a strict vetting process before engaging third-party data service providers to ensure the integrity and quality of our data.

Four Vs of Our Data

We believe the key differentiating features of our data set is its volume, variety, velocity and veracity.

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Data Processing

The backbone of our technology is our centralized proprietary data processing platform. Once the original device-level mobile behavioral data is collected, the platform stores, cleanses, structures and encrypts data for modeling exercises in an aggregated and anonymized fashion. The centralized platform delivers speed and scalability, providing data and analytics support across our product lines.

AI, Data Analytics and Data Mining

Our AI, data analytics and data mining capabilities form the basis of our targeted marketing and other SaaS products, developed for specific industries. We utilize data analytics to gain further statistical insight and employ automated data mining processes to find meaningful correlations and intelligent patterns.

We believe we have the following advantages in our AI and machine learning capabilities:

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Our team of data scientists works continually to optimize our proprietary analytical models and improve our analytics capabilities. First, our data scientists input and index more accurate sample training data to train machine learning models more effectively. Second, we also analyze various features of sample data and adopt more suitable and complex modeling algorithms such as deep learning. Third, by gaining access to more data, we can find more features that can be used to further improve the predictive capabilities of our data analytics engines. Fourth, our data scientists, equipped with industry knowledge and insights, can refine and optimize the parameters of algorithms by taking into account industry specific or event specific factors.

Data Security

To ensure the confidentiality and integrity of our data, we maintain a comprehensive and rigorous data security program. We gain access to vast amounts of anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data based on services provided to app developers and store the data on our servers protected by firewalls. We generate internal IDs that label and identify mobile devices and encrypt device-level data to enhance data security. Our core data can only be accessed through computers designated for authorized use. These computers cannot be connected to the internet, and no data can be outputted to an external device. Only authorized staff can access those computers for designated purposes. Moreover, we maintain data access logs that record all attempted and successful access to our data and conduct routine manual verifications of large data requests. We also have clear and strict authorization and authentication procedures and policies in place. Our employees only have access to data which is directly relevant and necessary to their job responsibilities and for limited purposes and are required to verify authorization upon every access attempt. See also “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Security and privacy breaches may hurt our business.”

Our Other SaaS Products

Our other SaaS products currently comprise of market intelligence, financial risk management and location-based intelligence (“iZone”). Based on our deep understanding of the customer needs and the experience accumulated over the years, we are able to identify industry-specific problems that our data is particularly adept at solving and develop tailored solutions. We are constantly evaluating market opportunities and will strategically expand our solution offerings that use our data and insights to increase productivity for additional industries and customers.

From tag generation to product design to day-to-day deployment of our solutions, we leverage our high-quality and ever-growing data pool and utilize AI and machine learning technology and other advanced data technology to productize our other SaaS products. During the development stage of our other SaaS products, proprietary indices and tags are generated by our centralized data processing platform. These tags and indices cover multiple dimensions which we then selectively utilize for different solutions depending on solution specific requirements. We have been making continuous efforts to enhance our other SaaS products by interacting with our customers and incorporating their feedback on our solutions. Over time, we have been able to shorten our product development cycle as we increase the size of our data pool and the depth of our data and accumulated more market intelligence and experiences through a trial and error process.

Moreover, by purposefully designing our other SaaS products to be standardized, we make such SaaS products easily scalable to serve an increasing number of customers. Because of the comprehensiveness and inter-connectedness of our data and solutions, we can offer one-stop solutions to our customers and cross-sell other suitable or newly developed solutions to existing customers.

We have received numerous awards for our innovative other SaaS products, including the “2018 Big Data Application Award” from China E-commerce Committee, the “2017 Big Data Innovative Solution Award” from Big Data Magazine and the “2016 Innovative Big Data Company in China” from Data Technology Industry Innovative Institute.

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Market Intelligence

By leveraging our access to massive amounts of data relating to mobile app operations, our market intelligence solutions empower corporations and investors to make business and investment decisions.

We provide the following three versions of market intelligence solutions:

Customers can subscribe to each version of our market intelligence solutions based on either the number of apps covered under the solution or the number of queries. Customers who subscribe to our market intelligence solution based on the number of apps covered can review the operating metrics of those apps they have subscribed to on our interactive dashboard. The query-based subscription package provides functions that accommodate ad hoc requests from customers and gives customers more flexibility when they want to search for and review the statistical results of a particular mobile app.

We primarily provide market intelligence solutions under annual subscriptions. Subscription prices are quoted based on either the number of apps customers subscribe to or the number of queries customers need within a subscription period.

iMarketing

iMarketing is a new product line launched under iApp. It provides better support to advertisement customers in pre-advertising decision making process and data analytics before and after advertising. At pre-advertising stage, customers can benefit from audience analytics and more accurate targeted marketing. At post-advertising stage, it helps perform historical data analysis and trend comparison. We charge iMarketing service based on the number of times of creating targeted audience group tag/criteria over the contract period.

Financial Risk Management

Financial risk management solutions help our customers better assess and control their credit and fraud risk exposure, facilitating enterprise risk management and innovative decision-making. Our target customers for financial risk management solutions include financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies, as well as emerging financial technology companies. We provide three types of financial risk management solutions to help our customers make pre-lending decisions: anti-fraud risk features, blacklist and location verification.

Anti-fraud risk features . We offer standard packages that include over 10,000 unique risk features that are similar to the basic tags we generate but are more advanced in terms of their structural complexity and tailored for risk assessment in financial industry. We provide anti-fraud risk features to customers through APIs that automate querying processes, enabling customers to incorporate these risk features into their own risk modeling.

We develop the risk features based on anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data. We only exchange such risk features with our customers’ backend systems based on their queries, and we do not have access to credit applicants’ identification information which is in our customers’ sole control. We utilize our proprietary algorithms to help customers determine the broader creditworthiness of a borrower. Our algorithms can translate complex data and intelligently combine different types of data organized by advanced tags into explainable patterns of behavior that are relevant to the borrower’s financial status and creditworthiness. We believe these selected risk features we offer, such as those relating to payment behaviors and usage of consumer finance mobile apps, are most relevant to credit assessments.

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For customers who subscribe to our customizable package, we work closely with them to jointly develop credit assessment models, tailor-made risk features as well as internal risk management policies.

Blacklist . We maintain a blacklist that includes primarily potential defaults or frauds predicted based on our data analytics capabilities. We create an initial blacklist that contains default and delinquency history based on publicly available data and data provided by third parties. We then utilize our AI and data analytics capabilities to study this data, identify the behavioral features and patterns that may lead to future default or fraud, apply the identified features and patterns to our own data sets, predict potential default or fraud based on the features and patterns and include the results in our blacklist.

Location verification . Our customers utilize information voluntarily submitted by credit applicants to them and verify it against the device-level location-based data that we have access to, in order to assess the potential fraud risk associated with the credit applicants.

We provide our financial risk management solutions using a query-based model and charge our customers based on the volume of queries we process and the number of features they utilize. We also provide a yearly subscription package that sets an upper limit on the number of queries we process during the subscription period.

Location-based Intelligence (iZone)

Our location-based intelligence solutions track foot traffic, providing insights through real-time simulations that are generated based on carefully gauged sample data, helping our customers make smarter and more impactful operational decisions. To provide location-based intelligence solutions, we first build “geofences,” virtual perimeters established around a real-world targeted location, such as car dealerships, shopping malls, tourism sites and neighborhoods. After the geofences are established, we process and analyze the location-based data within the “geofences” in an aggregated and anonymized fashion in order to quantify the impact of specific business decisions by tracking changes in foot traffic. Our target customers for location-based intelligence solutions include retailers and those from other traditional brick-and-mortar industries, such as auto dealerships, real estate developers and shopping malls. We intend to further broaden the customer base of our location-based intelligence solutions and expand into other industry verticals.

We offer three main categories of location-based intelligence solutions based on the different goals our customers wish to achieve:

Targeted Marketing

We provide targeted marketing in the form of integrated marketing campaigns to our advertising customers through our  XiaoGuoTong  marketing platform, which is built upon our massive amounts of multiple-dimensional data. We have developed and maintain on-going business relationships with many reputable ad inventory suppliers and our marketing platform is connected with theirs through APIs to streamline and automate the ad slots bidding and ad placement process. We utilize our massive amount of data and leverage our AI-driven data mining capabilities to choose the right targeted audience and the ad inventory that is most suitable for the customer’s marketing needs through our platform. We vet our targeted marketing customers and screen their proposed ad content to ensure that they have the required licenses and qualifications to engage us for posting ads online and are otherwise in compliance with regulatory requirements. We also create, design, develop and optimize the content for our customers’ ads, utilizing a wide variety of ad formats, such as graphics or videos. Through our XiaoGuoTong  marketing platform, we bid for ad slots and place ads on a real-time basis on behalf of advertisers and monitor results. Our marketing solutions help our advertising customers generate higher ROIs on their advertising spend. Customers can also access our platform through a web-based dashboard to see the marketing results and direct to us any customer service inquiries.

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We launched targeted marketing in 2016. Our targeted marketing customers mainly include financial institutions, large media and entertainment app publishers, online game companies and ecommerce platforms. We intend to expand into other industry verticals and capture more market opportunities in the future.

Customers use our targeted marketing for two main purposes: new user acquisition and existing user re-engagement. We assist our customers with ad placements that most effectively reach the potential group of people who, based on the results of our profiling analysis, are most likely to be attracted to our customers’ products or services.

Upon receiving orders from our customers, we first utilize our data and AI-powered data analytics capabilities to decide which ad inventory suppliers to use, taking into account the volume and quality of their traffic and the relevance to the advertisers, and then we purchase ad inventory from ad inventory suppliers on a real-time basis by bidding for ad slots on the ad inventory suppliers’ online media networks using rates negotiated with various ad inventory suppliers. We then sell to our advertising customers our targeted marketing in the form of integrated marketing campaigns, which include primarily creating and designing the right content for our customers’ ads and placing the ads on the ad slots selected. Utilizing our multi-dimensional, as well as industry specific, data and leveraging our proprietary machine learning algorithms, we can better estimate targeted user click-through-rates (CTRs). Based on these estimates, we bid strategically and intelligently for ad placement, generating higher ROI for our advertising customers. We typically pay for ad placements on online media networks on a cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) basis. For our targeted marketing, we use performance-based fee arrangements whereby we charge the marketing customers primarily on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) basis. Based on our contractual relationships with our customers, we are obligated to satisfy the integrated marketing campaign objectives of the advertising customers and bear credit risk in case of advertisers’ failure to pay.

In 2017, we sourced 49.4% of our ad inventories from Tencent, because we believed the user traffic provided by Tencent was more suitable for meeting our current customer mix and their marketing needs. In 2018, we sourced 14.8% of our ad inventories from Tencent. In 2019, we sourced 2.5% of our ad inventories from Tencent. We have entered into a framework agreement with Tencent in 2016, pursuant to which we may select and purchase suitable ad inventories provided by Tencent’s social networking platforms, such as GuangDianTong and WeChat/Weixin. Under the framework agreement, we have to prepay for the ad inventories through an account designated by Tencent, and Tencent may charge us fees based on a cost-per-click (CPC), cost-per-thousand impressions (CPM) or other basis. The framework agreement has an initial term that ended on December 31, 2016, and will automatically extend for successive one-year periods unless otherwise terminated with written notice prior to the expiration of the then current term. In addition, Tencent may terminate the agreement earlier if it is of the view that we or the ads placed by us are in violation of applicable laws and regulations. As of the date of this annual report, the agreement is still in full force and effect. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, we paid for the ad inventories purchased from Tencent on a CPM basis. As we expand our targeted marketing customer base and engage more customers from a broader spectrum of industries, we expect to diversify our sources of ad inventory by increasing the number of suppliers we work with and purchasing more ad inventories from other existing suppliers.

We have received numerous awards for our Targeted marketing, including the “ Best Social Marketing Case Study in Finance” and the “ Best Big Data Marketing Case Study in Gaming” from Phoenix ADX Festival 2019.

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Advertisement SaaS

Advertisement SaaS is our data management platform services, which provides tagged population data package after data masking to customers who can utilize for ads placement without our direct involvement. We provide advertisement SaaS services by charging a fee based on a percentage of total value of advertisement placed.

Light Push

Similar to traditional targeted marketing service, we provide light push service in the form of integrated marketing campaigns to advertising customers through light push alliance, which is built upon the apps that are a member of this alliance. In this alliance, developers will contribute their push message resources (push channels) to us in order to generate a common media resource pool. We will manage the pool of resources (push channels) to do retargeting for developer’s mobile apps. All apps should be embedded with our upgraded light-push SDKs to increase developers’ daily active users (DAU) as well as new user acquisition. We provide Light Push services using performance-based fee arrangements where we charge the ad customers primarily on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) basis.

Technology Infrastructure

We have built a robust technology infrastructure to support the usage of our developer services and delivery of other SaaS products and targeted marketing throughout China on a real-time basis. We have strategically selected our data center locations in China. In total, we run over 8,123 servers in 9 data centers located in 4 cities in China, including Guangzhou, Beijing, Wuxi and Xiamen, to ensure broad network coverage and minimize disruptions in our services. We also utilize cloud servers provided by industry leading third-party cloud service providers.

For our core data centers in Beijing, Guangzhou and Wuxi, we employ advanced active-active data center architecture that allows multiple data centers to service the same application at any given time, maximizing continuous availability of our servers and minimizing instability caused by single point failure. Specifically, our active-active data center architecture effectively addresses problems that are commonly encountered when communications are transmitted cross-regionally and across different telecom providers in China.

Our technology infrastructure delivers the stability needed to support our high messaging and data volume, the high speed required for real-time apps, the scalability to support increased volumes over time and the flexibility to allow for new product development and the integration of multiple developer services into a single app. Leveraging our extensive and carefully designed technology infrastructure, we are able to provide app developers and other SaaS products customers with more cost-effective solutions with great stability, immense speed and high reliability.

Research and Development

We invest substantial resources in research and development to improve our technology, develop new solutions that are complementary to existing ones and find ways to better support app developers and our other SaaS products and targeted marketing customers. We believe our ability to develop innovative solutions and enhance our existing service offerings is the key to maintaining our leadership. We incurred RMB71.7 million, RMB134.4 million and RMB176.2 million (US$25.3 million) of research and development expenses in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

Our research and development teams are primarily organized into three groups. A team of software engineers and technology infrastructure architects work closely together to develop and upgrade new and existing developer services. We have a dedicated team of data scientists who focus on data modeling using machine learning technology and maintain and upgrade our data processing platform. We also have another team of product developers who identify the potential market demand and lead the development of new SaaS products and enhancement of existing solutions. Most of our research and development personnel are based in Shenzhen, and we also maintain a research and development center in Beijing.

