The implementation of ~~the New Anti-addiction Notice~~these laws and regulations may lead to a decrease in the number of minors in our user base and the ~~play time~~playtime of minor users, thereby leading to a decrease in the minor users’ revenue contribution to our ~~online~~mobile game business, and may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and prospects.

Illegal game servers and acts of cheating by users of mobile games could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Several of our competitors have reported that certain third parties have misappropriated the source codes of their games and set up illegal game servers and let their customers play such games on illegal servers without paying for the game playing time. While we already have in place numerous internal control measures to protect the source codes of our games from being stolen and to address illegal server usage and, to date, our games have not to our knowledge experienced such usage, our preventive measures may not be effective. The misappropriation of our game server installation software and installation of illegal game servers could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

In addition, acts of cheating by users of mobile games could lessen the popularity of our mobile games and adversely affect our reputation and our results of operations. There have been a number of incidents in previous years where users, through a variety of methods, were able to modify the rules of our mobile games. Although these users did not gain ~~unauthorized~~authorized access to our systems, they were able to modify the rules of our mobile games during gameplay in a manner that allowed them to cheat and disadvantage our other mobile game users, which often has the effect of causing players to stop ~~using~~playing the game and shortening the game’s lifecycle. Although we have taken a number of steps to deter our users from engaging in cheating when playing our mobile games, we cannot assure you that we or the third parties from whom we license some of our mobile games will be successful or timely in taking ~~corrective~~ steps necessary to prevent users from modifying the rules of our mobile games.

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If we suspect a player of installing cheating programs on our mobile games, or of engaging in other types of unauthorized activities, we may freeze that player’s game account or even ban the player from logging on to our games and other ~~media.~~products. Such activities to regulate the behavior of our users are essential to maintain a fair playing environment for our users. However, if any of our regulatory activities are found to be wrongly implemented, our users may institute legal proceedings against us for damages or claims. Our operation, business and financial performance may be materially and adversely affected as a result.

We ~~face significant competition, primarily from companies that operate online entertainment platforms in China, and we compete with these companies for users, content providers and advertisers.~~

We face significant competition primarily from companies that operate online entertainment platforms in China designed to engage users, especially Generation Z, and capture their time spent on mobile devices and online. In particular, our competitors mainly include large online video streaming platforms, online game developers and operators, other platforms offering video products, live broadcasting platforms, comics content providers, social media platforms and other online entertainment platforms. Some of our competitors have longer operating histories and significantly greater financial resources than we do, and in turn may be able to attract and retain more users, content partners and advertisers. Our competitors may compete with us in a variety of ways, including by obtaining exclusive online distribution rights for popular content, conducting brand promotions and other marketing activities, and making acquisitions. If any of our competitors provides comparable or better user experience, our user traffic could decline significantly. We have exclusive distribution rights only for certain PUGC on our platform. Our content creators are generally free to post their content on our competitors’ platforms, which may divert user traffic from our platform, and adversely affect our user traffic and thus our operations.

~~We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends upon many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:~~

~~the popularity, usefulness, ease of use, performance and reliability of our platform, products and services compared to those of our competitors;~~

~~the amount, quality and timeliness of content on our platform, especially the amount and quality of the PUGC generated by our content creators;~~

~~the environment and culture of our user communities;~~

~~our ability, and the ability of our competitors, to develop new products and services and enhancements to existing products and services to keep up with user preferences and demands;~~

~~the inventory size, quality and size of player base of the games we operate;~~

~~our ability to establish and maintain relationships with content providers and partners;~~

~~our ability to monetize our services;~~

~~changes mandated by legislation, regulations or government policies, some of which may have a disproportionate effect on us;~~

~~acquisitions or consolidation within our industry, which may result in more formidable competitors; and~~

~~our reputation and brand strength relative to our competitors.~~

~~Increases in the costs of content on our platform may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.~~

We need to acquire or produce popular content to provide our users with an engaging and satisfying viewing experience. The acquisition of such content depends on our ability to retain our content creators and hosts of our live broadcasting program. As our business develops, we may incur increasing revenue-sharing costs to compensate our content creators and hosts of our live broadcasting program. Increases in market prices for licensed content and live streaming rights may also have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, in December 2019, we entered into a letter of intent to purchase the three-year license for live broadcasting the League of Legends World Championship in China starting from 2020 at an aggregate purchase price of RMB800 million (US$114.9 million). If we are not able to procure licensed content at commercially acceptable costs, our business and results of operations will be adversely impacted. In addition, if we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in market prices for licensed content, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. In 2018, we started to devote more resources in producing our original content. We rely on our

~~in-house~~

~~team to generate creative ideas for original content and to supervise the original content origination and production process, and we intend to continue to invest resources in content production~~

.

~~If we are not able to compete effectively for talents or attract and retain top talents at reasonable costs, our original content production capabilities would be negatively impacted.~~

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We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in material damage to our reputation and brand, ~~image,~~ payment of substantial damages, penalties and fines, removal of relevant content from our platform or seeking license arrangements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.

Content posted on our platform may expose us to allegations by third parties of infringement of intellectual property rights, unfair competition, invasion of privacy, defamation and other violations of third-party rights. We have been involved in litigation based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content available on our platform. We are currently involved in approximately 90110 lawsuits based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content posted on our platform, ~~none of~~ which ~~is material~~are immaterial to our company on an individual basis or a collective basis.

~~Many jurisdictions, including China~~ Regardless of the outcome, these lawsuits, and any other litigation that may be brought against us or our current or former directors and officers, could be time-consuming, result in significant expenses and divert our resources and the ~~U.S., continue to consider~~attention of our management and other key employees. An unfavorable outcome in any of these matters could exceed the need for greater regulation or reform to the existing regulatory framework. In the U.S., all 50 states have now passed laws to regulate the actions that a business must take in the event of a data breach, such as prompt disclosure and notification to affected users and regulatory authorities. In addition to the data breach notification laws, some states have also enacted statutes and rules requiring businesses to reasonably protect certain types of personal information they hold or to otherwise comply with certain specified data security requirements for personal information. The U.S. federal and state governments will likely continue to consider the need for greater regulation aimed at restricting certain uses of personal data for targeted advertising. Additionally, California recently enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, it creates new individual privacy rights for consumers (as that word is broadly defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers, and provides such consumers new ways to

~~opt-out~~

of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increaselimited coverage provided under our compliance costs and potential liability. Some observers have noted that the CCPA could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the U.S., which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business.current applicable insurance policies.

In the European Union, or EU, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which came into effect on May 25, 2018, could increase our burden of regulatory compliance. The GDPR implements more stringent operational requirements for processors and controllers of personal data, including, for example, requiring expanded disclosures about how personal information is to be used, limitations on retention of information, mandatory data breach notification requirements, and higher standards for data controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained either valid consent or have another legal basis in place to justify their data processing activities. The GDPR further provides that EU member states may make their own additional laws and regulations in relation to certain data processing activities, which could further limit our ability to use and share personal data and could require localized changes to our operating model. Under the GDPR, fines of up to

€

20 million or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher, may be assessed for noncompliance, which significantly increases our potential financial exposure for

~~non-compliance.~~

However, with limited precedence on the interpretation and application of GDPR and limited guidance from EU regulators, the application of GDPR to the provision of internet services remains unsettled. Finally, in China, the PRC Cybersecurity Law, which became effective in June 2017, leaves substantial uncertainty as to the circumstances and standard under which the law would apply and violations would be found.

Our failure to identify unauthorized videos posted on our platform may subject us to claims of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights or other rights. Although we maintain content management and review procedures to monitor the content uploaded to our platform, due to the large number of videos uploaded, we may not be able to identify all content that may infringe on third-party rights. Such failure may subject us to potential claims and lawsuits, defending of which may impose a significant burden on our management and employees, and there can be no assurance that we will obtain final outcomes that are favorable to us. In addition, we may be subject to administrative actions brought by the National Copyright Administration of China or its local branches or related law enforcement departments for alleged copyright infringement.

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The validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights in internet-related industries, particularly in China, are uncertain and still evolving. As we face increasing competition and as litigation becomes a more common way to resolve disputes in China, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims. Under relevant PRC laws and regulations, online service providers which provide storage space for users to upload works or links to other services or content could be held liable for copyright infringement under various circumstances, including situations where an online service provider knows or should reasonably have known that the relevant content uploaded or linked to on its platform infringes the copyrights of ~~others and the provider realizes economic benefits from such infringement activities.~~others. In certain cases in China, the courts have found an online service provider to be liable for the copyrighted content posted by users which was accessible from and stored on such provider’s servers.

Although we have not been subject to claims or lawsuits outside China, we may become subject to copyright laws in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, by virtue of our listing in the United States, the ability of users to access our videos from the United States and other jurisdictions, the ownership of our ADSs by investors, and the extraterritorial application of foreign law by foreign courts or ~~otherwise~~otherwise.

.

In addition, as a publicly listed company, we may be exposed to increased risk of litigation. If a claim of infringement brought against us in the United States or other jurisdictions is successful, we may be required to (i) pay substantial statutory or other damages and fines, (ii) remove relevant content from our platform, or (iii) enter into royalty or license agreements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

~~In addition, although~~Although we have required our users to post only legally compliant and inoffensive materials and have set up screening procedures, our screening procedures may fail to screen out all potentially offensive or

non-compliant

user-generated content and, even if properly screened, a ~~third party~~third-party may still find user-generated content posted on our platform offensive and take action against us in connection with the posting of such content. We may also face litigation or administrative actions for defamation, negligence or other purported injuries resulting from the content we provide or the nature of our services. Such litigation and administrative actions, with or without merit, may be expensive and time-consuming, result in significant diversion of resources and management attention from our operations, and adversely affect our brand ~~image~~ and ~~reputation~~

.

reputation.

Furthermore, our app may be taken down temporarily from Apple app store or other apps markets for copyright reasons, and we may be subject to copyright infringement claims brought by our competitors, which, malicious or not, may be time-consuming to defend and disrupting to our operations.

We may not be able to prevent others from engaging in unauthorized use of our intellectual property, unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business and competitive position.

We have invested significant resources to develop our own intellectual property and acquire licenses to use and distribute the intellectual property of others on our platform. Failure to maintain or protect these rights could harm our business. In addition, any unauthorized use of our intellectual property by third parties may adversely affect our current and future revenues and our reputation. Further, others may engage in conduct that constitutes unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business, reputation and competitive position.

Implementation and enforcement of PRC intellectual property-related laws have historically been deficient and ineffective. Accordingly, protection of intellectual property rights in China may not be as effective as in the United States or other developed countries. Furthermore, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights. Other unlawful conduct against us is also difficult to prevent and police. We cannot assure you that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our rights. From time to time, we may have to resort to litigation to enforce our rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources.

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Many of our products and services contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software, products and services in a manner that negatively affects our business.

We use open source software in our products and services and will use open source software in the future. There is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our products or services. Additionally, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated products or services unless and until we can

re-engineer

them to avoid infringement. This

re-engineering

process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete it successfully.

Furthermore, 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. As a result, we may be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such software source code contributed by us.

~~Our live broadcasting business is still in its early stage of monetization, and we~~We face intense competition for users and hosts, as well as strict regulatory supervision by government ~~authorities.~~authorities, for our live broadcasting business.

~~Our live broadcasting business is still in its early stage.~~

We face significant competition in the live broadcasting business for both users and hosts. The live broadcasting ~~program~~ on our platform primarily focuses on interest areas ~~such as animation, comics, games,~~

~~e-sports~~

~~events, art,~~including anime, game, music, fashion, lifestyle, technology and ~~online education.~~others. We cannot assure you that such content will continue to attract new users and retain existing ones.

We have entered into exclusive cooperation agreements with certain popular hosts on our platform. We may not be able to maintain or renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all. In such event, we may be unable to retain these popular hosts on our platform, and our operating results will be adversely affected. We cooperate with talent agencies to recruit, manage, train and support our hosts. Furthermore, we may lose hosts if the talent agencies that manage them are unable to reach or maintain satisfactory cooperation arrangements with such hosts. ~~Furthermore, if~~If talented and popular hosts cease to contribute content to our platform, or their live ~~streams~~broadcasting programs fail to attract users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement, which may have material and adverse impact on our results of operations and financial conditions.

In addition, the costs attributed to hosts’ compensation have increased significantly in China during the past few years for companies that provide such services. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in such compensation, we may lose opportunities to retain the popular hosts on our platform and thus incur more losses. In addition, the compensation we pay to the hosts could significantly increase our cost of revenues and materially adversely affect our margins, financial condition and results of operations.

We cooperate with talent agencies to manage, organize and recruit hosts on our platform. As we are an open platform that welcomes all hosts to register on our websites, cooperation with talent agencies substantially increases our operation efficiency in terms of discovering, supporting and managing hosts in a more organized and structured manner, and turning amateur hosts to full-time hosts. We have a revenue sharing arrangement with both our hosts and talent agencies under which we share with them a portion of the revenues from ~~the sales of~~ virtual ~~items on our platform.~~gifting. In addition, we also cooperate with popular

e-sports

teams to make their game-play available on our platform by paying them a sponsorship fee. The absolute amounts and revenue sharing percentages that we pay hosts and talent agencies may increase. If the interests among us, hosts and the talent agencies are not well balanced, or if we cannot design a revenue-sharing mechanism that is agreeable to both hosts and talent agencies, we may not be able to retain or attract hosts or talent agencies, or both. In addition, while we have entered into exclusive streaming agreements with certain hosts, none of the talent agencies we cooperate with has an exclusive cooperation relationship with us. If our competitor platforms offer higher revenue sharing ~~ratios~~percentages with an intent to attract our popular hosts, costs to retain our hosts may further ~~increase.~~increase, additionally, talent agencies may choose to devote more of their resources to hosts who stream on other platforms, or they may encourage their hosts to use or even enter into an exclusive agreement with other platforms, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we are not able to continue to retain our hosts and produce high-quality content on our platform at commercially acceptable costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely impacted. Furthermore, as our business and user base further expand, we may have to devote more resources in encouraging our hosts and talent agencies to produce content that meets the varied interests of a diverse user base, which would increase the costs of ~~contents~~content on our platform. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues that outpace our increased content costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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In addition, our live broadcasting services may be abused by hosts and other users. We have an internal control system in place to review and monitor live broadcasting streams and will shut down those streams that may violate PRC laws and regulations. For detailed descriptions of these PRC laws and regulations, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.” However, we may not identify all such streams and content. Failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations may result in the revocation of our licenses to provide internet content or other licenses, the closure of the concerned platforms and reputational harm. We may also be held liable for such censored information displayed on our platform.

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We cooperate with various talent agencies to manage and recruit our hosts. If we are not able to maintain our relationship with talent agencies, our operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We cooperate with talent agencies to manage, organize and recruit hosts on our platform. As we are an open platform that welcomes all hosts to register on our websites, cooperation with talent agencies substantially increases our operation efficiency in terms of discovering, supporting and managing hosts in a more organized and structured manner, and turning amateur hosts to full-time hosts.

We share a portion of the revenues generated from the sales of virtual items attributed to the hosts’ live streams with hosts and talent agencies who manage these hosts. If the interests between us, and hosts and the talent agencies are not well balanced, or if we cannot design a revenue-sharing mechanism that is agreeable to both hosts and talent agencies, we may not be able to retain or attract hosts or talent agencies, or both. In addition, while we have entered into exclusive streaming agreements with certain hosts, none of the talent agencies we cooperate with has an exclusive cooperation relationship with us. If other platforms offer better revenue sharing incentive to talent agencies, such talent agencies may choose to devote more of their resources to hosts who stream on the other platforms, or they may encourage their hosts to use or even enter into an exclusive agreement with other platforms, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

~~We rely on third-party logistics services for our product delivery when performing our~~

~~e-commerce~~

~~business, and if such third-party logistics services fail to provide reliable logistics services, our~~

~~e-commerce~~

~~business and reputation may be materially and adversely affected.~~

~~We offer~~

~~ACG-related~~

~~merchandise and offline events tickets on our platform, and generate revenues from sales of these products. Our~~

~~e-commence~~

business uses a number of third-party logistics companies to deliver our products to customers. Any interruption to or failure in logistics services could prevent the timely or proper delivery of our products. These interruptions may be due to events that are beyond our control or the control of these third-party logistics services, such as inclement weather, natural disasters, transportation interruptions or labor unrest or shortage. We may not be able to find alternative logistics companies to provide logistics services in a timely and reliable manner, or at all, to replace such third-party logistics services to the extent necessary. If products sold on our platform are not delivered in proper condition or on a timely basis or at all, our

~~e-commerce~~

~~business and reputation would suffer.~~

We have a unique community culture that is vital to our success. Our operations may be materially and adversely affected if we fail to maintain our culture and brand image within our addressable user communities.

Our users have developed a unique community culture that distinguishes us from other online content providers. Our users come to our platform for creative content covering a wide array of cultures and interests as well as for strong, vibrant and safe communities. We believe that maintaining and promoting such community culture is critical to retaining and expanding our user base. We have taken multiple initiatives to preserve our community culture and values, such as requiring users to pass a membership exam before they are allowed to send bullet-chats and utilize other interactive functions on our platform, and temporarily blocking or permanently deleting accounts of users who posted inappropriate content or comments.

Despite our efforts, we may be unable to maintain and foster our unique community culture and cease to be the preferred platform for our target users and content creators. As our user base is expanding, we may have difficulties in guiding our new users to honor and abide by our community values despite the initiatives we have adopted and may adopt in the future. In such event, our user engagement and loyalty may suffer, which would in turn negatively affect user traffic and our attractiveness to other customers and partners. In addition, frictions among our users and inflammatory comments posted by internet trolls may damage our community culture and brand image, which would be detrimental to our operations. Historically, some incidents of intense frictions among our users who belonged to different micro-interests and fans groups disrupted our operations. Users who have met through our services may become involved in emotionally charged situations and could suffer adverse moral, emotional or physical consequences. Such events could be highly publicized and have a significant negative impact on our reputation. Government authorities may require us to discontinue or restrict the relevant services. As a result, our business could suffer and our user base and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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If we fail to develop effective advertising products and ~~system,~~systems or retain existing advertisers or attract new advertisers to advertise on our platform, or if we are unable to collect accounts receivable from the advertisers or advertising agencies in a timely manner, our financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

We generate a portion of our revenues from advertising. We enter into contracts with both advertisers and third-party advertising agencies, and the financial soundness of these customers may affect our collection of accounts receivable. We make a credit assessment of the advertiser and advertising agency to evaluate the collectability of the advertising service fees before entering into an advertising contract. However, we cannot assure you that we are or will be able to accurately assess the creditworthiness of each advertiser or advertising agency, and any inability of advertisers or advertising agencies to pay us in a timely manner may adversely affect our liquidity and cash flows.

Our ability to generate and maintain our advertising revenues depends on a number of factors, including the maintenance and enhancement of our brand, the scale, engagement and loyalty of our users and the market competition on advertising prices. We cannot assure you that we will be able to retain existing advertisers or advertising agencies or attract new ones. If we fail to retain and enhance our relationships with third-party advertising agencies or advertisers themselves, our business, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.

We rely on third-party logistics services for our product delivery when performing our

e-commerce

business, and if such third-party logistics services fail to provide reliable logistics services, our

e-commerce

business and reputation may be materially and adversely affected.

We offer

ACG-related

merchandise on our platform, and generate revenues from sales of these products. Our

e-commence

business uses a number of third-party logistics companies to deliver our products to customers. Any interruption to or failure in logistics services could prevent the timely or proper delivery of our products. These interruptions may be due to events that are beyond our control or the control of these third-party logistics services, such as pandemic, inclement weather, natural disasters, transportation interruptions or labor unrest or shortage. We may not be able to find alternative logistics companies to provide logistics services in a timely and reliable manner, or at all, to replace such third-party logistics services to the extent necessary. If products sold on our platform are not delivered in proper condition or on a timely basis or at all, our

e-commerce

business and reputation would suffer.

We rely upon our partner to ~~make~~deliver our ~~service available~~services through smart TV.

In smart TV video streaming market, only a small number of qualified license holders can provide internet audio and visual program service to the TV terminal users via smart TVs,

set-top

boxes and other electronic products. Most of those license holders are radio or TV stations. Private companies that wish to operate such business need to cooperate with those license holders to legally provide relevant services. We cooperate with a PRC licensed entity for the development of relevant programs and provision of audio-visual program services through private network and targeted communication channels, such as smart TVs. If we are not successful in maintaining existing or creating new relationships, or if we encounter technological, content licensing, regulatory or other impediments to delivering our streaming content to our members via these devices, our ability to grow our business may be adversely impacted.

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Table of Contents

We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing services that operate effectively with these operating systems, networks, devices and standards.

We make our products and services available across a variety of operating systems, mainly on mobile devices and personal computers. As mobile usage accelerates, we expect to generate a large portion of our business and revenues from mobile. If we are unable to successfully capture and retain the growing number of users that access internet services through mobile devices, or if we are slower than our competitors in developing attractive products and services adaptable for mobile devices, we may fail to capture a significant share or an increasingly important portion of the market or may lose existing users. In addition, even if we are able to retain the increasing number of mobile users, we may not be able to continue to successfully ~~monetize them~~commercialize mobile user traffic in the future.

We depend on the interoperability of our products and services with popular devices, desktop and mobile operating systems and web browsers that we do not control, such as Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS, and others. Any changes in devices or their systems that degrade the functionality of our products and services or give preferential treatment to competitive products or services could adversely affect usage of our products and services. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing services that operate effectively with these operating systems, networks, devices and standards. Further, if the number of systems, networks and devices for which we develop our products and services increases, it will result in an increase in our costs and expenses, and adversely affect our gross margin and results of operation.

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~~Any malfunction, capacity constraint or operation interruption for any extended period may have an adverse impact on our business.~~

Our ability to provide superior user experience on our platform depends on the continuous and reliable operation of our IT systems. We cannot assure you that we will be able to procure sufficient bandwidth in a timely manner or on acceptable terms or at all. Failure to do so may significantly impair user experience on our platform and decrease the overall effectiveness of our platform to users, content providers and advertisers. Our IT systems and proprietary content distribution network are vulnerable to damage or interruption as a result of fires, floods, earthquakes, power losses, telecommunications failures, undetected errors in software, computer viruses, hacking and other attempts to harm our IT systems. Disruptions, failures, unscheduled service interruptions or a decrease in connection speeds could damage our reputation and cause our users, content providers and advertisers to migrate to our competitors’ platforms. If we experience frequent or persistent service disruptions, whether caused by failures of our own IT systems or those of third-party service providers, our user experience may be negatively affected, which in turn may have a material and adverse effect on our reputation and business. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in minimizing the frequency or duration of service interruptions. As the number of our users increases and our users generate more content on our platform, we may be required to expand and adapt our technology and infrastructure to reliably store and process content. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve the performance of our platform, especially during peak usage times, as our services become more complex and our user traffic increases.

~~Any compromise of the cyber security of our platform could materially and adversely affect our business, operations and reputation.~~

Our products and services involve the storage and transmission of users’ and other customers’ information, and security breaches expose us to a risk of loss of this information, litigation and potential liability. We experience cyber-attacks of varying degrees from time to time, and we have been able to rectify attacks without significant impact to our operations in the past. Our security measures may also be breached due to employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, users or other customers to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our data or our users’ or other customers’ data or accounts, or may otherwise obtain access to such data or accounts. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, we could lose users and other customers, and may be exposed to significant legal and financial risks, including legal claims and regulatory fines and penalties. Any of these actions could have a material and adverse effect on our business, reputation and results of operations

.

Undetected programming errors or flaws or failure to maintain effective customer service could harm our reputation or decrease market acceptance of our products and services, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

The video programs on our platform may contain programming errors that may only become apparent after their release. We generally have been able to resolve such flaws and errors. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to detect and resolve all these programming errors effectively. Undetected programming errors could adversely affect our user experience and market acceptance.

Our software has contained, and may now or in the future contain, errors, bugs or vulnerabilities. Any errors, bugs or vulnerabilities discovered in our code after release could result in damage to our reputation, loss of users, loss of content providers, loss of revenue or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results.

~~Privacy concerns relating to our products and services and the use of user information could damage our reputation, deter current and potential users and customers from using our products.~~

We collect personal data from our users in order to better understand our users and their needs for the purpose of our content feeds recommendation and to help our advertisement customers target specific demographic groups. Concerns about the collection, use, disclosure or security of personal information or other privacy-related matters, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation, cause us to lose users and other customers and adversely affect our results of operations. While we strive to comply with applicable data protection laws and regulations, as well as our privacy policies pursuant to our terms of use and other obligations we may have with respect to privacy and data protection, any failure or perceived failure to comply with these laws, regulations or policies may result in inquiries and other proceedings or actions against us by government agencies or others, as well as negative publicity and damage to our reputation and brand, each of which could cause us to lose users and customers and have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Internet Information Security and Privacy Protection.”

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Any systems failure or compromise of our security that results in the unauthorized access to or release of our users’ or other customers’ data could significantly limit the adoption of our products and services, as well as harm our reputation and brand and, therefore, our business. We expect to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches. The risk that these types of events could seriously harm our business is likely to increase as we expand the number of services we offer and increase the size of our users base.

Our practices may become inconsistent with new laws or regulations concerning data protection, or the interpretation and application of existing consumer and data protection laws or regulations, which is often uncertain and in flux. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, this could result in an order requiring that we change our practices, which could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results. Complying with new laws and regulations could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business. Failure or perceived failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations related to the collection, use, or sharing of personal information or other privacy-related and security matters could result in a loss of confidence in us by customers and users, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We utilize payment collection channels to collect proceeds from our paying users’ purchases. Any failure by those payment collection channels to process payments effectively and securely may materially and adversely affect our revenue realization and brand recognition.

We depend on the billing and payment systems of third parties such as online third-party payment processors to maintain accurate records of payments of sales proceeds by paying users and collect such payments. We receive periodic statements from these third parties which indicate the aggregate amount of fees that were charged to paying users of our products and services. Our business and results of operations could be adversely affected if these third parties fail to accurately account for or calculate the revenues generated from the sales of our products and services. If there are security breaches or failure or errors in the payment process of these third parties, user experience may be affected and our business results may be negatively impacted.

Failure to timely collect our receivables from third parties whose billing and payment systems we use and third-party payment processors may adversely affect our cash flows. Our third-party payment processors may from time to time experience cash flow difficulties. Consequently, they may delay their payments to us or fail to pay us at all. Any delay in payment or inability of current or potential third-party payment processors to pay us may significantly harm our cash flow and results of operations.

We also do not have control over the security measures of our third-party payment service providers, and security breaches of the online payment systems that we use could expose us to litigation and possible liability for failing to secure confidential customer information and could, among other things, damage our reputation and the perceived security of all of the online payment systems that we use. If a well-publicized internet security breach were to occur, users concerned about the security of their online payments may become reluctant to purchase our products through payment service providers even if the publicized breach did not involve payment systems or methods used by us. In addition, billing software errors could damage user confidence in these payment systems. If any of the above were to occur and damage our reputation or the perceived security of the payment systems we use, we may lose paying users as they may be discouraged from purchasing products or services on our platform, which may have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

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Our success depends on the efforts of our key employees, including our senior management members and other technology talents. If we fail to hire, retain and motivate our key employees, our business may suffer.

We depend on the continued contributions of our senior management and other key employees, many of whom are difficult to replace. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or other key employees could harm our business. Competition for qualified talent in China is intense, particularly in the internet and technology industries. Our future success depends on our ability to attract a large number of qualified employees and retain existing key employees. If we are unable to do so, our business and growth may be materially and adversely affected and the trading price of our ADSs could suffer. Our need to significantly increase the number of our qualified employees and retain key employees may cause us to materially increase compensation-related costs, including stock-based compensation.

~~We have granted, and may continue to grant, options and other types of awards under our share incentive plan, which may result in increased share-based compensation expenses.~~

We adopted a global share incentive plan in 2014 and a share incentive plan in 2018, which we refer to as the Global Share Plan and the 2018 Plan, respectively, in this annual report, for the purpose of granting share-based compensation awards to employees, directors and consultants to incentivize their performance and align their interests with ours. We recognize expenses in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Under each of the share incentive plans, we are authorized to grant options and other types of awards. As of February 28, 2020, awards to purchase 6,766,402 ordinary shares under the Global Share Plan and 5,378,000 ordinary shares under the 2018 Plan have been granted and outstanding, excluding awards that were forfeited or cancelled after the relevant grant dates. Some of our outstanding awards set the completion of an initial public offering of our ordinary shares as performance condition for vesting. As of December 31, 2019, our unrecognized share-based compensation expenses relating to unvested awards amounted to RMB472.0 million (US$67.8 million), adjusted for estimated forfeitures.

~~If we cannot obtain sufficient cash when we need it, we may not be able to meet our payment obligations under our convertible notes.~~

In April 2019, we issued US$500 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2026, which we refer to as 2026 Notes in this annual report. These notes bear interest at a rate of 1.375% per year, payable semiannually in arrears on April 1 and October 1 of each year, beginning on October 1, 2019, and will mature on April 1, 2026.

We derive most of our revenues from, and hold most of our assets through, our subsidiaries. As a result, we may rely in part upon distributions and advances from our subsidiaries in order to help us meet our payment obligations under the notes and our other obligations. Our subsidiaries are distinct legal entities and do not have any obligation (legal or otherwise) to provide us with distributions or advances. We may face tax or other adverse consequences, or legal limitations, on our ability to obtain funds from these entities. In addition, our ability to obtain external financing in the future is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including:

~~our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows;~~

~~general market conditions for financing activities by internet companies; and~~

~~economic, political and other conditions in the PRC and elsewhere.~~

If we are unable to obtain funding in a timely manner or on commercially acceptable terms, we may not be able to meet our payment obligations under our convertible notes. If we fail to pay interest on the notes, we will be in default under the indenture governing the notes, which in turn may constitute a default under existing and future agreements governing our indebtedness.

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If we fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls to remediate our material weakness over financial reporting, we may be unable to accurately report our results of operations, meet our reporting obligations or prevent fraud, and investor confidence and the market price of our ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

In auditing our consolidated financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2017 and 2018, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified one material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, in accordance with the standards established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of the United States (PCAOB).

As defined in the standards established by the PCAOB, a “material weakness” is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness identified related to our lack of sufficient resources regarding financial reporting and accounting personnel with understanding of U.S. GAAP, in particular, to address complex U.S. GAAP technical accounting issues, related disclosures in accordance with U.S. GAAP and financial reporting requirements set forth by the SEC. The material weakness, if not timely remedied, may have led to significant misstatements in our consolidated financial statements in the future.

