REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 |
Title of Each Class |
Trading Symbol |
Name of Each Exchange On Which Registered | ||
* | |
Large accelerated filer | ☐ | ☒ | ||||
Non-accelerated filer |
☐ | Emerging growth company |
† | The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012. |
International Financial Reporting Standards as issued | Other ☐ | |||||||
by the International Accounting Standards Board | ☐ |
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Unless otherwise indicated and except where the context otherwise requires, references in this annual report on Form 20-F to:
• | “ADSs” are to our American depositary shares, every three of which represent two Class A common shares; |
• | “Aurora” are to Aurora Mobile Limited, our Cayman Islands holding company; |
• | “BVI” are to the British Virgin Islands; |
• | “China” or the “PRC” are to the People’s Republic of China, including Hong Kong and Macau; |
• | “Class A common shares” are to our Class A common shares of par value US$0.0001 per share; |
• | “Class B common shares” are to our Class B common shares of par value US$0.0001 per share; |
• | “common shares” are to our common shares, par value US$0.0001 per share; |
• | “cumulative app installations” as of a certain date are to the cumulative number of apps that have installed one or more of the SDKs offered as part of our developer services as of the same date; |
• | “customers” in a given period are to those that purchase at least one of our paid-for SAAS Businesses or targeted marketing during the same period. We treat each contracting party as a separate customer although it is possible that a company may have more than one contracting party to enter into contracts with us and multiple entities within one corporate group may use the same contracting party to enter into contracts with us; |
• | “monthly active SDKs” in a given period are to the number of SDKs offered as part of our developer services and integrated into apps that have been installed on mobile devices, which have established active connection with our servers in the last month of the same period; |
• | “monthly active unique mobile devices” in a given period are to the number of unique mobile devices that have at least one app establishing active connection with our servers in the last month of the same period; |
• | “our SAAS Businesses” are to our developer services and vertical applications; |
• | “VIE” are to Shenzhen Hexun Huagu Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Hexun Huagu; |
• | “our WFOE” are to JPush Information Consultation (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., or Shenzhen JPush; |
• | “RMB” and “Renminbi” are to the legal currency of mainland China; |
• | “SAAS” are to Software-as-a-Service; |
• | “US$,” “U.S. dollars,” “$,” and “dollars” are to the legal currency of the United States; and |
• | “we,” “us,” “our company” and “our” are to Aurora Mobile Limited, our Cayman Islands holding company, and its subsidiaries. |
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 RMB6.8972 to US$1.00, the exchange rate in effect as of December 30, 2022 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.
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:
• | our goals and strategies; |
• | our future business development, financial conditions and results of operations; |
• | the expected growth of the mobile internet industry and the mobile app developer services market in China; |
• | the expected growing application of big data technology in China, including in areas such as mobile online marketing, financial risk management, market intelligence and location-based intelligence services; |
• | our expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of our SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing; |
• | our expectations regarding our relationships with app developers, customers, strategic partners and other stakeholders; |
• | competition in our industry; and |
• | relevant government policies and regulations relating to our industry. |
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
Item 1. | IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS |
Not applicable.
Item 2. | OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE |
Not applicable.
Item 3. | KEY INFORMATION |
Our Holding Company Structure and Contractual Arrangements with the VIE
Aurora Mobile Limited is not an operating company in China but a Cayman Islands holding company with no equity ownership in its variable interest entity, or VIE. We conduct our operations in mainland China primarily through our subsidiaries incorporated in mainland China, or mainland China subsidiaries, and the VIE with which we have maintained contractual arrangements. Our value-added telecommunications services businesses in the mainland China have been conducted through the VIE in order to comply with the laws and regulations of mainland China, which restrict and impose conditions on foreign direct investment in companies involved in the provision of such businesses. Accordingly, we operate these businesses in mainland China through the VIE, and such structure is used to provide investors with exposure to foreign investment in China-based companies where laws and regulations in mainland China prohibit or restrict direct foreign investment in certain operating companies, and rely on contractual arrangements among our mainland China subsidiaries, the VIE and their shareholders to control the business operations of the VIE. Investors in our ADSs are not purchasing equity interest in our operating entities in mainland China but instead are purchasing equity interest in a holding company incorporated in the Cayman Islands. As used in this annual report, “Aurora” refers to Aurora Mobile Limited, and “we,” “us,” “our company,” or “our” refers to Aurora Mobile Limited and its subsidiaries. We refer to Shenzhen Hexun Huagu Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Hexun Huagu, as “the VIE,” and to JPush Information Consultation (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., or Shenzhen JPush, as “our WFOE” in this annual report.
We, through our WFOE, have entered into a series of contractual arrangements with the VIE and the nominee shareholders of the VIE. These contractual arrangements enable us to: (i) direct the activities of the VIE, (ii) receive the economic benefits that could potentially be significant to the VIE in consideration for the services provided by our WFOE; and (iii) hold an exclusive option to purchase all or part of the equity interests in and assets of the VIE when and to the extent permitted by the laws of mainland China. Because of these contractual arrangements, we are considered the primary beneficiary of the VIE and hence consolidate its financial results with ours under U.S. GAAP for accounting purpose. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, we derived 97.7%, 95.0% and 96.7% of our external revenues from the VIE, respectively.
These contractual agreements include exclusive option agreements, exclusive business cooperation agreement, financial support agreement, shareholder voting proxy agreement and equity interest pledge agreements. Pursuant to the exclusive option agreements, each shareholder of the VIE has irrevocably granted our WFOE an exclusive option to purchase all or part of his equity interests in the VIE, and the VIE has irrevocably granted our WFOE an exclusive option to purchase all or part of its assets. Pursuant to the exclusive business cooperation agreement, our WFOE has the exclusive right to provide the VIE comprehensive business support, technical services, consulting services and other services. Pursuant to the financial support agreement, we undertake to provide unlimited financial support to the VIE to the extent permissible under the applicable laws and regulations of mainland China, whether or not any operational loss is actually incurred by the VIE. Each of the shareholders of the VIE has also executed a shareholder voting proxy agreement to irrevocably authorize our company to act as his attorney-in-fact to exercise all of his rights as a shareholder of the VIE. Pursuant to the equity interest pledge agreements, the shareholders of the VIE have pledged 100% equity interests in the 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 the VIE of its obligations under the exclusive business cooperation agreement and the exclusive option agreements. For a summary of the material provisions of the contractual arrangements, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure.”
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However, the contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in directing the business operations of the VIE and we may incur substantial costs to enforce the terms of the arrangements. In addition, these agreements have not been tested in mainland China courts. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—We rely on contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders for substantially all of our and the VIE’s business operation, which may not be as effective as direct ownership” and “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—The shareholders of the VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us, which may materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.”
The legal environment in the mainland China is not as developed as in other jurisdictions, such as the United States. As a result, uncertainties in the PRC legal system could limit our ability, as a Cayman holding company, to enforce these contractual arrangements and doing so may be quite costly. There are also substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future laws, regulations and rules of mainland China regarding the status of the rights of our Cayman Islands holding company with respect to its contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders. It is uncertain whether any new laws or regulations of mainland China relating to variable interest entity structures will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. If we or the VIE are found to be in violation of any existing or future laws or regulations of mainland China, or fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant regulatory authorities of mainland China would have broad discretion to take action in dealing with such violations or failures. For more details, see “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties with respect to the legal system and changes in laws and regulations in mainland China could adversely affect us,” “—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating some of our or the VIE’s business operations in mainland China do not comply with regulations of mainland China 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 “—Our business may be significantly affected by the newly enacted PRC Foreign Investment Law of mainland China.”
Our corporate structure is subject to risks associated with our contractual arrangements with the VIE. If the PRC government deems that our contractual arrangements with the VIE do not comply with regulatory restrictions of mainland China on foreign investment in the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change or are interpreted differently in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations. Our holding company, our mainland China subsidiaries and VIE, and investors of our company face uncertainty about potential future actions by the PRC government that could affect the enforceability of the contractual arrangements with the VIE and, consequently, significantly affect the financial performance of the VIE and our company as a whole. For a detailed description of the risks associated with our corporate structure, please refer to risks disclosed under “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure.”
In addition, the VIE is owned principally by Mr. Weidong Luo, who holds 80% of the VIE. Mr. Luo also has 76. 1% of the total voting power of Aurora. Accordingly, the enforceability of the various contracts described above by our company against the VIE is dependent upon Mr. Luo. If he fails to perform his obligations under the contractual arrangements, we could be unable to enforce the contractual arrangements that enable us to direct the business operations of the VIE. If this happens, we would need to deconsolidate the VIE. The majority of our assets, including the necessary licenses to conduct business in mainland China are held by the VIE. A significant part of our revenues is generated by the VIE. An event that results in the deconsolidation of the VIE would have a material effect on our operations and result in the value of the securities diminish substantially or even become worthless. For a detailed description of the risks associated with our corporate structure, see “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure.”
We face various risks and uncertainties related to doing business in mainland China. Our and the VIE’s business operations are primarily conducted in mainland China, and we are subject to complex and evolving laws and regulations of mainland China. For example, we face risks associated with regulatory approvals on offshore offerings, anti-monopoly regulatory actions, and oversight on cybersecurity and data privacy as disclosed in this annual report. This may impact our ability to conduct certain businesses, accept foreign investments, or list on a United States or other foreign exchange. These risks could result in a material adverse change in our operations and the value of our ADSs, significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to continue to offer securities to investors, or cause the value of such securities to significantly decline. For a detailed description of risks related to doing business in China, please refer to risks disclosed under “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China.”
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PRC government’s significant authority in regulating our operations and its oversight and control over offerings conducted overseas by, and foreign investment in, China-based issuers could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors. Implementation of industry-wide regulations, including data security or anti-monopoly related regulations, in this nature may cause the value of such securities to significantly decline. For more details, see “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—The PRC government’s significant oversight over our or the VIE’s business operation could result in a material adverse change in our and the VIE’s operations and the value of our ADSs.”
Permissions Required from the PRC Authorities for Our Operations
We conduct our business in mainland China through our subsidiaries and the VIE in mainland China. The operations of our subsidiaries and the VIE in mainland China are governed by laws and regulations of mainland China. As of the date of this annual report, and except otherwise disclosed in this annual report, our mainland China subsidiaries and the VIE have obtained the requisite licenses and permits from the PRC government authorities that are material for the business operations of our holding company and the VIE in mainland China, including, among others, two value-added telecommunication business licenses covering different scope of operations and a foreign-related investigation license. The VIE may also be required to obtain the personal credit reporting business license. 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. Under the Administrative Regulations on the Credit Reporting Industry and the Administrative Measures for Credit Reporting Agencies, the latter of which was promulgated by the People’s Bank of China and became effective in 2013, no entity may engage in personal credit reporting business without approval by the credit reporting industry regulatory department under the State Council. On September 27, 2021, the People’s Bank of China, or the PBOC, promulgated the Administrative Measures for Credit Information Services, or the Credit Information Services Measures, which took effect on January 1, 2022. Pursuant to the Credit Information Services Measures, Credit Information Services, shall mean the collection, sorting, retention, and processing of credit information of enterprises and individuals, and the provision of the foregoing information to information users. Credit information, shall mean the basic individual information, lending information and other relevant information used for identification and determination of creditworthiness status of enterprises and individuals, and collected pursuant to the law for the purpose of providing services for financial activities, as well as the analyzed and evaluated information formed based on the foregoing information. Persons engaging in personal credit information services shall obtain the personal credit information organization license issued by the PBOC pursuant to the Credit Information Services Measures. The VIE provides 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 the VIE would be deemed to engage in personal credit reporting business because of the VIE’s financial risk management solutions. As of the date of this annual report, we and the VIE have not been subject to any fines or other penalties under any laws or regulations of mainland China related to personal credit reporting business. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Credit Reporting.” Given the uncertainties of interpretation and implementation of relevant laws and regulations and the enforcement practice by relevant government authorities, we and the VIE may be required to obtain additional licenses, permits, filings or approvals for the functions and services of our platform in the future. For more detailed information, see “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—We and the VIE may be adversely affected by the complexity, uncertainties and changes in the regulation of internet-related businesses and companies in mainland China, and any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our and the VIE’s business may have a material adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and results of operations.”
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Furthermore, except as disclosed in this annual report, in connection with our issuance of securities to foreign investors, under current laws, regulations and regulatory rules of mainland China, as of the date of this annual report, we, our mainland China subsidiaries and the VIE, (i) are not required to obtain permissions from the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or the CSRC, and (ii) have not received or were denied such requisite permissions by any PRC authority. We and the VIE are subject to the risks of uncertainty of any future actions of the PRC government in this regard including the risk that we inadvertently conclude that the permission or approvals discussed here are not required, that applicable laws, regulations or interpretations change such that we and the VIE are required to obtain approvals in the future.
However, the PRC government has recently indicated an intent to exert more oversight and control over offerings that are conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers. On December 28, 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China, or the CAC, together with other authorities, jointly promulgated the Measures for Cybersecurity Reviews, or the Cybersecurity Review Measures, which became effective on February 15, 2022, and replaces its predecessor regulation. Pursuant to the Cybersecurity Review Measures, critical information infrastructure operators that procure internet products and services must be subject to the cybersecurity review if their activities affect or may affect national security. The Cybersecurity Review Measures further stipulate that network platform operators that hold personal information of over one million users shall apply with the Cybersecurity Review Office for a cybersecurity review before any public offering at a foreign stock exchange. The Cybersecurity Review Measures remain unclear on whether the relevant requirements will be applicable to further equity or debt offerings by companies that have completed the initial public offering in the United States. In addition to the potential review before foreign listings, the CAC has the discretion to initiate cybersecurity review on data processing activities which are deemed to affect or may affect national security. Thus, we cannot preclude the possibility that we would be subject to such ex officio security reviews, and it is uncertain whether the fact of us being listed in the United States would increase such a possibility. On November 14, 2021, the CAC released the Regulations on the Network Data Security (Draft for Comments), or the Draft Regulations. The Draft Regulations provided that data processors refer to individuals or organizations that autonomously determine the purpose and the manner of processing data. If a data processor that processes personal data of more than one million users would like to list overseas, it shall apply for a cybersecurity review according to the Draft Regulations. Besides, data processors that are listed overseas shall carry out an annual data security assessment. As the Draft Regulations is released for public comment only, and its provisions and anticipated adoption or effective date may be subject to change and thus its interpretation and implementation remain substantially uncertain. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Our and the VIE’s business generates and processes a large amount of data, and we and the VIE are required to comply with PRC and other applicable laws relating to privacy and cybersecurity. The improper use or disclosure of data could have a material and adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and prospects.”
Under the Cybersecurity Review Measures and other cybersecurity laws and regulations of mainland China, critical information infrastructure operators that intend to purchase internet products and services that affect or may affect national security must be subject to the cybersecurity review. As advised by our PRC legal counsel, the PRC governmental authorities may have wide discretion in the interpretation and enforcement of these laws, including the interpretation of the scope of “critical information infrastructure operators.” See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Information Security—Regulations on Personal Information Protection.” In addition, the Cybersecurity Review Measures also stipulate that any internet platform operator carrying out data processing activities that affect or may affect national security should also be subject to the cybersecurity review. In anticipation of the strengthened implementation of cybersecurity laws and regulations and the continued expansion of our and the VIE’s business, we and the VIE face potential risks if we and the VIE are deemed as a critical information infrastructure operator under the cybersecurity laws and regulations of mainland China. In such case, we and the VIE must fulfill certain obligations as required under the cybersecurity laws and regulations of mainland China, including, among others, storing personal information and important data collected and produced within the mainland China territory during our operations in mainland China, which we and the VIE have fulfilled in our and the VIE’s business, and we and the VIE may be subject to review when purchasing internet products and services. We and the VIE may be subject to review when conducting data processing activities, and may face challenges in addressing its requirements and make necessary changes to our internal policies and practices in data processing. As of the date of this annual report, we and the VIE have not been involved in any investigations on cybersecurity review made by the Cyberspace Administration of China on such basis, and we and the VIE have not received any inquiry, notice, warning, or sanctions in such respect.
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On July 6, 2021, the relevant PRC governmental authorities made public the Opinions on Strictly Cracking Down Illegal Securities Activities in Accordance with the Law. These opinions emphasized the need to strengthen the administration over illegal securities activities and the supervision on overseas listings by China-based companies and proposed to take effective measures, such as promoting the construction of relevant regulatory systems to deal with the risks and incidents faced by China-based overseas-listed companies. As these opinions are recently issued, official guidance and related implementation rules have not been issued yet and the interpretation of these opinions remains unclear at this stage. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—The approval and/or other requirements of the CSRC or other PRC governmental authorities may be required in connection with an offering under rules, regulations or policies of mainland China, and, if required, we and the VIE cannot predict whether or how soon we will be able to obtain such approval.” As of the date of this annual report, we and the VIE have not received any inquiry, notice, warning, or sanctions regarding offshore offering from the CSRC or any other PRC governmental authorities.
