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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

OR

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

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.

OR

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

For the transition period from                     to                         

OR

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

Date of event requiring this shell company report

For the transition period from                     to                    

Commission file number: 001-38591

Pinduoduo Inc.

(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)

28/F, No. 533 Loushanguan Road, Changning District
Shanghai, 200051
People’s Republic of China

(Address of principal executive offices)

Jianchong Zhu

Tel: +86-21-52661300

Email: investor@pinduoduo.com

28/F, No. 533 Loushanguan Road, Changning District

Shanghai, 200051

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.

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

None

(Title of Class)

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

None

(Title of Class)

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report: 3,545,065,888 Class A ordinary shares, par value US$0.000005 per share and 1,409,744,080 Class B ordinary shares, par value US$0.000005 per share, were outstanding as of December 31, 2020.

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

☒ Yes   ☐ No

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

☐ Yes   ☒ No

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

☒ Yes   ☐ No

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

☒ Yes   ☐ No

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

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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.

☐ Yes   ☐ No

† 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. ☒

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

☐ Item 17   ☐ Item 18

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

☐ Yes   ☒ No

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

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

☐ Yes   ☐ No

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INTRODUCTION

Unless otherwise indicated or the context otherwise requires, references in this annual report to:

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Our reporting currency is Renminbi because our business is mainly conducted in China and all of our revenues are denominated in Renminbi. This annual report contains translations of Renminbi amounts into U.S. dollars at specific rates solely for the convenience of the readers. 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 exchange rate on December 31, 2020 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. We make no representation that any Renminbi or U.S. dollar amounts could have been, or could be, converted into U.S. dollars or Renminbi, as the case may be, at any particular rate or at all.

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FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

This annual report contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current expectations and views of future events. The forward-looking statements are contained principally in the sections entitled “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors,” “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview” and “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects.” These forward-looking statements are made under the “safe-harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including those listed under “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors,” may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements.

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

These forward-looking statements involve various risks and uncertainties. Although we believe that our expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, our expectations may later be found to be incorrect. Our actual results could be materially different from our expectations. Important risks and factors that could cause our actual results to be materially different from our expectations are generally set forth in “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors,” “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview,” “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects,” and other sections in this annual report. You should read thoroughly this annual report and the documents that we refer to with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from and worse than what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements by these cautionary statements.

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This annual report contains certain data and information that we obtained from various government and private publications. We have not independently verified the accuracy or completeness of the data contained in these industry publications and reports. Statistical data in these publications also include projections based on a number of assumptions. The e-commerce industry may not grow at the rate projected by market data, or at all. Failure of this market to grow at the projected rate may have a material and adverse effect on our business and the market price of our ADSs. In addition, the rapidly evolving nature of the e-commerce industry results in significant uncertainties for any projections or estimates relating to the growth prospects or future condition of our market. Furthermore, if any one or more of the assumptions underlying the market data are later found to be incorrect, actual results may differ from the projections based on these assumptions. You should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

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The forward-looking statements made in this annual report relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this annual report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. You should read this annual report and the documents that we refer to in this annual report and exhibits to this annual report completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from what we expect.

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PART I

Item 1.         Identity of Directors, Senior Management and Advisers

Not applicable.

Item 2.         Offer Statistics and Expected Timetable

Not applicable.

Item 3.         Key Information

A.          Selected Financial Data

The following table presents the selected consolidated financial information for our company. The selected consolidated statements of comprehensive loss data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 2019 and 2020, selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2019 and 2020 and selected consolidated statements of cash flow data for the years ended December 31, 2018, 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 year 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 are not necessarily indicative of results expected for future periods. You should read this selected financial data together with our consolidated financial statements and the related notes and information under “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” in this annual report. Our audited consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

The Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (“JOBS Act”) provides that an emerging growth company (“EGC”) as defined therein can take advantage of an extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards. This allows an EGC to delay adoption of certain accounting standards until those standards would otherwise apply to private companies. The Company as an EGC elected to take advantage of the extended transition period. However, the Company ceased to be an EGC on December 31, 2018 due to its rapid revenue growth in 2018.

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As a result, we adopted Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2014-09, Revenue from Contracts with Customers (Topic 606), as amended, effective January 1, 2018 using the modified retrospective approach. There were no changes made to our revenue recognition policy as a result of the adoption of Topic 606. We also changed the classification and presentation of restricted cash on the consolidated statements of cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2018 due to the adoption of ASU No. 2016-18, Statement of Cash Flows: Restricted Cash. For the years ended December 31, 2016 and 2017, the changes in restricted cash of nil and RMB9,370.8 million, respectively were previously reported within net cash used in operating activities in the statements of cash flows. We adopted ASU No. 2016-02: Leases on January 1, 2019 using the modified retrospective transition method. Right-of-use assets (“ROU assets”) and lease liabilities (including current and non-current) for operating leases are presented on the face of the consolidated balance sheet as of December 31, 2019 and 2020, while the consolidated balance sheet data for the years ended December 31, 2016, 2017 and 2018 have been prepared in accordance with ASC Topic 840 (“ASC 840”), Accounting for Leases. We adopted Accounting Standards Update (“ASU”) No. 2016-13, Financial Instruments-Credit Losses (Topic 326): Measurement of Credit Losses on Financial Instruments (“ASU 2016-13”) on January 1, 2020, which requires the measurement and recognition of expected credit losses for financial assets held at amortized cost. ASU 2016-13 replaces the incurred loss methodology with a forward-looking current expected credit losses.

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The following table presents our selected consolidated balance sheet data as of the dates indicated:

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The following table presents our selected consolidated cash flow data for the periods indicated:

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B.           Capitalization and Indebtedness

Not applicable.

C.           Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

Not applicable.

D.           Risk Factors

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

Our limited operating history makes it difficult to evaluate our business and prospects. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to maintain the growth rate that we have experienced to date.

We commenced our commercial operations in 2015, and have a limited operating history. The number of our active buyers have grown exponentially to reach approximately 788.4 million in 2020. Our revenues grew from RMB30,141.9 million in 2019 to RMB59,491.9 million (US$9,117.5 million) in 2020. However, our historical performance may not be indicative of our future growth or financial results. We cannot assure you that we will be able to grow at the same rate as we did in the past, or avoid any decline in the future. Our growth may slow down or become negative, and revenues may decline for a number of possible reasons, some of which are beyond our control, including decreasing consumer spending, increasing competition, declining growth of our overall market or industry, the emergence of alternative business models, changes in rules, regulations, government policies or general economic conditions. In addition, our online marketing services, from which we have generated almost all of our revenues since 2017, are a relatively new initiative and may not grow as quickly as we have anticipated. It is difficult to evaluate our prospects, as we may not have sufficient experience in addressing the risks to which companies operating in rapidly evolving markets may be exposed. If our growth rate declines, investors’ perceptions of our business, operating results and prospects may be materially and adversely affected and the market price of our ADSs could decline. You should consider our prospects in light of the risks and uncertainties that companies with a limited operating history may encounter.

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If we fail to anticipate buyer needs and provide products and services to attract and retain buyers, or fail to adapt our services or business model to changing buyer needs or emerging industry standards, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

The e-commerce market in which we operate as well as buyer needs and preferences are constantly evolving. As a result, we must continuously respond to changes in the market and buyer demand and preferences to remain competitive, grow our business and maintain our market position. We intend to further diversify our product and service offerings to add to our revenue sources in the future. New products and services, new types of buyers or new business models may involve risks and challenges we do not currently face. Any new initiatives may require us to devote significant financial and management resources and may not perform as well as expected. For example, the e-waybill system we launched in the first quarter of 2019, the livestreaming initiative we launched in November 2019 and Duo Duo Grocery we started in August 2020, each may require financial, personnel and other resources commitment over time and may not attract or retain enough users or otherwise perform in accordance with our expectations.