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Our Customers

We have a broad and diverse customer base, which has expanded rapidly since our inception. In 2017, 2018 and 2019, we had 2,263, 3,024 and 3,456 customers who purchased our SaaS products and targeted marketing within the periods, respectively. We define customers in a given period as those that purchase at least one of our paid-for SaaS products and targeted marketing during the same period. No single customer represented more than 10% of our total revenues in the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Customers of SaaS products . Our paying customers for SaaS products increased from 1,411 in 2017 to 1,950 in 2018 and further to 2,645 in 2019. The following describes our customer base for each of our SaaS products:

Customers of targeted marketing . Our targeted marketing customers include companies across multiple industries, including financial institutions, media and entertainment app publishers, online game companies and e-commerce platforms. The number of our customers for targeted marketing increased from 852 in 2017 to 1,074 in 2018 and decreased slightly to 811 in 2019.

Sales and Marketing

Sales

We sell our solutions through our experienced direct sales force. Our sales force is first organized by product line, with each team responsible for one line of our SaaS products or targeted marketing offerings, and then further organized into multiple regional teams covering different regions across China.

We incentivize our sales teams by setting specific key performance goals for each team responsible for the corresponding line of SaaS products or targeted marketing and by adopting a commission-based reward mechanism linked to the sales personnel’s performance. We design the mechanism to encourage and incentivize our sales teams to sell not only newly developed service or solution offerings but also the existing SaaS products and targeted marketing.

Our sales teams focus on expanding our customer base and increasing the spending by existing customers, seeking to capture follow-on and cross-selling opportunities to drive purchases and subscriptions of additional functionalities and solutions. Due to the comprehensiveness and inter-connectedness of our products and solutions, we can offer one-stop solutions to our customers across their full customer lifecycle management and cross-sell other suitable and newly developed solutions to our customers. For example, we provide targeted marketing to financial institutions clients to help them acquire new users, provide push notification services for continued user engagement and offer our financial risk management solutions to assist them with assessing the creditworthiness of borrowers. We are also able to use our own other SaaS product for more precise targeted marketing on our own behalf.

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We also operate a proprietary customer management system comprising a number of functions, including customer management, contract management and processing and keeping records of financial related matters. Our sales teams use our customer management system to manage our customers, contracts and orders. This integrated system enhances our ability to manage our customers and allows us to react to customer needs in a fast and efficient way. We believe that our customer management system has been a key factor in enabling us to manage the rapid growth of our business to date and provides us with scalability going forward.

Service Support

At the stage of initial engagement with a customer, we have our research and development personnel that is responsible for developing and enhancing the relevant SaaS products and targeted marketing provide technical and customer support to the customer, and our sales personnel serves as the contact point for the customer and facilitates communication between the customer and support personnel.

The vast majority of our developers use automated self-service tools that are available on our website for support features. We share a wide variety of information directly with developers on our website,  Jiguang.cn , including detailed service information, downloadable SDKs and APIs, and post technical support threads on Jiguang developer community sites. Our developer services team is available for online and email support. We also provide tailored one-on-one customer support to a portion of developers who pay for our developer services.

We also have dedicated account managers to ensure customer satisfaction by gathering ongoing feedback and seek to expand their usage of our solutions once they reach a certain spending level with us. We also encourage them to use our customer portal to facilitate self-service after sales, except for customers who purchase customized solutions such as targeted marketing. Customers can log into their web-based user portals to track the status of usage and renew their subscriptions with a few clicks.

Marketing

We have a marketing team responsible for increasing the awareness of our brand, promoting our new and existing solutions, maintaining our relationship with business partners and managing public relations. We deploy comprehensive strategies for our marketing efforts, including:

Intellectual Property

We seek to protect our technology, including our proprietary technology infrastructure and core software system, through a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as license agreements and other contractual protections. In addition, we enter into confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements with our employees and business partners. The agreements we enter into with our employees also provide that all software, inventions, developments, works of authorship and trade secrets created by them during the course of their employment are our property.

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Our intellectual property rights are critical to our business. As of December 31, 2019, we have 53 patent applications pending in China and own 68 computer software copyrights in China, relating to various aspects of our SaaS products and targeted marketing. In addition, we have filed 82 trademark applications and maintained 41 trademark registrations and 4 artwork copyrights in China. We have also registered 22 domain names, including  jiguang.cn , among others.

We intend to protect our technology and proprietary rights vigorously. We have employed internal policies, confidentiality agreements, encryptions and data security measures to protect our proprietary rights. However, there can be no assurance that our efforts will be successful. Even if our efforts are successful, we may incur significant costs in defending our rights. From time to time, third parties may initiate litigation against us alleging infringement of their proprietary rights or declaring their non-infringement of our intellectual property rights. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may not be able to prevent unauthorized use of our intellectual property, which could harm our business and competitive position” and “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in our payment of substantial damages, penalties and fines, removal of data or technology from our system.”

Competition

We believe that we are positioned favorably against our competitors. However, the markets for SaaS products and targeted marketing are rapidly evolving. Our competitors may compete with us in a variety of ways, including by launching competing products, expanding their product offerings or functionalities, conducting brand promotions and other marketing activities and making acquisitions. In addition, many of our competitors are large, incumbent companies who are better capitalized than we are.

We face competition in all lines of business. Our developer services face competition from other major mobile app developer services providers in China. For our targeted marketing, we may face competition from major internet companies, such as Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba, in the future as we further grow, although we currently collaborate with them to source ad inventory from them. We also face competition from traditional media for advertising spending. We also directly compete with market intelligence service providers with respect to our market intelligence solutions and financial risk management service providers with respect to our financial risk management solutions.

As we introduce new SaaS products and targeted marketing, as our existing solutions continue to evolve or as other companies introduce new products and services, we may become subject to additional competition. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may not be able to compete successfully with our current or future competitors.”

Regulations

This section sets forth a summary of the most significant rules and regulations that affect our business activities in China or our shareholders’ rights to receive dividends and other distributions from us.

Regulations on Foreign Investment

The PRC Foreign Investment Law, adopted by the National People’s Congress on March 15, 2019 and its Implementing Regulation adopted by the State Council on December 12, 2019 became effective on January 1, 2020. Pursuant to the PRC Foreign Investment Law, China will grant national treatment to foreign invested entities, except for those foreign invested entities that operate in industries that fall within “restricted” or “prohibited” categories as prescribed in the “negative list” to be released or approved by the State Council. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce promulgated the Measures on Reporting of Foreign Investment Information, effective on January 1, 2020, which provides detailed submission requirements for foreign investors. Foreign investors carrying out investment activities in China directly or indirectly shall submit investment information to the commerce administrative authorities pursuant to these Measures.

The Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly promulgated the Special Administrative Measures for Entrance of Foreign Investment (Negative List) (2019 Version), or the Negative List (2019 Version), requires that foreign investors should refrain from making investment in any of prohibited sectors specified in the Negative List (2019 Version), and foreign investors are required to obtain the permit for access to other sectors that are listed in the Negative List (2019 Version) but not classified as “prohibited.”

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We are a Cayman Islands company and our businesses by nature in China are mainly value-added telecommunication services, which are restricted for foreign investors by the Negative List (2019 Version). We conduct business operations that are restricted for foreign investment through our VIE.

Regulations on Telecommunications Services and Foreign Ownership Restrictions

The PRC Telecommunications Regulations, which became effective on September 25, 2000 and was latest amended on February 6, 2016, are the core regulations on telecommunications services in China. The PRC Telecommunications Regulations set out basic guidelines on different types of telecommunications business activities, including the distinction between “basic telecommunications services” and “value-added telecommunications services.” According to the latest revised Catalog of Classification of Telecommunication Business, which took effect on March 1, 2016 and was amended on June 6, 2019, information services, whether provided via internet networks or public communication networks, and domestic call center services, are classified as B2 type of value-added telecommunications services. The PRC Telecommunications Regulations require the operators of value-added telecommunications services to obtain value-added telecommunications business operation licenses from MIIT or its provincial delegates prior to the commencement of such services.

The Regulations on the Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises, or the FITE Regulations, which took effect on January 1, 2002 and were amended on September 10, 2008, and February 6, 2016, respectively, are the major rules on foreign investment in telecommunications companies in China. The FITE Regulations stipulate that except as otherwise provided by the MIIT, a foreign investor is prohibited from holding more than 50% of the equity interest in a foreign-invested enterprise that provides value-added telecommunications services, including internet information services. Moreover, such foreign investor shall demonstrate a good track record and experience in operating value-added telecommunications services when a company invested by such foreign investor applies for the value-added telecommunications business operation license from the MIIT.

On July 13, 2006, the MIIT issued the Circular on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Investment in Value-added Telecommunications Services, or the MIIT Circular 2006, which stipulates that (a) foreign investors may only operate a telecommunications business in China through establishing a telecommunications enterprise with a valid telecommunications business operation license; (b) domestic license holders are prohibited from leasing, transferring or selling telecommunications business operation licenses to foreign investors in any form, or providing any resources, sites or facilities to foreign investors to facilitate the unlicensed operation of telecommunications business in China; (c) value-added telecommunications service providers or their shareholders must directly own the domain names and registered trademarks used by such service provider in their daily operations; (d) each value-added telecommunications service provider must have the necessary facilities for its approved business operations and maintain such facilities in the geographic regions covered by its license; and (e) all value-added telecommunications service providers should improve network and information security, enact relevant information safety administration regulations and set up emergency plans to ensure network and information safety. The provincial communications administration bureaus, as local authorities in charge of regulating telecommunications services, may revoke the value-added telecommunications business operation licenses of those that fail to comply with the above requirements and fail to rectify such non-compliance within specified time limits. Due to the lack of any additional interpretation from the regulatory authorities, it remains unclear what impact MIIT Circular 2006 will have on us or the other PRC internet companies with similar corporate and contractual structures.

Pursuant to the Negative List (2019 Version), foreign investors must refrain from making investment in any of the prohibited sectors specified in the Negative List (2019 Version), and foreign investors are required to obtain the permit for access to other sectors that are listed in the Negative List but are not classified as “prohibited”. In addition, foreign investors are not allowed to own more than 50% of the equity interests in a value-added telecommunications service provider (excluding e-commerce, domestic multi-party communications, store-and-forward and call center services).

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To comply with such foreign ownership restrictions, we operate our businesses in China through Hexun Huagu which is owned by PRC citizens. Hexun Huagu is controlled by the WFOE, our wholly-owned subsidiary, through a series of contractual arrangements. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure.” Based on our PRC legal counsel, Han Kun Law Offices’ understanding of the current PRC laws and regulations, our corporate structure complies with all applicable PRC laws and regulations in all material respects, and subject to the risks disclosed under “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure”, our contractual arrangements are valid and binding on all parties to these arrangements and do not violate current PRC laws or regulations. However, we were further advised by our PRC legal counsel that there are substantial uncertainties with respect to the interpretation and application of existing or future PRC laws and regulations and thus there is no assurance that Chinese governmental authorities would take a view consistent with the opinions of our PRC legal counsel.

Internet Information Services

The Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services, or the ICP Measures, issued by the State Council on September 25, 2000 and amended on January 8, 2011, regulate the provision of internet information services. According to the ICP Measures, “internet information services” refer to services that provide internet information to online users, and are categorized as either commercial services or non-commercial services. Pursuant to the ICP Measures, internet information commercial service providers shall obtain a value-added telecommunications business operation license concerning internet information services, or the ICP License, from the relevant local authorities before engaging in the provision of any commercial internet information services in China. In addition, if the internet information services involve provision of news, publication, education, medicine, health, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment and other services that statutorily require approvals from other additional governmental authorities, such approvals must be obtained before applying for the ICP License.

We currently hold a valid value-added telecommunications business operation license through our VIE Hexun Huagu, covering the provision of internet information services and the provision of call center, issued by MIIT. Besides, the ICP Measures and other relevant measures also ban the internet activities that constitute publication of any content that propagates obscenity, pornography, gambling and violence, incite the commission of crimes or infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of third parties, among others. If an internet information service provider detects information transmitted on their system that falls within the specifically prohibited scope, such provider must terminate such transmission, delete such information immediately, keep records and report to the governmental authorities in charge. Any provider’s violation of these prescriptions will lead to the revocation of its ICP License and, in serious cases, the shutting down of its internet systems.

Short Message Services

The Administrative Provisions on Short Message Services issued by MIIT on May 19, 2015, regulate the provisions of short message services. According to the Administrative Provisions on Short Message Services, in case of operation of short message services, a telecommunications business operating license shall be obtained in accordance with the law. The Administrative Provisions on Short Message Services further regulate that (a) short message services refer to the telecommunications services of providing the limited-length information including characters, data, voices and images for the users of such communications terminals as mobile phone and fixed-line telephone via the telecommunications network; (b) short message services providers refer to the telecommunications business operators that render the basic network services relating to sending, storage, forwarding and receipt of short messages and take advantage of basic network facilities and services to offer a platform for sending short messages for other organizations and individuals (including but not limited to the operators of the basic telecommunications business and the information service business and mobile communications resale business among the value-added telecommunications business).

We currently hold a valid value-added telecommunications business operation license through our VIE Hexun Huagu covering information services of the B2 type of value-added telecommunication business (excluding Internet information services) issued by the MIIT.

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Regulations on Mobile Internet Applications

In June 2016, the Cyberspace Administration of China promulgated the Administrative Provisions on Mobile Internet Application Information Services, or the Mobile Application Administrative Provisions. Pursuant to the Mobile Application Administrative Provisions, a mobile internet app refers to an app software that runs on mobile smart devices providing information services after being pre-installed, downloaded or embedded through other means. Mobile internet app providers refer to the owners or operators of mobile internet apps.

Pursuant to the Mobile Application Administrative Provisions, a mobile internet app provider must not enable functions that can collect a user’s geographical location information, access user’s contact list, activate the camera or recorder of the user’s mobile smart device or other functions irrelevant to its services, nor is it allowed to conduct bundle installations of irrelevant app programs, unless it has clearly indicated to the user and obtained the user’s consent on such functions and app programs. If an app provider violates the regulations, the internet app store service provider must take measures to stop the violations, including giving a warning, suspension of release, withdrawal of the app from the platform, keeping a record of the incident and reporting the incident to the relevant governmental authorities.

Regulations on Advertising Business

The PRC government regulates advertising, including online advertising, principally through the State Administration for Market Regulation, or SAMR. The PRC Advertising Law, as amended in April 2015 and October 2018, outlines the regulatory framework for the advertising industry, and allows foreign investors to own up to all equity interests in PRC advertising companies.

We conduct advertising business through our VIE in China and holds a business license that covers advertising in its business scope. Our targeted marketing business may be subject to the PRC Advertising Law and related regulations.