On February 17, 2023, the CSRC promulgated the Trial Administrative Measures of the Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies, or the Trial Measures, which took effective on March 31, 2023. According to the Trial Measures, among other requirements, (1) domestic companies that seek to offer or list securities overseas, both directly and indirectly, should fulfill the filing procedures with the CSRC; if a domestic company fails to complete the filing procedure, such domestic company may be subject to administrative penalties; (2) if the issuer meets both of the following conditions, the overseas offering and listing shall be determined as an indirect overseas offering and listing by a domestic company: (i) any of the total assets, net assets, revenues or profits of the domestic operating entities of the issuer in the most recent accounting year accounts for more than 50% of the corresponding figure in the issuer’s audited consolidated financial statements for the same period; (ii) its major operational activities are carried out in China or its main places of business are located in China, or the senior managers in charge of operation and management of the issuer are mostly Chinese citizens or are domiciled in China; and (3) where a domestic company seeks to indirectly offer and list securities in an overseas market, the issuer shall designate a major domestic operating entity responsible for all filing procedures with the CSRC, and such filings shall be submitted to the CSRC within three business days after the submission of the overseas offering and listing application. Further, at the press conference held for the Trial Measures on February 17, 2023, officials from the CSRC clarified that the PRC domestic companies that have already been listed overseas on or before the effective date of the Trial Measures (i.e. March 31, 2021) shall be deemed as existing issuers, or the Existing Issuers. Existing Issuers are not required to complete the filing procedures immediately but shall carry out filing procedures as required if they conduct refinancing or are involved in other circumstances that require filing with the CSRC. The officials from the CSRC have also confirmed that for the PRC domestic companies that seek to list overseas with VIE structure, the CSRC will solicit opinions from relevant regulatory authorities and complete the filing of the overseas listing of companies with VIE structure which meet the compliance requirements.
On February 24, 2023, the CSRC, Ministry of Finance of the PRC, National Administration of State Secrets Protection and National Archives Administration of China promulgated the Provisions on Strengthening Confidentiality and Archives Administration of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies, or the Archives Rules, which took effect on March 31, 2023. Pursuant to the Archives Rules, domestic companies that seek for overseas offering and listing shall strictly abide by applicable laws and regulations of the PRC and the Archives Rules, enhance legal awareness of keeping state secrets and strengthening archives administration, institute a sound confidentiality and archives administration system, and take necessary measures to fulfill confidentiality and archives administration obligations. Such domestic companies shall not leak any state secret and working secret of government agencies, or harm national security and public interest. Furthermore, a domestic company that plans to, either directly or through its overseas listed entity, publicly disclose or provide to relevant individuals or entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators, any document and materials that contain state secrets or working secrets of government agencies, shall first obtain approval from competent authorities according to law, and file with the secrecy administrative department at the same level. Moreover, a domestic company that plans to, either directly or through its overseas listed entity, publicly disclose or provide to relevant individuals and entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators, any other documents and materials that, if leaked, will be detrimental to national security or public interest, shall strictly fulfill relevant procedures stipulated by applicable national regulations. The Archives Rules also stipulate that a domestic company that provides accounting archives or copies of accounting archives to any entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators and individuals shall fulfill due procedures in compliance with applicable national regulations.
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In addition to the approval of the CSRC or other PRC government authorities that may be required in connection with our offshore offerings, the VIE is required to obtain and maintain applicable licenses and approvals from different regulatory authorities to provide their current services. Under the current regulatory scheme of mainland China, 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. Operators must obtain government approvals and licenses for relevant telecommunications business. The 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. As such, under the current regulatory scheme of mainland China, the VIE may be required to obtain a foreign-related investigation license. 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.”
Except as disclosed in this annual report, we believe that we and the VIE are currently not required to obtain any other permission or approval from Chinese authorities to operate our and the VIE’s business or to issue securities in follow-on offerings to foreign investors under the appliable laws and regulations of mainland China currently in effect as of the date of this annual report. However, there is no guarantee that this will continue to be the case in the future in relation to our and the VIE’s business development, a follow-on offering or the continued listing of our securities on a U.S. securities exchange, or even in the event such permission or approval is required and obtained, it will not be subsequently revoked or rescinded. If we or the VIE do not receive or maintain the permissions or approvals, or if we inadvertently conclude that such permissions or approvals are not required, or applicable laws, regulations, or interpretations change such that we and the VIE are required to obtain permission or approval in the future, we and the VIE may be subject to an investigation by competent regulators, fines or penalties, or an order prohibiting us from conducting an offering, and these risks could result in a material adverse change in our and the VIE’s operations and the value of our ADSs, significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors, or cause such securities to significantly decline in value or become worthless.
The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act
Pursuant to the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the HFCAA, if the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, determines that we have filed audit reports issued by a registered public accounting firm that has not been subject to inspections by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or the PCAOB, for two consecutive years, the SEC will prohibit our shares or the ADSs from being traded on a national securities exchange or in the over-the-counter trading market in the United States. On December 16, 2021, the PCAOB issued a report to notify the SEC of its determination that the PCAOB was unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China and Hong Kong, including our auditor. In April 2022, the SEC conclusively listed us as a Commission-Identified Issuer under the HFCAA following the filing of our annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. On December 15, 2022, the PCAOB issued a report that vacated its December 16, 2021 determination and removed mainland China and Hong Kong from the list of jurisdictions where it is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms. For this reason, we do not expect to be identified as a Commission-Identified Issuer under the HFCAA after we file this annual report on Form 20-F. Each year, the PCAOB will determine whether it can inspect and investigate completely audit firms in mainland China and Hong Kong, among other jurisdictions. If the PCAOB determines in the future that it no longer has full access to inspect and investigate completely accounting firms in mainland China and Hong Kong and we use an accounting firm headquartered in one of these jurisdictions to issue an audit report on our financial statements filed with the SEC, we would be identified as a Commission-Identified Issuer following the filing of the annual report on Form 20-F for the relevant fiscal year. There can be no assurance that we would not be identified as a Commission-Identified Issuer for any future fiscal year, and if we were so identified for two consecutive years, we would become subject to the prohibition on trading under the HFCAA. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—The PCAOB had historically been unable to inspect our auditor in relation to their audit work performed for our financial statements and the inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of our auditor in the past has deprived our investors with the benefits of such inspections.” and “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Our ADSs may be prohibited from trading in the United States under the HFCAA in the future if the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely auditors located in China. The delisting of the ADSs, or the threat of their being delisted, may materially and adversely affect the value of your investment.”
8
Cash Flows through Our Organization
Aurora is a holding company with no material operations of its own. We conduct our operations primarily through our WFOE and the VIE. As a result, Aurora’s ability to pay dividends depends upon dividends paid by our WFOE. If our WFOE or any newly formed mainland China 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 mainland China’s accounting standards and regulations. Under law of mainland China, each of our WFOE and the 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 mainland China’s accounting standards to enterprise expansion funds and staff bonus and welfare funds at its discretion, and the VIE may allocate a portion of its after-tax profits based on mainland China’s accounting standards to a discretionary surplus fund at its discretion. The statutory reserve funds and the discretionary funds are not distributable as cash dividends. For more details, see “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—B. Liquidity and Capital Resources—Holding Company Structure.”
Under laws and regulations of mainland China, our mainland China subsidiaries and VIE are subject to certain restrictions with respect to paying dividends or otherwise transferring any of their net assets to us. Remittance of dividends by a wholly foreign-owned company out of mainland 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. As of the date of this annual report, no subsidiaries paid dividends or made other distributions to the holding company, and no dividends or distributions were paid or made to our investors. The net liabilities of the VIE, in which we have no legal ownership, amounted to RMB240 million, RMB326 million and RMB358 million (US$52 million) as of December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. For restrictions and limitations on our ability to distribute earnings from our businesses, including subsidiaries and VIE, to Aurora and investors as well as the ability to settle amounts owed under the VIE agreements, see “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—The regulation of mainland China on loans to and direct investment in mainland China 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 mainland China subsidiary, 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 mainland China subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have, and any limitation on the ability of our mainland China subsidiary to make payments to us could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business” and “—Governmental control of currency conversion may limit our ability to utilize our cash balance effectively and affect the value of your investment.”
Our subsidiaries and the VIE conduct business transactions that include provision of services and intercompany loans, and collection of employee’s individual income tax from the exercise of share options, subject to satisfaction of applicable government registration and approval requirements. The cash flows occurred between our subsidiaries and the VIE are summarized below:
For the year ended December 31, | ||||||||||||
2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||
Loans from our WFOE, JPush Information Consulting (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. to the VIE |
— | 80,000 | — | |||||||||
Repayment of loans and interests by the VIE to our WFOE, JPush Information Consulting (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. |
156,124 | 56,341 | 80,620 | |||||||||
Employee’s individual income tax from the exercise of share options from our WFOE, JPush Information Consulting (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. to the VIE |
878 | 2,630 | 52 | |||||||||
Intercompany receivables from the VIE to our WFOE, JPush Information Consulting (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. |
— | — | 168,830 |
9
With respect to intercompany loans, the VIE received cash from our WFOE amounted to nil, RMB80.0 million and nil for the year ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively, and repaid cash to our WFOE amounted to RMB156.1 million, RMB56.3 million and RMB80.6 million (US$11.7 million) for the year ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. With respect to the collection of employee’s individual income tax from the exercise of share options, the VIE received cash from our WFOE amounted to RMB0.9 million, RMB2.6 million and RMB52 thousand (US$7.5 thousand) for the year ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively, which were then remitted to local tax authorities on behalf of our employees. With respect to intercompany receivables from the VIE to our WFOE, the VIE paid cash to our WFOE amounted to nil, nil and RMB168.8 million (US$24.5 million) for the year ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
We have established stringent cash management policies and procedures for cash flows within our organization. Each transfer of funds among our Cayman Islands holding company, our subsidiaries and the VIE is subject to internal approval. In general, transfer of funds is required to be effected through online banking system. Cash is transferred through our organization primarily in the manner as follows: (i) Aurora may transfer funds to the WFOE, Shenzhen JPush, through its Hong Kong subsidiary, KK Mobile Investment Limited, by additional capital contributions or shareholder loans, as the case may be, (ii) the WFOE may provide loans to the VIE, subject to statutory limits and restrictions, (iii) the VIE may repay loans to the WFOE at a fixed annual rate, and (iv) the WFOE may make dividends or other distributions to Aurora through KK Mobile Investment Limited. Our management is directly supervising cash management. The VIE initiates a cash request by putting forward a cash demand plan, which explains the specific amount and timing of cash requested, and submitting it to the finance department. The cashier specialists of our financial department examine the needs of cash and submit it to the director of financial department or the CEO of the Company for final approval. To ensure the liquidity, there is no limit on the amount of cash that can be transferred through our organization. However, the annual cash flow plan between the VIE and the WFOE will be determined based on our annual business objectives approved by the board of directors and approved by the CEO. In addition, we monitor our cash balance on a daily basis and conduct periodic review on our cash holdings. See “—Our Holding Company Structure and Contractual Arrangements with the VIE” and “—Financial Information Related to the VIE, Parent and Its Subsidiaries.”
Aurora has not declared or paid any cash dividends, nor does it has any present plan to pay any cash dividends on our ordinary shares in the foreseeable future. We currently intend to retain most, if not all, of our available funds and any future earnings to operate and expand our business. See “Item 8. Financial Information—A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information—Dividend Policy.” For mainland China and United States federal income tax considerations of an investment in our ADSs, see “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation.”
Financial Information Related to the VIE, Parent and Its Subsidiaries
The following tables provide condensed consolidating schedules depicting the financial position, cash flows, and results of operations for the parent, subsidiaries, the consolidated VIE, and any eliminating adjustments and consolidated totals (in thousands of RMB) as of and for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Selected Condensed Consolidating Schedule of Results of Operations
For the year ended December 31, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Revenues |
— | 322,066 | 82,889 | (76,133 | ) | 328,822 | ||||||||||||||
Loss from subsidiaries and VIE |
(85,448 | ) | — | — | 85,448 | — | ||||||||||||||
Net loss |
(106,964 | ) | (75,486 | ) | (11,448 | ) | 85,448 | (108,450 | ) |
10
For the year ended December 31, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Revenues |
— | 351,243 | 116,306 | (110,227 | ) | 357,322 | ||||||||||||||
Loss from subsidiaries and VIE |
(117,029 | ) | — | — | 117,029 | — | ||||||||||||||
Net loss |
(140,584 | ) | (100,782 | ) | (16,247 | ) | 117,029 | (140,584 | ) |
For the year ended December 31, 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Revenues |
— | 465,066 | 103,435 | (96,887 | ) | 471,614 | ||||||||||||||
(Loss)/profit from subsidiaries and VIE |
(193,109 | ) | — | — | 193,109 | — | ||||||||||||||
Net loss |
(225,075 | ) | (173,865 | ) | (19,244 | ) | 193,109 | (225,075 | ) |
Selected Condensed Consolidating Schedule of Financial Position
As of December 31, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
33,871 | 64,719 | 17,538 | — | 116,128 | |||||||||||||||
Restricted cash |
— | 132 | — | — | 132 | |||||||||||||||
Total current assets |
61,857 | 352,224 | 639,818 | (877,256 | ) | 176,643 | ||||||||||||||
Investments in subsidiaries |
296,231 | — | 1,772,026 | (2,068,257 | ) | — | ||||||||||||||
Total non-current assets |
334,988 | 212,196 | 2,034,537 | (2,325,257 | ) | 256,464 | ||||||||||||||
Total assets |
396,845 | 564,420 | 2,674,355 | (3,202,513 | ) | 433,107 | ||||||||||||||
Total liabilities |
269,155 | 922,390 | 231,292 | (1,147,972 | ) | 274,865 | ||||||||||||||
Redeemable noncontrolling interests |
— | 30,552 | — | — | 30,552 | |||||||||||||||
Total equity/(deficit) |
127,690 | (388,522 | ) | 2,443,063 | (2,054,541 | ) | 127,690 | |||||||||||||
Total liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interests and equity |
396,845 | 564,420 | 2,674,355 | (3,202,513 | ) | 433,107 |
As of December 31, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
6,724 | 55,946 | 27,882 | — | 90,552 | |||||||||||||||
Restricted cash |
5,998 | 158,032 | — | — | 164,030 | |||||||||||||||
Total current assets |
32,896 | 394,640 | 446,052 | (492,452 | ) | 381,136 | ||||||||||||||
Investments in subsidiaries |
349,501 | — | 1,622,191 | (1,971,692 | ) | — |
11
As of December 31, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Total non-current assets |
401,447 | 144,382 | 1,917,264 | (2,248,692 | ) | 214,401 | ||||||||||||||
Total assets |
434,343 | 539,022 | 2,363,316 | (2,741,144 | ) | 595,537 | ||||||||||||||
Total liabilities |
218,900 | 865,202 | 60,174 | (764,182 | ) | 380,094 | ||||||||||||||
Total equity |
215,443 | (326,180 | ) | 2,303,142 | (1,976,962 | ) | 215,443 | |||||||||||||
Total liabilities and equity |
434,343 | 539,022 | 2,363,316 | (2,741,144 | ) | 595,537 |
Selected Condensed Consolidating Schedules of Cash Flows
For the Year Ended December 31, 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Net cash provided by/(used in) operating activities |
195,530 | (113,809 | ) | (99,197 | ) | — | (17,476 | ) | ||||||||||||
Net cash (used in)/provided by investing activities |
(2,690 | ) | 29,682 | 69,861 | (70,000 | ) | 26,853 | |||||||||||||
Net cash used in financing activities |
(153,040 | ) | (65,000 | ) | — | 70,000 | (148,040 | ) | ||||||||||||
Effect of exchange rate fluctuation on cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
(18,651 | ) | — | 18,992 | — | 341 | ||||||||||||||
Net change in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
21,149 | (149,127 | ) | (10,344 | ) | — | (138,322 | ) | ||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the beginning of year |
12,722 | 213,978 | 27,882 | — | 254,582 | |||||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the end of year |
33,871 | 64,851 | 17,538 | — | 116,260 |
12
For the Year Ended December 31, 2021 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Net cash (used in)/provided by operating activities |
(24,383 | ) | 68,336 | (120,603 | ) | — | (76,650 | ) | ||||||||||||
Net cash (used in)/provided by investing activities |
(4,859 | ) | (186 | ) | 1,487 | 30,000 | 26,442 | |||||||||||||
Net cash provided by/(used in) financing activities |
(54,520 | ) | 30,000 | — | (30,000 | ) | (54,520 | ) | ||||||||||||
Effect of exchange rate fluctuation on cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
4,361 | — | (1,281 | ) | — | 3,080 | ||||||||||||||
Net change in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
(79,401 | ) | 98,150 | (120,397 | ) | — | (101,648 | ) | ||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the beginning of year |
92,123 | 115,828 | 148,279 | — | 356,230 | |||||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the end of year |
12,722 | 213,978 | 27,882 | — | 254,582 |
For the Year Ended December 31, 2020 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Parent | VIE and VIE’s subsidiaries |
Other subsidiaries |
Eliminating adjustments |
Consolidated total |
||||||||||||||||
(RMB in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Net cash (used in)/provided by operating activities |
(17,412 | ) | 168,971 | (75,749 | ) | — | 75,810 | |||||||||||||
Net cash (used in)/provided by investing activities |
(6,525 | ) | (108,450 | ) | 121,742 | (151,182 | ) | (144,415 | ) | |||||||||||
Net cash provided by/(used in) financing activities |
5,257 | (156,124 | ) | — | 151,182 | 315 | ||||||||||||||
Effect of exchange rate fluctuation on cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
(3,686 | ) | — | (3,368 | ) | — | (7,054 | ) | ||||||||||||
Net change in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
(22,366 | ) | (95,603 | ) | 42,625 | — | (75,344 | ) | ||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the beginning of year |
114,489 | 211,429 | 105,656 | — | 431,574 | |||||||||||||||
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the end of year |
92,123 | 115,828 | 148,279 | — | 356,230 |
A. | Selected Financial Data |
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, 2020, 2021 and 2022, selected consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022 and selected consolidated cash flows data for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022 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, 2018 and 2019, the selected consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 and selected consolidated cash flows data for the year ended December 31, 2018 and 2019 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.