Following the identification of the material weakness, we have taken measures to remedy the material weakness. Our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2019 after the remediation. For details on these initiatives, please see “Item 15. Controls and Procedures—Internal Control Over Financial Reporting—Remediation of the Material Weakness in Internal Control over Financial Reporting Reported in 2017 and 2018.”

The SEC, as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, has adopted rules requiring public companies to include a report of management on the effectiveness of such companies’ internal control over financial reporting in their respective annual reports. In addition, an independent registered public accounting firm for a public company may be required to issue an attestation report on the effectiveness of such company’s 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 a report that is qualified if it is not satisfied with our internal controls or the level at which our controls are documented, designed, operated or reviewed, or if it interprets the relevant requirements differently from us. In addition, as we have become a public company, our reporting obligations may place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources and systems for the foreseeable future. We may be unable to timely complete our evaluation testing and any required remediation.

If we fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment, we could suffer material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements and fail to meet our reporting obligations, which would likely cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information. This could in turn limit our access to capital markets, harm our results of operations, and lead to a decline in the trading price of our ADSs. Additionally, ineffective internal control over financial reporting could expose us to increased risk of fraud or misuse of corporate assets and subject us to potential delisting from the stock exchange on which we list, regulatory investigations and civil or criminal sanctions.

~~We rely on certain key operating metrics to evaluate the performance of our business, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.~~

We rely on certain key operating metrics, such as MAU and paying users, to evaluate the performance of our business. Our operating metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics used by other companies due to differences in methodology and assumptions. We calculate these operating metrics using internal company data that have not been independently verified. If we discover material inaccuracies in the operating metrics we use, or if they are perceived to be inaccurate, our reputation may be harmed and our evaluation methods and results may be impaired, which could negatively affect our business. If investors make investment decisions based on operating metrics we disclose that are inaccurate, we may also face potential lawsuits or disputes.

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~~We do not have any business insurance coverage.~~

The insurance industry in China is still in an early stage of development, and insurance companies in China currently offer limited business-related insurance products. We do not maintain business interruption insurance or general third-party liability insurance, nor do we maintain property insurance, product liability insurance or

~~key-man~~

insurance. We consider this practice to be reasonable in light of the nature of our business and the insurance products that are available in China and in line with the practices of other companies in the same industry of similar size in China. Any uninsured risks may result in substantial costs and the diversion of resources, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We face risks ~~related to natural disasters, health epidemics and other outbreaks, which could significantly disrupt~~associated with our ~~operations.~~

~~Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of epidemics.~~

~~COVID-19,~~

a novel strain of coronavirus, has spread worldwide. Our headquarters are located in Shanghai, China and we also lease office space in Wuhan for content screening team of approximately 450 employees. This outbreak of communicable diseases has caused, and may continue to cause us and certain of our business partners, to implement temporary adjustment of work schemes allowing employees to work from home and adopt remote collaboration. We have taken measures to reduce the impact of this epidemic outbreak, including, upgrading our telecommuting system, monitoring our employees’ health on a daily basis and optimizing our technology system to support potential growth in user traffic. However, we might still experience lower work efficiency and productivity, which may adversely affect our service quality. In addition, the outbreak may cause delay or cancellation in our offline events as well as delay in the delivery of our merchandise sold on our platform to the customers, which may in turn adversely affect our revenue and financial conditions. This outbreak has also caused the restrictions on our employees’ and other service providers’ ability to travel. As a result of any of the above developments, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of COVID-19 and the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, among others.

In recent years, there have been other breakouts of epidemics in China and globally. Our operations could be disrupted if one of our employees is suspected of having H1N1 flu, avian flu or another epidemic, since it could require our employees to be quarantined and/or our offices to be disinfected. In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that the outbreak harms the PRC economy in general and the mobile internet industry in particular.

We are also vulnerable to natural disasters and other calamities. Although we have servers that are hosted in an offsite location, our backup system does not capture data on a real-time basis and we may be unable to recover certain data in the event of a server failure. We cannot assure you that any backup systems will be adequate to protect us from the effects of fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures,

~~break-ins,~~

war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events. Any of the foregoing 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 services on our platform.

Any future outbreak of contagious diseases, extreme unexpected bad weather or natural disasters would adversely affect our offline events. If there is a recurrence of an outbreak of certain contagious diseases or natural disasters, the offline events operated by us may be cancelled or delayed. Government advices regarding, or restrictions on, holding offline events, in the event of an outbreak of any contagious disease or occurrence of natural disasters may have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.

~~Our ability to conduct business in international markets may be adversely affected by legal, regulatory and other risks.~~investments.

~~International expansion~~We currently spend a portion of our ~~online games is an important component~~capital in both short-term and long-term investments. Our short-term investments primarily include money market funds, financial products with variable interest rates referenced to performance of underlying assets issued by commercial banks or other financial institutions and publicly traded companies with the intention to be sold within twelve months. Our long-term investments primarily consist of investment in companies whose businesses are complementary to ours, including game, anime production and content creation tool development companies.

These investments may earn yields substantially lower than anticipated, and the fair values of our ~~growth strategy and~~investments may ~~subject us~~fluctuate significantly, which contribute to ~~additional risks and challenges, including but not limited~~the uncertainties in valuation. Any failure to ~~challenges in formulating effective local sales and marketing strategies targeting users~~realize the benefits we expected from various jurisdictions and cultures, who have a diverse range of preferences and demands; challenges in identifying appropriate local business partners and establishing and maintaining good working relationships with them; exposure to different tax jurisdictions thatthese investments may subject us to greater fluctuations in our effective tax rate and potentially adverse tax consequence; and risks of increased costs associated with doing business in foreign jurisdictions. If we fail to address any of these risks and challenges associated with our international expansion, our reputation, business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

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

results. For a detailed description of accounting treatment of our short-term investments and long-term investments and the performance of the investments, see “Item 5. Operating And Financial Review And Prospects—Critical Accounting Policies.”

~~The global macroeconomic environment is facing numerous challenges. The growth rate of the Chinese economy has gradually slowed since 2010~~Any change in securities prices and the trend may continue. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies, including the United States and China. Unrest, terrorist threats and the potential for warmarket conditions could lead to volatility in the ~~Middle East~~fair values of our investments accounted for at fair value, which could further impact our financial condition 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.~~

Our auditor, like other independent registered public accounting firms operating in China, is not permitted to be subject to inspection by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and consequently investors may ~~be deprived of the benefits of such inspection.~~

Our auditor, the independent registered public accounting firm that issued the audit reports 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 Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB, is subject to laws in the United States pursuant to which the PCAOB conducts regular inspections to assess its compliance with applicable professional standards. Our auditor is located in, and organized under the laws of, the PRC, which is a jurisdiction where the PCAOB has been unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. In May 2013, the PCAOB announced that it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Enforcement Cooperation with the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or CSRC, and the PRC Ministry of Finance, which establishes a cooperative framework between the parties for the production and exchange of audit documents relevant to investigations undertaken by the PCAOB, the CSRC or the PRC Ministry of Finance in the United States and the PRC, respectively. The PCAOB continues to be in discussions with the CSRC, and the PRC Ministry of Finance to permit joint inspections in the PRC of audit firms that are registered with PCAOB and audit Chinese companies that trade on U.S. exchanges.

On December 7, 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement highlighting continued challenges faced by the U.S. regulators in their oversight of financial statement audits of U.S.-listed companies with significant operations in China. However, it remains unclear what further actions, if any, the SEC and the PCAOB will take to address the problem.

This lack of the PCAOB inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from fully evaluating audits and quality control procedures of our independent registered public accounting firm. As a result, we and investors in our ordinary shares are deprived of the benefits of such PCAOB inspections. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China makes 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, which could cause investors and potential investors in our stock to lose confidence in our audit procedures and reported financial information and the quality of our financial statements.

Any failure to comply with PRC property laws and relevant regulations regarding certain of our leased premises may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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

~~non-registered~~

~~lease if we fail to complete the registration within the prescribed timeframe.~~

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~~Proceedings instituted by the SEC against certain~~

~~PRC-based~~

~~accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act.~~

~~In December 2012, the SEC instituted administrative proceedings against the Big Four~~

~~PRC-based~~

accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, alleging that these firms had violated U.S. securities laws and the SEC’s rules and regulations thereunder by failing to provide to the SEC the firms’ audit work papers with respect to certain

~~PRC-based~~

~~companies that are publicly traded in the United States.~~

On January 22, 2014, the administrative law judge, or the ALJ, presiding over the matter rendered an initial decision that each of the firms had violated the SEC’s rules of practice by failing to produce audit papers and other documents to the SEC. The initial decision censured each of the firms and barred them from practicing before the SEC for a period of six months.

On February 6, 2015, the four China-based accounting firms each agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC and audit U.S.-listed companies. The settlement required the firms to follow detailed procedures and to seek to provide the SEC with access to Chinese firms’ audit documents via the CSRC. Under the terms of the settlement, the underlying proceeding against the four China-based accounting firms was deemed dismissed with prejudice four years after entry of the settlement. The four-year mark occurred on February 6, 2019. While we cannot predict if the SEC will further challenge the four China-based accounting firms’ compliance with U.S. law in connection with U.S. regulatory requests for audit work papers or if the results of such a challenge would result in the SEC imposing penalties such as suspensions, if the accounting firms are subject to additional remedial measures,also impact our ability to file our financial statements in compliance with SEC requirements could be impacted. A determination that we have not timely filed financial statements in compliance with the SEC requirements could ultimately lead to the delistingdispose of our ordinary shares from Nasdaq or the termination of the registration of our ordinary shares under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or both, which would substantially reduce or effectively terminate the trading of our ordinary shares in the United States.these investments at favorable prices.

Difficulties in identifying, consummating and integrating acquisitions and strategic alliances and potential

~~write-off~~

write-offs in connection with our ~~investment~~investments or acquisitions may have a material and adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We have acquired, and may in the future acquire, companies that are complementary to our business. From time to time, we may also make alternative investments and enter into strategic partnerships or alliances as we see fit. For example, in September 2018, we increased the shareholding and acquired majority equity interests in Zenith Group Holdings Co., Limited (“Zenith”), the owner of a series of famous virtual singers, such as Luo Tianyi. In the fourth quarter of 2019, we acquired the remaining equity interests in Zenith. In December 2018, we entered into an agreement with certain affiliates of NetEase, Inc. to acquire NetEase Comics business, including copyrights of a large number of storylines from leading publishers and comic artists. In December 2018, we entered into an agreement to increase our shareholdings and to acquire majority equity interests in Maoer Inc., an audio platform offering audio drama. In July 2019, we entered into a series of agreements to acquire a controlling interest in Chaodian Inc. (“Chaodian”). In September 2020, we acquired the remaining interests in Chaodian through a series of transactions. Chaodian operates offline events, such as concerts and exhibitions

~~Bilibili Macro Link~~

~~and~~

~~Bilibili World~~

~~, and a talent agency that is currently managing many of our content creators.~~

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~~However, past and future acquisitions, partnerships or alliances may expose us to potential risks, including risks associated with:~~

~~the integration of new operations and the retention of customers and personnel;~~

~~significant volatility in our operating profit (loss) due to changes in the fair value of our contingent purchase consideration payable;~~

~~unforeseen or hidden liabilities, including those associated with different business practices;~~

~~the diversion of management’s attention and resources from our existing business and technology by acquisition, transition and integration activities;~~

~~failure to achieve synergies with our existing business and generate revenues as anticipated;~~

~~failure of the newly acquired businesses, technologies, services and products to perform as anticipated;~~

~~inability to generate sufficient revenues to offset additional costs and expenses;~~

~~breach or termination of key agreements by the counterparties;~~

~~the costs of acquisitions;~~

~~international operations conducted by some of our subsidiaries;~~

~~any different interpretations on contingent purchase consideration; or~~

~~the potential loss of, or harm to, relationships with both our employees and customers resulting from our integration of new businesses.~~

~~Any of the potential risks listed above could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to manage our business and our results of operation.~~

In addition, we record goodwill if the purchase price we pay in the acquisitions exceeded the amount assigned to the fair value of the net assets or business acquired. We are required to test our goodwill and intangible assets for impairment annually or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that they may be impaired. We may record impairment of goodwill and intangible assets acquired in connection with our acquisitions if the carrying value of our goodwill and related intangible assets acquired in connection with our past or future acquisitions are determined to be impaired. We cannot be assured the acquired businesses, technologies, services and products from our past acquisitions and any potential transaction will generate sufficient revenue to offset the associated costs or other potential unforeseen adverse effects on our business.

~~Any financial or economic crisis, or perceived threat of such a crisis may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.~~

The global financial markets experienced significant disruptions in 2008 and the United States, European and other economies went into recession. The recovery from the lows of 2008 and 2009 was uneven and the global financial markets are facing new challenges, including the escalation of the European sovereign debt crisis since 2011, the hostilities in the Ukraine, the end of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the economic slowdown in the Eurozone in 2014. It is unclear whether these challenges will be contained and what effects they each may have. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies that have been adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies, including China’s. Recently there have been signs that the rate of China’s and global economic growth is declining. Any prolonged slowdown in global economic development might lead to tighter credit markets, increased market volatility, sudden drops in business and dramatic changes in business.

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~~Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure~~

If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating our businesses in China do not comply with PRC regulations on foreign investment in internet and other related businesses, or if these regulations or their interpretation change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations.

PRC laws and regulations impose certain restrictions or prohibitions on foreign ownership of companies that engage in internet and other related businesses, including the provision of internet content and online game operations. Specifically, foreign ownership of an internet content provider may not exceed 50%, and the major foreign investor is required to have a record of good performance and operating experience in managing value-added telecommunications business. We are a company registered in the Cayman Islands and Hode Technology (our WFOE) is considered a foreign-invested enterprise. To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we conduct our business in China mainly through Shanghai Kuanyu and Shanghai Hode (our VIEs) and their respective subsidiaries, based on a series of contractual arrangements by and among Hode Technology, our VIEs, and their shareholders. As a result of these contractual arrangements, we exert control over our consolidated affiliated entities and consolidate their financial results in our financial statements under U.S. GAAP. Our consolidated affiliated entities hold the licenses, approvals and key assets that are essential for our operations.

In the opinion of our PRC counsel, AnJie Law Firm, based on its understanding of the relevant PRC laws and regulations, each of the contracts among Hode Technology, our VIEs and their shareholders is valid, binding and enforceable in accordance with its terms. However, we have been further advised by our PRC counsel that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current or future PRC laws and regulations. Thus, the PRC government may ultimately take a view contrary to the opinion of our PRC counsel. If we are found in violation of any PRC laws or regulations or if the contractual arrangements among Hode Technology, our VIEs and their shareholders are determined as illegal or invalid by the PRC court, arbitral tribunal or regulatory authorities, the relevant governmental authorities would have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including, without limitation:

~~revoking the business licenses and/or operating licenses of such entities;~~

~~imposing fines on us;~~

~~confiscating any of our income that they deem to be obtained through illegal operations;~~

~~discontinuing or placing restrictions or onerous conditions on our operations;~~

~~placing restrictions on our right to collect revenues;~~

~~shutting down our servers or blocking our app/websites;~~

~~requiring us to restructure the operations in such a way as to compel us to establish a new enterprise,~~

~~re-apply~~

~~for the necessary licenses or relocate our businesses, staff and assets;~~

~~imposing additional conditions or requirements with which we may not be able to comply; or~~

~~taking other regulatory or enforcement actions against us that could be harmful to our business.~~

The imposition of any of these penalties may result in a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business operations. In addition, if the imposition of any of these penalties causes us to lose the rights to direct the activities of our consolidated affiliated entities or the right to receive their economic benefits, we would no longer be able to consolidate their financial results.

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~~We rely on contractual arrangements with our VIEs and their shareholders for our operations in China, which may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership.~~

Due to PRC restrictions or prohibitions on foreign ownership of internet and other related businesses in China, we operate our business in China through our VIEs and their subsidiaries, in which we have no ownership interest. We rely on a series of contractual arrangements with our VIEs and their shareholders, including the powers of attorney, to control and operate business of our consolidated affiliated entities. These contractual arrangements are intended to provide us with effective control over our consolidated affiliated entities and allow us to obtain economic benefits from them. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure.” for more details about these contractual arrangements. In particular, our ability to control the consolidated affiliated entities depends on the powers of attorney, pursuant to which Hode Technology (our WFOE) can vote on all matters requiring shareholder approval in our VIEs. We believe these powers of attorney are legally enforceable but may not be as effective as direct equity ownership.

Although we have been advised by our PRC counsel, AnJie Law Firm, that each of the contracts among Hode Technology, our VIEs and their shareholders is valid, binding and enforceable under existing PRC laws and regulations, these contractual arrangements may not be as effective in providing control over our VIEs and their subsidiaries as direct ownership. If our VIEs or their shareholders fail to perform their respective obligations under the contractual arrangements, we may incur substantial costs and expend substantial resources to enforce our rights. These contractual arrangements are governed by and interpreted in accordance with PRC law, and disputes arising from these contractual arrangements will be resolved through arbitration in China. However, the legal system in China, particularly as it relates to arbitration proceedings, is not as developed as the legal system in many other jurisdictions, such as the United States. See “—Risks Related to Doing Business in ~~China—~~China

Uncertainties in the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws and regulations could limit the legal protections available to you and us.~~” There are very few precedents~~

We face uncertainties with respect to the interpretation and ~~little official guidance~~implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Internet Platform Economy Sector.

Regulation and censorship of information disseminated over the mobile and internet in China may adversely affect our business and subject us to liability for content posted on our platform.

Adverse changes in economic and political policies of the PRC government could have a material and adverse effect on overall economic growth in China, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

Risks Related to Our ADSs

The trading price of our listed securities has been and is likely to continue to be volatile, regardless of our operating performance, which could result in substantial losses to our investors.

We may need additional capital, and the sale of additional Class Z ordinary shares and/or ADSs or other equity securities could result in additional dilution to our shareholders, and the incurrence of additional indebtedness could increase our debt obligations.

Conversion of our convertible senior notes may dilute the ownership interest of the existing shareholders, including holders who had previously converted their notes.

Provisions of our convertible senior notes could discourage an acquisition of us by a third-party.

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

8

Risks Related to ~~how contractual arrangements~~Our Business and Industry

We operate in a fast-evolving industry. We cannot guarantee that we will successfully implement our commercialization strategies or develop new ones, or generate sustainable revenues and profit.

We operate in a fast-evolving industry, and our commercialization model is evolving. We generate revenues primarily by providing our users with valuable content, such as videos, mobile games and VAS. We also generate revenues from advertising,

e-commerce

and other services. We cannot assure you that we can successfully implement the ~~context of a variable interest entity should~~existing commercialization strategies to sustainably generate growing revenues, or that we will be ~~interpreted or enforced under PRC law. There remain significant uncertainties regarding the ultimate outcome of arbitration should legal action become necessary. These uncertainties could limit~~able to develop new commercialization strategies to grow our revenues. If our strategic initiatives do not enhance our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. In addition, arbitration awards are final and can only be enforced in PRC courts through arbitration award recognition proceedings, which could cause additional expenses and delays. In the event we are unablemonetize or enable us to ~~enforce these contractual arrangements or we experience significant delays or other obstacles in the process of enforcing these contractual arrangements,~~develop new commercialization approaches, we may not be able to ~~exert~~maintain or increase our revenues or recover any associated costs. In addition, we may introduce new products and services to expand our revenue streams, including products and services with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. If these new or enhanced products or services fail to engage users, content creators or business partners, we may fail to diversify our revenue streams or generate sufficient revenues to justify our investments and costs, and our business and operating results may suffer as a result.

We have incurred significant losses and we may continue to experience losses in the future.

We have incurred significant losses in the past. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, we had loss from operations of RMB729.0 million, RMB1,495.2 million, and RMB3,141.0 million (US$481.4 million), respectively. We cannot assure you that we will be able to generate profits in the future. Our ability to achieve profitability depends in large part on our ability to manage our costs and expenses. We intend to manage and control our costs and expenses as a proportion of our total revenues, but there can be no assurance that we will achieve this goal. We may experience losses in the future due to our continued investments in technology, talent, content, brand recognition, user base expansion and other initiatives. In addition, our ability to achieve and sustain profitability is affected by various factors, some of which are beyond our control, such as changes in macroeconomic and regulatory environment or competitive dynamics in the industry. Accordingly, you should not rely on our financial results of any prior period as an indication of our future performance.

If we fail to anticipate user preferences and provide products and services to attract and retain users, or if we fail to keep up with rapid changes in technologies and their impact on user behavior, we may not be able to attract sufficient user traffic to remain competitive, and our business and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Our ability to retain, grow and engage our user base depends heavily on our ability to provide a superior user experience. We must offer quality content covering a wide range of interests and formats, introduce successful new products and services, develop user-friendly platform features, and push effective ~~control~~content feeds recommendations. In particular, we must encourage content creators to upload more appealing professional user generated content and we must source more popular licensed content. We must also keep providing our users with features and functions that could enable superior content viewing and social interaction experience. If we are unable to provide a superior user experience, our user base and user engagement may decline, which may materially and adversely affect our business and growth prospects.

We maintain a large content library primarily consisting of PUGV and OGV, and are developing new features to attract and retain our users. In order to expand our content library, we must continue to work with our content creators and incentivize them to produce content that reflects cultural trends and maintain good business relationships with licensors of premium copyrighted content to renew our licenses and source new professionally produced content. Our content creators and licensors may choose to work with other large online video platforms to distribute their content if such platforms can offer better products, services or terms than we do. We cannot assure you that we will be able to attract our content creators to upload their content to our platform or renew or enter into license agreements on commercially reasonable terms with our licensors or at all.

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In addition, the industry in which we operate is characterized by rapidly changing technologies and changing user expectations. To remain competitive, we must adapt our products and services to evolving industry standards and improve the performance and reliability of our products and services to be able to adapt to these changes and innovate in response to evolving user expectations. Developing and integrating new content, products, services and technologies into our existing platform could be expensive and time-consuming, and these efforts may not yield the benefits we expect. If we fail to develop new products, services or innovative technologies on a timely basis, or our new products, services or technologies are not accepted by our users, our business, financial performance and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. We cannot assure you that we can anticipate user preferences and industry changes and respond to such changes in a timely and effective manner. In addition, changes in user behavior resulting from technological developments may also adversely affect us. For example, the number of people accessing the internet through mobile devices, including mobile phones, tablets and other hand-held devices, has increased in recent years, and we expect this trend to continue while 4G, 5G and more advanced mobile communications technologies are broadly implemented. If we fail to develop products and technologies that are compatible with all mobile devices, or if the products and services we develop are not widely accepted and used by users of various mobile devices, we may not be able to penetrate the mobile markets. In addition, the widespread adoption of new internet, networking or telecommunications technologies or other technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or integrate our products, services or infrastructure. If we fail to keep up with rapid technological changes to remain competitive, our future success may be adversely affected.

Our business depends on our ability to provide users with interesting and useful content, which in turn depends on the content contributed by the content creators on our platform.

The quality of the content offered on our platform and our users’ level of engagement are critical to our success. In order to attract and retain users and compete effectively, we must offer interesting and useful content and enhance our users’ viewing experience. It is vital to our operations that we remain sensitive to and responsive to evolving user preferences and offer content that appeals to our users and members. In 2020, 91.4% of the total video views are of PUGV, as compared to 90.1% in 2019. Thus far, we have been generally able to encourage our content creators to create and upload PUGV that are appealing to our users. We have also been providing our content creators with support and guidance in various forms, including technical support for content distribution, editing and uploading. However, we cannot assure you that our content creators can contribute to create popular professional user generated content for our platform. If our content creators cease to contribute content, or their uploaded content fails to attract or retain our users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement. If the number of users or the level of user engagement declines, we may suffer a reduction in revenue.

Increases in the costs of content on our platform may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We need to acquire or produce popular content to provide our users with an engaging and satisfying viewing experience. We recorded content costs in our cost of revenue of RMB543.0 million, RMB1,001.6 million and RMB1,875.5 million (US$287.4 million) in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Increases in market prices for licensed content and live broadcasting rights may also have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, in September 2020, we formed a strategic partnership with Riot Games, the developer of leading MOBA League of Legends, among others, for granting us a three-year exclusive license for live broadcasting the League of Legends Esports global events in China beginning in 2020 through the 2023

Mid-Season

Invitational, at an aggregate purchase price of RMB800 million (US$122.6 million). If we are not able to procure licensed content at commercially acceptable costs, our business and results of operations will be adversely impacted. In addition, if we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in market prices for licensed content, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. In 2018, we started to devote more resources in producing our original content. We rely on our

in-house

team to generate creative ideas for original content and to supervise the original content origination and production process, and we intend to continue to invest resources in content production. If we are not able to compete effectively for talent or attract and retain top talent at reasonable costs, our original content production capabilities would be negatively impacted.

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If the content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other content formats on our platform is deemed to violate any PRC laws or regulations, considered inappropriate or offensive, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

The PRC government and regulatory authorities have adopted regulations governing content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other information over the internet. Under these regulations, internet content providers are prohibited from posting or displaying content that, among other things, violates PRC laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of China or the public interest, or is obscene, superstitious, fraudulent, violent or defamatory on the internet. Internet content providers are also prohibited from displaying content that may be deemed by relevant government authorities as “socially destabilizing” or leaking “state secrets” of China. The PRC government and regulatory authorities strengthen the regulations on internet content from time to time, such as the Opinion on Strictly Regulating Online Game Market Management jointly adopted by a few authorities in December 2017, the Regulations on Administration of Network Short Video Platforms, the Censoring Criteria for Network Short Video Content, promulgated in January 2019 by China Netcasting Services Association, or the CNSA, and the Administrative Provisions on Online Audio-Visual Information Services, effective from January 1, 2020. The enactment of these regulations may significantly increase our ~~VIEs~~compliance costs in recruiting additional content reviewers and training them to identify the prohibited content timely and accurately. Any failure to comply with these regulations may subject us to liability. In November 2020, the NRTA further promulgated the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Show Live Broadcasting and

E-commerce

Live Broadcasting (“Notice 78”) which requests the live broadcasting platforms for online shows to strengthen positive value guidance and to prevent the spread of the trends of wealth flaunting, money worshiping and vulgarity. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.”

In addition to licensed content provided by copyright owners, we allow our users to upload content to our platform. Our users can upload all types of content including self-created and professionally produced content and certain graphical files for the purpose of updating user biographies and content covers. Currently only registered users are allowed to upload content to our platform. We maintain two levels of content management and review procedures to monitor the content uploaded to our platform to ensure that no content that may be deemed to be prohibited by government rules and regulations is posted and to promptly remove any infringing content. Our content screening team is dedicated to screening and monitoring the content uploaded on our platform on a

24-hour,

7-day

basis. For more details relating to our content monitoring procedures, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Content Management and Review.” However, there can be no assurance that we can identify all the videos or other content that may violate relevant laws and regulations due to the large amount of content uploaded by our users every day.

If the content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other content formats on our platform is considered inappropriate or offensive, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Failure to identify and prevent illegal or inappropriate content from being uploaded and/or streamed on our platform may subject us to liability. To the extent that PRC regulatory authorities find any content on our platform objectionable, they may require us to limit or eliminate the dissemination of such content on our platform in the form of take-down orders, cause our app to be temporarily removed from app stores, or temporarily disable certain functions on our platform, or otherwise. For example, the CAC conducted a nationwide inspection of major internet platforms providing short-video content, and we were notified by certain smartphone app stores in China that our mobile app had been temporarily removed from July 26, 2018 until August 25, 2018. We implemented the required measures promptly and reinstated the mobile app downloads from those app stores on August 26, 2018. We thereafter conducted a self-inspection by taking a comprehensive review of the content on our platform and have doubled the headcounts of content monitoring personnel. Our app may be removed from app stores again in the future, and such removal could materially and adversely affect our business operations. On December 3, 2020, in response to the reported vulgar content on our platform, the Shanghai Municipal Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication, the Shanghai Municipal Internet Information Office and the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau made inquiries with us and requested us to rectify within two weeks and strengthen the content review of videos, live broadcasting, anime, bullet chatting and other content on our platform. We have completed the required rectification and submitted the final rectification report to the Shanghai Municipal Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication and the Shanghai Municipal Internet Information Office on December 22, 2020 and our rectification report has been accepted by the relevant competent authorities.

In addition, PRC laws and regulations are subject to interpretation by the relevant authorities, and it may not be possible to determine in all cases the types of content that could result in our liability as a platform operator. In the past, we were subject to penalties by PRC regulatory authorities due to our failure to comply with these requirements. For example, the Inspection Department of the Enforcement General Administration of Shanghai Culture Market imposed on us a fine of RMB20,000 in May 2018 and a fine of RMB10,000 in April 2019 primarily for having inappropriate content on our platform. We also may face liability for copyright or trademark infringement, fraud and other claims based on the nature and content of the materials that are delivered, shared or otherwise accessed through or displayed on our platform.

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Furthermore, reports or publicity of violence and crimes related to our PUGV, OGV, online games or any claims of our PUGV, OGV, online game content to be considered, among others, obscene, superstitious, fraudulent, defamatory, inappropriate, offensive or impairing public interest, may result in negative publicity, harm to our brand or a regulatory response that might have a material and adverse impact on our business. Any claim of us failing to identify any content a viewer may find objectionable may result in negative publicity, harm to our brand or regulatory actions, which in turn might have a material and adverse impact on our business. We generate a portion of our revenues from advertising. Our advertising revenues might be materially and adversely affected by any decision by advertisers to reduce their advertising as a result of adverse media reports, user complaints or other negative publicity involving us or, content on our platform. In addition, reductions of advertising by advertisers due to allegedly objectionable content made available on our platform by content creators, licensors, or other third parties, concerns about our content management practices, concerns about brand reputation or potential liability, or uncertainty regarding their own legal and compliance obligations, may also materially and adversely affect our advertising revenues.

We face uncertainties with respect to the enactment, interpretation and implementation of Notice 78.

According to Notice 78, platforms providing online show live broadcasting or

e-commerce

live broadcasting services shall, among other things, register their information and business operations by November 30, 2020, ensure real-name registration for all live broadcasting hosts and virtual gifting users, prohibit users that are minors or without real-name registration from virtual gifting, and set a limit on the maximum amount of virtual gifting per time, per day, and per month.