Advertisers, advertising operators and advertising distributors are required by the PRC Advertising Law to ensure that the contents of the advertisements they prepare or distribute are true and in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations. For example, pursuant to the PRC Advertising Law, advertisements must not contain, among other prohibited contents, terms such as “the state-level,” “the highest grade,” “the best” or other similar words. In addition, where a special government review is required for certain categories of advertisements before publishing, the advertisers, advertising operators and advertising distributors are obligated to confirm that such review has been performed and the relevant approval has been obtained. Pursuant to the PRC Advertising Law, the use of the internet to distribute advertisements shall not affect the normal use of the internet by users. Particularly, advertisements distributed on internet pages such as pop-up advertisements shall be indicated with a conspicuous mark for “close” to ensure the close of such advertisements by one click. Where internet information service providers know or should know that illegal advertisements are being distributed using their services, they shall prevent such advertisements from being distributed.

In addition to the above regulations, the Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, effective on September 1, 2016, or the Internet Advertising Measures, also set forth certain compliance requirements for online advertising businesses. For example, advertising operators and distributors of internet advertisements must examine, verify and record identity information, such as name, address and contact information, of advertisers, and maintain an updated verification record on a regular basis. Moreover, advertising operators and advertising distributors must examine supporting documentation provided by advertisers and verify the contents of the advertisements against supporting documents before publishing. If the contents of advertisements are inconsistent with the supporting documentation, or the supporting documentation is incomplete, advertising operators and distributors must refrain from providing design, production, agency or publishing services. The Internet Advertising Measures also prohibit the following activities: (i) providing or using apps and hardware to block, filter, skip over, tamper with, or cover up lawful advertisements; (ii) using network access, network equipment and apps to disrupt the normal transmission of lawful advertisements or adding or uploading advertisements without authorization; and (iii) harming the interests of a third party by using fake statistics or traffic data.

Violation of these regulations may result in penalties, including fines, confiscation of advertising income, orders to cease dissemination of the advertisements and orders to publish an advertisement correcting the misleading information. In the case of serious violations, the SAMR or its local branches may force the violator to terminate its advertising operation or even revoke its business license. Furthermore, advertisers, advertising operators or advertising distributors may be subject to civil liability if they infringe on the legal rights and interests of third parties.

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Regulations on Information Security

The PRC government has enacted laws and regulations with respect to internet information security. Internet information in China is regulated and restricted from a national security standpoint. PRC laws impose criminal penalties for any effort to: (i) gain improper entry into a computer or system of strategic importance; (ii) disseminate politically disruptive information; (iii) leak state secrets; (iv) spread false commercial information; or (v) infringe intellectual property rights. In addition, the Ministry of Public Security has promulgated measures prohibiting use of the internet in ways which result in a leak of state secrets or a spread of socially destabilizing content, among other things. If an internet information service provider violates any of these measures, competent authorities may revoke its operating license and shut down its websites.

The PRC Cyber Security Law, which was promulgated on November 7, 2016 and took effect on June 1, 2017, requires a network operator, including internet information services providers among others, to adopt technical measures and other necessary measures in accordance with applicable laws and regulations as well as compulsory national and industrial standards to safeguard the safety and stability of network operations, effectively respond to network security incidents, prevent illegal and criminal activities, and maintain the integrity, confidentiality and availability of network data. The PRC Cyber Security Law emphasizes that any individuals and organizations that use networks must not endanger network security or use networks to engage in unlawful activities such as those endangering national security, economic order and the social order or infringing the reputation, privacy, intellectual property rights and other lawful rights and interests of others. Any violation of the provisions and requirements under the PRC Cyber Security Law may subject an internet service provider to warnings, fines, confiscation of illegal gains, revocation of licenses, cancellation of filings, closedown of websites or even criminal liabilities.

Our VIE Hexun Huagu, as an internet information services provider, is therefore subject to the regulations relating to information security. Hexun Huagu has adopted data security, data recovery and backup measures to comply with these regulations and holds valid information security management system certificate of conformity issued by Beijing Zhong-An-Zhi-Huan Certification Center. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Actual or alleged failure to comply with data privacy and protection laws and regulations could damage our reputation, and discourage current and potential app developers and customers from doing business with us” and “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Security and privacy breaches may hurt our business.”

Regulations on Privacy Protection

The PRC Constitution states that PRC law protects the freedom and privacy of communications of citizens and prohibits infringement of these rights. In recent years, PRC government authorities have enacted laws and regulations on internet use to protect personal information from any unauthorized disclosure and use.

Pursuant to the Several Provisions on Regulating the Market Order of Internet Information Service issued by the MIIT in December 2011, an internet information service operator cannot collect any user personal information or provide any such information to third parties without the consent of such user. An internet information service operator must expressly inform each user of the method, content and purpose of the collection and processing of such user’s personal information and may only collect such information necessary for the provision of its services. An internet information service operator is also required to properly maintain the user personal information, and in case of any leak or potential leak of the user personal information, the internet information service operator must take immediate remedial measures and, in severe circumstances, make an immediate report to the telecommunications regulatory authority.

Pursuant to the Decision on Strengthening the Protection of Online Information issued by the Standing Committee of the PRC National People’s Congress on December 28, 2012 and the Order for the Protection of Telecommunication and Internet User Personal Information issued by the MIIT on July 16, 2013, any collection and use of user personal information must be subject to the consent of the user, abide by the principles of legality, rationality and necessity and be within the specified purposes, methods and scopes. “Personal information” is defined in these regulations as information that identifies a citizen, the time or location for his use of telecommunication and internet services, or involves privacy of any citizen such as his name, birth date, ID card number, address, telephone number, accounts and passwords. An internet services provider must also keep information collected strictly confidential, and is further prohibited from divulging, tampering or destroying of any such information, or selling or providing such information to other parties. Any violation of the above decision or order may subject the internet service provider to warnings, fines, confiscation of illegal gains, revocation of licenses, cancellation of filings, closedown of websites or even criminal liabilities.

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Pursuant to the Ninth Amendment to the PRC Criminal Law issued by the Standing Committee of the PRC National People’s Congress in August 2015, which became effective in November 2015, any internet service provider that fails to ful fill the obligations related to internet information security administration as required by applicable laws and refuses to rectify upon orders, shall be subject to criminal penalty for the result of (i) any dissemination of illegal information in large scale; (ii) any severe effect due to the leakage of the client’s information; (iii) any serious loss of criminal evidence; or (iv) other severe situation, and any individual or entity that (i) sells or provides personal information to others in a way violating the applicable law, or (ii) steals or illegally obtains any personal information, shall be subject to criminal penalty in severe situation.

The General Rules of the Civil Law of the PRC adopted by the PRC National People’s Congress on March 15, 2017, effective as of October 1, 2017, also stipulate that: (i) natural persons’ personal information shall be protected by law; (ii) any organizations and individuals who need to obtain personal information of others shall obtain the information according to law and shall ensure the information safety; and (iii) it is not allowed to illegally collect, use, process or transfer the personal information of others. It is illegal to buy and sell, supply or publish the personal information of others.

To further regulate cyber security and privacy protection, the PRC Cyber Security Law provides that: (i) to collect and use personal information, network operators shall follow the principles of legitimacy, rightfulness and necessity, disclose their rules of data collection and use, clearly express the purposes, means and scope of collecting and using the information, and obtain the consent of the persons whose data is gathered; (ii) network operators shall neither gather personal information unrelated to the services they provide, nor gather or use personal information in violation of the provisions of laws and administrative regulations or the scopes of consent given by the persons whose data is gathered; and shall dispose of personal information they have saved in accordance with the provisions of laws and administrative regulations and agreements reached with users; (iii) network operators shall not divulge, tamper with or damage the personal information they have collected, and shall not provide the personal information to others without the consent of the persons whose data is collected. However, if the information has been processed and cannot be recovered and thus it is impossible to match such information with specific persons, such circumstance is an exception. According to the PRC Cyber Security Law, personal information refers to all kinds of information recorded by electronic or otherwise that can be used to independently identify or be combined with other information to identify natural persons’ personal information including but not limited to: natural persons’ names, dates of birth, ID numbers, biologically identified personal information, addresses and telephone numbers, etc. Any internet information services provider that violates these privacy protection requirements under the PRC Cyber Security Law and related laws and regulations may be ordered to turn in illegal gains generated from unlawful operations and pay a fine of no less than one but no more than ten times the illegal gains, and may be ordered to cease the relevant business operations where the circumstances are serious.

On January 23, 2019, the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission and three other governmental authorities jointly issued the Circular on the Special Campaign of Correcting Unlawful Collection and Usage of Personal Information via Apps. Pursuant to this circular, (i) app operators are prohibited from collecting any personal information irrelevant to the services provided by such operator; (ii) information collection and usage policy should be presented in a simple and clear way, and such policy should be consented by the users voluntarily; and (iii) authorization from users should not be obtained by coercing users with default or bundling clauses or making consent a condition of a service. App operators violating such rules may be ordered by authorities to correct their incompliance within a specified period of time, be reported to the general public, or even be ordered to cease their operation or have their business license or operational permits revoked. Furthermore, the authorities issuing the circular are expected to initiate a campaign to correct unlawful collection and usage of personal information via apps from January 2019 through December 2019.

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On November 28, 2019, the Secretary Bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China together with other three agencies jointly promulgated the Identification Methods of Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information through Apps, or the Identification Methods, which provides guidance for regulators to identify the illegal collection and use of personal information through mobile apps, and for app operators to operate self-assessment and correction of incompliance. The Identification Methods outline specific practices that may be identified as six circumstances, including but not limited to collecting or using personal information without the consent of end users, and providing others with personal information without the consent of end users. According to the Identification Methods, nine types of practices may be identified as collecting or using personal information without the consent of end users, including (i) commencing the collection of personal information or opening the authority to collect personal information before obtaining the consent of users, (ii) collecting personal information or opening the authority to collect personal information after receiving the user’s disagreement or asking for the user’s consent frequently while interfering with the normal use of a user, (iii) collecting personal information or opening the authority for collectable personal information beyond the scope of users’ authorization, (iv) obtaining the users’ consent by non-express means, (v) changing the authority status for collection of personal information set by a user without the user’s consent, (vi) utilizing users’ personal information and algorithms to push information from targeted sources, but failing to provide options for non-targeted push information, (vii) misleading users into agreeing to collect personal information or open the authority to collect personal information by fraud, deception or other improper means, (viii) failing to provide users with channels and methods for withdrawing consent to collect personal information, and (ix) collecting and using personal information in violation of its stated collection and use rules; three types of practices may be identified as providing others with personal information without the consent of a user, including: (i) an app directly providing personal information for a third party without the consent of a user and without anonymization, (ii) an app providing a third party with the personal information it has collected after the data is transmitted to the background server of the app without the consent of a user and without anonymization, and (iii) an app that is linked with a third-party application providing personal information to the third-party application without the consent of users.

As an internet information services provider, our VIE Hexun Huagu is subject to these laws and regulations relating to protection of personal information. Although Hexun Huagu only gains access to anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data that is necessary for, and relevant to, the services provided, and the data we obtain and use may include information that is deemed as “personal information” under the PRC Cyber Security Law and related data privacy and protection laws and regulations. Hexun Huagu has adopted a series of measures in order to comply with relevant laws and regulations relating to the protection of personal information. It enters into a service agreement with each app developer that uses our developer services in their mobile apps and displays privacy policies on its official website. The service agreement as well as the privacy policies require each app developer to obtain consent from the end users of its apps in connection with data collection and use pursuant to the PRC Cyber Security Law and related laws and regulations. We periodically check the app developers’ own agreements with their end users on a sampling basis, and we remind the app developers to rectify the situation where we find instances of non-compliance with the service agreements with Hexun Huagu. Moreover, once the original mobile behavioral data is collected through developer services, our data processing platform immediately stores, cleanses, structures and encrypts the data, and we then utilize AI and machine learning technologies to conduct modeling exercises and data mining and develop targeted marketing and other SaaS products that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers, in aggregated and anonymized form. In addition, we have adopted rigorous data security measures to prevent our data from unauthorized access or use or being retrieved to establish any connection with the device owners’ identities. While we take all these measures to comply with all applicable data privacy and protection laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee the effectiveness of the measures undertaken by us, app developers and business partners. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Actual or alleged failure to comply with data privacy and protection laws and regulations could damage our reputation, and discourage current and potential app developers and customers from doing business with us.”

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Regulations on Foreign-related Investigation

On October 13, 2004, the National Bureau of Statistics promulgated the Measures on the Administration of Foreign-related Investigations, to regulate and administrate the foreign-related investigations. According to the Measures on the Administration of Foreign-related Investigations, no individual and no organization without a foreign-related investigation license may conduct any foreign-related investigation in any form, and foreign-related investigations include: (i) market and social investigations conducted under the entrustment or financial aid of any foreign organization, individual or the agency in the PRC of any foreign organization; (ii) market and social investigations conducted in cooperation with any foreign organization, individual or the agency in the PRC of any foreign organization; (iii) market investigations lawfully conducted by the agency in the PRC of any foreign organization; and (iv) market and social investigations of which the materials and results are to be provided to any foreign organization, individual or the agency in the PRC of any foreign organization.

Our VIE Hexun Huagu provides mobile app data analysis product to both domestic and foreign financial industry clients. Except for the general descriptions of market and social investigation defined in the relevant PRC laws or regulations, there is no further clarification or specific guidance on the characteristics and scope of “foreign-related investigations.” Due to the lack of further interpretation of the relevant rules, it is uncertain whether Hexun Huagu is required to obtain a license for our business. To be prudent, our VIE obtained a foreign-related investigation license in March 2019.

Regulations on Credit Reporting

In accordance with the Administrative Regulations on Credit Reporting Industry issued by the State Council on January 21, 2013, a credit reporting company that engages in individual credit reporting business shall obtain the individual credit reporting business license. Individual credit reporting business refers to activities in which credit information on individuals are collected, sorted, stored, processed and provided to users, and shall be supervised and regulated by the People’s Bank of China and its local resident offices. The Administrative Regulations on Credit Reporting Industry does not contain any explanation to “personal credit information”, but the People’s Bank of China holds in the Provisional Rules on Management of the Individual Credit Information Database that “individual credit information” covers basic individual information, individual information on loans and transactions and any other information that may reflect the individual credit situation. “Basic individual information” refers to such information as the identity information of a natural person, career and habitation address. “Individual information on loans and transactions” refers to the transactional records as provided by commercial banks, which are formed in the credit activities of natural persons such as loans, credit cards, semi credit cards and guaranty. “Any other information that may reflect the individual credit standing” refers to the relevant information that reflects the individual credit information, apart from the information on loans and transactions.

