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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

◻    REGISTRATION STATEMENT PURSUANT TO SECTION 12(b) OR (g) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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OR

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⌧    ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

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OR

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◻    TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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OR

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◻    SHELL COMPANY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

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Date of event requiring this shell company report.........................

For the transition period from          to

Commission file number: 001-36430

Tuniu Corporation

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

N/A

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

Cayman Islands

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

Tuniu Building No. 699-32

Xuanwudadao, Xuanwu District

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210042

The People’s Republic of China

(Address of principal executive offices)

Mr. Anqiang Chen,, Financial Controller

Telephone: +(86) 25 86853969

Email: ir@tuniu.com

Tuniu Building No. 699-32

Xuanwudadao, Xuanwu District

Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210042

The People’s Republic of China

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

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

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

None

(Title of Class)

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

None

(Title of Class)

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

371,958,044 Class A ordinary shares (including 18,842,688 Class A ordinary shares, represented by 6,280,896 ADSs, repurchased and reserved for the future exercise of options or the vesting of other awards under the 2008 Plan and the 2014 Plan) and 17,373,500 Class B ordinary shares, par value US$0.0001 per share, as of December 31, 2020.

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

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

† The term “new or revised financial accounting standard” refers to any update issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to its Accounting Standards Codification after April 5, 2012.

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

⌧ Yes   ◻ No

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

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

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INTRODUCTION

In this annual report, except where the context otherwise requires and for purposes of this annual report only:

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Our business is primarily conducted in China and almost all of our revenues are denominated in Renminbi. However, periodic reports made to shareholders will include current period amounts translated into U.S. dollars using the then current exchange rates, for the convenience of the readers. We make no representation that any Renminbi or U.S. dollar amounts could have been, or could be, converted into U.S. dollars or Renminbi, as the case may be, at any particular rate, or at all. The PRC government imposes control over its foreign currency reserves in part through direct regulation of the conversion of Renminbi into foreign exchange and through restrictions on foreign trade. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars and from U.S. dollars to Renminbi in this annual report were made at a rate of RMB6.5250 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate in effect as of December 31, 2020.

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FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This annual report on Form 20-F contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current expectations and views of future events. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify these forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “future,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to:

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We would like to caution you not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and you should read these statements in conjunction with the risk factors disclosed in “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors.” Those risks are not exhaustive. We operate in a rapidly evolving environment. New risks emerge from time to time and it is impossible for our management to predict all risk factors, nor can we assess the impact of all factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ from those contained in any forward-looking statement. We do not undertake any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required under applicable law.

This annual report also contains statistical data and estimates that we obtained from industry publications and reports generated by government agencies and third-party providers of market intelligence. These industry publications and reports generally indicate that the information contained therein was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, but do not guarantee the accuracy and completeness of such information. Although we believe that the publications and reports are reliable, we have not independently verified the data.

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PART I

Item 1.Identity of Directors, Senior Management and Advisers

Not applicable.

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Item 2.Offer Statistics and Expected Timetable

Not applicable.

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Item 3.Key Information

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A.Selected Financial Data

The following table presents selected consolidated financial information for our company. The selected consolidated statements of comprehensive loss data for the three years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020 and the consolidated balance sheets data as of December 31, 2019 and 2020 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements, which are included in this annual report beginning on page F-1. The selected consolidated statements of comprehensive loss data for the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017 and the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included in this annual report. Our historical results do not necessarily indicate results expected for any future periods. The selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with, and are qualified in their entirety by reference to our audited consolidated financial statements and related notes and “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” included elsewhere in this annual report. Our audited consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

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B.Capitalization and Indebtedness

Not applicable.

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C.Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

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D.Risk Factors

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our business operation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows have been and are likely to continue to be materially and adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and spread.

The outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus, named as COVID-19, in early 2020 has severely impacted China and the rest of the world. During the first quarter of 2021, another wave of COVID-19 infections emerged in China. As a result, the Chinese government took a number of actions, which included quarantining individuals infected with or suspected of having COVID-19, imposing travel restrictions in certain cities and towns and cancelling public activities, among others.

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The current COVID-19 pandemic has already materially and adversely affected many aspect of our business. Normal economic life was sharply curtailed and the travel industry was particularly hard hit. Government authorities in major countries across the world have implemented strict travel bans and adopted different control measures to curb the spread of COVID-19. In connection with intensifying efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Chinese government has taken a number of actions, which included suspending operation of organized tours, quarantining individuals infected with or suspected of having COVID-19, restricting residents from travel, encouraging employees of enterprises to work remotely from home and cancelling public activities, among others. In addition, we have taken measure in response to COVID-19, including adoption of modified operating hours, remote working arrangement and more stringent workplace sanitation measures, which have had a negative impact on our business operation. The spread or fear of spread of contagious disease, such as COVID-19 has caused a significant decline in the level of business and leisure travel in certain regions or as a whole, and a significant decrease in the demand for our products and services, resulting in customer cancellations and refund requests and reduced new orders relating to our services, which have materially and adversely affected our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Furthermore, the payment or repayment ability or decision of our business partners and borrowers has been negatively affected by the outbreak of COVID-19, which has increased uncertainties relating to our collection of receivables, and has resulted in additional allowances for doubtful accounts. We have also recorded impairment provisions against certain of our long-term and short-term assets as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on certain of our long-term and short-term assets are considered to be other than temporary. In addition, our business partners and travel suppliers, including overseas suppliers, are also experiencing similar or more serious disruptions to their business operation, which have negatively affected our business operation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. We have been affirmatively facilitating our customers in their cancellations, rescheduling and refund requests and working with our travel suppliers to weather the difficult situations, for which we have incurred and may continue to incur significant costs and expenses.

The extent of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and financial results will depend largely on future developments, including the duration and extent of the spread of COVID-19 around the world, and the prevalence of local, national and international travel restrictions which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted. While we have seen recovery in the China travel market since the second half of 2020 due to the substantial containment of the COVID-19 pandemic in China, we have seen a slower recovery of the international travel market, and in turn, a slower recovery of our overseas travel business. We cannot assure you that the COVID-19 pandemic can be eliminated or contained in the near future, or at all, or a similar outbreak will not occur again. Since the beginning of 2021, a few waves of COVID-19 infections have emerged in various regions of China, and varying levels of travel restrictions and encouragement of reduced travel during the Chinese New Year, were reinstated in China. These travel restrictions reduce users’ demand for our products, and are expected to materially and adversely affect our results of operations in the first quarter of 2021 and potentially beyond. We cannot assure you when these travel restrictions will be lifted. In light of the evolving nature of COVID-19 and the uncertainty it has produced, we do not believe it is possible to predict the COVID-19 pandemic’s cumulative and ultimate impact on our future business, results of operations, and financial condition, though we expect that our business operation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows for the first two quarters of the fiscal year of 2021 will be materially and adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and spread, including but not limited to the significant continued adverse impact on revenue and significant operating cash outflow due to the incremental cost incurred in responses to travelers’ cancellations and refund requests.

Declines or disruptions in the leisure travel industry may materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We are dependent on the leisure travel industry for substantially all of our revenues. The leisure travel industry is dependent on personal discretionary spending levels, which may be materially and adversely affected by economic downturns and recessions. Although the leisure travel industry in China has experienced rapid growth over the past decade, any severe or prolonged slowdown in the Chinese economy could reduce expenditures for leisure travel, which in turn may adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. See "—Risks Related to Doing Business in China— A severe or prolonged downturn in the Chinese or global economy could materially and adversely affect the leisure travel industry and our business, results of operations and financial condition."

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Our business may also be significantly affected by other factors that tend to reduce leisure travel, including increased prices in hotel, air-ticketing, fuel or other travel-related sectors, work stoppages or labor unrest at airlines, increased occurrences of travel-related accidents, outbreaks of other contagious diseases, natural disasters and extreme unexpected bad weather, terrorist attacks and political unrest. For example, the travel industry was negatively impacted by the outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in West Africa beginning in March 2014, the disappearance of a Malaysia Airlines flight in March 2014 as well as the crashes of Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia flights in July and December 2014, respectively, the earthquake in Jiuzhaigou, China in August 2017, the volcanic eruption in Bali, Indonesia in November 2017, the boat capsizing accident in Phuket island, Thailand in July 2018, as well as the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 pandemic across the world since December 2019 till now, all of which had a negative impact on our target customers. See "— Our business operation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows have been and are likely to continue to be materially and adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak and spread”. In addition, our overseas leisure travel business may be negatively affected by any adverse change in the visa policies of foreign countries that makes it difficult for Chinese nationals to obtain tourist visas. Terrorist attacks or threats of terrorist attacks, political unrests, wars, imposition of taxes or surcharges by regulatory authorities and regional hostilities may also reduce the demand for overseas tours. For example, the Nice terrorist attack in France, the coup in Turkey, the deployment of THAAD by South Korea in 2016, the political crisis in Maldives in 2018, and the protests in Hong Kong in 2019 and 2020, all negatively impacted short-term travel demand for the tours to the affected regions. We have little or no control over the occurrence of such declines or disruptions, which could result in a decrease in demand for our travel products and services. This decrease in demand, depending on the scope and duration, could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations over the short and long term.

We face risks related to natural disasters and health epidemics.

In addition to the impact of natural disasters and health epidmics on the leisure travel industry, other aspects of our business activities could be materially and adversely affected by natural disasters, health epidemics or other public safety concerns affecting the PRC, and particularly Nanjing. Natural disasters 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 operate our platforms and provide services. Our business could also be adversely affected if our employees are affected by health epidemics, including the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and spread in China and globally, Ebola virus disease, H1N1 flu, H7N9 flu, avian flu or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. In addition, our business operation, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows could be adversely affected to the extent that any health epidemic harms the Chinese economy in general. Our headquarter is located in Nanjing, where most of our directors and management and the majority of our employees currently reside. Most of our system hardware and back-up systems are hosted in facilities located in Nanjing. Consequently, if any natural disasters, health epidemics or other public safety concerns were to affect Nanjing, our operation may experience material disruptions, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we do not continue to provide competitive travel products and services, we may not be able to attract new customers or to retain existing customers, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could suffer.

Our success depends on our ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers, which in turn requires our continual provision of a wide array of competitive travel products and services.

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Participants in the online travel industry are continually developing new travel products and services in response to increasing customer demand and changing market environment. We strive to stay abreast of emerging and rapidly changing customer preferences and to continue to anticipate trends that will appeal to existing and potential customers. We will also continue to invest in research and development in order to constantly improve the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of our online platform. If we fail to keep on improving our travel products and services and platform at a competitive pace, we may lose customers to our competitors and may not attract new customers. In addition to packaged tours, we provide other travel-related services, such as sales of tourist attraction tickets, visa application services, hotel booking services, air ticketing services, train ticketing services, bus ticketing services, car rental services, insurance services and financial services. We intend to further broaden our product selection by extending our coverage of departing cities and travel destinations as well as offering more departure time selections. If we fail to continue to source quality travel products and services tailored to accommodate our customers’ changing needs and preferences, we may not be able to sell additional products and services to our current customers, retain our current customers or attract new customers, and our business, financial condition and results of operations will be materially and adversely affected.

Failure to maintain the quality of customer services could harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is significantly affected by the overall size of our customer base, which in turn is determined by, among other factors, their experience with our customer services. As such, the quality of customer services is critical to retaining our existing customers and attracting new customers. If we fail to provide quality customer services, our customers may be less inclined to book travel products and services with us or recommend us to new customers, and may switch to our competitors. Failure to maintain the quality of customer services could harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to adequately control and ensure the quality of travel products and services sourced from travel suppliers. If there is any deterioration in the quality of their performance, our customers may seek damages from us and not continue using our online platform.

Our ability to ensure satisfactory customer experience in a large part depends on travel suppliers to provide high-quality travel products and services. Our reputation and brand will be negatively affected if travel suppliers fail to provide quality travel products and services.

The actions we take to monitor and enhance the performance of travel suppliers may be inadequate in timely discovering quality issues. There have been customer complaints and litigation against us due to travel suppliers’ failure to provide satisfactory travel products or services. If our customers are dissatisfied with the travel products and services provided, they may reduce their use of, or completely forgo, our online platform, and may even demand refunds of their payments to us or claim compensation from us for the damages suffered as a result of travel suppliers’ performance or misconduct, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We have incurred losses in the past and will likely incur losses in the future.

We have incurred net losses historically and will likely continue to incur losses in the future as we grow our business. We had a net loss of RMB199.4 million, RMB729.4 million and RMB1,343.6 million (US$205.9 million) in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. Our historical net losses were partially attributable to our spending associated with our rapidly expanding business operations, including expenses related to regional expansion, branding and advertising campaigns, mobile related initiatives and personnel related expenses. Also, the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 in 2020 caused temporary suspension of our businesses, which led to net losses including a material amount of impairment charges. We recorded impairment provisions and allowances against our long-term assets of RMB639.0 million (US$97.9 million) and short-term assets of RMB272.1 million (US$41.7 million) in 2020, and the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 may result in additional allowances for doubtful accounts and impairment provisions against our long-term assets as the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on certain of our long-term and short-term assets are considered to be other than temporary. In addition, we expect that we will continue to incur expenses to further grow our business, which will affect our profitability and cash flow from operations in the future.

Our ability to achieve profitability is also affected by various factors that are beyond our control. For example, our revenues and profitability depend on the continual development of the online leisure travel industry in China and consumers’ preference to make travel bookings online. We cannot assure you that making travel bookings online will become more widely accepted in China or that consumers will increase their spending on online leisure travel booking. Factors negatively affecting travel suppliers’ profitability will in turn adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

If we are unsuccessful in addressing any of these risks and uncertainties, our business may be materially and adversely affected and we will likely continue to incur net loss in the near future.

We face intense competition and may not be able to compete successfully against existing and new competitors.

We operate in China’s highly competitive travel industry. We compete with not only other online travel companies, but also traditional travel service providers and tour operators, airlines and hotels and large, established Internet search engines. See “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—Competition.” Some of our current and potential competitors may have greater financial, marketing and other resources than we do. In addition, some of our competitors may be acquired by, receive investments from or enter into strategic relationships with larger, well-established and well-financed companies or investors. Furthermore, our business model causes us to maintain a cooperative-competitive relationship with some of our competitors, especially tour operators, who also supplies travel products to customers directly or through our competitors’ platforms.

Many of our competitors have launched, and may continue to launch, aggressive advertising campaigns, special promotions and other marketing activities to promote their brands, attract new customers or increase their market shares. In response, we started to take and may continue to take similar measures and as a result will incur significant expenses, which in turn could negatively affect our operating margin in the quarters or years when such promotional activities are carried out. We cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully compete against existing or new competitors. If we are not able to compete successfully, we may lose our market share and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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If we fail to enhance our brand recognition, we may face difficulty in retaining existing and attracting new customers and travel suppliers and our business may be harmed.

Recognition and reputation of our “Tuniu” brand among our targeted customers and travel suppliers have contributed significantly to our growth. We have made continual investments in enhancing awareness of our brand among customers and travel suppliers since our inception. Our brand recognition and reputation also depend on our ability to provide high-quality customer services, address customer needs and handle customer complaints properly, maintain our relationships with travel suppliers and provide a user-friendly online platform. See “—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Failure to maintain the quality of customer services could harm our reputation and our ability to retain existing customers and attract new customers, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations”, “—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—If we are unable to maintain existing relationships with travel suppliers, or develop relationships with new travel suppliers on favorable terms or terms similar to those we currently have, our business and results of operations may suffer” and “—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—The proper functioning of our online platform, including our web and mobile platforms, and management systems is essential to our business. Any failure to maintain their satisfactory performance will materially and adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.” Failure to maintain the strength of our brand could reduce the number of customers and deteriorate our relationships with travel suppliers.

In addition, some of our competitors have well-established brands in the travel industry, and may have more financial and other resources to advertise and promote their brands. Therefore, we expect to continue incurring advertising and marketing expenditures and use other resources to maintain and increase our brand recognition. Our marketing costs may also increase as a result of inflation in media pricing in China, including costs for purchasing search engine keywords and placing online and offline advertisements. If we fail to cost-effectively maintain and increase our brand recognition, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We are exposed to proceedings or claims arising from travel-related accidents or customer misconduct during their travels, the occurrence of which may be beyond our control.

Accidents are a leading cause of mortality and morbidity among tourists. We are exposed to risks of our customers’ claims arising from or relating to travel-related accidents. As we enter into contracts with our customers directly, our customers typically take actions against us for the damages they suffer during their travels. However, such accidents may result from the negligence or misconduct of travel suppliers or other service providers, over which we have no or limited control. See also “—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may not be able to adequately control and ensure the quality of travel products and services sourced from travel suppliers. If there is any deterioration in the quality of their performance, our customers may seek damages from us and not continue using our online platform.” We maintain insurance coverage for our liabilities as a travel company, and are indemnified by the insurance company/companies for the damages claimed by our customers. However, there is no assurance that such insurance or indemnification will be sufficient to cover all of our losses. For example, losses incurred due to the COVID-19 in most cases are not reimbursable. In addition, some of the travel-related accidents result from adventure activities undertaken by our customers during their travels, such as scuba diving, white water rafting, wind surfing and skiing. Furthermore, we may be affected by our customers’ misconduct during their travels, over which we have no or limited control. Such accidents and misconduct, even if not resulting from our or travel suppliers’ negligence or misconduct, could create a public perception that we are less reliable than our competitors, which would harm our reputation, and could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

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The proper functioning of our online platform, including our web and mobile platforms, and management systems is essential to our business. Any failure to maintain their satisfactory performance will materially and adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

Availability, satisfactory performance and reliability of our online platform, including our web and mobile platforms, are critical to our ability to attract and retain customers and provide quality travel products and services to our customers. Any unavailability or slowdown of our online platforms would reduce the number of our customers and our customers’ travel bookings. Some telecommunications carriers have system constraints that can affect our customer experience. For example, if a large number of customers use the same telecommunications carrier at the same time for services requiring a large amount of data transmission, the customers could experience reduced speed or other technical issues due to the carrier’s capacity constraints, over which we have no control. Our servers may also be vulnerable to computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins or other potential disruptions, which could lead to interruptions, delays, loss of data or the inability to accept and process customer queries or bookings. We may also experience interruptions caused by reasons beyond our control such as power outages. Unexpected interruptions could damage our reputation and result in a material decrease in our revenues. In addition, our online platform may contain undetected errors or “bugs” that could adversely affect their performance.

Our mobile platform serves as an important and integral part of our customers’ research on travel-related information. It is difficult to predict the problems we may encounter in developing the mobile applications for newly released mobile devices and platforms, and we may need to devote significant resources to the development, support and maintenance of such applications. We are dependent on the interoperability of providing our products and services on popular mobile operating systems that we do not control, such as Android and iOS, and any changes in such systems that degrade the accessibility of our products and services or give preferential treatment to competing products and services could adversely affect the usability of our products and services on mobile devices. In addition, we rely upon third-party mobile application stores for users to download our mobile applications. As such, the promotion, distribution and operation of our mobile applications are subject to app stores’ standard terms and policies for app developers. As a result, we may fail to attract and retain a significant portion of the growing number of customers who search for and book travel products and services through mobile devices. We may also experience difficulties monetizing customer traffic to our mobile platform.

In addition, we rely significantly on our proprietary N-Booking system and other management systems to facilitate and process transactions. We may in the future experience system interruptions that prevent us from efficiently fulfilling bookings or providing services and support to our customers or travel suppliers. Any interruptions, outages or delays in our systems, or deterioration in their performance, could impair our ability to process transactions and decrease the quality of our services to our customers or travel suppliers. If we were to experience frequent or persistent system failures, our reputation and brand would be harmed.

If we are unable to maintain existing relationships with travel suppliers, or develop relationships with new travel suppliers on favorable terms or terms similar to those we currently have, our business and results of operations may suffer.

Our business is dependent on our ability to maintain our relationships and arrangements with existing travel suppliers. For most of our suppliers, we do not prohibit travel suppliers from developing business relationships with our competitors or selling, through their direct sales, travel products that are the same as or similar to those they supply to us. If we are unable to maintain satisfactory relationships with our existing travel suppliers, or if travel suppliers establish similar or more favorable relationships with our competitors, or if travel suppliers increase their competition with us through their direct sales, we may not have the necessary supply to meet the needs of our customers, or we may not obtain it at satisfactory rates. We do not enter into any long-term agreements with travel suppliers. We cannot assure you that travel suppliers will renew our agreements in the future on favorable terms or terms similar to those we currently have agreed. Travel suppliers may increase the prices that they charge us or the deposits that they require from us. As a result, the amount, pricing and breadth of travel products and services that we are able to offer may be reduced and our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

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Furthermore, in order to grow our business, we will need to develop relationships with new travel suppliers of good quality. We cannot assure you that we will be able to identify appropriate travel suppliers or enter into arrangements with those travel suppliers on favorable terms or at all. Any failure to do so could harm the growth of our business and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We may suffer losses if we are unable to predict the amount of travel products we will need to purchase in advance.

For peak seasons and for certain tours and destinations, we have made commitments with a number of travel suppliers to purchase packaged tours, hotel rooms and air tickets before selling them to our customers. We operate organized tours in which we take substantive inventory risk, and if this business increases, our inventory risk could also increase . If we are unable to accurately predict demand for the packaged tours, hotel rooms and air tickets that we are committed to purchase and which are nonrefundable, we would be responsible for bearing the cost of the travel products we are unable to sell, and our financial condition and results of operations would be adversely affected.

Our quarterly results are likely to fluctuate because of seasonality in the leisure travel industry in China.

Our business experiences fluctuations, reflecting seasonal variations in demand for leisure travel services. Sales of leisure travel products and services will increase in respect of holiday periods and decrease in respect of off-peak times, while prices of leisure travel products and services are subject to fluctuation between peak seasons and low seasons. For example, the third quarter of each year generally contributes the highest percentage of our annual revenues, because many of our customers tend to travel during summer holidays in July and August. Consequently, our results of operations may fluctuate from quarter to quarter.

If we are unable to identify, attract, hire, train and retain key individuals and highly skilled employees, our business may be adversely affected

Our future performance depends on the continued service of our senior management, in particular, Mr. Dunde Yu, our founder, chairman and chief executive officer. If one or more of our key executives were unable or unwilling to continue in their present positions, we may not be able to replace them easily, our future growth may be constrained, our business may be disrupted and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. There is no assurance that we can continue to retain their services and there can be no assurance that they will not compete against us.

If our business expands, we will need to hire additional employees, including supplier management personnel to maintain and expand our travel supplier network, information technology and engineering personnel to maintain and expand our online platform and customer service personnel to serve an increasing number of customers. If we are unable to identify, attract, hire, train and retain sufficient employees in these areas, our customers may not have satisfactory experiences with us and may turn to our competitors, which may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We may be subject to legal or administrative proceedings regarding our travel products and services, information provided on our online platform or other aspects of our business operations, which may be time-consuming to defend and affect our reputation.