As advised by our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, there is currently no explicit provisions as to what limits on virtual gifting will be imposed by the NRTA pursuant to Notice 78 and it is unclear how and to what degree any such limits would be imposed on different platforms. Given there is no explicit provisions on how to set the limit on virtual gifting, we have not been able to set such limit on our platform and we are currently not able to assess the impact this requirement under Notice 78 will have on the virtual gifting spending activities on our platform. We recorded revenues generated from our live broadcasting business under VAS. We derived 14.2%, 24.2% and 32.0% of our revenues from VAS in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Revenues from live broadcasting accounted for 7.8%, 8.8% and 10.9% of our total net revenues in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Any such limits ultimately imposed may negatively impact our revenues derived from virtual gifting and our results of operations.

Notice 78 also requests the live broadcasting platforms for online shows to register in the National Internet Audio-visual Platforms Information Management System, however, in our communication with Shanghai Municipal Administration of Radio and Television, we were informed that due to the adjustment of the system, entities holding a License for Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs need to wait for further notification from the competent authority before they can register in this system. As of the date of this annual report, we have not yet received the notification requesting such registration. Notice 78 also sets forth requirements for certain live broadcasting businesses with respect to real-name registration, limits on user spending on virtual gifting, restrictions on minors on virtual gifting, live broadcasting review personnel requirements, content tagging requirements, and other requirements. For more information on Notice 78, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.”

Since Notice 78 was only issued in November 2020 and some of the requirements in Notice 78 are unclear and have no explicit provisions or implementation standards, we are still in the process of getting further guidance from regulatory authorities and evaluating the applicability and effect of the various requirements under Notice 78 on our business. Any further rulemaking under Notice 78 or other intensified regulation with respect to live broadcasting may increase our compliance burden in the live broadcasting business, and may ~~lose control over~~have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

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We may not be able to effectively manage our growth and the ~~assets owned~~increased complexity of our business, which could negatively impact our brand and financial performance.

We have experienced rapid growth since our inception in 2011. Our financial performance has been and will continue to be influenced by our ~~VIEs.~~ability to add, retain and engage active users of our products. Our user acquisition and engagement may fluctuate depending on factors beyond our control, such as the

shelter-in-place

restrictions due to the

COVID-19

pandemic. We have experienced a significant increase in the size and engagement of our active user base during the first quarter of 2020 partly due to the

shelter-in-place

restrictions in China. Although we have been able to maintain the momentum of user acquisition and engagement in the other quarters of 2020 as China gradually relaxed its

shelter-in-place

restrictions, we may not be able to maintain the growth of our active user base or user acquisition and the level of engagement in the long term. As we grow our user base and increase the level of user engagement, we may incur increasing costs, such as licensing fees and royalties for licensed content and hosts’ compensation to further expand our content library to meet the growing and diversified demands of our users. If such expansion is not properly managed, it may adversely affect our financial and operating resources without achieving the desired effects. The market prices for licensing fees and royalties for licensed content, such as license for live broadcasting popular

e-sport

events, have increased significantly in China during the past few years. Online video broadcasting programs are competing aggressively to license popular content titles and events, driving licensing fees up in general. As the market further grows, copyright owners, distributors and industry participants may demand higher licensing fees for such content. Furthermore, as our content library expands, we expect the costs of licensed content to continue to increase. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in costs, we may incur more losses and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. See “ —Increases in the costs of content on our platform may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

As we only have a ~~result,~~limited history of operating our business at its current scale, it is difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects, including our ability to grow in the future. In addition, our costs and expenses may increase rapidly as we expand our business and continue to invest in our infrastructure to enhance the performance and reliability of our platform. For example, we may increase our investment in servers and bandwidth to maintain our quality user experience while sustaining the growth of user base. Continued growth could also strain our ability to maintain reliable service levels for our users, content creators and business partners, develop and improve our operational, financial, legal and management controls, and enhance our reporting systems and procedures. Our costs and expenses may grow faster than our revenues and may be greater than what we anticipate. If we are unable to generate adequate revenues and to manage our costs and expenses, we may continue to incur losses in the future and may not be able to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability. Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

We have a unique community culture that is vital to our success. Our operations may be materially and adversely affected if we fail to maintain our culture and brand image within our addressable user communities.

Our users have developed a unique community culture that distinguishes us from other online content providers. Our users come to our platform for creative content covering a wide array of cultures and interests as well as for strong, vibrant and safe communities. We believe that maintaining and promoting such community culture is critical to retaining and expanding our user base. We have taken multiple initiatives to preserve our community culture and values, such as requiring users to pass a membership exam before they are allowed to send bullet chats and utilize other interactive functions on our platform, and temporarily blocking or permanently deleting accounts of users who posted inappropriate content or comments.

Despite our efforts, we may be unable to ~~consolidate~~maintain and foster our unique community culture and cease to be the ~~financial~~preferred platform for our target users and content creators. As our user base is expanding, we may have difficulties in guiding our new users to honor and abide by our community values despite the initiatives we have adopted and may adopt in the future. In such event, our user engagement and loyalty may suffer, which would in turn negatively affect user traffic and our attractiveness to other customers and partners. In addition, frictions among our users and inflammatory comments posted by internet trolls may damage our community culture and brand image, which would be detrimental to our operations. Historically, some incidents of intense frictions among our users who belonged to different micro-interests and fans groups disrupted our operations. Users who have met through our services may become involved in emotionally charged situations and could suffer adverse moral, emotional or physical consequences. Such events could be highly publicized and have a significant negative impact on our reputation. Government authorities may require us to discontinue or restrict the relevant services. As a result, our business could suffer and our user base and results of ~~such~~operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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

The internet and mobile industries in China are highly regulated. Our consolidated affiliated entities are required to obtain and maintain applicable licenses and approvals from different regulatory authorities in order to provide their current services. 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 ~~consolidated financial statements,~~present or future business. As we develop and expand our business scope, we may need to obtain additional qualifications, permits, approvals or licenses. We may be required to obtain additional licenses or approvals if the PRC government adopts more stringent policies or regulations for our business.

The expiration date of the major subsidiary’s Online Culture Operating Permits granted by the local branch of MCT ranges from June 2022 to December 2023, which were all renewed after May 2019. As the MCT ceased to assume the responsibility for the administration of the online game industry and no longer approved or issued the Online Culture Operating Permits regarding online games since May 2019, the Online Culture Operating Permits held by our major subsidiary no longer contains content related to online games operation. Based on our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm’s consultation with the MCT in November 2020, the MCT no longer assumes the responsibility to supervise the operation of online games, and it is not necessary for an enterprise to obtain Online Culture Operating Permits to operate online game operation business. As of the date of this annual report, no laws, regulations or official guidelines have been promulgated regarding whether the responsibility of MCT for regulating online games will be undertaken by another governmental department. Therefore, our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, has advised us that as long as there is no governmental authority promulgating new supervision requirements for the operation of online game, we are able to continue our online game operation business although the Online Culture Operating Permits currently held no longer contain content related to online games operation, which will not constitute any material noncompliance.

The NAPP at the national level had suspended the approval of game registration and issuance of publication numbers for online games starting from March 2018. Although the NAPP later resumed game registration and issued game publication numbers for the first batch of games with an effective date of December 19, 2018, the processing time of games registration and issuance of publication may vary greatly and is within the NAPP’s discretion. Any delay in game registration with NAPP or obtaining game publication numbers could lead to the termination of our cooperation agreements with third parties or negatively affect the operation results of our games. Under the Notice on Adjusting the Scope of Examination and Approval regarding the Internet Culture Operation License to Further Regulate the Approval Work released in May 2019, the Online Culture Operating Permits covering the business scope of using the information network to operate online games granted by the MCT before this notice will remain valid until the expiration dates of these permits. On July 10, 2019, the MCT announced the abolishment of the Interim Measures on Administration of Online Games, which regulated the issuance of Online Culture Operating Permits relating to online games. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games.” As of the date of this annual report, the governmental authorities have not issued laws or regulations to replace the Interim Measures on Administration of Online Games, or to clarify the new regulatory body of online games. If we are unable to comply with the new regulations relating to our online games operations, our ability to ~~conduct our business~~introduce, launch and operate new games may be ~~negatively~~adversely affected, and our ~~operations~~financial condition and operating results could be ~~severely disrupted,~~adversely affected. In addition, we cannot assure you that we or relevant third parties can obtain the NAPP’s approvals or complete any new governmental requirements for all games on our platform in a timely manner or at all, which could adversely and materially impact our ability to introduce new games, the timetable to launch new games and our business growth.

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Moreover, the provision of online games is deemed to be an internet publication activity. An online game operator may be required to obtain an Internet Publishing Service License in order to directly make those games publicly available in China. Although it is not specifically authorized by the NAPP, an online game operator is generally able to publish its games through third-party licensed electronic publishing entities and register the games with the NAPP as electronic publications, which is consistent with our practice as of the date of this annual report. In addition, the provision of comics online may be deemed to be an internet publication activity, which may require the content provider to obtain an Internet Publishing Service License. Furthermore, in a consultation with the competent government authorities in February 2021, our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, was informed that operation of an online comics business currently does not require the Internet Publishing Service License. However, for the future convenience to publish games by ourselves, we are planning to apply for the Internet Publishing Service License for our business operation and we have been continuously communicating with the competent authorities. However, there is no assurance that we will be granted such license. 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 online games and comics, the imposition of fines, the revocation of our business and operating licenses and the discontinuation or restriction of our operations of online games and comics.

In addition, considerable uncertainties exist in relation to the interpretation and implementation of existing and future laws and regulations governing our business activities. For example, under the Administrative Regulations on the Introduction and Broadcasting of Foreign Television Programs, the introduction or broadcasting of foreign anime in China is subject to approval of the SAPPRFT or its authorized entities. Approval or filing procedures were not explicitly required in practice by the NRTA for the broadcasting and distribution of foreign anime on the internet only. We are currently preparing for the approval or filling procedures for broadcasting and distribution of foreign anime on our platform based on our preliminary consultation with the relevant government authorities. We could be found in violation of any future laws and regulations or 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 or changes in policies, regulations or enforcement by government authorities, may disrupt our operations and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Furthermore, in August 2018, the National Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication, the MIIT, the Ministry of Public Security, the MCT, the NRTA and the CAC jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Live Broadcasting Service, which required a real-name registration system for users to be put in place by live broadcasting service providers. On October 25, 2019, the NAPP issued the Notice on Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games, which requires all online gamers to register accounts with their valid identity information and all game companies to stop providing game services to users who fail to do so. Pursuant to the Notice 78, users who have not registered with real names or who are minors are prohibited from virtual gifting. On October 17, 2020, the Law of the PRC on the Protection of Minors (2020 Revision) added a new section entitled “Online Protections” which stipulates a series of provisions to further protect minors’ interests on the internet. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Streaming Services.” We have implemented several measures to comply with the current real-name registration system. However, the PRC government may further tighten the real-name registration requirements or require us to implement a more thorough compulsory real-name registration system for all users on our platform in the future, so that we will need to upgrade our system or purchase relevant services from third-party service providers and incur additional costs in relation thereto. If we were required to implement a more rigid real-name registration system for users on our platform, potential users may be deterred from registering with our platform, which may in turn negatively affect the growth of our user base and prospect.

We face significant competition, primarily from companies that operate in the video-based industry in China, and we compete with these companies for users, content providers and advertisers.

We face significant competition primarily from companies that operate in the video-based industry in China designed to engage users, especially the Generation Z+, and capture their time spent on mobile devices and the internet. In particular, our competitors mainly include large online video streaming platforms, other platforms offering video products, live broadcasting platforms, and other companies offering online content. Some of our competitors have longer operating histories and significantly greater financial resources than we do, and in turn may be able to attract and retain more users, content partners and advertisers. Our competitors may compete with us in a variety of ways, including by obtaining exclusive online distribution rights for popular content, conducting brand promotions and other marketing activities, and making acquisitions. If any of our competitors provides comparable or better user experience, our user traffic could decline significantly. We have exclusive distribution rights only for certain content on our platform. Our content creators are generally free to post their content on our competitors’ platforms, which may divert user traffic from our platform, and adversely affect our user traffic and thus our operations.

We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends upon many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:

the popularity, usefulness, ease of use, performance and reliability of our platform, products and services compared to those of our competitors;

the amount, quality and timeliness of content on our platform, especially the amount and quality of the PUGV generated by our content creators;

the environment and culture of our user communities;

our ability, and the ability of our competitors, to develop new products and services and enhancements to existing products and services to keep up with user preferences and demands;

the inventory size, quality and size of player base of the games we operate;

our ability to establish and maintain relationships with content providers and partners;

our ability to commercialize our services;

changes mandated by legislation, regulations or government policies, some of which may have a disproportionate effect on us;

16

acquisitions or consolidation within our industry, which may result in more formidable competitors; and

our reputation and brand strength relative to our competitors.

We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from mobile games. If we fail to launch new games or release upgrades to existing games to grow our games’ player base, our business and operating results will be materially and adversely affected.

We derived 71.1%, 53.1% and 40.0% of our revenues from mobile games in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. We derive a significant portion of mobile game revenues from a limited number of games. We had one mobile game contributing more than 10% of our total net revenues, accounting for 53%, 31%, and 11% of our total net revenues for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

We offer mobile games from third-party game developers and publishers on our platform either on an exclusive or

non-exclusive

basis. Therefore, we must maintain good relationships with our third-party game developers and copyright owners to obtain access to new popular games on reasonable commercial terms. We may not be able to maintain or renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all. In such event, we may be unable to continue offering these popular mobile games, and our operating results will be adversely affected. In addition, if our users decide to access these games through our competitors, or if they prefer other mobile games operated by our competitors, our operating results could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if we fail to launch new games or release upgrades to existing games in a timely manner, or if our games do not achieve expected popularity, we may lose players of our games, which could materially and adversely impact our business. Even in the event that we succeed in launching new games, the new games may divert players away from the existing games on our platform, which may increase player churn and reduce revenues from our existing games.

In addition, the revenue model we adopt for online games may not remain effective, which may cause us to lose players and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We derive substantially all of the mobile games revenues from the sale of

in-game

virtual items. However, we may not be able to continue to successfully implement this model.

The PRC government has taken steps to limit online game playing time for all minors and to otherwise control the content and operation of online games. Such restrictions on online games may materially and adversely impact our business and results of operations.

As part of its anti-addiction online game policy, the PRC regulators have been implementing regulations designed to reduce the amount of time that youth under the age of 18 spend playing online games. For a detailed description of these regulations, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games—Anti-addiction System and Protection of Minors.” A revenue model that does not charge for playing time may be viewed by the PRC regulators as inconsistent with this goal. On the other hand, if we were to start charging for playing time, we may lose our players, and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Furthermore, minors are prohibited from playing games exceeding a certain period of time per day or putting money into their accounts exceeding a certain amount. Online game operators are required to explore the manner to notify users of different ages about the online games based on various criteria, such as the games’ content and the amount of money anticipated to be used in the games, on the game’s download, registration and

log-in

pages in a prominent way. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games—Anti-addiction System and Protection of Minors.”

Although we have implemented several measures and developed a detailed plan for system upgrade and are in the process of conducting various system upgrading works according to the requirements under the relevant laws and regulations, we may be nevertheless considered

non-compliant

if the regulators take a different view, or if our system is not fully upgraded by the end of the grace period, the length of which also remains uncertain at the discretion of the relevant government authorities. Should the relevant government authorities find us not satisfying the requirements, they may order us to rectify. In a severe case, our business license could be revoked, which may materially and adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.

17

The implementation of these laws and regulations may lead to a decrease in the number of minors in our user base and the playtime of minor users, thereby leading to a decrease in the minor users’ revenue contribution to our mobile game business, and may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and prospects.

Illegal game servers and acts of cheating by users of mobile games could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Several of our competitors have reported that certain third parties have misappropriated the source codes of their games and set up illegal game servers and let their customers play such games on illegal servers without paying for the game playing time. While we already have in place numerous internal control measures to protect the source codes of our games from being stolen and to address illegal server usage and, to date, our games have not to our knowledge experienced such usage, our preventive measures may not be effective. The misappropriation of our game server installation software and installation of illegal game servers could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

In addition, acts of cheating by users of mobile games could lessen the popularity of our mobile games and adversely affect our reputation and our results of operations. There have been a number of incidents in previous years where users, through a variety of methods, were able to modify the rules of our mobile games. Although these users did not gain authorized access to our systems, they were able to modify the rules of our mobile games during gameplay in a manner that allowed them to cheat and disadvantage our other mobile game users, which often has the effect of causing players to stop playing the game and shortening the game’s lifecycle. Although we have taken a number of steps to deter our users from engaging in cheating when playing our mobile games, we cannot assure you that we or the third parties from whom we license some of our mobile games will be successful or timely in taking steps necessary to prevent users from modifying the rules of our mobile games.

If we suspect a player of installing cheating programs on our mobile games, or of engaging in other types of unauthorized activities, we may freeze that player’s game account or even ban the player from logging on to our games and other products. Such activities to regulate the behavior of our users are essential to maintain a fair playing environment for our users. However, if any of our regulatory activities are found to be wrongly implemented, our users may institute legal proceedings against us for damages or claims. Our operation, business and financial ~~condition.~~performance may be materially and adversely affected as a result.

We may ~~lose~~be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in material damage to our reputation and brand, payment of substantial damages, penalties and fines, removal of relevant content from our platform or seeking license arrangements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.

Content posted on our platform may expose us to allegations by third parties of infringement of intellectual property rights, unfair competition, invasion of privacy, defamation and other violations of third-party rights. We have been involved in litigation based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content available on our platform. We are currently involved in approximately 110 lawsuits based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content posted on our platform, which are immaterial to our company on an individual basis or a collective basis. Regardless of the outcome, these lawsuits, and any other litigation that may be brought against us or our current or former directors and officers, could be time-consuming, result in significant expenses and divert our resources and the attention of our management and other key employees. An unfavorable outcome in any of these matters could exceed the limited coverage provided under our current applicable insurance policies.

Our failure to identify unauthorized videos posted on our platform may subject us to claims of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights or other rights. Although we maintain content management and review procedures to monitor the content uploaded to our platform, due to the large number of videos uploaded, we may not be able to identify all content that may infringe on third-party rights. Such failure may subject us to potential claims and lawsuits, defending of which may impose a significant burden on our management and employees, and there can be no assurance that we will obtain final outcomes that are favorable to us. In addition, we may be subject to administrative actions brought by the National Copyright Administration of China or its local branches or related law enforcement departments for alleged copyright infringement.

18

The validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights in internet-related industries, particularly in China, are uncertain and still evolving. As we face increasing competition and as litigation becomes a more common way to resolve disputes in China, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims. Under relevant PRC laws and regulations, online service providers which provide storage space for users to upload works or links to other services or content could be held liable for copyright infringement under various circumstances, including situations where an online service provider knows or should reasonably have known that the relevant content uploaded or linked to on its platform infringes the copyrights of others. In certain cases in China, the courts have found an online service provider to be liable for the copyrighted content posted by users which was accessible from and stored on such provider’s servers.

Although we have not been subject to claims or lawsuits outside China, we may become subject to copyright laws in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, by virtue of our listing in the United States, the ability of users to access our videos from the United States and other jurisdictions, the ownership of our ADSs by investors, and the extraterritorial application of foreign law by foreign courts or otherwise.

In addition, as a publicly listed company, we may be exposed to increased risk of litigation. If a claim of infringement brought against us in the United States or other jurisdictions is successful, we may be required to (i) pay substantial statutory or other damages and fines, (ii) remove relevant content from our platform, or (iii) enter into royalty or license agreements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Although we have required our users to post only legally compliant and inoffensive materials and have set up screening procedures, our screening procedures may fail to screen out all potentially offensive or

non-compliant

user-generated content and, even if properly screened, a third-party may still find user-generated content posted on our platform offensive and take action against us in connection with the posting of such content. We may also face litigation or administrative actions for defamation, negligence or other purported injuries resulting from the content we provide or the nature of our services. Such litigation and administrative actions, with or without merit, may be expensive and time-consuming, result in significant diversion of resources and management attention from our operations, and adversely affect our brand and reputation.

Furthermore, our app may be taken down temporarily from Apple app store or other apps markets for copyright reasons, and we may be subject to copyright infringement claims brought by our competitors, which, malicious or not, may be time-consuming to defend and disrupting to our operations.

We may not be able to prevent others from engaging in unauthorized use of our intellectual property, unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business and competitive position.

We have invested significant resources to develop our own intellectual property and acquire licenses to use and ~~enjoy assets held~~distribute the intellectual property of others on our platform. Failure to maintain or protect these rights could harm our business. In addition, any unauthorized use of our intellectual property by third parties may adversely affect our ~~VIEs~~current and ~~their subsidiaries~~future revenues and our reputation. Further, others may engage in conduct that ~~are important~~constitutes unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business, reputation and competitive position.

Implementation and enforcement of PRC intellectual property-related laws have historically been deficient and ineffective. Accordingly, protection of intellectual property rights in China may not be as effective as in the United States or other developed countries. Furthermore, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights. Other unlawful conduct against us is also difficult to prevent and police. We cannot assure you that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our rights. From time to time, we may have to resort to litigation to enforce our rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources.

19

Many of our products and services contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our ~~business if~~proprietary software, products and services in a manner that negatively affects our ~~VIEs and their subsidiaries declare bankruptcy or become subject to a dissolution or liquidation proceeding.~~business.

~~Our VIEs hold certain assets~~We use open source software in our products and services and will use open source software in the future. There is a risk that ~~are important~~open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our ~~operations, including~~products or services. Additionally, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the ~~ICP License, License for Online Transmission of Audio-visual Programs~~open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the ~~Online Culture Operating Permit. Under our contractual arrangements, the shareholders of our VIEs~~implicated products or services unless and until we can

re-engineer

them to avoid infringement. This

re-engineering

process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not ~~voluntarily liquidate~~be able to complete it successfully.

Furthermore, because any software source code we contribute to open source projects is publicly available, our ~~VIEs~~ability to protect our intellectual property rights with respect to such software source code may be limited or approve them to sell, transfer, mortgage or dispose of their assets or legal or beneficial interests exceeding certain threshold in the business in any manner without our prior consent. However, in the event that the shareholders breach this obligation and voluntarily liquidate our VIEs, or our VIEs declare bankruptcy, or all or part of their assets become subject to liens or rights of third-party creditors,lost entirely. As a result, we may be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such software source code contributed by us.

We face intense competition for users and hosts, as well as strict regulatory supervision by government authorities, for our live broadcasting business.

We face significant competition in the live broadcasting business for both users and hosts. The live broadcasting on our platform primarily focuses on interest areas including anime, game, music, fashion, lifestyle, technology and others. We cannot assure you that such content will continue ~~some~~to attract new users and retain existing ones.

We have entered into exclusive cooperation agreements with certain popular hosts on our platform. We may not be able to maintain or renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all. In such event, we may be unable to retain these popular hosts on our platform, and our operating results will be adversely affected. We cooperate with talent agencies to recruit, manage, train and support our hosts. Furthermore, we may lose hosts if the talent agencies that manage them are unable to reach or maintain satisfactory cooperation arrangements with such hosts. If talented and popular hosts cease to contribute content to our platform, or their live broadcasting programs fail to attract users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement, which may have material and adverse impact on our results of operations and financial conditions.

In addition, the costs attributed to hosts’ compensation have increased significantly in China during the past few years for companies that provide such services. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in such compensation, we may lose opportunities to retain the popular hosts on our platform and thus incur more losses. In addition, the compensation we pay to the hosts could significantly increase our cost of revenues and materially adversely affect our margins, financial condition and results of operations.

We cooperate with talent agencies to manage, organize and recruit hosts on our platform. As we are an open platform that welcomes all hosts to register on our websites, cooperation with talent agencies substantially increases our operation efficiency in terms of discovering, supporting and managing hosts in a more organized and structured manner, and turning amateur hosts to full-time hosts. We have a revenue sharing arrangement with both our hosts and talent agencies under which we share with them a portion of the revenues from virtual gifting. In addition, we also cooperate with popular

e-sports

teams to make their game-play available on our platform by paying them a sponsorship fee. The absolute amounts and revenue sharing percentages that we pay hosts and talent agencies may increase. If the interests among us, hosts and the talent agencies are not well balanced, or if we cannot design a revenue-sharing mechanism that is agreeable to both hosts and talent agencies, we may not be able to retain or attract hosts or talent agencies, or both. In addition, while we have entered into exclusive streaming agreements with certain hosts, none of the talent agencies we cooperate with has an exclusive cooperation relationship with us. If our competitor platforms offer higher revenue sharing percentages with an intent to attract our popular hosts, costs to retain our hosts may further increase, additionally, talent agencies may choose to devote more of their resources to hosts who stream on other platforms, or they may encourage their hosts to use or even enter into an exclusive agreement with other platforms, all of ~~our operations,~~ which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. ~~Furthermore, if~~If we are not able to continue to retain our ~~VIEs or their subsidiaries undergo a voluntary or involuntary liquidation proceeding, their shareholders or unrelated third-party creditors may claim rights to some or all of its assets, hindering~~hosts and produce high-quality content on our ~~ability to operate our business, which could materially and adversely affect~~platform at commercially acceptable costs, our business, financial condition and results of ~~operations.~~operations would be adversely impacted. Furthermore, as our business and user base further expand, we may have to devote more resources in encouraging our hosts and talent agencies to produce content that meets the varied interests of a diverse user base, which would increase the costs of content on our platform. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues that outpace our increased content costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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28

In addition, our live broadcasting services may be abused by hosts and other users. We have an internal control system in place to review and monitor live broadcasting streams and will shut down those streams that may violate PRC laws and regulations. For detailed descriptions of these PRC laws and regulations, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.” However, we may not identify all such streams and content. Failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations may result in the revocation of our licenses to provide internet content or other licenses, the closure of the concerned platforms and reputational harm. We may also be held liable for such censored information displayed on our platform.

If we fail to develop effective advertising products and systems or retain existing advertisers or attract new advertisers to advertise on our platform, or if we are unable to collect accounts receivable from the advertisers or advertising agencies in a timely manner, our financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

We generate a portion of our revenues from advertising. We enter into contracts with both advertisers and third-party advertising agencies, and the financial soundness of these customers may affect our collection of accounts receivable. We make a credit assessment of the advertiser and advertising agency to evaluate the collectability of the advertising service fees before entering into an advertising contract. However, we cannot assure you that we are or will be able to accurately assess the creditworthiness of each advertiser or advertising agency, and any inability of advertisers or advertising agencies to pay us in a timely manner may adversely affect our liquidity and cash flows.

Our ability to generate and maintain our advertising revenues depends on a number of factors, including the maintenance and enhancement of our brand, the scale, engagement and loyalty of our users and the market competition on advertising prices. We cannot assure you that we will be able to retain existing advertisers or advertising agencies or attract new ones. If we fail to retain and enhance our relationships with third-party advertising agencies or advertisers themselves, our business, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.

We rely on third-party logistics services for our product delivery when performing our

e-commerce

business, and if such third-party logistics services fail to provide reliable logistics services, our

e-commerce

business and reputation may be materially and adversely affected.

We offer

ACG-related

merchandise on our platform, and generate revenues from sales of these products. Our

e-commence

business uses a number of third-party logistics companies to deliver our products to customers. Any interruption to or failure in logistics services could prevent the timely or proper delivery of our products. These interruptions may be due to events that are beyond our control or the control of these third-party logistics services, such as pandemic, inclement weather, natural disasters, transportation interruptions or labor unrest or shortage. We may not be able to find alternative logistics companies to provide logistics services in a timely and reliable manner, or at all, to replace such third-party logistics services to the extent necessary. If products sold on our platform are not delivered in proper condition or on a timely basis or at all, our

e-commerce

business and reputation would suffer.

We rely upon our partner to deliver our services through smart TV.

In smart TV video streaming market, only a small number of qualified license holders can provide internet audio and visual program service to the TV terminal users via smart TVs,

set-top

boxes and other electronic products. Most of those license holders are radio or TV stations. Private companies that wish to operate such business need to cooperate with those license holders to legally provide relevant services. We cooperate with a PRC licensed entity for the development of relevant programs and provision of audio-visual program services through private network and targeted communication channels, such as smart TVs. If we are not successful in maintaining existing or creating new relationships, or if we encounter technological, content licensing, regulatory or other impediments to delivering our streaming content to our members via these devices, our ability to grow our business may be adversely impacted.

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~~Contractual arrangements we have entered into~~

We may not be successful in developing relationships with ~~our VIEs may be subject to scrutiny by~~key participants in the ~~PRC tax authorities. A finding~~mobile industry or in developing services that ~~we owe additional taxes could negatively affect our financial condition~~operate effectively with these operating systems, networks, devices and ~~the value of your investment.~~standards.

~~Pursuant~~We make our products and services available across a variety of operating systems, mainly on mobile devices and personal computers. As mobile usage accelerates, we expect to ~~applicable PRC laws~~generate a large portion of our business and ~~regulations, arrangements~~revenues from mobile. If we are unable to successfully capture and ~~transactions among related parties~~retain the growing number of users that access internet services through mobile devices, or if we are slower than our competitors in developing attractive products and services adaptable for mobile devices, we may fail to capture a significant share or an increasingly important portion of the market or may lose existing users. In addition, even if we are able to retain the increasing number of mobile users, we may not be ~~subject~~able to ~~audit~~continue to successfully commercialize mobile user traffic in the future.

We depend on the interoperability of our products and services with popular devices, desktop and mobile operating systems and web browsers that we do not control, such as Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS, and others. Any changes in devices or ~~challenge by PRC tax authorities.~~their systems that degrade the functionality of our products and services or give preferential treatment to competitive products or services could adversely affect usage of our products and services. We may not be ~~subject to adverse tax consequences~~successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing services that operate effectively with these operating systems, networks, devices and standards. Further, if the ~~PRC tax authorities determine that the contractual arrangements among~~number of systems, networks and devices for which we develop our ~~WFOE, our VIEs~~products and their shareholders are not on an arm’s length basis and therefore constitute favorable transfer pricing. As a result, the PRC tax authorities could require that our VIEs adjust their taxable income upward for PRC tax purposes. Such an adjustment could increase our VIEs’ tax expenses without reducing the tax expenses of our WFOE, subject our VIEs to late payment fees and other penalties for under-payment of taxes, andservices increases, it will result in ~~the loss of any preferential tax treatment~~an increase in our ~~WFOE may have. As a result,~~costs and expenses, and adversely affect our ~~consolidated~~gross margin and results of ~~operations may be adversely affected.~~operation.

~~If the chops of~~We face risks associated with our PRC subsidiaries, our VIEs and their subsidiaries, 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.investments.