Furthermore, we may have difficulty in anticipating buyer demand and preferences, and the products offered on our platform may not be accepted by the market or be rendered obsolete or uneconomical. Therefore, any inability to adapt to these changes may result in a failure to capture new buyers or retain existing buyers, the occurrence of which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, to remain competitive, we must continue to enhance and improve the responsiveness, functionality and features of our platform. The internet and e-commerce markets are characterized by rapid technological evolution, changes in buyer requirements and preferences, frequent introductions of new products, features and services embodying new technologies and the emergence of new industry standards and practices, any of which could render our existing technologies and systems obsolete. Our success will depend, in part, on our ability to identify, develop and adapt to new technologies useful in our business, and respond to technological advances and emerging industry standards and practices, in particular with respect to mobile internet, in a cost-effective and timely way. We cannot assure you that we will be successful in these efforts.

Any harm to our brand or reputation may materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We believe that the recognition and reputation of our Pinduoduo or “拼多多” brand among our buyers, merchants and third-party service providers have contributed significantly to the growth and success of our business. Maintaining and enhancing the recognition and reputation of our brand are critical to our business and competitiveness. Many factors, some of which are beyond our control, are important to maintaining and enhancing our brand. These factors include our ability to:

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Public perception that counterfeit, unauthorized, illegal, or infringing products are sold on our platform or that we or merchants on our platform do not provide satisfactory consumer services, even if factually incorrect or based on isolated incidents, could damage our reputation, diminish the value of our brand, undermine the trust and credibility we have established and have a negative impact on our ability to attract new buyers or retain our current buyers. In particular, we have been and may continue to be subject to negative publicity based on claims and allegations related to intellectual property. For example, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, identified our platform as a “notorious market” in the 2019 and 2020 Annual Special 301 Reports. The USTR may continue to identify our platform as a notorious market in the future. The negative public perception resulted therefrom could damage our reputation, harm our business, diminish the value of our brand name and negatively affect trading price of our ADSs.

If we are unable to maintain our reputation, enhance our brand recognition or increase positive awareness of our platform, products and services, it may be difficult to maintain and grow our buyer base, and our business and growth prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Our merchants deliver their products to buyers through a variety of third-party logistics service providers, third-party warehouse operators, third-party pick-up point operators and/or e-waybill systems. Service interruptions, failures, or constraints of these third parties or any disruptions or malfunctions of the e-waybill systems could severely harm our business and prospects.

Our merchants fulfil and deliver their orders through third-party logistics service providers, warehouse operators and/or pick-up point operators. Interruptions to or failures in services provided by these third parties could affect timely and successful delivery of the ordered products to our buyers. As we do not directly control or manage the operations of these third parties, we may not be able to guarantee their performance. Any failure to provide satisfactory services to our buyers, such as delays in delivery, product damage or product loss during transit, shutdown or termination of pick-up points may damage our reputation and cause us to lose buyers, and may ultimately adversely affect our results of operations. In addition, certain of these third parties may be influenced by our competitors when providing services to us. For example, if third-party logistics service providers raise the shipping rates for delivering products of merchants on our platform, our merchants may not be willing to bear the increased costs or be able to offer competitive prices for products on our platform. As a result, our business and prospects, as well as our financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

If these third parties fail to deliver products to our buyers on time or in good condition, our buyers may refuse to accept merchandise purchased on our platform and have less confidence in our platform. In such event, we cannot assure you that our merchants or we will be able to find alternative cost-efficient service providers or operators to offer satisfactory services or pick-up points in a timely manner, or at all, which could cause our business and reputation to suffer or cause merchants and buyers to move to other platforms and have negative impact on our financial conditions.

Most merchants use e-waybill systems to arrange and track shipment. While we launched our e-waybill system during the first quarter of 2019, the merchants on our platform are allowed to choose different e-waybill systems. Any disruptions or malfunctions of e-waybill systems used by our merchants could prevent the timely or proper delivery of products to consumers, which would damage our reputation, harm our business, diminish the value of our brand name.

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We face intense competition, and if we fail to compete effectively, we may lose market share, buyers and merchants.

The e-commerce industry in China is intensely competitive. We compete to attract, engage and retain buyers, merchants, and other participants on our platforms. Our current or potential competitors include (i) major e-commerce companies in China, (ii) major traditional and brick-and-mortar retailers in China, (iii) retail companies in China focused on specific product categories and (iv) major internet companies in China that do not operate e-commerce businesses now but may enter the e-commerce business area or are in the process of initiating their e-commerce businesses. These current or future competitors may have longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, better supplier or merchant relationships, stronger infrastructure, larger buyer bases or greater financial, technical or marketing resources than we do. Competitors may leverage their brand recognition, experience and resources to compete with us in a variety of ways, including making investments and acquisitions for the expansion of their product and service offerings. Some of our competitors may be able to secure more favorable terms from merchants, devote greater resources to marketing and promotional campaigns, adopt more aggressive pricing or inventory policies and devote substantially more resources to develop their IT systems and technology. Some of these competitors may also offer “team purchase” on their platforms or offer innovative purchase models that may turn out to be highly popular among buyers, and buyers may prefer them over our team purchase model. In addition, new and enhanced technologies may increase the competition in the market we operate in. Increased competition may reduce our profitability, market share, user base and brand recognition. There can be no assurance that we will be able to compete successfully against current or future competitors, and such competitive pressures may have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to maintain and expand our relationships with merchants, our revenues and results of operations will be harmed.

We rely on our merchants to offer merchandise that appeal to our existing and potential buyers at attractive prices. Our ability to provide popular products on our platform at attractive prices depends on our ability to develop mutually beneficial relationships with our merchants. For example, we rely on our merchants to make available sufficient inventory and fulfill large volumes of orders in an efficient and timely manner to ensure our user experience. To date, our buyers and merchants have been increasing in parallel as a result of the powerful network effects of our platform. However, we may experience merchant attrition in the ordinary course of business resulting from several factors, such as losses to competitors, perception that marketing on our platform is ineffective, reduction in merchants’ marketing budgets, and closures or bankruptcies of merchants. In addition, we may have disputes with merchants with respect to their compliance with our quality control policies and measures and the penalties imposed by us for violation of these policies or measures from time to time, which may cause them to be dissatisfied with our platform. Their complaints may in turn result in negative impact on our public image and reputation. If we experience significant merchant attrition, or if we are unable to attract new merchants, our revenues and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. In addition, our agreements with merchants also typically do not restrict them from establishing or maintaining business relationships with our competitors. We cannot assure you that merchants will continue to offer merchandise on our platform if they are pressured to use only one platform to market their products.

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Any change, disruption, discontinuity in the features and functions of major social networks could severely limit our ability to continue growing our buyer base, and our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Our success depends on our ability to attract and retain new buyers and expand our buyer base. Acquiring and retaining buyers on our platform is important to the growth and profitability of our business. We leverage social networks as a tool for buyer acquisition and engagement. Although buyers can access our platform and make team purchases directly through our Pinduoduo mobile app, we leverage social networks, such as Weixin and QQ, to enable buyers to share product information and their purchase experiences with their friends, family and other social contacts to generate effective and organic traffic and active interactions among buyers. A portion of our buyer traffic comes from such user recommendation or product introduction feature which buyers can share with friends or contacts through social networks. Due to the nature of our business model, which resembles a dynamic and interactive shopping experience, it is impracticable for us to accurately bifurcate and quantify the buyer traffic generated directly through our platform and through social networks. Therefore, during our daily operations, we focus more on the GMV on our platform as a whole and the seamless user experience across different access points, and believe that the final purchase destination cannot be used to reflect the significance of social networks and our Pinduoduo mobile app to our business operations.

To the extent that we fail to leverage such social networks, our ability to attract or retain buyers may be severely harmed. If any of these social networks makes changes to its functions or support, such as charging fees for functions or support that is currently provided for free, or stops offering its functions or support to us, we may not be able to locate alternative platforms of similar scale to provide similar functions or support on commercially reasonable terms in a timely manner, or at all. Furthermore, we may fail to establish or maintain relationships with additional social network operators to support the growth of our business on economically viable terms, or at all. Any interruption to or discontinuation of our relationships with major social network operators may severely and negatively impact our ability to continue growing our buyer base, and any occurrence of the circumstances mentioned above may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are dependent on app stores to disseminate our mobile apps.