From time to time, we have become and may in the future become a party to various legal or administrative proceedings arising in the ordinary course of our business, including breach of contract claims, anti-competition claims and other matters. Such proceedings are inherently uncertain and their results cannot be predicted with certainty. Regardless of the outcome and merit of such proceedings, any such legal action could have an adverse impact on our business because of defense costs, negative publicity, diversion of management’s attention and other factors. In addition, it is possible that an unfavorable resolution of one or more legal or administrative proceedings, whether in the PRC or in another jurisdiction, could materially and adversely affect our financial position, results of operations or cash flows in a particular period or damage our reputation. In addition, our online platform contains information about our travel products and services, vacation destinations and other travel-related topics. It is possible that our customers would take action against us in the event that any content accessible on our online platform were to contain errors or false or misleading information.

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We may be subject to detrimental adverse publicity, malicious allegations or other conduct by individuals or entities, which could harm our reputation, adversely affect our business and the trading price of our ADSs.

We have been, and in the future may be, the target of adverse publicity, malicious allegations or other detrimental conduct by individuals or entities. Such allegations, directly or indirectly against us, may be posted in internet chat-rooms, on blogs, any website or mobile applicabtions by anyone on an anonymous basis. We may be required to spend significant time and incur substantial costs in response to such allegations or other detrimental conduct, and there is no assurance that we will be able to conclusively refute each of them within a reasonable period of time, or at all. Our reputation may be harmed as a result of the public dissemination of malicious allegations about our personnel, business, operations, accounting, prospects or business ethics, which in turn could adversely affect our business and the trading price of our ADSs.

We have limited experience in operating a finance business. Increased exposure to credit risks or significant deterioration in the asset quality of our finance business may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We started to offer financial services in China since 2015. We provide various financial services, including consumer financing, supply chain financing, factoring service, cash lending service and insurance products. Expansion in the finance sector involves new risks and challenges. For certain financial products, we have committed or will commit our own capital. Our lack of familiarity with the finance sector may make it difficult for us to anticipate the demands and preferences in the market and develop financial products that meet the requirements and preference. We may not be able to successfully identify new product and service opportunities or develop and introduce these opportunities to our clients in a timely and cost-effective manner, or our clients may be disappointed in the returns from financial products that we offer.

The risk of nonpayment of loans is inherent in the finance business and we are subject to credit risk resulting from defaults in payment for loans by the suppliers and customers. Credit risks are exacerbated in consumer financing because there is relatively limited information available about the credit histories of customers. There can be no assurances that our monitoring of credit risk issues and our efforts to mitigate credit risks through our credit assessment and risk management policies are or will be sufficient to result in lower delinquencies. Furthermore, our ability to manage the quality of our loan portfolio and the associated credit risks will have significant impact on the results of operations of our finance business. Deterioration in the overall quality of loan portfolio and increased exposure to credit risks may occur due to a variety of reasons, including factors beyond our control, such as a slowdown in the growth of the PRC or global economies or a liquidity or credit crisis in the PRC or global finance sectors, which may adversely affect the businesses, operations or liquidity of our suppliers and customers or their ability to repay or roll over their debt. Any significant deterioration in the asset quality of our finance business and significant increase in associated credit risks may have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

In addition, the development of finance business is capital intensive. We continue to provide management, administration and collection services on the transferred financial assets and are obligated to absorb a portion of the losses incurred in the outstanding portfolio of the transferred financial assets in the event of default. We may need additional cash resources due to further developments of our financial services or changed business conditions, which may cause us to seek credit facilities or sell additional equity or debt securities. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt obligations and could result in operating and financial covenants that would restrict our operations. Additionally, it is uncertain whether financing will be available in amounts or on terms acceptable, if at all.

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The regulatory regime and practice with respect to online small credit companies are evolving and subject to uncertainty.

Government authorities have issued certain rules, laws and regulations to regulate the organization and business activities of online small credit companies. However, due to the lack of the detailed rules on interpretation and implementation of such rules, laws and regulations and the fact that the rules, laws and regulations are expected to continue to evolve with respect to the online small credit companies, there are uncertainties as to how such rules, laws and regulations will be interpreted and implemented and whether there will be new rules, laws or regulations issued which would set further requirements and restrictions on online small credit companies. In November 2020, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, or the CBRC which is now merged into the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, or the CBIRC, and the People’s Bank of China, or PBOC, published the draft Interim Measures for Online Small Credit Business, or the Draft Online Small Credit Measures, for public comment. See “ Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation—Regulations on Small Credit Companies.” The Draft Online Small Credit Measures, if enacted in substantially the form published for public comment, will change regulatory requirements for online small credit business in various respects. We cannot assure you that our existing practice of the online small credit companies will be deemed to be in full compliance with all rules, laws and regulations that are applicable, or may become applicable to us in the future.

We have limited experience in operating our self-operated local tour operators, which may negatively affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Starting in 2016, we further strengthened our presence in the travel supply chain by introducing a number of self-operated local tour operators in major destinations such as Xiamen, Beijing and Changsha. We operate our domestic self-operated local tour operators primarily through Xiamen Suiwang International Travel Service Co., Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of us established in January 2016. Our self-operated local tour operators directly provide destination-based services to our organized tour customers, starting from their arrival at the destination and all the way until they depart from the destination. Similar to our travel suppliers, our self-operated local tour operators coordinate the tours based on pre-arranged itineraries and cover all components of the tours including transportations, accommodations, entertainments, meals and tour guide services. The tour guides directly serving our customers are either directly employed by us or working for us on a contract basis. By operating the self-operated local tour operators, we are able to exercise greater control over the quality of our trips and utilize years of data on travel preference to design more suitable products for consumers. As of February 28, 2021, we operate our own local tour operators in 32 domestic destinations and 6 international destinations.

We have limited experience in operating our self-operated local tour operators. The local leisure travel industry is highly fragmented, so our self-operated local tour operators may encounter fierce competition from peers and we may not generate the expected profits. Furthermore, if any destinations where we have self-operated local tour operators are negatively affected by external events such as earthquake or other natural disasters, pandemics or epidemics, such events may negatively affect the business of our self-operated local tour operator as it will be difficult for the affected self-operated local tour operators to change the pre-arranged itineraries of the customers. In addition, we may not be able to adequately control and ensure the quality of service provided by the tour guides directly serving our customers, in particular the tour guides working for us on a contract basis. If our tour guides fail to provide high quality services in a timely manner to our customer or violate any applicable PRC laws and regulations, or in the case of customer injury or death due to the negligence or misconduct of our tour guides, we may be liable for compensation, which may adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

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If the fragmented travel industry in China becomes consolidated, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

China’s enormous size and population, imbalanced economic development and differences in consumer behavior across the country have created a highly fragmented and diverse travel industry. In recent years, customers have been shifting from highly fragmented traditional offline travel companies to travel websites for a wider product selection and greater convenience. If, however, traditional tour operators form alliances, or merge or consolidate among themselves, or if one of travel suppliers is acquired by another company with which we do not have a relationship, we may not be able to maintain our strength in offering a wider selection of travel products and services as compared to traditional travel companies, and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

The Tourism Law and the Measures for Administration of the Overseas Tours of Chinese Citizens may reduce the demand of organized tours and materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

On April 25, 2013, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress promulgated the Tourism Law, which became effective as of October 1, 2013 and was amended in 2016 and 2018, respectively. On May 27, 2002, the State Council promulgated the Measures for the Administration of the Overseas Tours of Chinese Citizens which became effective as of July 1, 2002 and was amended in 2017. The Tourism Law and the Measures for the Administration of the Overseas Tours of Chinese Citizens impose more stringent restrictions on tour operators. Pursuant to the Tourism Law and the Measures for the Administration of the Overseas Tours of Chinese Citizens, tour operators are prohibited from arranging compulsory shopping or other activities which charge additional fees on top of the contract prices that the tourist has already paid, unless it is agreed upon by both parties through consultation or requested by the tourist and does not affect the itinerary of other tourists. See “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation—Regulations on Travel Companies.” If travel suppliers fail to comply with these restrictions, our reputation and brand may be negatively affected. In addition, as a result of the Tourism Law and the Measures for the Administration of the Overseas Tours of Chinese Citizens, the commissions or rebates that tour operators receive from shopping establishments have declined and organized tour prices have risen, which have reduced the demand for organized tours in the short term and may continue to reduce the demand for organized tours in the future. If customers cannot adapt to the increased organized tour prices, our business and results of operations will be materially and adversely affected.

The E-Commerce Law may significantly increase our compliance cost.

In August 2018, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress promulgated the E-commerce Law, which became effective in January 2019. The E-commerce Law strengthens the regulation on E-commerce operators relating to consumer protection, personal data protection and intellectual property rights protection. As an e-commerce operator, we are required under the E-commerce Law, (1) to refrain from conducting false or misleading commercial promotion by fabricating transactions, making up user comments or otherwise, to defraud or mislead consumers, (2) to allow consumer to opt out of search results targeting his or her personally characteristics such as hobbies and shopping patterns and simultaneously show the consumers with options not targeting his or her personally characteristics, (3) to alert consumers of tie-in sale of commodities or services, and shall not set the tied-in commodities or services as a default option, (4) to obtain and maintain business license and other applicable licenses as required, and disclose information of such license at our front-page, (5) to clearly detail the refund procedure for the deposit we received from customers, and not set any unreasonable conditions to refund, (6) to take the risks and responsibilities in the transportation of the products, unless the consumer chooses a courier logistics service provider other than the default service provider, etc. Since the promulgation of the E-commerce Law, PRC government has promulgated implementation rules and opinions governing e-commerce industry, including measures governing administration of payment institutions’ foreign exchange related services provided to e-commerce operators and consumers, as well as guiding opinions on data interconnection and sharing between enterprises of express delivery and e-commerce industries, and the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Trading which impose a series of regulatory requirements on new forms of online trading, such as online social networking e-commerce and online livestreaming e-commerce.

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We have adopted the required measures to keep our current practice in line with the requirements under the E-Commerce Law and its implementation rules. However, the competent PRC government may promulgate further implementation rules under the E-Commerce Law and may deem our current measures not sufficient under the E-Commerce Law and its implementation rules. If we are required to adopt additional measures to comply with the E-Commerce Law and its implementation rules, our compliance cost would increase significantly, and our business and results of operations will be materially and adversely affected.

We may not be able to prevent others from using our intellectual property, which may harm our business and expose us to litigation.

We regard our intellectual property as critical to our success. We rely primarily on a combination of copyright, software registration, trademark, trade secret and unfair competition laws and contractual rights, such as confidentiality agreements with our employees and others, to protect our intellectual property rights. The protection of intellectual property rights in China may not be as effective as that in the United States. Unauthorized use or other misappropriation of our technologies would enable third parties to benefit from our technologies without paying us, or enable our competitors to offer travel products and services that are comparable to or better than ours. From time to time, we may have to enforce our intellectual property rights through litigation. Such litigation may result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. If we are not successful in protecting our intellectual property, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Claims by third parties that we infringe on their intellectual property rights could lead to government administrative actions and result in significant costs and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We cannot be certain that our operations or any aspects of our business do not or will not infringe upon copyrights or other intellectual property rights held by third parties. We have been in the past, and may be from time to time in the future, subject to legal proceedings, claims or government administrative actions relating to alleged infringement on copyrights or other intellectual property rights held by third parties in relation to the content on our online platform or intellectual property rights otherwise used in our operation. For example, our website may be found to contain pictures that infringe on copyrights of third parties or hotel reviews that are third parties’ proprietary information. In addition, some of the software that we are currently using in our business may infringe on third parties’ copyrights. If we are found to have infringed on the intellectual property rights of others, we may be subject to liability for our infringement activities or may be prohibited from using such intellectual property, and we may incur licensing fees. Successful infringement or licensing claims made against us may result in significant monetary liabilities and may materially disrupt our business and operations by restricting or prohibiting our use of the intellectual property in question. Moreover, regardless of whether we successfully defend against such claims, we could suffer negative publicity and our reputation could be severely damaged. Any of these events could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, user-generated content on our online platform may contain or provide links to information that infringes on the copyrights or other intellectual property rights of third parties or violates applicable rules or regulations in relation to censorship, or we may use the user-generated content in a way that infringes on the rights of the users or third parties. Any claims, with or without merit, could be time-consuming to defend, result in litigation and divert management’s attention and resources.

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The successful operation of our business depends upon the performance and reliability of the Internet infrastructure and telecommunications networks in China.

Our business depends on the performance and reliability of the Internet infrastructure and telecommunications networks in China. Almost all access to the Internet is maintained through state-owned telecommunications operators under the administrative control and regulatory supervision of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the PRC, or the MIIT. In addition, the national networks in China are connected to the Internet through international gateways controlled by the PRC government. These international gateways are the only channels through which domestic users can connect to the Internet. We rely on a limited number of telecommunications service providers, primarily China Telecom and China Unicom, to provide us with data communications capacity. We, our customers or travel suppliers, may not have access to alternative networks in the event of disruptions, failures or other problems with China’s Internet infrastructure. With the expansion of our business, we may be required to upgrade our technology and infrastructure to keep up with the increasing traffic on our online platform. However, we have no control over the costs of the services provided by telecommunications service providers. If the prices we pay for telecommunications and Internet services rise significantly, our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. If Internet access fees or other charges to Internet users increase, the number of Internet users may decline and our business may be harmed. Moreover, if we are not able to renew services agreements with the telecommunications carriers when they expire and are not able to enter into agreements with alternative carriers on commercially reasonable terms or at all, the quality and stability of our online platform may be adversely affected.

We are subject to payment-related risks.

We enable our customers to make payments through our website by working with various third-party online payment processing service providers. As we rely on third parties to provide payment processing services, including processing payments made with credit cards and debit cards, it could disrupt our business if these companies become unwilling or unable to provide these services to us. We may be subject to human error, fraud and other illegal activities in connection with third-party online payment services. If our data security systems are breached or compromised, we may lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments from our customers, and we may be subject to claims for damages from our customers and third parties, all of which could adversely and materially affect our reputation as well as our results of operations.

If we fail to adopt new technologies or adapt our online platform and management systems to changing user requirements, increasing traffic or emerging industry standards, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

The online travel industry is subject to rapid technological changes. To remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our online platform. The online travel industry is also characterized by rapid technological evolution and changes in customer requirements and preferences. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to identify, develop, acquire or license leading technologies useful in our business and respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices in a cost-effective and timely manner. The development of our online platform and other proprietary technology entails significant technical and business risks. In addition, the widespread adoption of new Internet, networking or telecommunications technologies or other technological changes could require substantial expenditures to modify or adapt our infrastructure. We may not be able to use new technologies effectively or adapt our online platform, proprietary technologies and operating systems to the requirements of our customers and travel suppliers or emerging industry standards. If we are unable to adapt in a cost-effective and timely manner to changing market conditions or user requirements, whether for technical, legal, financial, or other reasons, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

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Our business may be harmed if we are unable to upgrade our systems and infrastructure quickly enough to accommodate increasing traffic levels, or to avoid obsolescence, or successfully integrate any newly developed or purchased technologies with our existing systems. Capacity constraints could cause unanticipated system disruptions, slower response times, poor customer experience, impaired quality and speed of reservations and confirmations and delays in reporting accurate financial and operating information. These factors could cause us to lose customers. Additionally, we will continue to upgrade and improve our technology infrastructure to support our business growth. However, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in executing these system upgrades and improvement strategies. In particular, our systems may experience interruptions during upgrades, and any new technologies or infrastructures may not be fully integrated with our existing systems on a timely basis, or at all. If our existing or future technology infrastructure does not function properly, it could cause system disruptions and slow response times that affect data transmission, which in turn could materially and adversely affect our business.

We are exposed to risks associated with online security, and in particular, the implementation of laws and regulations on data privacy in China.

We collect, store and process certain personal and other sensitive data from our customers. The massive data that we have processed and stored makes us or the third-party service providers who host our servers a target and potentially vulnerable to cyber-attacks, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, or similar disruptions. The secure transmission of confidential information over the Internet is essential in maintaining customer confidence in us. We conduct a significant portion of our transactions through our website. We utilize digital certificates to help us conduct secure communications and transactions. In addition, sensitive customer information, such as password and payment information, is stored with encryption, and our data servers are secured with firewalls. However, advances in technology or other developments could result in a compromise or breach of the technology that we use to protect customer and transaction data. Any failure or perceived failure by us to prevent information security breaches or to comply with privacy policies or privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other customer data, could cause our customers to lose trust in us, expose us to legal claims, and adversely affect our operating results. In addition, our security measures may not be sufficient to prevent security breaches. Any systems failure or compromise of our security that results in the unauthorized access to or release of our customers’ data could significantly limit the delivery of our products and services, as well as harm our reputation and brand and, therefore, our business. We spend significant resources on technology and product development to protect against leakage of user information and other security breaches. Nonetheless, given its great commercial value, our customer data may still likely to be misused by third-parties, which could expose us to legal and regulatory risks and seriously harm our business.

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There are numerous laws governing privacy and the storage, sharing, use, disclosure and protection of personally identifiable information and user data. Specifically, personally identifiable and other confidential information is increasingly subject to legislation and regulations in numerous domestic and international jurisdictions. On November 7, 2016, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress issued the Cyber Security Law, which came into effect on June 1, 2017. The Cyber Security Law stipulates that a network operator, including internet information service provider among others, must adopt technical measures and other necessary measures in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations as well as compulsory national and industrial standards to safeguard the safety and stability of network operations, effectively respond to network security incidents, prevent illegal and criminal activities, and maintain the integrity, confidentiality and availability of network data. Although we take measures to comply with the Cyber Security Law and the applicable laws, regulations and standards, and we believe our current business operation is in line with the requirements under the Cyber Security Law and the applicable laws, regulations and standards, there can be no assurance that our measures will be effective and sufficient under the Cyber Security Law and the applicable laws, regulations and standards. If we were found by the regulatory authorities to have violated the Cyber Security Law and the applicable laws, regulations and standards, we would be subject to warnings, fines, confiscation of illegal revenue, revocation of licenses, cancellation of filings, shutdown of our platform or even criminal liability and our business, results of operations and financial condition would be materially adversely affected. In addition, the regulatory framework for privacy protection in China and worldwide is currently evolving and is likely to remain uncertain for the foreseeable future. For example, the Cyber Security Law sets high requirements for the operational security of facilities deemed to be part of the PRC’s “critical information infrastructure.” 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, may be inconsistent with our practices. If so, in addition to the possibility of violation of laws and fines imposed by regulatory authorities, 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.

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In December 2012, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress enacted the Decision to Enhance the Protection of Network Information, or the Information Protection Decision, to further enhance the protection of users’ personal information in electronic form. The Information Protection Decision provides that Internet information services providers must expressly inform their users of the purpose, manner and scope of the collection and use of users’ personal information by Internet information services providers, publish the Internet information services providers standards for their collection and use of users’ personal information, and collect and use users’ personal information only with the consent of the users and only within the scope of such consent. The Information Protection Decision also mandates that Internet information services providers and their employees keep users’ personal information that they collect strictly confidential, and that they must take such technical and other measures as are necessary to safeguard the information against disclosure, damages and loss. Pursuant to the Ninth Amendment to the Criminal Law issued by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in August 2015 and becoming effective in November 2015, any internet service provider that fails to fulfill the obligations related to internet information security administration as required by applicable laws and refuses to rectify upon orders, shall be subject to criminal penalty for the result of (i) any dissemination of illegal information in large scale; (ii) any severe effect due to the leakage of the client’s information; (iii) any serious loss of criminal evidence; or (iv) other severe situation, and any individual or entity that (i) sells or provides personal information to others in a way violating the applicable law, or (ii) steals or illegally obtain any personal information, shall be subject to criminal penalty in severe situation. In August 2019, Cyberspace Administration of China promulgated Provisions on Online Protection of Children’s Personal Information, or the Children Personal Information Provisions, which came into effect in October 2019. The Children Personal Information Provisions impose higher requirements on network operators in terms of protection of children’s personal information, such as requiring network operators to adopt personal information protection rules and user agreements specifically for children’s personal information and appoint persons dedicated to be responsible for the protection of children’s personal information. In November 2019, Cyberspace Administration of China, together with other competent government authorities, published the Guidelines for Identifying Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information via Apps, which describes 31 specific types of illegal collection or use of user’s personal information, divided into six categories. See “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation—Regulations on Internet Privacy”. In July 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China released a draft data security law, or the Draft Data Security Law, for public comment. The Draft Data Security Law provides for data security and privacy obligations on entities and individuals carrying out data activities. The Draft Data Security Law also introduces a national security review procedure for those data activities which may affect national security and imposes export restrictions on certain data information. In October 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China released a draft personal information protection law, or the Draft Personal Information Protection Law, for public comment. The Draft Personal Information Protection Law provides for various requirements on personal information protection, including legal bases for data collection and processing, requirements on data localization and cross-border data transfer, requirements for consent and requirements on processing of sensitive personal information. As the Draft Data Security Law and Draft Personal Information Protection Law have not been formally adopted and the requirements in the final adopted laws remain subject to change, we may be required to make further adjustments to our business practices to comply with the enacted form of the laws. Compliance with current regulations and regulations that may come into effect in these areas may increase our expenses related to regulatory compliance, which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

In addition to laws, regulations and other applicable rules regarding privacy and privacy advocacy, industry associations or other organizations may propose new privacy standards. Because the interpretation and application of privacy and data protection laws and privacy standards are still uncertain, it is possible that these laws or privacy standards may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our practices. Any inability to adequately address privacy concerns, even if unfounded, or to comply with applicable privacy or data protection laws, regulations and privacy standards, could result in additional cost and liability to us, damage our reputation, inhibit the use of our platform and harm our business.

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Our use of open source software could adversely affect our ability to offer our products and services and subject us to possible litigation.

We use open source software in connection with our development of technology infrastructure. From time to time, companies that use open source software have faced claims challenging the use of open source software and/or compliance with open source license terms. We could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software, or claiming noncompliance with open source licensing terms. Some open source licenses require users who distribute software containing open source to make available all or part of such software, which in some circumstances could include valuable proprietary code. While we monitor the use of open source software and try to ensure that none is used in a manner that would require us to disclose our proprietary source code or that would otherwise breach the terms of an open source agreement, such use could inadvertently occur, in part because open source license terms are often ambiguous. Any requirement to disclose our proprietary source code or pay damages for breach of contract could be harmful to our business, results of operations or financial condition, and could help our competitors develop travel products and services that are similar to or better than ours.

We may not be successful in pursuing strategic alliances and acquisitions, and future alliances and acquisitions may not bring us anticipated benefits.

Part of our growth strategy is the pursuit of strategic alliances and acquisitions. There can be no assurance that we will succeed in implementing this strategy as it is subject to many factors which are beyond our control, including our ability to identify and successfully execute suitable acquisition opportunities and alliances. Any future acquisitions, investments, and strategic alliances may expose us to new operational, regulatory and market risks, as well as risks associated with additional capital requirements, including risks associated with unforeseen or hidden liabilities, diversion of management resources and costs of integrating acquired businesses, the inability to generate sufficient revenue to offset the costs and expenses of acquisitions, and potentially significant loss of investments. Any acquisitions we pursue could also create difficulties with integrating the technology of acquired businesses with our existing technology, and employees of acquired businesses into the various departments and ranks in our company, and it could take substantial time and effort to integrate the business processes being used in the acquired businesses with our existing business processes. Should we fail to integrate acquired companies efficiently, our earnings, revenues, gross margins, operating margins and business operations could be negatively affected. Furthermore, acquired companies may not perform to our expectations for various reasons, including legislative or regulatory changes that affect the products and services in which the acquired companies specialize and the loss of key personnel and customer accounts. Any alliances we pursue could also subject us to a number of risks, including risks associated with sharing proprietary information, non-performance by the third party and increased expenses in establishing new strategic alliances, any of which may materially and adversely affect our business. We may also have limited ability to monitor or control the actions of these third parties and, to the extent any of these strategic third parties suffer negative publicity or harm to their reputation from events relating to their business, we may also suffer negative publicity or harm to our reputation by virtue of our association with any such third party.