~~In China,~~We currently spend a ~~company chop~~portion of our capital in both short-term and long-term investments. Our short-term investments primarily include money market funds, financial products with variable interest rates referenced to performance of underlying assets issued by commercial banks or seal serves as the legal representation of the company towards third parties even when unaccompanied by a signature. Each legally registered company in China is required to maintain a company chop, which must be registeredother financial institutions and publicly traded companies with the ~~local Public Security Bureau. In addition~~intention to ~~this mandatory company chop,~~be sold within twelve months. Our long-term investments primarily consist of investment in companies whose businesses are complementary to ours, including game, anime production and content creation tool development companies.

These investments may ~~have several other chops which can be used for specific purposes. The chops~~earn yields substantially lower than anticipated, and the fair values of our ~~PRC subsidiaries, our VIEs and their subsidiaries are generally held securely by personnel designated or approved by us~~investments may fluctuate significantly, which contribute to the uncertainties in ~~accordance with our internal control procedures. To~~valuation. Any failure to realize the ~~extent those chops are not kept safe, are stolen or are used by unauthorized persons or for unauthorized purposes, the corporate governance of~~benefits we expected from 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.

~~The shareholders of our VIEs may have potential conflicts of interest with us, which~~investments may materially and adversely affect our ~~business.~~

business and financial results. For a detailed description of accounting treatment of our short-term investments and long-term investments and the performance of the investments, see “Item 5. Operating And Financial Review And Prospects—Critical Accounting Policies.”

~~The shareholders~~Any change in securities prices and market conditions could lead to volatility in the fair values of our ~~VIEs include Yi Xu, Rui Chen, Xi Cao, Qian Wei~~investments accounted for at fair value, which could further impact our financial condition and ~~Ni Li, who are~~results of operations and may also impact our ~~shareholders, and, in some cases are our directors or officers. Conflicts~~ability to dispose of interest may arise between the roles of them as shareholders, directors or officers of our company and as shareholders of our VIEs. For individuals who are also our directors and officers, we rely on them to abide by the laws of the Cayman Islands, which provide that directors and officers owe a fiduciary duty to our company to act in good faith and in the best interest of our company and not to use their positions for personal gain. The shareholders of our VIEs have executed powers of attorney to appoint Hode Technology (our WFOE) or a person designated by Hode Technology to vote on their behalf and exercise voting rights as shareholders of our VIEs. We cannot assure you that when conflicts arise, these shareholders will act in the best interest of our company or that conflicts will be resolved in our favor. If we cannot resolve any conflicts of interest or disputes between us and these shareholders, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which may be expensive, time-consuming and disruptive to our operations. There is also substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.investments at favorable prices.

WeDifficulties in identifying, consummating and integrating acquisitions and strategic alliances and potential write-offs in connection with our investments or acquisitions may ~~rely on dividends paid by our PRC subsidiaries to fund cash and financing requirements. Any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to pay dividends to us could~~ have a material and adverse effect on our ~~ability to conduct our~~ business and ~~to pay dividends to holders~~results of ~~the ADSs and our ordinary shares.~~

We are a holding company, and we may rely on dividends to be paid by our PRC subsidiaries 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 ordinary shares and service any debt we may incur. If our PRC subsidiaries incur debt on their own behalf in the future, the instruments governing the debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to us.

Under PRC laws and regulations, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise in China, such as Hode Technology, may pay dividends only out of its accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise is required to set aside at least 10% of its

~~after-tax~~

profits each year, after making up previous years’ accumulated losses, if any, to fund certain statutory reserve funds, until the aggregate amount of such fund reaches 50% of its registered capital. At the discretion of the board of directors of the wholly foreign-owned enterprise, it may allocate a portion of its

~~after-tax~~

profits based on PRC accounting standards to staff welfare and bonus funds. These reserve funds and staff welfare and bonus funds are not distributable as cash dividends. Any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries 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.

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~~Table of Contents~~

~~Substantial uncertainties exist with respect to how the Foreign Investment Law may impact the viability of our current corporate structure and~~ operations.

~~The National People’s Congress approved the Foreign Investment Law on March 15, 2019~~We have acquired, and the State Council approved the Regulation on Implementing the Foreign Investment Law (the “Implementation Regulations”) on December 12, 2019, effective from January 1, 2020, which replaced the trio of existing laws regulating foreign investment in China, namely, the Sino-foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law, the Sino-foreign Cooperative Joint Venture Enterprise Law and the Wholly Foreign-invested Enterprise Law, together with their implementation rules and ancillary regulations. The Supreme People’s Court of China issued a judicial interpretation on the Foreign Investment Law in December, 2019, effective from January 1, 2020, to ensure fair and efficient implementation of the Foreign Investment Law. The judicial interpretation clarifies the issues regarding the validity of the investment contract violating the restrictive or prohibitive requirements in the negative list. According to the judicial interpretation, courts in China shall not, among other things, support contracted parties to claim foreign investment contracts in sectors not on the Special Administrative Measures for Access of Foreign Investment (Negative List) (2019) as void because the contracts have not been approved or registered by administrative authorities. However, since PRC judicial and administrative authorities have significant discretion in interpreting and implementing statutory and contractual terms, it is difficult to predict the outcome of a judicial or administrative proceeding, and such unpredictability towards our contractual rights could adversely affect our business and impede our ability to continue our operations. The Foreign Investment Law and Implementation Regulations embody an expected PRC regulatory trend to rationalize its foreign investment regulatory regime in line with prevailing international practice and the legislative efforts to unify the corporate legal requirements for both foreign and domestic investments.

The Foreign Investment Law removes all references to the terms of “de facto control” or “contractual control” as defined in the draft published in 2015 by the Ministry of Commerce, or MOFCOM. However, the Foreign Investment Law has a

~~catch-all~~

provision under the definition of “foreign investment” which includes investments made by foreign investors in China through means stipulated in laws or administrative regulations or other methods prescribed by the State Council. Therefore, the State Council may in the future promulgate laws and regulations that deem investments made by foreign investors through contractual arrangements as “foreign investment,” and our contractual arrangements may be subject to and be deemed to violate the market entry requirements in China. The “variable interest entity” structure, or VIE structure, has been adopted by many

~~PRC-based~~

acquire, companies ~~including us, to obtain necessary licenses and permits in the industries~~ that are ~~currently subject~~complementary to ~~foreign investment restrictions~~our business. From time to time, we may also make alternative investments and enter into strategic partnerships or alliances as we see fit. For example, in ~~China. See Item 4.C “—Organizational Structure.”~~

~~In addition,~~September 2018, we increased the ~~Foreign Investment Law further specifies that foreign investments shall be conducted~~shareholding and acquired majority equity interests in ~~line with~~Zenith Group Holdings Co., Limited (“Zenith”), the “negative list” to be issued or approved to be issued by the State Council. The internet content service, internet audio-visual program services and online culture activities that we conduct through our consolidated affiliated entities are subject to foreign investment restrictions set forth in the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for the Accessowner of ~~Foreign Investment (2019) (2019 Negative List) issued by MOFCOM and the National Development and Reform Commission. It is uncertain whether the industry~~a series of internet content service, internet audio-visual program services and online culture activities, in which our variable interest entities operate, will be subject to the foreign investment restrictions or prohibitions under the then updated “negative list” to be issued. If the then updated “negative list” requires companies with existing VIE structure like us to take further actions,famous virtual singers, such as ~~MOC market entry clearance,~~Luo Tianyi. In the fourth quarter of 2019, we ~~will face uncertainties~~acquired the remaining equity interests in Zenith. In December 2018, we entered into an agreement with certain affiliates of NetEase, Inc. to acquire NetEase Comics business, including copyrights of a large number of storylines from leading publishers and comic artists. In December 2018, we entered into an agreement to increase our shareholdings and to acquire majority equity interests in Maoer Inc., an audio platform offering audio drama. In July 2019, we entered into a series of agreements to acquire a controlling interest in Chaodian Inc. (“Chaodian”). In September 2020, we acquired the remaining interests in Chaodian through a series of transactions. Chaodian operates offline events, such as ~~to whether such clearance can be timely obtained, or at all.~~

concerts and exhibitions

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~~Table of Contents~~

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

Uncertainties in the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws and regulations could limit the legal protections available to you and us.

We face uncertainties with respect to the interpretation and implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Internet Platform Economy Sector.

Regulation and censorship of information disseminated over the mobile and internet in China may adversely affect our business and subject us to liability for content posted on our platform.

Adverse changes in economic and political policies of the PRC government could have a material and adverse effect on overall economic growth in China, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

Risks Related to Our ADSs

The trading price of our listed securities has been and is likely to continue to be volatile, regardless of our operating performance, which could result in substantial losses to our investors.

We may need additional capital, and the sale of additional Class Z ordinary shares and/or ADSs or other equity securities could result in additional dilution to our shareholders, and the incurrence of additional indebtedness could increase our debt obligations.

Conversion of our convertible senior notes may dilute the ownership interest of the existing shareholders, including holders who had previously converted their notes.

Provisions of our convertible senior notes could discourage an acquisition of us by a third-party.

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

8

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We operate in a fast-evolving industry. We cannot guarantee that we will successfully implement our commercialization strategies or develop new ones, or generate sustainable revenues and profit.

We operate in a fast-evolving industry, and our commercialization model is evolving. We generate revenues primarily by providing our users with valuable content, such as videos, mobile games and VAS. We also generate revenues from advertising,

e-commerce

and other services. We cannot assure you that we can successfully implement the existing commercialization strategies to sustainably generate growing revenues, or that we will be able to develop new commercialization strategies to grow our revenues. If our strategic initiatives do not enhance our ability to monetize or enable us to develop new commercialization approaches, we may not be able to maintain or increase our revenues or recover any associated costs. In addition, we may introduce new products and services to expand our revenue streams, including products and services with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. If these new or enhanced products or services fail to engage users, content creators or business partners, we may fail to diversify our revenue streams or generate sufficient revenues to justify our investments and costs, and our business and operating results may suffer as a result.

We have incurred significant losses and we may continue to experience losses in the future.

We have incurred significant losses in the past. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, we had loss from operations of RMB729.0 million, RMB1,495.2 million, and RMB3,141.0 million (US$481.4 million), respectively. We cannot assure you that we will be able to generate profits in the future. Our ability to achieve profitability depends in large part on our ability to manage our costs and expenses. We intend to manage and control our costs and expenses as a proportion of our total revenues, but there can be no assurance that we will achieve this goal. We may experience losses in the future due to our continued investments in technology, talent, content, brand recognition, user base expansion and other initiatives. In addition, our ability to achieve and sustain profitability is affected by various factors, some of which are beyond our control, such as changes in macroeconomic and regulatory environment or competitive dynamics in the industry. Accordingly, you should not rely on our financial results of any prior period as an indication of our future performance.

If we fail to anticipate user preferences and provide products and services to attract and retain users, or if we fail to keep up with rapid changes in technologies and their impact on user behavior, we may not be able to attract sufficient user traffic to remain competitive, and our business and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Our ability to retain, grow and engage our user base depends heavily on our ability to provide a superior user experience. We must offer quality content covering a wide range of interests and formats, introduce successful new products and services, develop user-friendly platform features, and push effective content feeds recommendations. In particular, we must encourage content creators to upload more appealing professional user generated content and we must source more popular licensed content. We must also keep providing our users with features and functions that could enable superior content viewing and social interaction experience. If we are unable to provide a superior user experience, our user base and user engagement may decline, which may materially and adversely affect our business and growth prospects.

We maintain a large content library primarily consisting of PUGV and OGV, and are developing new features to attract and retain our users. In order to expand our content library, we must continue to work with our content creators and incentivize them to produce content that reflects cultural trends and maintain good business relationships with licensors of premium copyrighted content to renew our licenses and source new professionally produced content. Our content creators and licensors may choose to work with other large online video platforms to distribute their content if such platforms can offer better products, services or terms than we do. We cannot assure you that we will be able to attract our content creators to upload their content to our platform or renew or enter into license agreements on commercially reasonable terms with our licensors or at all.

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In addition, the industry in which we operate is characterized by rapidly changing technologies and changing user expectations. To remain competitive, we must adapt our products and services to evolving industry standards and improve the performance and reliability of our products and services to be able to adapt to these changes and innovate in response to evolving user expectations. Developing and integrating new content, products, services and technologies into our existing platform could be expensive and time-consuming, and these efforts may not yield the benefits we expect. If we fail to develop new products, services or innovative technologies on a timely basis, or our new products, services or technologies are not accepted by our users, our business, financial performance and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. We cannot assure you that we can anticipate user preferences and industry changes and respond to such changes in a timely and effective manner. In addition, changes in user behavior resulting from technological developments may also adversely affect us. For example, the number of people accessing the internet through mobile devices, including mobile phones, tablets and other hand-held devices, has increased in recent years, and we expect this trend to continue while 4G, 5G and more advanced mobile communications technologies are broadly implemented. If we fail to develop products and technologies that are compatible with all mobile devices, or if the products and services we develop are not widely accepted and used by users of various mobile devices, we may not be able to penetrate the mobile markets. In addition, the widespread adoption of new internet, networking or telecommunications technologies or other technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or integrate our products, services or infrastructure. If we fail to keep up with rapid technological changes to remain competitive, our future success may be adversely affected.

Our business depends on our ability to provide users with interesting and useful content, which in turn depends on the content contributed by the content creators on our platform.

The quality of the content offered on our platform and our users’ level of engagement are critical to our success. In order to attract and retain users and compete effectively, we must offer interesting and useful content and enhance our users’ viewing experience. It is vital to our operations that we remain sensitive to and responsive to evolving user preferences and offer content that appeals to our users and members. In 2020, 91.4% of the total video views are of PUGV, as compared to 90.1% in 2019. Thus far, we have been generally able to encourage our content creators to create and upload PUGV that are appealing to our users. We have also been providing our content creators with support and guidance in various forms, including technical support for content distribution, editing and uploading. However, we cannot assure you that our content creators can contribute to create popular professional user generated content for our platform. If our content creators cease to contribute content, or their uploaded content fails to attract or retain our users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement. If the number of users or the level of user engagement declines, we may suffer a reduction in revenue.

Increases in the costs of content on our platform may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We need to acquire or produce popular content to provide our users with an engaging and satisfying viewing experience. We recorded content costs in our cost of revenue of RMB543.0 million, RMB1,001.6 million and RMB1,875.5 million (US$287.4 million) in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Increases in market prices for licensed content and live broadcasting rights may also have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, in September 2020, we formed a strategic partnership with Riot Games, the developer of leading MOBA League of Legends, among others, for granting us a three-year exclusive license for live broadcasting the League of Legends Esports global events in China beginning in 2020 through the 2023

Mid-Season

Invitational, at an aggregate purchase price of RMB800 million (US$122.6 million). If we are not able to procure licensed content at commercially acceptable costs, our business and results of operations will be adversely impacted. In addition, if we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in market prices for licensed content, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. In 2018, we started to devote more resources in producing our original content. We rely on our

in-house

team to generate creative ideas for original content and to supervise the original content origination and production process, and we intend to continue to invest resources in content production. If we are not able to compete effectively for talent or attract and retain top talent at reasonable costs, our original content production capabilities would be negatively impacted.

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If the content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other content formats on our platform is deemed to violate any PRC laws or regulations, considered inappropriate or offensive, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

The PRC government and regulatory authorities have adopted regulations governing content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other information over the internet. Under these regulations, internet content providers are prohibited from posting or displaying content that, among other things, violates PRC laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of China or the public interest, or is obscene, superstitious, fraudulent, violent or defamatory on the internet. Internet content providers are also prohibited from displaying content that may be deemed by relevant government authorities as “socially destabilizing” or leaking “state secrets” of China. The PRC government and regulatory authorities strengthen the regulations on internet content from time to time, such as the Opinion on Strictly Regulating Online Game Market Management jointly adopted by a few authorities in December 2017, the Regulations on Administration of Network Short Video Platforms, the Censoring Criteria for Network Short Video Content, promulgated in January 2019 by China Netcasting Services Association, or the CNSA, and the Administrative Provisions on Online Audio-Visual Information Services, effective from January 1, 2020. The enactment of these regulations may significantly increase our compliance costs in recruiting additional content reviewers and training them to identify the prohibited content timely and accurately. Any failure to comply with these regulations may subject us to liability. In November 2020, the NRTA further promulgated the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Show Live Broadcasting and

E-commerce

Live Broadcasting (“Notice 78”) which requests the live broadcasting platforms for online shows to strengthen positive value guidance and to prevent the spread of the trends of wealth flaunting, money worshiping and vulgarity. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.”

In addition to licensed content provided by copyright owners, we allow our users to upload content to our platform. Our users can upload all types of content including self-created and professionally produced content and certain graphical files for the purpose of updating user biographies and content covers. Currently only registered users are allowed to upload content to our platform. We maintain two levels of content management and review procedures to monitor the content uploaded to our platform to ensure that no content that may be deemed to be prohibited by government rules and regulations is posted and to promptly remove any infringing content. Our content screening team is dedicated to screening and monitoring the content uploaded on our platform on a

24-hour,

7-day

basis. For more details relating to our content monitoring procedures, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Content Management and Review.” However, there can be no assurance that we can identify all the videos or other content that may violate relevant laws and regulations due to the large amount of content uploaded by our users every day.

If the content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other content formats on our platform is considered inappropriate or offensive, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Failure to identify and prevent illegal or inappropriate content from being uploaded and/or streamed on our platform may subject us to liability. To the extent that PRC regulatory authorities find any content on our platform objectionable, they may require us to limit or eliminate the dissemination of such content on our platform in the form of take-down orders, cause our app to be temporarily removed from app stores, or temporarily disable certain functions on our platform, or otherwise. For example, the CAC conducted a nationwide inspection of major internet platforms providing short-video content, and we were notified by certain smartphone app stores in China that our mobile app had been temporarily removed from July 26, 2018 until August 25, 2018. We implemented the required measures promptly and reinstated the mobile app downloads from those app stores on August 26, 2018. We thereafter conducted a self-inspection by taking a comprehensive review of the content on our platform and have doubled the headcounts of content monitoring personnel. Our app may be removed from app stores again in the future, and such removal could materially and adversely affect our business operations. On December 3, 2020, in response to the reported vulgar content on our platform, the Shanghai Municipal Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication, the Shanghai Municipal Internet Information Office and the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau made inquiries with us and requested us to rectify within two weeks and strengthen the content review of videos, live broadcasting, anime, bullet chatting and other content on our platform. We have completed the required rectification and submitted the final rectification report to the Shanghai Municipal Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication and the Shanghai Municipal Internet Information Office on December 22, 2020 and our rectification report has been accepted by the relevant competent authorities.

In addition, PRC laws and regulations are subject to interpretation by the relevant authorities, and it may not be possible to determine in all cases the types of content that could result in our liability as a platform operator. In the past, we were subject to penalties by PRC regulatory authorities due to our failure to comply with these requirements. For example, the Inspection Department of the Enforcement General Administration of Shanghai Culture Market imposed on us a fine of RMB20,000 in May 2018 and a fine of RMB10,000 in April 2019 primarily for having inappropriate content on our platform. We also may face liability for copyright or trademark infringement, fraud and other claims based on the nature and content of the materials that are delivered, shared or otherwise accessed through or displayed on our platform.

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Furthermore, reports or publicity of violence and crimes related to our PUGV, OGV, online games or any claims of our PUGV, OGV, online game content to be considered, among others, obscene, superstitious, fraudulent, defamatory, inappropriate, offensive or impairing public interest, may result in negative publicity, harm to our brand or a regulatory response that might have a material and adverse impact on our business. Any claim of us failing to identify any content a viewer may find objectionable may result in negative publicity, harm to our brand or regulatory actions, which in turn might have a material and adverse impact on our business. We generate a portion of our revenues from advertising. Our advertising revenues might be materially and adversely affected by any decision by advertisers to reduce their advertising as a result of adverse media reports, user complaints or other negative publicity involving us or, content on our platform. In addition, reductions of advertising by advertisers due to allegedly objectionable content made available on our platform by content creators, licensors, or other third parties, concerns about our content management practices, concerns about brand reputation or potential liability, or uncertainty regarding their own legal and compliance obligations, may also materially and adversely affect our advertising revenues.

We face uncertainties with respect to the enactment, interpretation and implementation of Notice 78.

According to Notice 78, platforms providing online show live broadcasting or

e-commerce

live broadcasting services shall, among other things, register their information and business operations by November 30, 2020, ensure real-name registration for all live broadcasting hosts and virtual gifting users, prohibit users that are minors or without real-name registration from virtual gifting, and set a limit on the maximum amount of virtual gifting per time, per day, and per month.

As advised by our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, there is currently no explicit provisions as to what limits on virtual gifting will be imposed by the NRTA pursuant to Notice 78 and it is unclear how and to what degree any such limits would be imposed on different platforms. Given there is no explicit provisions on how to set the limit on virtual gifting, we have not been able to set such limit on our platform and we are currently not able to assess the impact this requirement under Notice 78 will have on the virtual gifting spending activities on our platform. We recorded revenues generated from our live broadcasting business under VAS. We derived 14.2%, 24.2% and 32.0% of our revenues from VAS in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Revenues from live broadcasting accounted for 7.8%, 8.8% and 10.9% of our total net revenues in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Any such limits ultimately imposed may negatively impact our revenues derived from virtual gifting and our results of operations.

Notice 78 also requests the live broadcasting platforms for online shows to register in the National Internet Audio-visual Platforms Information Management System, however, in our communication with Shanghai Municipal Administration of Radio and Television, we were informed that due to the adjustment of the system, entities holding a License for Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs need to wait for further notification from the competent authority before they can register in this system. As of the date of this annual report, we have not yet received the notification requesting such registration. Notice 78 also sets forth requirements for certain live broadcasting businesses with respect to real-name registration, limits on user spending on virtual gifting, restrictions on minors on virtual gifting, live broadcasting review personnel requirements, content tagging requirements, and other requirements. For more information on Notice 78, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.”

Since Notice 78 was only issued in November 2020 and some of the requirements in Notice 78 are unclear and have no explicit provisions or implementation standards, we are still in the process of getting further guidance from regulatory authorities and evaluating the applicability and effect of the various requirements under Notice 78 on our business. Any further rulemaking under Notice 78 or other intensified regulation with respect to live broadcasting may increase our compliance burden in the live broadcasting business, and may have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

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We may not be able to effectively manage our growth and the increased complexity of our business, which could negatively impact our brand and financial performance.

We have experienced rapid growth since our inception in 2011. Our financial performance has been and will continue to be influenced by our ability to add, retain and engage active users of our products. Our user acquisition and engagement may fluctuate depending on factors beyond our control, such as the

shelter-in-place

restrictions due to the

COVID-19

pandemic. We have experienced a significant increase in the size and engagement of our active user base during the first quarter of 2020 partly due to the

shelter-in-place

restrictions in China. Although we have been able to maintain the momentum of user acquisition and engagement in the other quarters of 2020 as China gradually relaxed its

shelter-in-place

restrictions, we may not be able to maintain the growth of our active user base or user acquisition and the level of engagement in the long term. As we grow our user base and increase the level of user engagement, we may incur increasing costs, such as licensing fees and royalties for licensed content and hosts’ compensation to further expand our content library to meet the growing and diversified demands of our users. If such expansion is not properly managed, it may adversely affect our financial and operating resources without achieving the desired effects. The market prices for licensing fees and royalties for licensed content, such as license for live broadcasting popular

e-sport

events, have increased significantly in China during the past few years. Online video broadcasting programs are competing aggressively to license popular content titles and events, driving licensing fees up in general. As the market further grows, copyright owners, distributors and industry participants may demand higher licensing fees for such content. Furthermore, as our content library expands, we expect the costs of licensed content to continue to increase. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in costs, we may incur more losses and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. See “ —Increases in the costs of content on our platform may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

As we only have a limited history of operating our business at its current scale, it is difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects, including our ability to grow in the future. In addition, our costs and expenses may increase rapidly as we expand our business and continue to invest in our infrastructure to enhance the performance and reliability of our platform. For example, we may increase our investment in servers and bandwidth to maintain our quality user experience while sustaining the growth of user base. Continued growth could also strain our ability to maintain reliable service levels for our users, content creators and business partners, develop and improve our operational, financial, legal and management controls, and enhance our reporting systems and procedures. Our costs and expenses may grow faster than our revenues and may be greater than what we anticipate. If we are unable to generate adequate revenues and to manage our costs and expenses, we may continue to incur losses in the future and may not be able to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability. Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

We have a unique community culture that is vital to our success. Our operations may be materially and adversely affected if we fail to maintain our culture and brand image within our addressable user communities.

Our users have developed a unique community culture that distinguishes us from other online content providers. Our users come to our platform for creative content covering a wide array of cultures and interests as well as for strong, vibrant and safe communities. We believe that maintaining and promoting such community culture is critical to retaining and expanding our user base. We have taken multiple initiatives to preserve our community culture and values, such as requiring users to pass a membership exam before they are allowed to send bullet chats and utilize other interactive functions on our platform, and temporarily blocking or permanently deleting accounts of users who posted inappropriate content or comments.

Despite our efforts, we may be unable to maintain and foster our unique community culture and cease to be the preferred platform for our target users and content creators. As our user base is expanding, we may have difficulties in guiding our new users to honor and abide by our community values despite the initiatives we have adopted and may adopt in the future. In such event, our user engagement and loyalty may suffer, which would in turn negatively affect user traffic and our attractiveness to other customers and partners. In addition, frictions among our users and inflammatory comments posted by internet trolls may damage our community culture and brand image, which would be detrimental to our operations. Historically, some incidents of intense frictions among our users who belonged to different micro-interests and fans groups disrupted our operations. Users who have met through our services may become involved in emotionally charged situations and could suffer adverse moral, emotional or physical consequences. Such events could be highly publicized and have a significant negative impact on our reputation. Government authorities may require us to discontinue or restrict the relevant services. As a result, our business could suffer and our user base and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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

The internet and mobile industries in China are highly regulated. Our consolidated affiliated entities are required to obtain and maintain applicable licenses and approvals from different regulatory authorities in order to provide their current services. 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. As we develop and expand our business scope, we may need to obtain additional qualifications, permits, approvals or licenses. We may be required to obtain additional licenses or approvals if the PRC government adopts more stringent policies or regulations for our business.

The expiration date of the major subsidiary’s Online Culture Operating Permits granted by the local branch of MCT ranges from June 2022 to December 2023, which were all renewed after May 2019. As the MCT ceased to assume the responsibility for the administration of the online game industry and no longer approved or issued the Online Culture Operating Permits regarding online games since May 2019, the Online Culture Operating Permits held by our major subsidiary no longer contains content related to online games operation. Based on our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm’s consultation with the MCT in November 2020, the MCT no longer assumes the responsibility to supervise the operation of online games, and it is not necessary for an enterprise to obtain Online Culture Operating Permits to operate online game operation business. As of the date of this annual report, no laws, regulations or official guidelines have been promulgated regarding whether the responsibility of MCT for regulating online games will be undertaken by another governmental department. Therefore, our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, has advised us that as long as there is no governmental authority promulgating new supervision requirements for the operation of online game, we are able to continue our online game operation business although the Online Culture Operating Permits currently held no longer contain content related to online games operation, which will not constitute any material noncompliance.

The NAPP at the national level had suspended the approval of game registration and issuance of publication numbers for online games starting from March 2018. Although the NAPP later resumed game registration and issued game publication numbers for the first batch of games with an effective date of December 19, 2018, the processing time of games registration and issuance of publication may vary greatly and is within the NAPP’s discretion. Any delay in game registration with NAPP or obtaining game publication numbers could lead to the termination of our cooperation agreements with third parties or negatively affect the operation results of our games. Under the Notice on Adjusting the Scope of Examination and Approval regarding the Internet Culture Operation License to Further Regulate the Approval Work released in May 2019, the Online Culture Operating Permits covering the business scope of using the information network to operate online games granted by the MCT before this notice will remain valid until the expiration dates of these permits. On July 10, 2019, the MCT announced the abolishment of the Interim Measures on Administration of Online Games, which regulated the issuance of Online Culture Operating Permits relating to online games. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games.” As of the date of this annual report, the governmental authorities have not issued laws or regulations to replace the Interim Measures on Administration of Online Games, or to clarify the new regulatory body of online games. If we are unable to comply with the new regulations relating to our online games operations, our ability to introduce, launch and operate new games may be adversely affected, and our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, we cannot assure you that we or relevant third parties can obtain the NAPP’s approvals or complete any new governmental requirements for all games on our platform in a timely manner or at all, which could adversely and materially impact our ability to introduce new games, the timetable to launch new games and our business growth.

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Moreover, the provision of online games is deemed to be an internet publication activity. An online game operator may be required to obtain an Internet Publishing Service License in order to directly make those games publicly available in China. Although it is not specifically authorized by the NAPP, an online game operator is generally able to publish its games through third-party licensed electronic publishing entities and register the games with the NAPP as electronic publications, which is consistent with our practice as of the date of this annual report. In addition, the provision of comics online may be deemed to be an internet publication activity, which may require the content provider to obtain an Internet Publishing Service License. Furthermore, in a consultation with the competent government authorities in February 2021, our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, was informed that operation of an online comics business currently does not require the Internet Publishing Service License. However, for the future convenience to publish games by ourselves, we are planning to apply for the Internet Publishing Service License for our business operation and we have been continuously communicating with the competent authorities. However, there is no assurance that we will be granted such license. 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 online games and comics, the imposition of fines, the revocation of our business and operating licenses and the discontinuation or restriction of our operations of online games and comics.

In addition, considerable uncertainties exist in relation to the interpretation and implementation of existing and future laws and regulations governing our business activities. For example, under the Administrative Regulations on the Introduction and Broadcasting of Foreign Television Programs, the introduction or broadcasting of foreign anime in China is subject to approval of the SAPPRFT or its authorized entities. Approval or filing procedures were not explicitly required in practice by the NRTA for the broadcasting and distribution of foreign anime on the internet only. We are currently preparing for the approval or filling procedures for broadcasting and distribution of foreign anime on our platform based on our preliminary consultation with the relevant government authorities. We could be found in violation of any future laws and regulations or 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 or changes in policies, regulations or enforcement by government authorities, may disrupt our operations and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Furthermore, in August 2018, the National Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication, the MIIT, the Ministry of Public Security, the MCT, the NRTA and the CAC jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Live Broadcasting Service, which required a real-name registration system for users to be put in place by live broadcasting service providers. On October 25, 2019, the NAPP issued the Notice on Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games, which requires all online gamers to register accounts with their valid identity information and all game companies to stop providing game services to users who fail to do so. Pursuant to the Notice 78, users who have not registered with real names or who are minors are prohibited from virtual gifting. On October 17, 2020, the Law of the PRC on the Protection of Minors (2020 Revision) added a new section entitled “Online Protections” which stipulates a series of provisions to further protect minors’ interests on the internet. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Streaming Services.” We have implemented several measures to comply with the current real-name registration system. However, the PRC government may further tighten the real-name registration requirements or require us to implement a more thorough compulsory real-name registration system for all users on our platform in the future, so that we will need to upgrade our system or purchase relevant services from third-party service providers and incur additional costs in relation thereto. If we were required to implement a more rigid real-name registration system for users on our platform, potential users may be deterred from registering with our platform, which may in turn negatively affect the growth of our user base and prospect.