13
For the Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | US$ | |||||||||||||||||||
(in thousands, except for per share data) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Consolidated Statements of Operations Data: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Revenues |
714,141 | 906,458 | 471,614 | 357,322 | 328,822 | 47,675 | ||||||||||||||||||
Cost of revenues(1) |
(517,074 | ) | (649,596 | ) | (265,436 | ) | (92,393 | ) | (103,057 | ) | (14,942 | ) | ||||||||||||
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|
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|
|
|
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Gross profit |
197,067 | 256,862 | 206,178 | 264,929 | 225,765 | 32,733 | ||||||||||||||||||
Operating expenses:(1) |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Research and development expenses |
(134,358 | ) | (176,248 | ) | (174,597 | ) | (206,722 | ) | (154,476 | ) | (22,397 | ) | ||||||||||||
Sales and marketing expenses |
(83,853 | ) | (118,548 | ) | (102,319 | ) | (116,415 | ) | (98,324 | ) | (14,256 | ) | ||||||||||||
General and administrative expenses |
(71,641 | ) | (109,291 | ) | (119,087 | ) | (79,922 | ) | (105,404 | ) | (15,282 | ) | ||||||||||||
Total operating expenses |
(289,852 | ) | (404,087 | ) | (396,003 | ) | (403,059 | ) | (358,204 | ) | (51,935 | ) | ||||||||||||
Loss from operations |
(92,785 | ) | (147,225 | ) | (189,825 | ) | (138,130 | ) | (132,439 | ) | (19,202 | ) | ||||||||||||
Loss before income taxes |
(66,167 | ) | (109,679 | ) | (224,989 | ) | (140,552 | ) | (108,905 | ) | (15,790 | ) | ||||||||||||
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Net loss |
(66,197 | ) | (109,841 | ) | (225,075 | ) | (140,584 | ) | (108,450 | ) | (15,724 | ) | ||||||||||||
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Net loss attributable to Aurora Mobile Limited’s shareholders |
(66,197 | ) | (109,841 | ) | (225,075 | ) | (140,584 | ) | (106,964 | ) | (15,509 | ) | ||||||||||||
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Accretion of contingently redeemable convertible preferred shares |
(24,094 | ) | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
Net loss attributable to common shareholders |
(90,291 | ) | (109,841 | ) | (225,075 | ) | (140,584 | ) | (106,964 | ) | (15,509 | ) | ||||||||||||
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Net loss per share for class A and class B common shares: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Class A and B common shares—basic and diluted |
(1.57 | ) | (1.43 | ) | (2.91 | ) | (1.78 | ) | (1.35 | ) | (0.20 | ) | ||||||||||||
Shares used in net loss per share computation: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Class A common share—Basic and diluted |
40,441,999 | 59,721,341 | 60,415,978 | 61,809,501 | 62,296,172 | 62,296,172 | ||||||||||||||||||
Class B common share—Basic and diluted |
17,000,189 | 17,000,189 | 17,000,189 | 17,000,189 | 17,000,189 | 17,000,189 |
Note:
(1) | Share-based compensation expenses are allocated in cost of revenues and operating expenses as follows: |
For the Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | US$ | |||||||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cost of revenue |
— | 73 | 4 | 41 | 2 | — | ||||||||||||||||||
Research and development expenses |
9,448 | 12,819 | 7,176 | 13,801 | 368 | 53 | ||||||||||||||||||
Sales and marketing expenses |
3,347 | 6,040 | 3,965 | 2,609 | 1,188 | 172 | ||||||||||||||||||
General and administrative expenses |
11,766 | 28,352 | 17,713 | 13,761 | 13,957 | 2,024 | ||||||||||||||||||
Total |
24,561 | 47,284 | 28,858 | 30,212 | 15,515 | 2,249 | ||||||||||||||||||
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14
As of December 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | US$ | |||||||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Consolidated Balance Sheet Data: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents |
576,562 | 431,459 | 356,115 | 90,552 | 116,128 | 16,837 | ||||||||||||||||||
Accounts receivable, net |
141,911 | 135,417 | 44,886 | 43,860 | 29,727 | 4,310 | ||||||||||||||||||
Prepayments and other current assets |
80,578 | 86,087 | 49,013 | 46,670 | 30,401 | 4,407 | ||||||||||||||||||
Total assets |
992,068 | 939,923 | 787,427 | 595,537 | 433,107 | 62,794 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Accounts payable |
18,811 | 19,996 | 16,592 | 18,292 | 18,169 | 2,634 | ||||||||||||||||||
Deferred revenue and customer deposits |
59,483 | 77,561 | 109,182 | 119,991 | 138,804 | 20,125 | ||||||||||||||||||
Accrued liabilities and other current liabilities |
76,666 | 96,277 | 109,136 | 85,305 | 75,333 | 10,922 | ||||||||||||||||||
Total liabilities |
390,408 | 432,135 | 466,188 | 380,094 | 274,865 | 39,851 | ||||||||||||||||||
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Redeemable noncontrolling interests |
— | — | — | — | 30,552 | 4,430 | ||||||||||||||||||
Total shareholders’ equity |
601,660 | 507,788 | 321,239 | 215,443 | 127,690 | 18,513 | ||||||||||||||||||
Total liabilities, redeemable noncontrolling interests and shareholders’ equity |
992,068 | 939,923 | 787,427 | 595,537 | 433,107 | 62,794 | ||||||||||||||||||
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For the Year Ended December 31, | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | ||||||||||||||||||||
RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | RMB | US$ | |||||||||||||||||||
(in thousands) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Consolidated Cash Flow Data: |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
Net cash (used in)/provided by operating activities |
(97,925 | ) | (25,758 | ) | 75,810 | (76,650 | ) | (17,476 | ) | (2,533 | ) | |||||||||||||
Net cash (used in)/provided investing activities |
(139,206 | ) | (88,966 | ) | (144,415 | ) | 26,442 | 26,853 | 3,893 | |||||||||||||||
Net cash provided by/(used in) financing activities |
614,884 | (33,883 | ) | 315 | (54,520 | ) | (148,040 | ) | (21,464 | ) | ||||||||||||||
Effect of foreign currency exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
(9,352 | ) | 3,504 | (7,054 | ) | 3,080 | 341 | 49 | ||||||||||||||||
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash |
368,401 | (145,103 | ) | (75,344 | ) | (101,648 | ) | (138,322 | ) | (20,055 | ) | |||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash at the beginning of year |
208,276 | 576,677 | 431,574 | 356,230 | 254,582 | 36,911 | ||||||||||||||||||
Cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash at the end of year |
576,677 | 431,574 | 356,230 | 254,582 | 116,260 | 16,856 |
B. | Capitalization and Indebtedness |
Not applicable.
C. | Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds |
Not applicable.
15
D. | Risk Factors |
Summary of Risk Factors
Investing in our ADSs involves significant risks. You should carefully consider all of the information in this annual report before making an investment in our ADSs. Below is a summary of material risks we and the VIE face, organized under relevant headings. These risks are discussed more fully in Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors.
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We and the VIE are subject to risks and uncertainties related to our and the VIE’s business and industry, including, but not limited to, the following:
• | We have experienced rapid growth in SAAS Businesses in recent periods, and our recent growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth; |
• | We have incurred net losses in the past, which we may continue to experience in the future; |
• | If we cannot successfully execute our strategy and continue to develop and effectively market SAAS Businesses and our other business initiatives that anticipate and respond to the needs of app developers and our customers, our business, operating results and financial condition may suffer; |
• | 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; |
• | If the market for our SAAS Businesses and other business initiatives develops more slowly than we expect, our growth may slow or stall and our operating results could be harmed; |
• | Our and the VIE’s business generates and processes a large amount of data, and we and the VIE are required to comply with PRC and other applicable laws relating to privacy and cybersecurity. The improper use or disclosure of data could have a material and adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and prospects; |
• | 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; |
• | If we fail to keep up with rapid changes in technologies, our future success may be adversely affected; and |
• | We may not be able to compete successfully with our current or future competitors. |
Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure
We and the VIE are also subject to risks and uncertainties related to our corporate structure, including, but not limited to, the following:
• | Aurora is a Cayman Islands holding company with no equity ownership in the VIE, and we conduct our operations in mainland China primarily through (i) our mainland China subsidiary and (ii) the VIE with which we have maintained contractual arrangements. Investors in our ADSs thus are not purchasing equity interest in our operating entities in China but instead are purchasing equity interest in Cayman Islands holding company. If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating some of our or the VIE’s business operations in mainland China do not comply with regulations of mainland China relating to the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change in the future, we and the VIE could be subject to severe penalties, or be forced to relinquish interest in those operations. Our holding company in the Cayman Islands, our mainland China subsidiary, the VIE, and investors of Aurora face uncertainty about potential future actions by the PRC government that could affect the enforceability of the contractual arrangements without VIE and, consequently, significantly affect the financial performance of the VIE and our company as a whole; |
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• | We rely on contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders for substantially all of our business operation, which may not be as effective as direct ownership. we rely on the performance by the VIE and its shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to direct the business operations of the 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 the VIE; |
• | Any failure by the VIE or its shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them would have a material and adverse effect on our business. if the 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 law of mainland China, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and claiming damages, which we cannot assure will be effective under law of mainland China; and |
• | The shareholders of the VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with Aurora, which may materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition. These shareholders may breach, or cause the VIE to breach, or refuse to renew, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and the VIE, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to direct the business operations of the VIE and receive economic benefits from them. If we cannot resolve any conflict of interest or dispute between us and the shareholders of the 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. |
Risks Related to Doing Business in China
We and the VIE face risks and uncertainties related to doing business in China in general, including, but not limited to, the following:
• | Changes in mainland China’s economic, political or social conditions or government policies could have a material adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and operations. The enforcement of laws and rules and regulations in China may change quickly with little advance notice, which could result in a material adverse change in our and the VIE’s operations and the value of our ADSs; |
• | We and the VIE may be adversely affected by the complexity, uncertainties and changes in the regulation of internet-related businesses and companies in mainland China, and any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our and the VIE’s business may have a material adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and results of operations; |
• | The approval and/or other requirements of the CSRC or other PRC governmental authorities may be required in connection with an offering under the rules, regulations or policies of mainland China, and, if required, we and the VIE cannot predict whether or how soon we will be able to obtain such approval. Any failure to obtain or delay in obtaining the requisite governmental approval for an offering, or a rescission of such approval, would subject us and the VIE to sanctions imposed by the relevant PRC regulatory authority; |
• | The PRC government’s significant oversight over our or the VIE’s business operation could result in a material adverse change in our and the VIE’s operations and the value of our ADSs. The PRC government may intervene or influence our and the VIE’s operations at any time, or may exert more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers. Any actions by the PRC government to exert more oversight and control over offerings that are conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors and cause the value of such securities to significantly decline or become worthless; |
• | The PCAOB had historically been unable to inspect our auditor in relation to their audit work performed for our financial statements and the inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of our auditor in the past has deprived our investors with the benefits of such inspections; and |
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• | Our ADSs may be prohibited from trading in the United States under the HFCAA in the future if the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely auditors located in China. The delisting of the ADSs, or the threat of their being delisted, may materially and adversely affect the value of your investment. In April 2022, the SEC conclusively listed us as a Commission-Identified Issuer under the HFCAA following the filing of our annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. |
Risks Related to our ADSs
We face risks and uncertainties related to our ADSs, including, but not limited to, the following:
• | Our ADSs may be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market as a result of our failure of meeting the Nasdaq Global Market continued listing requirements. |
• | The trading price of the ADSs is likely to be volatile, which could result in substantial losses to investors; and |
• | 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. |
Risks Related to Our Business and Industry
We have experienced rapid growth in SAAS Businesses 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:
• | attract new app developers and customers, including from diversified industry verticals, and retain and expand our relationships with existing app developers and customers on a cost-effective basis; |
• | maintain the breadth of our ad publisher network and attract new publishers; |
• | innovate and adapt our services and solutions to meet evolving needs of current and potential customers, including to address market trends; |
• | maintain and increase our access to data necessary for the development and performance of our solutions; |
• | maintain the proper functioning of SAAS Businesses which include Developer Services and Vertical Applications, and other business initiatives as we continue to collect increasing amounts of data from a growing user base; |
• | continuously improve on the algorithms underlying the products and the technologies; |
• | adapt to a changing regulatory landscape governing privacy matters; |
• | keep pace with the new technological development in the industry; |
• | invest sufficiently in our technology and infrastructure, at the pace required to support our growth; |
• | productize new solutions; |
• | introduce our services and solutions to new geographic markets; |
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• | increase awareness of our brand among more businesses; and |
• | attract and retain employees. |
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 RMB189.8 million, RMB138.1 million and RMB132.4 million (US$19.2 million) for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, and net losses of RMB225.1 million, RMB140.6 million and RMB108.5 million (US$15.7 million) for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, 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:
• | investments in our research and development team and in the development of new solutions and enhancement of our solutions; |
• | investments in sales and marketing, including expanding our sales force, increasing our customer base and increasing market awareness of our platform; |
• | expanding our operations and infrastructure, including internationally; and |
• | incurring costs associated with general administration, including legal, accounting and other expenses related to being a public company. |
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.
If we cannot successfully execute our strategy and continue to develop and effectively market SAAS Businesses and our other business initiatives 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 Businesses and other business initiatives 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 SAAS and other 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 SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing 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 Businesses and other business initiatives, 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, SAAS Businesses 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, SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing development of new products could fail to attain sufficient market acceptance for many reasons, including:
• | the failure to accurately predict market or customer demands; |
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• | defects, errors or failures in the design or performance of our new products or product enhancements; |
• | negative publicity about the performance or effectiveness of our SAAS Businesses; |
• | delays in developing and enhancing existing products or releasing our new products to the market; |
• | the introduction or anticipated introduction of competing products by our competitors; |
• | poor business conditions for our customers, causing them to delay purchases; and |
• | the perceived value of our services and SAAS Businesses relative to their cost. |
To the extent we are not able to continue to execute on our business model to timely and effectively develop and market our SAAS Businesses and other business initiatives 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 Businesses and other business initiatives 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 Businesses and other business initiatives. 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 SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing. 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 SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing. Our business plan assumes that the demand for SAAS Businesses 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 SAAS Businesses 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 SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing, the growth of our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.
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If the market for our SAAS Businesses and other business initiatives develops more slowly than we expect, our growth may slow or stall and our operating results could be harmed.
The market for SAAS Businesses and other business initiatives 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 Businesses and other business initiatives 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 Businesses or other 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 SAAS Businesses, 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.
Our and the VIE’s business generates and processes a large amount of data, and we and the VIE are required to comply with PRC and other applicable laws relating to privacy and cybersecurity. The improper use or disclosure of data could have a material and adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and prospects.
Our and the VIE’s business generates and processes a large quantity of data. We and the VIE face risks inherent in handling and protecting large volume of data. In particular, we and the VIE face a number of challenges relating to data from transactions, developer services, and other activities on our platforms, including:
• | protecting the data in and hosted on our system, including against attacks on our system by outside parties or fraudulent behavior or improper use by our employees; |
• | addressing concerns related to privacy and sharing, safety and other factors; and |
• | complying with applicable laws, rules and regulations relating to the collection, use, storage, transfer and disclosure of personal information, including any requests from regulatory and government authorities relating to these data. |
In general, we expect that data privacy and data protection compliance will receive greater attention and focus from regulators, both domestically and globally, as well as attract continued or greater public scrutiny and attention going forward, which could increase our compliance costs and subject us to heightened risks and challenges associated with data security and protection. If we are unable to manage these risks, we could become subject to penalties, including fines, suspension of business and revocation of required licenses, and our reputation and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.