Our VIE Hexun Huagu provides financial risk management solutions to its customers. Due to the lack of further interpretations of the current regulations governing personal credit reporting businesses, the exact definition and scope of “information related to credit standing” and “personal credit reporting business” under the current regulations are unclear, it is uncertain whether financial risk management solutions Hexun Huagu provides would be deemed to engage in personal credit reporting business. Hexun Huagu confirms that it has never provided credit information related to the mobile terminal user, such as credit transaction information, default frequency information, asset information, liability information, etc. to the customer, and as of the date of this annual report, has not been subject to any fines or other penalties under any PRC laws or regulations related to personal credit reporting business. However, given the evolving regulatory environment of the personal credit reporting industry, we cannot assure you that Hexun Huagu will not be required in the future by the relevant governmental authorities to obtain approval or license for personal credit reporting business in order to continue offering its financial risk management solutions.

Regulations on Intellectual Property Rights

Software Registration

The State Council and National Copyright Administration, or the NCA, have promulgated various rules and regulations and rules relating to protection of software in China, including the Regulations on Protection of Computer Software promulgated by State Council on January 30, 2013 and effective since March 1, 2013, and the Measures for Registration of Copyright of Computer Software promulgated by NCA on February 20, 2002 and effective since the same date. According to these rules and regulations, software owners, licensees and transferees may register their rights in software with the NCA or its local branches and obtain software copyright registration certificates. Although such registration is not mandatory under PRC law, software owners, licensees and transferees are encouraged to go through the registration process and registered software rights may be entitled to better protections. As of December 31, 2019, we have registered copyrights to 68 software programs in China.

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Artwork Copyrights

In accordance with the Provisional Measures on Voluntary Registration of Works which came into effect on January 1, 1995, a piece of work may be voluntarily registered with the provincial counterpart of the National Copyright Administration. The registration certificate issued by the authority will serve as a preliminary evidence of ownership when copyrights disputes arise from the underlying works. As of December 31, 2019, we have registered 4 artwork copyrights.

Domain Name

In September 2002, China Internet Network Information Center, or the CNNIC issued the Implementing Rules for Domain Name Registration setting forth detailed rules for registration of domain names, which were amended on May 29, 2012. On November 5, 2004, the MIIT promulgated the Measures for Administration of Domain Names for the Chinese Internet, or the Domain Name Measures. The Domain Name Measures regulate the registration of domain names, such as the top level domain name “.cn.” On August 24, 2017, MIIT promulgated Administrative Measures for Internet Domain Names, repealing the Domain Name Measures since November 1, 2017. The efforts to undertake internet domain name services as well as the operation, maintenance, supervision and administration thereof and other relevant activities within the territory of the PRC shall thereafter be made in compliance with Administrative Measures for Internet Domain Names. In accordance with the Measures on the Regulation of Domain Name Disputes promulgated by the CNNIC, which became effective on September 1, 2014, domain name dispute can be resolved by a domain name dispute resolution institution recognized by the CNNIC. As of December 31, 2019, we have registered 22 domain names, 13 of which are Chinese top level domain names.

Trademark

The PRC Trademark Law, adopted in 1982 and latest amended in 2019, with its implementation rules adopted in 2002 and amended in 2014, protects registered trademarks. The Trademark Office of the National Intellectual Property Administration handles trademark registrations and grants a protection term of ten years to registered trademarks. Trademark license agreements must be filed with the Trademark Office for record. As of December 31, 2019, we have registered 41 trademarks and had filed 82 trademark applications in China.

Patent

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress adopted the PRC Patent Law in 1984 and amended it in 1992, 2000 and 2008, respectively. A patentable invention, utility model or design must meet three conditions: novelty, inventiveness and practical applicability. Patents cannot be granted for scientific discoveries, rules and methods for intellectual activities, methods used to diagnose or treat diseases, animal and plant breeds or substances obtained by means of nuclear transformation. The Patent Office under the National Intellectual Property Administration is responsible for receiving, examining and approving patent applications. A patent is valid for a twenty-year term for an invention and a ten-year term for a utility model or design, starting from the application date. Except under certain specific circumstances provided by law, any third-party user must obtain consent or a proper license from the patent owner to use the patent, or else the use will constitute an infringement of the rights of the patent holder. As of December 31, 2019, we are in the process of applying for 53 patents in China.

Regulations on Internet Infringement

On December 26, 2009, the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress promulgated the PRC Tort Law, which became effective on July 1, 2010. Under the PRC Tort Law, an internet user or an internet service provider that infringes upon the civil rights or interests of others through using the internet assumes tort liability. If an internet user infringes upon the civil rights or interests of another through using the internet, the person being infringed upon has the right to notify and request the internet service provider whose internet services are facilitating the infringement to take necessary measures including the deletion, blocking or disconnection of an internet link. If, after being notified, the internet service provider fails to take necessary measures in a timely manner to end the infringement, it will be jointly and severally liable for any additional harm caused by its failure to act. According to the PRC Tort Law, civil rights and interests include the personal rights and rights of property, such as the right to life, right to health, right to name, right to reputation, right to honor, right of portraiture, right of privacy, right of marital autonomy, right of guardianship, right to ownership, right to usufruct, right to security interests, copyright, patent right, exclusive right to use trademarks, right to discovery, right to equity interests and right of heritage, among others.

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Regulations on Foreign Currency Exchange

Foreign Currency Exchange

Pursuant to the Foreign Currency Administration Rules, as amended, and various regulations issued by SAFE and other relevant PRC government authorities, Renminbi is freely convertible to the extent of current account items, such as trade related receipts and payments, interest and dividends. Capital account items, such as direct equity investments, loans and repatriation of investment, unless expressly exempted by laws and regulations, still require prior approval from SAFE or its provincial branch for conversion of Renminbi into a foreign currency, such as U.S. dollars, and remittance of the foreign currency outside of the PRC. After a Notice on Further Simplifying and Improving Foreign Exchange Administration Policy on Direct Investment, or SAFE Notice 13, became effective on June 1, 2015, instead of applying for approvals regarding foreign exchange registrations of foreign direct investment and overseas direct investment from SAFE, entities and individuals will be required to apply for such foreign exchange registrations from qualified banks. The qualified banks, under the supervision of SAFE, directly examine the applications and conduct the registration.

Payments for transactions that take place within the PRC must be made in Renminbi. Foreign currency revenues received by PRC companies may be repatriated into China or retained outside of China in accordance with requirements and terms specified by SAFE.

Foreign Exchange Registration of Offshore Investment by PRC Residents

Pursuant to SAFE’s Notice on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Administration for PRC Residents to Engage in Financing and Inbound Investment via Overseas Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 75, which became effective on November 1, 2005, PRC residents, including PRC resident natural persons or PRC companies, must register with local branches of SAFE in connection with their direct or indirect offshore investment in an overseas special purpose vehicle, or SPV, for the purposes of overseas equity financing activities, and to update such registration in the event of any significant changes with respect to that offshore company. SAFE promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37, on July 4, 2014, which replaced SAFE Circular 75. SAFE Circular 37 requires PRC residents to register with local branches of SAFE in connection with their direct establishment or indirect control of an offshore entity, for the purpose of overseas investment and financing, with such PRC residents’ legally owned assets or equity interests in domestic enterprises or offshore assets or interests, referred to in SAFE Circular 37 as a “special purpose vehicle.” The term “control” under SAFE Circular 37 is broadly defined as the operation rights, beneficiary rights or decision-making rights acquired by the PRC residents in the offshore special purpose vehicles or PRC companies by such means as acquisition, trust, proxy, voting rights, repurchase, convertible bonds or other arrangements. SAFE Circular 37 further requires amendment to the registration in the event of any changes with respect to the basic information of the special purpose vehicle, such as changes in a PRC resident individual shareholder, name or operation period; or any significant changes with respect to the special purpose vehicle, such as an increase or decrease of capital contributed by PRC individuals, a share transfer or exchange, merger, division or other material event. If the shareholders of the offshore holding company who are PRC residents do not complete their registration with the local SAFE branches, the PRC subsidiaries may be prohibited from distributing their profits and proceeds from any reduction in capital, share transfer or liquidation to the offshore company, and the offshore company may be restricted in its ability to contribute additional capital to its PRC subsidiaries. Moreover, failure to comply with the SAFE registration and amendment requirements described above could result in liability under PRC law for evasion of applicable foreign exchange restrictions. We have notified holders of common shares of our company whom we know are PRC residents to register with the local SAFE branch and update their registrations as required under the SAFE regulations described above. After SAFE Notice 13 became effective on June 1, 2015, entities and individuals are required to apply for foreign exchange registration of foreign direct investment and overseas direct investment, including those required under SAFE Circular 37, with qualified banks, instead of SAFE. The qualified banks, under the supervision of SAFE, directly examine the applications and conduct the registration. We are aware that Mr. Weidong Luo, Mr. Xiaodao Wang and Mr. Jiawen Fang, our shareholders who are PRC residents, have registered with the relevant local SAFE branch. We, however, cannot provide any assurances that all of our shareholders who are PRC residents will file all applicable registrations or update previously filed registrations as required by these SAFE regulations. The failure or inability of our PRC resident shareholders to comply with the registration procedures may subject the PRC resident shareholders to fines and legal sanctions, restrict our cross-border investment activities, or limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to distribute dividends to or obtain foreign exchange-dominated loans from our company.

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Stock Option Rules

The Administration Measures on Individual Foreign Exchange Control were promulgated by the People’s Bank of China on December 25, 2006, and their Implementation Rules, issued by the SAFE on January 5, 2007, became effective on February 1, 2007. Under these regulations, all foreign exchange matters involved in employee stock ownership plans and stock option plans participated in by onshore individuals, among others, require approval from the SAFE or its authorized branch. Furthermore, the Notices on Issues concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Companies, or the Stock Option Rules, were promulgated by SAFE on February 15, 2012, that replaced the Application Procedures of Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Employee Stock Ownership Plans or Stock Option Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Companies issued by SAFE on March 28, 2007. Pursuant to the Stock Option Rules, PRC residents who are granted shares or stock options by companies listed on overseas stock exchanges based on the stock incentive plans are required to register with SAFE or its local branches, and PRC residents participating in the stock incentive plans of overseas listed companies shall retain a qualified PRC agent, which could be a PRC subsidiary of such overseas publicly-listed company or another qualified institution selected by such PRC subsidiary, to conduct the SAFE registration and other procedures with respect to the stock incentive plans on behalf of these participants. Such participants must also retain an overseas entrusted institution to handle matters in connection with their exercise of stock options, purchase and sale of corresponding stocks or interests, and fund transfer. In addition, the PRC agents are required to amend the SAFE registration with respect to the stock incentive plan if there is any material change to the stock incentive plan, the PRC agents or the overseas entrusted institution or other material changes. The PRC agents shall, on behalf of the PRC residents who have the right to exercise the employee share options, apply to SAFE or its local branches for an annual quota for the payment of foreign currencies in connection with the PRC residents’ exercise of the employee share options. The foreign exchange proceeds received by the PRC residents from the sale of shares under the stock incentive plans granted and dividends distributed by the overseas listed companies must be remitted into the bank accounts in the PRC opened by the PRC agents before distribution to such PRC residents. In addition, the PRC agents shall file each quarter the form for record-filing of information of the Domestic Individuals Participating in the Stock Incentive Plans of Overseas Listed Companies with SAFE or its local branches.

We and our PRC citizen employees who have been granted share options, or PRC optionees, are subject to the Stock Option Rules as our company has become an overseas listed company. If we or our PRC optionees fail to comply with the Individual Foreign Exchange Rule and the Stock Option Rules, we and/or our PRC optionees may be subject to fines and other legal sanctions. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Any failure to comply with PRC regulations regarding the registration requirements for employee stock incentive plans may subject the PRC plan participants or us to fines and other legal or administrative sanctions.”

In addition, the State Administration for Taxation has issued circulars concerning employee share options, under which our employees working in the PRC who exercise share options will be subject to PRC individual income tax. Our PRC subsidiary and VIE have obligations to file documents related to employee share options with relevant tax authorities and to withhold individual income taxes of those employees who exercise their share options. If our employees fail to pay or if we fail to withhold their income taxes as required by relevant laws and regulations, we may face sanctions imposed by the PRC tax authorities or other PRC government authorities.

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Regulations on Tax

PRC Enterprise Income Tax

The PRC enterprise income tax is calculated based on the taxable income determined under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, and its implementation rules. On March 16, 2007, the National People’s Congress of China enacted the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, or the EIT Law, which became effective on January 1, 2008 and was amended in 2017 and 2018. On December 6, 2007, the State Council promulgated the implementation rules to the EIT Law, which also became effective on January 1, 2008 and was amended in 2019. The EIT Law imposes a uniform enterprise income tax rate of 25% on all resident enterprises in China, including foreign-invested enterprises and domestic enterprises, unless they qualify for certain exceptions, and terminates most of the tax exemptions, reductions and preferential treatment available under the previous tax laws and regulations. According to the EIT Law and relevant regulations, subject to the approval of competent tax authorities, the income tax of an enterprise that has been determined to be a high and new technology enterprise shall be reduced to a preferential rate of 15%.

Moreover, under the EIT Law, enterprises organized under the laws of jurisdictions outside China with their “de facto management bodies” located within China may be considered PRC resident enterprises and are therefore subject to PRC enterprise income tax at the rate of 25% on their worldwide income. Though the implementation rules of the EIT Law define “de facto management bodies” as “establishments that carry out substantial and overall management and control over the manufacturing and business operations, personnel, accounting, properties, etc. of an enterprise,” the only detailed guidance currently available for the definition of “de facto management body” as well as the determination of offshore incorporated PRC tax resident status and its administration are set forth in the Circular Regarding the Determination of Chinese-Controlled Offshore Incorporated Enterprises as PRC Tax Resident Enterprise on the Basis of De Facto Management Bodies, or Circular 82, and the Administrative Measures for Enterprise Income Tax of Chinese-Controlled Offshore Incorporated Resident Enterprises (Trial), or SAT Bulletin 45, both issued by the SAT, which provide guidance on the administration as well as determination of the tax residency status of a Chinese-controlled offshore-incorporated enterprise, defined as an enterprise that is incorporated under the law of a foreign country or territory and that has a PRC company or PRC corporate group as its primary controlling shareholder.

According to Circular 82, a Chinese-controlled offshore-incorporated enterprise will be regarded as a PRC tax resident by virtue of having its “de facto management body” in China and will be subject to PRC enterprise income tax on its global income only if all of the following conditions set forth in Circular 82 are met:

In addition, SAT Bulletin 45 provides clarification on the resident status determination, post-determination administration, and competent tax authorities. It also specifies that when provided with a copy of a PRC resident determination certificate from a resident Chinese-controlled offshore-incorporated enterprise, the payer should not withhold 10% income tax when paying certain PRC-sourced income such as dividends, interest and royalties to the Chinese-controlled offshore-incorporated enterprise.