We offer our services mainly through our Pinduoduo mobile platform. Our mobile apps are offered via smartphone and tablet apps stores operated by third parties, such as Apple’s App Store, which could suspend or terminate users’ access to our mobile apps, increase access costs or change the terms of access in a way that makes our apps less desirable or harder to access. As a result, our ability to expand our user base may be hindered if potential users experience difficulties in or are barred from accessing our mobile apps. In the past, our mobile apps were taken down from certain third-party app stores for a short period of time. We cannot assure you that we will not experience such incident of similar nature in the future. The occurrence of the similar incident may adversely affect our brand and reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

Any disruption to our IT systems could materially affect our ability to maintain the satisfactory performance of our IT systems and deliver consistent services to our buyers and merchants.

The proper functioning of our IT systems is essential to our business. The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our IT systems are critical to our success, our ability to attract and retain buyers and our ability to maintain and deliver consistent services to our buyers and merchants. However, our technology infrastructure may fail to keep pace with increased sales on our platform, in particular with respect to our new product and service offerings, and therefore our buyers may experience delays as we seek to source additional capacity, which would adversely affect our results of operations as well as our reputation.

Additionally, we must 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 the failure to do so may impede our growth. We currently rely on cloud services and servers operated by external cloud service providers to store our data, to allow us to analyze a large amount of data simultaneously and to update our buyer database and buyer profiles quickly. Any interruption or delay in the functionality of these external cloud service and server providers may materially and adversely affect the operations of our business.

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We may be unable to monitor and ensure high-quality maintenance and upgrade of our IT systems and infrastructure on a real-time basis, and buyers may experience service outages and delays in accessing and using our platform to place orders. In addition, we may experience surges in online traffic and orders associated with promotional activities and generally as we scale, which can put additional demand on our platform at specific times. Our technology or infrastructure may not function properly at all times. Any system interruptions caused by telecommunications failures, computer viruses, hacking or other attempts to harm our systems that result in the unavailability or slowdown of our platform or reduced order fulfillment performance could reduce the volume of products sold and the attractiveness of product offerings on our platform. Our servers may also be vulnerable to computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins and similar disruptions, which could lead to system interruptions, mobile app slowdown or unavailability, delays or errors in transaction processing, loss of data or the inability to accept and fulfill buyer orders. Any of such occurrences could cause severe disruption to our daily operations. As a result, our reputation may be materially and adversely affected, our market share could decline and we could be subject to liability claims.

We have incurred net losses in the past, and we may continue to incur losses in the future.

We have incurred net losses since our inception. We incurred net loss of RMB7,179.7 million (US$1,100.3 million) in 2020, compared to net loss of RMB6,967.6 million in 2019. We cannot assure you that we will be able to generate net profits in the future. In addition, we expect our operating costs and expenses to increase in absolute amounts in the future due to: (i) the continued expansion of our business operations, buyer base and merchant network, (ii) the continued investment in technology infrastructure and network, (iii) our promotion and marketing efforts as we continue to enhance our brand recognition, retain and grow our buyer base, and increase our buyer activities, (iv) the launch of new services, and (v) the investment in new initiatives, which may incur upfront costs, change our existing revenue and cost structures, and affect our ability to achieve profitability.

Our ability to achieve profitability depends on our ability to, among other things, increase our number of active buyers, grow and diversify our merchant base, and optimize our cost structure. We may not be able to achieve any of the above. In particular, our sales and marketing expenses increased substantially from RMB27,174.2 million in 2019 to RMB41,194.6 million (US$6,313.3 million) in 2020, as we invested in cultivating greater user recognition and engagement through online and offline advertising campaigns and promotions. If we continue to incur substantial sales and marketing expenses without being able to achieve the anticipated growth in active buyers and merchants, our operating results may be materially and adversely affected. As a result, we may fail to improve our operating margin, and may continue to incur net losses in the future. In addition, our ability to use our net losses to offset future taxable income may be subject to certain limitations, including limitations resulting from reorganization of our corporate structure and change of our primary operating entities. As such, we may not be able to fully utilize our net losses or at all, even if we were to achieve profitability.

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

We rely on certain key operating metrics to evaluate the performance of our business. Our operating metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics used by other companies due to differences in methodology and assumptions. If these metrics are perceived to be inaccurate by investors or investors make investment decisions based on operating metrics we disclosed but with their own methodology and assumptions or those published or used by third parties or other companies, our reputation may be harmed, which could negatively affect our business, and we may also face potential lawsuits or disputes.

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We face risks related to natural disasters, health epidemics and other outbreaks, most notably those related to the outbreak of COVID-19, which could significantly disrupt our operations.

We and our merchants are vulnerable to natural disasters, health epidemics, and other calamities. Any of such occurrences could cause severe disruption to the daily operations of us and our merchants and may even require a temporary closure of facilities and logistics delivery networks, which may disrupt our business operations and adversely affect our results of operations. In recent years, there have been outbreaks of epidemics in China and globally. For example, in early 2020, to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Chinese government took a number of actions, which included extending the Chinese New Year holiday, quarantining individuals suspected of having COVID-19, and asking residents in China to stay at home and to avoid public gathering, among other things. COVID-19 has also resulted in temporary closure of many corporate offices, retail stores, and manufacturing facilities and factories across China, and put significant strain on merchandise shipping and delivery. Reduction in product offering on our e-commerce platform and delay in delivery caused by the impairment of manufacturing and delivery capacity of our merchants and services providers may damage our reputation and cause us to lose buyers, and adversely affect our results of operations. While the events related to the outbreak of and response to the COVID-19 may be temporary and many of the COVID-19 quarantine measures within China have since been significantly relaxed as of the date of this annual report, the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 on our financial performance for the period beyond 2020 cannot be reasonably estimated at this time. The extent to which the outbreak of COVID-19 impacts our results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of this outbreak and the actions to contain this outbreak or treat its impact, among others. In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that any epidemics or other catastrophic events, such as COVID-19, harm the Chinese economy in general.

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Our success depends on the continuing efforts of our key employees. If we fail to hire, retain and motivate our key employees, our business may suffer.

Our future success is significantly dependent upon the continued service of our key executives and other key employees. If we lose the services of any member of our management or key personnel, we may not be able to locate suitable or qualified replacements, and may incur additional expenses to recruit and train new staff, which could severely disrupt our business and growth. Our management and key personnel are critical to our vision, strategic direction, culture and overall business success. If there is any internal organizational structure change or change in responsibilities for our management or key personnel, the operation of our business and our business prospects may be adversely affected. Our employees, including members of our management, may choose to pursue other opportunities. If we are unable to motivate or retain key employees, our business may be severely disrupted and our prospects could suffer.

The increasing scale of our business also requires us to hire and retain a wide range of capable and experienced personnel and technology talents who can adapt to a dynamic, competitive and challenging business environment. For example, we may need to hire additional personnel with special sets of skills and experience for Duo Duo Grocery. Competition for talents is intense, and the availability of suitable and qualified candidates in China is limited. Competition for talents could cause us to offer higher compensation and other benefits to attract and retain them. Even if we were to offer higher compensation and other benefits, these individuals may choose not to join or continue to work for us. Any failure to attract or retain management and key personnel could severely disrupt our business and growth.

If we are unable to manage our growth or execute our strategies effectively, our business and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Our business has grown substantially since our inception, and we expect continued growth in our business, revenues and number of employees. We have significantly expanded our headcount and office facilities, and we anticipate that further expansion in certain areas and geographies will be required. Expansion in general increases the complexity of our operations and places significant strains on our management, operational and financial resources, and may cause additional risks and costs in relation to compliance, such as dealing with regulatory enforcement or labor disputes. We may continue to hire, train and effectively manage new employees and contractors. If our new hires perform poorly or if we are unsuccessful in hiring, training, managing and integrating new employees and contractors, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially harmed.

In addition, we plan to further establish relationships with more merchants to increase the product offerings on our platform. Such expansion may require us to introduce new products and work with a variety of additional merchants to address the evolving needs of our buyers. We may have limited or no experience for certain new product offerings, and our expansion into these new product offerings may not achieve broad buyer acceptance. These offerings may present new and difficult technological or operational challenges, and we may be subject to claims if buyers are not satisfied with the quality of the products or do not have satisfactory experiences in general.