We face significant competition, primarily from companies that operate in the video-based industry in China, and we compete with these companies for users, content providers and advertisers.

We face significant competition primarily from companies that operate in the video-based industry in China designed to engage users, especially the Generation Z+, and capture their time spent on mobile devices and the internet. In particular, our competitors mainly include large online video streaming platforms, other platforms offering video products, live broadcasting platforms, and other companies offering online content. Some of our competitors have longer operating histories and significantly greater financial resources than we do, and in turn may be able to attract and retain more users, content partners and advertisers. Our competitors may compete with us in a variety of ways, including by obtaining exclusive online distribution rights for popular content, conducting brand promotions and other marketing activities, and making acquisitions. If any of our competitors provides comparable or better user experience, our user traffic could decline significantly. We have exclusive distribution rights only for certain content on our platform. Our content creators are generally free to post their content on our competitors’ platforms, which may divert user traffic from our platform, and adversely affect our user traffic and thus our operations.

We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends upon many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:

the popularity, usefulness, ease of use, performance and reliability of our platform, products and services compared to those of our competitors;

the amount, quality and timeliness of content on our platform, especially the amount and quality of the PUGV generated by our content creators;

the environment and culture of our user communities;

our ability, and the ability of our competitors, to develop new products and services and enhancements to existing products and services to keep up with user preferences and demands;

the inventory size, quality and size of player base of the games we operate;

our ability to establish and maintain relationships with content providers and partners;

our ability to commercialize our services;

changes mandated by legislation, regulations or government policies, some of which may have a disproportionate effect on us;

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acquisitions or consolidation within our industry, which may result in more formidable competitors; and

our reputation and brand strength relative to our competitors.

We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from mobile games. If we fail to launch new games or release upgrades to existing games to grow our games’ player base, our business and operating results will be materially and adversely affected.

We derived 71.1%, 53.1% and 40.0% of our revenues from mobile games in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. We derive a significant portion of mobile game revenues from a limited number of games. We had one mobile game contributing more than 10% of our total net revenues, accounting for 53%, 31%, and 11% of our total net revenues for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

We offer mobile games from third-party game developers and publishers on our platform either on an exclusive or

non-exclusive

basis. Therefore, we must maintain good relationships with our third-party game developers and copyright owners to obtain access to new popular games on reasonable commercial terms. We may not be able to maintain or renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all. In such event, we may be unable to continue offering these popular mobile games, and our operating results will be adversely affected. In addition, if our users decide to access these games through our competitors, or if they prefer other mobile games operated by our competitors, our operating results could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if we fail to launch new games or release upgrades to existing games in a timely manner, or if our games do not achieve expected popularity, we may lose players of our games, which could materially and adversely impact our business. Even in the event that we succeed in launching new games, the new games may divert players away from the existing games on our platform, which may increase player churn and reduce revenues from our existing games.

In addition, the revenue model we adopt for online games may not remain effective, which may cause us to lose players and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We derive substantially all of the mobile games revenues from the sale of

in-game

virtual items. However, we may not be able to continue to successfully implement this model.

The PRC government has taken steps to limit online game playing time for all minors and to otherwise control the content and operation of online games. Such restrictions on online games may materially and adversely impact our business and results of operations.

As part of its anti-addiction online game policy, the PRC regulators have been implementing regulations designed to reduce the amount of time that youth under the age of 18 spend playing online games. For a detailed description of these regulations, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games—Anti-addiction System and Protection of Minors.” A revenue model that does not charge for playing time may be viewed by the PRC regulators as inconsistent with this goal. On the other hand, if we were to start charging for playing time, we may lose our players, and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Furthermore, minors are prohibited from playing games exceeding a certain period of time per day or putting money into their accounts exceeding a certain amount. Online game operators are required to explore the manner to notify users of different ages about the online games based on various criteria, such as the games’ content and the amount of money anticipated to be used in the games, on the game’s download, registration and

log-in

pages in a prominent way. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games—Anti-addiction System and Protection of Minors.”

Although we have implemented several measures and developed a detailed plan for system upgrade and are in the process of conducting various system upgrading works according to the requirements under the relevant laws and regulations, we may be nevertheless considered

non-compliant

if the regulators take a different view, or if our system is not fully upgraded by the end of the grace period, the length of which also remains uncertain at the discretion of the relevant government authorities. Should the relevant government authorities find us not satisfying the requirements, they may order us to rectify. In a severe case, our business license could be revoked, which may materially and adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.

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The implementation of these laws and regulations may lead to a decrease in the number of minors in our user base and the playtime of minor users, thereby leading to a decrease in the minor users’ revenue contribution to our mobile game business, and may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and prospects.

Illegal game servers and acts of cheating by users of mobile games could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Several of our competitors have reported that certain third parties have misappropriated the source codes of their games and set up illegal game servers and let their customers play such games on illegal servers without paying for the game playing time. While we already have in place numerous internal control measures to protect the source codes of our games from being stolen and to address illegal server usage and, to date, our games have not to our knowledge experienced such usage, our preventive measures may not be effective. The misappropriation of our game server installation software and installation of illegal game servers could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

In addition, acts of cheating by users of mobile games could lessen the popularity of our mobile games and adversely affect our reputation and our results of operations. There have been a number of incidents in previous years where users, through a variety of methods, were able to modify the rules of our mobile games. Although these users did not gain authorized access to our systems, they were able to modify the rules of our mobile games during gameplay in a manner that allowed them to cheat and disadvantage our other mobile game users, which often has the effect of causing players to stop playing the game and shortening the game’s lifecycle. Although we have taken a number of steps to deter our users from engaging in cheating when playing our mobile games, we cannot assure you that we or the third parties from whom we license some of our mobile games will be successful or timely in taking steps necessary to prevent users from modifying the rules of our mobile games.

If we suspect a player of installing cheating programs on our mobile games, or of engaging in other types of unauthorized activities, we may freeze that player’s game account or even ban the player from logging on to our games and other products. Such activities to regulate the behavior of our users are essential to maintain a fair playing environment for our users. However, if any of our regulatory activities are found to be wrongly implemented, our users may institute legal proceedings against us for damages or claims. Our operation, business and financial performance may be materially and adversely affected as a result.

We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in material damage to our reputation and brand, payment of substantial damages, penalties and fines, removal of relevant content from our platform or seeking license arrangements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.

Content posted on our platform may expose us to allegations by third parties of infringement of intellectual property rights, unfair competition, invasion of privacy, defamation and other violations of third-party rights. We have been involved in litigation based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content available on our platform. We are currently involved in approximately 110 lawsuits based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content posted on our platform, which are immaterial to our company on an individual basis or a collective basis. Regardless of the outcome, these lawsuits, and any other litigation that may be brought against us or our current or former directors and officers, could be time-consuming, result in significant expenses and divert our resources and the attention of our management and other key employees. An unfavorable outcome in any of these matters could exceed the limited coverage provided under our current applicable insurance policies.

Our failure to identify unauthorized videos posted on our platform may subject us to claims of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights or other rights. Although we maintain content management and review procedures to monitor the content uploaded to our platform, due to the large number of videos uploaded, we may not be able to identify all content that may infringe on third-party rights. Such failure may subject us to potential claims and lawsuits, defending of which may impose a significant burden on our management and employees, and there can be no assurance that we will obtain final outcomes that are favorable to us. In addition, we may be subject to administrative actions brought by the National Copyright Administration of China or its local branches or related law enforcement departments for alleged copyright infringement.

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The validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights in internet-related industries, particularly in China, are uncertain and still evolving. As we face increasing competition and as litigation becomes a more common way to resolve disputes in China, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims. Under relevant PRC laws and regulations, online service providers which provide storage space for users to upload works or links to other services or content could be held liable for copyright infringement under various circumstances, including situations where an online service provider knows or should reasonably have known that the relevant content uploaded or linked to on its platform infringes the copyrights of others. In certain cases in China, the courts have found an online service provider to be liable for the copyrighted content posted by users which was accessible from and stored on such provider’s servers.

Although we have not been subject to claims or lawsuits outside China, we may become subject to copyright laws in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, by virtue of our listing in the United States, the ability of users to access our videos from the United States and other jurisdictions, the ownership of our ADSs by investors, and the extraterritorial application of foreign law by foreign courts or otherwise.

In addition, as a publicly listed company, we may be exposed to increased risk of litigation. If a claim of infringement brought against us in the United States or other jurisdictions is successful, we may be required to (i) pay substantial statutory or other damages and fines, (ii) remove relevant content from our platform, or (iii) enter into royalty or license agreements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Although we have required our users to post only legally compliant and inoffensive materials and have set up screening procedures, our screening procedures may fail to screen out all potentially offensive or

non-compliant

user-generated content and, even if properly screened, a third-party may still find user-generated content posted on our platform offensive and take action against us in connection with the posting of such content. We may also face litigation or administrative actions for defamation, negligence or other purported injuries resulting from the content we provide or the nature of our services. Such litigation and administrative actions, with or without merit, may be expensive and time-consuming, result in significant diversion of resources and management attention from our operations, and adversely affect our brand and reputation.

Furthermore, our app may be taken down temporarily from Apple app store or other apps markets for copyright reasons, and we may be subject to copyright infringement claims brought by our competitors, which, malicious or not, may be time-consuming to defend and disrupting to our operations.

We may not be able to prevent others from engaging in unauthorized use of our intellectual property, unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business and competitive position.

We have invested significant resources to develop our own intellectual property and acquire licenses to use and distribute the intellectual property of others on our platform. Failure to maintain or protect these rights could harm our business. In addition, any unauthorized use of our intellectual property by third parties may adversely affect our current and future revenues and our reputation. Further, others may engage in conduct that constitutes unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business, reputation and competitive position.

Implementation and enforcement of PRC intellectual property-related laws have historically been deficient and ineffective. Accordingly, protection of intellectual property rights in China may not be as effective as in the United States or other developed countries. Furthermore, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights. Other unlawful conduct against us is also difficult to prevent and police. We cannot assure you that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our rights. From time to time, we may have to resort to litigation to enforce our rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources.

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Many of our products and services contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software, products and services in a manner that negatively affects our business.

We use open source software in our products and services and will use open source software in the future. There is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our products or services. Additionally, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated products or services unless and until we can

re-engineer

them to avoid infringement. This

re-engineering

process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete it successfully.

Furthermore, 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. As a result, we may be unable to prevent our competitors or others from using such software source code contributed by us.

We face intense competition for users and hosts, as well as strict regulatory supervision by government authorities, for our live broadcasting business.

We face significant competition in the live broadcasting business for both users and hosts. The live broadcasting on our platform primarily focuses on interest areas including anime, game, music, fashion, lifestyle, technology and others. We cannot assure you that such content will continue to attract new users and retain existing ones.

We have entered into exclusive cooperation agreements with certain popular hosts on our platform. We may not be able to maintain or renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all. In such event, we may be unable to retain these popular hosts on our platform, and our operating results will be adversely affected. We cooperate with talent agencies to recruit, manage, train and support our hosts. Furthermore, we may lose hosts if the talent agencies that manage them are unable to reach or maintain satisfactory cooperation arrangements with such hosts. If talented and popular hosts cease to contribute content to our platform, or their live broadcasting programs fail to attract users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement, which may have material and adverse impact on our results of operations and financial conditions.

In addition, the costs attributed to hosts’ compensation have increased significantly in China during the past few years for companies that provide such services. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in such compensation, we may lose opportunities to retain the popular hosts on our platform and thus incur more losses. In addition, the compensation we pay to the hosts could significantly increase our cost of revenues and materially adversely affect our margins, financial condition and results of operations.

We cooperate with talent agencies to manage, organize and recruit hosts on our platform. As we are an open platform that welcomes all hosts to register on our websites, cooperation with talent agencies substantially increases our operation efficiency in terms of discovering, supporting and managing hosts in a more organized and structured manner, and turning amateur hosts to full-time hosts. We have a revenue sharing arrangement with both our hosts and talent agencies under which we share with them a portion of the revenues from virtual gifting. In addition, we also cooperate with popular

e-sports

teams to make their game-play available on our platform by paying them a sponsorship fee. The absolute amounts and revenue sharing percentages that we pay hosts and talent agencies may increase. If the interests among us, hosts and the talent agencies are not well balanced, or if we cannot design a revenue-sharing mechanism that is agreeable to both hosts and talent agencies, we may not be able to retain or attract hosts or talent agencies, or both. In addition, while we have entered into exclusive streaming agreements with certain hosts, none of the talent agencies we cooperate with has an exclusive cooperation relationship with us. If our competitor platforms offer higher revenue sharing percentages with an intent to attract our popular hosts, costs to retain our hosts may further increase, additionally, talent agencies may choose to devote more of their resources to hosts who stream on other platforms, or they may encourage their hosts to use or even enter into an exclusive agreement with other platforms, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we are not able to continue to retain our hosts and produce high-quality content on our platform at commercially acceptable costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely impacted. Furthermore, as our business and user base further expand, we may have to devote more resources in encouraging our hosts and talent agencies to produce content that meets the varied interests of a diverse user base, which would increase the costs of content on our platform. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues that outpace our increased content costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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In addition, our live broadcasting services may be abused by hosts and other users. We have an internal control system in place to review and monitor live broadcasting streams and will shut down those streams that may violate PRC laws and regulations. For detailed descriptions of these PRC laws and regulations, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.” However, we may not identify all such streams and content. Failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations may result in the revocation of our licenses to provide internet content or other licenses, the closure of the concerned platforms and reputational harm. We may also be held liable for such censored information displayed on our platform.

If we fail to develop effective advertising products and systems or retain existing advertisers or attract new advertisers to advertise on our platform, or if we are unable to collect accounts receivable from the advertisers or advertising agencies in a timely manner, our financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

We generate a portion of our revenues from advertising. We enter into contracts with both advertisers and third-party advertising agencies, and the financial soundness of these customers may affect our collection of accounts receivable. We make a credit assessment of the advertiser and advertising agency to evaluate the collectability of the advertising service fees before entering into an advertising contract. However, we cannot assure you that we are or will be able to accurately assess the creditworthiness of each advertiser or advertising agency, and any inability of advertisers or advertising agencies to pay us in a timely manner may adversely affect our liquidity and cash flows.

Our ability to generate and maintain our advertising revenues depends on a number of factors, including the maintenance and enhancement of our brand, the scale, engagement and loyalty of our users and the market competition on advertising prices. We cannot assure you that we will be able to retain existing advertisers or advertising agencies or attract new ones. If we fail to retain and enhance our relationships with third-party advertising agencies or advertisers themselves, our business, results of operations and prospects may be adversely affected.

We rely on third-party logistics services for our product delivery when performing our

e-commerce

business, and if such third-party logistics services fail to provide reliable logistics services, our

e-commerce

business and reputation may be materially and adversely affected.

We offer

ACG-related

merchandise on our platform, and generate revenues from sales of these products. Our

e-commence

business uses a number of third-party logistics companies to deliver our products to customers. Any interruption to or failure in logistics services could prevent the timely or proper delivery of our products. These interruptions may be due to events that are beyond our control or the control of these third-party logistics services, such as pandemic, inclement weather, natural disasters, transportation interruptions or labor unrest or shortage. We may not be able to find alternative logistics companies to provide logistics services in a timely and reliable manner, or at all, to replace such third-party logistics services to the extent necessary. If products sold on our platform are not delivered in proper condition or on a timely basis or at all, our

e-commerce

business and reputation would suffer.

We rely upon our partner to deliver our services through smart TV.

In smart TV video streaming market, only a small number of qualified license holders can provide internet audio and visual program service to the TV terminal users via smart TVs,

set-top

boxes and other electronic products. Most of those license holders are radio or TV stations. Private companies that wish to operate such business need to cooperate with those license holders to legally provide relevant services. We cooperate with a PRC licensed entity for the development of relevant programs and provision of audio-visual program services through private network and targeted communication channels, such as smart TVs. If we are not successful in maintaining existing or creating new relationships, or if we encounter technological, content licensing, regulatory or other impediments to delivering our streaming content to our members via these devices, our ability to grow our business may be adversely impacted.

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We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing services that operate effectively with these operating systems, networks, devices and standards.

We make our products and services available across a variety of operating systems, mainly on mobile devices and personal computers. As mobile usage accelerates, we expect to generate a large portion of our business and revenues from mobile. If we are unable to successfully capture and retain the growing number of users that access internet services through mobile devices, or if we are slower than our competitors in developing attractive products and services adaptable for mobile devices, we may fail to capture a significant share or an increasingly important portion of the market or may lose existing users. In addition, even if we are able to retain the increasing number of mobile users, we may not be able to continue to successfully commercialize mobile user traffic in the future.

We depend on the interoperability of our products and services with popular devices, desktop and mobile operating systems and web browsers that we do not control, such as Windows, Mac OS, Android, iOS, and others. Any changes in devices or their systems that degrade the functionality of our products and services or give preferential treatment to competitive products or services could adversely affect usage of our products and services. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing services that operate effectively with these operating systems, networks, devices and standards. Further, if the number of systems, networks and devices for which we develop our products and services increases, it will result in an increase in our costs and expenses, and adversely affect our gross margin and results of operation.

We face risks associated with our investments.

We currently spend a portion of our capital in both short-term and long-term investments. Our short-term investments primarily include money market funds, financial products with variable interest rates referenced to performance of underlying assets issued by commercial banks or other financial institutions and publicly traded companies with the intention to be sold within twelve months. Our long-term investments primarily consist of investment in companies whose businesses are complementary to ours, including game, anime production and content creation tool development companies.

These investments may earn yields substantially lower than anticipated, and the fair values of our investments may fluctuate significantly, which contribute to the uncertainties in valuation. Any failure to realize the benefits we expected from these investments may materially and adversely affect our business and financial results. For a detailed description of accounting treatment of our short-term investments and long-term investments and the performance of the investments, see “Item 5. Operating And Financial Review And Prospects—Critical Accounting Policies.”

Any change in securities prices and market conditions could lead to volatility in the fair values of our investments accounted for at fair value, which could further impact our financial condition and results of operations and may also impact our ability to dispose of these investments at favorable prices.

Difficulties in identifying, consummating and integrating acquisitions and strategic alliances and potential write-offs in connection with our investments or acquisitions may have a material and adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We have acquired, and may in the future acquire, companies that are complementary to our business. From time to time, we may also make alternative investments and enter into strategic partnerships or alliances as we see fit. For example, in September 2018, we increased the shareholding and acquired majority equity interests in Zenith Group Holdings Co., Limited (“Zenith”), the owner of a series of famous virtual singers, such as Luo Tianyi. In the fourth quarter of 2019, we acquired the remaining equity interests in Zenith. In December 2018, we entered into an agreement with certain affiliates of NetEase, Inc. to acquire NetEase Comics business, including copyrights of a large number of storylines from leading publishers and comic artists. In December 2018, we entered into an agreement to increase our shareholdings and to acquire majority equity interests in Maoer Inc., an audio platform offering audio drama. In July 2019, we entered into a series of agreements to acquire a controlling interest in Chaodian Inc. (“Chaodian”). In September 2020, we acquired the remaining interests in Chaodian through a series of transactions. Chaodian operates offline events, such as concerts and exhibitions

Bilibili Macro Link

and

Bilibili World

, and a talent agency that is currently managing many of our content creators. In April 2020, we entered into a business collaboration agreement with Sony Corporation to pursue collaboration opportunities within the area of entertainment business in the Chinese market, including anime and mobile games.

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However, past and future acquisitions, partnerships or alliances may expose us to potential risks, including risks associated with:

the integration of new operations and the retention of customers and personnel;

significant volatility in our operating profit (loss) due to changes in the fair value of our contingent purchase consideration payable;

unforeseen or hidden liabilities, including those associated with different business practices;

the diversion of management’s attention and resources from our existing business and technology by acquisition, transition and integration activities;

failure to achieve synergies with our existing business and generate revenues as anticipated;

failure of the newly acquired businesses, technologies, services and products to perform as anticipated;

inability to generate sufficient revenues to offset additional costs and expenses;

breach or termination of key agreements by the counterparties;

the costs of acquisitions;

international operations conducted by some of our subsidiaries;

any different interpretations on contingent purchase consideration; or

the potential loss of, or harm to, relationships with both our employees and customers resulting from our integration of new businesses.

Any of the potential risks listed above could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to manage our business and our results of operation. In addition, we cannot be assured the acquired businesses, technologies, services and products from our past acquisitions and any potential transaction will generate sufficient revenue to offset the associated costs or other potential unforeseen adverse effects on our business.

We may incur impairment charges for our intangible assets and goodwill.

Goodwill represents the excess of the purchase consideration over the fair value of the identifiable tangible and intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed from the acquired entity as a result of our acquisitions of interests in our subsidiaries and consolidated VIEs. We recorded goodwill of RMB941.5 million, RMB1,012.0 million and RMB1,295.8 million (US$198.6 million) as of December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

We are required to test our goodwill for impairment annually or more frequently if events or changes in circumstances indicate that they may be impaired. We may record impairment of goodwill acquired in connection with our acquisitions if the carrying value of our goodwill acquired in connection with our past or future acquisitions are determined to be impaired.

Our intangible assets consist primarily of licensed copyrights of content, license rights of mobile games, and intellectual property and others. Purchased intangible assets are initially recognized and measured at fair value. Intangible assets acquired through business acquisitions are recognized as assets separate from goodwill if they satisfy either the “contractual-legal” or “separability” criterion. Intangible assets are subsequently measured at cost less accumulated amortization and impairment. Intangible assets should be tested for recoverability whenever events or changes in circumstances indicate that the carrying amount of the asset group may not be recoverable. We cannot guarantee that we will not record greater impairment losses of intangible assets in the future. Material impairment of intangible assets could negatively affect our financial condition and results of operations.

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Any malfunction, capacity constraint or operation interruption for any extended period may have an adverse impact on our business.

Our ability to provide superior user experience on our platform depends on the continuous and reliable operation of our IT systems. We cannot assure you that we will be able to procure sufficient bandwidth in a timely manner or on acceptable terms or at all. Failure to do so may significantly impair user experience on our platform and decrease the overall effectiveness of our platform to users, content providers and advertisers. Our IT systems and proprietary content distribution network are vulnerable to damage or interruption as a result of fires, floods, earthquakes, power losses, telecommunications failures, undetected errors in software, computer viruses, hacking and other attempts to harm our IT systems. Disruptions, failures, unscheduled service interruptions or a decrease in connection speeds could damage our reputation and cause our users, content providers and advertisers to migrate to our competitors’ platforms. If we experience frequent or persistent service disruptions, whether caused by failures of our own IT systems or those of third-party service providers, our user experience may be negatively affected, which in turn may have a material and adverse effect on our reputation and business. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in minimizing the frequency or duration of service interruptions. As the number of our users increases and our users generate more content on our platform, we may be required to expand and adapt our technology and infrastructure to reliably store and process content. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve the performance of our platform, especially during peak usage times, as our services become more complex and our user traffic increases.

Any compromise of the cybersecurity of our platform could materially and adversely affect our business, operations and reputation.

Our products and services involve the storage and transmission of users’ and other customers’ information, and security breaches expose us to a risk of loss of this information, litigation and potential liability. We experience cyber-attacks of varying degrees from time to time, and we have been able to rectify attacks without significant impact to our operations in the past. Our security measures may also be breached due to employee error, malfeasance or otherwise. Additionally, outside parties may attempt to fraudulently induce employees, users or other customers to disclose sensitive information in order to gain access to our data or our users’ or other customers’ data or accounts, or may otherwise obtain access to such data or accounts. Because the techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade service or sabotage systems change frequently and often are not recognized until launched against a target, we may be unable to anticipate these techniques or to implement adequate preventative measures. If an actual or perceived breach of our security occurs, the market perception of the effectiveness of our security measures could be harmed, we could lose users and other customers, and may be exposed to significant legal and financial risks, including legal claims and regulatory fines and penalties. Any of these actions could have a material and adverse effect on our business, reputation and results of operations.

Undetected programming errors or flaws or failure to maintain effective customer service could harm our reputation or decrease market acceptance of our products and services, which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

The video programs on our platform may contain programming errors that may only become apparent after their release. We generally have been able to resolve such flaws and errors. However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to detect and resolve all these programming errors effectively. Undetected programming errors could adversely affect our user experience and market acceptance.

Our software has contained, and may now or in the future contain, errors, bugs or vulnerabilities. Any errors, bugs or vulnerabilities discovered in our code after release could result in damage to our reputation, loss of users, loss of content providers, loss of revenue or liability for damages, any of which could adversely affect our business and operating results.

Privacy concerns relating to our products and services and the use of user information could damage our reputation and deter current and potential users and customers from using our products.

We collect personal data from our users in order to better understand our users and their needs for the purpose of our content feeds recommendation and to help our advertisement customers target specific demographic groups. Concerns about the collection, use, disclosure or security of personal information or other privacy-related matters, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation, cause us to lose users and other customers and adversely affect our results of operations.

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Many jurisdictions, including China and the U.S., continue to consider the need for greater regulation or reform to the existing regulatory framework. In the U.S., all 50 states have now passed laws to regulate the actions that a business must take in the event of a data breach, such as prompt disclosure and notification to affected users and regulatory authorities. In addition to the data breach notification laws, some states have also enacted statutes and rules requiring businesses to reasonably protect certain types of personal information they hold or to otherwise comply with certain specified data security requirements for personal information. The U.S. federal and state governments will likely continue to consider the need for greater regulation aimed at restricting certain uses of personal data for targeted advertising. California enacted the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which creates new individual privacy rights for consumers (as that word is broadly defined in the law) and places increased privacy and security obligations on entities handling personal data of consumers or households. The CCPA, which went into effect on January 1, 2020, requires covered companies to provide new disclosures to California consumers, and provides such consumers new ways to

opt-out

of certain sales of personal information. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. The CCPA may increase our compliance costs and potential liability. Some observers have noted that the CCPA could mark the beginning of a trend toward more stringent privacy legislation in the U.S., which could increase our potential liability and adversely affect our business.

In the European Union, or EU, the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, which came into effect on May 25, 2018, could increase our burden of regulatory compliance. The GDPR implements more stringent operational requirements for processors and controllers of personal data, including, for example, requiring expanded disclosures about how personal information is to be used, limitations on retention of information, mandatory data breach notification requirements, and higher standards for data controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained either valid consent or have another legal basis in place to justify their data processing activities. The GDPR further provides that EU member states may make their own additional laws and regulations in relation to certain data processing activities, which could further limit our ability to use and share personal data and could require localized changes to our operating model. Under the GDPR, fines of up to €20 million or up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover of the preceding financial year, whichever is higher, may be assessed for noncompliance, which significantly increases our potential financial exposure for

non-compliance.

In China, the requirement of legal collection and usage of personal information was stated in several rules and regulations. In addition, internet service providers must promptly alert upon the discovery of publishing private information by minors via the internet and take necessary protective measures. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games.” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation— Regulations Related to Internet Information Security and Privacy Protection.” On October 21, 2020, the Legislative Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress of the PRC has publicly solicited opinions on the PRC Personal Information Protection Law (Draft), which sets forth detailed rules on handling personal information and legal responsibilities. As of the date of this annual report, the draft has not been formally adopted.

While we strive to comply with applicable data protection laws and regulations, as well as our privacy policies pursuant to our terms of use and other obligations we may have with respect to privacy and data protection, any failure or perceived failure to comply with these laws, regulations or policies may result in inquiries and other proceedings or actions against us by government agencies or others, as well as negative publicity and damage to our reputation and brand, each of which could cause us to lose users and customers and have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Internet Information Security and Privacy Protection.”

Any systems failure or compromise of our security that results in the unauthorized access to or release of our users’ or other customers’ data could significantly limit the adoption of our products and services, as well as harm our reputation and brand and, therefore, our business. We expect to expend significant resources to protect against security breaches. The risk that these types of events could seriously harm our business is likely to increase as we expand the number of services we offer and increase the size of our user base.

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Our practices may become inconsistent with new laws or regulations concerning data protection, or the interpretation and application of existing consumer and data protection laws or regulations, which is often uncertain and in flux. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, this could result in an order requiring that we change our practices, which could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results. Complying with new laws and regulations could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business. Failure or perceived failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations related to the collection, use, or sharing of personal information or other privacy-related and security matters could result in a loss of confidence in us by customers and users, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We utilize payment collection channels to collect proceeds from our paying users’ purchases. Any failure by those payment collection channels to process payments effectively and securely may materially and adversely affect our revenue realization and brand recognition.

We depend on the billing and payment systems of third parties such as online third-party payment processors to maintain accurate records of payments of sales proceeds by paying users and collect such payments. We receive periodic statements from these third parties which indicate the aggregate amount of fees that were charged to paying users of our products and services. Our business and results of operations could be adversely affected if these third parties fail to accurately account for or calculate the revenues generated from the sales of our products and services. If there are security breaches or failure or errors in the payment process of these third parties, user experience may be affected and our business results may be negatively impacted.

Failure to timely collect our receivables from third parties whose billing and payment systems we use and third-party payment processors may adversely affect our cash flows. Our third-party payment processors may from time to time experience cash flow difficulties. Consequently, they may delay their payments to us or fail to pay us at all. Any delay in payment or inability of current or potential third-party payment processors to pay us may significantly harm our cash flow and results of operations.

We also do not have control over the security measures of our third-party payment service providers, and security breaches of the online payment systems that we use could expose us to litigation and possible liability for failing to secure confidential customer information and could, among other things, damage our reputation and the perceived security of all of the online payment systems that we use. If a well-publicized internet security breach were to occur, users concerned about the security of their online payments may become reluctant to purchase our products through payment service providers even if the publicized breach did not involve payment systems or methods used by us. In addition, billing software errors could damage user confidence in these payment systems. If any of the above were to occur and damage our reputation or the perceived security of the payment systems we use, we may lose paying users as they may be discouraged from purchasing products or services on our platform, which may have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Our success depends on the efforts of our key employees, including our senior management members and other technology personnel. If we fail to hire, retain and motivate our key employees, our business may suffer.