In the event that we are considered a PRC resident enterprise, we would be subject to the PRC enterprise income tax at the rate of 25% on our worldwide income.

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In addition, although the EIT Law provides that dividend income between “qualified resident enterprises” is exempted income, and the implementation rules refer to “qualified resident enterprises” as enterprises with “direct equity interest,” it is unclear whether dividends we receive from our PRC subsidiary are eligible for exemption.

On February 3, 2015, the SAT issued the Announcement of the State Administration of Taxation on Several Issues Concerning the Enterprise Income Tax on Indirect Property Transfer by Non-Resident Enterprises, or SAT Bulletin 7. SAT Bulletin 7 extends the PRC’s tax jurisdiction to transactions involving the transfer of taxable assets through offshore transfer of a foreign intermediate holding company. In addition, SAT Bulletin 7 has introduced safe harbors for internal group restructurings and the purchase and sale of equity through a public securities market. SAT Bulletin 7 also brings challenges to both foreign transferor and transferee (or other person who is obligated to pay for the transfer) of taxable assets as they have to make self-assessment on whether the transaction should be subject to PRC tax and to file or withhold the PRC tax accordingly.

On October 17, 2017, the SAT issued the Announcement of the State Administration of Taxation on Matters Concerning Withholding of Income Tax of Non-resident Enterprises at Source, or SAT Bulletin 37, which came into effect on December 1, 2017. According to SAT Bulletin 37, the income from property transfer obtained by a non-resident enterprise, as stipulated in the second item under Article 19 of the EIT Law, shall include the income derived from transferring equity investment assets as stock equity. The withholding agent shall, within seven days of the day on which the withholding obligation occurs, declare and remit the withholding tax to the competent tax authority at its locality.

Where non-resident investors were involved in our private equity financing, if such transactions were determined by the tax authorities to lack reasonable commercial purpose, we and our non-resident investors may become at risk of being required to file a return and taxed under SAT Bulletin 37 and/or SAT Bulletin 7 and we may be required to expend valuable resources to comply with SAT Bulletin 37 and/or SAT Bulletin 7 or to establish that we should not be held liable for any obligations under SAT Bulletin 37 and/or SAT Bulletin 7. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—We face uncertainty with respect to indirect transfer of equity interests in PRC resident enterprises by their non-PRC holding companies.”

VAT

Pursuant to the Provisional Regulations on Value-added Tax, which was promulgated by the State Council on December 13, 1993, as amended and the Implementing Rules of the Provisional Regulations on Value-added Tax, which was promulgated by the Ministry of Finance on December 18, 2008, as amended, all individuals and entities selling goods, providing labor services of processing or repairing, selling services, intangible assets or real property within, or importing goods into, the PRC must pay value-added tax.

On January 1, 2012, the Ministry of Finance and SAT implemented a pilot VAT reform program, or Pilot Program, applicable to businesses in selected industries. Businesses in the Pilot Program would pay VAT instead of business tax. The Pilot Industries in Shanghai included industries involving the leasing of tangible movable property, transportation services, research and development and technical services, information technology services, cultural and creative services, logistics and ancillary services and certification and consulting services. Revenues generated by advertising services, a type of “cultural and creative services,” are subject to the VAT tax rate of 6%. According to official announcements made by competent authorities in Guangdong province, Guangdong province launched the same Pilot Program on November 1, 2012. On May 24, 2013, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation, or SAT, issued the Circular on Tax Policies in the Nationwide Pilot Collection of Value Added Tax in lieu of Business Tax in the Transportation Industry and Certain Modern Services Industries, or the Pilot Collection Circular. On August 1, 2013, the Pilot Program was implemented throughout China. On December 12, 2013, the Ministry of Finance and the SAT issued the Circular on the Inclusion of the Railway Transport Industry and Postal Service Industry in the Pilot Collection of Value-Added Tax in Lieu of Business Tax, or the 2013 VAT Circular. Among other things, the 2013 VAT Circular abolished the Pilot Collection Circular, and refined the policies for the Pilot Program. On April 29, 2014, the Ministry of Finance and the SAT issued the Circular on the Inclusion of Telecommunications Industry in the Pilot Collection of Value-Added Tax in Lieu of Business Tax, or the 2014 VAT Circular. On March 23, 2016, the Ministry of Finance and the SAT issued the Circular on Comprehensively Promoting the Pilot Program of the Collection of Value-Added Tax in Lieu of Business Tax, pursuant to which the 2013 VAT Circular and the 2014 VAT Circular shall be repealed accordingly unless otherwise specified. Effective from May 1, 2016, the PRC tax authorities collect VAT in lieu of business tax on a trial basis, and in industries such as construction industries, real estate industries, financial industries, and living service industries.

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On November 19, 2017, the State Council promulgated the Decision of the State Council on Abolishing the Interim Regulations of the PRC on Business Tax and Amending the Interim Value-Added Tax Regulations of the PRC, deciding to abolish the Interim Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Business Tax. Since then, business tax has been comprehensively cancelled. We currently pay the VAT instead of business taxes for our revenue derived from the provision of some modern services.

Dividends Withholding Tax

Pursuant to the EIT Law and its implementation rules, dividends from income generated from the business of a PRC subsidiary after January 1, 2008 and distributed to its foreign investor are subject to withholding tax at a rate of 10% if the PRC tax authorities determine that the foreign investor is a non-resident enterprise, unless there is a tax treaty with China that provides for a preferential withholding tax rate. Pursuant to the Arrangement between Mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Tax Evasion on Income, the withholding tax rate in respect to the payment of dividends by a PRC enterprise to a Hong Kong enterprise may be reduced to 5% from a standard rate of 10% if the Hong Kong enterprise directly holds at least 25% of the PRC enterprise. Pursuant to the Notice on the Issues concerning the Application of the Dividend Clauses of Tax Agreements issued by the SAT on February 20, 2009, or SAT Circular 81, a Hong Kong resident enterprise must meet the following conditions, among others, in order to apply the reduced withholding tax rate: (i) it must be a company; (ii) it must directly own the required percentage of equity interests and voting rights in the PRC resident enterprise; and (iii) it must have directly owned such required percentage in the PRC resident enterprise throughout the 12 months prior to receiving the dividends. However, according to SAT Circular 81, if the relevant tax authorities consider the transactions or arrangements we have are for the primary purpose of enjoying a favourable tax treatment, the relevant tax authorities may adjust the favourable withholding tax in the future.

As uncertainties remain regarding the interpretation and implementation of the EIT Law and its implementation rules, we cannot assure you that, if we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, any dividends to be distributed by us to our non-PRC shareholders and ADS holders would not be subject to any PRC withholding tax. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—If we are classified as a PRC resident enterprise for PRC income tax purposes, such classification could result in unfavorable tax consequences to us and our non-PRC shareholders or ADS holders.”

Regulations on Dividend Distribution

Companies in the PRC may pay dividends only out of their accumulated profits, if any, as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. Additionally, companies may not pay dividends unless they set aside at least 10% of their respective accumulated profits after tax each year, if any, to fund certain reserve funds, until such time as the accumulative amount of such fund reaches 50% of the enterprise’s registered capital. In addition, these companies also may allocate a portion of their after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to employee welfare and bonus funds at their discretion. These reserves are not distributable as cash dividends.

Labor Laws and Social Insurance

The principle laws that govern employment include:

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According to the PRC Labor Law and PRC Labor Contract Law, employers must execute written labor contracts with full-time employees. All employers must compensate their employees with wages equal to at least the local minimum wage standards. All employers are required to establish a system for labor safety and workplace sanitation, strictly comply with state rules and standards and provide employees with workplace safety training. Violations of the PRC Labor Contract Law and the PRC Labor Law may result in the imposition of fines and other administrative penalties. For serious violations, criminal liability may arise.

In addition, pursuant to the PRC Social Insurance Law, employers in China are required to provide employees with welfare schemes covering pension insurance, unemployment insurance, maternity insurance, work-related injury insurance, medical insurance and housing funds.

Our WFOE and VIE have not fully contributed to the social insurance plan and the housing fund plan as required by applicable PRC regulations. We have recorded accruals for estimated underpaid amounts in our consolidated financial statements.

The following chart illustrates our corporate structure, including our subsidiaries and consolidated variable interest entity as of the date of this annual report on Form 20-F:

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Notes:

The following is a summary of the currently effective contractual arrangements relating to Hexun Huagu, our VIE.

Agreements that provide us with effective control over our VIE

Powers of Attorney.  Pursuant to the powers of attorney, dated August 5, 2014, each of the shareholders of our VIE irrevocably authorizes our WFOE to act as his attorney-in-fact to exercise all of his rights as a shareholder of our VIE, including, but not limited to, the right to convene and attend shareholders’ meetings, vote on any resolution that requires a shareholder vote, such as the appointment and removal of directors, supervisors and officers, as well as the sale, transfer and disposal of all or part of the equity interests owned by such shareholder in our VIE.

Equity Interest Pledge Agreements.  Pursuant to the equity interest pledge agreements, dated April 20, 2018, among our WFOE, our VIE and the shareholders of our VIE, the shareholders of our VIE have pledged 100% equity interests in our VIE to our WFOE to guarantee performance by the shareholders of their obligations under the exclusive option agreements, the shareholder voting proxy agreement and the financial support agreement, as well as the performance by our VIE of its obligations under the exclusive business cooperation agreement and the exclusive option agreements. In the event of a breach by our VIE or any of its shareholder of contractual obligations under the equity interest pledge agreements, our WFOE, as pledgee, will have the right to dispose of the pledged equity interests in our VIE and will have priority in receiving the proceeds from such disposal. The shareholders of our VIE also undertake that, without the prior written consent of our WFOE, they will not dispose of, create or allow any encumbrance on the pledged equity interests. our VIE undertakes that, without the prior written consent of our WFOE, they will not assist or allow any encumbrance to be created on the pledged equity interests.

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Agreement that allows us to receive economic benefits from our VIE

Exclusive Business Cooperation Agreement.  Under the exclusive business cooperation agreement between our WFOE and our VIE, dated August 5, 2014, our WFOE has the exclusive right to provide to our VIE comprehensive business support, technical services, consulting services and other services. Without our WFOE’s prior written consent, our VIE may not accept any services subject to this agreement from any third party. Our WFOE has the exclusive ownership of intellectual property rights created as a result of the performance of this agreement. Our VIE agrees to pay our WFOE an annual service fee at an amount equivalent to a certain percentage of our VIE’s audited total operating income for the relevant year. This agreement will remain effective for an indefinite term, unless terminated in accordance with the provisions of this agreement or terminated in writing by our WFOE.

Agreements that provide us with the option to purchase the equity interests in and assets of our VIE

Exclusive Option Agreements.  Pursuant to the exclusive option agreement, dated April 20, 2018, among our WFOE, our VIE and each shareholder of our VIE, each shareholder of our VIE has irrevocably granted our WFOE an exclusive option to purchase all or part of his equity interests in our VIE, and our VIE has irrevocably granted our WFOE an exclusive option to purchase all or part of its assets. Our WFOE or its designated person may exercise such options for the higher of RMB10 or the lowest price permitted under applicable PRC law. Each shareholder of our VIE undertakes that, without our WFOE’s prior written consent, he will not, among other things, (i) create any pledge or encumbrance on their equity interests in our VIE, (ii) transfer or otherwise dispose of their equity interests in our VIE, (iii) change our VIE’s registered capital, (iv) amend our VIE’s articles of association, (v) dispose of our VIE’s material assets (except in the ordinary course of business), or (vi) merge our VIE with any other entity. In addition, our VIE undertakes that, without our WFOE’s prior written consent, it will not, among other things, create any pledge or encumbrance on any of its assets, or transfer or otherwise dispose of its material assets (except in the ordinary course of business). The exclusive option agreements will remain effective until the entire equity interests in and all the assets of our VIE have been transferred to our WFOE or its designated person.

In March 2018, we entered into the following agreements:

Financial Support Agreement.  Pursuant to the financial support agreement, dated March 28, 2018, by and among our company, our WFOE and the shareholders of our VIE, we undertakes to provide unlimited financial support to our VIE to the extent permissible under the applicable PRC laws and regulations, whether or not any operational loss is actually incurred by our VIE. We will not request repayment of the loans or borrowings if our VIE or its shareholders do not have sufficient funds or are unable to repay the loans.

Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreement.  Pursuant to the shareholder voting proxy agreement, dated March 28, 2018, by and among our company, our WFOE and each of the shareholders of our VIE, the powers of attorney described above were terminated and each of the shareholders of our VIE irrevocably authorizes our company to act as his attorney-in-fact to exercise all of his rights as a shareholder of our VIE that are substantially the same as those described above. The shareholder voting proxy agreement will remain effective until the shareholders no longer hold any equity interests in our VIE, unless terminated in accordance with the provisions of the agreement or terminated in writing by our company.

In the opinion of Han Kun Law Offices, our PRC legal counsel:

However, our PRC legal counsel has also advised us that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws, regulations and rules. Accordingly, the PRC regulatory authorities may take a view that is contrary to the opinion of our PRC legal counsel. It is uncertain whether any new PRC laws or regulations relating to variable interest entity structures will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. If we or our VIE are found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant PRC regulatory authorities would have broad discretion to take action in dealing with such violations or failures. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating some of our business operations in China do not comply with PRC regulations relating to the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interest in those operations” and “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system and changes in laws and regulations in China could adversely affect us.”

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Our headquarters is located in Shenzhen, China where we lease and occupy our office space with an aggregate floor area of approximately 6,442.50 square meters. A substantial majority of our employees are based at our headquarters in Shenzhen. We also lease and occupy office buildings in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu with an aggregate floor area of approximately 1,774.48, 648.24, 168.40 and 44 square meters, respectively. These leases vary in duration from one to five years.

Our servers are hosted in different cities of China, including Guangzhou, Beijing, Wuxi and Xiamen. These data centers are owned and maintained by third-party data center operators. We believe that our existing facilities are sufficient for our current needs, and we will obtain additional facilities, principally through leasing, to accommodate our future expansion plans as needed.

None.

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 20-F. This discussion may contain forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors” or in other parts of this annual report on Form 20-F.

We are a leading developer ecosystem service provider in China. We provide a comprehensive suite of developer services to mobile app developers in China, through which we gain access to, aggregate, cleanse, structure and encrypt vast amounts of real-time anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data. We utilize AI and machine learning to derive actionable insights from this data, enabling our customers to make better business decisions. We have developed a variety of targeted marketing and other SaaS products that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers. Our other SaaS products include market intelligence, financial risk management and location-based intelligence. We currently generate revenue primarily from our targeted marketing and other SaaS products, while we adopt a freemium model for most of our developer services.