We may not be able to identify suitable future acquisition or investment candidates or alliance partners. Moreover, there is no assurance that such alliances or acquisitions will achieve our intended objectives or benefits. Even if we identify suitable candidates or partners, we may be unable to complete an acquisition, investment or alliance on terms commercially acceptable to us. If we fail to identify appropriate candidates or partners, or complete desired acquisitions, investments or alliances, we may not be able to implement our strategies effectively or efficiently, and our overall profitability and growth plans may be adversely affected.

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

We are subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or SOX. Section 404 of the SOX requires that we include a report from management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our annual report on Form 20-F. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm must report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

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Our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2020. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures.” Our independent registered public accounting firm has issued an attestation report, which has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective in all material aspects as of December 31, 2020. However, if we fail to maintain the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, we may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the SOX. Moreover, effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports. As a result, any failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could negatively impact the trading price of our ADSs. Furthermore, we may need to incur additional costs and use additional management and other resources in an effort to comply with Section 404 of the SOX and other requirements going forward.

We have limited business insurance coverage in China.

Insurance companies in China offer limited business insurance products. Business disruption insurance is available to a limited extent in China, but we have determined that the risks of disruption, the cost of such insurance and the difficulties associated with acquiring such insurance make it commercially impractical for us to have such insurance. We maintain insurance coverage for travel company liabilities, but we do not maintain insurance coverage for business disruptions and would have to bear the costs and expenses associated with any such events out of our own resources.

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

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had material adverse impacts on our cash flow for the fiscal year of 2020 with potential continuing impacts on subsequent periods. Together with the negative financial trends, the conditions and events casted substantial doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020, we have already taken actions to improve our liquidity, including scaling down our business operations by reducing capital expenditures and operational expenses that are discretionary in nature and obtaining funding from the maturity of certain short-term and long-term investments. We plan to maintain our operation scale while sales of domestic travel products recover gradually, and will continue to manage our capital expenditures, operational expenses and investments based on our working capital needs. Based on our liquidity assessment, which has considered our operations at the current business scale, latest development of COVID-19 and its continuous impact on our business operation, the available funding that will be provided from maturity of our short-term and long-term investments, and our available cash and cash equivalents, we will be able to meet our working capital requirements and capital expenditures in the ordinary course of business for the next twelve months subsequent to the filing of this annual report. As a result, we concluded that the substantial doubt on our ability to continue as a going concern has been alleviated. We may require additional cash resources due to unanticipated business conditions or other future developments, including any marketing initiatives or investments we may decide to pursue. If these resources are insufficient to satisfy our cash requirements, we may seek to obtain a credit facility or sell additional equity or debt securities. The sale of additional equity securities could result in dilution of our existing shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations. It is uncertain whether financing will be available in amounts or on terms acceptable to us, if at all.

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We have granted share options and restricted shares, and may grant share options and other share-based awards in the future, which may materially increase our net loss.

We adopted an incentive compensation plan in 2008, or the 2008 Plan, which permits the granting of options to purchase our ordinary shares and restricted shares. We also adopted a separate incentive compensation plan in 2014, or the 2014 Plan, which permits the granting of options to purchase our ordinary shares, restricted shares and restricted share units. In particular, our 2014 Plan contains an evergreen provision which allows us to automatically increase the maximum aggregate number of ordinary shares reserved under the 2014 Plan to 5% of the then-issued and outstanding shares on an as-converted basis without shareholder approval, if and whenever the shares reserved in the 2014 Plan account for less than 1% of the total then-issued and outstanding shares on an as-converted basis. For more details regarding the 2008 Plan and the 2014 Plan, see “Item 6.B. Directors, Senior Management and Employees—Compensation.” As of February 28, 2021, there were options to acquire 3,683,886 Class A ordinary shares outstanding under the 2008 Plan, and options to acquire 12,519,039 Class A ordinary shares and 65,658 restricted shares outstanding under the 2014 Plan. In addition, we plan to grant employees share options and other share-based compensation in the future. Expenses associated with share-based awards may materially impact our results of operations.

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

Substantial uncertainties and restrictions exist with respect to the interpretation and application of PRC laws and regulations relating to restrictions on foreign investment in value-added telecommunications and travel companies in China. If the PRC government finds that the structure we have adopted for our business operations does not comply with PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to severe penalties, including shutting down of our online platform.

Foreign ownership of Internet-based businesses is subject to significant restrictions under current PRC laws and regulations. The PRC government regulates Internet access, the distribution of online information and the conduct of online commerce through strict business licensing requirements and other government regulations. These laws and regulations also include limitations on foreign ownership in PRC companies that provide Internet content distribution services. Specifically, foreign investors are prohibited from owning more than 50% of the equity interest in any PRC entity conducting value-added telecommunications business, except for online data processing and transaction processing business (operational e-commerce), in which foreign investors are allowed to hold up to 100% of the equity interest. Moreover, any major foreign investor holding equity interest in a value-added telecommunication business in PRC must satisfy a number of stringent performance and operational experience requirements, including demonstrating good track records and experience in operating value-added telecommunication business overseas. The Circular on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Investment in and Operation of Value-added Telecommunications Business issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in July 2006, or the MIIT Circular, reiterated the regulations on foreign investment in telecommunications business, which require foreign investors to set up foreign-invested telecom enterprises and obtain business operating licenses for Internet content provision, or an ICP license to conduct any value-added telecommunications business in China. Under the MIIT Circular, a domestic company that holds an ICP license is prohibited from leasing, transferring or selling the license to foreign investors in any form, and from providing any assistance, including providing resources, sites or facilities, to foreign investors that conduct value-added telecommunications business illegally in China. Furthermore, the relevant trademarks and domain names that are used in the value-added telecommunications business must be owned by the domestic ICP license holder or its shareholders. Due to a lack of interpretation from the MIIT, it is unclear what impact the MIIT Circular will have on us or other PRC Internet companies that have adopted the same or similar corporate structures and contractual arrangements as ours. Nanjing Tuniu holds our ICP licenses, and owns all the domain names used in our value-added telecommunications business. Nanjing Tuniu is also the owner of all the registered trademarks used in our value-added telecommunications business and is the applicant of all the applications for trademark registration we have made.

We are a Cayman Islands company and our wholly owned PRC subsidiary, Beijing Tuniu Technology Co., Ltd., or Beijing Tuniu, is considered a foreign invested enterprise. To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we conduct our operations in China through a series of contractual arrangements entered into among Beijing Tuniu, Nanjing Tuniu, and the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu. As a result of these contractual arrangements, we exert control over Nanjing Tuniu and its subsidiaries and consolidate their results of operations in our financial statements under U.S. GAAP. For a detailed description of these contractual arrangements, see “Item 4.C. Information on the Company—Organizational Structure.”

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In the opinion of our PRC counsel, Fangda Partners, the ownership structure of Nanjing Tuniu, each of the shareholders’ voting rights agreement, powers of attorney, equity interest pledge agreement and purchase option agreement entered into among Beijing Tuniu, Nanjing Tuniu and the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu, and the cooperation agreement between Beijing Tuniu and Nanjing Tuniu, which establish our contractual arrangement with Nanjing Tuniu and its shareholders, and, except as otherwise disclosed in this annual report, our business operations are not in violation of existing PRC laws, rules and regulations and these agreements are valid, binding and enforceable. However, we are advised by our PRC counsel, Fangda Partners, that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current or future PRC laws and regulations and there can be no assurance that the PRC government will ultimately take a view that is consistent with the opinion of our PRC counsel stated above.

If our ownership structure, contractual arrangements and business of our company, our PRC subsidiaries or our consolidated affiliated entities are found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or we fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant governmental authorities would have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including levying fines, confiscating our income or the income of our PRC subsidiaries or consolidated affiliated entities, revoking the business licenses or operating licenses of our PRC subsidiaries or consolidated affiliated entities, shutting down our servers or blocking our online platform, discontinuing or placing restrictions or onerous conditions on our operations, requiring us to undergo a costly and disruptive restructuring, restricting or prohibiting our use of proceeds from our financing activities, such as our private placements, to finance our business and operations in China, and taking other regulatory or enforcement actions that could be harmful to our business. Any of these actions could cause significant disruption to our business operations and severely damage our reputation, which would in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If any of these occurrences results in our inability to direct the activities of any of our consolidated affiliated entities that most significantly impact its economic performance, and/or our failure to receive the economic benefits from any of our consolidated affiliated entities, we may not be able to consolidate the entity in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

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Substantial uncertainties exist with respect to the interpretation and implementation of adopted PRC Foreign Investment Law and its implementation rules and how they may impact the viability of our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.

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 industries that are currently subject to foreign investment restrictions in China. See “—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—Substantial uncertainties and restrictions exist with respect to the interpretation and application of PRC laws and regulations relating to restrictions on foreign investment in value-added telecommunications and travel companies in China. If the PRC government finds that the structure we have adopted for our business operations does not comply with PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to severe penalties, including the forced closure of our online platform” and “Item 4.C. Information on the Company—Organizational Structure.” In March 2019, the PRC National People’s Congress promulgated the Foreign Investment Law, or the PRC Foreign Investment Law. In December 2019, the State Council promulgated the Implementing Rules of the Foreign Investment Law of the People’s Republic of China, or the Implementing Rules, to further clarify and elaborate the relevant provisions of the PRC Foreign Investment Law. The PRC Foreign Investment Law and the Implementation Rules both became effective on January 1, 2020 and replaced major existing laws and regulations governing foreign investment in the PRC. Pursuant to the PRC Foreign Investment Law, “foreign investments” refer to investment activities conducted by foreign investors (including foreign natural persons, foreign enterprises or other foreign organizations) directly or “indirectly” in the PRC, which include any of the following circumstances: (i) foreign investors setting up foreign-invested enterprises in the PRC solely or jointly with other investors, (ii) foreign investors obtaining shares, equity interests, property portions or other similar rights and interests of enterprises within the PRC, (iii) foreign investors investing in new projects in the PRC solely or jointly with other investors, and (iv) investment in other methods as specified in laws and administrative regulations, or as stipulated by the State Council. The PRC Foreign Investment Law and the Implementation Rules do not use the concept of “control” in determining whether a company should be considered as a foreign-invested enterprise, nor do they explicitly provide the VIE structure as a method of foreign investment. However, the PRC Foreign Investment Law has a catch-all provision that includes into the definition of “foreign investments” made by foreign investors in China in other methods as specified in laws, administrative regulations, or as stipulated by the State Council. Since the PRC Foreign Investment Law and the Implementation Rules are newly adopted and relevant government authorities may promulgate future laws, regulations or rules on the interpretation and implementation of the PRC Foreign Investment Law, the possibility cannot be ruled out that the concept of “control” as stated in the 2015 draft PRC Foreign Investment Law may be reimposed, or the “variable interest entity” structure adopted by us may be deemed as a method of foreign investment by, any of such future laws, regulations and rules, which cause significant uncertainties as to whether our VIE structures would be treated as a method of foreign investment. If our VIE structure would be deemed as a method of foreign investment under any of such future laws, regulations and rules, and any of our businesses operation would fall in the “negative list” for foreign investment that is subject to any foreign investment restrictions or prohibitions, we would be required to take further actions to comply with such laws, regulations and rules, which may materially and adversely affect our current corporate structure, corporate governance, business, financial conditions and results of operations. Furthermore, if future laws, administrative regulations or rules mandate further actions to be taken by companies with respect to existing contractual arrangements, we may face substantial uncertainties as to whether we are able to complete such actions in a timely manner, or at all. Failure to take timely and appropriate measures to respond to any of these or similar regulatory compliance challenges could materially and adversely affect our current corporate structure, business, financial condition and results of operations.

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The PRC Foreign Investment Law requires foreign investors or applicable FIEs to report investment information to government authority. Pursuant to the Information Reporting Measures for Foreign Investment jointly promulgated by the MOC and the SAMR, which took effect in January 2020, a foreign investment information reporting system shall be established and foreign investors or FIEs shall report investment information to competent commerce departments of the government through the enterprise registration system and the enterprise credit information publicity system, and the administration for market regulation shall forward the above investment information to the competent commerce departments of the government. The foreign investors or FIEs shall report the investment information by submitting initial reports, change reports, deregistration reports and annual reports, etc. The PRC governmental authorities may promulgate rules to further clarify the detailed information reporting requirements on foreign investors and the applicable FIEs. In that case, our current corporate governance practices and business operations may need to be adjusted to comply with the information reporting requirements, which would significantly increase our compliance costs, and have a material and adverse effect on our current corporate structure, corporate governance, business, financial conditions and results of operations.

We rely on contractual arrangements with Nanjing Tuniu and its shareholders for the operation of our business, which may not be as effective as direct ownership. If Nanjing Tuniu or its shareholders fail to perform their obligations under these contractual arrangements, we may have to resort to litigation or arbitration to enforce our rights, which may be time-consuming, unpredictable, expensive and damaging to our operations and reputation. If we are unable to maintain effective control we would not be able to continue to consolidate the financial results of our consolidated affiliated entities with our financial results.

Although we have been advised by our PRC counsel, Fangda Partners, that our contractual arrangements with Nanjing Tuniu and its shareholders did not and does not result in any violation of current PRC laws and these agreements are valid, binding and enforceable, these contractual arrangements may not be as effective in providing control as direct ownership. If Nanjing Tuniu or its shareholders fail to perform their obligations under the contractual arrangements, we may have to incur substantial costs and expend additional resources to enforce such arrangements. We may also have to rely on legal remedies under contract law, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief and claiming damages, which we cannot assure you will be effective. For example, if the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu refuse to transfer their equity interests in Nanjing Tuniu to us or our designee when we exercise the purchase option pursuant to these contractual arrangements, or if they otherwise act in bad faith toward us, then we may have to take legal actions to compel them to perform their contractual obligations. Furthermore, while the company chops of Nanjing Tuniu are held by its legal and accounting departments, our ability to ensure its performance under the contractual agreements may be limited if we are unable to secure control of the company chops in the event of a dispute with its management or shareholders, as many official documents require affixation of company chops to become fully effective. If we were the controlling shareholder of Nanjing Tuniu with direct ownership, we would be able to exercise our rights as shareholders to effect changes to its board of directors, which in turn could implement changes at the management and operational level.

All the agreements under our contractual arrangements are governed by PRC laws and provide for the resolution of disputes through arbitration in the PRC. Accordingly, these contracts would be interpreted in accordance with PRC laws and any disputes would be resolved in accordance with PRC legal procedures. There remain significant uncertainties regarding how our contractual arrangements would be interpreted under PRC laws and the ultimate outcome of the resolution of disputes in relation to such contractual arrangements, should arbitration become necessary. The legal system in the PRC is not as developed as in some other jurisdictions, such as the United States. As a result, uncertainties in the PRC legal system could limit our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. Under PRC laws, if the losing parties fail to carry out the arbitration awards within a prescribed time limit, the prevailing parties may only enforce the arbitration awards in PRC courts through arbitration award recognition proceedings, which would require additional expenses and delay. In the event we are unable to enforce these contractual arrangements, we may not be able to exert effective control over Nanjing Tuniu and its shareholders, and our ability to conduct our business may be negatively affected. If we are unable to maintain effective control, we would not be able to continue to consolidate the financial results of our consolidated affiliated entities with our financial results.

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

We have designated individuals who are PRC nationals to be the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu. The equity interests of Nanjing Tuniu are held by Messrs. Dunde Yu and Anqiang Chen. The interests of these individuals as the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu may differ from the interests of our company as a whole. These shareholders may breach, or cause Nanjing Tuniu to breach, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and Nanjing Tuniu, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to effectively control Nanjing Tuniu. We cannot assure you that when conflicts of interest arise, any or all of these shareholders will act in the best interests of our company or such conflicts will be resolved in our favor.

Currently, we do not have any arrangements to address potential conflicts of interest between these shareholders and our company, except that we could exercise our purchase option under the purchase option agreement with these shareholders to request them to transfer all of their equity interests in Nanjing Tuniu to a PRC entity or individual designated by us, to the extent permitted by PRC laws. We rely on Mr. Dunde Yu, who is our founder, director and beneficial owner, Mr. Anqiang Chen, who is our Financial Controller to abide by the PRC law. If we cannot resolve any conflict of interest or dispute between us and the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which could result in disruption of our business and subject us to substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

Our contractual arrangements with Nanjing Tuniu and its shareholders may be subject to scrutiny by the PRC tax authorities, and a finding that we owe additional taxes could substantially increase our consolidated net loss and reduce the value of your investment.

Under PRC laws and regulations, arrangements and transactions among related parties may be subject to audit or challenge by the PRC tax authorities. We could face material and adverse tax consequences if the PRC tax authorities determine that the contractual arrangements among Beijing Tuniu, Nanjing Tuniu and the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu do not represent an arm’s-length transaction and adjust Nanjing Tuniu’s income in the form of a transfer pricing adjustment. A transfer pricing adjustment could, among other things, result in a reduction, for PRC tax purposes, of expense deductions recorded by Nanjing Tuniu, which could in turn increase its tax liabilities without reducing our tax liabilities. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may impose late payment fees and other penalties to Nanjing Tuniu for under-paid taxes. Our consolidated net loss may be increased if our tax liabilities increase or if we are found to be subject to late payment fees or other penalties.

If Nanjing Tuniu becomes the subject of a bankruptcy or liquidation proceeding, we may lose the ability to use and enjoy its assets, which could materially and adversely affect our business.

To comply with PRC laws and regulations relating to foreign ownership restrictions in the online value-added telecommunications business, we hold our ICP license and operate our business through contractual arrangements with Nanjing Tuniu as well as its shareholders. As part of these arrangements, Nanjing Tuniu holds assets that are important to the operation of our business.

We do not have priority pledges or liens against Nanjing Tuniu’s assets. As a contractual and property right matter, this lack of priority pledges and liens has remote risks. If Nanjing Tuniu undergoes an involuntary liquidation proceeding, third-party creditors may claim rights to some or all of its assets and we may not have priority against such third-party creditors on Nanjing Tuniu’s assets. If Nanjing Tuniu undergoes a voluntary liquidation, we may take part in the liquidation procedures as a general creditor under the PRC Enterprise Bankruptcy Law and recover any outstanding liabilities owed by Nanjing Tuniu to Beijing Tuniu under the cooperation agreement between them. To ameliorate the risks of an involuntary liquidation proceeding initiated by a third-party creditor, we closely monitor the operations and finances of Nanjing Tuniu through carefully designed budgetary and internal controls to ensure that Nanjing Tuniu is well capitalized and is highly unlikely to trigger any third party monetary claims in excess of its assets and cash resources. Furthermore, Beijing Tuniu has the ability, if necessary, to provide financial support to Nanjing Tuniu to avoid such an involuntary liquidation.

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If the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu were to attempt to voluntarily liquidate Nanjing Tuniu without obtaining our prior consent, we could effectively prevent such unauthorized voluntary liquidation by exercising our right to request Nanjing Tuniu’s shareholders to transfer all of their equity interests to a PRC entity or individual designated by us in accordance with the purchase option agreement with the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu, to the extent permitted by PRC laws. In the event that the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu initiate a voluntary liquidation proceeding without our authorization or attempt to distribute the retained earnings or assets of Nanjing Tuniu without our prior consent, we may need to resort to legal proceedings to enforce the terms of the contractual agreements. Any such legal proceeding may be costly and may divert our management’s time and attention away from the operation of our business, and the outcome of such legal proceeding would be uncertain.

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

Our ADSs may be delisted under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act if the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or the PCAOB, is unable to inspect auditors who are located in China. The delisting of our ADSs, or the threat of their being delisted, may materially and adversely affect the value of your investment. Additionally, the inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections deprives our investors with the benefits of such inspections.

The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the HFCA Act, was enacted on December 18, 2020. The HFCA Act states if the SEC determines that we have filed audit reports issued by a registered public accounting firm that has not been subject to inspection by the PCAOB for three consecutive years beginning in 2021, the SEC shall prohibit our shares or ADSs from being traded on a national securities exchange or in the over the counter trading market in the U.S.

Our auditor, the independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit report included elsewhere in this annual report, as an auditor of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the PCAOB, is subject to laws in the United States pursuant to which the PCAOB conducts regular inspections to assess its compliance with the applicable professional standards. Since our auditor is located in China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB has been unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities, our auditor is currently not inspected by the PCAOB.

On March 24, 2021, the SEC adopted interim final rules relating to the implementation of certain disclosure and documentation requirements of the HFCA Act. We will be required to comply with these rules if the SEC identifies us as having a “non-inspection” year under a process to be subsequently established by the SEC. The SEC is assessing how to implement other requirements of the HFCA Act, including the listing and trading prohibition requirements described above.

The SEC may propose additional rules or guidance that could impact us if our auditor is not subject to PCAOB inspection. For example, on August 6, 2020, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, or the PWG, issued the Report on Protecting United States Investors from Significant Risks from Chinese Companies to the then President of the United States. This report recommended the SEC implement five recommendations to address companies from jurisdictions that do not provide the PCAOB with sufficient access to fulfil its statutory mandate. Some of the concepts of these recommendations were implemented with the enactment of the HFCA Act. However, some of the recommendations were more stringent than the HFCA Act. For example, if a company was not subject to PCAOB inspection, the report recommended that the transition period before a company would be delisted would end on January 1, 2022.

The SEC has announced that the SEC staff is preparing a consolidated proposal for the rules regarding the implementation of the HFCA Act and to address the recommendations in the PWG report. It is unclear when the SEC will complete its rulemaking and when such rules will become effective and what, if any, of the PWG recommendations will be adopted. The implications of this possible regulation in addition the requirements of the HFCA Act are uncertain. Such uncertainty could cause the market price of our ADSs to be materially and adversely affected, and our securities could be delisted or prohibited from being traded “ over-the-counter” earlier than would be required by the HFCA Act. If our securities are unable to be listed on another securities exchange by then, such a delisting would substantially impair your ability to sell or purchase our ADSs when you wish to do so, and the risk and uncertainty associated with a potential delisting would have a negative impact on the price of our ADSs.

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The PCAOB’s inability to conduct inspections in China prevents it from fully evaluating the 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 independent registered public accounting firm’s in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our auditor’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.

In May 2013, the PCAOB announced that it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Enforcement Cooperation with the 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 in the PRC or by the CSRC or the PRC Ministry of Finance in the United States. 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 the PCAOB and audit Chinese companies that trade on U.S. exchanges.