We depend on the continued contributions of our senior management and other key employees, many of whom are difficult to replace. The loss of the services of any of our executive officers or other key employees could harm our business. Competition for qualified talent in China is intense, particularly in the internet and technology industries. Our future success depends on our ability to attract a large number of qualified employees and retain existing key employees. If we are unable to do so, our business and growth may be materially and adversely affected and the trading price of our listed securities could suffer. Our need to significantly increase the number of our qualified employees and retain key employees may cause us to materially increase compensation-related costs, including stock-based compensation.

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We have granted, and may continue to grant, options and other types of awards under our share incentive plan, which may result in increased share-based compensation expenses.

We adopted a global share incentive plan in 2014 and a share incentive plan in 2018, which we refer to as the Global Share Plan and the 2018 Plan, respectively, in this annual report, for the purpose of granting share-based compensation awards to employees, directors and consultants to incentivize their performance and align their interests with ours. We recognize expenses in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Under each of the share incentive plans, we are authorized to grant options and other types of awards. As of January 31, 2021, awards to purchase an aggregate of 22,265,166 ordinary shares under both of the Global Share Plan and the 2018 Plan have been granted and outstanding, excluding awards that were forfeited or cancelled after the relevant grant dates. We recognize share-based compensation expenses in our consolidated financial statements in connection with these grants, and may continue to incur such expenses in the future. As of December 31, 2020, our unrecognized share-based compensation expenses relating to unvested awards amounted to RMB3,787.3 million (US$580.4 million), adjusted for estimated forfeitures.

If we cannot obtain sufficient cash when we need it, we may not be able to meet our payment obligations under our convertible notes.

In April 2019, we issued US$500 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2026, which we refer to as 2026 Notes in this annual report. The 2026 Notes bear interest at a rate of 1.375% per year, payable semiannually in arrears on April 1 and October 1 of each year, beginning on October 1, 2019, and will mature on April 1, 2026 (unless earlier repurchased, redeemed or converted). In June 2020, we issued US$800 million in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2027, which we refer to as 2027 Notes in this annual report. The 2027 Notes bear interest at a rate of 1.25% per year, payable semiannually in arrears on June 15 and December 15 of each year, beginning on December 15, 2020, and will mature on June 15, 2027 (unless repurchased, redeemed or converted).

We derive most of our revenues from, and hold most of our assets through, our subsidiaries. As a result, we may rely in part upon distributions and advances from our subsidiaries in order to help us meet our payment obligations under the 2026 Notes, 2027 Notes and our other obligations. Our subsidiaries are distinct legal entities and do not have any obligation (legal or otherwise) to provide us with distributions or advances. We may face tax or other adverse consequences, or legal limitations, on our ability to obtain funds from these entities. In addition, our ability to obtain external financing in the future is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including:

our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows;

general market conditions for financing activities by internet companies; and

economic, political and other conditions in the PRC and elsewhere.

If we are unable to obtain funding in a timely manner or on commercially acceptable terms, we may not be able to meet our payment obligations under our convertible notes. If we fail to pay interest on the convertible notes, we will be in default under the indenture governing the convertible notes, which in turn may constitute a default under existing and future agreements governing our indebtedness.

If we fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls to remediate our material weakness over financial reporting, we may be unable to accurately report our results of operations, meet our reporting obligations or prevent fraud, and investor confidence and the market price of our ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

In auditing our consolidated financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified one material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting, in accordance with the standards established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of the United States (PCAOB).

As defined in the standards established by the PCAOB, a “material weakness” is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. The material weakness identified related to our lack of sufficient resources regarding financial reporting and accounting personnel with understanding of U.S. GAAP, in particular, to address complex U.S. GAAP technical accounting issues, related disclosures in accordance with U.S. GAAP and financial reporting requirements set forth by the SEC. The material weakness, if not timely remedied, may have led to significant misstatements in our consolidated financial statements in the future.

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Following the identification of the material weakness, we have taken measures to remedy the material weakness. Our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2019 after the remediation. For details on these initiatives, please see “Item 15. Controls and Procedures—Internal Control Over Financial Reporting—Remediation of the Material Weakness in Internal Control over Financial Reporting Reported in 2018.”

The SEC, as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, has adopted rules requiring public companies to include a report of management on the effectiveness of such companies’ internal control over financial reporting in their respective annual reports. In addition, an independent registered public accounting firm for a public company may be required to issue an attestation report on the effectiveness of such company’s 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 a report that is qualified if it is not satisfied with our internal controls or the level at which our controls are documented, designed, operated or reviewed, or if it interprets the relevant requirements differently from us. In addition, as we have become a public company, our reporting obligations may place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources and systems for the foreseeable future. We may be unable to timely complete our evaluation testing and any required remediation.

If we fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment, we could suffer material misstatements in our consolidated financial statements and fail to meet our reporting obligations, which would likely cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information. This could in turn limit our access to capital markets, harm our results of operations, and lead to a decline in the trading price of our listed securities. Additionally, ineffective internal control over financial reporting could expose us to increased risk of fraud or misuse of corporate assets and subject us to potential delisting from the stock exchange on which we list, regulatory investigations and civil or criminal sanctions.

We rely on certain key operating metrics to evaluate the performance of our business, and real or perceived inaccuracies in such metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.

We rely on certain key operating metrics, such as MAU and average monthly paying users, to evaluate the performance of our business. Our operating metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics used by other companies due to differences in methodology and assumptions. We calculate these operating metrics using internal company data that have not been independently verified. If we discover material inaccuracies in the operating metrics we use, or if they are perceived to be inaccurate, our reputation may be harmed and our evaluation methods and results may be impaired, which could negatively affect our business. If investors make investment decisions based on operating metrics we disclose that are inaccurate, we may also face potential lawsuits or disputes.

We do not have any business insurance coverage.

The insurance industry in China is still in an early stage of development, and insurance companies in China currently offer limited business-related insurance products. We do not maintain business interruption insurance or general third-party liability insurance, nor do we maintain property insurance, product liability insurance or

key-man

insurance. We consider this practice to be reasonable in light of the nature of our business and the insurance products that are available in China and in line with the practices of other companies in the same industry of similar size in China. Any uninsured risks may result in substantial costs and the diversion of resources, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

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A severe or prolonged downturn in the Chinese or global economy, any financial or economic crisis, or perceived threat of such a crisis, could materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.

COVID-19

may continue to have a severe and prolonged negative impact on the Chinese and the global economy, including potential reductions in advertising and marketing customers’ budgets, which may affect our advertising revenues and financial performance generally. Even before the outbreak of

COVID-19,

the global macroeconomic environment faced numerous challenges. The growth rate of the Chinese economy has gradually slowed in recent years and the trend may continue. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies which have been adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies, including the United States and China, even before 2020. The global financial markets experienced significant disruptions in 2008 and the United States, European and other economies went into recession. The recovery from the lows of 2008 and 2009 was uneven and the global financial markets are facing new challenges, including the escalation of the European sovereign debt crisis since 2011, the hostilities in the Ukraine, the economic slowdown in the Eurozone in 2014. Unrest, terrorist threats and the potential for war in the Middle East and elsewhere may increase market volatility across the globe. It is unclear whether these challenges will be contained and what effects they each may have. There have also been concerns about the relationship between China and other countries, including the surrounding Asian countries, which may potentially have negative 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 might lead to tighter credit markets, increased market volatility, sudden drops in business and dramatic changes in business, and may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We face risks related to natural disasters, health epidemics and other outbreaks, such as the

COVID-19

pandemic, which could significantly disrupt our operations.

Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of natural disasters, other health epidemics or other public safety concerns. In recent years, there have been other breakouts of epidemics in China and globally. Our operations could be disrupted if one of our employees is suspected of having

COVID-19,

H1N1 flu, avian flu or another epidemic, since it could require our employees to be quarantined and/or our offices to be disinfected. In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that the outbreak harms the PRC economy in general and the mobile internet industry in particular.

The worldwide outbreak of

COVID-19

pandemic has resulted in significant disruptions in the global economy. To contain the spread of

COVID-19,

the Chinese government has taken certain emergency measures, including extension of the Lunar New Year holidays, implementation of travel bans, blockade of certain roads and closure of factories and businesses. These emergency measures have been significantly relaxed by the Chinese government as of the date of this annual report. However, there has been occasional outbreaks of

COVID-19

in various cities in China, and the Chinese government may again take measures to keep

COVID-19

in check. The

COVID-19

pandemic has caused delays in the delivery of the merchandise sold on our platform to the customers in the first quarter of 2020. Although the delivery has been gradually recovering since then, if the impact of

COVID-19

is prolonged or worsens further, it may still disrupt the delivery, which may in turn adversely affect our revenue and financial conditions. Our user acquisition and engagement may fluctuate depending on factors beyond our control, such as the

shelter-in-place

restrictions due to the

COVID-19

pandemic. We have experienced a significant increase in the size and engagement of our active user base during the first quarter of 2020. Although we have been able to maintain the momentum of user acquisition and engagement in the other quarters of 2020 as China gradually relaxed its

shelter-in-place

restrictions, we may not be able to maintain the growth of our active user base or user acquisition and the level of engagement in the long term. The

COVID-19

pandemic has caused delays in production and uncertainty in scheduling of content of our licensed content providers in countries such as Japan. In the event that this pandemic cannot be effectively and timely contained in the countries where our licensed content providers reside, our ability to consistently offer and introduce new content this year may be significantly disrupted, which in turn may harm our user acquisition and engagement growth, as well as our financial performance generally. We have taken measures to reduce the impact of this epidemic outbreak, including, upgrading our telecommuting system, monitoring our employees’ health on a daily basis and optimizing our technology system to support potential growth in user traffic. As a result of any of the above developments, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected by

COVID-19

pandemic for this year and beyond. The extent to which

COVID-19

impacts our results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of

COVID-19,

the actions to contain the coronavirus or treat its impact, the availability of vaccine and treatment for

COVID-19,

among others.

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We are also vulnerable to natural disasters and other calamities. Although we have servers that are hosted in an offsite location, our backup system does not capture data on a real-time basis and we may be unable to recover certain data in the event of a server failure. We cannot assure you that any backup systems will be adequate to protect us from the effects of fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures,

break-ins,

war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events. Any of the foregoing 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 services on our platform.

Any future outbreak of contagious diseases, extreme unexpected bad weather or natural disasters would adversely affect our offline events and delivery of the merchandise sold on our platform. If there is a recurrence of an outbreak of certain contagious diseases or natural disasters, the offline events operated by us may be cancelled or delayed and the delivery of the merchandise sold on our platform may be delayed. Government advices regarding, or restrictions on holding offline events and travels, in the event of an outbreak of any contagious disease or occurrence of natural disasters may have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.

Our ability to conduct business in international markets may be adversely affected by legal, regulatory and other risks.

International expansion of our online games is a part of our growth strategy and may subject us to additional risks and challenges, including but not limited to challenges in formulating effective local sales and marketing strategies targeting users from various jurisdictions and cultures, who have a diverse range of preferences and demands; challenges in identifying appropriate local business partners and establishing and maintaining good working relationships with them; exposure to different tax jurisdictions that may subject us to greater fluctuations in our effective tax rate and potentially adverse tax consequence; and risks of increased costs associated with doing business in foreign jurisdictions. If we fail to address any of these risks and challenges associated with our international expansion, our reputation, business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Any failure to comply with PRC property laws and relevant regulations regarding certain of our leased premises may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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

non-registered

lease if we fail to complete the registration within the prescribed timeframe.

Our auditor is not inspected by the PCAOB and, as such, you are deprived of the benefits of such inspection. In addition, various legislative and regulatory developments related to U.S.-listed China-based companies due to lack of PCAOB inspection and other developments may have a material adverse impact on our listing and trading in the U.S. and the trading prices of our ADSs.

Our auditor, the independent registered public accounting firm that issued the audit reports included elsewhere in this annual report, is registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or the PCAOB. Pursuant to laws in the United States, the PCAOB has the authority to conduct regular inspections over independent registered public accounting firms registered with the PCAOB to assess their compliance with the applicable professional standards. Our auditor is also located in China, a jurisdiction which does not allow the PCAOB to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. As a result, we understand that the auditor that prepared the audit report included in our annual report on Form

20-F

filed with the SEC is not currently inspected by the PCAOB.

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In May 2013, the PCAOB announced that it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Enforcement Cooperation with the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or the CSRC, and the Ministry of Finance of the PRC, or the MOF, which established a cooperative framework between the parties for the production and exchange of audit documents relevant to investigations undertaken by the PCAOB, the CSRC or the MOF in the United States and the PRC, respectively. The PCAOB continued to discuss with the CSRC and the MOF on joint inspections in the PRC of PCAOB-registered audit firms that provide auditing services to Chinese companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges. On December 7, 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement highlighting the continued challenges faced by the U.S. regulators in their oversight of financial statement audits of U.S.-listed companies with significant operations in China. On April 21, 2020, the SEC and the PCAOB issued another joint statement reiterating the greater risks of insufficient disclosures from companies in many emerging markets, including China, compared to those from U.S. domestic companies. In discussing the specific issues related to these greater risks, the statement again highlighted the PCAOB’s inability to inspect audit work and practices of accounting firms in China with respect to U.S. reporting companies. On June 4, 2020, the then U.S. President issued a memorandum ordering the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, or the PWG, to submit a report to the President within 60 days of the memorandum that includes recommendations for actions that can be taken by the executive branch and by the SEC or the PCAOB on Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges and their audit firms. On August 6, 2020, the PWG released the report. In particular, with respect to jurisdictions that do not grant the PCAOB sufficient access to fulfill its statutory mandate, or NCJs, the PWG recommended that enhanced listing standards be applied to companies from NCJs for seeking initial listing and remaining listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Under the enhanced listing standards, if the PCAOB does not have access to work papers of the principal audit firm located in a NCJ for the audit of a U.S.-listed company as a result of governmental restrictions, the U.S.-listed company may satisfy this standard by providing a

co-audit

from an audit firm with comparable resources and experience where the PCAOB determines that it has sufficient access to the firm’s audit work papers and practices to inspect the

co-audit.

There is currently no legal framework under which such

co-audits

can be performed for China-based companies. The report recommended a transition period until January 1, 2022 before the new listing standards apply to companies already listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Under the PWG recommendations, if we fail to meet the enhanced listing standards before January 1, 2022, we could face

de-listing

from the Nasdaq Global Select Market, deregistration from the SEC and/or other risks, which may materially and adversely affect, or effectively terminate, our ADS trading in the United States. It is uncertain whether the PWG recommendations will be adopted, in whole or in part, and the impact of any new rule on us cannot be estimated at this time.

This lack of the PCAOB inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from fully evaluating audits and quality control procedures of our independent registered public accounting firm. As a result, we and investors in our Class Z ordinary shares are deprived of the benefits of such PCAOB inspections. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China makes 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, which could cause investors and potential investors in our stock to lose confidence in our audit procedures and reported financial information and the quality of our financial statements.

As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular China’s, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the Act, has been enacted. In essence, the Act requires the SEC to prohibit foreign companies from having its securities traded on U.S. securities exchanges or

“over-the-counter”

if a company retains a foreign accounting firm that cannot be inspected by the PCAOB for three consecutive years, beginning in 2021. The enactment of Act and any additional rulemaking efforts to increase U.S. regulatory access to audit information in China could cause investor uncertainty for affected SEC registrants, including us, the market price of our ADSs could be materially adversely affected, and our ADSs could be delisted if we are unable to meet the PCAOB inspection requirement in time.

Proceedings instituted by the SEC against certain

PRC-based

accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, could result in our financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act.

In December 2012, the SEC instituted administrative proceedings against the Big Four

PRC-based

accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, alleging that these firms had violated U.S. securities laws and the SEC’s rules and regulations thereunder by failing to provide to the SEC the firms’ audit work papers with respect to certain

PRC-based

companies that are publicly traded in the United States.

On January 22, 2014, the administrative law judge, or the ALJ, presiding over the matter rendered an initial decision that each of the firms had violated the SEC’s rules of practice by failing to produce audit papers and other documents to the SEC. The initial decision censured each of the firms and barred them from practicing before the SEC for a period of six months.

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On February 6, 2015, the four China-based accounting firms each agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC and audit U.S.-listed companies. The settlement required the firms to follow detailed procedures and to seek to provide the SEC with access to Chinese firms’ audit documents via the CSRC. Under the terms of the settlement, the underlying proceeding against the four China-based accounting firms was deemed dismissed with prejudice four years after entry of the settlement. The four-year mark occurred on February 6, 2019. While we cannot predict if the SEC will further challenge the four China-based accounting firms’ compliance with U.S. law in connection with U.S. regulatory requests for audit work papers or if the results of such a challenge would result in the SEC imposing penalties such as suspensions, if the accounting firms are subject to additional remedial measures, our ability to file our financial statements in compliance with SEC requirements could be impacted. A determination that we have not timely filed financial statements in compliance with the SEC requirements could ultimately lead to the delisting of our Class Z ordinary shares from Nasdaq or the termination of the registration of our Class Z ordinary shares under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, or both, which would substantially reduce or effectively terminate the trading of our ADSs in the United States.

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating our businesses in China do not comply with PRC regulations on foreign investment in internet and other related businesses, or if these regulations or their interpretation change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations.

PRC laws and regulations impose certain restrictions or prohibitions on foreign ownership of companies that engage in internet and other related businesses, including the provision of internet content and online game operations. For example, the internet cultural business (except for music), the internet audio-visual program business, the radio and television program production and operation business, and the production of audio-visual products and/or electronic publications remain as prohibited areas for foreign investment. Specifically, foreign ownership of a commercial internet information services provider may not exceed 50%, and the major foreign investor is required to have a record of good performance and operating experience in managing value-added telecommunications business. We are a company registered in the Cayman Islands and our WFOE is considered a foreign-invested enterprise. To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we conduct our business in China mainly through Shanghai Kuanyu and Hode Information Technology (our VIEs) and their respective subsidiaries, based on a series of contractual arrangements by and among Hode Shanghai (our WFOE), our VIEs, and their shareholders. As a result of these contractual arrangements, we exert control over our consolidated affiliated entities and consolidate their financial results in our financial statements under U.S. GAAP. Our consolidated affiliated entities hold the licenses, approvals and key assets that are essential for our operations.

In the opinion of our PRC counsel, based on its understanding of the relevant PRC laws and regulations, except as disclosed in this annual report, each of the contracts among Hode Shanghai, our VIEs and their shareholders is valid, binding and enforceable in accordance with its terms. However, we have been further advised by our PRC counsel that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current or future PRC laws and regulations. Thus, the PRC government may ultimately take a view contrary to the opinion of our PRC counsel. If we are found in violation of any PRC laws or regulations or if the contractual arrangements among Hode Shanghai, our VIEs and their shareholders are determined as illegal or invalid by the PRC court, arbitral tribunal or regulatory authorities, the relevant governmental authorities would have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including, without limitation:

revoking the business licenses and/or operating licenses of such entities;

imposing fines on us;

confiscating any of our income that they deem to be obtained through illegal operations;

discontinuing or placing restrictions or onerous conditions on our operations;

placing restrictions on our right to collect revenues;

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shutting down our servers or blocking our app/websites;

requiring us to restructure the operations in such a way as to compel us to establish a new enterprise,

re-apply

for the necessary licenses or relocate our businesses, staff and assets;

imposing additional conditions or requirements with which we may not be able to comply; or

taking other regulatory or enforcement actions against us that could be harmful to our business.

The imposition of any of these penalties may result in a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business operations. In addition, if the imposition of any of these penalties causes us to lose the rights to direct the activities of our consolidated affiliated entities or the right to receive their economic benefits, we would no longer be able to consolidate their financial results.

We rely on contractual arrangements with our VIEs and their shareholders for our operations in China, which may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership.

Due to PRC restrictions or prohibitions on foreign ownership of internet and other related businesses in China, we operate our business in China through our VIEs and their subsidiaries, in which we have no ownership interest. We rely on a series of contractual arrangements with our VIEs and their shareholders, including the powers of attorney, to control and operate business of our consolidated affiliated entities. These contractual arrangements are intended to provide us with effective control over our consolidated affiliated entities and allow us to obtain economic benefits from them. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure” for more details about these contractual arrangements. In particular, our ability to control the consolidated affiliated entities depends on the powers of attorney, pursuant to which Hode Shanghai can vote on all matters requiring shareholder approval in our VIEs. We believe these powers of attorney are legally enforceable but may not be as effective as direct equity ownership.

Although we have been advised by our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, that except as disclosed in this annual report, each of the contracts among Hode Shanghai, our VIEs and their shareholders is valid, binding and enforceable under existing PRC laws and regulations, these contractual arrangements may not be as effective in providing control over our VIEs and their subsidiaries as direct ownership. If our VIEs or their shareholders fail to perform their respective obligations under the contractual arrangements, we may incur substantial costs and expend substantial resources to enforce our rights. These contractual arrangements are governed by and interpreted in accordance with PRC law, and disputes arising from these contractual arrangements will be resolved through arbitration in China. However, the legal system in China, particularly as it relates to arbitration proceedings, is not as developed as the legal system in many other jurisdictions, such as the United States. See “—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties in the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws and regulations could limit the legal protections available to you and us.” There are very few precedents and little official guidance as to how contractual arrangements in the context of a variable interest entity should be interpreted or enforced under PRC law. There remain significant uncertainties regarding the ultimate outcome of arbitration should legal action become necessary. These uncertainties could limit our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. In addition, arbitration awards are final and can only be enforced in PRC courts through arbitration award recognition proceedings, which could cause additional expenses and delays. In the event we are unable to enforce these contractual arrangements or we experience significant delays or other obstacles in the process of enforcing these contractual arrangements, we may not be able to exert effective control over our VIEs and may lose control over the assets owned by our VIEs. As a result, we may be unable to consolidate the financial results of such entities in our consolidated financial statements, our ability to conduct our business may be negatively affected, and our operations could be severely disrupted, which could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

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We may lose the ability to use and enjoy assets held by our VIEs and their subsidiaries that are important to our business if our VIEs and their subsidiaries declare bankruptcy or become subject to a dissolution or liquidation proceeding.

Our VIEs hold certain licenses that are important to our operations, including the ICP License, License for Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs, Online Culture Operating Permits and License for Production and Operation of Radio and Television Programs. Under our contractual arrangements, the shareholders of our VIEs may not voluntarily liquidate our VIEs or approve them to sell, transfer, mortgage or dispose of their assets or legal or beneficial interests exceeding certain threshold in the business in any manner without our prior consent. However, in the event that the shareholders breach this obligation and voluntarily liquidate our VIEs, or our VIEs declare bankruptcy, or 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 operations, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, if our VIEs or their subsidiaries undergo a voluntary or involuntary liquidation proceeding, their shareholders or unrelated third-party creditors may claim rights to some or all of its assets, hindering our ability to operate our business, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Contractual arrangements we have entered into with our VIEs may be subject to scrutiny by the PRC tax authorities. A finding that we owe additional taxes could negatively affect our financial condition and the value of your investment.

Pursuant to applicable PRC laws and regulations, arrangements and transactions among related parties may be subject to audit or challenge by PRC tax authorities. We may be subject to adverse tax consequences if the PRC tax authorities determine that the contractual arrangements among our WFOE, our VIEs and their shareholders are not on an

arm’s-length

basis and therefore constitute favorable transfer pricing. As a result, the PRC tax authorities could require that our VIEs adjust their taxable income upward for PRC tax purposes. Such an adjustment could increase our VIEs’ tax expenses without reducing the tax expenses of our WFOE, subject our VIEs to late payment fees and other penalties for under-payment of taxes, and result in the loss of any preferential tax treatment our WFOE may have. As a result, our consolidated results of operations may be adversely affected.

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

In China, a company chop or seal serves as the legal representation of the company towards third parties even when unaccompanied by a signature. Each legally registered company in China is required to maintain a company chop, which must be registered with the local Public Security Bureau. In addition to this mandatory company chop, companies may have several other chops which can be used for specific purposes. The chops of our PRC subsidiaries, our VIEs and their subsidiaries 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 safe, 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.

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

The shareholders of our VIEs include Yi Xu, Rui Chen and Ni Li, who are also our shareholders, and, in some cases are our directors or officers. Conflicts of interest may arise between the roles of them as shareholders, directors or officers of our company and as shareholders of our VIEs. For individuals who are also our directors and officers, we rely on them to abide by the laws of the Cayman Islands, which provide that directors and officers owe a fiduciary duty to our company to act in good faith and in the best interest of our company and not to use their positions for personal gain. The shareholders of our VIEs have executed powers of attorney to appoint Hode Shanghai or a person designated by Hode Shanghai to vote on their behalf and exercise voting rights as shareholders of our VIEs. We cannot assure you that when conflicts arise, these shareholders will act in the best interest of our company or that conflicts will be resolved in our favor. If we cannot resolve any conflicts of interest or disputes between us and these shareholders, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which may be expensive, time-consuming and disruptive to our operations. There is also substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

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We may rely on dividends paid by our PRC subsidiaries to fund cash and financing requirements. Any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to pay dividends to us could have a material adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business and to pay dividends to our shareholders and ADS holders.

We are a holding company, and we may rely on dividends to be paid by our PRC subsidiaries 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 ordinary shares and service any debt we may incur. If our PRC subsidiaries incur debt on their own behalf in the future, the instruments governing the debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to us.

Under PRC laws and regulations, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise in China, such as Hode Shanghai, may pay dividends only out of its accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise is required to set aside at least 10% of its

after-tax

profits each year, after making up previous years’ accumulated losses, if any, to fund certain statutory reserve funds, until the aggregate amount of such fund reaches 50% of its registered capital. These reserve funds are not distributable as cash dividends. Any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries 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.

Substantial uncertainties exist with respect to how the Foreign Investment Law may impact the viability of our current corporate structure and operations.

The National People’s Congress approved the PRC Foreign Investment Law, or the 2019 FIL, on March 15, 2019, effective from January 1, 2020, and the State Council approved the Regulation on Implementing the PRC Foreign Investment Law, or the Implementation Regulations, on December 26, 2019, effective from January 1, 2020, which replaced the trio of existing laws regulating foreign investment in China, namely, the Sino-foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law, the Sino-foreign Cooperative Joint Venture Enterprise Law and the Wholly Foreign-invested Enterprise Law, together with their implementation rules and ancillary regulations. The Supreme People’s Court of China issued a judicial interpretation on the 2019 FIL, in December 2019, effective from January 1, 2020, to ensure fair and efficient implementation of the 2019 FIL. The judicial interpretation clarifies the issues regarding the validity of the investment contract violating the restrictive or prohibitive requirements in the negative list. According to the judicial interpretation, courts in China shall not, among other things, support contracted parties to claim foreign investment contracts in sectors not on the Special Administrative Measures (Negative List) for Foreign Investment Access (2020 Version), most recently jointly promulgated by the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC, or the MOFCOM and the National Development and Reform Commission of the PRC, or the NDRC, on June 23, 2020 and became effective on July 23, 2020, or the Negative List (2020), as void because the contracts have not been approved or registered by administrative authorities. However, since PRC judicial and administrative authorities have significant discretion in interpreting and implementing statutory and contractual terms, it is difficult to predict the outcome of a judicial or administrative proceeding, and such unpredictability towards our contractual rights could adversely affect our business and impede our ability to continue our operations. The 2019 FIL and Implementation Regulations embody an expected PRC regulatory trend to rationalize its foreign investment regulatory regime in line with prevailing international practice and the legislative efforts to unify the corporate legal requirements for both foreign and domestic investments.

The 2019 FIL removes all references to the terms of “de facto control” or “contractual control” as defined in the draft published in 2015 by MOFCOM. However, the 2019 FIL has a

catch-all

provision under the definition of “foreign investment” which includes investments made by foreign investors in China through means stipulated in laws or administrative regulations or other methods prescribed by the State Council. Therefore, the State Council may in the future promulgate laws and regulations that deem investments made by foreign investors through contractual arrangements as “foreign investment,” and our contractual arrangements may be subject to and be deemed to violate the market entry requirements in China. The “variable interest entity” structure, or VIE structure, has been adopted by many

PRC-based

companies, including us, to obtain necessary licenses and permits in the industries that are currently subject to foreign investment restrictions in China. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure” for more details about these contractual arrangements.

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In addition, the 2019 FIL further specifies that foreign investments shall be conducted in line with the “negative list” to be issued or approved to be issued by the State Council. The commercial internet information service, internet audio-visual program services, online cultural activities, the radio and television program production and operation business, and the production of audio-visual products and/or electronic publications that we conduct through our consolidated affiliated entities are subject to foreign investment restrictions set forth in the Negative List (2020). It is uncertain whether the industry of commercial internet information service, internet audio-visual program services, online culture activities, the radio and television program production and operation business, and the production of audio-visual products and/or electronic publications, in which our variable interest entities operate, will be subject to the foreign investment restrictions or prohibitions under the then updated “negative list” to be issued. If the then updated “negative list” requires companies with existing VIE structure like us to take further actions, we will face uncertainties as to whether any clearance from the relevant governmental authorities can be timely obtained, or at all.

Divestitures of businesses and assets may have a material and adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

We may engage partial or complete divestitures or other disposal transactions in connection with certain of our businesses and assets in the future, particularly ones that are not closely related to our core focus areas or might require excessive resources or financial capital, to help our company meet its objectives. These decisions are largely based on our management’s assessment of the business models and likelihood of success of these businesses. However, our judgment could be inaccurate, and we may not achieve the desired strategic and financial benefits from these transactions. Our financial results could be adversely affected by the impact from the loss of earnings and corporate overhead contribution/allocation associated with divested businesses.

Dispositions may also involve continued financial involvement in the divested business, such as through guarantees, indemnities or other financial obligations. Under these arrangements, performance by the divested businesses or other conditions outside of our control could affect our future financial results. We may also be exposed to negative publicity as a result of the potential misconception that the divested business is still part of our consolidated group. On the other hand, we cannot assure you that the divesting business would not pursue opportunities to provide services to our competitors or other opportunities that would conflict with our interests. If any conflicts of interest that may arise between the divesting business and us cannot be resolved in our favor, our business, financial condition, results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Furthermore, reducing or eliminating our ownership interests in these businesses might negatively affect our operations, prospects, or long-term value. We may lose access to resources or

know-how

that would have been useful in the development of our own business. Our ability to diversify or expand our existing businesses or to move into new areas of business may be reduced, and we may have to modify our business strategy to focus more exclusively on areas of business where we already possess the necessary expertise. We may sell our interests too early, and thus forego gains that we otherwise would have received had we not sold. Selecting businesses to dispose of or spin off, finding buyers for them (or the equity interests in them to be sold) and negotiating prices for what may be relatively illiquid ownership interests with no easily ascertainable fair market value will also require significant attention from our management and may divert resources from our existing business, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our business operations.