Key Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

Our business and operating results are influenced by general factors affecting China’s mobile internet industry and app developer services market, as well as the application of big data technology in China. The general factors include China’s overall economic growth and level of per capita disposable income, mobile internet usage and penetration, development of the app developer services market, growth of application of targeted marketing and other SaaS products in areas such as mobile marketing, financial risk management services, market intelligence and location-based intelligence services, the competitive environment and governmental policies and initiatives affecting the Chinese mobile internet industry and data technology. Unfavorable changes in any of these general industry conditions could negatively affect demand for our services and solutions and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

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While our business is influenced by general factors affecting our industry, our results of operations are more directly affected by company specific factors, including the following major factors:

Our ability to increase the number of customers and average spending per customer

Growth in our number of customers and average spending per customer are key drivers of our revenue growth. Our total revenues increased substantially from 2017 to 2018 and further to 2019. Our number of customers increased from 2,263 in 2017 to 3,024 in 2018 and further to 3,456 in 2019. We define our customers in a given period as those that purchase at least one of our paid-for SaaS products including developer service and other SaaS products or Targeted marketing during the same period. The average spending per customer also increased from RMB125,810 in 2017 to RMB236,158 in 2018 and further to RMB262,285 (US$37,675) in 2019. Along with the growth of our revenues from targeted marketing, our number of customers of targeted marketing increased from 852 in 2017 to 1,074 in 2018 and decreased slightly to 811 in 2019, and the average spending per customer for targeted marketing increased from RMB259,569 in 2017 to RMB533,329 in 2018 and further to RMB858,434 (US$123,306) in 2019. Over the same time periods, our revenues from SaaS products also increased, driven by an increase in our number of customers of developer services from 1,411 in 2017 to 1,950 in 2018 and further to 2,645 in 2019, as well as an increase in the average spending per customer for SaaS products from RMB45,043 in 2017 to RMB72,484 in 2018 and further to RMB79,496 (US$11,419) in 2019. Our ability to expand our customer base by retaining existing customers and attracting new customers, and increase the average spending per customer depends on, among other things, our ability to continuously broaden and deepen our data pool, enhance our AI and machine learning capabilities, expand our existing SaaS products and targeted marketing, develop and productize new services and solutions, and effectively market and sell our services and solutions.

Our ability to develop new SaaS products and targeted marketing that meet market demands

Our future success is significantly dependent on our ability to continually develop new SaaS products and targeted marketing that meet evolving market demands. We have dedicated and will continue to dedicate significant resources and efforts to developing new SaaS products and targeted marketing. We have a team of product developers within our research and development team who identify the potential market demand and lead the development of new services and solutions and the enhancement of existing ones. We seek to develop more innovative developer services, in line with the development of mobile internet and Internet of Things (IoT) to meet the evolving demand of app developers and customers. Furthermore, we have expanded from our original focus on targeted marketing to more other SaaS products such as market intelligence, financial risk management and location-based intelligence. We will continue to enrich and expand our existing solutions to better serve existing customers and attract new customers, and also seek to expand our SaaS products and targeted marketing to exploit mobile big data opportunities in new industry verticals and sub-verticals.

Our ability to broaden and deepen our data pool and enhance our AI and machine learning technology

We generate revenue primarily from our targeted marketing and SaaS products. Our ability to expand and improve our existing and develop new ones depends on the size and depth of our data pool as well as the technology we use to process the data and derive actionable insights from it. It is thus critical for us to both enrich our data pool and enhance our AI and machine learning capabilities to extract deeper insights from the data. We intend to achieve the former by continuing to offer best-in-class developer services and attract more app developers to use our services in their apps, and the latter by refining our algorithms and improving our predictive capabilities. To that end, we will continue to invest in our technology and infrastructure to deliver highly reliable and scalable developer services and provide a broader range of developer services. We will also continue to invest in talent by recruiting, retaining and training AI specialists and data scientists to widen our technology advantage. The enhancement of our research and development capabilities enables us to develop new SaaS products and optimize our solution offerings, thereby allowing us to obtain more favorable pricing terms for our targeted marketing and SaaS products.

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Our ability to further improve our margins

Our results of operations are directly affected by our ability to improve our margins. Our business has grown substantially while at the same time improving our cost efficiency. Our gross margin is mainly affected by the mix of our SaaS products and targeted marketing, as a majority of revenues are from targeted marketing which incur cost of revenues for purchasing ad inventory, while developer services do not incur such cost of revenues. Our ability to increase our gross margin depends on our ability to expand our other SaaS products in addition to targeted marketing and improve the margin of targeted marketing. Moreover, our ability to achieve profitability is dependent on our ability to further improve our operational efficiency and reduce the total operating expenses as a percentage of our revenues.

Our developer services are strategically modularized to maximize efficiency and cohesiveness of operations, and our centralized data processing platform has been designed and built to power our growth as we scale to meet demands from our expanding customer base and allow for quick and cost-effective product development. As our business grows, we expect to continue to leverage the scalability of our business model, improve the efficiency and utilization of our personnel, and thus enjoy higher operating leverage. In addition, our ability to lower our operating expenses as a percentage of revenues also depends on our ability to improve sales efficiency. Currently, we sell our targeted marketing and other SaaS products through our direct sales force, which focuses on expanding our customer base and increasing the spending by existing customers, seeking to capture follow-on and cross-selling opportunities. We will also utilize the insights we gain from data analytics and mining to guide our own sales and marketing efforts as well as our product development activities to improve our margins.

Key Line Items and Specific Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

Revenues

We generate revenue from our SaaS Products and targeted marketing. The following table breaks down our total revenues by categories, by amounts and as percentages of total revenues for the periods presented:

Targeted Marketing. We generate targeted marketing revenue by providing targeted marketing in the form of integrated marketing campaigns to advertisers through our  XiaoGuoTong  marketing platform, which is built upon our multi-dimensional device-level mobile behavioral data. The ads are displayed on a wide spectrum of reputable publishers, through bidding for ad slots using rates directly negotiated with the various publishers.

We have contractual arrangements with customers that stipulate the types of advertising to be delivered and the pricing. Advertising customers pay for our targeted marketing primarily based on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) basis. Revenue is recognized at a point in time once agreed actions are performed. We act as the principal in the targeted marketing arrangements under which we have control over the fulfilment of the service and discretion in establishing price. Accordingly, we recognize revenue on a gross basis.

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SaaS Products. We generate SaaS products revenues primarily by providing developer services and other SaaS products which include market intelligence, financial risk management and location-based intelligence. For developer service, there are two types contracts, subscription-based contracts and project-based contracts. We primarily enter into subscription-based contracts with our customers to provide push notification or instant messaging (collectively “notification services”), which we provide our customers with access to its notification services platform. This enables customers to send notifications and messages to users. We generally recognize revenue ratably over time under the subscription-based contracts, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefits as we provide subscription services throughout a fixed contract term.

We primarily enter into project-based contracts with our customers to provide private cloud-based developer services, which are designed to provide customizable services to customers who want a more controlled software environment and more comprehensive technology and customer support. We provide our customers one combined performance obligation including customized APP push notification system or instant messaging system and related system training services as both performance obligations are incapable of being distinct because the customer cannot drive economic benefit from the related system training services on its own. Meanwhile, we also provide post contract assurance-type maintenance services, which usually have a duration of one year. Under ASC 605, we recognize revenue pro rata over post-contract-service period in accordance with ASC 985-605-25. Under ASC 606, we recognize revenue at the point in time when the system is implemented, and the training service is provided, which is represented by the customer acceptance received by us.

For other SaaS products, we enter into agreements with our customers to provide data analytic solutions and there are three types contracts, subscription-based contracts, project-based contracts and consumption-based contracts. We primarily enter into subscription-based contracts with our customers to provide customizable service package for a fixed contract term, which allows the customers to subscribe a fixed number of apps to obtain unlimited volume of queries to our analytic results. We generally recognize revenue ratably over time under the subscription-based contracts, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefits as we provide subscription services throughout a fixed contract term.

We primarily enter into project-based contracts with its customers to provide in-depth analytics services and generate customized reports based on the customers’ specific requirements. We recognize revenue at the point in time when the customized reports are provided.

We primarily enter into consumption-based contracts with our customers to process the queries or provide features based on the customers’ requirements. We recognize revenue at a point in time when the queries are processed or the features the customers utilized.

We expect our total revenues will continue to increase in the foreseeable future as we further expand our business.

Cost of revenues

Our cost of revenues consists primarily of the cost of purchasing ad inventory associated with our targeted marketing, bandwidth cost, staff costs and depreciation of servers used for revenue generating services and solutions.

In relation to our targeted marketing, upon receiving orders from our customers, we first utilize our data and AI-powered data analytics capabilities to determine the ad inventory that is most suitable for the customers’ ads, and then purchase the ad inventory from selected suppliers, primarily online media networks on a real-time basis. In 2017, 49.4% of the ad inventory was purchased from Tencent, and 44.0% of our cost of revenue was attributable to Tencent. In 2018, 14.8% of the ad inventory was purchased from Tencent, and 13.5% of our cost of revenue was attributable to Tencent. In 2019, 2.5% of the ad inventory was purchased from Tencent, and 2.4% of our cost of revenue was attributable to Tencent. This percentage decreased, as we expanded our targeted marketing customer base and engaged more customers from a broader spectrum of industries.

In relation to our bandwidth cost, staff cost and depreciation of servers, we allocate such cost based on revenue generating activities.

We expect that our cost of revenues will increase in absolute amounts in the foreseeable future as we continue to expand our business.

Gross margin

The following table shows our gross profit and gross margin for each of the periods presented:

Our gross margin is mainly affected by the mix of our revenues, particularly between SaaS products and targeted marketing, as targeted marketing incurred cost of revenues for purchasing ad inventory, while SaaS products do not incur such cost of revenues.

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Operating expenses

Our operating expenses consist of research and development expenses, sales and marketing expenses, and general and administrative expenses. The following table breaks down our total operating expenses by these categories, by amounts and as percentages of total operating expenses for each of the periods presented:

Our research and development expenses mainly consist of payroll and related expenses for personnel engaged in research and development activities, technical service fees paid to third-party service providers for maintaining servers as part of our technology infrastructure, and depreciation of such servers. We incurred research and development expenses primarily for the development of new services and solutions and the general improvement of our technology infrastructure to support our business operations. We expect that our research and development expenses will continue to increase in absolute amounts, as we continue to improve technology and infrastructure and expand our service and solution offerings.

Our sales and marketing expenses mainly consist of payroll and related expenses for personnel engaged in sales and marketing activities and advertising and other marketing expenses associated with brand and product promotion. We expect that our sales and marketing expenses will continue to increase in absolute amounts in the foreseeable future, as we plan to expand the sales and marketing team and engage in more sales and marketing activities to attract new customers and additional purchases from existing customers.

Our general and administrative expenses mainly consist of payroll and related costs for employees involved in general corporate functions, including accounting, finance, tax, legal and human resources, costs associated with the use of facilities and equipment by these functions, including rental and office expenses, and professional fees. We expect that our general and administrative expenses will increase in absolute amounts as we hire additional personnel and incur additional expenses related to the anticipated growth of our business and our operation as a public company.

Taxation

Cayman Islands

The Cayman Islands currently levies no taxes on individuals or corporations based upon profits, income, gains or appreciation and there is no taxation in the nature of inheritance tax or estate duty. There are no other taxes likely to be material to us levied by the government of the Cayman Islands except for stamp duties, which may be applicable on instruments executed in, or after execution, brought within the jurisdiction of the Cayman Islands. In addition, the Cayman Islands does not impose withholding tax on dividend payments.

British Virgin Islands

UA Mobile Limited, our wholly-owned subsidiary in the British Virgin Islands, and all dividends, interest, rents, royalties, compensation and other amounts paid by UA Mobile Limited to persons who are not resident in the British Virgin Islands and any capital gains realized with respect to any shares, debt obligations, or other securities of UA Mobile Limited by persons who are not resident in the British Virgin Islands are exempt from all provisions of the Income Tax Ordinance in the British Virgin Islands.

No estate, inheritance, succession or gift tax, rate, duty, levy or other charge is payable by persons who are not resident in the British Virgin Islands with respect to any shares, debt obligation or other securities of UA Mobile Limited.

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All instruments relating to transfers of property to or by UA Mobile Limited and all instruments relating to transactions in respect of the shares, debt obligations or other securities of the Company and all instruments relating to other transactions relating to the business of the Company are exempt from payment of stamp duty in the British Virgin Islands. This assumes that UA Mobile Limited does not hold an interest in real estate in the British Virgin Islands.

There are currently no withholding taxes or exchange control regulations in the British Virgin Islands applicable to UA Mobile Limited.

Hong Kong

Our subsidiary incorporated in Hong Kong, KK Mobile Investment Limited, is subject to 16.5% Hong Kong profit tax on its taxable income generated from operations in Hong Kong. Under the Hong Kong tax law, KK Mobile Investment Limited is exempted from the Hong Kong income tax on its foreign-derived income. In addition, payments of dividends from our Hong Kong subsidiary to UA Mobile Limited are not subject to any withholding tax in Hong Kong.

PRC

Generally, our WFOE and VIE in China are subject to enterprise income tax on their taxable income in China at a statutory rate of 25%. The enterprise income tax is calculated based on the entity’s global income as determined under PRC tax laws and accounting standards. The certificate of high and new technology enterprise of our VIE was obtained in November 2016 and expired in November 2019. Our VIE obtained the certificate of high and new technology enterprise in December 2019 with a validity period of three years starting December 2019 onwards.

We are subject to value added tax, or VAT, at a rate of 6% on the services and solutions we provide to customers, less any deductible VAT we have already paid or borne. We are also subject to surcharges on VAT payments in accordance with PRC law.

Dividends paid by our WFOE in China to our intermediary holding company in Hong Kong will be subject to a withholding tax rate of 10%, unless the relevant Hong Kong entity satisfies all the requirements under the Arrangement between Mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Tax Evasion On Income and receives approval from the relevant tax authority. If our Hong Kong subsidiary satisfies all the requirements under the tax arrangement and receives approval from the relevant tax authority, then the dividends paid to the Hong Kong subsidiary would be subject to withholding tax at the standard rate of 5%. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—We may rely on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our PRC subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have, and any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiary to make payments to us could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business.”

If our holding company in the Cayman Islands or any of our subsidiaries outside of China were deemed to be a “resident enterprise” under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, it would be subject to enterprise income tax on its worldwide income at a rate of 25%. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—If we are classified as a PRC resident enterprise for PRC income tax purposes, such classification could result in unfavorable tax consequences to us and our non-PRC shareholders or ADS holders.”

Results of Operations

The following table sets forth a summary of our consolidated results of operations for the periods presented, both in absolute amount and as a percentage of our total revenues for the periods presented. Our business has grown rapidly in recent years. Period-to-period comparisons of historical results of operations should not be relied upon as indicative of future performance.