To effectively execute our business strategies and manage the expected growth of our operations and personnel, we will need to continue to improve our transaction processing, technological, operational and financial systems, policies, procedures and controls. For example, the e-waybill system that we launched in the first quarter of 2019, the livestreaming feature that we started in November 2019, and Duo Duo Grocery that we started in August 2020, each may require financial, personnel and other resources commitment over time, including recruitment of employees and contractors, development of new technologies, collaboration with new business partners, launch of additional promotional activities and investments in logistics infrastructure. All of these endeavors involve risks and will require significant management, financial and human resources. We cannot assure you that we will be able to effectively manage our growth or to implement our strategies successfully. If we are not able to manage our growth or implement our strategies effectively, or at all, our business and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

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For example, we have developed an open, asset-light logistics technology platform. As the first pillar to such logistics technology platform, we launched our e-waybill system during the first quarter of 2019. Building on top of our e-waybill system, our aim is to build a platform that would provide technology solutions to our sizable and growing merchant base, and fundamentally improve their efficiencies and services to users as we deepen our relationships with them through C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer), cross-border e-commerce, and other initiatives. As a result of the development of this platform, we may incur additional costs and expenses, devote more management’s attention to its operations and compliance and allocate additional resources in dealing with potential disputes relating to its operations and intellectual property rights. In August 2020, we started Duo Duo Grocery, a next-day grocery pick-up service that allows users to order groceries and related products online and collect goods the next day at nearby designated pickup points. We cannot assure you that we will be able to manage or operate this new business initiative successfully or effectively, such as providing the requisite services to the merchants, attracting and retaining capable employees and partners and leasing suitable facilities on commercially acceptable terms. Failure to manage and operate Duo Duo Grocery could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may incur liability for counterfeit, unauthorized, illegal, or infringing products sold or misleading information available on our platforms.

Under our current marketplace model, substantially all of products offered on our platform are supplied by merchants, who are separately responsible for sourcing and coordinating delivery of the products that are sold on our platform. In 2020, we had 8.6 million active merchants on our platform, offering a broad range of product categories. We have been and may continue to be subject to allegations and lawsuits claiming that products listed or sold through our platform by us or third-party merchants are counterfeit, unauthorized, illegal, or otherwise infringe third-party copyrights, trademarks, patents or other intellectual property rights, or that content posted on our user interface contains misleading information on description of products and comparable prices. Although we have adopted strict measures to protect us against these potential liabilities, including but not limited to, proactively verifying the authenticity and authorization of products sold on our platform through working with brands and conducting offline investigations, blocking prior to product launch or immediately taking down any counterfeit or illegal products or misleading information found on our platform, closing higher-risk online stores, and freezing the accounts of merchants in violation of the platform policies, these measures may not always be successful or timely. For example, in January 2018, we were required by the relevant government authorities to strengthen supervision on the qualifications of the distributors of publications on our platform and to respond effectively to claims of copyright infringement. We have taken a number of measures in accordance with such requirements including the implementation of a comprehensive system in reviewing and tracking the qualification status of the relevant merchants. In August 2018, we met with the officials from the relevant governmental authorities to discuss the alleged sale of counterfeit and infringing products on our platform upon their request. Shortly after the meetings, we adopted a number of remediation measures including more rigorous policies of closure of stores and removal of listings with infringing products from our platform. We may implement further measures in an effort to eliminate infringing products on our platforms, including taking legal actions against merchants of counterfeit or infringing products, which may cause us to spend substantial additional resources or result in reduced revenues. In addition, these measures may not appeal to consumers, merchants or other participants on our platforms. A merchant whose account is suspended or terminated by us, regardless of our compliance with the applicable laws, rules and regulations, may have disputes with us and commence action against us for damages, make public complaints or engage in publicity campaigns against us. We may incur significant costs to defend against these activities, which could harm our business.

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In the event that counterfeit, illegal, unauthorized or infringing products are sold on our platform or infringing or misleading content is posted on our user interface, we could face claims or be imposed penalties. Counterfeit products sold on our platform may damage our reputation and cause buyers to refrain from making future purchases from us, which would materially and adversely affect our business operations and financial results. We have in the past received claims alleging the sales of defective, counterfeit or unauthorized items on our platform. For example, in July 2018, a complaint was filed against us in U.S. federal court alleging contributory trademark infringement and unfair competition based on certain allegedly counterfeit and unauthorized merchandise sold by merchants to U.S. consumers on our platform. In 2019, the court dismissed all claims against us and awarded us attorney’s fees and costs due to the plaintiff’s frivolous and problematic claims. Irrespective of the validity of such claims, we could incur significant costs and efforts in either defending against or settling such claims. If there is a successful claim against us in the United States, we might be required to pay substantial damages or be enjoined from permitting further sale of the relevant products or activities by certain merchants. Potential liabilities under PRC law for negligence in participating or assisting in infringement activities associated with counterfeit goods include injunctions to cease infringing activities, rectification, compensation, administrative penalties and even criminal liability.

Moreover, the alleged sales of counterfeit products and third-party claims or administrative penalties related to them could result in significant negative publicity and our reputation could be severely damaged. For example, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, or USTR, identified our platform as a “notorious market” in the 2019 and 2020 Annual Special 301 Reports. The USTR may continue to identify our platform as a notorious market in the future. The negative public perception resulted therefrom could damage our reputation, harm our business, diminish the value of our brand name and negatively affect trading price of our ADSs.

Some of our merchants interact and exchange information with our users through our livestreaming feature. As such communication is conducted in real time, we are unable to verify the information exchanged. Therefore, it is possible that users may engage in conversations or activities with illegal, obscene or infringing content that may be deemed unlawful under PRC laws and regulations on our platform. In addition, certain merchants may post and sell on our platform products that may not be sold via e-commerce platform under relevant PRC regulation, such as prescription drugs and foreign currencies. Failure to identify and remove such products and content from our platform may subject us to liability and administrative penalties. Any of these events could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Under our standard form agreements, we require our merchants to indemnify us for any losses we suffer or any costs that we incur due to any products sold by these merchants. However, we may not be able to successfully enforce our contractual rights and may need to initiate costly and lengthy legal proceedings in China to protect our rights.

In addition to fraudulent transactions with legitimate buyers, merchants on our platform may engage in fictitious transactions with themselves or collaborate with third parties in order to artificially inflate their sales records and search results rankings. Such activity may frustrate other merchants by enabling the perpetrating merchants to be favored over legitimate merchants, and may harm buyers by misleading them to believe that a merchant is more reliable or trustworthy than the merchant actually is. We are also aware that certain merchants and users engage in fictitious transactions on e-commerce platforms to facilitate illegal activities such as online gambling. Fictitious transactions may result in inflated GMV, total orders and other key metrics. Although we have implemented strict measures to detect and penalize merchants who engaged in fictitious transactions on our platform, there can be no assurance that such measures will be effective in preventing all fraudulent transactions or deter illegal activities.

Moreover, illegal, fraudulent or collusive activities by our employees could also subject us to liability or negative publicity. There were occasions where we found our employees accepting payments from merchants in exchange for preferential treatment on our platform, and we reported such behavior to the relevant government authorities.

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Although we implement a zero-tolerance policy towards these activities and have not been charged with any wrongdoing, there can be no assurance that our controls and policies will prevent all fictitious, fraudulent or illegal activities by merchants, users or our employees or that similar incidents will not occur in the future. Any inquiries, investigations and other governmental actions associated with and negative publicity and user sentiment resulting from similar incidents could divert significant management time and attention, severely diminish consumer confidence in us and the value of our brand, and would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be subject to claims under consumer protection laws, including health and safety claims and product liability claims, if property or people are harmed by the products and services sold on our platform. Meanwhile, we are subject to existing and new laws and regulations imposing various requirements on our business operations.