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. Unlike common law systems, it is a system in which legal cases have limited value as precedents. In the late 1970s, the PRC government began to promulgate a comprehensive system of laws and regulations governing economic matters in general. The overall effect of legislation over the past three decades has significantly increased the protections afforded to various forms of foreign or private-sector investment in China. Our PRC subsidiaries and consolidated affiliated entities are subject to various PRC laws and regulations generally applicable to companies in China. However, since these laws and regulations are relatively new and the PRC legal system continues to rapidly evolve, the interpretations of many laws, regulations and rules are not always uniform and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involve uncertainties.

From time to time, we may have to resort to administrative and court proceedings to enforce our legal rights. However, since PRC administrative and court authorities have significant discretion in interpreting and implementing statutory and contractual terms, it may be more difficult to evaluate the outcome of administrative and court proceedings and the level of legal protection we enjoy than in more developed legal systems. 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) that may have retroactive effect. As a result, we may not be aware of our violation of these policies and rules until sometime after the violation. Such uncertainties, including uncertainty over the scope and effect of our contractual, property (including intellectual property) and procedural rights, and any failure to respond to changes in the regulatory environment in China could materially and adversely affect our business and impede our ability to continue our operations.

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

Our business operations are based in China. Accordingly, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be influenced to a significant degree by economic, political and social conditions or government policies in China generally and by continued economic growth in China as a whole.

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

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While the Chinese economy has experienced significant growth over the past decades, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy. Some of the government measures may benefit the overall Chinese economy, but may have a negative effect on us. For example, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by government control over capital investments or changes in tax regulations. The growth rate of the Chinese economy has gradually slowed since 2010, and the COVID-19 pandemic has brough uncertainties to the growth rate of the Chinese economy. Any prolonged slowdown in the Chinese economy may reduce the demand for our products and services and materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations. However, any stimulus measures designed to boost the Chinese economy may contribute to higher inflation, which could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. For example, certain operating costs and expenses, such as employee compensation and office operating expenses, may increase as a result of higher inflation.

A severe or prolonged downturn in the Chinese or global economy could materially and adversely affect the leisure travel industry and our business, results of operations and financial condition.

COVID-19 had a severe and negative impact on the Chinese and the global economy in the fiscal year of 2020. Whether this will lead to a prolonged downturn in the economy is still unknown. Even before the outbreak of the COVID-19, the global macroeconomic environment was facing numerous challenges. The growth rate of the Chinese economy had already been slowing since 2010. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies which had been adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies, including the United States and China. In addition, there have also been concerns about the relationship between China and the United States, resulted from the current trade tension between the two countries. It is unclear whether these challenges and uncertainties will be contained or resolved and what effects they may have on the global political and economic conditions in the long term.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 the leisure travel industry and our business, results of operations and financial condition, and continued turbulence in the international markets may adversely affect our ability to access the capital markets to meet liquidity needs. Our users and business partners may reduce or delay spending with us, while we may have difficulty expanding our user base fast enough, or at all, or to offset the impact of decreased spending by our existing users.

The PRC government regulates travel and other related industries. If we fail to obtain or maintain all pertinent permits and approvals or if the PRC government imposes more restrictions on these industries, our business may be adversely affected.

We are required to obtain applicable permits or approvals from regulatory authorities to conduct our business activities. See “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation.” If we fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals in the future, we may be subject to various penalties, such as fines or suspension of operations in these regulated businesses, which could severely disrupt our business operations. As a result, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

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Under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, we may be classified as a PRC resident enterprise for PRC enterprise income tax purposes. Such classification would likely result in unfavorable tax consequences to us and our non-PRC shareholders and would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations and the value of your investment.

Under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, or the EIT Law and its Implementation Rules, that became effective on January 1, 2008 and was amended in February 2017, December 2018 and April 2019, respectively, an enterprise established outside the PRC with a “de facto management body” within the PRC is considered a PRC resident enterprise for PRC enterprise income tax purposes and is generally subject to a uniform 25% enterprise income tax rate on its worldwide income. Under the implementation rules to the EIT Law, or the Implementation Rules, a “de facto management body” is defined as a body that has material and overall management and control over the manufacturing and business operations, personnel and human resources, finances and properties of an enterprise. In addition, SAT Circular 82, which was issued in April 2009 and was amended in December 2017 by the State Administration of Taxation, or the SAT, specifies that certain offshore incorporated enterprises controlled by PRC enterprises or PRC enterprise groups will be classified as PRC resident enterprises if all of the following conditions are met: (a) senior management personnel and core management departments in charge of the daily operations of the enterprises have their presence mainly in the PRC; (b) their financial and human resources decisions are subject to determination or approval by persons or bodies in the PRC; (c) major assets, accounting books and company seals of the enterprises, and minutes and files of their board’s and shareholders’ meetings are located or kept in the PRC; and (d) half or more of the enterprises’ directors or senior management personnel with voting rights habitually reside in the PRC. Further to SAT Circular 82, the SAT issued SAT Bulletin 45, which took effect on September 1, 2011, to provide more guidance on the implementation of SAT Circular 82 and clarify the reporting and filing obligations of such “Chinese-controlled offshore-incorporated resident enterprises.” SAT Bulletin 45 provides procedures and administrative details for the determination of PRC resident enterprise status and administration on post-determination matters. Although both SAT Circular 82 and SAT Bulletin 45 only apply to offshore enterprises controlled by PRC enterprises or PRC enterprise groups, not those controlled by PRC individuals or foreign individuals like us, the determining criteria set forth in SAT Circular 82 and SAT Bulletin 45 may reflect the SAT’s general position on how the “de facto management body” test should be applied in determining the PRC resident enterprise status of offshore enterprises, regardless of whether they are controlled by PRC enterprises, PRC enterprise groups or by PRC or foreign individuals.

We do not believe that Tuniu Corporation meets all of the conditions above and thus we do not believe that it is a PRC resident enterprise for PRC enterprise income tax purposes, despite the fact that all of the members of our management team as well as the management team of Tuniu (HK) Limited are located in China. However, if the PRC tax authorities determine that it is a PRC resident enterprise for PRC enterprise income tax purposes, a number of unfavorable PRC tax consequences could follow. First, we will be subject to the uniform 25% enterprise income tax on our worldwide income, which could materially reduce our net income. In addition, we will also be subject to PRC enterprise income tax reporting obligations. Second, although dividends paid by one PRC tax resident to another PRC tax resident should qualify as “tax-exempt income” under the EIT Law, we cannot assure you that such dividends will not be subject to a 10% withholding tax, as the PRC foreign exchange control authorities, which enforce the withholding tax on dividends, and the PRC tax authorities have not yet issued guidance with respect to the processing of outbound remittances to entities that are not controlled by any PRC enterprise or PRC enterprise group and treated as PRC resident enterprises for PRC enterprise income tax purposes.

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Under the EIT Law and its Implementation Rules, subject to any applicable tax treaty or similar arrangement between the PRC and our investors’ jurisdiction of residence that provides for a different income tax arrangement, PRC withholding tax at the rate of 10% is normally applicable to dividends from PRC sources payable to investors that are non-PRC resident enterprises, which do not have an establishment or place of business in the PRC, or which have such establishment or place of business if the relevant income is not effectively connected with the establishment or place of business. Any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or shares by such non-PRC resident enterprise investors is also subject to 10% PRC income tax if such gain is regarded as income derived from sources within the PRC unless a tax treaty or similar arrangement otherwise provides. Under the PRC Individual Income Tax Law and its implementation rules, dividends from sources within the PRC paid to foreign individual investors who are not PRC residents are generally subject to a PRC withholding tax at a rate of 20% and gains from PRC sources realized by such investors on the transfer of ADSs or shares are generally subject to 20% PRC income tax, in each case, subject to any reduction or exemption set forth in applicable tax treaties and PRC laws. It is also unclear whether dividends we pay with respect to our ordinary shares or ADSs, or the gain realized from the transfer of our ordinary shares or ADSs, would be treated as income derived from sources within the PRC and as a result be subject to PRC income tax if we were considered a PRC resident enterprise, as described above. If PRC income tax were imposed on gains realized through the transfer of our ADSs or ordinary shares or on dividends paid to our non-PRC resident investors, the value of the investment in our ADSs or ordinary shares may be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, our ADS holders whose jurisdictions of residence have tax treaties or arrangements with China may not qualify for benefits under such tax treaties or arrangements.

We face uncertainty regarding the PRC tax reporting obligations and consequences for certain indirect transfers of our operating company’s equity interests. Enhanced scrutiny over acquisition transactions by the PRC tax authorities may have a negative impact on potential acquisitions we may pursue in the future.

According to the Announcement of the SAT on Several Issues Concerning the Enterprise Income Tax on Indirect Property Transfer by Non-Resident Enterprises (“Bulletin 7”) promulgated by the SAT in February 2015, which has been further amended by Bulletin 37 issued by the SAT in October 2017 and amended in June 2018, if a non-resident enterprise transfers the equity interests of a PRC resident enterprise indirectly by transfer of the equity interests of an offshore holding company (other than a purchase and sale of shares issued by a PRC resident enterprise in public stock market ) without a reasonable commercial purpose, the PRC tax authorities have the discretion to reassess the nature of the transaction and the indirect equity transfer will be treated as a direct transfer. As a result, gains derived from such transfer, which means the equity transfer price minus the cost of equity, will be subject to PRC withholding tax at a rate of up to 10%. Under the terms of Bulletin 7, as amended, the transfer that meets all of the following conditions shall be directly deemed as having no reasonable commercial purposes: (i) more than 75% of the value of the equity interests of the offshore holding company are directly or indirectly derived from PRC taxable properties; (ii) at any time during the year before the indirect transfer, over 90% of the total properties of the offshore holding company are investments within PRC territory, or in the year before the indirect transfer, over 90% of the offshore holding company’s revenue is directly or indirectly derived from PRC territory; (iii) the function performed and risks assumed by the offshore holding company are insufficient to substantiate its corporate existence; or (iv) the foreign income tax imposed on the indirect transfer is lower than the PRC tax imposed on the direct transfer of the PRC taxable properties.

There is uncertainty as to the interpretation and application of Bulletin 7, as amended. If an Indirect Transfer occurs for us, we and our non-PRC resident investors may be at risk of being taxed under Bulletin 7, as amended, and we may be required to expend valuable resources to comply with Bulletin 7, as amended or to establish that we should not be taxed under Bulletin 7, as amended.

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PRC regulations establish complex procedures for some acquisitions of PRC companies by foreign investors, which could make it more difficult for us to pursue growth through acquisitions in China.

Six PRC regulatory agencies promulgated the Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Companies by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, which became effective on September 8, 2006 and was subsequently amended on June 22, 2009, with such amendments becoming effective as of the same date. See “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation.” The M&A Rules establish procedures and requirements that could make some acquisitions of PRC companies by foreign investors more time-consuming and complex, including requirements in some instances that the MOC be notified in advance of any change-of-control transaction in which a foreign investor takes control of a PRC domestic enterprise.

In addition, national security review rules issued by the PRC governmental authorities in 2011 require acquisitions by foreign investors of domestic companies engaged in military-related or certain other industries that are crucial to national security to be subject to prior security review. According to the Measures for the Security Review of Foreign Investment, or the Security Review Measures, promulgated by the NDRC and the MOC on December 19, 2020 and effective as of January 18, 2021, investments in military, national defense-related areas or in locations in proximity to military facilities, or investments that would result in acquiring the actual control of assets in certain key sectors, such as critical agricultural products, energy and resources, equipment manufacturing, infrastructure, transport, cultural products and services, information technology, Internet products and services, financial services and technology sectors, are required to obtain approval from designated governmental authorities in advance. See also “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation—Foreign Investment in Value-Added Telecommunications Services.”

Moreover, the PRC Anti-Monopoly Law requires that the State Administration of Market Regulation, or SAMR, shall be notified in advance of any concentration of undertaking if certain thresholds are triggered. In early November 2020, the SAMR further published a draft 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. These draft guidelines are now open for public comment and are pending finalization and enactment, and we cannot assure you that there will not be any material changes in the final form of these draft guidelines. We may expand our business in part by acquiring complementary businesses. 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, complying with the requirements of the M&A Rules, security review rules and other PRC regulations to complete such transactions could be time-consuming, and any required approval processes, including obtaining approval from the SAMR, may delay or inhibit our ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share. If we are found to have violated the PRC Anti-Monopoly Law for failing to file the notification of concentration and request for review, we could be subject to a fine of up to RMB500,000, and the parts of the transaction causing the prohibited concentration could be ordered to be unwound. Such unwinding could affect our business and financial results, and harm our reputation.

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PRC regulations relating to offshore investment activities by PRC residents may limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to increase their registered capital or distribute profits to us, limit our ability to inject capital into our PRC subsidiaries, or otherwise expose us to liabilities and penalties under PRC laws.

The PRC State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or the SAFE, promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37, on July 4, 2014, which replaced the former circular commonly known as “SAFE Circular 75” promulgated by SAFE in October, 2005. SAFE Circular 37 requires PRC residents to register with local branches of SAFE in connection with their direct establishment or indirect control of an offshore entity for the purpose of overseas investment and financing, with assets or equity interests of onshore companies or offshore assets or interests held by the PRC residents, referred to in SAFE Circular 37 as a “special purpose vehicle.” SAFE Circular 37 further requires amendment to the registration in the event of any significant changes with respect to the special purpose vehicle, such as increases or decreases in capital contributed by PRC residents, transfers or exchanges of shares, mergers, divisions, or other material changes. The term “control” under SAFE Circular 37 is broadly defined as the operation rights, beneficiary rights or decision-making rights acquired by the PRC residents in special purpose vehicles or PRC companies by such means as acquisition, trust, proxy, voting rights, repurchase, convertible bonds or other arrangements.

If our shareholders or beneficial owners who are PRC citizens or residents do not complete their registration with the local SAFE branches, our PRC subsidiaries may be prohibited from distributing their profits and proceeds from any reduction in capital, share transfer or liquidation to us, and we may be restricted in our ability to contribute additional capital to our PRC subsidiaries. Moreover, failure to comply with the various SAFE registration requirements described above could result in liabilities for our PRC subsidiaries under PRC laws for evasion of applicable foreign exchange restrictions, including (1) the requirement by SAFE to return the foreign exchange remitted overseas within a period specified by SAFE, with a fine of up to 30% of the total amount of foreign exchange remitted overseas and deemed to have been evasive and (2) in circumstances involving serious violations, a fine of no less than 30% of and up to the total amount of remitted foreign exchange deemed evasive. Furthermore, the persons-in-charge and other persons at our PRC subsidiaries who are held directly liable for the violations may be subject to criminal sanctions.

SAFE Circular 37 provides that PRC residents include both PRC citizens, meaning any individual who holds a PRC passport or resident identification card, and individuals who are non-PRC citizens but primarily reside in the PRC due to their economic ties to the PRC. We have requested all of our known current shareholders and/or beneficial owners to disclose whether they or their shareholders or beneficial owners fall within the ambit of SAFE Circular 37 and other related rules, and urged relevant shareholders and beneficial owners, upon learning they are PRC residents, to make the necessary applications, filings and amendments as required under SAFE Circular 37 and other related rules. However, we cannot assure you that they did successfully amend their foreign exchange registrations with the local SAFE branch in compliance with applicable laws after our initial public offering. In addition, we may not be informed of the identities of all the PRC residents holding direct or indirect interests in our company, and we cannot compel our beneficial owners to comply with the requirements of SAFE Circular 37. As a result, we cannot assure you that all of our shareholders or beneficial owners who are PRC residents have complied with and will in the future comply with our requests to make or obtain any applicable registrations or comply with other requirements required by SAFE Circular 37 or other related rules. A failure by any of our current or future shareholders or beneficial owners who are PRC residents to comply with the SAFE regulations may subject us to fines or other legal sanctions, restrict our cross-border investment activities, limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to make distributions or pay dividends or affect our ownership structure, which could adversely affect our business and prospects.

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Furthermore, since it is unclear how SAFE Circular 37 and any future regulation concerning offshore or cross-border transactions will be interpreted, amended and implemented by the relevant government authorities. We cannot predict how these regulations will affect our business operations or future strategy. For example, we may be subject to a more stringent review and approval process with respect to our foreign exchange activities, such as remittance of dividends and foreign-currency-denominated borrowings, which may adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, if we decide to acquire a PRC domestic company, either we or the owners of such company, as the case may be, may not be able to obtain the necessary approvals or complete the necessary filings and registrations required by the foreign exchange regulations. This may restrict our ability to implement our acquisition strategy and could adversely affect our business and prospects.

Failure to comply with PRC regulations regarding the registration requirements for share option plans may subject the PRC plan participants or us to fines and other legal or administrative sanctions.

In February 2012, SAFE promulgated the Notices on Issues Concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Companies, or the Stock Option Rules. Under the Stock Option Rules and other relevant rules and regulations, PRC residents who participate in stock incentive plans in an overseas publicly-listed company are required to register with SAFE or its local branches and complete certain other procedures. Participants of a stock incentive plan who are PRC residents must retain a qualified PRC agent, which could be a PRC subsidiary of the overseas publicly-listed company or another qualified institution selected by the PRC subsidiary, to conduct the SAFE registration and other procedures with respect to the stock incentive plan on behalf of its participants. The participants must also retain an overseas entrusted institution to handle matters in connection with their exercise of stock options, the purchase and sale of corresponding stocks or interests and fund transfers. In addition, the PRC agent is required to amend the SAFE registration with respect to the stock incentive plan if there is any material change to the stock incentive plan, the PRC agent or the overseas entrusted institution or other material changes. See “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation—Regulations on Employee Stock Option Plans.”

We and our PRC employees who have been granted share options are subject to these regulations and Beijing Tuniu as an agent has registered with the Beijing Branch of SAFE in connection with the 2008 Plan and the 2014 Plan. We have advised our employees and directors participating in our share incentive plans to handle foreign exchange matters in accordance with the Stock Option Rules. However, we cannot assure you that the share option holders can successfully register with SAFE in full compliance with the Stock Option Rules for material changes of the granted share options. Failure of our PRC share option holders or restricted shareholders to complete their SAFE registrations may subject these PRC residents to fines and legal sanctions and may also limit our ability to contribute additional capital into our PRC subsidiaries, limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to distribute dividends to us, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business.

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PRC regulation of direct investment and loans by offshore holding companies to PRC entities and governmental control of currency conversion may delay or limit us from using the proceeds of our financing activities, or making additional capital contributions or loans to our PRC subsidiaries and our consolidated affiliated entities.

Any capital contributions or loans that we, as an offshore entity, make to our PRC subsidiaries and PRC consolidated affiliated entities, including from the proceeds of our financing activities, such as our private placements, are subject to PRC laws and regulations. Under PRC laws and regulations, we are permitted to utilize such proceeds to fund our existing PRC subsidiaries and PRC consolidated affiliated entities only through loans or capital contributions or to establish new PRC subsidiaries or new PRC consolidated affiliated entities, subject to applicable government registration and approval requirements. Currently, there is no statutory limit to the amount of funding that we can provide to our PRC subsidiaries through capital contributions. However, the maximum amount we can loan to our PRC subsidiaries and consolidated affiliated entities is subject to statutory limits. According to current PRC laws and regulations, we can provide funding to our PRC subsidiaries through loans of up to either (i) the amount of the difference between the respective registered total investment amount and registered capital of each of our PRC subsidiaries, or the Total Investment and Registered Capital Balance, or (ii) two times, or the then applicable statutory multiple, the amount of their respective net assets, calculated in accordance with PRC GAAP, or the Net Assets Limit, at our election. We may also fund our PRC consolidated affiliated entities through cross-border loans and the maximum amount would be their respective Net Assets Limit. Increasing the Total Investment and Registered Capital Balance of our PRC subsidiaries is subject to governmental procedures and may require a PRC subsidiary to increase its registered capital at the same time. If we choose to make a loan to a PRC subsidiary or PRC consolidated affiliated entity based on its Net Assets Limit, the maximum amount we would be able to loan to the relevant PRC subsidiary or PRC consolidated affiliated entity would depend on the relevant PRC entity’s net assets and the applicable statutory multiple at the time of calculation. PRC laws and regulations may also impose more stringent limitations to cross-border loans, which will also have negative impact on our ability to fund our PRC entities.

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In August 2008, SAFE promulgated a SAFE Circular 142 regulating the conversion by a foreign-invested enterprise of foreign currency registered capital into Renminbi by restricting how the converted Renminbi may be used. SAFE Circular 142 provides that the Renminbi capital converted from foreign currency registered capital of a foreign-invested enterprise may only be used for purposes within the business scope approved by the applicable government authority and unless otherwise provided by law, such Renminbi capital may not be used for equity investments in the PRC. Although on July 4, 2014, the SAFE issued the Circular of the SAFE on Relevant Issues Concerning the Pilot Reform in Certain Areas of the Administrative Method of the Conversion of Foreign Exchange Funds by Foreign-invested Enterprises, or SAFE Circular 36, which launched a pilot reform of the administration of the settlement of the foreign exchange capitals of foreign-invested enterprises in certain designated areas from August 4, 2014 and some of the restrictions under SAFE Circular 142 will not apply to the settlement of the foreign exchange capitals of the foreign-invested enterprises established within the designate areas and such enterprises are allowed to use its Renminbi capital converted from foreign exchange capitals to make equity investment, our PRC subsidiary is not established within the designated areas. On March 30, 2015, SAFE promulgated Circular 19, to expand the reform nationwide. Circular 19 came into force and replaced both Circular 142 and Circular 36 on June 1, 2015. Circular 19 allows foreign-invested enterprises to make equity investments by using Renminbi fund converted from foreign exchange capital. However, Circular 19 continues to prohibit foreign-invested enterprises from, among other things, using Renminbi fund converted from its foreign exchange capitals for expenditure beyond its business scope, providing entrusted loans or repaying loans between non-financial enterprises. In June 2016, SAFE promulgated Notice on Reforming and Standardizing the Administrative Provisions on Capital Account Foreign Exchange Settlement which further stipulates that foreign-invested enterprises shall not use Renminbi fund converted from foreign exchange capital for providing loans to non-affiliated enterprises, except as otherwise expressly permitted under its business scope. In addition, SAFE strengthened its oversight of the flow and use of the Renminbi capital converted from foreign currency registered capital of a foreign-invested company. The business scopes of Beijing Tuniu and Tuniu (Nanjing) Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Tuniu Nanjing Information Technology, include research and development of computer software, network information technology products, computer application systems, e-commerce systems, network security systems and computer system integration; technology services, consulting and transfers; sales of self-developed products; investment consulting; business information consulting; and conference services and public relations advice. Beijing Tuniu and Tuniu Nanjing Information Technology may only use Renminbi converted from foreign exchange capital contribution for activities within their respective approved business scope. In addition, the use of such Renminbi capital may not be altered without SAFE approval, and such Renminbi capital may not in any case be used to repay Renminbi loans if the proceeds of such loans have not been used. Violations of these Circulars could result in severe monetary or other penalties. If we convert the net proceeds we receive from our financing activities, such as our private placement into Renminbi pursuant to these Circulars, our use of Renminbi funds for general corporate purposes must be within the business scopes of our PRC subsidiaries.

Our PRC subsidiaries are subject to restrictions on paying dividends or making other payments to us, which may restrict our ability to satisfy our liquidity requirements.