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Notes:

Year Ended December 31, 2019 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2018

Revenues

Our revenues increased by 26.9% from RMB714.1 million in 2018 to RMB906.5 million (US$130.2 million) in 2019, with increases in revenues from both targeted marketing and SaaS products.

Our revenues from targeted marketing increased by 21.5% from RMB572.8 million in 2018 to RMB696.2 million (US$100.0 million) in 2019, which was primarily due to the increase in average spending per customer by 61.0% from RMB533.3 thousand in 2018 to RMB858.4 thousand in 2019.

Our revenues from SaaS products increased by 48.8% from RMB141.3 million in 2018 to RMB210.3 million (US$30.2 million) in 2019, which was mainly due to the growth in the number of customers by 35.6% from 1,950 in 2018 to 2,645 in 2019.

Cost of revenues

Our cost of revenues increased by 25.6% from RMB517.1 million in 2018 to RMB649.6 million (US$93.3 million) in 2019, while our business expanded and our revenues grew. Such increase was mainly attributable to the increases in the cost of media inventory by RMB121.6 million, short message costs by RMB6.0 million, bandwidth and cloud costs by RMB5.0 million.

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Gross profit

Our gross profit increased by 30.3% from RMB197.1 million in 2018 to RMB256.9 million (US$36.9 million) in 2019. Our gross margin increased from 27.6% to 28.3% during the same periods, mainly due to the mix-shift of revenue growth during the same period.

Research and development expenses

Our research and development expenses increased by 31.2% from RMB134.4 million in 2018 to RMB176.2 million (US$25.3 million) in 2019. The increase was primarily attributable to increases in personnel costs by RMB22.4 million, depreciation of servers by RMB11.4 million, and lease and office expense by RMB4.4 million.

Sales and marketing expenses

Our sales and marketing expenses increased by 41.4% from RMB83.9 million in 2018 to RMB118.5 million (US$17.0 million) in 2019. The increase was primarily attributable to increases in the personnel costs by RMB16.5 million, marketing expenses by RMB9.0 million, and travel and entertainment expense by RMB4.4 million.

General and administrative expenses

Our general and administrative expenses increased by 52.4% from RMB71.6 million in 2018 to RMB109.3 million (US$15.7 million) in 2019. The increase was primarily due to increases in personnel costs by RMB20.5 million and allowance for doubtful accounts of RMB13.7 million.

Net loss

As a result of the foregoing, we recorded a net loss of RMB109.8 million (US$15.8 million) for the year ended December 31, 2019, compared to a net loss of RMB66.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2018.

Year Ended December 31, 2018 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2017

Revenues

Our revenues increased by 150.8% from RMB284.7 million in 2017 to RMB714.1 million in 2018, with increases in revenues from both targeted marketing and SaaS products.

Our revenues from targeted marketing increased by 159.0% from RMB221.2 million in 2017 to RMB572.8 million in 2018, which was primarily due to the increase in the number of customers by 26.1% from 852 in 2017 to 1,074 in 2018 and the increase in average spending per customer by 105.5% from RMB259.6 thousand in 2017 to RMB533.3 thousand in 2018.

Our revenues from SaaS products increased by 122.5% from RMB63.6 million in 2017 to RMB141.3 million in 2018, which was mainly due to the growth in the number of customers by 38.2% from 1,411 in 2017 to 1,950 in 2018.

Cost of revenues

Our cost of revenues increased by 142.3% from RMB213.4 million in 2017 to RMB517.1 million in 2018, while our business expanded and our revenues grew. Such increase was mainly attributable to the increases in the cost of purchasing of ad inventory by RMB281.2 million, bandwidth cost and depreciation of servers associated with revenue generation by RMB12.8 million, and cost of staff directly related to revenue generation by RMB3.5 million.

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G ross profit

Our gross profit increased by 176.4% from RMB71.3 million in 2017 to RMB197.1 million in 2018. Our gross margin increased from 25.1% to 27.6% during the same periods, due to the significant revenue growth during the same period.

Research and development expenses

Our research and development expenses increased by 87.4% from RMB71.7 million in 2017 to RMB134.4 million in 2018. The increase was primarily attributable to the increases in research and development personnel compensation expenses by RMB42.3 million, bandwidth costs by RMB10.2 million, and depreciation expenses of servers used for research and development by RMB5.5 million.

Sales and marketing expenses

Our sales and marketing expenses increased by 40.5% from RMB59.7 million in 2017 to RMB83.9 million in 2018. The increase was primarily attributable to the increase in the compensation expenses for personnel engaged in sales and marketing activities by RMB19.4 million and advertising and other marketing expenses associated with brand and product promotions by RMB2.6 million.

General and administrative expenses

Our general and administrative expenses increased by 121.0% from RMB32.4 million in 2017 to RMB71.6 million in 2018. The increase was primarily due to the increases in compensation and other personnel related expenses by RMB14.3 million, professional fees by RMB13.9 million, and allowance for doubtful accounts of RMB4.0 million.

Net loss

As a result of the foregoing, we recorded a net loss of to RMB66.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2018, compared to a net loss of RMB90.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2017.

Critical Accounting Policies

Revenue recognition

Starting from January 1, 2019, we adopted the new revenue guidance ASC Topic 606 Revenue from Contracts with Customers (“ASC 606”) using the modified retrospective method, which requires the recognition of a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings as of the date of adoption and applies the adoption only to contracts not completed as of January 1, 2019. The impact for twelve months ended December 31, 2019 was an increase to revenue of RMB3.1 million and the cumulative impact for beginning retained earnings was RMB4.6 million as a result of applying the new revenue standard, with the impact primarily related to the Company’s private cloud-based services.

Starting from 2019, we have changed the classification of revenue in the consolidated statements of comprehensive loss by reclassifying revenue from developer service and other SaaS products, formerly named as other vertical data solutions, to revenues under SaaS products. We generate revenues primarily through targeted marketing, and SaaS products. Revenue is recognized when control of promised goods or services is transferred to our customers in an amount of consideration to which we expect to be entitled to in exchange for those goods or services.

Targeted marketing

We generate targeted marketing revenue by providing targeted marketing solution in the form of integrated marketing campaign to advertiser through the XiaoGuoTong marketing platform and built upon its multi-dimensional device-level mobile behavioral data or other third-party marketing platforms such as Guangdiantong of Tencent, which is identified as one performance obligation. The ads are displayed on a wide spectrum of reputable publishers, through bidding for ad slots using rates directly negotiated with the various publishers.

We enter into contractual arrangements with advertisers that stipulate the types of advertising to be delivered and the pricing. Advertising customers pay for the targeted marketing solutions primarily based on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) basis. Majority of the contract duration is less than one year. For certain arrangements, customers are required to pay us before the services are delivered. For other arrangements, we provided customers with a credit term less than one year. We act as the principal in the targeted marketing arrangements under which we have control over the fulfilment of the service and has discretion in establishing price. Accordingly, we recognize revenue on a gross basis and at a point in time once agreed actions are performed. Revenues are presented net of value-added tax collected on behalf of the government.

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SaaS Products

We generate SaaS products revenue primarily from developer services and other SaaS products. For developer services, there are two types contracts, subscription-based contracts and project-based contracts. We primarily enter into subscription-based contracts with our customers to provide push notification or instant messaging (collectively “notification services”), which we provide our customers with access to our notification services platform. This enables customers to send notifications and messages to users. We generally recognize revenue ratably over time under the subscription-based contracts, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefits as we provide subscription services throughout a fixed contract term.

We primarily enter into project-based contracts with our customers to provide private cloud-based developer services, which are designed to provide customizable services to customers who want a more controlled software environment and more comprehensive technology and customer support. We provide our customers one combined performance obligation including customized APP push notification system or instant messaging system and related system training services as both performance obligations are incapable of being distinct because the customer cannot drive economic benefit from the related system training services on its own. Meanwhile, we also provide post contract assurance-type maintenance services, which usually have a duration of one year. Under ASC 605, we recognize revenue pro rata over post-contract-service period in accordance with ASC 985-605-25. Under ASC 606, we recognize revenue at the point in time when the system is implemented, and the training service is provided, which is represented by the customer acceptance received by us. Meanwhile, the estimated cost of assurance-type maintenance services is accrued as “Costs of revenues”, which is not material.

For other SaaS products, we enter into agreements with our customers to provide data analytic solutions and there are three types contracts, subscription-based contracts, project-based contracts and consumption-based contracts. We primarily enter into subscription-based contracts with our customers to provide customizable service package for a fixed contract term, which allows the customers to subscribe a fixed number of apps to obtain unlimited volume of queries to our analytic results. We generally recognize revenue ratably over time under the subscription-based contracts, because the customer simultaneously receives and consumes the benefits as we provide subscription services throughout a fixed contract term.

We primarily enter into project-based contracts with our customers to provide in-depth analytics services and generate customized reports based on the customers’ specific requirements. We recognize revenue at the point in time when the customized reports are provided.

We primarily enter into consumption-based contracts with our customers to process the queries or provide features based on the customers’ requirements. We recognize revenue at a point in time when the queries are processed or the features are utilized by the customers.

For certain arrangements, customers are required to pay before the services are delivered. For other arrangements, we provided customers with a credit term under one year. Revenues are presented net of value-added tax collected on behalf of the government.

Long-term investments

Our long-term investments consist of equity investments without readily determinable fair value.

Prior to adopting ASC Topic 321, Investments—Equity Securities (“ASC 321”) on January 1, 2019, we carry at cost of our investments in investees which do not have readily determinable fair value and we do not have significant influence in accordance with ASC 325-20,  Investments-Other: Cost Method Investments . We only adjust for other-than-temporary declines in fair value and distributions of earnings that exceed our share of earnings since our investment. Our management regularly evaluates the impairment of the cost method investments based on performance and financial position of the investee as well as other evidence of market value. Such evaluation includes, but is not limited to, reviewing the investee’s cash position, recent financing, projected and historical financial performance, cash flow forecasts and financing needs. An impairment loss is recognized in earnings equal to the excess of the investment’s cost over its fair value at the balance sheet date of the reporting period for which the assessment is made. The fair value would then become the new cost basis of investment.

Subsequent to the adoption of ASC 321 on January 1, 2019, for equity investments without readily determinable fair value and do not qualify for the existing practical expedient in ASC Topic 820, Fair Value Measurements and Disclosures (“ASC 820”) to estimate fair value using the net asset value per share (or its equivalent) of the investment, we elected to use the measurement alternative to measure those investments at cost, less any impairment, plus or minus changes resulting from observable price changes in orderly transactions for identical or similar investments of the same issuer, if any.

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Income taxes

We account for income taxes using the liability approach and recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future consequences of events that have been recognized in the consolidated financial statements or in our tax returns. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are recognized on the basis of the temporary differences that exist between the tax basis of assets and liabilities and our reported amounts in the consolidated financial statements using enacted tax rates in effect for the year end period in which the differences are expected to reverse. Changes in deferred tax assets and liabilities are recorded in earnings. Deferred tax assets are reduced by a valuation allowance through a charge to income tax expense when, in the opinion of management, it is more-likely-than-not that a portion of or all of the deferred tax assets will not be realized. We evaluate the potential for recovery of deferred tax assets by estimating the future taxable profits expected and considering prudent and feasible tax planning strategies. The components of the deferred tax assets and liabilities are classified as non-current.

We account for uncertainty in income taxes recognized in the consolidated financial statements by applying a two-step process to determine the amount of the benefit to be recognized. First, the tax position must be evaluated to determine the likelihood that it will be sustained upon external examination by the taxing authorities. If the tax position is deemed more-likely-than-not to be sustained (defined as a likelihood of more than fifty percent of being sustained upon an audit, based on the technical merits of the tax position), the tax position is then assessed to determine the amount of benefits to recognize in the consolidated financial statements. The amount of the benefits that may be recognized is the largest amount that has a greater than 50% likelihood of being realized upon ultimate settlement. Interest and penalties on income taxes will be classified as a component of the provisions for income taxes.

We did not recognize any income tax due to uncertain tax positions or incur any interest and penalties related to potential underpaid income tax expenses during the years presented.

Share-based compensation

Share-based payment transactions with employees are measured based on the grant date fair value of the equity instrument. We recognize the compensation costs net of occurred forfeitures using the accelerated recognition method, over the applicable vesting period for each separately vesting portion of the award.

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Restricted Share Unit Grants

The following table sets forth information regarding the restricted share units granted under our stock incentive plans in 2017, 2018 and 2019:

The fair value of restricted share units is determined based on the fair value of our common shares. The market price of our publicly traded ADSs is used as an indicator of fair value for our common shares. Total fair values of restricted share units recognized as expenses as of December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019 were nil, RMB447 thousand and RMB1,938 thousand (US$278 thousand), respectively.

Option Grants

The following table sets forth information regarding the share options granted under our stock incentive plans in 2017, 2018 and 2019

All share-based payments to employees are measured based on their grant-date fair values. Compensation expense is recognized based on the vesting schedule over the requisite service period. Total fair values of options vested and recognized as expenses as of December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019 were RMB8.3 million, RMB24.2 million, RMB45.4 million (US$6.5 million), respectively.

Fair Value of Options

In determining the fair value of our stock options, the binomial option pricing model was applied. The key assumptions used to determine the fair value of the options at the relevant grant dates in 2017, 2018 and 2019 were as follows. Changes in these assumptions could significantly affect the fair value of stock options and hence the amount of compensation expenses we recognize in our consolidated financial statements.

Notes:

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Convertible Notes

On April 17, 2018, we issued zero coupon convertible notes due 2021 in an aggregate principal amount of US$35.0 million to two investors. Holders of the convertible notes may, at their option during a period starting from the issue date until seven days prior to the maturity of the notes, subject to certain exceptions, convert the notes into Class A common shares of our company at the then applicable conversion price.

At the commitment date, the fees and expenses associated with the issuance of the convertible notes are recorded as a discount to the debt liability in accordance with ASU 2015-03. The convertible notes, which is the proceeds net of fees and expenses payable to the creditor and the fair value of the bifurcated derivative, will be accreted to the redemption value on the maturity date using the effective interest method over the estimated life of the debt instrument.

We have early adopted ASU 2015-03, Interest – Imputation of Interest (Subtopic 835-30): Simplifying the Presentation of Debt Issuance Costs, and ASU 2017-11, Accounting for Certain Financial Instruments with Down Round Features. ASU 2015-03 requires that debt issuance costs related to a recognized debt liability be presented in the balance sheet as a direct deduction from the carrying amount of that debt liability. The issuance cost of RMB8.5 million (US$1.3 million) was currently presented as a direct deduction from the principal amount of the convertible notes on the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2019. ASU 2017-11 no longer requires us to consider down round features when determining whether its embedded conversion option is indexed to its own stock.