The products sold on our platform may be defectively designed or manufactured, and offerings of defective products on our platform may expose us to liabilities associated with consumer protection laws. Third parties who purchased defective products sold by us and sustained personal injury or property damage may bring claims or legal proceedings against us as the retailer of the product. Although we would have legal recourse against the manufacturer of such products under PRC law, attempting to enforce our rights against the manufacturer may be expensive, time-consuming and ultimately futile. Also, operators of e-commerce platforms may be subject to certain provisions of consumer protection laws even where the operator is not the manufacturer, provider or retailer of the products or services purchased by the consumer. For example, if we failed to provide a consumer with the name, address and contact details of the merchant that sold the defective product, we may be liable to compensate such consumer damages suffered by her. In addition, if we do not take appropriate remedial action against merchants for their actions that we know, or should have known, would infringe upon the rights and interests of consumers, we may be held jointly liable for infringement alongside the merchants. Moreover, applicable consumer protection laws in China provide that a platform will be held liable for failing to meet any undertaking that it made to consumers with regard to products listed on it. Furthermore, we are required to report violations of applicable consumer protection laws, regulations or administrative rules by merchants to the State Administration for Market Regulation, or SAMR, or its local branches, and take appropriate remedial measures, including ceasing to provide services to the relevant merchants, as a platform. We may also be held jointly liable with merchants who do not possess the proper licenses or authorizations to sell goods or sell goods that do not meet product standards.

We do not maintain product liability insurance for products transacted on our platform, and our rights of indemnity from the merchants or suppliers on our platform may not adequately cover us for any liability we may incur. Claims against us, even if they are eventually unsuccessful, could result in significant expenditure of funds and diversion of management time and resources, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and prospects.

In addition, the PRC government authorities may continue to promulgate new laws, regulations and rules governing the e-commerce industry, tighten enforcement of existing laws, rules and regulations, and impose additional requirements and other obligations on our business including the operation of our e-commerce platform and our market promotion activities. Compliance with these laws, regulations and rules may be costly, and any incompliance or associated inquiries, investigations and other governmental actions may divert significant management time and attention and our financial resources, bring negative publicity, or subject us to liabilities or administrative penalties:

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Due to the uncertainties associated with the evolving legislative activities and varied local implementation practices of consumer protection, anti-monopoly and competition laws and regulations in the PRC, compliance with these laws, regulations, rules, guidelines and implementations may be costly, and any incompliance or associated inquiries, investigations and other governmental actions may divert significant management time and attention and our financial resources, bring negative publicity, subject us to liabilities or administrative penalties, and may materially and adversely affect our financial conditions, operations and business prospects.

We may face challenges in expanding our product offerings.

The merchants on our platform carry a wide range of products, including apparel, shoes, bags, mother and childcare products, food and beverage, fresh produce, electronic appliances, furniture and household goods, cosmetics and other personal care items, sports and fitness items and auto accessories. Expansion of product offerings both in categories and items involve new risks and challenges. Our lack of familiarity with these products and lack of relevant buyer data relating to these products may make it more difficult for us to anticipate buyer demand and preferences and to inspect and control quality and ensure proper handling, storage and delivery by our merchants. Our merchants may experience higher return rates on new products, receive more buyer complaints about such products and face costly product liability claims as a result of selling such products, which would harm our brand and reputation as well as our financial performance. We may also be involved in disputes with the merchants in connection with these claims and complaints.

As we broaden our product offerings, we will need to work with a large number of new merchants efficiently and establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with our existing and new merchants. To support our growth and our expansion, we will need to devote management, operating, financial and human resources which may divert our attention from existing businesses, incur upfront costs, and implement a variety of new and upgraded management, operating, financial and human resource systems, procedures and controls. There is no assurance that we will be able to implement all of these systems, procedures and control measures successfully or address the various challenges in expanding our future businesses and operations effectively. In addition, our newly launched initiatives such as livestreaming and Duo Duo Grocery may face risks and uncertainties and may not grow successfully.

Tencent provides services to us in connection with various aspects of our operations. If such services become limited, restricted, curtailed or less effective or more expensive in any way or become unavailable to us for any reason, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We collaborate with Tencent, one of our principal shareholders and owner of Weixin and QQ, with respect to various aspects of our business, including our mini-program within Weixin and the entry point to our mini-program in Weixin Pay, which serves as one of our access points to our platform, as well as services such as payment processing, advertising and cloud technology. We have entered into a strategic cooperation framework agreement with Tencent, pursuant to which we and Tencent have agreed to cooperate in a number of areas including payment solutions, cloud services and user engagement, and to explore and pursue additional opportunities for potential cooperation.

If services provided by Tencent to us become limited, compromised, restricted, curtailed or less effective or become more expensive or unavailable to us for any reason, including the availability of our mini-program within Weixin and the entry point to our mini-program in Weixin Pay, our business may be materially and adversely affected. We may also encounter difficulties in implementing the Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement, which may divert significant management attention from existing business operations. Failure to maintain our relationship with Tencent could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations. See “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—B. Related Party Transactions”.

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Impairment of long-lived assets could materially and adversely affect our results of operations and book value.

We have accumulated long-lived assets as a result of our operations. We review these assets, including intangible assets with finite lives, for impairment annually and whenever events or changes in circumstances arise that will impact the future use of these assets. In the event that the book value of long-lived assets is impaired, such impairment would be charged to earnings in the period when such impairment is determined. Any future impairment of long-lived assets could have a material and adverse effect on our profitability, results of operations and book value. For more information on our impairment testing, see note 2 to the consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report.

We rely on proper operation and maintenance of our mobile platform and internet infrastructure and telecommunications networks in China. Any malfunction, capacity constraint or operation interruption may have an adverse impact on our business.

Currently, all of our sales of products are generated online through our Pinduoduo mobile platform. Therefore, the satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our mobile platform are critical to our success and our ability to attract and retain buyers. Our business depends on the performance and reliability of the internet infrastructure in China. The reliability and availability of our mobile platform depends on telecommunications carriers and other third-party providers for communications and storage capacity, including bandwidth and server storage, among other things. If we are unable to enter into and renew agreements with these providers on acceptable terms, or if any of our existing agreements with such providers are terminated as a result of our breach or otherwise, our ability to provide our services to our buyers could be adversely affected. Access to internet in China is maintained through state-owned telecommunications carriers under administrative control, and we obtain access to end-user networks operated by such telecommunications carriers and internet service providers to give buyers access to our mobile platform. The failure of telecommunications network operators to provide us with the requisite bandwidth could also interfere with the speed and availability of our mobile platform. Service interruptions prevent buyers from accessing our mobile platform and placing orders, and frequent interruptions could frustrate buyers and discourage them from attempting to place orders, which could cause us to lose buyers and harm our operating results. In addition, we have no control over the costs of the services provided by the telecommunications operators. If the prices that we pay for telecommunications and internet services rise significantly, our financial results could be adversely affected.

We may engage in acquisitions, investments or strategic alliances, which could require significant management attention and materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We may from time to time identify strategic partners to form strategic alliances, invest in or acquire additional assets, technologies or businesses that are complementary to our existing business. These transactions may involve minority investments in other companies, acquisitions of controlling stakes in other companies or acquisitions of selected assets.

Any strategic alliances, investments or acquisitions and the subsequent integration of the new assets and businesses obtained or developed from such transactions into our own may divert management from their primary responsibilities and subject us to additional liabilities. In addition, the costs of identifying and consummating investments and acquisitions may be significant. We may also incur costs and experience uncertainties in completing necessary registrations and obtaining necessary approvals from relevant government authorities in China and elsewhere in the world. The costs and duration of integrating newly acquired assets and businesses could also materially exceed our expectations. Any such negative developments could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flow.

Our financial results could be adversely affected by our investments or acquisitions. The investments and acquired assets or businesses may not generate anticipated synergies with our business or achieve anticipated financial growth as we would expect. They could result in significant investments and goodwill impairment charges and amortization expenses for other intangible assets, which would adversely affect our financial condition and operating results.