The regulatory and enforcement regime of mainland China with regard to data privacy and data protection is evolving and may be subject to different interpretations or significant changes. Moreover, different regulatory bodies of mainland China, including the Standing Committee of the NPC, the MIIT, the CAC, the MPS and the SAMR, have enforced data privacy and protection laws and regulations with varying standards and applications. 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 following are examples of certain recent regulatory activities in mainland China in this area:
• | The Anti-monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy Sector published by the Anti-monopoly Committee of the State Council, effective on February 7, 2021, prohibits collection of user information through coercive means by online platforms operators. |
• | In August 2021, the Standing Committee of the NPC promulgated the Personal Information Protection Law, which integrates the scattered rules with respect to personal information rights and privacy protection and took effect on November 1, 2021. We update our privacy policies from time to time to meet the latest regulatory requirements of PRC government authorities and adopt technical measures to protect data and ensure cybersecurity in a systematic way. Nonetheless, the Personal Information Protection Law elevates the protection requirements for personal information processing, and many specific requirements of this law remain to be clarified by the CAC, other regulatory authorities, and courts in practice. We may be required to make further adjustments to our business practices to comply with the personal information protection laws and regulations. |
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Many of the data-related legislations are relatively new and certain concepts thereunder remain subject to interpretation by the regulators. In addition, according to the institutional reform plan of the State Council approved by the National People’s Congress on March 10, 2023, China will establish the National Data Bureau, which will be administered by the National Development and Reform Commission, or the NDRC. The National Data Bureau will be responsible for advancing the development of data-related fundamental institutions, coordinating the integration, sharing, development and application of data resources, and pushing forward the planning and building of a digital China, the digital economy and a digital society. 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 Cyber Security Law of mainland China 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 Cyber Security Law of mainland China 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 SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing 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. If any data that we and the VIE possess belongs to data categories that are subject to heightened scrutiny, we may be required to adopt stricter measures for protection and management of such data. The Cybersecurity Review Measures and the Draft Regulations remain unclear on whether the relevant requirements will be applicable to companies that are already listed in the United States, such as us. We cannot predict the impact of the Cybersecurity Review Measures and the Draft Regulations, if any, at this stage, and we will closely monitor and assess any development in the rule-making process. If the Cybersecurity Review Measures and the enacted version of the Draft Regulations mandate clearance of cybersecurity review and other specific actions to be taken by issuers like us, we and the VIE face uncertainties as to whether these additional procedures can be completed by us or the VIE timely, or at all, which may subject us to government enforcement actions and investigations, fines, penalties, suspension of our non-compliant operations, or removal of our app from the relevant application stores, and materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations. As of the date of this annual report, we and the VIE have not been involved in any formal investigations on cybersecurity review made by the CAC on such basis.
In general, compliance with the existing laws and regulations of mainland China, as well as additional laws and regulations that regulatory bodies of mainland China may enact in the future, related to data security and personal information protection, may be costly and result in additional expenses to us, and subject us to negative publicity, which could harm our reputation and business operations. There are also uncertainties with respect to how such laws and regulations will be implemented and interpreted in practice.
In addition, regulatory authorities around the world have adopted or are considering a number of legislative and regulatory proposals concerning data protection. These legislative and regulatory proposals, if adopted, and the uncertain interpretations and application thereof could, in addition to the possibility of fines, result in an order requiring that we change our data practices and policies, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which came into effect on May 25, 2018, includes operational requirements for companies that receive or process personal data of residents of the European Economic Area. The GDPR establishes new requirements applicable to the processing of personal data, affords new data protection rights to individuals and imposes penalties for serious data breaches. Individuals also have a right to compensation under the GDPR for financial or non-financial losses. In August 2022, we entered a cooperation agreement with WhatsApp to enable our customers to access WhatsApp’s messaging channels through our platform. In the event our customers send message to the residents of the European Economic Area through these WhatsApp’s messaging channels, we would fulfill the data security protection obligations pursuant to relevant regulations and customers’ requirements, and implement security protection measures to process the protected information, such as encrypting and desensitizing the data. As of the date of this annual report, we and the VIE have not been involved in any investigations or aware of any claims on such basis.
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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.”
Given the nature of our business as an internet services provider to developers, we face the challenge of protecting the data in and hosted on our system, including against attacks on our system by outside parties or fraudulent behavior or improper use by our employees. 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.
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.
In addition, the regulatory and enforcement regime of mainland China with regard to data security and data protection is evolving and may be subject to different interpretations or significant changes. For instance:
• | In June 2021, the Standing Committee of the NPC promulgated the Data Security Law, which took effect in September 2021. The Data Security Law, among other things, provides for security review procedure for data-related activities that may affect national security. In July 2021, the State Council promulgated the Regulations on the Security Protection of Critical Information Infrastructure, which became effective on September 1, 2021. Pursuant to this regulation, critical information infrastructure means key network facilities or information systems of critical industries or sectors, such as public communication and information service, energy, transportation, water conservation, finance, public services, e-government affairs and national defense science, the damage, malfunction or data leakage of which may endanger national security, people’s livelihoods and the public interest. In December 2021, the CAC, together with other authorities, jointly promulgated the Cybersecurity Review Measures, which became effective on February 15, 2022, and replaces its predecessor regulation. Pursuant to the Cybersecurity Review Measures, critical information infrastructure operators that procure internet products and services must be subject to the cybersecurity review if their activities affect or may affect national security. The Cybersecurity Review Measures further stipulates that network platform operators that hold personal information of over one million users shall apply with the Cybersecurity Review Office for a cybersecurity review before any public offering at a foreign stock exchange. The Cybersecurity Review Measures remain unclear on whether the relevant requirements will be applicable to further equity or debt offerings by companies that have completed the initial public offering in the United States. In addition to the potential review before foreign listings, the CAC has the discretion to initiate cybersecurity review on data processing activities which are deemed to affect or may affect national security. Thus, we cannot preclude the possibility that we would be subject to such ex officio security reviews, and it is uncertain whether the fact of us being listed in the United States would increase such a possibility. If we are subject to such a cybersecurity review, we may be ordered to suspend our business by disconnecting our products from our clients’ mobile apps, stopping developing new clients, businesses, among others. If we fail to pass the cybersecurity review, we may face penalties such as fines, orders to suspend relevant business, suspension of business, closure of websites, revocation of relevant business licenses and permits, and any of these could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. However, the exact scope of “critical information infrastructure operators” under the current regulatory regime remains unclear, and the PRC government authorities may have wide discretion in the interpretation and enforcement of the applicable laws. Therefore, we cannot rule out the possibility that we may be deemed to be a critical information infrastructure operator under law of mainland China. If we are deemed to be a critical information infrastructure operator under the cybersecurity laws and regulations of mainland China, we may be subject to obligations in addition to what we have fulfilled under the cybersecurity laws and regulations of mainland China. At this stage, we are unable to predict the possible consequences of the Draft Regulations, if any, and we are monitoring and assessing the rulemaking process closely. |
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• | In November 2021, the CAC released the Draft Regulations. The Draft Regulations provide that data processors refer to individuals or organizations that, during their data processing activities such as data collection, storage, utilization, transmission, publication and deletion, have autonomy over the purpose and the manner of data processing. In accordance with the Draft Regulations, data processors shall apply for a cybersecurity review for certain activities, including, among other things, (i) the listing abroad of data processors that process the personal information of more than one million users and (ii) any data processing activity that affects or may affect national security. However, there have been no clarifications from the relevant authorities as of the date of this annual report as to the standards for determining whether an activity is one that “affects or may affect national security.” In addition, the Draft Regulations requires that data processors that process “important data” or are listed overseas must conduct an annual data security assessment by itself or commission a data security service provider to do so, and submit the assessment report of the preceding year to the municipal cybersecurity department by the end of January each year. As of the date of this annual report, the Draft Regulations was released for public comment only, and their respective provisions and anticipated adoption or effective date may be subject to change with substantial uncertainty. |
The uncertainties with respect to how such laws and regulations will be implemented and interpreted in practice, and the potential further enactment of laws and regulations by the regulatory bodies of mainland China may result in additional expenses to us, and subject us to negative publicity, which could harm our reputation and business operations.
Moreover, if a high-profile security breach occurs with respect to another SAAS Businesses, our customers and potential customers may lose trust in the security of our SAAS Businesses generally, which could adversely impact our ability to retain existing customers or attract new ones. Besides, any failure, or perceived failure to maintain the security of our data or to comply with applicable PRC or foreign privacy, data security and personal information protection laws and obligations may result in civil or regulatory liability, including governmental or data protection authority enforcement actions and investigations, fines, penalties, enforcement orders requiring us to cease operating in a certain way, litigation, or adverse publicity, and may require us to expend significant resources in responding to and defending allegations and claims.
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.
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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.
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 SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing. 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 Businesses and other business initiatives 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 for SAAS Businesses have, and our potential competitors could have, substantial competitive advantages such as:
• | greater name recognition, longer operating histories and larger user bases; |
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• | broader, deeper or otherwise more established relationships with technology, channel and business partners, including ad publishers and customers; |
• | greater resources to make acquisitions; |
• | larger and more mature intellectual property portfolios; |
• | larger sales and marketing budgets and resources and the capacity to leverage their sales efforts and marketing expenditures across a broader portfolio of products; and |
• | substantially greater financial, technical and other resources to provide support, to make acquisitions and to develop and introduce new products. |
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.
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 mainland China and Singapore. 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.
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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 mainland China and the stability of information technology and communications systems of app developers, customers and publishers. The availability of our SAAS Businesses 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 mainland 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.
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, 2022, within mainland China, we had 58 patent applications pending and 35 patents registered. We own 98 computer software copyrights, relating to various aspects of our SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing. In addition, we have filed 7 trademark applications and have maintained 119 trademark registrations and 4 artwork copyrights in mainland China. We also registered 162 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 mainland China and other jurisdictions outside of the United States. Even where adequate, relevant laws exist in mainland China and other jurisdictions 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.
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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 mainland 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 mainland China, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims.
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.
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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. 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 mainland 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 mainland China are highly regulated. The 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 regulatory scheme of mainland China, a number of regulatory agencies, including but not limited to, the MIIT, and Cyberspace Administration of China, jointly regulate all major aspects of the internet industry, including the mobile internet business. The 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 regulatory scheme of mainland China, the 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.
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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 mainland 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. On September 27, 2021, the PBOC promulgated the Administrative Measures for Credit Information Services, or the Credit Information Services Measures, which took effect on January 1, 2022. Pursuant to the Credit Information Services Measures, Credit Information Services, shall mean the collection, sorting, retention, and processing of credit information of enterprises and individuals, and the provision of the foregoing information to information users. Credit information, shall mean the basic individual information, lending information and other relevant information used for identification and determination of creditworthiness status of enterprises and individuals, and collected pursuant to the law for the purpose of providing services for financial activities, as well as the analyzed and evaluated information formed based on the foregoing information. Persons engaging in personal credit information services shall obtain the personal credit information organization license issued by the PBOC pursuant to the Credit Information Services Measures. 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 or the VIE would be deemed to engage in personal credit reporting business because of our or the VIE’s financial risk management solutions. As of the date of this annual report, we and the VIE have not been subject to any fines or other penalties under any laws or regulations of mainland China 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 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.
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 and the VIE’s business operations and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
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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 a majority equity interest of Wuhan SendCloud Technology Co., Ltd., or SendCloud, in March 2022 for a total cash consideration of RMB34.5 million (US$5.4 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:
• | difficulties in integrating the operations, technologies, services and personnel of acquired businesses, especially if those businesses operate outside of our core competency; |
• | cultural challenges associated with integrating employees from the acquired company into our organization; |
• | reputation and perception risks associated with the acquired product or technology by the general public; |
• | ineffectiveness or incompatibility of acquired technologies or services; |
• | potential loss of key employees of acquired businesses; |
• | inability to maintain the key business relationships and the reputations of acquired businesses; |
• | diversion of management’s attention from other business concerns; |
• | litigation for activities of the acquired company, including claims from terminated employees, clients, former shareholders or other third parties; |
• | failure to identify all of the problems, liabilities or other shortcomings or challenges of an acquired company, technology, or solution, including issues related to intellectual property, solution quality or architecture, regulatory compliance practices, revenue recognition or other accounting practices or employee or client issues; |
• | in the case of foreign acquisitions, the need to integrate operations across different cultures and languages and to address the particular economic, currency, political and regulatory risks associated with specific countries; |
• | costs necessary to establish and maintain effective internal controls for acquired businesses; |
• | failure to successfully further develop the acquired technology in order to recoup our investment; and |
• | increased fixed costs. |
If we are unable to successfully integrate any future business, product or technology we acquire, our business and results of operations may suffer.
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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 the date of this annual report, there were no lawsuit in respect of labor dispute 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.
If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired.
Since our initial public offering of our ADSs on Nasdaq in July 2018, we have become subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 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. Furthermore, we have incurred and anticipate that we will continue to incur considerable costs, management time and other resources in an effort to comply with Section 404 and other requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We may be unable to timely complete our evaluation testing and any required remediation.
Our management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2022. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures.” However, there is no assurance that we will not have any material weakness in the future. Failure to discover and address any control deficiencies could result in inaccuracies in our financial statements and impair our ability to comply with applicable financial reporting requirements and related regulatory filings on a timely basis. Moreover, ineffective internal control over financial reporting could significantly hinder our ability to prevent fraud. If we fail to develop or maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, our management and our independent registered public accounting firm may not conclude on an on-going basis that our internal control over financial reporting is effective. This conclusion could adversely impact the market price of our ADSs due to a loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our reporting processes.
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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 in SAAS Businesses, 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, a stock incentive plan in March 2017, or the 2017 Plan and a stock incentive plan in December 2021, or the 2021 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. Under the 2021 Plan, we are authorized to grant share awards for issuance of up to a maximum of 4,000,000 common shares. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, we recorded RMB28.9 million, RMB30.2 million and RMB15.5 million (US$2.2 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. Further, we may be adversely affected by a crisis in the banking industry. For example, on March 10, 2023, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, took control and was appointed as the receiver of Silicon Valley Bank, or SVB. We have not held funds at SVB other than a negligible amount as of December 31, 2022, and we have withdrawn all remaining funds from SVB by March 31, 2023. If banks and financial institutions enter receivership or become insolvent in the future and a portion of our cash or cash equivalents is held in such banks and financial institutions, our ability to access our existing cash and cash equivalents may be impacted and could have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.
A severe or prolonged downturn in the Chinese or global economy could materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a widespread impact on the global economy since 2020. The pandemic remains ongoing and continues to evolve, and its long-term impact on economic growth is unknown, especially considering the multiple recent outbreaks in various countries and regions as well as the uncertainties brough by the vaccination programs. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, 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. The conflict in Ukraine and the imposition of broad economic sanctions on Russia could raise energy prices and disrupt global markets. 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 mainland 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.
We have limited business insurance coverage.
The insurance companies in mainland 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 mainland China and in line with the practices of other companies in the same industry of similar size in mainland 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 and the VIE’s business operations and adversely affect our results of operations. For example, our business has been adversely affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. See “ —Our business may continue to be materially and adversely affected by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in China.”
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.
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Our business may continue to be materially and adversely affected by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in China.
Beginning in 2020, outbreaks of COVID-19 resulted in the temporary closure of many corporate offices, retail stores, and manufacturing facilities across China. Normal economic life throughout China was sharply curtailed. We took a series of measures to protect our employees, including temporarily closing our offices, facilitating remote working arrangements for our employees, and canceling business meetings and travels. The operations of our business partners in mainland China were also impacted. The population in most of the major cities was locked down to a greater or lesser extent at various times and opportunities for discretionary consumption were extremely limited. In particular, our customers in healthcare, travel, auto/transportation, and financial services industries were negatively impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19, which reduced their budgets on advertising and marketing and adversely impacted our revenue from advertisement. In addition, customers may require additional time to pay us or fail to pay us at all, which could significantly increase the amount of accounts receivable and require us to record additional allowances for doubtful accounts. These events have materially and adversely affected our business since 2020 and contributed to lower revenues, additional allowances for doubtful accounts, write-off of bad debts and rising costs.
China began to modify its zero-COVID policy at the end of 2022, and most of the travel restrictions and quarantine requirements were lifted in December. There were surges of cases in many cities during this time which caused disruption to our and our customers’ operations, and there remains uncertainty as to the future impact of the virus, especially in light of this change in policy. The extent to which the pandemic impacts our results of operations going forward will depend on future developments which are highly uncertain and unpredictable, including the frequency, duration and extent of outbreaks of COVID-19, the appearance of new variants with different characteristics, the effectiveness of efforts to contain or treat cases, and future actions that may be taken in response to these developments. China may experience lower domestic consumption, higher unemployment, severe disruptions to exporting of goods to other countries and greater economic uncertainty, which may impact the customer demand for some of our products in a materially negative way. Our customers will need time to recover from the economic effects of the pandemic even after business conditions begin to return to normal. Consequently, the COVID-19 pandemic may continue to materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations in the current and future years.
Certain of our leasehold interests in leased properties have not been registered with the relevant PRC governmental authorities as required by relevant laws of mainland China. 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 laws and regulations of mainland China, 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 laws and regulations of mainland China, 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.
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.
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Failure to make adequate contributions to various employee benefit plans as required by the regulations of mainland China may subject us to penalties.
Companies operating in mainland 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 mainland China given the different levels of economic development in different locations. Our mainland China 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 or the VIE’s business operations in mainland China do not comply with regulations of mainland China 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 laws and regulations of mainland China. 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 exceptions, 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. On March 29, 2022, the Decision of the State Council on Revising and Repealing Certain Administrative Regulations, which took effect on May 1, 2022, was promulgated to amend certain provisions of regulations including the Provisions on the Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises (2016 Revision), the requirement for major foreign investor to demonstrate a good track record and experience in operating value-added telecommunications businesses is deleted.