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Recent Accounting Pronouncements

We discuss recently adopted and issued accounting standards in Note 2, “Summary of Significant Accounting Policies—Recently issued accounting pronouncements” of the notes to our consolidated financial statements.

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The following table sets forth the movements of our cash flows for the periods presented:

We had net cash used in operating activities of RMB75.5 million, RMB97.9 million and RMB25.8 million (US$3.7 million) for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. The decrease in net cash used in operating activities was primarily due to a decrease in net income, adjusted by the reconciliation of certain non-cash items including depreciation and amortization, share-based compensation expenses, unrealized gain on equity investments held, gain on an equity investment sold as well as allowance for doubtful accounts. Our operating cash flow is also affected by the changes in our accounts receivable, accounts payable, deferred revenue and customer deposits, prepayments and other current assets, and accrued liabilities and other current liabilities.

Our accounts receivable represent primarily accounts receivable from the customers that purchased our targeted marketing and SaaS products. As of December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, our accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts, were RMB49.6 million, RMB141.9 million and RMB135.4 million (US$19.5 million), respectively. The increase of accounts receivable as of December 31, 2017 as compared to that as of December 31, 2018 reflected a significant growth in our business and revenues generate by our targeted marketing and SaaS products. Starting from 2019, we have been selective and disciplined in our approach to grant credit terms to customers which results in a lower accounts receivable balance as of December 31, 2019 as compare to that as of December 31, 2018 although the total customer numbers increased from 2018 to 2019. Our accounts receivable turnover days increased from 37 days in 2017 to 48 days in 2018 and further to 55 days in 2019, which was due to the better credit terms we extended to certain qualified customers. Accounts receivable turnover days for a given period are equal to average balances of accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts, at the beginning and the end of the period divided by total revenues during the period and multiplied by the number of days during the period.

Our accounts payable represent primarily accounts payable to suppliers from whom we purchased ad inventory associated with online targeted marketing. As of December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, our accounts payable were RMB8.3 million, RMB18.8 million and RMB20.0 million (US$2.9 million), respectively. The increase reflected the growth of our targeted marketing. Our accounts payable turnover days increased from 8 days in 2017 to 9 days in 2018 and further to 11 days in 2019, because we were able to negotiate better terms with the ad inventory suppliers as our business grew. Accounts payable turnover days for a given period are equal to average accounts payable balances at the beginning and the end of the period divided by total cost of revenues (excluding depreciation) during the period and multiplied by the number of days during the period.

Our deferred revenue represents the cash payments made by our customers in advance of our provision of the targeted marketing and SaaS products they purchased from us, and our customer deposits represent the refundable cash deposits paid by our customers to us primarily in connection with our targeted marketing. Due to the growth of our business, our deferred revenue and customer deposits increased substantially from RMB49.6 million as of December 31, 2017 to RMB59.5 million as of December 31, 2018 and further to RMB77.6 million (US$11.1 million) as of December 31, 2019.

Our prepayments and other current assets represent primarily prepaid media cost, prepaid service fee and others. The increase in prepayments and other current assets from RMB34.2 million as of December 31, 2017 to RMB80.6 million as of December 31, 2018 and further to RMB86.1 million (US$12.4 million) as of December 31, 2019 was primarily due to the growth of our targeted marketing.

Our accrued liabilities and other current liabilities represent primarily accrued payroll and welfare payables, professional fees and others. The increase in accrued liabilities and other current liabilities from RMB52.6 million as of December 31, 2017 to RMB76.7 million as of December 31, 2018 and further to RMB96.3 million (US$13.8 million) as of December 31, 2019 was primarily due to the payroll and termination benefits accruals associated with the employees.

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Our primary sources of liquidity have been proceeds from equity and equity linked financing. As of December 31, 2019, we had RMB431.6 million (US$62.0 million) in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash, of which approximately 30% were held in U.S. dollars and the remainder was held in Renminbi and H.K. dollars.

On April 17, 2018, we issued zero coupon convertible notes due 2021 in an aggregate principal amount of US$35.0 million to two investors. The convertible notes are non-interest bearing, subject to certain exceptions, including when an event of default occurs, such as failure to make any payment due on the due date, and the majority noteholders have, in their sole discretion, accelerated their convertible notes by giving notice to us that their outstanding notes are due and repayable. In such event, we will be required to pay interest at a simple interest rate of 15% per annum on the aggregate outstanding principal amount of the convertible notes. Holders of the convertible notes may, at their option during a period starting from the issue date until seven days prior to the maturity of the notes, subject to certain exceptions, convert the notes into Class A common shares of our company at the then applicable conversion price.

In July and August 2018, we raised from our initial public offering approximately US$68.0 million in net proceeds after deducting underwriting commissions and discounts and the offering expenses payable by us.

We believe our cash and cash equivalents on hand will be sufficient to meet our current and anticipated needs for general corporate purposes for at least the next 12 months. We may, however, need additional cash resources in the future if we experience changes in business conditions or other developments. We may also need additional cash resources in the future if we find and wish to pursue opportunities for investment, acquisition, capital expenditure or similar actions. If we determine that our cash requirements exceed the amount of cash and cash equivalents we have on hand, we may seek to issue equity or equity linked securities or obtain debt financing. The issuance and sale of additional equity would result in further dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased fixed obligations and could result in operating covenants that would restrict our operations. We cannot assure you that financing will be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all.

Although we consolidate the results of our VIE, we only have access to the assets or earnings of our VIE through our contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure.” For restrictions and limitations on liquidity and capital resources as a result of our corporate structure, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—B. Liquidity and Capital Resources—Holding Company Structure.”

Substantially all of our revenues have been, and we expect they are likely to continue to be, in the form of Renminbi. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions, can be made in foreign currencies without prior SAFE approval as long as certain routine procedural requirements are fulfilled. Therefore, our PRC subsidiary is allowed to pay dividends in foreign currencies to us without prior SAFE approval by following certain routine procedural requirements. However, current PRC regulations permit our PRC subsidiary to pay dividends to us only out of its accumulated profits, if any, determined in accordance with Chinese accounting standards and regulations. Our PRC subsidiary is required to set aside at least 10% of its after-tax profits after making up previous years’ accumulated losses each year, if any, to fund certain reserve funds until the total amount set aside reaches 50% of its registered capital. These reserves are not distributable as cash dividends. Historically, our PRC subsidiary has not paid dividends to us, and it will not be able to pay dividends until it generates accumulated profits. Furthermore, capital account transactions, which include foreign direct investment and loans, must be approved by and/or registered with SAFE, its local branches and certain local banks.

Operating activities

Net cash used in operating activities in 2019 was RMB25.8 million (US$3.7 million). The principal items accounting for the difference between our net cash used in operating activities and our net loss of RMB109.8 million (US$15.8 million) were a RMB19.0 million increase in deferred revenue and customer deposits, a RMB13.2 million increase in accrued liabilities and other current liabilities, and a RMB1.2 million increase in accounts payable, partially offset by a RMB25.4 million increase in accounts receivable and a RMB1.1 million increase in prepayments and other current assets. The increases in accounts receivable, prepayments and other current assets, accounts payable, and deferred revenue and customer deposits were due to the growth of our business, especially the increase in revenues generated from mix-shift type of revenue. The increase in accrued liabilities and other current liabilities was mainly due to the payroll and termination benefits accruals associated with the employees.

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Net cash used in operating activities in 2018 was RMB97.9 million. The principal items accounting for the difference between our net cash used in operating activities and our net loss of RMB66.2 million were a RMB19.9 million increase in deferred revenue and customer deposits, a RMB24.0 million increase in accrued liabilities and other current liabilities, and a RMB10.5 million increase in accounts payable, partially offset by a RMB 98.2 million increase in accounts receivable and a RMB46.4 million increase in prepayments and other current assets. The increases in accounts receivable, prepayments and other current assets, accounts payable, and deferred revenue and customer deposits were due to the growth of our business, especially the significant increase in revenues generated from our targeted marketing and other SaaS products. The increase in accrued liabilities and other current liabilities was mainly due to the growth in payroll and welfare accruals associated with the increase in our headcount due to our business expansion in 2018.

Net cash used in operating activities in 2017 was RMB75.5 million. The principal items accounting for the difference between our net cash used in operating activities and our net loss of RMB90.3 million were a RMB31.1 million increase in deferred revenue and customer deposits, a RMB26.5 million increase in accrued liabilities and other current liabilities, and a RMB13.0 million increase in accounts payable, partially offset by a RMB48.3 million increase in accounts receivables and a RMB21.6 million increase in prepayments and other current assets. The increase in accrued liabilities and other current liabilities was mainly due to the growth in payroll and welfare accruals associated with the increase in our headcount. The increases in deferred revenue and customer deposits, accounts receivable and accounts payable were due to the growth of our business. The increase in prepayments and other current assets is primarily due to the growth of our targeted marketing.

Investing activities

Net cash used in investing activities in 2019 was RMB89.0 million (US$12.8 million), consisting primarily of purchase of property and equipment, mainly servers, purchase of intangible assets, and purchase of long-term investments, partially offset by proceeds from an equity investment sold.

Net cash used in investing activities in 2018 was RMB139.2 million, consisting primarily of purchase of property and equipment, mainly servers, purchase of long-term investments and increase in long-term investments.

Net cash used in investing activities in 2017 was RMB28.6 million, consisting primarily of purchase of property and equipment, mainly servers, and purchase of long-term investment, partially offset by proceeds from maturity of time deposits.

Financing activities

Net cash used in financing activities in 2019 was RMB33.9 million (US$4.9 million), consisting primarily of repurchasing of shares.

Net cash provided by financing activities in 2018 was RMB614.9 million, consisting primarily of proceeds from initial public offering and issuance of convertible notes, partially offset by redemption of contingently redeemable convertible preferred shares.

Net cash provided by financing activities in 2017 was RMB217.4 million, consisting of proceeds from the issuance of Series D preferred shares and certain Series C preferred shares.

Capital Expenditures

We made capital expenditures of RMB28.4 million, RMB57.9 million and RMB39.5 million (US$5.7 million) in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. Our capital expenditures mainly included our payment for purchases of property and equipment. We will continue to make such capital expenditures to support the expected growth of our business.

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Holding Company Structure

Aurora Mobile Limited is a holding company with no material operations of its own. We conduct our operations primarily through our WFOE and our VIE. As a result, Aurora Mobile Limited’s ability to pay dividends depends upon dividends paid by our WFOE. If our WFOE or any newly formed PRC subsidiaries incur debt on their own behalf in the future, the instruments governing their debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends to us. In addition, our WFOE is permitted to pay dividends to us only out of its retained earnings, if any, as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. Under PRC law, each of our WFOE and our VIE is required to set aside at least 10% of its after-tax profits each year, if any, to fund certain statutory reserve funds until such reserve funds reach 50% of its registered capital. In addition, our WFOE may allocate a portion of its after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to enterprise expansion funds and staff bonus and welfare funds at its discretion, and our VIE may allocate a portion of their after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to a discretionary surplus fund at its discretion. The statutory reserve funds and the discretionary funds are not distributable as cash dividends. Remittance of dividends by a wholly foreign-owned company out of China is subject to examination by the banks designated by SAFE. Our WFOE has not paid dividends and will not be able to pay dividends until it generates accumulated profits and meets the requirements for statutory reserve funds.

See “Item 4. Information On the Company—B. Business Overview—Research and Development” and “Item 4. Information On the Company—B. Business Overview—Intellectual Property.”

Other than as disclosed elsewhere in this annual report, we are not aware of any trends, uncertainties, demands, commitments or events since January 1, 2019 that are reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on our net revenues, income, profitability, liquidity or capital resources, or that caused the disclosed financial information to be not necessarily indicative of future operating results or financial conditions.

We have not entered into any financial guarantees or other commitments to guarantee the payment obligations of any unconsolidated third parties. In addition, we have not entered into any derivative contracts that are indexed to our shares and classified as shareholders’ equity or that are not reflected in our consolidated financial statements. Furthermore, we do not have any retained or contingent interest in assets transferred to an unconsolidated entity that serves as credit, liquidity or market risk support to such entity. Moreover, we do not have any variable interest in any unconsolidated entity that provides financing, liquidity, market risk or credit support to us or engages in leasing, hedging or product development services with us.

The following table sets forth our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2019:

Our operating lease obligations relate to our leases of office premises and office equipment.

Our long-term debt obligations related to convertible notes issued on April 17, 2018 in an aggregate principal amount of US$35 million will mature on their third anniversary date. Holders of the convertible notes may, at their discretion during a period starting from the issue date of the notes until seven days prior to the maturity of the notes, subject to certain exceptions, convert the notes into Class A common shares of our company at the then applicable conversion price, which is initially US$11.7612 per common share, subject to certain anti-dilution adjustments.

As of December 31, 2019, we had minimum payment obligations in the amount of RMB2.5 million (US$0.4 million) under non-cancellable purchase commitment for bandwidth, which is scheduled to be paid within one year, for servers is RMB13.3 million (US$1.9 million), which is scheduled to be paid within one year; and of RMB3.7 million (US$0.5 million) under non-cancellable purchase commitment for consulting services, which is scheduled to be paid within one to two years.

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See “Forward-Looking Statements” on page 2 of this annual report.

The following table sets forth information regarding our directors and executive officers as of the date of this annual report.

Mr.  Weidong Luo  is our co-founder and has served as our chairman of the board of directors and chief executive office since May 2012. Mr. Luo has over 12 years of experience building successful technology companies. Mr. Luo was a general manager of Shenzhen Zhiwo Information Technology Company Limited from September 2007 to September 2010 responsible for its general business operations. Mr. Luo received a master of philosophy degree in computing from Hong Kong Polytechnic University and a bachelor’s degree in management information systems from Renmin University of China.

Mr.  Fei Chen  is our co-founder and has served as our president since October 2016. Mr. Chen has over 18 years of experience in the technology, media and telecom (TMT) sector, including 9 years of investment banking and research experience with Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup, and 9 years of corporate and startup experience in the high tech industry. From October 2013 to August 2016, he served as a managing director at Citigroup Asia, responsible for the China TMT investment banking business. Mr. Chen received a bachelor’s degree from Tsinghua University in Beijing and received an MBA degree from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Mr.  Xin Huang  has served as our chief technology officer since January 2015. Mr. Huang has over 8 years of experience in software development, specializing in data mining. Prior to joining us, Mr. Huang served as a senior product director in charge of data mining and product development at Zhen’ai from February 2014 to November 2014. Prior to that, Mr. Huang served as a leading data scientist at Douban from June 2011 to February 2014. Mr. Huang received his bachelor’s degree in software engineering from Northeastern University in China.