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Undetected programming errors or flaws or failure to maintain effective customer service could damage our reputation or even cause direct loss to us which would materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Our platform and internal systems rely on software that is highly technical and complex. In addition, our platform and internal systems depend on the ability of such software to store, retrieve, process and manage an immense amount of data and the ability of their operators to operate these complex systems properly. The software on which we rely may contain undetected programming errors or design defects, some of which may only be discovered after the code has been released. Improper operations or other human errors may also occur from time to time as a result of operating such software and complex systems. Programming errors or design defects within the software or human errors in connection with the operation of the software may result in negative experience to buyers using our platform, disruptions to the operations of our merchants, delay in introductions of new features or enhancements, unintended disclosure of confidential information of buyers, merchants and our platform or compromise in our ability to provide effective customer service and enjoyable user engagement or exploitation of loopholes by dishonest buyers or merchants. They could cause damage to our reputation, loss of buyers or merchants, or direct economic loss to us.

Our business generates and processes a large amount of data, and we are required to comply with PRC and other applicable laws relating to privacy and cyber security. The improper use or disclosure of data could have a material and adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Our business generates and processes a large quantity of data. We face risks inherent in handling and protecting large volume of data. In particular, we face a number of challenges relating to data from transactions and other activities on our platforms, including:

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The PRC regulatory and enforcement regime with regard to data security and data protection is evolving. We may be required by Chinese governmental authorities to share personal information and data that we collect to comply with PRC laws relating to cybersecurity. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Relating to Internet Information Security and Privacy Protection”. The law imposes heightened regulation and additional security and privacy protection obligations on operators of critical information infrastructure. The PRC National Security Law covers various types of national security, including technology security and information security. All the relevant laws and regulations may result in additional expenses to us and any non-compliance and misuse of or failure to secure personal information could have a negative impact on our financial results and may subject us to negative publicity, which could harm our reputation and negatively affect the trading price of our ADSs. There are also uncertainties with respect to how these laws will be implemented in practice. PRC regulators, including the MIIT and the Cyberspace Administration of China, or the Cyberspace Administration, have been increasingly focused on regulation in the areas of data security and data protection. On November 28, 2019, the Secretary Bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China, the General Office of the MIIT, the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security and the General Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation promulgated the Measures for the Determination of the Collection and Use of Personal Information by Apps in Violation of Laws and Regulations, which provides guidance for regulatory authorities to identify the illegal collection and use of personal information through mobile apps and for mobile app operators to conduct self-examination and self-correction. In July 2020, the Standing Committee of the NPC published for public comment a draft Data Security Law, which provided that at the national level, varying levels of data protective measures will be applied based on the level of importance of the data and a centralized mechanism will be established for risk assessment, risk monitoring, early potential data security risk warning and emergency response. The draft Data Security Law also set forth the data security protection obligations for entities and individuals handling personal data, including that no entity or individual may acquire such data by stealing or other illegal means, and the collection and use of such data should not exceed the necessary limits. In addition, the Anti-monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy Sector published by the Anti-monopoly Committee of the State Council, effective on February 7, 2021, also prohibits collection of user information through coercive means by online platforms operators. Compliance with these laws, regulations and rules may be costly, and any incompliance or associated inquiries, investigations and other governmental actions may divert significant management time and attention and our financial resources, bring negative publicity, or subject us to liabilities or administrative penalties and/or materially and adversely affect our financial conditions, operations and business prospects.

The European Union General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), which came into effect on May 25, 2018, includes operational requirements for companies that receive or process personal data of residents of the European Economic Area. The GDPR establishes new requirements applicable to the processing of personal data, affords new data protection rights to individuals and imposes penalties for serious data breaches. Individuals also have a right to compensation under the GDPR for financial or non-financial losses. Although we do not conduct any business in the European Economic Area, in the event that residents of the European Economic Area access our website or our mobile platform and input protected information, we may become subject to provisions of the GDPR.

In addition, regulatory authorities around the world have recently adopted or are considering a number of legislative and regulatory proposals concerning data protection. These legislative and regulatory proposals, if adopted, and the uncertain interpretations and application thereof could, in addition to the possibility of fines, result in an order requiring that we change our data practices and policies, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Furthermore, we expect that data security and data protection compliance will receive greater attention and focus from regulators, as well as attract continued or greater public scrutiny and attention going forward, which could increase our compliance costs and subject us to heightened risks and challenges associated with data security and protection. If we are unable to manage these risks, we could become subject to penalties, including fines, suspension of business and revocation of required licenses, and our reputation and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

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Failure to protect confidential information of buyers, merchants and our network against security breaches could damage our reputation and brand and substantially harm our business and results of operations.

A significant challenge to the e-commerce industry is the secure storage of confidential information and its secure transmission over public networks. A majority of the orders and the payments for products offered on our platform are made through our mobile app. In addition, all online payments for products sold on our platform are settled through third-party online payment services. Maintaining complete security on our platform and systems for the storage and transmission of confidential or private information, such as buyers’ personal information, payment-related information and transaction information, is essential to maintain consumer confidence in our platform and systems.

We have adopted strict security policies and measures, including encryption technology, to protect our proprietary data and buyer information. However, advances in technology, the expertise of hackers, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other events or developments could result in a compromise or breach of the technology that we use to protect confidential information. We may not be able to prevent third parties, especially hackers or other individuals or entities engaging in similar activities through viruses, Trojan horses, malicious software, break-ins, phishing attacks, third-party manipulation or security breaches, from illegally obtaining such confidential or private information we hold with respect to buyers and merchants on our platform. Such individuals or entities obtaining confidential or private information may further engage in various other illegal activities using such information. The methods used by hackers and others engaging in illegal online activities are increasingly more sophisticated and constantly evolving. Significant capital, managerial and other resources, including costs incurred to deploy additional personnel and develop network protection technologies, train employees, and engage third-party experts and consultants, may be required to ensure and enhance information security or to address the issues caused by such security failure.

In addition, we have limited control or influence over the security policies or measures adopted by third-party providers of online payment services through which some of our buyers may choose to make payment for purchases. Any negative publicity on our platform’s safety or privacy protection mechanisms and policies, and any claims asserted against us or fines imposed upon us as a result of actual or perceived failures, could have a material and adverse effect on our public image, reputation, financial condition and results of operations. Any compromise of our information security or the information security measures of our contracted third-party online payment service providers could have a material and adverse effect on our reputation, business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We currently rely on commercial banks and third-party online payment service providers for payment processing and escrow services on our platform. If these payment services are restricted or curtailed in any way, are offered to us on less favorable terms, or become unavailable to us or our buyers for any reason, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

All online payments for products sold on our platform are settled through third-party online payment service providers. Our business depends on the billing, payment and escrow systems of these payment service providers to maintain accurate records of payments of sales proceeds by buyers and collect such payments. If the quality, utility, convenience or attractiveness of these payment processing and escrow services declines, or we have to change the pattern of using these payment services for any reason, the attractiveness of our platform could be materially and adversely affected.

Business involving online payment services is subject to a number of risks that could materially and adversely affect third-party online payment service providers’ ability to provide payment processing and escrow services to us, including:

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Certain commercial banks in China impose limits on the amounts that may be transferred by automated payment from buyers’ bank accounts to their linked accounts with third-party online payment services. We cannot predict whether these and any additional restrictions that could be put in place would have a material adverse effect on our platform.

The commercial banks and third-party online payment service providers that we work with are subject to the supervision of the People’s Bank of China, or the PBOC. The PBOC may publish rules, guidelines and interpretations from time to time regulating the operation of financial institutions and payment service providers that may in turn affect the pattern of services provided by such entities for us. For example, in November 2017, the PBOC published a notice, or the PBOC Notice, on the investigation and administration of illegal offering of settlement services by financial institutions and third-party payment service providers to unlicensed entities. The PBOC Notice intended to prevent unlicensed entities from using licensed payment service providers as a conduit for conducting the unlicensed payment settlement services, so as to safeguard the fund security and information security. We believe that our pattern of receiving settlement services from third-party online payment service providers is not in violation of the PBOC Notice because the relevant commercial bank opens an internal special account to receive payment from the buyers and we will submit to the bank materials verifying the truthfulness of the relevant transactions and the bank will also verify other information if it deems necessary before it distributes the payment to merchants and us. However, we cannot assure you that the PBOC or other governmental authorities will hold the same view with ours. If required by the PBOC or new legislation, our cooperative payment service providers will have to suspend their services or explore new models to offer their services to us, we may not be able to claim our ownership and exclusive control of the payments from the buyers in the bank accounts opened with the relevant commercial banks, and we may incur additional expenses or invest considerable resources in complying with the requirements. If the PBOC or other governmental authorities deem our cooperation with payment service providers to be violative of law, we may also have to suspend or terminate our cooperation with these payment service providers or explore new models for using their services, and our income derived from the accrued interests in the relevant bank accounts may be confiscated, and we may be subject to a fine of one to five times of such income.