We are a holding company incorporated in the Cayman Islands. We may need dividends and other distributions on equity from our PRC subsidiaries to satisfy our liquidity requirements. Current PRC regulations permit our PRC subsidiaries to pay dividends to us only out of their accumulated profits, if any, as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, our PRC subsidiaries are required to set aside at least 10% of their respective accumulated profits each year, if any, to fund certain reserve funds until the total amount set aside reaches 50% of their respective registered capital. Our PRC subsidiaries may also allocate a portion of its after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to employee welfare and bonus funds at their discretion. These reserves are not distributable as cash dividends. Furthermore, 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 payments to us. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may require us to adjust our taxable income under the contractual arrangements among Beijing Tuniu, Nanjing Tuniu and the shareholders of Nanjing Tuniu in a manner that would materially and adversely affect Beijing Tuniu’s ability to pay dividends and other distributions to us. Any limitation on the ability of our subsidiaries to distribute dividends to us or on the ability of Nanjing Tuniu to make payments to us may restrict our ability to satisfy our liquidity requirements.

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We may not be able to obtain certain treaty benefits on dividends paid to us by our PRC subsidiaries through our Hong Kong subsidiary.

Under the EIT Law, dividends generated from retained earnings after January 1, 2008 from a PRC company and distributed to a foreign parent company are subject to a withholding tax rate of 10% unless the foreign parent’s jurisdiction of incorporation has a tax treaty with China that provides for a preferential withholding arrangement. Pursuant to the Arrangement between Mainland China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region for the Avoidance of Double Taxation and Prevention of Fiscal Evasion with respect to Taxes on Income, or the Hong Kong Tax Treaty, which became effective on December 8, 2006, a company incorporated in Hong Kong, such as Tuniu (HK) Limited, will be subject to withholding income tax at a rate of 5% on dividends it receives from its PRC subsidiaries, if it holds a 25% or more interest in that particular PRC subsidiary, or 10% if it holds less than a 25% interest in that subsidiary. However, the SAT promulgated SAT Circular 9 on February 3, 2018, which became effective from April 2018 and replaced Circular 601 issued by SAT on October 27, 2009 and the Announcement of the SAT regarding Recognition of “Beneficial Owner” under Tax Treaties, or Announcement 30 issued on June 29, 2012. Circular 9 stipulates that in determining whether a non-resident enterprise has the status as a beneficial owner, comprehensive analysis shall be conducted based on the factors provided in Circular 9 and the actual circumstances of the specific case shall be taken into consideration. Specifically, Circular 9 expressly excludes an agent or a designated payee from being considered as a “beneficial owner.” As a result, although our PRC subsidiaries, Beijing Tuniu and Tuniu Nanjing Information Technology, are currently wholly owned by our Hong Kong subsidiary, Tuniu (HK) Limited, we cannot assure you that we would be entitled to the tax treaty benefits and enjoy the favorable 5% rate applicable under the Hong Kong Tax Treaty. If Tuniu (HK) Limited is not recognized as the beneficial owner of the dividends paid to it by Beijing Tuniu or Tuniu Nanjing Information Technology, such dividends will be subject to a normal withholding tax of 10% as provided by the EIT Law.

Discontinuation or revocation of any of the preferential tax treatments and government subsidies or imposition of any additional taxes or surcharges could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Our PRC subsidiaries are incorporated in the PRC and governed by applicable PRC tax laws and regulations. The EIT Law and its Implementation Rules have adopted a uniform statutory enterprise income tax rate of 25% to all enterprises in China, including foreign-invested enterprises. The EIT Law and its Implementation Rules also permit qualified “high and new technology enterprises,” or HNTEs, to enjoy a preferential enterprise income tax rate of 15% upon filing with the relevant tax authorities. The qualification as a HNTE is generally effective for a term of three years and the renewal of such qualification is subject to review by the relevant authorities in China. Nanjing Tuniu originally obtained its HNTE certificate in 2010 with a valid period of three years and successfully obtained the third renewal of such certificate in December 2019 for another three years. Tuniu Nanjing Information Technology obtained its HNTE certificate in 2017 with a valid period of three years and successfully obtained the first renewal of such certificate in December 2020 for another three years. Beijing Tuniu also obtained its HNTE certificate in November 2018. Therefore, Nanjing Tuniu, Tuniu Nanjing Information Technology and Beijing Tuniu were eligible to enjoy a preferential tax rate of 15% in 2020 to the extent they have taxable income under the EIT Law, as long as they maintain the HNTE qualifications and duly conduct relevant EIT filing procedures with the relevant tax authorities. If Nanjing Tuniu, Tuniu Nanjing Information Technology and Beijing Tuniu fail to maintain their HNTE qualifications or renew their qualifications when their current terms expire, they will lose the current preferential tax treatments and their applicable enterprise income tax rates may increase to 25%, which could have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, our PRC subsidiaries have received various financial subsidies from PRC local government authorities. Preferential tax treatments and financial subsidies are subject to review and may be adjusted or revoked at any time in the future. The discontinuation of any preferential tax treatments or financial subsidies or imposition of any additional taxes or surcharges could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

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

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

Any significant appreciation or depreciation of Renminbi may materially and adversely affect our revenues, earnings and financial position, and the value of, and any dividends payable on, our ADSs in U.S. dollars. For example, a significant depreciation of Renminbi against the U.S. dollar may significantly reduce the U.S. dollar equivalent of our earnings, which in turn could adversely affect the price of our ADSs.

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

The approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission may have been required in connection with our earlier initial public offering under a regulation adopted in August 2006, and, if required, we cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain such approval.

The M&A Rules, among other things, require offshore special purpose vehicles controlled by PRC companies or individuals formed for the purpose of an overseas listing of such PRC companies’ or individuals’ interests in PRC domestic companies to obtain the CSRC’s approval prior to listing their securities on an overseas stock exchange. The application of this regulation remains unclear. Our PRC counsel, Fangda Partners, has advised us that, based on its understanding of the current PRC laws, rules and regulations, we are not required to submit an application to the CSRC for its approval of the listing and trading of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Global Market, because:

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There is uncertainty as to how this regulation will be interpreted or implemented. If it is determined that the CSRC approval was required for our initial public offering, we may face sanctions by the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies for failure to seek the CSRC’s approval for our initial public offering. These sanctions may include fines and penalties on our operations in the PRC, delays or restrictions on the repatriation of the proceeds from our initial public offering into the PRC, restrictions on or prohibition of the payments or remittance of dividends by our PRC subsidiaries, or other actions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, reputation and prospects, as well as the trading price of our ADSs.

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Online payment systems in China are at the stage of development and may restrict our ability to expand our online business.

Online payment systems in China are at the stage of development. Although major Chinese banks are instituting online payment systems, these systems are not as widely acceptable to consumers in China as in the United States and other developed countries. The lack of wide acceptance of online payment systems and concerns regarding the adequacy of system security may limit the number of online commercial transactions that we can service. If online payment services and their security capabilities are not significantly enhanced, our ability to grow our online business may be limited.

Regulation and censorship of information distribution over the Internet in China may adversely affect our business, and we may be liable for information displayed on, retrieved from or linked to our website.

The PRC government has adopted regulations governing Internet access and the distribution of information over the Internet. Under these regulations, Internet content providers and Internet publishers are prohibited from posting or displaying over the Internet content that, among other things, violates PRC laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of China or the public interest, or is reactionary, obscene, superstitious, fraudulent or defamatory. Failure to comply with these regulations may result in confiscation of income, fines, suspension of business, revocation of licenses to provide Internet content and other licenses, the closure of the concerned websites, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial conditions and results of operations. A website operator may also be held liable for such censored information displayed on or linked to its website. For a detailed discussion, see “Item 4.B. Information on the Company—Business Overview—PRC Regulation—Regulations on Information Security and Censorship.” We have a team dedicated to screening and monitoring content published on our online platform and removing prohibited content. However, we may have difficulty identifying and removing all illegal content displayed on or linked to our website, which could expose us to the penalties described above.

Increases in labor costs in the PRC may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

The economy of China has been experiencing increases in inflation and labor costs in recent years. As a result, the average wage in the PRC is expected to continue to grow. In addition, we are required by PRC laws and regulations to pay various statutory employee benefits, including pensions, housing fund, medical insurance, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance to designated government agencies for the benefit of our employees. The relevant government agencies may examine whether an employer has made adequate payments of the requisite statutory employee benefits, and those employers who fail to make adequate payments may be subject to late payment fees, fines and/or other penalties. If the relevant PRC authorities determine that we shall make supplemental social insurance and housing fund contributions and that we are subject to fines and legal sanctions, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. We expect that our labor costs, including wages and employee benefits, will continue to increase. Unless we are able to pass on these increased labor costs to our customers by increasing the prices of our products and services, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We face certain risks relating to the real properties that we lease.

We lease real properties from third parties primarily for our office use in the PRC. Our leasehold interests in a number of these leased properties may be defective as a result of the lessors’ lack of proper title or right to lease. As a result, we cannot assure you that our leasehold interests will not be challenged. In addition, we have not registered the vast majority of our lease agreements with the relevant PRC governmental authorities as required by PRC law, and although failure to do so does not in itself invalidate the leases, we may not be able to defend these leases against bona fide third parties. As of the date of this annual report, we are not subject to any material actions, claims or investigations pending or threatened in writing by government authorities or third parties with respect to defects in our leased properties. However, if third parties who purport to be property owners or beneficiaries of the mortgaged properties challenge our right to lease these properties, we may not be able to protect our leasehold interests and may be ordered to vacate the affected premises, which could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

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Additional remedial measures could be imposed on certain PRC-based accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, in administrative proceedings instituted by the SEC, as a result of which our financial statements may be determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, if at all.

In December 2012, the SEC brought administrative proceedings against the PRC-based affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, alleging that they had violated U.S. securities laws by failing to provide audit work papers and other documents related to certain other PRC-based companies under investigation by the SEC. On January 22, 2014, an initial administrative law decision was issued, censuring and suspending these accounting firms from practicing before the SEC for a period of six months. The decision was neither final nor legally effective until reviewed and approved by the SEC, and on February 12, 2014, the PRC-based accounting firms appealed to the SEC against this decision. In February 2015, each of the four PRC-based accounting firms agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC. The settlement requires the firms to follow detailed procedures to seek to provide the SEC with access to such firms’ audit documents via the CSRC. If these accounting firms failed to meet the specified criteria during a period of four years starting from the settlement date, or if there was a failure in the process between the SEC and the CSRC, the SEC retained authority to impose a variety of additional remedial measures on the accounting firms depending on the nature of the failure. Under the terms of the settlement, the underlying proceeding against the four PRC-based accounting firms was deemed dismissed with prejudice at the end of four years starting from the settlement date, which was February 6, 2019. While we cannot predict if the SEC will further challenge the four PRC-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 SEC requirements could ultimately lead to our delisting from the Nasdaq Global Market or deregistration from the SEC, or both, which would substantially reduce or effectively terminate the trading of our ADSs in the United States.

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

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

Rising political tension, particularly between U.S. and China, may adversely impact our business, financial condition, and results of operations.

Political tensions between the United States and China have escalated due to, among other things, trade disputes, the COVID-19 outbreak and spread, sanctions imposed by the U.S. Department of Treasury on certain officials of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the central government of the PRC and the executive orders issued by U.S. President Donald J. Trump in August 2020 that prohibit certain transactions with certain Chinese companies and their applications. Rising political tensions could reduce levels of trades, investments, technological exchanges and other economic activities between the two major economies, which would have a material adverse effect on global economic conditions and the stability of global financial markets. Any of these factors could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

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Risks Related to Our ADSs

Our ADSs may be delisted from the Nasdaq Global Market as a result of our failure of meeting the Nasdaq Global Market continued listing requirements.

Our ADSs are currently listed on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “TOUR.” We must continue to meet the requirements set forth in Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550 to remain listing on the Nasdaq Global Market. The listing standards of the Nasdaq Global Market provide that a company, in order to qualify for continued listing, must maintain a minimum ADS price of US$1.00 and various additional requirements. On May 18, 2020, we received a letter from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq, pursuant to which Nasdaq notified us that the closing bid price per ADS was below the minimum bid price of US$1.00 for a period of 30 consecutive business days and we did not meet the minimum bid price required for continued listing under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(a)(1). Due to the tolling of compliance period through June 30, 2020, as determined by Nasdaq, we had until December 28, 2020, to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s minimum bid price requirement. We received a notification letter from the Listing Qualifications Department of Nasdaq dated June 26, 2020 notifying us that we have regained compliance with the Nasdaq Listing Rule 5450(a)(1). If we fail to satisfy Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements going forward and fail to regain compliance on a timely basis, our ADSs could be delisted from Nasdaq Global Market.

The trading prices of our ADSs have fluctuated and may continue to be volatile.

The trading prices of our ADSs have fluctuated since we first listed our ADSs. From the time our ADSs became listed on Nasdaq on May 9, 2014 through April 28, 2021, the trading price of our ADSs has ranged from US$24.99 to US$0.75 per ADS, and the last reported trading price on April 28, 2021 was US$3.01 per ADS. The prices of our ADSs may continue to fluctuate because of broad market and industry factors, like the performance and fluctuation of the market prices of other companies with business operations located mainly in China that have listed their securities in the United States. The widespread negative publicity of alleged fraudulent accounting practices and poor corporate governance of certain U.S. public companies with operations in China in recent years were believed to have negatively affected investors’ perception and sentiment towards companies with connection with China, which significantly and negatively affected the trading prices of some companies’ securities listed in the U.S. Any similar negative publicity or sentiment may affect the performances of our ADSs. The trading prices of our ADSs may also be affected by changes in the U.S. stock markets in general. Furthermore, securities markets may from time to time experience significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to our operating performance, such as the large decline in share prices in the United States, China and other jurisdictions in late 2008, early 2009 and the second half of 2011, which may have a material adverse effect on the market price of our ADSs. The securities of some PRC companies that have listed their securities on U.S. stock markets have experienced significant volatility. The trading performances of these PRC companies’ securities after their initial public offerings may affect the attitudes of investors toward PRC companies listed in the United States in general and consequently may impact the trading performance of our ADSs, regardless of our actual operating performance.

In addition to market and industry factors, the price and trading volume for our ADSs may be highly volatile for factors specific to our own operations, including the following:

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Any of these factors may result in large and sudden changes in the volume and price at which our ADSs trade.

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or reports about our business, or if they adversely change their recommendations regarding our ADSs, the market price for our ADSs and trading volume could decline.

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

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 A ordinary shares and ADSs may view as beneficial.

Our ordinary shares are divided into Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Holders of Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote per share, while holders of Class B ordinary shares are entitled to ten votes per share, with Class A and Class B ordinary shares voting together as one class on all matters subject to a shareholders’ vote. Due to the disparate voting powers attached to these two classes of ordinary shares, holders of our Class B ordinary shares collectively beneficially owned approximately 4.69% of our outstanding ordinary shares as of February 28, 2021, representing 32.97% of our total voting power. As of February 28, 2021, our directors and officers beneficially own an aggregate of 64.9% of our outstanding shares representing 63.4% of our total voting power.

As a result of the dual class share structure and the concentration of ownership, holders of our Class B ordinary shares have substantial influence over our business, including decisions regarding mergers, consolidations and the sale of all or substantially all of our assets, election of directors and other significant corporate actions. They may take actions that are not in the best interest of us or our other shareholders. This concentration of ownership may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, which could deprive our shareholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares as part of a sale of our company and may reduce the price of our ADSs. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and could discourage others from pursuing any potential merger, takeover or other change of control transactions that holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs may view as beneficial. For more information regarding our principal shareholders and their affiliated entities, see “Item 7.A. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—Major Shareholders.”

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

Sales of substantial amounts of our ADSs in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our ADSs and could materially impair our ability to raise capital through equity offerings in the future. As of February 28, 2021, we had 370,545,883 ordinary shares outstanding, comprising of (i) 353,172,383 Class A ordinary shares (excluding the 18,785,661 Class A ordinary shares, represented by 6,261,887 ADSs, repurchased and reserved for the future exercise of options or the vesting of other awards under the 2008 Plan and the 2014 Plan), and (ii) 17,373,500 Class B ordinary shares. Among these shares, 88,047,546 Class A ordinary shares are in the form of ADSs, which are freely transferable by persons other than our affiliates without restriction or additional registration under the Securities Act. The remaining Class A ordinary shares outstanding will be available for sale, subject to volume and other restrictions as applicable under Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act. We cannot predict what effect, if any, market sales of securities held by our significant shareholders or any other shareholder or the availability of these securities for future sale will have on the market price of our ADSs. In addition, certain holders of our Class B ordinary shares are entitled to certain registration rights in the event that specified conditions are met, including demand registration rights, piggyback registration rights, and Form F-3 registration rights. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in these shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act immediately upon the effectiveness of the registration. Sales of these registered shares in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, could cause the price of our ADSs to decline.

We believe that we were a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for United States federal income tax purposes for the taxable year ended December 31, 2020, which could result in adverse United States federal income tax consequences to United States investors in the ADSs or ordinary shares.

Under United States federal income tax law, we will be classified as a “passive foreign investment company,” or PFIC, for any taxable year, if either (a) 75% or more of our gross income for such year consists of certain types of “passive” income or (b) 50% or more of the value of our assets (generally determined on the basis of a quarterly average) during such year is attributable to assets that produce or are held for the production of passive income (the “asset test”). Although the law in this regard is unclear, we treat our consolidated affiliated entities as being owned by us for United States federal income tax purposes, not only because we exercise effective control over their operations, but also because we are entitled to substantially all of their economic benefits, and, as a result, we consolidate their operating results in our consolidated financial statements.

Based on the market price of our ADSs and the composition of our assets (in particular the substantial amount of cash, deposits and investments), we believe that we were a PFIC for United States federal income tax purposes for the taxable year ended December 31, 2020 , and we will likely be a PFIC for our current taxable year ending December 31, 2021 unless the market price of our ADSs increases and/or we invest a substantial amount of the cash and other passive assets we hold in assets that produce or are held for the production of active income.

If we are classified as a PFIC in any taxable year, a U.S. Holder (as defined in “Item 10.E. Additional Information—Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations”) may incur significantly increased United States federal income tax on gain recognized on the sale or other disposition of the ADSs or ordinary shares and on the receipt of distributions on the ADSs or ordinary shares to the extent such gain or distribution is treated as an “excess distribution” under the United States federal income tax rules, and such U.S. Holders may be subject to burdensome reporting requirements. Further, if we are classified as a PFIC for any year during which a U.S. Holder holds our ADSs or ordinary shares, we generally will continue to be treated as a PFIC for all succeeding years during which such U.S. Holder holds our ADSs or ordinary shares. We do not intend to provide information necessary for U.S. Holders to make qualified electing fund elections which, if available, would result in tax treatment different from (and generally less adverse than) the general tax treatment for PFICs. For more information, see “Item 10.E. Additional Information—Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations—Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules.”

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

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

The Cayman Islands courts are also unlikely:

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There is no statutory recognition in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, although the courts of the Cayman Islands will in certain circumstances recognize and enforce a non-penal judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits.

As a result of all of the above, public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the United States. For a discussion of significant differences between the provisions of the Companies Act of the Cayman Islands (Revised) and the laws applicable to companies incorporated in the United States and their shareholders, see “Item 10.B. Additional Information—Memorandum and Articles of Association—Differences in Corporate Law.”

Judgments obtained against us by our shareholders may not be enforceable.

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

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It may be difficult for overseas regulators to conduct investigation or collect evidence within China.

Shareholder claims or regulatory investigation that are common in the United States generally are difficult to pursue as a matter of law or practicality in China. For example, in China, there are significant legal and other obstacles to providing information needed for regulatory investigations or litigation initiated outside China. Although the authorities in China may establish a regulatory cooperation mechanism with the securities regulatory authorities of another country or region to implement cross-border supervision and administration, such cooperation with the securities regulatory authorities in the Unities States may not be efficient in the absence of mutual and practical cooperation mechanism. Furthermore, according to Article 177 of the PRC Securities Law, or Article 177, which became effective in March 2020, no overseas securities regulator is allowed to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within the territory of the PRC. While detailed interpretation of or implementation rules under Article 177 have yet to be promulgated, the inability for an overseas securities regulator to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within China may further increase difficulties faced by you in protecting your interests. See also “—Risks Related to Our ADSs —You may face difficulties in protecting your interests, and your ability to protect your rights through U.S. courts may be limited, because we are incorporated under Cayman Islands law” for risks associated with investing in us as a Cayman Islands company.

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

Holders of our ADSs are only able to exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying Class A ordinary shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under the deposit agreement, holders of our ADSs must vote by giving voting instructions to the depositary. Upon receipt of those voting instructions, the depositary will vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares in accordance with those instructions. Holders of our ADSs are not able to directly exercise their right to vote with respect to the underlying shares unless they withdraw the shares. Under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the minimum notice period required for convening a general meeting is 14 calendar days. When a general meeting is convened, holders of our ADSs may not receive sufficient advance notice to withdraw the shares underlying their ADSs to allow them to vote with respect to any specific matter. If we ask for instructions from the holders of our ADSs, the depositary will notify the holders of our ADSs of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to them. We cannot assure holders of our ADSs that they will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that they can instruct the depositary to vote their shares. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out voting instructions. This means that holders of our ADSs may not be able to exercise their right to vote and may have no legal remedy if the shares underlying their ADSs are not voted as requested.

We are a foreign private issuer within the meaning of the rules under the Exchange Act, and as such we are exempt from certain provisions applicable to United States domestic public companies.

Because we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain provisions of the securities rules and regulations in the United States that are applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, including:

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We are required to file an annual report on Form 20-F within four months of the end of each fiscal year. In addition, we publish our results on a quarterly basis as press releases, distributed pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Nasdaq Global Market. Press releases relating to financial results and material events are also furnished to the SEC on Form 6-K. However, the information we are required to file with or furnish to the SEC is less extensive and less timely as compared to that required to be filed with the SEC by United States domestic issuers. As a Cayman Islands company listed on the Nasdaq Global Market, we are subject to the Nasdaq Global Market corporate governance listing standards. However, Nasdaq Global Market rules permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, our home country, may differ significantly from the Nasdaq Global Market corporate governance listing standards. As we have chosen, and may from time to time to choose, to follow home country practice exemptions with respect to certain corporate matters, such as the requirement of shareholders’ approval for issuing additional securities exceeding 20% of our outstanding ordinary shares and the requirement to hold an annual meeting of shareholders, our shareholders may be afforded less protection under Cayman Islands law than they would under the Nasdaq corporate government requirements applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. See “Item 16G. Corporate Governance.” As a result, you may not be afforded the same protections or information, which would be made available to you, were you investing in a United States domestic issuer.

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

We do not anticipate that we will pay any cash dividends on our ordinary shares, or indirectly on our ADSs, for the foreseeable future. Any determination to pay dividends in the future will be at the discretion of our board of directors and will depend upon our results of operations, financial condition, contractual restrictions relating to indebtedness we may incur, restrictions imposed by applicable law and other factors our board of directors deem relevant. Accordingly, for holders of our ADSs, realization of a gain on their investment will depend on the appreciation of the price of our ADSs, which may never occur. Investors seeking cash dividends in the foreseeable future should not purchase our ADSs.

Holders of our ADSs may not receive dividends or other distributions on our Class A ordinary shares and may not receive any value for them, if it is illegal or impractical to make them available.