Aurora is a Cayman Islands exempted company and our mainland China subsidiary, namely our WFOE, is a foreign-invested enterprise. Accordingly, our WFOE is not eligible to provide value-added telecommunications services in mainland China. As a result, the variable interest entity in mainland China, namely Hexun Huagu, holds a value-added telecommunications business operation license as a value-added telecommunications service provider. We entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Hexun Huagu, or the VIE, and its shareholders, which enable us to (i) direct the activities of the VIE, (ii) receive substantially all of the economic benefits of the VIE, and (iii) have an exclusive call option to purchase all or part of the equity interests and assets in the VIE when and to the extent permitted by the laws of mainland China. As a result of these contractual arrangements, we are considered the primary beneficiary of the VIE and hence consolidate its financial results into our consolidated financial statements under U.S. GAAP for accounting purposes. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, we derived 97.7%, 95.0% and 96.7% of our external revenues from the VIE, respectively.
In the opinion of our PRC legal counsel, Han Kun Law Offices, (i) the ownership structure of the PRC subsidiary and the VIE does not result in any violation of any explicit requirements under any PRC laws and regulations in all material aspects; (ii) each of the VIE agreements is valid, binding and enforceable in accordance with its terms; and (iii) the execution, delivery and performance of the contractual arrangements do not result in any violation of the provisions of the articles of association and business licenses of the VIE. However, our PRC legal counsel has also advised us that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future laws and regulations of mainland China. Accordingly, the PRC regulatory authorities may take a view that is contrary to the opinion of our PRC legal counsel.
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However, Aurora is a Cayman Islands holding company with no equity ownership in the VIE and we conduct our operations in mainland China through (i) our mainland China subsidiary and (ii) the VIE with which we have maintained contractual arrangements. Investors in our Class A common shares or the ADSs thus are not purchasing equity interest in our consolidated affiliated entities in mainland China but instead are purchasing equity interest in a Cayman Islands holding company. If the PRC government deems that our contractual arrangements with the VIE do not comply with regulatory restrictions of mainland China on foreign investment in the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change or are interpreted differently in the future, we and the VIE could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations. Our holding company in the Cayman Islands, the VIE, and investors of Aurora face uncertainty about potential future actions by the PRC government that could affect the enforceability of the contractual arrangements with the VIE and, consequently, significantly affect the financial performance of the VIE and our company as a group.
There are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of laws and regulations of mainland China, including, but not limited to, the laws and regulations governing our and the VIE’s business, or the enforcement and performance of our contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders. The Guideline No.2 on the Application of Regulatory Rules on Overseas Securities Offerings and Listings, or the Guideline No.2, as one of the supporting guidelines for the Trial Measures, provides that the filing documents submitted to the CSRC shall specify, among other things: (i) whether the issuer’s business, licenses or qualifications are not allowed to be controlled by way of contractual arrangements by PRC laws, administrative regulations or relevant provisions; (ii) whether the domestic operating entities controlled by way of contractual arrangements are subject to any restricted or prohibited industries for foreign investments. The officials from the CSRC clarified at the press conference held for the Trial Measures on February 17, 2023 that, the CSRC will solicit opinions from relevant regulatory authorities and complete the filing of the overseas listing of companies with VIE structure which duly meet the compliance requirements. These laws and regulations may be subject to change, and their official interpretation and enforcement may involve substantial uncertainty. New laws and regulations that affect existing and proposed future businesses may also be applied retroactively. Due to the uncertainty and complexity of the regulatory environment, we cannot assure you that we and the VIE would always be in full compliance with applicable laws and regulations, the violation of which may have adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and our reputation.
Although we believe we, our mainland China subsidiary and the VIE are not in violation of current laws and regulations of mainland China, we cannot assure you that the PRC government would agree that our contractual arrangements comply with licensing, registration or other regulatory requirements of mainland China, with existing policies or with requirements or policies that may be adopted in the future. The PRC government has broad discretion in determining rectifiable or punitive measures for non-compliance with or violations of laws and regulations of mainland China. If the PRC government determines that we or the VIE do not comply with applicable law, it could revoke the VIE’s business and operating licenses, require the VIE to discontinue or restrict the VIE’s operations, restrict the VIE’ right to collect revenues, block the VIE’s websites, require the VIE to restructure our operations, impose additional conditions or requirements with which the VIE may not be able to comply, impose restrictions on the VIE’s business operations or on their customers, or take other regulatory or enforcement actions against the VIE that could be harmful to their business. Any of these or similar occurrences could significantly disrupt our or the VIE’ business operations or restrict the VIE from conducting a substantial portion of their business operations, which could materially and adversely affect the VIE’s business, financial condition and results of operations. If any of these occurrences results in our inability to direct the activities of any of the VIE that most significantly impact its economic performance, and/or our failure to receive the economic benefits from any of the VIE, we may not be able to consolidate these entities in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. In addition, our shares may decline in value or become worthless if we are unable to assert our contractual control rights over the assets of our mainland China subsidiaries that conduct a significant part of our operations.
The approval, filing or other requirements of the China Securities Regulatory Commission or other PRC government authorities may be required under the law of mainland China in connection with our issuance of securities overseas.
The Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, purport to require offshore special purpose vehicles that are controlled by companies or individuals in mainland China and that have been formed for the purpose of seeking a public listing on an overseas stock exchange through acquisitions of domestic companies registered in mainland China or assets to obtain CSRC approval prior to publicly listing their securities on an overseas stock exchange. The interpretation and application of the regulations remain unclear. If CSRC approval under the M&A Rules is required, it is uncertain whether it would be possible for us to obtain the approval, and any failure to obtain or delay in obtaining CSRC approval for our future issuance of securities overseas would subject us to sanctions imposed by the CSRC and other PRC regulatory agencies.
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Furthermore, the recent issued Opinions on Strictly Cracking Down on Illegal Securities Activities emphasized the need to strengthen the administration over “illegal securities activities” and the supervision on overseas listings by China-based companies, and proposed to take effective measures, such as promoting the construction of relevant regulatory systems to deal with the risks and incidents faced by China- based overseas-listed companies, although such opinions did not specify the definition of “illegal securities activities.” On February 17, 2023, the CSRC promulgated the Trial Measures and five supporting guidelines, which took effect on March 31, 2023. According to the Trial Measures, among other requirements, (1) domestic companies that seek to offer or list securities overseas, both directly and indirectly, should fulfill the filing procedures with the CSRC; if a domestic company fails to complete the filing procedure, such domestic company may be subject to administrative penalties; (2) if the issuer meets both of the following conditions, the overseas offering and listing shall be determined as an indirect overseas offering and listing by a domestic company: (i) any of the total assets, net assets, revenues or profits of the domestic operating entities of the issuer in the most recent accounting year accounts for more than 50% of the corresponding figure in the issuer’s audited consolidated financial statements for the same period; (ii) its major operational activities are carried out in China or its main places of business are located in China, or the senior managers in charge of operation and management of the issuer are mostly Chinese citizens or are domiciled in China; and (3) where a domestic company seeks to indirectly offer and list securities in an overseas market, the issuer shall designate a major domestic operating entity responsible for all filing procedures with the CSRC, and such filings shall be submitted to the CSRC within three business days after the submission of the overseas offering and listing application. Further, at the press conference held for the Trial Measures on February 17, 2023, officials from the CSRC clarified that the PRC domestic companies that have already been listed overseas on or before the effective date of the Trial Measures (i.e. March 31, 2021) shall be deemed as existing issuers, or the Existing Issuers. Existing Issuers are not required to complete the filing procedures immediately but shall carry out filing procedures as required if they conduct refinancing or are involved in other circumstances that require filing with the CSRC. The officials from the CSRC have also confirmed that for the PRC domestic companies that seek to list overseas with VIE structure, the CSRC will solicit opinions from relevant regulatory authorities and complete the filing of the overseas listing of companies with VIE structure which meet the compliance requirements. On February 24, 2023, the CSRC, Ministry of Finance of the PRC, National Administration of State Secrets Protection and National Archives Administration of China promulgated the Archives Rules, which took effect on March 31, 2023. Pursuant to the Archives Rules, domestic companies that seek for overseas offering and listing shall strictly abide by applicable laws and regulations of the PRC and the Archives Rules, enhance legal awareness of keeping state secrets and strengthening archives administration, institute a sound confidentiality and archives administration system, and take necessary measures to fulfill confidentiality and archives administration obligations. Such domestic companies shall not leak any state secret and working secret of government agencies, or harm national security and public interest. Furthermore, a domestic company that plans to, either directly or through its overseas listed entity, publicly disclose or provide to relevant individuals or entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators, any document and materials that contain state secrets or working secrets of government agencies, shall first obtain approval from competent authorities according to law, and file with the secrecy administrative department at the same level. Moreover, a domestic company that plans to, either directly or through its overseas listed entity, publicly disclose or provide to relevant individuals and entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators, any other documents and materials that, if leaked, will be detrimental to national security or public interest, shall strictly fulfill relevant procedures stipulated by applicable national regulations. The Archives Rules also stipulate that a domestic company that provides accounting archives or copies of accounting archives to any entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators and individuals shall fulfill due procedures in compliance with applicable national regulations.
However, given that the Trial Measures and the Archives Rules were recently promulgated, there are substantial uncertainties as to the implementation and interpretation. We cannot predict the impact of the Trial Measures and the Archives Rules on us, including but not limited to, the maintenance of the listing status of our ADSs and/or other securities, or any of our future offerings of securities overseas at this stage. If we or the VIE do not receive or maintain the permissions or approvals, including but not limited to, complete the filing with the CSRC for any future offering or any other activities which are subject to the filing requirements under the Trial Measures, or if we inadvertently conclude that such permissions or approvals are not required, or applicable laws, regulations, or interpretations change such that we and the VIE are required to obtain permission or approval in the future, we and the VIE may be subject to an investigation by competent regulators, fines or penalties, or an order prohibiting us from conducting an offering, and these risks could result in a material adverse change in our and the VIE’s operations and the value of our ADSs, significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors, or cause such securities to significantly decline in value or become worthless.
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In addition, on December 28, 2021, the CAC and several other regulatory authorities in mainland China jointly promulgated the Cybersecurity Review Measures, which came into effect on February 15, 2022. Pursuant to the Cybersecurity Review Measures, (i) where the relevant activity affects or may affect national security, a critical information infrastructure operators, or CIIO, that purchases network products and services, or an internet platform operator that conducts data process activities, shall be subject to the cybersecurity review, (ii) an application for cybersecurity review shall be made by an issuer who is an internet platform operator holding personal information of more than one million users before such issuer applies to list its securities on a foreign stock exchange, and (iii) relevant governmental authorities in the mainland China may initiate cybersecurity review if they determine an operator’s network products or services or data processing activities affect or may affect national security. As the Cybersecurity Review Measures was newly issued, there remain uncertainties as to how it would be interpreted and enforced, and to what extent it may affect us.
Furthermore, if there are any other approvals, filings and/or other administration procedures to be obtained from or completed with the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies as required by any new laws and regulations for any of our future proposed offering of securities overseas or the listing of the ADSs, we cannot assure you that we can obtain the required approval or complete the required filings or other regulatory procedures in a timely manner, or at all. Any failure to obtain the relevant approvals or complete the filings and other relevant regulatory procedures may subject us to regulatory actions or other sanctions from the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or 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 mainland 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 mainland China 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 mainland 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.
We rely on contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders for substantially all of our and the VIE’s business operation, which may not be as effective as direct ownership.
The VIE contributed 98.6%, 95.2% and 96.7% of our consolidated total net revenues for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively. We have relied and expect to continue to rely on contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders to conduct our business. These contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in directing the business operations of the VIE. For example, the VIE and its shareholders could breach their contractual arrangements with us by, among other things, failing to conduct the VIE’s operations in an acceptable manner or taking other actions that are detrimental to our interests.
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If we had direct ownership of the VIE, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of the 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 the VIE and its shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to direct the business operations of the 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 the VIE. If any disputes relating to these contracts remains unresolved, we will have to enforce our rights under these contracts through the operations of the law of mainland China and arbitration, litigation and other legal proceedings and therefore will be subject to uncertainties in the PRC legal system. See “—Any failure by the 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 the VIE and its shareholders may not be as effective in ensuring our ability to direct the relevant portion of our and the VIE’s business operations as direct ownership would be.
Any failure by the 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 the VIE as its nominee shareholders because although they remain the holders of equity interests on record in the 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 the 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 the laws of mainland China, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and claiming damages, which we cannot assure will be effective under the laws of mainland China. For example, if the shareholders of the VIE refuse to transfer their equity interest in the 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 the laws of mainland China, and disputes arising from these contractual arrangements between us and the VIE will be resolved through arbitration in mainland 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 mainland China 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 legal system and changes in laws and regulations in mainland 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 the laws of mainland China. There remain significant uncertainties regarding the ultimate outcome of such arbitration should legal action become necessary. In addition, under the laws of mainland China, 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 mainland China 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 direct the activities of and derive economic benefits from the VIE, and our ability to conduct our business may be negatively affected.
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Contractual arrangements in relation to the VIE may be subject to scrutiny by the mainland China’s tax authorities and they may determine that we or the VIE owe additional taxes, which could negatively affect our financial condition and the value of your investment.
Under applicable laws and regulations of mainland China, arrangements and transactions among related parties may be subject to audit or challenge by the mainland China’s tax authorities. We could face material and adverse tax consequences if the mainland China’s 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 laws, rules and regulations of mainland China, and adjust the income of the 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 the VIE for mainland China tax purposes, which could in turn increase its tax liabilities without reducing our WFOE’s tax expenses. In addition, the mainland China’s tax authorities may impose late payment fees and other penalties on the VIE for the adjusted but unpaid taxes according to the applicable regulations. Our financial position could be materially and adversely affected if the VIE’s tax liabilities increase or if it is required to pay late payment fees and other penalties.
The shareholders of the VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us, which may materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.
The shareholders of the VIE include Mr. Weidong Luo and Mr. Guangyan Chen. The shareholders of the VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us. These shareholders may breach, or cause the VIE to breach, or refuse to renew, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and the VIE, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to direct the business operations of the VIE and receive economic benefits from them. For example, the shareholders may be able to cause our agreements with the 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 mainland China entity or individual designated by us, to the extent permitted by the laws of mainland China. We rely on Mr. Luo and Mr. Chen 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 the 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 the 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 the VIE and the validity or enforceability of our contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders. For example, in the event that any of the shareholders of the VIE divorces his or her spouse, the spouse may claim that the equity interest of the 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 ability to direct the activities of and derive economic benefits from the VIE. Similarly, if any of the equity interests of the VIE is inherited by a third party on whom the current contractual arrangements are not binding, we could lose our ability to direct the business operations of the VIE or have to maintain such ability 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 mainland China subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have. Any limitation on the ability of our mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China 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 laws and regulations of mainland China, wholly foreign-owned enterprises in the mainland China, such as our WFOE, may pay dividends only out of its accumulated profits as determined in accordance with mainland China’s 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 mainland China’s 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 mainland China 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 the 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 the VIE, the 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 the 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, the 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 the 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 mainland China subsidiary and the 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 mainland 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 mainland 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 mainland China 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
The approval and/or other requirements of the CSRC or other PRC governmental authorities may be required in connection with an offering under rules, regulations or policies of mainland China, and, if required, we and the VIE cannot predict whether or how soon we will be able to obtain such approval.
The Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, purport to require offshore special purpose vehicles that are controlled by companies or individuals in mainland China and that have been formed for the purpose of seeking a public listing on an overseas stock exchange through acquisitions of domestic companies registered in mainland China or assets to obtain CSRC approval prior to publicly listing their securities on an overseas stock exchange. The interpretation and application of the regulations remain unclear. If a governmental approval is required, it is uncertain how long it will take for us to obtain such approval, and, even if we obtain such approval, the approval could be rescinded. Any failure to obtain or a delay in obtaining the requisite governmental approval for an offering, or a rescission of such CSRC approval if obtained by us, may subject us to sanctions imposed by the relevant PRC regulatory authority, which could include fines and penalties on our and the VIE’s operations in mainland China, restrictions or limitations on our ability to pay dividends outside of China, and other forms of sanctions that may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
However, our PRC counsel has further advised us that there remains some uncertainty as to how the M&A Rules will be interpreted or implemented in the context of an overseas offering, and its opinions summarized above are subject to any new laws, rules and regulations or detailed implementations and interpretations in any form relating to the M&A Rules. We cannot assure you that relevant PRC governmental authorities, including the CSRC, would reach the same conclusion as our PRC counsel, and hence, we may face regulatory actions or other sanctions from them. Furthermore, relevant PRC governmental authorities promulgated the Opinions on Strictly Cracking Down Illegal Securities Activities, which provided that the administration and supervision of overseas-listed China-based companies will be strengthened, and the special provisions of the State Council on overseas issuance and listing of shares by such companies will be revised, clarifying the responsibilities of domestic industry competent authorities and regulatory authorities. However, the Opinions on Strictly Cracking Down Illegal Securities Activities were only issued recently, leaving uncertainties regarding the interpretation and implementation of these opinions. It is possible that any new rules or regulations may impose additional requirements on us. In addition, on December 28, 2021, the Cyberspace Administration of China issued the Cybersecurity Review Measures, which came into effect on February 15, 2022, according to which, among others, operators of “critical information infrastructure” or data processors holding over one million users’ personal information shall apply to the Cybersecurity Review Office for a cybersecurity review before any listing on a foreign stock exchange. On July 7, 2022, the CAC promulgated the Measures on Security Assessment of Cross-border Data Transfer, or the Data Export Measures, which became effective on September 1, 2022. The Data Export Measures requires that any data processor who processes or exports personal information exceeding a certain volume threshold pursuant to the Data Export Measures shall apply for a security assessment by the CAC before transferring any personal information abroad. The security assessment requirement also applies to any transfer of important data outside of mainland China. As the Cyber security Review Measures and the Data Export Measures were issued recently, there are uncertainties regarding how they would be interpreted and enforced, and to what extent they may affect us. As of the date of this annual report, we and the VIE have not been involved in any investigations on cybersecurity review made by the Cyberspace Administration of China on such basis, and we and the VIE have not received any inquiry, notice, warning, or sanctions in such respect. However, the governmental authorities may impose restrictions and penalties on our and the VIE’s operations in mainland China, such as the suspension of our apps and services, revocation of our licenses, or shutting down part or all of our operations, limit our ability to pay dividends outside of China, delay or restrict the repatriation of the proceeds from an offering into China or take other actions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, as well as the trading price of the ADSs. The PRC governmental authorities may also take actions requiring us, or making it advisable for us, to halt an offering before settlement and delivery of the ADSs offered hereby. Consequently, if you engage in market trading or other activities in anticipation of and prior to settlement and delivery, you do so at the risk that settlement and delivery may not occur. In addition, if the PRC governmental authorities later promulgate new rules or explanations requiring that we and the VIE obtain their approvals for filings, registrations or other kinds of authorizations for an offering, we cannot assure you that we and the VIE can obtain the approval, authorizations, or complete required procedures or other requirements in a timely manner, or at all, or obtain a waiver of the requisite requirements if and when procedures are established to obtain such a waiver.
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Uncertainties with respect to the legal system and changes in laws and regulations in mainland China could adversely affect us.
We conduct our business primarily through our mainland China subsidiary and consolidated VIE in mainland China. Our operations in mainland China are governed by laws and regulations of mainland China. Our mainland China subsidiary is subject to laws and regulations applicable to foreign investment in mainland China. The legal system in mainland China 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 laws and regulations of mainland China related to foreign investment in mainland China could affect the business environment and our ability to operate our business in mainland 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 mainland China may be protracted, resulting in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. Since administrative and court authorities of mainland China 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 legal system in mainland China 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 mainland China’s economic, political or social conditions or government policies could have a material adverse effect on our and the VIE’s business and operations.
Substantially all of our assets and operations are located in mainland 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 mainland 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 PRC 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 mainland China is still owned by the government. In addition, the PRC government continues to play a significant role in regulating industry development by imposing industrial policies. The PRC 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 mainland China, in the policies of the PRC government or in the laws and regulations in mainland 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 PRC 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 PRC 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 and the VIE may be adversely affected by the complexity, uncertainties and changes in the regulation of internet-related businesses and companies in mainland China, and any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our and the VIE’s business may have a material adverse effect on our and the VIE’s 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 mainland 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 laws, regulations and policies and possible new laws, regulations or policies of mainland China 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 mainland China, including our business. We cannot assure you that we have obtained all the permits or licenses required for conducting our business in mainland 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 mainland China resident enterprise for income tax purposes, such classification could result in unfavorable tax consequences to us and our non-mainland-China shareholders or ADS holders.
Under the mainland China Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementation rules, an enterprise established outside of the mainland China with a “de facto management body” within the mainland China 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 mainland-China-controlled enterprise that is incorporated offshore is located in mainland China. Although this circular only applies to offshore enterprises controlled by mainland China enterprises or mainland China enterprise groups, not those controlled by mainland China 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 mainland China enterprise or a mainland China enterprise group will be regarded as a mainland China tax resident by virtue of having its “de facto management body” in mainland China and will be subject to mainland China’s 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 mainland China; (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 mainland China; (iii) the enterprise’s primary assets, accounting books and records, company seals, and board and shareholder resolutions, are located or maintained in the mainland China; and (iv) at least 50% of voting board members or senior executives habitually reside in the mainland China.
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We believe that we are not a mainland China resident enterprise for mainland China tax purposes. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulations on Tax—Mainland China Enterprise Income Tax.” However, the tax resident status of an enterprise is subject to determination by the mainland China’s tax authorities and uncertainties remain with respect to the interpretation of the term “de facto management body.” If the mainland China’s tax authorities determine that we are a mainland China 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 mainland China’s 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 mainland China. Furthermore, if we are deemed a mainland China resident enterprise, dividends payable to our non-domestic 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 mainland China’s tax at a rate of 20% unless a reduced rate is available under an applicable tax treaty. It is unclear whether non-domestic shareholders of our company would be able to claim the benefits of any tax treaties between their country of tax residence and the mainland China in the event that we are treated as a mainland China 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 mainland China resident enterprises by their non-mainland China holding companies.
Pursuant to the Notice on Strengthening Administration of Enterprise Income Tax for Share Transfers by Non-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 mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China’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 mainland China entity that directly owns the taxable assets, may report such Indirect Transfer to the relevant tax authority. Using a “substance over form” principle, the mainland China’s 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 mainland China’s tax. As a result, gains derived from such Indirect Transfer may be subject to mainland China’s 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 mainland China resident enterprise. Both the transferor and the transferee may be subject to penalties under the tax laws of mainland China, 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 mainland China 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 domestic 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-resident enterprises, our mainland China 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 mainland China’s 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 PRC government has provided various tax incentives to the VIE in mainland 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 VIE obtained the certificate of high and new technology enterprise in December 2022 with a validity period of three years starting from December 2022 onwards. Any increase in the enterprise income tax rate applicable to our mainland China subsidiary or VIE in mainland China, or any discontinuation or retroactive or future reduction of any of the preferential tax treatments currently enjoyed by our mainland China subsidiary or VIE in mainland 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 mainland China’s 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.
Uncertainties exist with respect to the interpretation and implementation of Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Internet Platforms and how it may impact our or the VIE’s business operations.
In February 2021, the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Internet Platforms was promulgated by the Anti-monopoly Commission of the PRC State Council. The Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Internet Platforms is consistent with the Anti-Monopoly Law of mainland China and prohibits monopoly agreements, abuse of dominant position and concentration of undertakings that may have the effect of eliminating or restricting competitions in the field of platform economy. More specifically, the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Internet Platforms outlines certain practices that may, if without justifiable reasons, constitute abuse of dominant position, including without limitation, tailored pricing using big data and analytics, actions or arrangements seen as exclusivity arrangements, using technology means to block competitors’ interface, using bundled services to sell services or products, and compulsory collection of user data. Besides, Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Internet Platforms expressly states that concentration involving VIE will also be subject to antitrust filing requirements.
In April 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation (the “SAMR”), together with certain other PRC government authorities convened an administrative guidance meeting, focusing on unfair competition acts in community group buying, self-inspection and rectification by major internet companies of possible violations of anti-monopoly, anti-unfair competition, tax and other related laws and regulations, and requesting such companies to comply with relevant laws and regulations strictly and be subject to public supervision. In addition, many internet companies, including the over 30 companies which attended such administrative guidance meeting, are required to conduct a comprehensive self-inspection and make necessary rectification accordingly. The SAMR has stated it will organize and conduct inspections on the companies’ rectification results. If the companies are found to conduct illegal activities, more severe penalties are expected to be imposed on them in accordance with the laws.
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On June 24, 2022, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress published amendments to the Anti-Monopoly Law, or the amended AML, which came into effect on August 1, 2022. The amended AML formally implements China’s latest anti-monopoly policies by, among other things, improving regulatory rules for anti-competitive agreements, expressly addressing monopoly issues in the platform economy, and substantially increasing the penalties for violating the law. The amended AML formally extends the antimonopoly regulatory regime to the platform economy by outlining the general principal that business operators shall not engage in monopolistic activities, such as by taking advantage of data and algorithms, technology, capital advantage, and platform rules. The amended AML also specifically prohibits business operators from abusing its market dominance, such as by using data and algorithms, technology, and platform rules. Penalties for violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law have been substantially increased in the amended AML. For example, according to the amended AML, if a company completes a concentration of business in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law that will or is likely to have an effect of eliminating or restricting competition, in addition to other remedial measures, a fine of up to 10% of the last year’s sales revenue may be imposed. If the concentration of business in violation of the Anti-Monopoly Law completed by the company does not have the effect of eliminating or restricting competition, a fine of up to RMB5 million may be imposed. In the case that the aforementioned violation has particularly serious circumstances, bad impact, or consequences, the fine imposed may be further increased to between two and five times the aforementioned fine amount. Due to the enhanced implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Law, we and the VIE may be under heightened regulatory scrutiny, which will increase our compliance costs and subject us and the VIE to heightened risks and challenges. On March 24, 2023, the SAMR promulgated four supporting regulations of the Anti-Monopoly Law, including the Review Measures of Concentration of Undertakings, the Provisions on the Prohibition of Monopoly Agreements, the Provisions on the Prohibitions of Acts of Abuse of Dominant Market Positions, and the Provisions on Curbing the Abuse of Administrative Power to Exclude or Restrict Competition, which took effect on April 15, 2023. These regulations have, among other things, elaborated on the specific requirements under the Anti-Monopoly Law, optimized the regulatory and enforcement procedures, and strengthened the legal responsibilities of the relevant parties.
Since the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for Internet Platforms and the supporting regulations of the Anti-Monopoly Law are relatively new, uncertainties still exist in relation to its interpretation and implementation, although we do not believe we or the VIE engage in any foregoing situations, we cannot assure you that our or the VIE’s business operations will comply with such regulation in all respects, and any failure or perceived failure by us or the VIE to comply with such regulation may result in governmental investigations, fines and/or other sanctions on us or the VIE.
Regulations of mainland China relating to the establishment of offshore special purpose companies by mainland China residents may subject our mainland China resident beneficial owners or our mainland China subsidiary to liability or penalties, limit our ability to inject capital into our mainland China subsidiary, limit our mainland China 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 mainland China residents (including mainland China individuals and mainland China corporate entities as well as foreign individuals that are deemed as mainland China 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 mainland China residents and may be applicable to any offshore acquisitions that we make in the future.
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Under SAFE Circular 37, mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China is required to urge the mainland China resident shareholders to update their registration with the local branch of SAFE. If any domestic shareholder of such SPV fails to make the required registration or to update the previously filed registration, the subsidiary of such SPV in mainland 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 mainland 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 mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China residents holding direct or indirect interest in our company, and we cannot provide any assurance that these mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland 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 the laws of mainland China for circumventing applicable foreign exchange restrictions. As a result, our and the VIE’s 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 domestic company registered in mainland China, 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.
The regulation of mainland China on loans to and direct investment in mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China through our mainland China subsidiary and VIE. We may make loans to our mainland China 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 mainland China. Any loans to our wholly foreign-owned subsidiary in mainland China, which are treated as foreign-invested enterprises under the laws of mainland China, 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).
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In light of the various requirements imposed by regulations of mainland China on loans to and direct investment in mainland China 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 mainland China subsidiary or VIE or with respect to future capital contributions by us to our mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have, and any limitation on the ability of our mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China 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 laws and regulations of mainland China, our mainland China subsidiary, which is a wholly foreign-owned enterprise, may pay dividends only out of its respective accumulated profits as determined in accordance with mainland China’s 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 mainland China’s accounting standards to an enterprise expansion fund, or a staff welfare and bonus fund.
Our mainland China 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 mainland China 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 mainland China 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.
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-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-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 mainland 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.
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Very limited hedging options are available in mainland 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 exchange control regulations of mainland China 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 mainland 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 mainland China subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have. Under existing foreign exchange regulations of mainland China, 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 subsidiary in mainland 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 mainland 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 mainland China 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.
The PCAOB had historically been unable to inspect our auditor in relation to their audit work performed for our financial statements and the inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of our auditor in the past has deprived our investors with the benefits of such inspections.
Our auditor, the independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit report included elsewhere in this annual report, as an auditor of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the PCAOB, is subject to laws in the United States pursuant to which the PCAOB conducts regular inspections to assess its compliance with the applicable professional standards. The auditor is located in mainland China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB was historically unable to conduct inspections and investigations completely before 2022. As a result, we and investors in the ADSs were deprived of the benefits of such PCAOB inspections. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China in the past has made it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our independent registered public accounting firm’s audit procedures or quality control procedures as compared to auditors outside of China that are subject to the PCAOB inspections. On December 15, 2022, the PCAOB issued a report that vacated its December 16, 2021 determination and removed mainland China and Hong Kong from the list of jurisdictions where it is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms. However, if the PCAOB determines in the future that it no longer has full access to inspect and investigate completely accounting firms in mainland China and Hong Kong, and we use an accounting firm headquartered in one of these jurisdictions to issue an audit report on our financial statements filed with the SEC, we and investors in our ADSs would be deprived of the benefits of such PCAOB inspections again, which could cause investors and potential investors in the ADSs to lose confidence in our audit procedures and reported financial information and the quality of our financial statements.
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Our ADSs may be prohibited from trading in the United States under the HFCAA in the future if the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely auditors located in China. The delisting of the ADSs, or the threat of their being delisted, may materially and adversely affect the value of your investment.
Pursuant to the HFCAA, if the SEC determines that we have filed audit reports issued by a registered public accounting firm that has not been subject to inspections by the PCAOB for two consecutive years, the SEC will prohibit our shares or ADSs from being traded on a national securities exchange or in the over-the-counter trading market in the United States.
On December 16, 2021, the PCAOB issued a report to notify the SEC of its determination that the PCAOB was unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China and Hong Kong, and our auditor was subject to that determination. In April 2022, the SEC conclusively listed us as a Commission-Identified Issuer under the HFCAA following the filing of our annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. On December 15, 2022, the PCAOB removed mainland China and Hong Kong from the list of jurisdictions where it is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms. For this reason, we do not expect to be identified as a Commission-Identified Issuer under the HFCAA after we file this annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022.
Each year, the PCAOB will determine whether it can inspect and investigate completely audit firms in mainland China and Hong Kong, among other jurisdictions. If the PCAOB determines in the future that it no longer has full access to inspect and investigate completely accounting firms in mainland China and Hong Kong and we use an accounting firm headquartered in one of these jurisdictions to issue an audit report on our financial statements filed with the SEC, we would be identified as a Commission-Identified Issuer following the filing of the annual report on Form 20-F for the relevant fiscal year. In accordance with the HFCAA, our securities would be prohibited from being traded on a national securities exchange or in the over-the-counter trading market in the United States if we are identified as a Commission-Identified Issuer for two consecutive years in the future. If our shares and ADSs are prohibited from trading in the United States, there is no certainty that we will be able to list on a non-U.S. exchange or that a market for our shares will develop outside of the United States. A prohibition of being able to trade in the United States would substantially impair your ability to sell or purchase our ADSs when you wish to do so, and the risk and uncertainty associated with delisting would have a negative impact on the price of our ADSs. Also, such a prohibition would significantly affect our ability to raise capital on terms acceptable to us, or at all, which would have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, and prospects.
The PRC government’s significant oversight over our or the VIE’s business operation could result in a material adverse change in our and the VIE’s operations and the value of our ADSs.
We conduct our business primarily in mainland China through our subsidiaries and the VIE. The operations of our subsidiaries and the VIE in mainland China are governed by laws and regulations of mainland China. The PRC government has significant oversight over the conduct of our and the VIE’s business, and it may intervene or influence our and the VIE’s operations, as the government deems appropriate to advance regulatory and societal goals and policy positions. The PRC government has recently published new policies that significantly affected certain industries and we cannot rule out the possibility that it will in the future release regulations or policies that directly or indirectly affect our and the VIE’s industry or require us and the VIE to seek additional permission to continue our and the VIE’s operations, which could result in a material adverse change in our and the VIE’s operation and/or the value of our ADSs. Also, the PRC government has recently indicated an intent to exert more oversight over offerings that are conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers. Any such action could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors. In addition, implementation of industry-wide regulations directly targeting our operations could cause our securities to significantly decline in value or become worthless. Therefore, investors of our company and our and the VIE’s business face potential uncertainty from actions taken by the PRC government affecting our and the VIE’s business.
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Rising international political tension, including changes in U.S. and international trade policies, particularly with regard to China, may adversely impact our business and operating results.