We cannot assure you that we will be successful in entering and maintaining amicable relationships with these commercial banks and online payment service providers. Identifying, negotiating and maintaining relationships with these providers require significant time and resources. Our current agreements with these service providers also do not prohibit them from working with our competitors. They could choose to terminate their relationships with us or propose terms that we cannot accept. Moreover, we cannot guarantee that the terms we negotiated with these payment service providers, including the payment processing fee rates, will remain as favorable. If the terms with these payment service providers become less favorable to us, such as the increase of payment processing fee rate, we may have to raise the transaction services fees for certain of our merchants, which may cause us to lose merchants, or absorb the additional costs by ourselves, both of which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, these service providers may not perform as expected under our agreements with them, and we may have disagreements or disputes with such payment service providers, any of which could adversely affect our brand and reputation as well as our business operations.

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We do not control Shanghai Fufeitong and the majority of its equity interests is indirectly controlled by our executive officers. If any conflict arises between us and Shanghai Fufeitong and cannot be resolved in our favor, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

In April 2020, Shanghai Xunmeng, a subsidiary of our VIE, entered into a business cooperation agreement with Shanghai Fufeitong Information Service Co., Ltd., or Shanghai Fufeitong, pursuant to which both parties agreed to conduct comprehensive business cooperation in payment services, technical resources and other related professional areas. As Shanghai Fufeitong is a company which Messrs. Lei Chen and Zhenwei Zheng, our executive officers, indirectly hold 50.01% of the equity interests in, the transaction constitutes our related party transaction. See “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—B. Related Party Transactions—Loan to Ningbo Hexin and Business Cooperation Agreement with Shanghai Fufeitong” for more details of the transactions.

As Shanghai Fufeitong, which we do not have control over, also provides payment services to other parties from time to time, we cannot assure you that Shanghai Fufeitong’s transactions with other parties or its pursuit of opportunities and development would not conflict with our interests. There can be no assurance that Messrs. Lei Chen and Zhenwei Zheng, in light of their control over Shanghai Fufeitong, would act in favor of our interests if any conflict arises between us and Shanghai Fufeitong. If the conflict cannot be resolved in our favor, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Moreover, due to our cooperation with Shanghai Fufeitong, any event that negatively affects Shanghai Fufeitong may also negatively affect the perception of our customers, merchants, regulators and other third parties on us and may further adversely and materially affect our reputation, business, results of operations and prospects.

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Any lack of additional requisite approvals, licenses or permits or failure to comply with any requirements of PRC laws, regulations and policies may materially and adversely affect our daily operations and hinder our growth.

Our business is subject to governmental supervision and regulation by the relevant PRC governmental authorities, including the Ministry of Commerce, or MOFCOM, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or the MIIT, the National Radio and Television Administration, or the NRTA, and other governmental authorities in charge of the relevant categories of products sold by us. Together, these government authorities promulgate and enforce regulations that cover many aspects of the operation of online retailing and related business, including entry into this industry, the scope of permissible business activities, licenses and permits for various business activities, and foreign investment. We are required to hold a number of licenses and permits in connection with our business operation, including the ICP license and approvals for the establishment of foreign-invested enterprises engaging in the sale of goods over the internet. We have in the past held and currently hold all material licenses and permits described above and may apply for certain additional licenses with the government authorities in the future to maintain compliance especially when we take on new business activities. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Relating to Foreign Investment” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Licenses, Permits and Filings”.

As of the date of this annual report, we have not been subject to penalties or other disciplinary action from the relevant governmental authorities regarding conducting our business without proper approvals, licenses and permits. However, we cannot assure you that we will not receive such notice of warning or be subject to penalties or other disciplinary actions in the future. As the online retail industry is still evolving in China, new laws and regulations may be adopted from time to time to require additional licenses and permits other than those we currently have, and 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 PRC laws and regulations applicable to online retail and related businesses. If the PRC government considers us operating without proper approvals, licenses, filings, registrations or permits or promulgates new laws and regulations that require additional approvals, filings, registrations or licenses or impose additional restrictions on the operation of any part of our business, it has the power, among other things, to levy fines, confiscate our income, revoke our business licenses, and require us to discontinue our relevant business or impose restrictions on the affected portion of our business. Any of these and other regulatory actions by the PRC governmental authorities, including issuance of official notices, change of policies, promulgation of regulations and imposition of sanctions, may adversely affect our business and have a material and adverse effect on our results of operations. In addition, if we were to use new or additional domain names to conduct our business, we would have to apply for the same set of government authorizations or amend the current ones. There is no assurance that we will be able to complete such procedures timely.

PRC laws and regulations may also require e-commerce platform operators to take measures to protect consumer rights. Failure to do so may subject the e-commerce platform operators to rectification requirements and penalties. Although we endeavor to comply with the relevant laws and regulations, there is no assurance that we can timely react to the evolving requirements. If the competent governmental authorities deem that we fail to meet such requirements, we may receive warnings, be ordered to make rectifications, or subject to other administrative sanctions and/or penalties that may have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations. For example, in January 2019, we were ordered by the local regulatory authority to pay a fine of RMB30,000 for failure to comply with the legal requirements with respect to the display and update of individual merchants’ identities and full disclosure of platform policies.

On November 12, 2020, the NRTA issued the Circular on Strengthening the Administration of Live Streaming, or the Notice 78, which requires, among other things, platforms that provide live streaming to register their information and business operations. As the live streaming and e-commerce industries in China are still evolving rapidly, regulatory authorities may promulgate new laws and regulations from time to time to address new issues and regulate emerging activities. There also remains considerable uncertainties in the interpretation and implementation of existing laws and regulations applicable to business activities in live streaming and e-commerce. We cannot assure you that we will not be found in violation of any of the laws and regulations currently in effect due to the evolving interpretation and implementation of these laws and regulations.

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We are required by PRC laws and regulations to comply with labor laws and regulations and pay overtime compensation and various government statutory employee benefit plans, including medical insurance, maternity insurance, workplace injury insurance, unemployment insurance and pension benefits through a PRC government-mandated multi-employer defined contribution plan. 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 contributions, that we are not in compliance with labor laws and regulations, or that we are subject to fines or other legal sanctions, such as order of timely rectification, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Pursuant to the Individual Income Tax Law of the PRC, as amended on August 31, 2018, which became effective on January 1, 2019, an individual’s taxable income shall be an amount equal to such individual’s total annual income less a general deductible of RMB60,000 and various special deductibles permitted under relevant laws. Determination and calculation of such special deductibles in accordance with relevant laws may result in an increase of our operating costs and expenses. However, as these laws and implementing rules were only recently promulgated and their interpretations have not been entirely settled yet, our determination and calculation of the special deductibles based on our understanding may be different from how the tax authorities or our employees would do. These differences may result in inquiries or reassessment by the tax authorities, as well as disputes with our employees.

We may increasingly become a target for public scrutiny, including complaints to regulatory agencies, negative media coverage, and public dissemination of malicious reports or accusations about our business, all of which could severely damage our reputation and materially and adversely affect our business and prospects.

We process an extremely large number of transactions on a daily basis on our platform, and the high volume of transactions taking place on our platform as well as publicity about our business create the possibility of heightened attention from the public, regulators and the media. Heightened regulatory and public concerns over consumer protection and consumer safety issues may subject us to additional legal and social responsibilities and increased scrutiny and negative publicity over these issues, due to the large number of transactions that take place on our platform and the increasing scope of our overall business operations. In addition, changes in our services or policies have resulted and could result in objections by members of the public, the traditional, new and social media, social network operators, merchants on our platform or others. From time to time, these objections or allegations, regardless of their veracity, may result in consumer dissatisfaction, public protests or negative publicity, which could result in government inquiry or substantial harm to our brand, reputation and operations.