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

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Holders of our ADSs may not be able to participate in rights offerings and may experience dilution of your holdings.

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

Holders of our ADSs may be subject to limitations on transfer of our ADSs.

Our ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. The depositary may close its books from time to time for a number of reasons, including in connection with corporate events such as a rights offering, during which time the depositary needs to maintain an exact number of ADS holders on its books for a specified period. The depositary may also close its books in emergencies, and on weekends and public holidays. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of our ADSs generally when our share register or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary thinks it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason.

We incur increased costs as a result of being a public company.

As a public company, we incur significant accounting, legal and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The SOX, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq, have detailed requirements concerning corporate governance practices of public companies, including Section 404 of the SOX relating to internal controls over financial reporting. We expect these rules and regulations applicable to public companies to increase our accounting, legal and financial compliance costs and to make certain corporate activities more time-consuming and costly. Our management will be required to devote substantial time and attention to our public company reporting obligations and other compliance matters. We are currently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules and regulations, and we cannot predict or estimate the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs. Our reporting and other compliance obligations as a public company may place a strain on our management, operational and financial resources and systems for the foreseeable future.

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

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Item 4.Information on the Company

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We began our operation in China through Nanjing Tuniu, a PRC company formed in December 2006. Nanjing Tuniu acquired 100% of the equity interests in Shanghai Tuniu International Travel Service Co., Ltd., Nanjing Tuniu International Travel Service Co., Ltd. and Beijing Tuniu International Travel Service Co., Ltd. in August 2008, December 2008 and November 2009, respectively. Nanjing Tuniu established Nanjing Tuzhilv Tickets Sales Co., Ltd. in April 2011.

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In June 2008, we incorporated Tuniu Corporation under the laws of the Cayman Islands as our offshore holding company in order to facilitate international financing. In May 2011, we established our wholly owned Hong Kong subsidiary, Tuniu (HK) Limited.

We completed our initial public offering and listed our ADSs on the Nasdaq under the symbol “TOUR” in May 2014. At the time of our initial public offering, we also entered into a concurrent private placement with three investors.

In December 2014, we entered into a share subscription agreement with Unicorn Riches Limited, a special purpose vehicle of Hony Capital, JD.com E-commerce (Investment) Hong Kong Corporation Limited, a special purpose vehicle of JD.com, Inc. (Nasdaq: JD), Ctrip Investment Holding Ltd., a subsidiary of Ctrip.com International, Ltd. (which later changed its name to Trip.com Group Limited) (Nasdaq: TCOM) and the respective personal holding companies of Tuniu’s chief executive officer and chief operating officer, pursuant to which we sold a total of 36,812,868 newly issued Class A ordinary shares for US$148 million.

In May 2015, we entered into a share subscription agreement with each of Fabulous Jade Global Limited, a subsidiary of JD.com, Inc., Unicorn Riches Limited, a special purpose vehicle of Hony Capital, DCM Ventures China Turbo Fund, L.P. and DCM Ventures China Turbo Affiliates Fund, L.P., both affiliates of DCM V, L.P., Ctrip Investment Holding Ltd., a subsidiary of Ctrip.com International, Ltd . (which later changed its name to Trip.com Group Limited), Esta Investments Pte Ltd, an affiliate of Temasek Holdings and Sequoia Capital 2010 CV Holdco, Ltd, an affiliate of Sequoia Capital, pursuant to which we sold a total of 93,750,000 newly issued Class A ordinary shares for US$500 million.

In November 2020, JD.com E-commerce (Investment) Hong Kong Corporation Limited transferred all its Class A ordinary shares to Hopeful Turism Limited, a subsidiary of Caissa Sega Tourism Culture Development Group Co., Ltd., or Caissa Group, and JD.com Investment Limitedm transferred all its shares in Fabulous Jade Global Limited to Hopeful Turism Limited. As a result of the share transfer, Caissa Group beneficially owned 78,061,780 Class A ordinary shares.

In November 2015, we entered into a share subscription agreement with HNA Tourism Group, or HNA Tourism, pursuant to which an affiliate of HNA Tourism purchased 90,909,091 newly issued Class A ordinary shares from us for US$500 million in January 2016.

During the year ended December 31, 2016, we acquired 100% of controlling equity interests of one offline travel agency, to further expand our oversea tourism market and promote our destination service. The total purchase price was RMB28.1 million (US$4.0 million), which included cash consideration of RMB16.5 million (US$2.4 million) and RMB11.6 million (US$1.6 million), the fair value of contingent cash consideration to be made based on the achievement of certain revenue and profit target over the next four years.

During the year ended December 31, 2018, we acquired 80% of controlling equity interests of one offline travel agency, to further expand our overseas tourism market and promote our destination local tour operator service. The total purchase price was RMB20.2 million (US$2.9 million), which included cash consideration of RMB9.8 million (US$1.4 million) and RMB10.4 million (US$1.5 million), the fair value of contingent cash consideration, as at the acquisition date, to be made based on the achievement of net profit target over the next four years.

During the year ended December 31, 2019, we acquired 51% of controlling equity interest in an offline travel agency, and 63.51% of controlling equity interests in an online travel agency, to further expand our overseas tourism market and promote our destination local tour operator service. The total purchase price was RMB60.0 million (US$8.6 million), which included cash consideration of RMB52.6 million (US$7.6 million) and RMB7.3 million (US$1.1 million), being the fair value of contingent cash consideration, as at the acquisition date, based on the achievement of certain profit target, to be paid by us over the next four years.

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Tuniu Corporation established a wholly owned PRC subsidiary, Beijing Tuniu, in September 2008. Tuniu (HK) Limited established another wholly owned PRC subsidiary, Tuniu (Nanjing) Information Technology Co., Ltd., in August 2011, and acquired 100% of the equity interests in Beijing Tuniu in September 2011. Through Beijing Tuniu, we obtained control over Nanjing Tuniu by entering into a series of contractual arrangements, including purchase option agreement, equity interest pledge agreement, shareholders’ voting rights agreement, powers of attorney and cooperation agreement, with Nanjing Tuniu and its shareholders. Nanjing Tuniu holds our ICP licenses as an Internet content provider and operates our website. Beijing Tuniu International Travel Service Co., Ltd. and Nanjing Tuniu International Travel Service Co. Ltd., both of which are Nanjing Tuniu’s subsidiaries, hold our operation permits for overseas travel business.

These contractual arrangements allow us to:

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As a result of these contractual arrangements, we are the primary beneficiary of Nanjing Tuniu, and we treat it and its subsidiaries as consolidated affiliated entities under U.S. GAAP. We have consolidated the financial results of Nanjing Tuniu and its subsidiaries in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

Our principal executive offices are located at Tuniu Building No. 699-32 Xuanwudadao, Xuanwu District, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210042, the People’s Republic of China. Our telephone number at this address is +86 (25) 8685-3969. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is located at International Corporation Services Ltd., P.O. Box 472, 2nd Floor, Harbour Place, 103 South Church Street, George Town, Grand Cayman KY1-1106, Cayman Islands. Our agent for service of process and authorized representative in the United States in connection with each of the registration statement on Form S-8 (File No. 333-198111 and File No. 333-251283) and registration statement on Form F-6 (File No. 333-195515) is COGENCY GLOBAL INC., located at 122 East 42nd Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10168.

The SEC maintains an Internet website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding us that filed electronically with the SEC, which can be accessed at http://www.sec.gov. Our annual reports, quarterly results, press release and other SEC filings can also be accessed via our investor relationship website at https://ir.tuniu.com/.

See “Item 5.B. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects—Liquidity and Capital Resources—Capital Expenditures” for a discussion of our capital expenditures.

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B.Business Overview

We offer a large selection of packaged tours, including organized tours and self-guided tours, as well as travel-related services for leisure travellers. Our online platform, which comprises our tuniu.com website and mobile platform, provides comprehensive product and travel information through user-friendly interfaces to enable leisure travellers to plan their travels and search for itineraries that best suit their needs. Our online platform contains travel guides featuring photos, information and recommendations for all destinations we cover, as well as user-generated content that serves as valuable references for other travellers.

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Our recognized brand in leisure travel and growing customer base enable us to source a broad range of products from high-quality travel suppliers at competitive prices. We rigorously select travel suppliers to ensure quality and reliability. We have developed our proprietary supply chain management system—N-Booking system—to streamline our interactions with travel suppliers, allowing them to receive booking information real-time, through the web or mobile devices to more efficiently manage travel products and better understand customer preferences. In 2016, we upgraded our supplier management system and data analytics system in order to better facilitate the cooperation between the suppliers and us. In addition, to further broaden the range of our products and better serve our customers, we enter into strategic agreements with various industry partners from time to time. For example, in December 2014, we entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Ctrip.com International, Ltd . (which later changed its name to Trip.com Group Limited), a leading travel service provider in China, in order to expand our collaboration on shared travel resources. In November 2015, we formed a strategic partnership with HNA Tourism, under which HNA Tourism undertook to provide us with its premium airline and hotel resources at a preferential rate, under fair competition market rules.

Our Products and Services

We offer a wide array of packaged tours and other travel-related services to meet the diverse travel needs and preferences of leisure travellers in China.

Packaged Tours

Packaged tours offered on our platform consist of organized tours and self-guided tours.

Organized Tours: Organized tours offer the benefits of pre-arranged itineraries, transportations, accommodations, entertainments, meals and tour guide services. By booking an organized tour on our platform, our customers can achieve cost savings compared to booking each component separately and enjoy a pleasant and hassle-free travel experience.

Organized tours offered on our platform cover over nearly all of the popular tourist destinations inside and outside of China among Chinese travellers.

Organized tour product portfolio offered on our platform also includes local tours, which mainly consist of weekend getaways and themed tours, such as water resort tours, historical town tours, ski tours and hot spring tours, and mainly target customers who want to spend one to three days away from their departing cities. Typically, local tours have lower average gross bookings per trip as compared to other types of organized tours.

In addition, to address the needs of group travellers who cannot be satisfied with off-the-shelf standard packaged travel products, such as companies planning travel retreats and families planning group trips, we provide customized tours to cater to such specific travel needs. Our group travel tour advisors work closely with travel suppliers and our customers to design travel products and itineraries that meet such customers’ unique needs.

Self-guided Tours: Self-guided tours offered on our platform consist of combinations of flights and hotel bookings and other optional add-ons, such as airport pick-ups that travellers can choose at their willingness. These products are offered at attractive prices compared to booking each travel product separately. The self-guided tours target leisure travellers who prefer greater flexibility during their vacations and who do not need tour guide services. Due to the breadth of travel suppliers that are available on our platform, we are able to provide a wide selection of self-guided tours, covering a large number of hotels and airlines, and have developed the most comprehensive product offerings for selected popular destinations.

Other Travel-Related Services

Our other travel-related services comprise mainly of sales of tourist attraction tickets, visa application services, hotel booking services, air ticketing services, train ticketing services, bus ticketing services, car rental services, insurance services and financial services. We earn a commission or service fee for these services. In addition, we provide advertising services to domestic and foreign tourism boards and bureaus on our online platform.

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Our Online Platform and Offline Service Network

We reach and serve customers through multiple online and offline channels, including our tuniu.com website, mobile platform, a primary call center in Nanjing and our offline retail stores across China.

Our online platform provides our customers with the tools and information to conveniently plan, book and purchase travel products and services. In addition, our online platform presents comprehensive product information and travel requirements through user-friendly interfaces for leisure travellers to easily search for, compare and place orders for product offerings that best suit their needs. We have well-trained tour advisors and customer service representatives located at our centralized call center to supplement our online transaction infrastructure by providing our customers with professional advice and guidance throughout their travel planning and bookings process as well as timely support before and during their travels. The inclusion of a customer-focused, service network is particularly important to customers of our travel products with high selling prices as these customers usually demand more assistance and attention in their travel planning.

Our Website

Our website, tuniu.com, provides a one-stop travel platform for our customers to do everything from researching travel destinations to booking travel products. In addition to our product information such as tour duration, departure time and destination descriptions, our website features comprehensive travel advice ranging from basic information to professional and user recommendations and travellers’ reviews for the destinations we cover. Users can post questions regarding specific products and receive timely responses online from our well-trained tour advisors and customer service representatives, which facilitates their travel planning, product selection, reservations and payments. Our user-friendly interface enables users to quickly and easily evaluate and compare a wide array of travel products. Customers can also raise complaints about our travel products and services through the online-messaging function on our website.

We encourage our customers to share photos, stories and other travel-related information on our website. We have built a large and fast-growing collection of customer reviews and travel stories which we believe are attractive and useful to our current and prospective customers. The Travelogue forum on our website, which is organized based on destinations, provides our customers with an easy and intuitive way to access various topics of interest. Registered members can share their travel experiences and interact with other members by posting questions and receiving answers from fellow forum members. We have a comprehensive collection of descriptions and photos of different destinations. Our website also provides other useful travel-related information, such as weather forecasts, exchange rates, train schedules and subway maps to further enhance user experience.

A transaction on our website generally involves the following steps:

Browse. A customer typically enters one of our over 420 city webpages by selecting his location or departing city. The customer can easily browse our product selection by travel destination. In order to allow customers to locate the products they are interested in, our website also arranges our travel product offerings into different categories, such as organized tours, self-guided tours, customized tours, cruises, tourist attractions tickets, self-drive tours, accommodation reservation, and transportation tickets. The customer can also choose to browse through our best-sellers for each of local tours, domestic tours, overseas tours, self-guided tours , themed tours, hotels, destination activities and tourist attractions tickets.

Search and Select. A customer conducts a search for a particular product on our website by defining desired parameters, such as destinations, departing cities, departure time, product types, tour duration, number of travellers, prices and itineraries. We provide the customer with information regarding each travel product in detail together with photographs of the destinations and hotels as well as customer reviews and ratings. Our website displays various possible selections and provides additional information about the products. The customer can sort, refine or rank search results by further defining certain search parameters such as price range, customer ratings, popularity and keywords. Our online Q&A feature enables the customer to raise inquiries and receive timely responses to facilitate their research. In addition, the comparison tool on our website displays details of different travel products side-by-side, enabling the customer to evaluate different travel products easily.

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Order Placement. After a customer has selected a particular option, our website will provide the customer with an opportunity to review details of the travel products and services being purchased and the terms and conditions of such purchase. The customer can also request assistance and professional advice from our tour advisors who will promptly follow up and interact with the customer online or by phone.

Contract Confirmation. At this stage, a customer is required to confirm that he agrees to the terms and conditions of his purchase. The customer can submit his confirmation online or sign the contract related to his purchase in one of our offline retail stores or send us the signed contract. Contracts are entered between us and the customer directly.

Payment. After confirming the terms of a contract, a customer will be directed to the payment webpage. We offer our customers the flexibility to choose a number of payment options, which include bank transfers, credit cards, debit cards and online payment through third-party online payment platforms. In addition, the customer can pay at one of our offline retail stores. If available, the customer can also discount the purchase price of our travel products by using our coupons and travel vouchers. Electronic confirmations are sent to the customer’s e-mail address or mobile phone and the customer can use the itinerary management function on our website or APP to check his booking details as well as amend or cancel his bookings.

Review. After completing his or her trips, a customer is provided with incentives such as coupons to return to our website to write reviews and travel stories and share his or her experience on our Travelogue forum. This increases transparency regarding our travel product quality and increases customer stickiness. We regard customer reviews and travel stories, which provide valuable information to potential customers, as important criteria in assessing the quality and performance of travel suppliers and travel products.

We offer customized services via a sophisticated account management system accessible on our online platform. After logging on with a unique identification, a customer can track order status, manage itineraries and check membership points, coupons and travel vouchers.

Our Mobile Platform

Our Android- and Apple iOS-based mobile applications, such as Tuniu Travel, and the mobile version of our website, m.tuniu.com, allow customers to search for travel products and services and place orders on mobile devices. Our mobile platform also enables customers to track their order status and provides other location-based services to allow users to quickly locate a variety of nearby scenic spots.

Through Tuniu Travel, our customers can search for travel products and services and complete a booking within minutes. Tuniu Travel also serves as an important and integral part of customers’ research on travel-related information. Customers often use our in-house developed and user-generated travel guides and other user generated content, such as customer reviews, travel stories, tips and recommendations, on our Tuniu Travel to plan their travels. In addition, we offer discounted travel products that are exclusive to users of Tuniu Travel for limited periods to enhance our mobile user engagement and increase monetization . We have upgraded our mobile applications on a regular basis, adding new functions into it.

Our Customer Services

When selecting a travel company or platform, leisure travellers often look beyond factors such as prices and selection and focus on enjoyable experiences, in which our customer services play a crucial part. We believe that the quality customer services provided by our well-trained tour advisors and customer service representatives attract our customers towards our online platform.

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Offline nationwide service network. Our primary call center is located in our headquarter in Nanjing. Our call centers provide 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week customer services before, during and after travels, from answering customers’ initial inquiries on their travel-related needs to assisting them in making and amending their travel bookings. For inquiries on detailed product information and itinerary management, our customer service representatives allocate them according to destinations to our in-house tour advisors, who follow up with our customers within half an hour to address their concerns and needs. We have implemented comprehensive performance measures to monitor our calls to ensure our customers receive quality services. In October 2013 and 2015, we obtained the Best Call Center Award in the CCM Awards that was jointly organized by Customer Care Management (CCM) World Group and CC-CMM Organization, and we were rewarded the Golden Tone Award from 51CallCenter in the years of 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018, a call center and business process outsourcing industry group, for offering outstanding call center and customer service experiences. We were awarded the Best Call Center by CCCS for three consecutive years in 2017, 2018 and 2019.

Tour Advisors. Tour advisors are well-trained through in-house training workshops as well as training sessions provided by the travel suppliers to closely assist our customers throughout their travel planning and booking process from pre-sale consultation to final order confirmation. Our tour advisors are equipped with product expertise to guide customers through the details of available packaged tours on our online platform and provide insightful advice on customers’ desired travel destinations. Our tour advisors provide professional guidance on product selection, price, travel requirements and payment to ensure an efficient and informed shopping experience.

To create a better travel experience for our customers, we are committed to sharing part of their losses due to certain unexpected events. For example, if our customers cannot travel due to death, pregnancy, serious injury, hospitalization or rejection of visa applications after entering into contracts with us, we will provide them with travel vouchers equivalent to a portion of the amounts paid which are redeemable towards the purchase of our travel products at a later time.

Supply Chain Management

Our travel suppliers primarily include tour operators, travel services providers and wholesalers of travel products and services in China. We believe that our ability to enable these travel suppliers to extend their reach to potentially millions of Internet users in China and fulfill their needs for inventory management, attracts new quality travel suppliers and builds stronger ties with the existing travel suppliers. We have a product procurement team who is dedicated to developing and enhancing our relationships with existing and prospective travel suppliers.

We source a broad range of products from travel suppliers who have significant advantages in the destinations we cover and who offer travel products at competitive prices, which enhances our ability to attract more customers to our online platform. Our growing customer base in turn attracts more travel suppliers, creating a virtuous cycle that strengthens our leading market position.

We generally enter into contracts with travel suppliers based on our standard form. Travel suppliers often pay us rebates based on our business volume. In addition, some of the travel suppliers require prepayments for reserving tour availabilities. Typically, we settle payment with travel suppliers on a monthly basis, although travel suppliers can also request for an early settlement on a discounted basis. To date, substantially all of the travel suppliers have sought to pursue continuing cooperation opportunities with us.

We conduct a rigorous process in qualifying travel suppliers and in selecting their travel products and services to be offered on our platform. In qualifying a potential travel supplier, we focus on its reputation, product quality, track record, credibility and price competitiveness.

In addition, travel suppliers can participate in biddings for priority listings, prominent placements for biddings and advertising displays on our website for the travel products they supply.

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Product Selection

We adopt an open-source procurement strategy to source quality travel products in the destinations we cover. Our product procurement team works closely with travel suppliers to ensure that customers are provided with high-quality travel products. In addition, we conduct regular price comparisons for travel products to assess the competitiveness of the pricing of travel products offered on our platform.

Supply Management

We hosted a major conference event for our travel suppliers and presented to our travel suppliers our projected travel demand trends each year before the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020. This has been temporarily suspended. However, we regularly communicate with travel suppliers, mainly through our product procurement team and our proprietary N-Booking system, to keep them informed of any changes to the supply outlook so that they can respond to customer demand in a timely manner. This helps us and the travel suppliers make timely adjustments to procurement plans.

Supplier Quality Control

We have developed product and service provision protocols for travel suppliers to follow. We have offline retail stores throughout China that help us closely track the performance of travel suppliers in each region. We have a dedicated team in charge of monitoring travel suppliers based on customer feedback; which also provides recommendations for travel suppliers to improve their service quality and the products they supply. We impose penalties on travel suppliers or cease listing their travel products on our platform if their products fail to meet our quality standards or if we receive valid complaints from our customers. We also prepare regular assessment reports on travel suppliers based on the popularity, quality and price competitiveness of their travel products. To monitor and further improve the quality of travel suppliers and the products and services we offer, we proactively collect feedback from our customers after their travels.

B2B distribution

We launched our B2B distribution business in September 2015 and rebranded it to Difeng Cloud in October 2018. Based on Tuniu’s direct procurement and integration with the supply chain, Difeng Cloud was able to rapidly scale by offering Tuniu’s products and resources to other distributors within the leisure travel industry. Difeng Cloud currently offers travel products including both packaged tours and other travel-related products such as air ticketing, hotel reservations, attraction tickets, visa applications and insurance products.

N-Booking System

We have developed a proprietary N-Booking system, accessible via web and mobile, that offers travel suppliers the following features:

Product Management. Travel suppliers can submit details of their travel products via an easy-to-navigate online interface. After our review and approval, we will post the details provided by the travel suppliers and the prices determined by us on our online platform. In addition, our N-Booking system provides travel suppliers with an option to use descriptions and photos of destinations and tourist attractions in our database.

Just-In-Time Management. Our N-Booking system provides travel suppliers with access to real-time inventory data and gives them a wide range of inventory management tools. Our N-Booking system also notifies travel suppliers of any changes in the inventory level of the travel products we source from them, which enables them to timely adjust their procurement and sales plans. As such, we are able to deliver real-time information on product availability and provide our customers with prompt booking and order confirmations.

Account Management. Travel suppliers can review transaction history details on our N-Booking system. They can also submit requests for early settlement of their account balance with us on a discount basis.

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Data Analysis. Supported by our big data platform, travel suppliers can analyze and understand user behavior based on their browsing history. Travel suppliers can keep track of traffic brought to the travel products supplied by them on our online platform and are able to evaluate the competitiveness of different travel products. We believe the user information gathered from our online platform reflects current leisure travel market trends in China and provides excellent market insights to travel suppliers for their procurement planning and product design. By leveraging our data mining and analytics capabilities, travel suppliers are able to develop a more in-depth understanding of customers’ behaviors and preferences, potentially unlocking significant value.

Financial Services

We currently offer a range of financial services, which complement our core leisure travel business, mainly to both travellers and travel suppliers. Our financial services are designed to systematically support the overall development of the leisure travel market in China by funding customers’ travels and supporting suppliers’ growth. For travellers, we provide travel financing products enabling travellers to travel with an initial down payment, which has been particularly popular among the young generation of travellers who are more price-sensitive. In addition, we also offer insurance products to our customers. For travel suppliers, we provide various types of loans and factoring service that optimize working capital for the selected suppliers, allowing them to provide high-quality travel products on a larger scale. We also provided account receivables factoring service and cash lending service to customers.