The U.S. government has made statements and taken certain actions that may lead to potential changes to U.S. and international trade policies towards China. In January 2020, the “Phase One” agreement was signed between the United States and China on trade matters. However, it remains unclear what additional actions, if any, will be taken by the U.S. or other governments with respect to international trade agreements, the imposition of tariffs on goods imported into the U.S., tax policy related to international commerce, or other trade matters Against this backdrop, China has implemented, and may further implement, measures in response to the changing trade policies, treaties, tariffs and sanctions and restrictions against Chinese companies initiated by the U.S. government. For example, for the purpose of counteracting the impact on China caused by unjustified extra-territorial application of foreign legislation and other measures, the Ministry of Commerce of China published the Rules on Counteracting Unjustified Extra-territorial Application of Foreign Legislation and Other Measures on January 9, 2021. Rising trade and political tensions could reduce levels of trades, investments, technological exchanges and other economic activities between China and other countries, which would have an adverse effect on global economic conditions, the stability of global financial markets, and international trade policies. It could also adversely affect the financial and economic conditions in the jurisdictions in which we operate, as well as our overseas expansion, our financial condition, and results of operations.
While cross-border business may not be an area of our focus, any unfavorable government policies on international trade, such as capital controls or tariffs, may affect the demand for our products and services, impact the competitive position of our products or prevent us from selling products in certain countries. If any new tariffs, legislation and/or regulations are implemented, or if existing trade agreements are renegotiated or, in particular, if the U.S. government takes retaliatory trade actions due to the recent U.S.-China trade tension, such changes could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
It may be difficult for overseas regulators to conduct investigation or collect evidence within mainland China.
Shareholder claims or regulatory investigation that are common in the United States generally are difficult to pursue as a matter of law or practicality in mainland China. For example, in mainland China, there are significant legal and other obstacles to providing information needed for regulatory investigations or litigation initiated outside China. Although the authorities in mainland China may establish a regulatory cooperation mechanism with the securities regulatory authorities of another country or region to implement cross-border supervision and administration, such cooperation with the securities regulatory authorities in the Unities States may not be efficient in the absence of mutual and practical cooperation mechanism. Furthermore, according to Article 177 of the PRC Securities Law, or Article 177, which became effective in March 2020, no overseas securities regulator is allowed to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within the territory of the mainland China. While detailed interpretation of or implementation rules under Article 177 have yet to be promulgated, the inability for an overseas securities regulator to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within mainland China may further increase difficulties faced by you in protecting your interests.
Risks Related to The ADSs
Our ADSs may be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market as a result of our failure of meeting the Nasdaq Global Market continued listing requirements.
Our ADSs are currently listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “JG.” On December 28, 2022, we received a letter from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq, notifying us that because the closing bid price of our ADSs for the last 32 consecutive business days was below US$1.00 per share, we no longer meet the Nasdaq minimum bid price requirement, set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(a)(1). Pursuant to the Nasdaq Listing Rules, the applicable grace period to regain compliance is 180 days. We have until June 26, 2023 to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum bid price requirement. If we fail to satisfy Nasdaq Global Market’s continued listing requirements going forward and fail to regain compliance on a timely basis, our ADSs could be delisted from Nasdaq Global Market. If Nasdaq determines to delist our ADSs, or if we fail to list our ADSs on other stock exchanges or find alternative trading venue for our ADSs, the market liquidity and the value of an investment in our ADSs will be materially and adversely affected.
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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 mainland 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 but not limited to, the following:
• | variations in our net revenues, earnings and cash flow; |
• | announcements of new investments, acquisitions, strategic partnerships, or joint ventures by us or our competitors; |
• | announcements of new products and services and expansions by us or our competitors; |
• | changes in financial estimates by securities analysts; |
• | fluctuations in operating metrics; |
• | failure on our part to realize monetization opportunities as expected; |
• | changes in revenues generated from our significant business partners; |
• | additions or departures of key personnel; |
• | release of lock-up or other transfer restrictions on our outstanding equity securities or sales of additional equity securities; |
• | detrimental negative publicity about us, our management, our competitors or our industry; |
• | any share repurchase program; |
• | fluctuations of exchange rates between RMB and the U.S. dollar; |
• | regulatory developments affecting us or our industry; |
• | potential litigation or regulatory investigations; and |
• | general economic or political conditions in China or elsewhere in the world. |
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 mainland 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.
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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.
On June 11, 2020, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program, under which we may repurchase up to US$10 million of the ADSs or our common shares over the next 12 months through June 10, 2021. We did not repurchase any ADSs under this share repurchase program. On September 15, 2022, our board of directors authorized a share repurchase program, under which we may repurchase up to US$5 million worth our ordinary shares (including in the form of ADSs) over the next 12 months through September 14, 2023. As of December 31, 2022, we accumulatively repurchased approximately US$0.3 million of ADSs under this share repurchase program. 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. 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, on a poll, 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 76.1% of our total voting power, as of February 28, 2023. 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 28, 2023, we had 79,796,189 common shares outstanding, comprising of (i) 62,796,000 Class A common shares (excluding treasury shares), and (ii) 17,000,189 Class B common shares. Among these shares, 41,606,590 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 issued and 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. 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.
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.
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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.
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, in comparison with a private company, we need an increased number of independent directors and have to adopt policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. Operating as a public company makes 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 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.
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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 Act (As Revised) 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 (save for our memorandum and articles of association, our register of mortgages and charges and special resolutions of our shareholders) 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 mainland 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.
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. As we rely on the home country practice exemption as described above, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they would otherwise enjoy under the Nasdaq listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.
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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. 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 passive foreign investment company (“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 (generally determined 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 the 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 that we were a PFIC for the taxable year ended December 31, 2022.
There can be no assurance regarding our PFIC status for the current taxable year or foreseeable future taxable years, however, because our PFIC status is a factual determination made annually that will depend, in part, upon the composition of our income and assets. The value of our assets for purposes of the asset test, including the value of our goodwill and unbooked intangibles, may be determined in part by reference to the market price of our ADSs from time to time (which may be volatile). Because we will generally take into account our current market capitalization in estimating the value of our goodwill and other unbooked intangibles, our PFIC status for the current taxable year and foreseeable future taxable years may be affected by our market capitalization. Recent fluctuations in our market capitalization create a material risk that we may be classified as a PFIC for the current taxable year and foreseeable future taxable years. In addition, the composition of our income and our assets will be affected by how, and how quickly, we spend 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. Because there are uncertainties in the application of the relevant rules, it is possible that the Internal Revenue Service (“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 could cause us to become classified as a PFIC for the current or subsequent taxable years.
If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. Holder (as defined in “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations”) holds our ADSs or Class A common shares, the U.S. Holder may be subject to certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences. Additionally, if we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which U.S. Holders hold our ADSs or Class A common shares, we would generally continue to be treated as a PFIC with respect to such U.S. Holders even if we do not satisfy either of the above tests to be classified as a PFIC in a subsequent year. See “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations—Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules.”
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Item 4. | INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY |
A. | History and Development of the Company |
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 and Mr. Guangyan Chen, holding 80% and 20% 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 mainland China, JPush Information Consultation (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd., or Shenzhen JPush.
On August 5, 2014, we obtained the ability to direct the business operations of 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 the VIE in this annual report. Our contractual arrangements with the VIE and its shareholders allow us to (i) direct the activities of the VIE, (ii) receive substantially all of the economic benefits of the VIE and (iii) have an exclusive call option to purchase all or part of the equity interests in and assets of the VIE when and to the extent permitted by the laws of mainland China. 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 direct the business operations of, 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 directing the business operations of the VIE.
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 14/F, China Certification and Inspection Building, No.6 Keji South 12th Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518057, 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.
B. | Business Overview |
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 provider of customer engagement and marketing technology services in mainland China. Through our developer services, 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 “2022 Digital Annual Excellent Service Provider in China SAAS Industry” from 2022 China Industry Digital Annual Billboard, “2022 New Communication Annual Award—Brand Insight Award” from PR Newswire, “Trusted Brand of Digital Services in 2021” from the China Association of Communication Enterprises, and “the 2021 Leading SaaS Enterprise in China’s Software and Information Service Industry” from the Information Observation Network.
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We provide a comprehensive suite of services to mobile app developers in mainland 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), one-click verification, and other service under JG Alliance. Our services had been used by approximately 695,080 mobile app developers in a great variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, and education, as of December 31, 2022. We are the partner of choice for many major internet companies, as well as many leading brands in various industries. The number of mobile apps utilizing at least one of our developer services, or the cumulative app installations, increased from over 1,698,000 as of December 31, 2020 to over 1,807,000 as of December 31, 2021 and further to over 1,871,000 as of December 31, 2022.
Since our inception through December 31, 2022, we have accumulated data from over 66.6 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 vertical applications and targeted marketing. 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 solutions include:
• | Vertical Applications mainly include market intelligence, financial risk management and location-based intelligence: |
• | Market intelligence: We provide investment funds and corporations with real-time market intelligence solutions, such as our product iApp, which provides analysis and statistical results on the usage and trends of mobile apps in China. |
• | Financial risk management: We assist financial institutions, licensed lenders and credit card companies in making informed lending and credit decisions. |
• | Location-based intelligence (“iZone”): We help retailers and those from other traditional brick-and-mortar industries, such as real estate developers, track and analyze foot traffic, conduct targeted marketing and make more informed and impactful operating decisions, such as site selection. |
Collectively, the developer services and vertical applications are termed SAAS Businesses.
• | Targeted marketing (“XiaoGuoTong”): We help advertisers improve their effectiveness by enabling them to target the right audience with the right content at the right time. |
Throughout 2020, we have strategically winded down our targeted marketing business to focus on SAAS Businesses, and have exited the targeted marketing business by the end of 2020. Starting from January 2021, we only operate and generate revenue from SAAS Businesses.
We have built a robust technology infrastructure to support the usage of SAAS Businesses and the legacy targeted marketing throughout China on a real-time basis. We have developed a proprietary network of over 7,400 servers, including cloud 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.
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Our Business Model
We are a leading provider of customer engagement and marketing technology services 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), one-click verification and other services under JG Alliance. 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 in order to gain actionable and effective insights. Based on our data foundation and leveraging our AI-powered centralized processing platform, we have developed a variety of vertical applications that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers.
Developer Services
We provide a comprehensive suite of services to mobile app developers in China. Starting from 2020, we further breakdown the Developer Service revenue into Subscription Service and Value-Added Service. Our subscription service under developer services provides core in-app functionalities needed by developers, including push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service (SMS), one-click verification and other services under JG Alliance. Our value-added service include both JG Alliance and Advertisement SAAS. 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.
Our developer services had been used by a cumulative number of approximately 695,080 developers in mobile apps in a wide variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, and education, as of December 31, 2022. The number of mobile apps utilizing at least one of our developer services, or the cumulative app installations, increased from over 1,698,000 as of December 31, 2020 to over 1,807,000 as of December 31, 2021 and further to 1,871,000 as of December 31, 2022. 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 numerous awards, including our EngageLab being selected as among the “2022 China’s Digital Transformation Excellent Solution Collection” by China Information Industry Association, “Best SaaS Service of the Year” and “User Recommended SaaS Products of the Year” from the sixth SaaS Application Conference in 2021, Data Security Governance certification from China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, or CAICT. Our JPush has received the product compatibility certifications for Galaxy Kirin and China Standard Kirin, and has passed CAICT’s SDK security test and evaluation in 2021. Our JUMS has received the “2021 China SaaS Excellent Product Award” at the “Insights 2022–China Enterprise Service Annual Conference,” and has been tested by CAICT to be compliant with the standards of the 5G Messaging Platform’s Functional Completeness Test.
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Our developer services (subscription 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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Our Subscription Service
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 mainland 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.
Leveraging our technology infrastructure built upon a network of over 7,400 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 8.4 billion messages to various app end users on an average daily basis in the three months ended December 31, 2022.
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.
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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.
JUMS—Unified Messages System
Our JUMS integrates nine major messaging channels to one platform at no additional cost. JUMS supports various push notification models and provides reports on push notification statistics, message history, user reach analysis and other insights. By integrating operational metrics of various channels and analyzing conversion rates, JUMS helps businesses better understand their targeted markets and users, and plan accordingly to execute on operational and marketing initiatives. In August 2021, JUMS completed all tests required by the China Telecommunication Technology Labs, or CTTL in terms of system functions, push notification methods and performance, reflecting the full compatibility and compliance of its 5G messaging capabilities.
We provide free public cloud version of JUMS. For users with higher requirements for multi-channel push notifications and user management, they can upgrade to the premium version of JUMS and enjoy unlimited channel management, higher call frequency limits, message callbacks, blacklists and whitelists preferences and other exclusive premium services.
JG VaaS - Video as a Service
Our JG VaaS provides extensive and high-quality short video resources. For apps without the short video feature, APP users can install JG VaaS SDK to allow their users to enjoy short video in both horizontal and vertical formats instantly; for APPs with video service capabilities but are lack of high-quality video contents, APP users can connect to JG VaaS API to access the video resources. Through JG VaaS, APP users can receive personalized video recommendations on a timely basis as all the video contents provided by JG VaaS are tailored to the user profiles. APP developers can also build customized video channels according to its target users base, enabling developers to effectively incentivize users’ interest, optimize user experience, and increase users’ average daily time spent and stickiness.
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 mainland 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 engagement.
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, JSMS, JVerification and JUMS 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.
Overseas Messaging Service Platform EngageLab
In order to facilitate the overseas expansion of Chinese companies, we launched our overseas messaging service platform EngageLab in October 2022. EngageLab is a cloud communication platform and offers omni-channel messaging solutions to global enterprises and developers, including push notification service, email service, SMS service and other services. As of the date of this annual report, EngageLab has established partnerships with hundreds of leading enterprises in various industries, including technology, internet, smartphone, video, media, auto, finance, healthcare, and e-commerce.
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:
Value Added Services
Advertisement SAAS
Advertisement SAAS is our data management platform service, which provides tagged and de-identified population data package 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.
JG Alliance
We provide services in the form of integrated marketing campaigns to advertising customers through JG Alliance. We generate revenue using performance-based fee arrangements where we charge the advertising customers primarily on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) basis.
AD Mediation Platform
AD Mediation Platform leveraged our proprietary SDK technology to help mobile app developers access other mainstream advertising platforms in mainland China and help them better monetize their application advertising inventory.
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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.
• | Volume—massive and ever-growing data pool. We had accumulated data from over 66.6 billion installations of our SDKs as part of our developer services since our inception as of December 31, 2022. |
• | Variety—multi-dimensional data. Our services had been used by a cumulative number of approximately 695,080 developers representing over 1.9 million mobile apps in a variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, and education, as of December 31, 2022. This allows us to have access to a diverse array of mobile behavioral data. For online activities, we have access to data relating to app installations and uninstallations, app usage and device and operating system information. Regarding offline activities, we have access to location-based data. |
• | Velocity—data timeliness. We access and process a large volume of data in real time. In December 2022, we captured data from 2.1 billion monthly active SDKs. To increase the speed of data processing and ensure data timeliness, we routinely and frequently upgrade our technology and infrastructure used for data processing and data analytics. |
• | Veracity—data accuracy. Through our data processing platform, we cleanse, structure and encrypt raw data to ensure its accuracy. We also have strict policies and internal procedures in place to ensure our data security. Moreover, our data is not associated with a specific family of apps, which increases the unbiasedness of the data we capture. |
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.
• | Storage. We systematically organize and store unstructured data in our Hadoop server cluster. As part of our data security measures, original data is all stored on our local servers protected by firewalls. |
• | Cleansing. The data processing platform cleanses data stored in our server cluster. Our cleansing system reduces noise in the unstructured data by detecting anomalies in the original data, evaluating data authenticity and sifting out non-usable, corrupted or redundant data. |
• | Structuring. The data processing platform further structures cleansed data and stores it as structured datasets. |
• | Encrypting. Our data processing platform then automatically encrypts device-level data to enhance data security. |
• | Modeling. We utilize AI technology, including machine learning algorithms, and other data processing and statistics tools to automate the process of finding patterns and generating basic tags associated with each mobile device that we reach through our developer services. Basic tags include, among others, demographic profile, app usage habits and consumption preference, which are widely used in our big targeted marketing as well as SAAS Businesses. In addition to basic tags, we can further design and generate industry-specific tags based on the characteristics of a specific industry and tailored requests from customers. |
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AI, Data Analytics and Data Mining
Our AI, data analytics and data mining capabilities form the basis of our vertical applications and targeted marketing, 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:
• | We have optimized our data warehouse structure to make it more suitable for AI and machine learning processes. We have also designed and built our data warehouse based on the types and features of our data to allow for flexible yet secured access by our engineers and data scientists for developing and maintaining multiple solutions. |
• | Based on the features of our data sets, we constantly refine rules engines and machine learning algorithms to improve the accuracy and comprehensiveness of tags generated. |
• | We design and tailor machine learning algorithms based on the nature of our solutions. For example, to enhance our financial risk management solutions, we improve traditional deep learning algorithms by utilizing the machine learning technique of GBDT (gradient boosting decision tree), which not only preserves the correlations between variables but also maximizes the explanatory ability of patterns. |
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 Vertical Applications
Our Vertical Applications 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.