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

Uncertainties in the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws and regulations could limit the legal protections available to you and us.

The PRC legal system is based on written statutes and court decisions have limited precedential value. The PRC legal system is evolving rapidly, and the interpretations of many laws, regulations and rules may contain inconsistencies and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involves uncertainties.

From time to time, we may have to resort to administrative and court proceedings to enforce our legal rights. However, since PRC judicial and administrative authorities have significant discretion in interpreting and implementing statutory and contractual terms, it may be more difficult to predict the outcome of a judicial or administrative proceeding than in more developed legal systems. Furthermore, the PRC legal system is based, in part, on government policies and internal rules, some of which are not published in a timely manner, or at all, but which may have retroactive effect. As a result, we may not always be aware of any potential violation of these policies and rules. Such unpredictability towards our contractual, property (including intellectual property) and procedural rights could adversely affect our business and impede our ability to continue our operations.

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We face uncertainties with respect to the interpretation and implementation of the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Internet Platform Economy Sector.

In February 2021, the Anti-Monopoly Commission of the State Council published the Anti-Monopoly Guidelines for the Internet Platform Economy Sector that aims at specifying some of the circumstances under which an activity of internet platforms may be identified as monopolistic act as well as setting out merger controlling filing procedures involving variable interest entities. Due to the uncertainties associated with the evolving legislative activities and varied local implementation practices of anti-monopoly and competition laws and regulations in the PRC, it may be costly to adjust some of our business practice in order to comply with these laws, regulations, rules, guidelines and implementations, and any incompliance or associated inquiries, investigations and other governmental actions may divert significant management time and attention and our financial resources, bring negative publicity, subject us to liabilities or administrative penalties, and/or materially and adversely affect our financial conditions, operations and business prospects.

Regulation and censorship of information disseminated over the mobile and internet in China may adversely affect our business and subject us to liability for content posted on our platform.

Internet companies in China are subject to a variety of existing and new rules, regulations, policies, and license and permit requirements on the distribution of information over the mobile and internet. Under these rules and regulations, content service providers are prohibited from posting or displaying over the mobile or internet content that, among others, violates PRC laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of China or the public interest, is obscene, superstitious, fraudulent or defamatory, or may be deemed by relevant government authorities as “socially destabilizing” or leaking “state secrets” of China. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Internet Information Security and Privacy Protection.” In connection with enforcing these rules, regulations, policies and requirements, relevant government authorities may suspend services by, or revoke licenses of, any internet or mobile content service provider that is deemed to provide illicit content online or on mobile devices, and such activities may be intensified in connection with any ongoing government campaigns to eliminate prohibited content online. For example, in ~~2016,~~recent years, the National Office of ~~Combating Pornography~~Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publications, the ~~State Internet Information Office, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or~~CAC, the MIIT, the ~~Ministry of Culture, or the MOC,~~MCT, and the Ministry of Public Security jointly ~~launched~~have been launching a series of “Clean Up the ~~Internet 2016” campaign. Based on publicly available information, the campaign aims~~Internet” campaigns. These campaigns aim to eliminate pornographic information and content in the internet information services industry by, among other things, holding liable individuals and corporate entities that facilitate the distribution of pornographic information and content. During the ~~campaign,~~campaigns, relevant government authorities have shut down ~~2,500~~ websites, removed ~~15,000~~ links and closed ~~310,000~~ accounts. Certain major public internet companies voluntarily initiated self-investigations to filter and remove content from their websites and cloud servers. In 2017, the regulatory authorities jointly initiated a “Clean Up the Internet 2017” campaign and, based on the publicly available information on November 7, 2017, 1,655 websites have been shut down during the campaign. In January 2019, CNSA issued the Regulations on Administration of Network Short Video Platforms and Censoring Criteria for Network Short Video ~~Contents~~Content to tighten the censorship on short video ~~contents.~~content. The regulatory authorities carried out a series of law enforcement actions against violation of personal information protection from January to December 2019. On January ~~25,~~23, 2019, the CAC, the MIIT, the Ministry of Public Security, and the PRC State Administration for Market Regulation, or the SAMR, jointly issued the Notice on Special Governance of Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information via Apps, which restates the requirement of legal collection and use of personal information, encourages APP operators to conduct security certifications, and encourages search engines and APP stores to clearly mark and recommend those certified APPs. At the same time, they announced a

one-year

special crackdown on the illegal collection and misuse of personal information by apps. On July 22, 2020, the MIIT issued the Notice on Carrying out Special Rectification Actions in Depth against the Infringement on Users’ Rights and Interests by Apps to urge app service providers, among others, to strengthen the protection of users’ personal information in relation to the download and usage of apps. On December 1, 2020, the CAC issued the Scope of Necessary Personal Information for Common Types of Mobile Internet Applications (Apps) (Draft for Comments) to further provide guidance over personal information security and privacy protection. As a result, a number of mobile apps were condemned publicly for their

non-compliance

with personal information protection policies, including, among other

non-compliance

actions, the failure to publish rules on the collection and improper use of users’ personal information, the failure to provide channels for users to access and revise their information, the failure to provide functions for users to cancel accounts, the unauthorized collection of personal information, the unreasonable requests for access, and the unauthorized sharing of information with third parties. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs.” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Internet Information Security and Privacy Protection.”

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We endeavor to eliminate illicit content from our platform. We have made substantial investments in resources to monitor content that users post on our platform and the way in which our users engage with each other through our platform. In the past, we have terminated certain user accounts in order to eliminate spam, fictitious accounts and indecent content from our platform. We use a variety of methods to ensure our platform remains a healthy and positive experience for our users, including a designated content management team and our own data analytics software. Although we employ these methods to filter our users and content posted by our users, we cannot be sure that our internal content control efforts will be sufficient to remove all content that may be viewed as indecent or otherwise

non-compliant

with PRC law and regulations. Government standards and interpretations as to what constitutes illicit online content or behavior are subject to interpretation and may change.

We have paid fines in connection with content posted on our platform, and government standards and interpretations may change in a manner that could render our current monitoring efforts insufficient. The PRC government has wide discretion in regulating online activities and, irrespective of our efforts to control the content on our platform, government campaigns and other actions to reduce illicit content and activities could subject us to negative press or regulatory challenges and sanctions, including imposition of fines, suspension or revocation of our licenses to operate in China or a ban of our platform, including closure of one or more parts of or our entire business. Further, our senior management could be held criminally liable if we are deemed to be profiting from illicit content on our platform. Although our operations have not been materially adversely affected by government campaigns or any other regulatory actions in the past, we cannot assure you that our business and operations will be immune from government actions or sanctions in the future. If government actions or sanctions are brought against us, or if there are widespread rumors that government actions or sanctions have been brought against us, our reputation could be harmed, we may lose users and other customers, our revenues and results of operation may be materially and adversely affected and the value of our ADSs could be dramatically reduced.

In March 2018, the SAPPRFT issued ~~a notice~~the Notice on Further Regulating the Order of Online Audio-visual Programs to further regulate the transmission of internet audio-visual programs. Due to the lack of clarification and detailed implementation rules, it is unclear to us whether and how this notice would be applicable to the ~~PUGC~~ content posted on our platform by our users. In November 2019, the CAC, the NRTA and the MCT, jointly issued the Notice on Promulgation of the Administrative Provisions on Internet Audio-visual Information Services, which required the providers of internet audio-visual information services to have sufficient capacities to deal with cyber threats, prevent internet illegal and criminal activities, and defend the integrity, safety and availability of online data. We have conducted a review of the content that may be implicated on our platform and believe our current content monitoring measures in place are adequate. However, given the uncertainty in the interpretation and implementation of this notice, we may be required to subsequently implement further content monitoring measures, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. For further information regarding this notice, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs.”

Adverse changes in economic and political policies of the PRC government could have a material and adverse effect on overall economic growth in China, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

A substantial majority of our revenues is sourced from ~~China~~

.

China. Accordingly, our results of operations, financial condition and prospects are influenced by economic, political and legal developments in China. Economic reforms begun in the late 1970s have resulted in significant economic growth. However, any economic reform policies or measures in China may from time to time be modified or revised. China’s economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including with respect to the amount of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. While the PRC economy has experienced significant growth in the past 30 years, growth has been uneven across different regions and among different economic sectors.

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The PRC government exercises significant control over China’s economic growth through strategically allocating resources, controlling the payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policy and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies. Although the PRC economy has grown significantly in the past decade, that growth may not continue, as evidenced by the slowing of the growth of the PRC economy ~~since 2010.~~in the recent years. Any adverse changes in economic conditions in China, in the policies of the PRC government or in the laws and regulations in China could have a material adverse effect on the overall economic growth of China. Such developments could adversely affect our business and operating results, lead to reduction in demand for our services and adversely affect our competitive position.

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Currently there is no law or regulation specifically governing virtual asset property rights and therefore it is not clear what liabilities, if any, online game operators may have for virtual assets.

While playing online games or participating on platform activities, our users acquire and accumulate some virtual assets, such as special equipment and other accessories. Such virtual assets can be important to online game ~~players and have monetary value and, in some cases, are sold for actual money.~~players. In practice, virtual assets can be lost for various reasons, often through unauthorized use of the game account of one user by other users and occasionally through data loss caused by a delay of network service, a network crash or hacking activities. ~~Under~~On May 28, 2020, the ~~General Provisions of~~PRC Civil ~~Law~~Code was enacted, effective ~~in October 2017,~~on January 1, 2021, pursuant to which, ownership of data and virtual assets are civil rights protected by laws. However, there is currently no further PRC law or regulation specifically governing virtual asset property rights. As a result, there is uncertainty as to who the legal owner of virtual assets is, whether and how the ownership of virtual assets is protected by law, and whether an operator of online games such as us would have any liability to game players or other interested parties (whether in contract, tort or otherwise) for loss of such virtual assets. Based on several PRC court judgments, courts generally required the online game operators to provide well-developed security systems to protect virtual assets owned by players and some courts required game operators to return the virtual items or found game operators liable for the loss and damage incurred therefrom if the online game operators are found to be in default or violate players’ rights. In case of a loss of virtual assets, we may be sued by our game players or users and held liable for damages, which may negatively affect our reputation and business, financial condition and results of operations.

Restrictions on virtual currency may adversely affect our online game revenues.

Our revenues from mobile games are collected through the online sale of

in-game

~~currencies,~~items, which are considered to be the “virtual currency” as such term is defined in the Notice on Strengthening ~~the~~ Administration of ~~Online Game~~ Virtual Currency of Online Games, which was jointly issued by the Ministry of Culture of the PRC, or the MOC, the predecessor of the MCT, and MOFCOM in 2009. PRC laws and regulations, including this notice, have provided various restrictions on virtual currency and imposed various requirements and obligations on online game operators with respect to the virtual currency used in their games, including that (i) any entity engaged in the services relating to the issuance or trading of virtual currencies for online ~~gaming~~games shall comply with the conditions relevant to the establishment of an internet culture entity for business purpose and file an application with the provincial administrative department of culture at its locality for preliminary examination and then with the MOC for approval; (ii) the total amount of virtual currency issued by online game operators and the amount purchased by individual users in China is subject to limits, and online game operators are required to report the total amount of their issued virtual currency on a quarterly basis and are prohibited from issuing disproportionate amounts of virtual currency in order to generate revenues; (iii) virtual currency may only be provided to users in exchange for payment in ~~RMB~~legal currency and may only be used to pay for virtual goods and services of the issuer of the currency, and online game operators are required to keep transaction data records for no less than 180 days; (iv) online game operators are prohibited from providing lucky draws or lotteries that are conducted on the condition that participants contribute cash or virtual currency in exchange for game props or virtual currencies; (v) online game operators are prohibited from providing virtual currency trading services to minors; and (vi) companies involved with virtual currency in China must be either issuers or trading platforms, and may not operate simultaneously both as issuers and as trading platforms. We must tailor our business model carefully, including designing and operating our databases to maintain user information for the minimum required period, in order to comply with the current PRC laws and regulations, including the foregoing notices, in a manner that in many cases can be expected to result in an adverse impact on our online game revenues.

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Advertisements shown on our platform may subject us to penalties and other administrative actions.

Under PRC advertising laws and regulations, we are obligated to monitor the advertising content shown on our platform to ensure that such content is true and accurate and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In addition, where a special government review is required for specific types of advertisements prior to internet posting, such as advertisements relating to pharmaceuticals, medical instruments, agrochemicals and veterinary pharmaceuticals, we are obligated to confirm that such review has been performed and approval has been obtained. Violation of these laws and regulations may subject us to penalties, including imposition of fines, confiscation of our advertising income, orders to cease dissemination of the advertisements and orders to publish an announcement correcting the misleading information. In circumstances involving serious violations by us, PRC governmental authorities may force us to terminate our advertising operations or revoke our licenses.

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While we have made significant efforts to ensure that the advertisements shown on our platform are in full compliance with applicable PRC laws and regulations, we cannot assure you that all the content contained in such advertisements is true and accurate as required by the advertising laws and regulations, especially given the uncertainty in the interpretation of these PRC laws and regulations. If we are found to be in violation of applicable PRC advertising laws and regulations, we may be subject to penalties and our reputation may be harmed, which may have ~~a material and~~an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

If we are classified as a PRC resident enterprise for PRC income tax purposes, such classification could result in unfavorable tax consequences to us and our

non-PRC

shareholders or ADS holders.

Under the ~~PRC~~ Enterprise Income Tax Law, or the EIT Law, and its implementation rules, an enterprise established outside of the PRC with a “de facto management body” within the PRC is considered a PRC resident enterprise. 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 Taxation Administration of ~~Taxation~~the PRC, or the STA, issued ~~a circular, known~~the Circular Regarding the Determination of Chinese-Controlled Offshore Incorporated Enterprises as PRC Tax Resident Enterprises on the Basis of De Facto Management Bodies which was most recently amended in December 2017, or the Circular 82, which provides certain specific criteria for determining whether the “de facto management body” of a

PRC-controlled

enterprise that is incorporated offshore is located in China. The STA issued Chinese-Controlled Offshore Incorporated Resident Enterprises Income Tax Regulation, or the Bulletin 45, which took effect on September 1, 2011 and was most recently amended on June 15, 2018, to provide more guidance on the implementation of Circular 82 and clarify the reporting and filing obligations of Chinese-controlled offshore incorporated resident enterprises. Bulletin 45 also provides procedures and administrative details for the determination of resident status and administration of post-determination matters. Although Circular 82 only applies to offshore enterprises controlled by PRC enterprises or PRC enterprise groups, not those controlled by PRC individuals or foreigners like us, the criteria set forth in the circular may reflect the ~~State Administration of Taxation’s~~STA’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 Circular 82, an offshore incorporated enterprise controlled by a PRC enterprise or a PRC enterprise group will be regarded as a PRC tax resident enterprise by virtue of having its “de facto management body” in China and will be subject to PRC enterprise income tax on its global income only if all of the following conditions are met: (i) ~~the primary location~~senior management and core management departments in charge of ~~the~~

~~day-to-day~~

~~operational management is~~its daily operations function have their presence mainly in the PRC; (ii) decisions relating to the enterprise’s financial matters (such as loan, financing, financial risk management, etc.) and human resource matters (such as appointment, dismissal and remuneration, etc.) are made or are subject to determination or approval by organizations or personnel in the PRC; (iii) the enterprise’s primary assets, accounting books and records, company seals, and board and shareholder resolutions, are located or maintained in the PRC; and (iv) at least 50% of voting board members or senior executives habitually reside in the PRC.

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We believe that none of our entities outside of China is a PRC resident enterprise for PRC tax purposes. However, the tax resident status of an enterprise is subject to determination by the PRC tax authorities and uncertainties remain with respect to the interpretation of the term “de facto management body.” If the PRC tax authorities determine that we are a PRC resident enterprise for enterprise income tax purposes, we will be subject to the enterprise income tax on our global income at the rate of 25% and we will be required to comply with PRC enterprise income tax reporting obligations. In addition, we may be required to withhold a 10% withholding tax from dividends we pay to our shareholders that are

non-resident

enterprises, including the holders of our ADSs. In addition,

non-resident

enterprise shareholders (including our ADS holders) may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 10% on gains realized on the sale or other disposition of the ADSs or ordinary shares, if such income is treated as sourced from within the PRC. Furthermore, if PRC tax authorities determine that we are a PRC resident enterprise for enterprise income tax purposes, dividends paid to our

non-PRC

individual shareholders (including our ADS holders) and any gain realized on the transfer of the ADSs or ordinary shares by such holders may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 20% (which, in the case of dividends, may be withheld at source by us), if such gains are deemed to be from PRC sources. These rates may be reduced by an applicable tax treaties between their country of tax residence and the PRC in the event that we are treated as a PRC resident enterprise, but it is unclear whether our

non-PRC

shareholders would be able to claim the benefits of any tax treaties between their country of tax residence and the PRC in the event that we are treated as a PRC resident enterprise. Any such tax may reduce the returns on your investment in the ~~ADSs or the ADSs issuable upon conversion of the 2026 Notes.~~

~~If we are required to withhold PRC tax from interest payments on~~ our 2026 Notes, we may be required, subject to certain exceptions, to pay such additional amounts as will result in receipt by the holders of the notes of such amounts as would have been received had no such withholding been required. Under certain circumstances, we will have the option to redeem the notes prior to their maturity,Class Z ordinary shares and ~~a holder may not be able to~~

~~re-invest~~ADSs.

the redemption proceeds in comparable securities at the same rate of return of the notes. In addition, the requirement to pay additional amounts will increase the cost of servicing interest payments on the notes and could have an adverse effect on our financial condition.

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There are significant uncertainties under the ~~PRC Enterprise Income Tax~~EIT Law relating to the withholding tax liabilities of our PRC subsidiaries, and dividends payable by our PRC subsidiaries to our offshore subsidiaries may not qualify to enjoy certain treaty benefits.

Under the ~~PRC Enterprise Income Tax~~EIT Law and its implementation rules, the profits of a foreign-invested enterprise generated through operations, which are distributed to its immediate holding company outside China, will be subject to a withholding tax rate of 10%. Pursuant to a special arrangement between Hong Kong and China, such rate may be reduced to 5% if a Hong Kong resident enterprise owns more than 25% of the equity interest in the PRC company. Our current PRC subsidiaries are wholly owned by our Hong Kong subsidiaries, such as Hode HK. Accordingly, Hode HK may qualify for a 5% tax rate in respect of distributions from its PRC subsidiaries. Under the Notice of the State Taxation Administration ~~of Taxation~~ on Issues regarding the Administration of the Dividend Provision in Tax Treaties promulgated in 2009, the taxpayer needs to satisfy certain conditions to enjoy the benefits under a tax treaty. These conditions ~~include:~~include, but are not limited to: (i) the taxpayer must be the beneficial owner of the relevant dividends, and (ii) the corporate shareholder to receive dividends from the PRC subsidiaries must have met the direct ownership thresholds during the 12 consecutive months preceding the receipt of the dividends. Further, the ~~SAT~~STA promulgated the ~~Notice on How~~Announcement of the Certain Issues with Respect to ~~Understand and Recognize~~ the “Beneficial Owner” in Tax Treaties in ~~2009,~~2018, which ~~limits the “beneficial owner” to individuals, enterprises or other organizations normally engaged in substantive operations, and~~ sets forth certain detailed factors in determining “beneficial owner” ~~status.~~status, and specifically, if an applicant’s business activities do not constitute substantive business activities, the applicant will not qualify as a “beneficial owner.”

Entitlement to a lower tax rate on dividends according to tax treaties or arrangements between the PRC central government and governments of other countries or regions is subject to the Administrative Measures for

Non-Resident

Taxpayers to Enjoy Treatments under Tax Treaties promulgated by the STA on October 14, 2019 and became effective from January 1, 2020, which provides that

non-resident

enterprises are not required to obtain

pre-approval

from the relevant tax authority in order to enjoy the reduced withholding tax. Instead,

non-resident

enterprises and their withholding agents may, by self-assessment and on confirmation that the prescribed criteria to enjoy the tax treaty benefits are met, directly apply the reduced withholding tax rate, collect and ~~file necessary forms~~retain relevant materials for reference in accordance with these treaties and ~~supporting documents when performing tax filings, which will be subject to~~

~~post-tax~~

~~filing examinations by~~accept supervision and management from the ~~relevant~~ tax authorities. As a result, we cannot assure you that we will be entitled to any preferential withholding tax rate under tax treaties for dividends received from our PRC subsidiaries.

We face uncertainty with respect to the indirect transfer of equity interests in PRC resident enterprises by their

non-PRC

holding companies.

We face uncertainties regarding the reporting on and consequences of previous private equity financing transactions involving the transfer and exchange of shares in our company by

non-resident

investors.

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In February 2015, the ~~SAT~~STA issued the Bulletin on Issues of Enterprise Income Tax on Indirect Transfers of Assets by

~~Non-PRC~~

~~Resident Enterprises, or SAT Bulletin 7, as amended in 2017. Pursuant~~Risks Related to ~~this bulletin, an “indirect transfer”~~Our ADSs

The trading price of ~~assets, including equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise, by~~

~~non-PRC~~

~~resident enterprises may be~~

~~re-characterized~~

our listed securities has been and treated as a direct transfer of PRC taxable assets, if such arrangement does not have a reasonable commercial purpose and was established for the purpose of avoiding payment of PRC enterprise income tax. As a result, gains derived from such indirect transfer may be subjectis likely to PRC enterprise income tax. According to SAT Bulletin 7, “PRC taxable assets” include assets attributed to an establishment in China, immovable properties located in China, and equity investments in PRC resident enterprises, in respect of which gains from their transfer by a direct holder, being a

~~non-PRC~~

~~resident enterprise, would be subject to PRC enterprise income taxes. When determining whether there is a “reasonable commercial purpose” of the transaction arrangement, features~~continue to be ~~taken into consideration include: whether~~volatile, regardless of our operating performance, which could result in substantial losses to our investors.

We may need additional capital, and the ~~main value~~sale of additional Class Z ordinary shares and/or ADSs or other equity securities could result in additional dilution to our shareholders, and the ~~equity~~incurrence of additional indebtedness could increase our debt obligations.

Conversion of our convertible senior notes may dilute the ownership interest of the relevant offshore enterprise derives from PRC taxable assets; whether the assets of the relevant offshore enterprise mainly consist of direct or indirect investment in China or if its income mainly derives from China; whether the offshore enterprise and its subsidiaries directly or indirectly holding PRC taxable assets have real commercial nature which is evidenced byexisting shareholders, including holders who had previously converted their actual function and risk exposure; the duration of existence of the business model and organizational structure; the replicability of the transaction by direct transfer of PRC taxable assets; and the tax situation of such indirect transfer and applicable tax treaties or similar arrangements. In respect of an indirect offshore transfer of assets of a PRC establishment, the resulting gain is to be included with the enterprise income tax filing of the PRC establishment or place of business being transferred, and would consequently be subject to PRC enterprise income tax at a rate of 25%. Where the underlying transfer relates to the immovable properties located in China or to equity investments in a PRC resident enterprise, which is not related to a PRC establishment or place of business of a

~~non-resident~~notes.

enterprise, a PRC enterprise income tax of 10% would apply, subject to available preferential tax treatment under applicable tax treaties or similar arrangements, and the party who is obligated to make the transfer payments has the withholding obligation. Where the payer fails to withhold any or sufficient tax, the transferor is required to declare and pay such tax to the tax authority by itself within the statutory time limit. Late payment of applicable tax will subject the transferor to default interest. SAT Bulletin 7 does not apply to transactions of sale of shares by investors through a public stock exchange where such shares were acquired from a transaction through a public stock exchange.

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Provisions of our convertible senior notes could discourage an acquisition of us by a third-party.

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

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~~There~~

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We operate in a fast-evolving industry. We cannot guarantee that we will successfully implement our commercialization strategies or develop new ones, or generate sustainable revenues and profit.

We operate in a fast-evolving industry, and our commercialization model is ~~uncertainty~~evolving. We generate revenues primarily by providing our users with valuable content, such as videos, mobile games and VAS. We also generate revenues from advertising,

e-commerce

and other services. We cannot assure you that we can successfully implement the existing commercialization strategies to sustainably generate growing revenues, or that we will be able to develop new commercialization strategies to grow our revenues. If our strategic initiatives do not enhance our ability to monetize or enable us to develop new commercialization approaches, we may not be able to maintain or increase our revenues or recover any associated costs. In addition, we may introduce new products and services to expand our revenue streams, including products and services with which we have little or no prior development or operating experience. If these new or enhanced products or services fail to engage users, content creators or business partners, we may fail to diversify our revenue streams or generate sufficient revenues to justify our investments and costs, and our business and operating results may suffer as a result.

We have incurred significant losses and we may continue to experience losses in the future.

We have incurred significant losses in the past. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively, we had loss from operations of RMB729.0 million, RMB1,495.2 million, and RMB3,141.0 million (US$481.4 million), respectively. We cannot assure you that we will be able to generate profits in the future. Our ability to achieve profitability depends in large part on our ability to manage our costs and expenses. We intend to manage and control our costs and expenses as a proportion of our total revenues, but there can be no assurance that we will achieve this goal. We may experience losses in the future due to our continued investments in technology, talent, content, brand recognition, user base expansion and other initiatives. In addition, our ability to achieve and sustain profitability is affected by various factors, some of which are beyond our control, such as changes in macroeconomic and regulatory environment or competitive dynamics in the industry. Accordingly, you should not rely on our financial results of any prior period as an indication of our future performance.

If we fail to anticipate user preferences and provide products and services to attract and retain users, or if we fail to keep up with rapid changes in technologies and their impact on user behavior, we may not be able to attract sufficient user traffic to remain competitive, and our business and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Our ability to retain, grow and engage our user base depends heavily on our ability to provide a superior user experience. We must offer quality content covering a wide range of interests and formats, introduce successful new products and services, develop user-friendly platform features, and push effective content feeds recommendations. In particular, we must encourage content creators to upload more appealing professional user generated content and we must source more popular licensed content. We must also keep providing our users with features and functions that could enable superior content viewing and social interaction experience. If we are unable to provide a superior user experience, our user base and user engagement may decline, which may materially and adversely affect our business and growth prospects.

We maintain a large content library primarily consisting of PUGV and OGV, and are developing new features to attract and retain our users. In order to expand our content library, we must continue to work with our content creators and incentivize them to produce content that reflects cultural trends and maintain good business relationships with licensors of premium copyrighted content to renew our licenses and source new professionally produced content. Our content creators and licensors may choose to work with other large online video platforms to distribute their content if such platforms can offer better products, services or terms than we do. We cannot assure you that we will be able to attract our content creators to upload their content to our platform or renew or enter into license agreements on commercially reasonable terms with our licensors or at all.

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In addition, the industry in which we operate is characterized by rapidly changing technologies and changing user expectations. To remain competitive, we must adapt our products and services to evolving industry standards and improve the performance and reliability of our products and services to be able to adapt to these changes and innovate in response to evolving user expectations. Developing and integrating new content, products, services and technologies into our existing platform could be expensive and time-consuming, and these efforts may not yield the benefits we expect. If we fail to develop new products, services or innovative technologies on a timely basis, or our new products, services or technologies are not accepted by our users, our business, financial performance and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. We cannot assure you that we can anticipate user preferences and industry changes and respond to such changes in a timely and effective manner. In addition, changes in user behavior resulting from technological developments may also adversely affect us. For example, the number of people accessing the internet through mobile devices, including mobile phones, tablets and other hand-held devices, has increased in recent years, and we expect this trend to continue while 4G, 5G and more advanced mobile communications technologies are broadly implemented. If we fail to develop products and technologies that are compatible with all mobile devices, or if the products and services we develop are not widely accepted and used by users of various mobile devices, we may not be able to penetrate the mobile markets. In addition, the widespread adoption of new internet, networking or telecommunications technologies or other technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or integrate our products, services or infrastructure. If we fail to keep up with rapid technological changes to remain competitive, our future success may be adversely affected.

Our business depends on our ability to provide users with interesting and useful content, which in turn depends on the content contributed by the content creators on our platform.

The quality of the content offered on our platform and our users’ level of engagement are critical to our success. In order to attract and retain users and compete effectively, we must offer interesting and useful content and enhance our users’ viewing experience. It is vital to our operations that we remain sensitive to and responsive to evolving user preferences and offer content that appeals to our users and members. In 2020, 91.4% of the total video views are of PUGV, as compared to 90.1% in 2019. Thus far, we have been generally able to encourage our content creators to create and upload PUGV that are appealing to our users. We have also been providing our content creators with support and guidance in various forms, including technical support for content distribution, editing and uploading. However, we cannot assure you that our content creators can contribute to create popular professional user generated content for our platform. If our content creators cease to contribute content, or their uploaded content fails to attract or retain our users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement. If the number of users or the level of user engagement declines, we may suffer a reduction in revenue.

Increases in the costs of content on our platform may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We need to acquire or produce popular content to provide our users with an engaging and satisfying viewing experience. We recorded content costs in our cost of revenue of RMB543.0 million, RMB1,001.6 million and RMB1,875.5 million (US$287.4 million) in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Increases in market prices for licensed content and live broadcasting rights may also have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, in September 2020, we formed a strategic partnership with Riot Games, the developer of leading MOBA League of Legends, among others, for granting us a three-year exclusive license for live broadcasting the League of Legends Esports global events in China beginning in 2020 through the 2023

Mid-Season

Invitational, at an aggregate purchase price of RMB800 million (US$122.6 million). If we are not able to procure licensed content at commercially acceptable costs, our business and results of operations will be adversely impacted. In addition, if we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in market prices for licensed content, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. In 2018, we started to devote more resources in producing our original content. We rely on our

in-house

team to generate creative ideas for original content and to supervise the original content origination and production process, and we intend to continue to invest resources in content production. If we are not able to compete effectively for talent or attract and retain top talent at reasonable costs, our original content production capabilities would be negatively impacted.

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If the content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other content formats on our platform is deemed to violate any PRC laws or regulations, considered inappropriate or offensive, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

The PRC government and regulatory authorities have adopted regulations governing content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other information over the internet. Under these regulations, internet content providers are prohibited from posting or displaying content that, among other things, violates PRC laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of China or the public interest, or is obscene, superstitious, fraudulent, violent or defamatory on the internet. Internet content providers are also prohibited from displaying content that may be deemed by relevant government authorities as “socially destabilizing” or leaking “state secrets” of China. The PRC government and regulatory authorities strengthen the regulations on internet content from time to time, such as the Opinion on Strictly Regulating Online Game Market Management jointly adopted by a few authorities in December 2017, the Regulations on Administration of Network Short Video Platforms, the Censoring Criteria for Network Short Video Content, promulgated in January 2019 by China Netcasting Services Association, or the CNSA, and the Administrative Provisions on Online Audio-Visual Information Services, effective from January 1, 2020. The enactment of these regulations may significantly increase our compliance costs in recruiting additional content reviewers and training them to identify the prohibited content timely and accurately. Any failure to comply with these regulations may subject us to liability. In November 2020, the NRTA further promulgated the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Online Show Live Broadcasting and

E-commerce

Live Broadcasting (“Notice 78”) which requests the live broadcasting platforms for online shows to strengthen positive value guidance and to prevent the spread of the trends of wealth flaunting, money worshiping and vulgarity. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.”