Technology

We have built our technology infrastructure with high levels of performance, reliability, scalability and security to ensure superior customer and supplier experiences. We rely on internally developed proprietary technologies and licensed technologies to manage and improve our website, mobile platform and management systems. We have a team of engineers dedicated to research and development in the areas of website operations, mobile platform, search engine, data analytics and supply chain management system.

We believe that an advanced technology platform is vital to our growth and success.We obtained ISO 9001:2015 certification for our quality management system indicating our compliance with internationally recognized standards for quality control in 2018, with such certification being renewed in 2019 and is expected to expire in 2022.

Product Search

We strive to present relevant and useful search results in a timely fashion to ensure the accuracy, efficiency and synchronism of our search results. Despite the difficulties in analyzing leisure travel products data, we have developed search technologies that allow us to retrieve, index, filter and rank real-time product information. We are able to prioritize the search results and display information most suited to our customers’ requirements in a simple and intuitive interface in real-time. Our core search technologies include the following:

Real-time Indexing. Our search infrastructure enables changes in product data to be indexed, processed and reflected in search results on a real-time basis.

Smart Caching. We maintain a database with massive product information on packaged tours, hotels, flights and other travel-related services. We have designed an auto-prioritizing method to update the database by ranking popular products based on different criteria, such as popular cities, most-visited attractions, top-rated products and most-viewed products. Different refreshing frequencies are applied to different products.

Accuracy Checking. Our accuracy checking software complements our smart caching system and is implemented to display the latest product information such as prices and product descriptions. When a user clicks on the interested search result, an accuracy checker is triggered to retrieve the updated product information and present it to the user.

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Fuzzy Query Processing. We maintain a dictionary for travel-related keywords in Chinese, where keywords are classified and linked to each other based on their meanings. We have also developed a query search algorithm based on user inputs to enhance our ability to dissect natural language queries. Such technologies help us better understand the meanings of queries and to produce the most relevant and useful search results. We also provide additional search features such as query spelling correction, query suggestion and search by Chinese phonetics (Pinyin).

Big Data Analysis

We gather and analyze customer behavior and data for our procurement, inventory management and marketing purposes. We also provide selected data to travel suppliers, enabling them to optimize their product designs and marketing strategies.

Big Data Platform. We have developed our big data platform based on a distributed computing system. Such data analytics capabilities help us to gain a deeper understanding of existing and prospective customers and market trends, make customized recommendations to customers and improve our applications and products accordingly.

Streaming Data Analysis. We have also built a streaming data processing pipeline based on our big data platform to view the browsing history of the users of our online platform and to allow travel suppliers to review their performance data near real-time.

Web Content Mining. Our web content processing system links user generated content which includes customer reviews, travel stories and tips as well as destination guides such as locations, hotels and tourist attractions. This allows users of our online platform to obtain information of different destinations and travel products and services in a user-friendly manner.

N-Booking System

Our N-Booking system streamlines the interactions between us and travel suppliers. Our N-Booking system also allows travel suppliers to receive booking information real-time through the web or mobile devices to more efficiently manage travel products and better understand customer preferences. See “—Supply Chain Management—N-Booking System.”

CRM System

Through a customer relationship management system, or CRM system, we gather, analyze and make use of internally-generated customer behavior and transaction data based on customers’ historical purchase and browsing records. We regularly use this information in budgeting and procurement planning as well as in planning our marketing initiatives and promotional campaigns.

Data Security

Our system servers are currently housed in Nanjing, and have secure and dedicated communication links among them. All data are backed up on an hourly basis. Our system servers utilize digital certificates to help us conduct secure communications and transactions. The performance of our system servers is monitored and maintained by an internal team that operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Customer sensitive information, such as password and payment information, is stored with encryption, and our data servers are secured with firewalls.

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Dynamic Packaging System

Backed by our robust data analytics capabilities, we have established a dynamic packaging system that enables our users to customize their own travel packages tailored to individual travellers’ needs. This system is able to combine trip components from different suppliers to provide truly customized trips, automating and placing in the hands of our customers a function that was previously performed manually. It uses algorithms and past customer data to filter out unnatural choices and provide customers with relevant choices based on their ascertainable behavior. We believe this is one of the first systems of its type in China.

Seasonality

Our business experiences fluctuations, reflecting seasonal variations in demand for leisure travel services. Sales of leisure travel products and services will increase in respect of holiday periods and decrease in respect of off-peak times, while prices of leisure travel products and services are subject to fluctuation between peak seasons and low seasons. For example, the third quarter of each year generally contributes the highest percentage of our annual revenues, because many of our customers tend to travel during summer holidays in July and August.

Marketing and Brand Building

We continue to build and maintain a strong Tuniu brand through both traditional offline marketing media and online marketing channels. We conduct offline advertising primarily via television and outdoor advertisements. For our television marketing, we have placed a number of commercials on various television channels across China. Our outdoor marketing includes advertisements on buses and subways. In addition, we also organize targeted campaigns, make promotional and seasonal offers and cooperate with domestic and foreign tourism boards and bureaus in holding promotional events and marketing campaigns.

While our offline advertising plays an important role in promoting our brand image, we complement our branding campaigns through mobile and online channels. We promote our mobile app through advertisements in the mobile app store and various display advertisements. We have also entered into agreements with a number of search engines, pursuant to which we have purchased travel-related keywords or directory links that direct users to our website. In addition, we have a strong presence in online social media such as Tencent’s WeChat and Sina’s Weibo. We believe that our presence in online social media helps us maintain engagement with our targeted customers.

As part of our cross-marketing effort, we have agreements with financial institutions to recommend our products and services to their debit or credit card holders, and we allow these cardholders to settle their payments for travel products purchased from us using these cards with discounts. For instance, we cooperated with several major banks in China and launched co-branded credit cards, through which cardholders may book with us and are entitled to discounts, bonus points and certain other privileges.

Furthermore, our customer loyalty program allows our customers to accumulate membership points and coupons as they purchase travel products and services. Our membership points have a fixed validity term and, before expiry, customers may redeem these points for future purchases. Our customer loyalty program is designed to encourage repeat purchases. Currently, our membership has seven levels. For customers who meet certain spending thresholds, we upgrade their membership status to the next level, entitling them to further discounts and more points for their spending. For all customers who have joined our loyalty program, we provide them with designated customer service representatives to handle their travel needs.

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Competition

We compete primarily with all other types of online travel companies. In addition, we compete with traditional travel service providers and tour operators. In the self-guided tour business, as we sell packaged tours which include flights and hotels, we also compete with airlines and hotels, which in recent years have made efforts to improve their direct sales. Large, established Internet search engines have also launched applications offering travel products in various destinations around the world. Factors affecting our competitiveness include, among other things, price, availability and breadth of choice of travel products and services, brand recognition, customer services, and ease of use, accessibility, security and reliability of our transaction and service infrastructure.

Some of our current and potential competitors may have greater financial, marketing and other resources than we do. In addition, some of our competitors may be acquired by, receive investment from or enter into strategic relationships with larger, well-established and well-financed companies or investors. They may be able to devote greater resources to marketing and promotional campaigns and devote substantially more resources to website and system development than us. See “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We face intense competition and may not be able to compete successfully against existing and new competitors.”

Intellectual Property

Our success and ability to compete depend, in part, upon our ability to establish and adequately protect our intellectual property rights. In this regard, we rely primarily on a combination of copyright, software registration, trademark, trade secret and unfair competition laws and contractual rights, such as confidentiality agreements with our employees and others. As of December 31, 2020, we had 109 registered computer software copyrights, 18 registered patent and 26 registered artwork copyrights in China, and were in the process of applying for 19 patents in China. In addition, as of December 31, 2020, we had 96 registered domain names that were material to our business, including tuniu.com, and 485 registered trademarks, including 途牛 (the Chinese characters of Tuniu),

and , and in China.

Insurance

We maintain various insurance policies to safeguard against risks and unexpected events. We have purchased travel companies’ liability insurance covering expenses related to accidents caused by us. We have also maintained property insurance policies for our fixed assets covering losses due to fire, explosion, lightning, storm, landslide, subsidence and aircraft damage.

PRC Regulation

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

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Regulations on Value-Added Telecommunication Services

The PRC government extensively regulates the telecommunications industry, including the Internet sector. The PRC State Council, the MIIT, the MOC, the SAMR (formerly the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, or the SAIC), the National of Radio and Television, Administration and the National Press and Publication Administration, both of which were split from State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (formerly the General Administration of Press and Publication) and other relevant government authorities have promulgated an extensive regulatory scheme governing telecommunications, Internet-related services and e-commerce. However, since China’s telecommunications industry and Internet-related industry are at an early stage of development, new laws and regulations may be adopted from time to time that will require us to obtain additional licenses and permits in addition to those that we currently have, and will require us to address new issues that arise from time to time. As a result, substantial uncertainties exist regarding the interpretation and implementation of current and any future Chinese laws and regulations applicable to the telecommunications, Internet-related services and e-commerce. See “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors—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.”

Licenses for Value-Added Telecommunication Services

The Telecommunications Regulations issued by the PRC State Council in September 2000 and amended in February 2016 are the primary regulations governing telecommunication services. The Telecommunications Regulations set out the general framework for the provision of telecommunication services by PRC companies. Under the Telecommunications Regulations, it is a requirement that telecommunications service providers procure operating licenses prior to commencement of their operations. The Telecommunications Regulations draw a distinction between “basic telecommunications services” and “value-added telecommunications services.” Internet content provision services, or ICP services, is a subcategory of value-added telecommunications services.

In March 2009, the MIIT promulgated the Administrative Measures for Telecommunications Business Operating Permit which was repealed in September 2017 by the 2017 Revision of the Administrative Measures for Telecommunications Business Operating Permit. Pursuant to the 2017 Revision of the Administrative Measures for Telecommunications Business Operating Permit, there are two types of telecommunication operating license for operators in China, namely, licenses for basic telecommunications services and licenses for value-added telecommunications services. The operation scope of the license will specify the permitted activities of the enterprise to which it is granted. An approved telecommunication services operator must conduct its business in accordance with such specifications.

Pursuant to the Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services, promulgated by the PRC State Council in September 2000, as amended in January 2011, commercial Internet information services operators must obtain an ICP license, from the relevant government authorities before engaging in any commercial Internet information services operations within the PRC. Nanjing Tuniu, our consolidated affiliated entity, obtained ICP licenses issued by the Jiangsu Administration of Telecommunication which will expire in October 2022.

The Internet Electronic Bulletin Service Administrative Measures promulgated by the MIIT in November 2000 require Internet information services operators to obtain specific approvals before providing BBS services, which include electronic bulletin boards, electronic forums, message boards and chat rooms. In September 2014, the Internet Electronic Bulletin Service Administrative Measures was repealed by Repealing and Revising Certain Rules of MIIT. However, in practice, the relevant authorities still require obtaining such approval for the operation of BBS services. We have applied to the Jiangsu Administration of Telecommunication for and have obtained an approval for the operation of BBS services on our website.

In addition to the Telecommunications Regulations and the other regulations as disclosed above, the provision of commercial internet information services on mobile internet applications is regulated by the Administrative Provisions on Mobile Internet Applications Information Services, which was promulgated by the Cyberspace Administration of China in June 2016. Under the Administrative Provisions on Mobile Internet Applications Information Services , the providers of mobile internet applications need to, among other things, acquire the relevant qualifications and comply with other requirements provided by laws and regulations and being responsible for information security.

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Foreign Investment in Value-Added Telecommunications Services

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress promulgated the PRC Foreign Investment Law, which became effective on January 1, 2020 and replaced the major existing laws and regulations governing foreign investment in the PRC. Pursuant to the PRC Foreign Investment Law, “foreign investments” refer to investment activities conducted by foreign investors directly or “indirectly” in the PRC, which include any of the following circumstances: (i) foreign investors setting up foreign-invested enterprises in the PRC solely or jointly with other investors, (ii) foreign investors obtaining shares, equity interests, property portions or other similar rights and interests of enterprises within the PRC, (iii) foreign investors investing in new projects in the PRC solely or jointly with other investors, and (iv) investment of other methods as specified in laws, administrative regulations, or as stipulated by the State Council. Although VIE structure is not explicitly defined as a method of foreign investment, it remains to be further clarified and detailed on whether VIE Structure will be interpreted to fall under the scope of the “investment in other methods as specified in laws and administrative regulations, or as stipulated by the State Council”. Please also refer to “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors—Substantial uncertainties exist with respect to the interpretation and implementation of the newly adopted PRC Foreign Investment Law and its implementation rules and how they may impact the viability of our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.”

According to PRC Foreign Investment Law and the Implementation Rules, China adopts a system of pre-entry national treatment plus negative list with respect to foreign investment administration, where “pre-entry national treatment” means that the treatment given to foreign investors and their investments at market access stage is no less favorable than that given to domestic investors and their investments, and “negative list”means the special entry management measures for foreign investment’s access to specific fields or industries, which will be proposed by the competent investment department of the State Council in conjunction with the competent commerce department of the State Council and other relevant departments, and be reported to the State Council for promulgation, or be promulgated by the competent investment department or competent commerce department of the State Council after being reported to the State Council for approval. Foreign investment beyond the negative list will be granted national treatment. Foreign investors shall not invest in the prohibited fields as specified in the negative list, and foreign investors who invest in the restricted fields must comply with the special requirements on the shareholding, senior management personnel, etc. The current industry entry clearance requirements governing investment activities in the PRC by foreign investors are set out in two categories, namely the Special Entry Management Measures (Negative List) for the Access of Foreign Investment (2020 version), or the 2020 Negative List, and the Encouraged Industry Catalog for Foreign Investment (2020 version), or the 2020 Encouraged Industry Catalog, both were promulgated by the National Development and Reform Commission (the “NDRC”) and the MOC and took effect in July 2019 and January 2021, respectively. Industries not listed in these two categories are generally deemed “permitted” for foreign investment unless specifically restricted by other PRC laws. Industries such as value-added telecommunication business, which we are engaged in, are generally regarded as restricted fields to foreign investment pursuant to the 2020 Negative List, and we conduct business operations in restricted fields through our variable interest entities.

On December 19, 2020, the NDRC and the MOC promulgated the Security Review Measures, which took effect on January 18, 2021. According to the Security Review Measures, the foreign investment security review work mechanism shall be established to conduct the security review and the general office responsible for the security review will be set in the NDRC and be jointly led by the NDRC and the MOC. Foreign investments in military, national defense-related areas or in locations in proximity to military facilities, or foreign investments that would result in acquiring the actual control of assets in certain key sectors, such as critical agricultural products, energy and resources, equipment manufacturing, infrastructure, transport, cultural products and services, information technology, Internet products and services, financial services and technology sectors, are subject to the foreign investment security review by such foreign investment security review work mechanism. Acquiring actual control includes any investment in which foreign investors obtain more than 50% of equity interest in the invested enterprise or, in the event that the equity interest is less than 50%, the voting rights owned by such foreign investors have significant impact on the shareholders meeting and board of directors of the invested enterprise or where there is any other circumstance that enables foreign investors to exert a significant impact on the business decision-making, personnel, finance, technology, etc. of the invested enterprise.

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Pursuant to the Provisions on Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises, promulgated by the PRC State Council in December 2001 and amended in February 2016, the ultimate foreign equity ownership in a value-added telecommunications services provider may not exceed 50%. Moreover, any major foreign investor holding equity interest in a value-added telecommunication business in China must satisfy a number of stringent performance and operational experience requirements, including demonstrating good track records and experience in operating value-added telecommunication business overseas. Pursuant to the Notice regarding the Strengthening of Ongoing and Post Supervision of Foreign Invested Telecommunication Enterprises issued by MIIT in October 2020, foreign investors are no longer subject to the pre-approval requirements, foreign invested telecommunications enterprises are still required to submit relevant foreign investor qualification materials to MIIT when applying for new telecommunication operating permits or amended permits. Although the 2020 Negative List allows foreign investors to hold more than 50% equity interests in a value-added telecommunications service provider engaging in e-commerce, domestic multiparty communication, storage-and-forward and call center businesses, other requirements under the Provisions on Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises still apply. Since the 2020 Negative List was recently amended and no implementing rules with respect to the new policies on foreign investment in value-add telecommunications services have been promulgated, there exist significant uncertainties with respect to its interpretation and implementation by authorities.

The MIIT Circular issued in July 2006 reiterated the regulations on foreign investment in telecommunications businesses, which require foreign investors to set up foreign-invested enterprises and obtain a business operating license for Internet content provision to conduct any value-added telecommunications business in China. Pursuant to the MIIT Circular, a domestic company that holds an ICP license is prohibited from leasing, transferring or selling the license to foreign investors in any form, and from providing any assistance, including providing resources, sites or facilities, to foreign investors that conduct value-added telecommunications business illegally in China. Furthermore, the relevant trademarks and domain names that are used in the value-added telecommunications business must be owned by the domestic ICP license holder or its shareholders. The MIIT Circular further requires each ICP license holder to have the necessary facilities for its approved business operations and to maintain such facilities in the regions covered by its license. In addition, all value-added telecommunications service providers are required to maintain network and information security in accordance with the standards set forth under relevant PRC regulations.

In light of the aforesaid restrictions, we rely on Nanjing Tuniu, our consolidated affiliated entity, to hold and maintain the licenses necessary to provide online marketing services and other value-added telecommunications services in China. For a detailed discussion of our contractual arrangements, please refer to “—C. Organizational Structure.” To comply with these PRC regulations, we operate our website and value-added telecommunications services through Nanjing Tuniu. Nanjing Tuniu holds our ICP licenses and owns all the domain names used in our value-added telecommunications businesses. Nanjing Tuniu is also the owner of all the registered trademarks used in our value-added telecommunications businesses and is the applicant of all the registered trademark applications we are currently making.

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Regulations on Information Security and Censorship

The PRC government regulates and restricts Internet content in China to protect state security and ensure the legality of the Internet content. The National People’s Congress, China’s national legislative body, enacted a Decision on the Safeguarding of Internet Security in December 2000, as subsequently amended in August 2009, among other things, makes it unlawful to: (1) gain improper entry into a computer or system of strategic importance; (2) disseminate politically disruptive information; (3) leak state secrets; (4) spread false commercial information; or (5) infringe intellectual property rights. Pursuant to the Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services and other applicable laws, Internet content providers and Internet publishers are prohibited from posting or displaying over the Internet content which violates PRC laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of China, or is reactionary, obscene, superstitious, fraudulent or defamatory. Internet service providers are required to monitor their websites, including electronic bulletin boards. They may not post or disseminate any content that falls within these prohibited categories and must remove any such content from their websites. The PRC government may shut down the websites of ICP license holders that violate any of the above-mentioned content restrictions and revoke their ICP licenses. In addition, the MIIT has published regulations that subject ICP operators to potential liability for content displayed on their websites and the actions of users and others using their systems, including liability for violations of PRC laws and regulations prohibiting the dissemination of content deemed to be socially destabilizing. The Ministry of Public Security has the authority to order any local Internet service provider to block any Internet website at its sole discretion. From time to time, the Ministry of Public Security has stopped the dissemination over the Internet of information which it believes to be socially destabilizing.

The Ministry of Public Security has promulgated the Administrative Measures for the Security Protection of International Connections to Computer Information Network in December 1997, as amended in January 2011, that prohibits the use of the Internet in ways which, among other things, result in a leakage of State secrets or the distribution of socially destabilizing content. Socially destabilizing content includes any content that incites defiance or violations of PRC laws or regulations or subversion of the PRC government or its political system, spreads socially disruptive rumors or involves cult activities, superstition, obscenities, pornography, gambling or violence. Under PRC laws, state secrets are defined broadly to include information concerning PRC national defense, state affairs and other matters as determined by the PRC authorities.

In December 2005, the Ministry of Public Security promulgated Provisions on Technological Measures for Internet Security Protection. These measures and the Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services require all ICP operators to keep records of certain information about their users (including user registration information, log-in and log-out time, IP address, content and time of listings by users) for at least 60 days and submit the above information as required by laws and regulations. The ICP operators must regularly update information security and censorship systems for their websites with local public security authorities, and must also report any public dissemination of prohibited content. If an ICP operator violates these measures, the PRC government may revoke its ICP license and shut down its websites. Pursuant to the Decision on Strengthening Network Information Protection issued by the Standing Committee of the PRC National People’s Congress in December 2012, ICP operators must request identity information from users when ICP operators provide information publication services to the users. If ICP operators come across prohibited information, they must immediately cease the transmission of such information, delete the information, keep relevant records, and report to relevant government authorities. In July 2013, the MIIT promulgated the Regulation on Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunications and Internet Users to provide for more detailed rules in this respect.

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On December 15, 2019, the Cyberspace Administration of China promulgated Provisions on Ecological Governance of Network Information Content, or the Network Ecological Governance Provisions, which took effect on March 1, 2020. The Network Ecological Governance Provisions provide the requirements for the content producers of the network information, the service platforms for the network information and the users of the network information. Among others, the Network Ecological Governance Provisions classify the network information into the “encouraged category”, the “prohibited category” and the “prevented and resisted category”. The content producers of network information are encouraged to produce, copy and publish network information in the encouraged category, prohibited from producing, copying or publishing network information in the prohibited category, and shall take measures to prevent and resist the production, reproduction and publication of undesirable information in the prevented and resisted category. In addition, the service platforms for the network information shall strengthen the management of information content, and upon discovery of any prohibited information or prevented and resisted information, shall immediately take measures in accordance with the laws, keep the relevant records, and report the same to the competent governmental authorities. A service platform for network information shall compile an annual report on the ecological governance of network information, which contains information such as the ecological governance of network information, the performance of the person in charge of ecological governance of network information and social evaluation.

The Measures for Cyber Security Review was jointly promulgated by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the NDRC, the MOC, the MIIT and eight other ministries and administrations under the State Council on April 13, 2020 and took effect on June 1, 2020. According to the Measures for Cyber Security Review, operators of critical information infrastructure must pass a cybersecurity review when purchasing network products and services which do or may affect national security.

In addition, the State Secrecy Bureau has issued provisions authorizing the blocking access to any website it deems to be leaking state secrets or failing to comply with the relevant legislation regarding the protection of state secrets. As Nanjing Tuniu is an ICP operator, it is subject to the laws and regulations relating to information security. To comply with these laws and regulations, it has completed the mandatory security filing procedures with the local public security authorities, regularly update their information security and content-filtering systems with newly issued content restrictions, and maintains records of users’ information as required by the relevant laws and regulations. Nanjing Tuniu has also taken measures to delete or remove links to content that to its knowledge contains information violating PRC laws and regulations. Majority of the content posted on our online platform is first screened by our filtering systems. Content containing prohibited words or images is then manually screened by employees who are dedicated to screening and monitoring content published on our platform and removing prohibited content. We believe that with these measures in place, no material violations have arisen out of the public dissemination of prohibited content through our online platform under PRC information security laws and regulations in the past. However, there is significant amount of content posted on our online platform by our users on a daily basis. If any prohibited content is publicly disseminated in the future and we become aware of it, we will report it to the relevant government authority. We believe these measures taken by us are generally in compliance with the relevant laws and regulations.