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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 vertical applications. During the development stage of our vertical applications, 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 vertical applications 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 vertical applications to be standardized, we make such vertical application services 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 vertical applications, including the “2022 Digital Annual Excellent Service Provider in China SAAS Industry” from 2022 China Industry Digital Annual Billboard, the “2021 Leading SAAS Enterprise in China’s Software and Information Service Industry” from the Information Observation Network, the “2021 China SAAS Excellent Product” at the “Insights 2022–China Enterprise Service Annual Conference”, the 2020 Pingwest’s “SAAS Platform Most Trusted by Developers”, “2019 -2020 Best SAAS Businesses of China SAAS Application Conference” and “2019-2020 Most Valuable SAAS Service Provider.”
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:
• | Enterprise-oriented solutions: We provide industry ranking, competitive analysis and operational analysis for corporate customers. |
• | Fund-oriented solutions: We provide industry trends analysis, track portfolio company growth and conduct project-oriented case studies for fund managers. |
• | Project-based tailor-made solutions: We provide more in-depth analytics services and generate customized statistics reports based on customers’ specific requirements. |
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.
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, and blacklist.
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.
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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.
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.
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 and iAudience)
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. JG iAudience is a user labeling solution that leverages massive information accumulated via mobile terminals to build a multi-dimensional, accurate and complete user profiling system. iAudience helps businesses to precisely target different customer demographics, develop personalized operational strategies, improve service quality and facilitate real-time decision-making process that drives business growth. 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:
• | Customer insights: We utilize various data analytics and statistical tools to dissect and analyze a customer’s user base, facilitating informed decision making and strategic planning. By tracking and analyzing foot traffic and sample subsets of foot traffic data within the “geofences,” we generate simulated models and present these statistical results in easy-to-use and intuitive formats, such as in the form of customized interactive dashboards that visualize visitor volume and call customers’ attention to emerging and existing trends in their visitors’ behaviors. We charge monthly fees for subscription-based customer insights solutions and a single fee for each customer insights report delivered to the customers. |
• | Customer acquisition and re-targeting: Based on the location-based intelligence and other insights we have derived from our datasets, we provide targeted user acquisition and existing user re-engagement plans through our targeted marketing platform. We charge a performance-based fee for our customer acquisition and re-targeting solutions based on a CPC or CPA pricing model. |
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• | Operation optimization: We help our customers optimize their business operations. For example, we provide site selection support and make recommendations to our retailer clients. We charge service fees on a project-by-project basis for our operation optimization solutions. |
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. Moreover, volume rebates to customers under targeted marketing revenue applied on a prospective basis when they recharge their target marketing accounts above a specific threshold are material rights. The contract consideration related to these material rights are deferred any recognized as revenue when future services are transferred or when the material rights expire.
We enter into contractual arrangements with advertisers where we 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 contracts last for 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 fulfillment of the service and have discretion in pricing. 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.
We have received numerous awards for our targeted marketing, such as the “Trusted Brand of Digital Services in 2021” from the China Association of Communication Enterprises. Throughout 2020, we were strategically winding down our targeted marketing business to focus on SAAS Businesses, and exited the targeted marketing business by the end of 2020. Starting from January 2021, we only operate and generate revenue from SAAS Businesses.
Technology Infrastructure
We have built a robust technology infrastructure to support the usage of our developer services and delivery of SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing throughout China on a real-time basis. In total, we manage over 7,400 servers, including cloud servers. We have strategically selected our data center locations in China. These two data centers are located in two cities in China, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, 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 vertical applications 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 vertical applications 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 RMB174.6 million, RMB206.7 million and RMB154.5 million (US$22.4 million) of research and development expenses in 2020, 2021 and 2022, respectively.
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In November 2020, we entered into relevant agreements and became a 5G strategic partner and 5G messaging partner of a major telecommunications company in China, which started a new chapter in our research and development track records by promoting 5G messaging applications in China.
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 Businesses 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.
Our Customers
We have a broad and diverse customer base, which has expanded rapidly since our inception. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, we had 3,521, 3,516 and 6,060 customers who purchased our SAAS Businesses 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 Businesses and targeted marketing during the same period. No single customer represented more than 10% of our total revenues in the years ended December 31, 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Customers of SAAS Businesses. Our paying customers for SAAS Businesses increased from 3,323 in 2020 to 3,516 in 2021 and further to 6,060 in 2022. The following describes our customer base for each of our SAAS Businesses:
• | Developer services. While we adopt a freemium model for most of our developer services, we charge a fee for JSMS based on the number of messages delivered, and we also charge a subscription fee for the VIP premium package of certain developer services such as JPush and JMessage and a project-based fee for private cloud-based services provided upon the request of customers. |
• | Market intelligence. Our customers for our market intelligence solutions primarily consist of investment funds and corporations that have specific needs to capture real-time market intelligence. |
• | Financial risk management. Our customers for financial risk management solutions are mainly financial institutions including banks and insurance companies and financial technology companies. |
• | Location-based intelligence (“iZone”). Our customers for our location-based intelligence solutions primarily include retailers such as automobile dealers and those from other traditional brick-and-mortar industries ranging from real estate developers to shopping malls. |
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. We strategically wind down the targeted marketing business and completely exit from this business in 2021.
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 Businesses 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 Businesses or targeted marketing 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 Businesses and targeted marketing.
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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 vertical applications for more precise targeted marketing on our own behalf.
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 Businesses 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:
• | Collaboration with media partners. We have established collaboration selectively with traditional and online media partners, published 110 corporate releases and product releases on media and also issued 75 data reports in 2022. |
• | Offline events. We host and participate in various events, industry conferences and developer and industry salons in 2022, such as the World Internet Conference and the 2022 China Digital Economy Innovation and Development Conference, to develop and maintain relationships with industry participants and app developers. |
• | Online channels. We also utilize online channels to deepen the interaction with developers, engage developers in our online communities and create more traffic for our follow-up marketing attempts. |
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• | Online customer acquisition. We conduct online targeted marketing for ourselves mainly in cooperation with our marketing partners. For example, we work with leading search engine companies to enable our potential customers to locate us more easily by searching certain keywords. |
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.
Our intellectual property rights are critical to our business. As of December 31, 2022, we have 60 patent applications pending in mainland China and own 160 computer software copyrights in mainland China, relating to various aspects of our SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing. In addition, we have filed 27 trademark applications and maintained 143 trademark registrations and 4 artwork copyrights in China. We have also registered 162 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 Businesses 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 Businesses 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 and the VIE’s business activities in mainland China or our shareholders’ rights to receive dividends and other distributions from us.
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Regulations on M&A Rules and Overseas Listings
In 2006, six regulatory agencies of mainland China, including the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or the CSRC, jointly adopted the M&A Rules, amended in 2009. The M&A Rules purport, among other things, to require an offshore special purpose vehicle controlled by companies or individuals in mainland China and formed for overseas listing purposes through acquisitions of domestic interest registered in mainland China held by such companies or individuals, to obtain the approval from the CSRC prior to publicly listing their securities on an overseas stock exchange. In 2006, the CSRC published a notice on its official website specifying documents and materials required to be submitted to it by the offshore special purpose vehicle seeking CSRC approval of its overseas listing. While the application of the M&A Rules remains unclear, our PRC counsel, Han Kun Law Offices, has advised us that based on its understanding of current laws, rules and regulations of mainland China and the M&A Rules, prior approval from the CSRC is not required under the M&A Rules for the listing and trading of the ADSs given that (i) our mainland China subsidiaries were directly established by us as wholly foreign-owned enterprises and we have not acquired any equity interest or assets of a domestic company registered in mainland China owned by companies or individuals in mainland China as defined under the M&A Rules that are our beneficial owners after the effective date of the M&A Rules, and (ii) no provision in the M&A Rules clearly classifies the contractual arrangements as a type of transaction subject to the M&A Rules.
However, our PRC counsel has further advised us that there remains some uncertainty as to how the M&A Rules will be interpreted or implemented in the context of an overseas offering, and its opinions summarized above are subject to any new laws, rules and regulations or detailed implementations and interpretations in any form relating to the M&A Rules. If the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies subsequently determine that prior CSRC approval was required, we may face regulatory actions or other sanctions from the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies.
The M&A Rules also establish procedures and requirements that could make some acquisitions of companies in mainland China by foreign investors more time-consuming and complex, including requirements in some instances that the anti-monopoly law enforcement agency be notified in advance of any change-of-control transaction in which a foreign investor takes control of a domestic enterprise registered in mainland China. In addition, the Rules on Implementation of Security Review System for the Merger and Acquisition of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors issued by the Ministry of Commerce in 2011 specify that mergers and acquisitions by foreign investors that raise “national defense and security” concerns and mergers and acquisitions through which foreign investors may acquire de facto control over domestic enterprises that raise “national security” concerns are subject to strict review by the Ministry of Commerce, and prohibit any activities attempting to bypass such security review, including by structuring the transaction through a proxy or contractual control arrangement. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—The approval and/or other requirements of the CSRC or other PRC governmental authorities may be required in connection with an offering under rules, regulations or policies of mainland China, and, if required, we and the VIE cannot predict whether or how soon we will be able to obtain such approval.”
On July 6, 2021, the General Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council jointly issued a document to crack down on illegal activities in the securities market and promote the high-quality development of the capital market, which, among other things, requires the relevant governmental authorities to strengthen cross-border oversight of law-enforcement and judicial cooperation, to enhance supervision over China-based companies listed overseas, and to establish and improve the system of extraterritorial application of the securities laws of mainland China.
On February 17, 2023, the CSRC promulgated the Trial Measures and five supporting guidelines, which took effect on March 31, 2023. According to the Trial Measures, among other requirements, (1) domestic companies that seek to offer or list securities overseas, both directly and indirectly, should fulfill the filing procedures with the CSRC; if a domestic company fails to complete the filing procedure, such domestic company may be subject to administrative penalties; (2) if the issuer meets both of the following conditions, the overseas offering and listing shall be determined as an indirect overseas offering and listing by a domestic company: (i) any of the total assets, net assets, revenues or profits of the domestic operating entities of the issuer in the most recent accounting year accounts for more than 50% of the corresponding figure in the issuer’s audited consolidated financial statements for the same period; (ii) its major operational activities are carried out in China or its main places of business are located in China, or the senior managers in charge of operation and management of the issuer are mostly Chinese citizens or are domiciled in China; and (3) where a domestic company seeks to indirectly offer and list securities in an overseas market, the issuer shall designate a major domestic operating entity responsible for all filing procedures with the CSRC, and such filings shall be submitted to the CSRC within three business days after the submission of the overseas offering and listing application. Further, at the press conference held for the Trial Measures on February 17, 2023, officials from the CSRC clarified that the PRC domestic companies that have already been listed overseas on or before the effective date of the Trial Measures (i.e. March 31, 2021) shall be deemed as existing issuers, or the Existing Issuers. Existing Issuers are not required to complete the filing procedures immediately but shall carry out filing procedures as required if they conduct refinancing or are involved in other circumstances that require filing with the CSRC. The officials from the CSRC have also confirmed that for the PRC domestic companies that seek to list overseas with VIE structure, the CSRC will solicit opinions from relevant regulatory authorities and complete the filing of the overseas listing of companies with VIE structure which meet the compliance requirements.
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On February 24, 2023, the CSRC, Ministry of Finance of the PRC, National Administration of State Secrets Protection and National Archives Administration of China promulgated the Archives Rules, which took effect on March 31, 2023. Pursuant to the Archives Rules, domestic companies that seek for overseas offering and listing shall strictly abide by applicable laws and regulations of the PRC and the Archives Rules, enhance legal awareness of keeping state secrets and strengthening archives administration, institute a sound confidentiality and archives administration system, and take necessary measures to fulfill confidentiality and archives administration obligations. Such domestic companies shall not leak any state secret and working secret of government agencies, or harm national security and public interest. Furthermore, a domestic company that plans to, either directly or through its overseas listed entity, publicly disclose or provide to relevant individuals or entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators, any document and materials that contain state secrets or working secrets of government agencies, shall first obtain approval from competent authorities according to law, and file with the secrecy administrative department at the same level. Moreover, a domestic company that plans to, either directly or through its overseas listed entity, publicly disclose or provide to relevant individuals and entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators, any other documents and materials that, if leaked, will be detrimental to national security or public interest, shall strictly fulfill relevant procedures stipulated by applicable national regulations. The Archives Rules also stipulate that a domestic company that provides accounting archives or copies of accounting archives to any entities including securities companies, securities service providers and overseas regulators and individuals shall fulfill due procedures in compliance with applicable national regulations.
However, given that the Trial Measures and the Archives Rules were recently promulgated, there are substantial uncertainties as to the implementation and interpretation. We cannot predict the impact of the Trial Measures and the Archives Rules on us, including but not limited to, the maintenance of the listing status of our ADSs and/or other securities, or any of our future offerings of securities overseas at this stage.
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 mainland China directly or indirectly shall submit investment information to the commerce administrative authorities pursuant to these Measures.
The Ministry of Commerce and the NDRC jointly promulgated the Special Administrative Measures for Entrance of Foreign Investment (Negative List) (2021 Version), or the Negative List (2021 Version), which became effective on January 1, 2022. The Negative List (2021 Version) requires that any domestic enterprise registered in mainland China engaging in prohibited industries under the negative list shall obtain the consent of the relevant competent PRC government authorities for overseas listing, and the foreign investors shall not participate in the Negative List (2021 Version), and operation and management of such enterprise, and the shareholding percentage of the foreign investors in such enterprise shall be subject to the relevant administrative provisions of the domestic securities investment by foreign investors. Such negative list does not further elaborate whether existing overseas listed enterprise will be subject to such requirements. The staff of the NDRC addressed in an interview on December 27, 2021 that certain existing overseas listed enterprises whose foreign investors’ shareholding percentage exceed the aforementioned threshold are not required to make adjustment or deduction. It is unclear as to whether the aforesaid provisions will apply to the companies adopting contractual arrangements.
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In December 2020, the NDRC and Ministry of Commerce promulgated the Measures for the Security Review of Foreign Investment, which came into effect on January 18, 2021. The NDRC and the Ministry of Commerce will establish a working mechanism office in charge of the security review of foreign investment. Such measures define foreign investment as direct or indirect investment by foreign investors in the mainland China, including (i) investment in new onshore projects or establishment of wholly foreign owned onshore companies or joint ventures with foreign investors; (ii) acquiring equity or asset of onshore companies by merger and acquisition; and (iii) onshore investment by and through any other means. Foreign investment in certain key areas with national security concerns, such as important cultural products and services, important information technology and internet products and services, key technologies and others which results in the acquisition of de facto control of invested companies, shall be filed with a specifically established office before such investment is carried out. What may constitute “onshore investment by and through any other means” or “de facto control” is not clearly defined under such measures, and could be broadly interpreted. It is likely that control through contractual arrangement be regarded as de facto control based on provisions applied to security review of foreign investment. Failure to make such filing may subject such foreign investor to rectification within a prescribed period, and the foreign investors will be negatively recorded in the relevant national credit information system, which would then subject such investors to joint punishment as provided by relevant rules. If such investor fails to or refuses to undertake such rectification, it would be ordered to dispose of the equity or asset and to take any other necessary measures so as to return to the status quo and to erase the impact to national security.
We are a Cayman Islands company and our businesses by nature in mainland China are mainly value-added telecommunication services, which are restricted for foreign investors by the Negative List (2021 Version). We conduct business operations that are restricted for foreign investment through the 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 mainland 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 mainland 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 March 29, 2022, the Decision of the State Council on Revising and Repealing Certain Administrative Regulations, which took effect on May 1, 2022, was promulgated to amend certain provisions of regulations including the Provisions on the Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises (2016 Revision), the requirement for major foreign investor to demonstrate a good track record and experience in operating value-added telecommunications businesses is deleted.
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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 mainland 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 mainland 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 mainland China internet companies with similar corporate and contractual structures.
Pursuant to the Negative List (2021 Version), foreign investors must refrain from making investment in any of the prohibited sectors specified in the Negative List (2021 Version), any domestic enterprise registered in mainland China engaging in prohibited industries under the negative list shall obtain the consent of the relevant competent PRC authorities for overseas listing, and the foreign investors shall not participate in the Negative List (2021 Version), and operation and management of such enterprise, and the shareholding percentage of the foreign investors in such enterprise shall be subject to the relevant administrative provisions of the domestic securities investment by foreign investors. Such negative list does not further elaborate whether existing overseas listed enterprise will be subject to such requirements. The staff of the NDRC addressed in an interview on December 27, 2021 that certain existing overseas listed enterprises whose foreign investors’ shareholding percentage exceed the aforementioned threshold are not required to make adjustment or deduction. 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). Nonetheless, on March 29, 2022, the Decision of the State Council on Revising and Repealing Certain Administrative Regulations, which took effect on May 1, 2022, was promulgated to amend certain provisions of regulations including the Provisions on the Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises (2016 Revision), the requirement for major foreign investor to demonstrate a good track record and experience in operating value-added telecommunications businesses was deleted.
To comply with such foreign ownership restrictions, we operate our businesses in mainland China through Hexun Huagu which is owned by mainland China 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 laws and regulations of mainland China, our corporate structure complies with all applicable laws and regulations of mainland China 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 laws or regulations of mainland China. 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 laws and regulations of mainland China and whether there will be new rules issued which would establish further requirements and restrictions on our contractual arrangements. Thus, there is no assurance that the PRC governmental authorities would take a view consistent with the opinions of our PRC legal counsel.
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