In addition to licensed content provided by copyright owners, we allow our users to upload content to our platform. Our users can upload all types of content including self-created and professionally produced content and certain graphical files for the purpose of updating user biographies and content covers. Currently only registered users are allowed to upload content to our platform. We maintain two levels of content management and review procedures to monitor the content uploaded to our platform to ensure that no content that may be deemed to be prohibited by government rules and regulations is posted and to promptly remove any infringing content. Our content screening team is dedicated to screening and monitoring the content uploaded on our platform on a

24-hour,

7-day

basis. For more details relating to our content monitoring procedures, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Content Management and Review.” However, there can be no assurance that we can identify all the videos or other content that may violate relevant laws and regulations due to the ~~application~~large amount of ~~SAT Bulletin 7.~~ content uploaded by our users every day.

If the content contained within videos, live broadcasting, games, audios and other content formats on our platform is considered inappropriate or offensive, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Failure to identify and prevent illegal or inappropriate content from being uploaded and/or streamed on our platform may subject us to liability. To the extent that PRC regulatory authorities find any content on our platform objectionable, they may require us to limit or eliminate the dissemination of such content on our platform in the form of take-down orders, cause our app to be temporarily removed from app stores, or temporarily disable certain functions on our platform, or otherwise. For example, the CAC conducted a nationwide inspection of major internet platforms providing short-video content, and we were notified by certain smartphone app stores in China that our mobile app had been temporarily removed from July 26, 2018 until August 25, 2018. We implemented the required measures promptly and reinstated the mobile app downloads from those app stores on August 26, 2018. We thereafter conducted a self-inspection by taking a comprehensive review of the content on our platform and have doubled the headcounts of content monitoring personnel. Our app may be removed from app stores again in the future, and such removal could materially and adversely affect our business operations. On December 3, 2020, in response to the reported vulgar content on our platform, the Shanghai Municipal Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication, the Shanghai Municipal Internet Information Office and the Shanghai Municipal Culture and Tourism Bureau made inquiries with us and requested us to rectify within two weeks and strengthen the content review of videos, live broadcasting, anime, bullet chatting and other content on our platform. We have completed the required rectification and submitted the final rectification report to the Shanghai Municipal Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication and the Shanghai Municipal Internet Information Office on December 22, 2020 and our rectification report has been accepted by the relevant competent authorities.

In addition, PRC laws and regulations are subject to interpretation by the relevant authorities, and it may not be possible to determine in all cases the types of content that could result in our liability as a platform operator. In the past, we were subject to penalties by PRC regulatory authorities due to our failure to comply with these requirements. For example, the Inspection Department of the Enforcement General Administration of Shanghai Culture Market imposed on us a fine of RMB20,000 in May 2018 and a fine of RMB10,000 in April 2019 primarily for having inappropriate content on our platform. We also may face liability for copyright or trademark infringement, fraud and other claims based on the nature and content of the materials that are delivered, shared or otherwise accessed through or displayed on our platform.

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Furthermore, reports or publicity of violence and crimes related to our PUGV, OGV, online games or any claims of our PUGV, OGV, online game content to be considered, among others, obscene, superstitious, fraudulent, defamatory, inappropriate, offensive or impairing public interest, may result in negative publicity, harm to our brand or a regulatory response that might have a material and adverse impact on our business. Any claim of us failing to identify any content a viewer may find objectionable may result in negative publicity, harm to our brand or regulatory actions, which in turn might have a material and adverse impact on our business. We generate a portion of our revenues from advertising. Our advertising revenues might be materially and adversely affected by any decision by advertisers to reduce their advertising as a result of adverse media reports, user complaints or other negative publicity involving us or, content on our platform. In addition, reductions of advertising by advertisers due to allegedly objectionable content made available on our platform by content creators, licensors, or other third parties, concerns about our content management practices, concerns about brand reputation or potential liability, or uncertainty regarding their own legal and compliance obligations, may also materially and adversely affect our advertising revenues.

We face uncertainties with respect to the enactment, interpretation and implementation of Notice 78.

According to Notice 78, platforms providing online show live broadcasting or

e-commerce

live broadcasting services shall, among other things, register their information and business operations by November 30, 2020, ensure real-name registration for all live broadcasting hosts and virtual gifting users, prohibit users that are minors or without real-name registration from virtual gifting, and set a limit on the maximum amount of virtual gifting per time, per day, and per month.

As advised by our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, there is currently no explicit provisions as to what limits on virtual gifting will be imposed by the ~~reporting~~NRTA pursuant to Notice 78 and it is unclear how and to what degree any such limits would be imposed on different platforms. Given there is no explicit provisions on how to set the limit on virtual gifting, we have not been able to set such limit on our platform and we are currently not able to assess the impact this requirement under Notice 78 will have on the virtual gifting spending activities on our platform. We recorded revenues generated from our live broadcasting business under VAS. We derived 14.2%, 24.2% and 32.0% of our revenues from VAS in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Revenues from live broadcasting accounted for 7.8%, 8.8% and 10.9% of our total net revenues in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Any such limits ultimately imposed may negatively impact our revenues derived from virtual gifting and our results of operations.

Notice 78 also requests the live broadcasting platforms for online shows to register in the National Internet Audio-visual Platforms Information Management System, however, in our communication with Shanghai Municipal Administration of Radio and Television, we were informed that due to the adjustment of the system, entities holding a License for Online Transmission of Audio-Visual Programs need to wait for further notification from the competent authority before they can register in this system. As of the date of this annual report, we have not yet received the notification requesting such registration. Notice 78 also sets forth requirements for certain live broadcasting businesses with respect to real-name registration, limits on user spending on virtual gifting, restrictions on minors on virtual gifting, live broadcasting review personnel requirements, content tagging requirements, and other ~~implications~~requirements. For more information on Notice 78, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.”

Since Notice 78 was only issued in November 2020 and some of ~~certain~~the requirements in Notice 78 are unclear and have no explicit provisions or implementation standards, we are still in the process of getting further guidance from regulatory authorities and evaluating the applicability and effect of the various requirements under Notice 78 on our business. Any further rulemaking under Notice 78 or other intensified regulation with respect to live broadcasting may increase our compliance burden in the live broadcasting business, and may have an adverse impact on our business and results of operations.

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We may not be able to effectively manage our growth and the increased complexity of our business, which could negatively impact our brand and financial performance.

We have experienced rapid growth since our inception in 2011. Our financial performance has been and will continue to be influenced by our ability to add, retain and engage active users of our products. Our user acquisition and engagement may fluctuate depending on factors beyond our control, such as the

shelter-in-place

restrictions due to the

COVID-19

pandemic. We have experienced a significant increase in the size and engagement of our active user base during the first quarter of 2020 partly due to the

shelter-in-place

restrictions in China. Although we have been able to maintain the momentum of user acquisition and engagement in the other quarters of 2020 as China gradually relaxed its

shelter-in-place

restrictions, we may not be able to maintain the growth of our active user base or user acquisition and the level of engagement in the long term. As we grow our user base and increase the level of user engagement, we may incur increasing costs, such as licensing fees and royalties for licensed content and hosts’ compensation to further expand our content library to meet the growing and diversified demands of our users. If such expansion is not properly managed, it may adversely affect our financial and operating resources without achieving the desired effects. The market prices for licensing fees and royalties for licensed content, such as license for live broadcasting popular

e-sport

events, have increased significantly in China during the past few years. Online video broadcasting programs are competing aggressively to license popular content titles and events, driving licensing fees up in general. As the market further grows, copyright owners, distributors and industry participants may demand higher licensing fees for such content. Furthermore, as our content library expands, we expect the costs of licensed content to continue to increase. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in costs, we may incur more losses and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. See “ —Increases in the costs of content on our platform may have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.”

As we only have a limited history of operating our business at its current scale, it is difficult to evaluate our current business and future ~~transactions where PRC taxable assets~~prospects, including our ability to grow in the future. In addition, our costs and expenses may increase rapidly as we expand our business and continue to invest in our infrastructure to enhance the performance and reliability of our platform. For example, we may increase our investment in servers and bandwidth to maintain our quality user experience while sustaining the growth of user base. Continued growth could also strain our ability to maintain reliable service levels for our users, content creators and business partners, develop and improve our operational, financial, legal and management controls, and enhance our reporting systems and procedures. Our costs and expenses may grow faster than our revenues and may be greater than what we anticipate. If we are ~~involved,~~unable to generate adequate revenues and to manage our costs and expenses, we may continue to incur losses in the future and may not be able to achieve or subsequently maintain profitability. Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and the allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as it grows, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

We have a unique community culture that is vital to our success. Our operations may be materially and adversely affected if we fail to maintain our culture and brand image within our addressable user communities.

Our users have developed a unique community culture that distinguishes us from other online content providers. Our users come to our platform for creative content covering a wide array of cultures and interests as well as for strong, vibrant and safe communities. We believe that maintaining and promoting such community culture is critical to retaining and expanding our user base. We have taken multiple initiatives to preserve our community culture and values, such as ~~offshore restructuring, sale~~requiring users to pass a membership exam before they are allowed to send bullet chats and utilize other interactive functions on our platform, and temporarily blocking or permanently deleting accounts of users who posted inappropriate content or comments.

Despite our efforts, we may be unable to maintain and foster our unique community culture and cease to be the preferred platform for our target users and content creators. As our user base is expanding, we may have difficulties in guiding our new users to honor and abide by our community values despite the initiatives we have adopted and may adopt in the future. In such event, our user engagement and loyalty may suffer, which would in turn negatively affect user traffic and our attractiveness to other customers and partners. In addition, frictions among our users and inflammatory comments posted by internet trolls may damage our community culture and brand image, which would be detrimental to our operations. Historically, some incidents of intense frictions among our users who belonged to different micro-interests and fans groups disrupted our operations. Users who have met through our services may become involved in emotionally charged situations and could suffer adverse moral, emotional or physical consequences. Such events could be highly publicized and have a significant negative impact on our reputation. Government authorities may require us to discontinue or restrict the relevant services. As a result, our business could suffer and our user base and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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

The internet and mobile industries in China are highly regulated. Our consolidated affiliated entities are required to obtain and maintain applicable licenses and approvals from different regulatory authorities in order to provide their current services. 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. As we develop and expand our business scope, we may need to obtain additional qualifications, permits, approvals or licenses. We may be required to obtain additional licenses or approvals if the PRC government adopts more stringent policies or regulations for our business.

The expiration date of the ~~shares~~major subsidiary’s Online Culture Operating Permits granted by the local branch of MCT ranges from June 2022 to December 2023, which were all renewed after May 2019. As the MCT ceased to assume the responsibility for the administration of the online game industry and no longer approved or issued the Online Culture Operating Permits regarding online games since May 2019, the Online Culture Operating Permits held by our major subsidiary no longer contains content related to online games operation. Based on our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm’s consultation with the MCT in November 2020, the MCT no longer assumes the responsibility to supervise the operation of online games, and it is not necessary for an enterprise to obtain Online Culture Operating Permits to operate online game operation business. As of the date of this annual report, no laws, regulations or official guidelines have been promulgated regarding whether the responsibility of MCT for regulating online games will be undertaken by another governmental department. Therefore, our ~~offshore subsidiaries~~PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, has advised us that as long as there is no governmental authority promulgating new supervision requirements for the operation of online game, we are able to continue our online game operation business although the Online Culture Operating Permits currently held no longer contain content related to online games operation, which will not constitute any material noncompliance.

The NAPP at the national level had suspended the approval of game registration and issuance of publication numbers for online games starting from March 2018. Although the NAPP later resumed game registration and issued game publication numbers for the first batch of games with an effective date of December 19, 2018, the processing time of games registration and issuance of publication may vary greatly and is within the NAPP’s discretion. Any delay in game registration with NAPP or ~~investments. Our company~~obtaining game publication numbers could lead to the termination of our cooperation agreements with third parties or negatively affect the operation results of our games. Under the Notice on Adjusting the Scope of Examination and Approval regarding the Internet Culture Operation License to Further Regulate the Approval Work released in May 2019, the Online Culture Operating Permits covering the business scope of using the information network to operate online games granted by the MCT before this notice will remain valid until the expiration dates of these permits. On July 10, 2019, the MCT announced the abolishment of the Interim Measures on Administration of Online Games, which regulated the issuance of Online Culture Operating Permits relating to online games. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games.” As of the date of this annual report, the governmental authorities have not issued laws or regulations to replace the Interim Measures on Administration of Online Games, or to clarify the new regulatory body of online games. If we are unable to comply with the new regulations relating to our online games operations, our ability to introduce, launch and operate new games may be adversely affected, and our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected. In addition, we cannot assure you that we or relevant third parties can obtain the NAPP’s approvals or complete any new governmental requirements for all games on our platform in a timely manner or at all, which could adversely and materially impact our ability to introduce new games, the timetable to launch new games and our business growth.

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Moreover, the provision of online games is deemed to be an internet publication activity. An online game operator may be required to obtain an Internet Publishing Service License in order to directly make those games publicly available in China. Although it is not specifically authorized by the NAPP, an online game operator is generally able to publish its games through third-party licensed electronic publishing entities and register the games with the NAPP as electronic publications, which is consistent with our practice as of the date of this annual report. In addition, the provision of comics online may be deemed to be an internet publication activity, which may require the content provider to obtain an Internet Publishing Service License. Furthermore, in a consultation with the competent government authorities in February 2021, our PRC counsel, Tian Yuan Law Firm, was informed that operation of an online comics business currently does not require the Internet Publishing Service License. However, for the future convenience to publish games by ourselves, we are planning to apply for the Internet Publishing Service License for our business operation and we have been continuously communicating with the competent authorities. However, there is no assurance that we will be granted such license. 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 online games and comics, the imposition of fines, the revocation of our business and operating licenses and the discontinuation or restriction of our operations of online games and comics.

In addition, considerable uncertainties exist in relation to the interpretation and implementation of existing and future laws and regulations governing our business activities. For example, under the Administrative Regulations on the Introduction and Broadcasting of Foreign Television Programs, the introduction or broadcasting of foreign anime in China is subject to approval of the SAPPRFT or its authorized entities. Approval or filing ~~obligations~~procedures were not explicitly required in practice by the NRTA for the broadcasting and distribution of foreign anime on the internet only. We are currently preparing for the approval or ~~taxed if~~filling procedures for broadcasting and distribution of foreign anime on our ~~company is transferor~~platform based on our preliminary consultation with the relevant government authorities. We could be found in ~~such transactions,~~violation of any future laws and regulations or 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 ~~withholding obligations~~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 or changes in policies, regulations or enforcement by government authorities, may disrupt our operations and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Furthermore, in August 2018, the National Office of Anti-Pornography and Illegal Publication, the MIIT, the Ministry of Public Security, the MCT, the NRTA and the CAC jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of Live Broadcasting Service, which required a real-name registration system for users to be put in place by live broadcasting service providers. On October 25, 2019, the NAPP issued the Notice on Preventing Minors from Indulging in Online Games, which requires all online gamers to register accounts with their valid identity information and all game companies to stop providing game services to users who fail to do so. Pursuant to the Notice 78, users who have not registered with real names or who are minors are prohibited from virtual gifting. On October 17, 2020, the Law of the PRC on the Protection of Minors (2020 Revision) added a new section entitled “Online Protections” which stipulates a series of provisions to further protect minors’ interests on the internet. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Streaming Services.” We have implemented several measures to comply with the current real-name registration system. However, the PRC government may further tighten the real-name registration requirements or require us to implement a more thorough compulsory real-name registration system for all users on our platform in the future, so that we will need to upgrade our system or purchase relevant services from third-party service providers and incur additional costs in relation thereto. If we were required to implement a more rigid real-name registration system for users on our platform, potential users may be deterred from registering with our platform, which may in turn negatively affect the growth of our user base and prospect.

We face significant competition, primarily from companies that operate in the video-based industry in China, and we compete with these companies for users, content providers and advertisers.

We face significant competition primarily from companies that operate in the video-based industry in China designed to engage users, especially the Generation Z+, and capture their time spent on mobile devices and the internet. In particular, our competitors mainly include large online video streaming platforms, other platforms offering video products, live broadcasting platforms, and other companies offering online content. Some of our competitors have longer operating histories and significantly greater financial resources than we do, and in turn may be able to attract and retain more users, content partners and advertisers. Our competitors may compete with us in a variety of ways, including by obtaining exclusive online distribution rights for popular content, conducting brand promotions and other marketing activities, and making acquisitions. If any of our competitors provides comparable or better user experience, our user traffic could decline significantly. We have exclusive distribution rights only for certain content on our platform. Our content creators are generally free to post their content on our competitors’ platforms, which may divert user traffic from our platform, and adversely affect our user traffic and thus our operations.

We believe that our ability to compete effectively depends upon many factors, some of which are beyond our control, including:

the popularity, usefulness, ease of use, performance and reliability of our platform, products and services compared to those of our competitors;

the amount, quality and timeliness of content on our platform, especially the amount and quality of the PUGV generated by our content creators;

the environment and culture of our user communities;

our ability, and the ability of our competitors, to develop new products and services and enhancements to existing products and services to keep up with user preferences and demands;

the inventory size, quality and size of player base of the games we operate;

our ability to establish and maintain relationships with content providers and partners;

our ability to commercialize our services;

changes mandated by legislation, regulations or government policies, some of which may have a disproportionate effect on us;

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acquisitions or consolidation within our industry, which may result in more formidable competitors; and

our reputation and brand strength relative to our competitors.

We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from mobile games. If we fail to launch new games or release upgrades to existing games to grow our games’ player base, our business and operating results will be materially and adversely affected.

We derived 71.1%, 53.1% and 40.0% of our revenues from mobile games in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. We derive a significant portion of mobile game revenues from a limited number of games. We had one mobile game contributing more than 10% of our total net revenues, accounting for 53%, 31%, and 11% of our total net revenues for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

We offer mobile games from third-party game developers and publishers on our platform either on an exclusive or

non-exclusive

basis. Therefore, we must maintain good relationships with our third-party game developers and copyright owners to obtain access to new popular games on reasonable commercial terms. We may not be able to maintain or renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all. In such event, we may be unable to continue offering these popular mobile games, and our operating results will be adversely affected. In addition, if our ~~company~~users decide to access these games through our competitors, or if they prefer other mobile games operated by our competitors, our operating results could be materially and adversely affected. In addition, if we fail to launch new games or release upgrades to existing games in a timely manner, or if our games do not achieve expected popularity, we may lose players of our games, which could materially and adversely impact our business. Even in the event that we succeed in launching new games, the new games may divert players away from the existing games on our platform, which may increase player churn and reduce revenues from our existing games.

In addition, the revenue model we adopt for online games may not remain effective, which may cause us to lose players and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We derive substantially all of the mobile games revenues from the sale of

in-game

virtual items. However, we may not be able to continue to successfully implement this model.

The PRC government has taken steps to limit online game playing time for all minors and to otherwise control the content and operation of online games. Such restrictions on online games may materially and adversely impact our business and results of operations.

As part of its anti-addiction online game policy, the PRC regulators have been implementing regulations designed to reduce the amount of time that youth under the age of 18 spend playing online games. For a detailed description of these regulations, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games—Anti-addiction System and Protection of Minors.” A revenue model that does not charge for playing time may be viewed by the PRC regulators as inconsistent with this goal. On the other hand, if we were to start charging for playing time, we may lose our players, and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Furthermore, minors are prohibited from playing games exceeding a certain period of time per day or putting money into their accounts exceeding a certain amount. Online game operators are required to explore the manner to notify users of different ages about the online games based on various criteria, such as the games’ content and the amount of money anticipated to be used in the games, on the game’s download, registration and

log-in

pages in a prominent way. For more information, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Games—Anti-addiction System and Protection of Minors.”

Although we have implemented several measures and developed a detailed plan for system upgrade and are in the process of conducting various system upgrading works according to the requirements under the relevant laws and regulations, we may be nevertheless considered

non-compliant

if the regulators take a different view, or if our system is ~~transferee~~not fully upgraded by the end of the grace period, the length of which also remains uncertain at the discretion of the relevant government authorities. Should the relevant government authorities find us not satisfying the requirements, they may order us to rectify. In a severe case, our business license could be revoked, which may materially and adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.

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The implementation of these laws and regulations may lead to a decrease in ~~such transactions under SAT Bulletin 7. For transfer~~the number of ~~shares~~minors in our user base and the playtime of minor users, thereby leading to a decrease in the minor users’ revenue contribution to our mobile game business, and may materially and adversely affect our results of operations and prospects.

Illegal game servers and acts of cheating by users of mobile games could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Several of our competitors have reported that certain third parties have misappropriated the source codes of their games and set up illegal game servers and let their customers play such games on illegal servers without paying for the game playing time. While we already have in place numerous internal control measures to protect the source codes of our games from being stolen and to address illegal server usage and, to date, our games have not to our knowledge experienced such usage, our preventive measures may not be effective. The misappropriation of our game server installation software and installation of illegal game servers could harm our business and reputation and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

In addition, acts of cheating by users of mobile games could lessen the popularity of our mobile games and adversely affect our reputation and our results of operations. There have been a number of incidents in previous years where users, through a variety of methods, were able to modify the rules of our mobile games. Although these users did not gain authorized access to our systems, they were able to modify the rules of our mobile games during gameplay in a manner that allowed them to cheat and disadvantage our other mobile game users, which often has the effect of causing players to stop playing the game and shortening the game’s lifecycle. Although we have taken a number of steps to deter our users from engaging in cheating when playing our mobile games, we cannot assure you that we or the third parties from whom we license some of our mobile games will be successful or timely in taking steps necessary to prevent users from modifying the rules of our mobile games.

If we suspect a player of installing cheating programs on our mobile games, or of engaging in other types of unauthorized activities, we may freeze that player’s game account or even ban the player from logging on to our games and other products. Such activities to regulate the behavior of our users are essential to maintain a fair playing environment for our users. However, if any of our regulatory activities are found to be wrongly implemented, our users may institute legal proceedings against us for damages or claims. Our operation, business and financial performance may be materially and adversely affected as a result.

We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations, which could result in material damage to our reputation and brand, payment of substantial damages, penalties and fines, removal of relevant content from our platform or seeking license arrangements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms.

Content posted on our platform may expose us to allegations by third parties of infringement of intellectual property rights, unfair competition, invasion of privacy, defamation and other violations of third-party rights. We have been involved in litigation based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content available on our platform. We are currently involved in approximately 110 lawsuits based on allegations of infringement of third-party copyright due to the content posted on our platform, which are immaterial to our company on an individual basis or a collective basis. Regardless of the outcome, these lawsuits, and any other litigation that may be brought against us or our current or former directors and officers, could be time-consuming, result in significant expenses and divert our resources and the attention of our management and other key employees. An unfavorable outcome in any of these matters could exceed the limited coverage provided under our current applicable insurance policies.

Our failure to identify unauthorized videos posted on our platform may subject us to claims of infringement of third-party intellectual property rights or other rights. Although we maintain content management and review procedures to monitor the content uploaded to our platform, due to the large number of videos uploaded, we may not be able to identify all content that may infringe on third-party rights. Such failure may subject us to potential claims and lawsuits, defending of which may impose a significant burden on our management and employees, and there can be no assurance that we will obtain final outcomes that are favorable to us. In addition, we may be subject to administrative actions brought by the National Copyright Administration of China or its local branches or related law enforcement departments for alleged copyright infringement.

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The validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights in internet-related industries, particularly in China, are uncertain and still evolving. As we face increasing competition and as litigation becomes a more common way to resolve disputes in China, we face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims. Under relevant PRC laws and regulations, online service providers which provide storage space for users to upload works or links to other services or content could be held liable for copyright infringement under various circumstances, including situations where an online service provider knows or should reasonably have known that the relevant content uploaded or linked to on its platform infringes the copyrights of others. In certain cases in China, the courts have found an online service provider to be liable for the copyrighted content posted by users which was accessible from and stored on such provider’s servers.

Although we have not been subject to claims or lawsuits outside China, we may become subject to copyright laws in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, by virtue of our listing in the United States, the ability of users to access our videos from the United States and other jurisdictions, the ownership of our ADSs by investors, ~~that are~~and the extraterritorial application of foreign law by foreign courts or otherwise.

~~non-PRC~~

~~resident enterprises, our PRC subsidiaries~~

In addition, as a publicly listed company, we may be ~~requested~~exposed to ~~assist~~increased risk of litigation. If a claim of infringement brought against us in the ~~filing under SAT Bulletin 7.~~United States or other jurisdictions is successful, we may be required to (i) pay substantial statutory or other damages and fines, (ii) remove relevant content from our platform, or (iii) enter into royalty or license agreements which may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all.

Although we have required our users to post only legally compliant and inoffensive materials and have set up screening procedures, our screening procedures may fail to screen out all potentially offensive or

non-compliant

user-generated content and, even if properly screened, a third-party may still find user-generated content posted on our platform offensive and take action against us in connection with the posting of such content. We may also face litigation or administrative actions for defamation, negligence or other purported injuries resulting from the content we provide or the nature of our services. Such litigation and administrative actions, with or without merit, may be expensive and time-consuming, result in significant diversion of resources and management attention from our operations, and adversely affect our brand and reputation.

Furthermore, our app may be taken down temporarily from Apple app store or other apps markets for copyright reasons, and we may be subject to copyright infringement claims brought by our competitors, which, malicious or not, may be time-consuming to defend and disrupting to our operations.

We may not be able to prevent others from engaging in unauthorized use of our intellectual property, unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business and competitive position.

We have invested significant resources to develop our own intellectual property and acquire licenses to use and distribute the intellectual property of others on our platform. Failure to maintain or protect these rights could harm our business. In addition, any unauthorized use of our intellectual property by third parties may adversely affect our current and future revenues and our reputation. Further, others may engage in conduct that constitutes unfair competition, defamation or other violations of our rights, which could harm our business, reputation and competitive position.

Implementation and enforcement of PRC intellectual property-related laws have historically been deficient and ineffective. Accordingly, protection of intellectual property rights in China may not be as effective as in the United States or other developed countries. Furthermore, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights. Other unlawful conduct against us is also difficult to prevent and police. We cannot assure you that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our rights. From time to time, we may have to resort to litigation to enforce our rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources.

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Many of our products and services contain open source software, which may pose particular risks to our proprietary software, products and services in a manner that negatively affects our business.

We use open source software in our products and services and will use open source software in the future. There is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our products or services. Additionally, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated products or services unless and until we can

re-engineer

them to avoid infringement. This

re-engineering

process could require significant additional research and development resources, and we may not be able to complete it successfully.

Furthermore, 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. As a result, we may be ~~required~~unable to ~~expend valuable~~prevent our competitors or others from using such software source code contributed by us.

We face intense competition for users and hosts, as well as strict regulatory supervision by government authorities, for our live broadcasting business.

We face significant competition in the live broadcasting business for both users and hosts. The live broadcasting on our platform primarily focuses on interest areas including anime, game, music, fashion, lifestyle, technology and others. We cannot assure you that such content will continue to attract new users and retain existing ones.

We have entered into exclusive cooperation agreements with certain popular hosts on our platform. We may not be able to maintain or renew these agreements on acceptable terms or at all. In such event, we may be unable to retain these popular hosts on our platform, and our operating results will be adversely affected. We cooperate with talent agencies to recruit, manage, train and support our hosts. Furthermore, we may lose hosts if the talent agencies that manage them are unable to reach or maintain satisfactory cooperation arrangements with such hosts. If talented and popular hosts cease to contribute content to our platform, or their live broadcasting programs fail to attract users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement, which may have material and adverse impact on our results of operations and financial conditions.

In addition, the costs attributed to hosts’ compensation have increased significantly in China during the past few years for companies that provide such services. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues to outpace the increase in such compensation, we may lose opportunities to retain the popular hosts on our platform and thus incur more losses. In addition, the compensation we pay to the hosts could significantly increase our cost of revenues and materially adversely affect our margins, financial condition and results of operations.

We cooperate with talent agencies to manage, organize and recruit hosts on our platform. As we are an open platform that welcomes all hosts to register on our websites, cooperation with talent agencies substantially increases our operation efficiency in terms of discovering, supporting and managing hosts in a more organized and structured manner, and turning amateur hosts to full-time hosts. We have a revenue sharing arrangement with both our hosts and talent agencies under which we share with them a portion of the revenues from virtual gifting. In addition, we also cooperate with popular

e-sports

teams to make their game-play available on our platform by paying them a sponsorship fee. The absolute amounts and revenue sharing percentages that we pay hosts and talent agencies may increase. If the interests among us, hosts and the talent agencies are not well balanced, or if we cannot design a revenue-sharing mechanism that is agreeable to both hosts and talent agencies, we may not be able to retain or attract hosts or talent agencies, or both. In addition, while we have entered into exclusive streaming agreements with certain hosts, none of the talent agencies we cooperate with has an exclusive cooperation relationship with us. If our competitor platforms offer higher revenue sharing percentages with an intent to attract our popular hosts, costs to retain our hosts may further increase, additionally, talent agencies may choose to devote more of their resources to hosts who stream on other platforms, or they may encourage their hosts to use or even enter into an exclusive agreement with other platforms, all of which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we are not able to continue to retain our hosts and produce high-quality content on our platform at commercially acceptable costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be adversely impacted. Furthermore, as our business and user base further expand, we may have to devote more resources in encouraging our hosts and talent agencies to produce content that meets the varied interests of a diverse user base, which would increase the costs of content on our platform. If we are unable to generate sufficient revenues that outpace our increased content costs, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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In addition, our live broadcasting services may be abused by hosts and other users. We have an internal control system in place to review and monitor live broadcasting streams and will shut down those streams that may violate PRC laws and regulations. For detailed descriptions of these PRC laws and regulations, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Related to Online Live Broadcasting Services.” However, we may not identify all such streams and content. Failure to comply with ~~SAT Bulletin 7~~applicable laws and regulations may result in the revocation of our licenses to provide internet content or other licenses, the closure of the concerned platforms and reputational harm. We may also be held liable for such censored information displayed on our platform.