If, despite the precautions, we fail to identify and prevent illegal or inappropriate content from being displayed on or through our online platform, we may be subject to liability. In addition, these laws and regulations are subject to interpretation by the relevant authorities, and it may not be possible for us to determine in all cases the types of content that could result in liability. To the extent that PRC regulatory authorities find any content displayed on or through our online platform objectionable, they may require us to limit or eliminate the dissemination or availability of such content or impose penalties, including the revocation of our operating licenses or the suspension or shutdown of our online operations. In addition, the costs of compliance with these regulations may increase as the volume of content and the number of users on our online platform increases.

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Regulations on Internet Privacy

The PRC Constitution states that PRC law protects the freedom and privacy of communications of citizens and prohibits infringement of these rights. In recent years, PRC government authorities have promulgated laws and regulations on Internet use to protect personal information from any unauthorized disclosure. The Decision on Strengthening Network Information Protection and the Regulation on Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunication and Internet Users provide that information that identifies a citizen, the time or location for his use of telecommunication and Internet services, or involves privacy of any citizen such as his birth date, ID card number, and address is protected by law and must not be unlawfully collected or provided to others. ICP operators collecting or using personal electronic information of citizens must specify the purposes, manners and scopes of information collection and uses, obtain consent of the relevant citizens, and keep the collected personal information confidential. ICP operators are prohibited from disclosing, tampering with, damaging, selling or illegally providing others with, collected personal information. ICP operators are also prohibited from collection and use of personal information after a user has stopped using the services. ICP operators are required to take technical and other measures to prevent the collected personal information from any unauthorized disclosure, damage or loss as well as conducting a self-examination of their protection of personal information at least once a year. The Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services prohibit an ICP operator from insulting or slandering a third party or infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of a third party. The relevant telecommunications authorities are further authorized to order ICP operators to rectify unauthorized disclosure. ICP operators are subject to legal liability, including warnings, fines, confiscation of illegal gains, revocation of licenses or filings, closing of the relevant websites, administrative punishment, criminal liabilities, or civil liabilities, if they violate relevant provisions on Internet privacy. Such requirements are reiterated by the Regulation on Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunications and Internet Users. If an ICP operator appoints an agent to undertake any marketing and technical services that involve the collection or use of personal information, the ICP operator is required to supervise and manage the protection of such information. Any violation may subject the ICP operators to warnings, fines, disclosure to the public and, in the most severe cases, criminal liability. The PRC government, however, has the power and authority to order ICP operators to turn over personal information if an Internet user posts any prohibited content or engages in illegal activities on the Internet.

Pursuant to the Cyber Security Law, personal information refers to all kinds of information recorded by electronic or otherwise that can be used to independently identify or be combined with other information to identify a specific natural persons. Such information includes but not limited to a natural person’s name, date of birth, ID number, biologically identified personal information, address and telephone numbers, etc. The Cyber Security Law also provides that: (i) to collect and use personal information, network operators shall follow the principles of legitimacy, rightfulness and necessity, disclose their rules of data collection and use, clearly express the purposes, means and scope of collecting and using the information, and obtain the consent of the persons whose data is gathered; (ii) network operators shall neither gather personal information unrelated to the services they provide, nor gather or use personal information in violation of the provisions of laws and administrative regulations or the scopes of consent given by the persons whose data is gathered; and shall dispose of personal information they have saved in accordance with the provisions of laws and administrative regulations and agreements reached with the persons whose data is collected; and (iii) network operators shall not divulge, tamper with or damage the personal information they have collected, and shall not provide the personal information to others without the consent of the persons whose data is collected. However, exceptions may apply if the information has been processed and cannot be recovered and thus it is impossible to match such information with any specific persons.

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In August 2019, Cyberspace Administration of China promulgated Provisions on Online Protection of Children’s Personal Information, or the Children Personal Information Provisions, which came into effect in October 2019. The Children Personal Information Provisions provides that network operators’ collection, storage, transfer, and disclosure of children’s personal information must follow the principles of legitimacy and necessity, awareness and consent, clear purpose, protection of security and legal use. Network operators shall clearly inform children’s guardian and obtain his consent when collecting, storing, using, transferring and disclosing children’s personal information. According to the Children Personal Information Provisions, network operators must adopt personal information protection rules and user agreements specifically for children’s personal information and appoint persons dedicated to be responsible for the protection of children’s personal information. In addition, network operators must strictly limit the access authorization to children’s personal information within their staff members to the minimum. Furthermore, the access to children’s personal information by network operators’ staff must be subject to approval by the children personal information protection officer or the administrative personnel delegated by him, the access must be recorded, and technical measures must be adopted to prevent unauthorized duplication or download of children’s personal information.

In November 2019, Cyberspace Administration of China, together with the General Office of the MIIT, the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security and the General Office of the SAMR, published the Guidelines for Identifying Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information via Apps, which describes six categories of prohibited behaviors on illegal collection or use of user’s personal information via Apps, and further broken down into 31 specific types, including (i) failure to publicly disclose rules of collecting and using personal information, (ii) failure to clearly express the purposes, means and scope of collecting and using personal information, (iii) collecting or using personal information without users’ consent, (iv) violating the principle of necessity and collecting personal information unrelated to services they provide, (v) providing personal information to others without the consent of the persons whose data is collected, and (vi) failure to provide functions of deleting or rectifying personal information as required by laws or failure to publicly disclose contact information for complaint or reporting.

Regulations on Air-ticketing

Air-ticketing business is subject to the supervision of the China Aviation Transportation Association, or CATA, and its regional branches. Currently the principal regulation governing air-ticketing agencies in China is the Rules on Certification of Qualification for Civil Aviation Transport Sales Agencies, or the Air Ticketing Rules, issued by the CATA, which became effective on March 31, 2006. Under the Air Ticketing Rules and relevant foreign investment regulations, any company acting as an air-ticketing sale agency must obtain approval from the CATA, and a foreign investor currently cannot own 100% of an air-ticketing agency in China, except for qualified Hong Kong and Macau aviation marketing agencies. In addition, foreign-invested air-ticketing agencies are not permitted to sell passenger airline tickets for domestic flights in China, except for Hong Kong and Macau aviation marketing agencies. In addition, CATA issued the Supplementary Rules Regarding Sales via the Internet in 2008. These Supplementary Rules provide that, effective as of June 1, 2008, if an air-ticketing sales agency would like to engage in sales via the Internet, it must obtain an ICP license from the local counterpart of the MIIT and must complete a commercial website registration with the local counterpart of the SAMR. Although we request that travel suppliers provide their licenses or permits to us before entering into agreements with them, we cannot ensure that all of travel suppliers engaged in the air ticketing sales agency service obtained, and maintained, all necessary permits. See “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may not be able to adequately control and ensure the quality of travel products and services sourced from travel suppliers. If there is any deterioration in the quality of their performance, our customers may not continue using our online platform.”

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Regulations on Hotel Operation

In November 1987, the Ministry of Public Security issued the Measures for the Control of Security in the Hotel Industry, which has been most recently amended in November 2020. In June 2004, the PRC State Council promulgated the Decision of the PRC State Council on Establishing Administrative License for the Administrative Examination and Approval Items Really Necessary To Be Retained, which has been amended in 2016 and 2019, respectively. Under these two regulations, anyone who applies to operate a hotel is subject to examination and approval by the local public security authority and must obtain a special industry license. The Measures for the Control of Security in the Hotel Industry impose certain security control obligations on the operators. For example, the hotel must examine the identification card of any guest to whom accommodation is provided and make an accurate registration. The hotel must also report to the local public security authority if it discovers anyone violating the law or behaving suspiciously, or an offender wanted by the public security authority.

In April 1987, the PRC State Council promulgated the Public Area Hygiene Administration Regulation, which has been most recently amended in April 2019, requiring hotels to obtain a public area hygiene license before opening for business. In March 2011, the Ministry of Health promulgated the Implementation Rules of the Public Area Hygiene Administration Regulation, which has been amended in February 2016 and December 2017, respectively, requiring, starting from May 1, 2011, hotel operators to establish hygiene administration system and keep records of hygiene administration. In February 2009, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress enacted the Food Safety Law, which has been amended in February 2016 and December 2018, respectively, requiring any hotel that provides food to obtain a food service license.

The Fire Prevention Law, as most recently been amended by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in October 2019, and the Provisions on Supervision and Inspection on Fire Prevention and Control, as amended by the Ministry of Public Security in July 2012, require that public gathering places such as hotels submit a fire prevention design plan in order to apply for completion acceptance of fire prevention facilities for their construction projects and to pass a fire prevention safety inspection by the local public security fire department, which is a prerequisite for opening business.

In January 2006, the PRC State Council promulgated the Regulations for Administration of Entertainment Places which has been most recently amended in November 2020. Under the regulations, hotels that provide entertainment facilities, such as discos or ballrooms, are required to obtain a license for entertainment business operations.

We cannot ensure that all of the hotels that we offer to our customers have obtained, and maintained, all necessary permits and licenses. See “Item 3. D. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may not be able to adequately control and ensure the quality of travel products and services sourced from travel suppliers. If there is any deterioration in the quality of their performance, our customers may not continue using our online platform.”

Regulations on Travel Companies

The travel industry is subject to the supervision of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, or the MCT, formerly known as China National Tourism Administration, or the CNTA , and local culture and tourism administrations. The principal regulations governing travel companies in China include: (i) the Regulation on Travel Companies, or the Travel Company Regulations, issued by the PRC State Council in February 2009, and most recently amended in November 2020, which replaced the Administration of Travel Companies Regulations (1996), (ii) the Implementation Rules for the Regulation on Travel Companies (the “Travel Company Implementation Rules”), promulgated by the CNTA , the predecessor of MCT, in April 2009 and amended in December 2016, (iii) the Tourism Law issued by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on April 25, 2013, and amended in November 2016 and October 2018, respectively, and (iv) Measures for the Administration of the Overseas Tours of Chinese Citizens, issued by the PRC State Council in May 2002, became effective as of July 2002 and was amended in March 2017. Under these regulations, a travel company must obtain a license from the MCT to conduct cross-border travel business and a license from the provincial-level culture and tourism administration to conduct domestic travel company business.

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The Travel Company Regulations permit foreign investors to establish wholly foreign-owned travel companies, as well as joint ventures and cooperative travel companies. Foreign-owned travel companies are allowed to open branches nationwide, but are restricted from engaging in overseas travel business in China, unless otherwise determined by the PRC State Council, or provided under a bilateral free trade agreement between the country and China, or the closer economic partnership agreements between China, Hong Kong and Macau. However, according to regulations recently promulgated by the State Council and/or other authorities, qualified foreign-invested travel companies registered in certain areas of China are allowed to engage in overseas travel business, except in Taiwan area, for example, (i) on July 1, 2016, the PRC State Council issued the Decision of the State Council on Temporally Adjusting Relevant Provisions of Administrative Regulations, Documents of the State Council and Departmental Rules approved by the State Council in the Pilot Free Trade Zones, or Decision 41, pursuant to which qualified foreign-invested travel companies, registered in the Pilot Free Trade Zones of Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian, may engage in overseas travel business, except in Taiwan area, (ii) the State Council Circular 16 promulgated in January 2019 allows foreign-invested travel companies, including Sino-foreign joint ventures and wholly foreign owned travel companies, registered in Beijing to engage in overseas travel business, except in Taiwan area, (iii) in August 2019, the PRC State Council issued Notice of the State Council on the Overall Plans for Six Newly Established Pilot Free Trade Zones, pursuant to which qualified foreign-invested travel companies, registered in the Pilot Free Trade Zones of Shandong and Heilongjiang provinces may engage in overseas travel business, except in Taiwan area, (iv) in August 2019, Shanghai Municipal People’s Government promulgated Several Measures of Shanghai Municipality for a New Round of Expanding the Opening up of the Service Sector, pursuant to which foreign-invested travel companies registered in Shanghai may engage in overseas travel business, except in Taiwan area, (v) in November 2019, MOC together with 17 other government authorities promulgated the Notice on Trial Implementation in China (Hainan) Pilot Free Trade Zone of the Policies Implemented in Other Pilot Free Trade Zones, pursuant to which qualified foreign-invested travel companies, registered in the Hainan Pilot Free Trade Zones may engage in overseas travel business, except in Taiwan area.

The Travel Company Implementation Rules define certain terms used in the Travel Company Regulations, for example, the definition of “domestic tourism business,” “inbound travel business” and “overseas travel business”, and set out detailed application requirements to establish a travel company. The Travel Company Implementation Rules also clarify certain aspects of legal liability for travel companies as prescribed in the Travel Company Regulations.

Pursuant to the Tourism Law, travel companies are prohibited from arranging for compulsory shopping or other activities which charge additional fees on top of the contract prices that tourists have already paid, unless it is agreed upon by both parties through consultation or requested by the tourists and does not affect the itinerary of other tourists. Travel companies are required to pay quality deposits for compensation for damage to tourists’ rights and advance payment of expenses for emergency assistance when the tourists’ personal safety is in danger. Travel companies are required to engage tour guides, who are required to strictly follow the itineraries and are prohibited from altering arrangement without the consent of customers, suspending to provide services, requesting tips from tourists, and arranging for compulsory shopping or other activities which charge additional fees on top of the contract prices that tourists have already paid by way of induction, deception, coercion or in other illegal forms. The information that travel companies release to attract or organize tourists is required to be authentic and accurate, and no false publicity can be made to mislead tourists. In addition, travel companies conducting business via the Internet are required to present information of their travel company licenses on their websites, and ensure the truthfulness and accuracy of the travel-related information they release on their websites. Generally, travel companies soliciting tourists are required to take primary liabilities for any breach of travel contracts, including personal injury or property loss suffered by the tourists attributable to travel service providers and tour operators at destinations and their suppliers.

In 2010, CNTA released the Measures for Dealing with Tourism Complaints, which took effect as of July 1, 2010. Under these Measures, authorities which are responsible for dealing with tourist complaints are required to render a decision on the complaints within 60 days after the date of receipt thereof.

Although we take measures, such as requesting travel suppliers to provide their relevant permits and/or licenses, we cannot make sure that all of travel suppliers maintained all necessary permits. See “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may not be able to adequately control and ensure the quality of travel products and services sourced from travel suppliers. If there is any deterioration in the quality of their performance, our customers may not continue using our online platform.”

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In November 2010, CNTA and China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly promulgated the Measures for the Administration of the Liability Insurance of Travel Companies, or the Liability Insurance Measures, which became effective as of February 1, 2011. Travel companies are required to procure travel company liability insurance pursuant to the Liability Insurance Measures. The insurance companies are required to, subject to the liability limits provided under the insurance agreement, reimburse the travel companies for the compensations made by the travel companies for the personal injury or death and the loss of properties of tourists and the relevant tour guides or tour leaders. Pursuant to the Liability Insurance Measures, the liability limit for the personal injury or death of each person cannot be less than RMB200,000. Each of our relevant consolidated affiliated entities engaged in travel agent business has procured and is covered by valid travel company liability insurance.

On August 20, 2020, the MCT issued the Interim Measures on the Administration of Online Tourism Business Services, or the Measures on Online Tourism Business Services, which took effect on October 1, 2020. The Measures on Online Tourism Business Services provides that operators of online tourism business shall, among other things, (i) formulate tourist security protection mechanism, (ii) refrain from transmission of information prohibited by laws and regulations, keep relevant record and report to competent authorities, (iii) implement the classified protection system for cyber security and take management and technical measures for protection of cyber security, (iv) provide true and accurate tourism service information and establish transparent and accessible reservation channels for transportation, accommodation and sightseeing for tourists; (v) protect the safety of tourists’ personal information and privacy, and (vi) maintain travel agency liability insurance if they operate travel agency business.

Regulations on Online Transaction Platform Operators

In May 2014, the SAIC issued the Guidelines for the Performance of Social Responsibilities by Online Transaction Platform Operators, or the Online Transaction Platform Operators Guidelines. The Online Transaction Platform Operators Guidelines stipulate the qualification requirements for operators of online transaction platform, and certain other obligations, such as examination and registration of any business operator using online transaction platform, online transaction operator’s contracts with suppliers and customers, data protection for consumers, among others. Pursuant to Online Transaction Platform Operators Guidelines, online transaction platform operators must (i) establish a consumer protection and consumer dispute settlement system, and (ii) ensure that their complaint and customer support channels are smooth.

In addition, online transaction platform operators must also preserve all relevant online transaction data for at least two years from the date of the transaction. Operators of online transaction platform must comply with the Consumer Protection Law, the Product Quality Law, the Anti-unfair Competition Law and other relevant laws and regulations. Furthermore, as required by Jiangsu Administration of Telecommunication, Nanjing Tuniu, our consolidated affiliated entity, has obtained a license of online data processing and transaction which will expire in October 2022. Subject to any clarifications or interpretations that may be issued in future as to the Online Transaction Platform Operators Guidelines, we might need to adjust our operational or contracting practices.

In August 2018, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress promulgated the PRC E-commerce Law, which became effective in January 2019. The E-commerce Law strengthens the regulation on E-commerce operators relating to consumer protection, personal data protection and intellectual property rights protection. As an e-commerce operator, we are required under the E-commerce Law, (1) to refrain from conducting false or misleading commercial promotion by fabricating transactions, making up user comments or otherwise, to defraud or mislead consumers, (2) to allow consumer to opt out of search results targeting his or her personally characteristics such as hobbies and shopping patterns and simultaneously show the consumers with options not targeting his or her personally characteristics, (3) to alert consumers of tie-in sale of commodities or services, and shall not set the tied-in commodities or services as a default option, (4) to obtain and maintain business license and other applicable licenses as required, and disclose information of such license at our front-page, (5) to clearly detail the refund procedure for the deposit we received from customers, and not set any unreasonable conditions to refund, (6) to take the risks and responsibilities in the transportation of the products, unless the consumer chooses a courier logistics service provider other than the default service provider, etc.

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On March 15, 2021, the SAMR promulgated the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Trading, or the Online Trading Measures, which will take effect and replace the Administrative Measures for Online Trading on May 1, 2021. The Online Trading Measures further strengthen the administration and supervision of online trading activities, and impose a series of regulatory requirements on new forms of online trading, such as online social networking e-commerce and online livestreaming e-commerce. The Online Trading Measures specify typical examples of unreasonable restrictions or conditions imposed by e-commerce platform operators on transactions concluded on their platforms, including prohibiting or restricting the merchants to operate on other e-commerce platforms, by means of unfair practices, such as reducing their search exposure, removing their products or services, blocking their stores etc., or prohibiting or restricting the merchants from freely choosing supporting service provider for transactions, such as logistics services providers.

Regulations on Consumer Rights Protection

According to the PRC Consumer Protection Law, as amended on October 25, 2013 and became effective as of March 15, 2014, the rights and interests of consumers that purchase or use commodities or that receive services for consumption purposes in daily life is required to be protected, which includes the right to personal safety and the safety of property, the right to be informed about goods and services offered for sale, the right to free choice when selecting goods or services and the right to enjoy fair dealings, respect for their personal dignity and ethnic customs, and compensation for damages suffered.

Correspondingly, a business operator providing a commodity or service to a consumer is subject to a number of requirements, which includes to ensure that commodities and services meet with certain safety requirements, to disclose serious defects of a commodity or a service and to adopt preventive measures against damage occurring, to provide consumers with accurate information and to refrain from conducting false advertising, and not to set unreasonable or unfair terms for consumers or alleviate or release itself from civil liability for harming the lawful rights and interests of consumers by means of standard contracts, circulars, announcements, shop notices or other means. A business operator may be subject to civil liabilities for failing to fulfill the obligations discussed above. These liabilities include restoring the consumer’s reputation, eliminating the adverse effects suffered by the consumer, offering an apology and compensating for any losses incurred. The following penalties may also be imposed upon business operators for any infraction: issuance of a warning, confiscation of any illegal income, imposition of a fine, an order to cease business operation, revocation of its business license or imposition of criminal liabilities under circumstances that are specified in laws and statutory regulations.

The amended Consumer Protection Law further strengthens the protection of consumers and imposes more stringent requirements and obligations on business operators, especially on the business operators through the internet. The consumers whose interests are harmed due to their purchase of goods or acceptance of services on online marketplace platforms may claim damages from sellers or service providers. As to legal liabilities of the online marketplace platform provider, the Consumer Protection Law set forth that, where a consumer purchases products or accepts services via an online trading platform and his or her interests are prejudiced, if the online trading platform provider fails to provide the name, address and valid contact information of the seller, the manufacturer or the service provider, the consumer is entitled to demand compensation from the online trading platform provider. If the online trading platform provider gives an undertaking that is more favorable to consumers, it shall perform such undertaking. Once the online trading platform provider has paid compensation, it shall have a right of recourse against the seller, the manufacturer or the service provider. If an online trading platform provider is aware or ought to have been aware that a seller, manufacturer or service provider is using the online platform to infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of consumers and it fails to take necessary measures, it shall bear joint and several liabilities with the seller, the manufacturer or service provider for such infringement. The Civil Code of the PRC, which was enacted by the National People’s Congress on May 28, 2020 and took effect on January 1, 2021, also provides that if an online service provider is aware that an online user is committing infringing activities, such as selling counterfeit products, through its internet services and fails to take necessary measures, it shall be jointly and severally liable with the said online user for such infringement. If the online service provider receives any notice from the infringed party on any infringing activities, the online service provider shall take necessary measures, including deleting, blocking and unlinking the infringing content, in a timely manner. Otherwise, it will be jointly and severally liable with the relevant online user for the extended damages.

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In June, 2017, the SAIC issued the Interim Measures for No Reason Return of Online Purchased Commodities within Seven Days, which came into effect in March 2017 and was amended in October 2020, which further clarifies the scope of consumers’ rights to make returns without a reason, including the detailed rules on exceptions, return procedures and online marketplace platform providers’ responsibility to formulate seven-day no-reason return rules, sets up the related consumer protection systems and supervision on merchants for compliance with the relevant rules.

In December 2003, the Supreme People’s Court in China issued the Interpretation of Some Issues Concerning the Application of Law for the Trial of Cases on Compensation for Personal Injury, as amended in December 2020, which further increases the liabilities of business operators engaged in the operation of hotels, restaurants, or entertainment facilities and subjects such operators to compensatory liabilities for failing to fulfill their statutory obligations to a reasonable extent or to guarantee the personal safety of others.

In October 2010, the Supreme People’s Court of China issued the Provisions on Issues Concerning the Application of Law for the Trial of Cases on Tourism-related Disputes, as amended in December 2020, which establish liabilities for tour operators and tourism support service providers in the event of contract disputes, personal injury and property damage involving tourists.

Although we take certain measures to monitor the qualities of the travel products and services provided by travel suppliers and handle customer complaints, we cannot ensure that these measures are sufficient to protect consumer rights, or customer dispute can be handled and resolved in a timely fashion. See “Item 3. D. Key Information—Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We may not be able to adequately control and ensure the quality of travel products and services sourced from travel suppliers. If there is any deterioration in the quality of their performance, our customers may seek damages from us and not continue using our online platform.”

Regulations on Advertising Business

The SAMR is the primary governmental authority regulating advertising activities, including online advertising, in China. Regulations that apply to advertising business primarily include:

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