Moreover, as our business expands and grows, both organically and through acquisitions of and investments in other businesses, domestically and internationally, we may be exposed to heightened public scrutiny in jurisdictions where we already operate as well as in new jurisdictions where we may operate. There is no assurance that we would not become a target for regulatory or public scrutiny in the future or that scrutiny and public exposure would not severely damage our reputation as well as our business and prospects.

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Furthermore, our brand name and our business may be harmed by aggressive marketing and communication strategies by third parties. We may be subject to government or regulatory investigation or third-party claims as a result and we may be required to spend significant time and incur substantial costs to react to and address these consequences. There is no assurance that we will be able to effectively refute each of the allegations within a reasonable period of time, or at all. Additionally, public allegations, directly or indirectly, against us or the merchants on our platform, may be posted on internet forums, blogs or websites by anyone on an anonymous basis. The availability of information on social media platforms is virtually immediate, as is its impact. Social media platforms may not necessarily filter or check the accuracy of information before publishing them and we are often afforded little or no time to respond. As a result, our reputation may be materially and adversely affected and our ability to attract and retain customers and maintain our market share and profitability may suffer.

We may be subject to inventory risk.

We operate an online direct sales business under which we acquire products from suppliers and sell them directly to buyers. The online direct sales business requires us to maintain and manage inventory. As a result, we are exposed to inventory risks that may adversely affect our operating results. We maintain and manage our inventory based on our understanding of our buyers’ needs. We may not be able to maintain and manage our inventory effectively due to seasonality, new product launches, changes in product cycles and pricing, product defects, changes in consumer demand and spending patterns, spoilage and other factors. Demand for products can also change significantly between the time inventory is ordered and the date of sale. In addition, when we begin selling a new product, it may be difficult to establish supplier relationships, determine appropriate product selection, and accurately forecast demand. The acquisition of certain types of inventory may require significant lead time and prepayment, and they may not be returnable.

If we fail to manage our inventory effectively, we may be subject to a heightened risk of inventory obsolescence, a decline in inventory values, and significant inventory write-downs or write-offs. In addition, we may be required to lower sale prices in order to reduce inventory level, which may lead to lower gross margins.

Our online marketing services constitute internet advertisement, which subjects us to laws, rules and regulations applicable to advertising.

We derive a significant amount of our revenues from online marketing services and other related services. In July 2016, SAIC promulgated the Interim Administrative Measures on Internet Advertising, or the Internet Advertising Measures, effective September 2016, pursuant to which internet advertisements are defined as any commercial advertising that directly or indirectly promotes goods or services through internet media in any form including paid-for search results. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation— Regulations Relating to Internet Advertising Business”. Under the Internet Advertising Measures, our online marketing services and other related services constitute internet advertisement.

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PRC advertising laws, rules and regulations require advertisers, advertising operators and advertising distributors to ensure that the content of the advertisements they prepare or distribute is fair and accurate and is in full compliance with applicable law. We currently generate revenues primarily from online marketing services. Violation of these laws, rules or regulations may result in penalties, including fines, confiscation of advertising fees and orders to cease dissemination of the advertisements. In circumstances involving serious violations, the PRC government may suspend or revoke a violator’s business license or license for operating advertising business. In addition, the Internet Advertising Measures require paid-for search results to be distinguished from natural search results so that consumers will not be misled as to the nature of these search results. As such, we are obligated to distinguish from others the merchants who purchase online marketing and related services or the relevant listings by these merchants. Complying with these requirements and any penalties or fines for any failure to comply may significantly reduce the attractiveness of our platform and increase our costs and could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, for advertising content related to specific types of products and services, advertisers, advertising operators and advertising distributors must confirm that the advertisers have obtained requisite government approvals, including the advertiser’s operating qualifications, proof of quality inspection of the advertised products, and, with respect to certain industries, government approval of the content of the advertisement and filing with the local authorities. Pursuant to the Internet Advertising Measures, we are required to take steps to monitor the content of advertisements displayed on our platforms. This requires considerable resources and time, and could significantly affect the operation of our business, while at the same time also exposing us to increased liability under the relevant laws, rules and regulations. The costs associated with complying with these laws, rules and regulations, including any penalties or fines for our failure to so comply if required, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any further change in the classification of our online marketing and other related services by the PRC government may also significantly disrupt our operations and materially and adversely affect our business and prospects.

We may be subject to intellectual property infringement claims, which may be expensive to defend and may disrupt our business and operations.

We cannot be certain that our operations or any aspects of our business do not or will not infringe upon or otherwise violate patents, copyrights or other intellectual property rights held by third parties. We have been, and from time to time in the future may be, subject to legal proceedings and claims relating to the intellectual property rights of others. In addition, there may be other third-party intellectual property that is infringed by products offered by our merchants and our services or other aspects of our business. There could also be existing patents of which we are not aware that our products may inadvertently infringe. We cannot assure you that holders of patents purportedly relating to some aspect of our technology platform or business, if any such holders exist, would not seek to enforce such patents against us in China, the United States or any other jurisdictions. Further, the application and interpretation of China’s patent laws and the procedures and standards for granting patents in China are still evolving and are uncertain, and we cannot assure you that PRC courts or regulatory authorities would agree with our analysis. If we are found to have violated 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 or be forced to develop alternatives of our own. In addition, we may incur significant expenses, and may be forced to divert management’s time and other resources from our business and operations to defend against these infringement claims, regardless of their merits. 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. Finally, we use open source software in connection with our products and services. Companies that incorporate open source software into their products and services have, from time to time, faced claims challenging the ownership of open source software and compliance with open source license terms. As a result, we could be subject to suits by parties claiming ownership of what we believe to be open source software or noncompliance with open source licensing terms. Some open source software licenses require users who distribute open source software as part of their software to publicly disclose all or part of the source code to such software and make available any derivative works of the open source code on unfavorable terms or at no cost. Any requirement to disclose our source code or pay damages for breach of contract could be harmful to our business, results of operations and financial condition.

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

We regard our trademarks, copyrights, patents, domain names, know-how, proprietary technologies, and similar intellectual property as critical to our success, and we rely on a combination of intellectual property laws and contractual arrangements, including confidentiality, invention assignment and non-compete agreements with our employees and others, to protect our proprietary rights. We are aware of certain copycat websites that attempt to cause confusion or diversion of traffic from us at the moment, against which we are considering initiating lawsuits, and we may continue to become an attractive target to such attacks in the future because of our brand recognition in the online retail industry in China. Despite these measures, any of our intellectual property rights could be challenged, invalidated, circumvented or misappropriated, or such intellectual property may not be sufficient to provide us with competitive advantages. In addition, there can be no assurance that (i) our application for registration of trademarks, patents, and other intellectual property rights will be approved, (ii) any intellectual property rights will be adequately protected, or (iii) such intellectual property rights will not be challenged by third parties or found by a judicial authority to be invalid or unenforceable. Further, because of the rapid pace of technological change in our industry, parts of our business rely on technologies developed or licensed by third parties, and we may not be able to obtain or continue to obtain licenses and technologies from these third parties at all or on reasonable terms.

Confidentiality, invention assignment and non-compete agreements may be breached by counterparties, and there may not be adequate remedies available to us for any such breach. Accordingly, we may not be able to effectively protect our intellectual property rights or to enforce our contractual rights. Policing any unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly and the steps we take may be inadequate to prevent the infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property. In the event that we resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, such litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our management and financial resources, and could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or narrowed in scope. We can provide no assurance that we will prevail in such litigation, and even if we do prevail, we may not obtain a meaningful recovery. In addition, our trade secrets may be leaked or otherwise become available to, or be independently discovered by, our competitors. Any failure in maintaining, protecting or enforcing our intellectual property rights could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Tightening of tax compliance efforts that affect merchants on our platform could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The e-commerce industry in China is still developing, and the PRC government may require e-commerce platform operators, such as our company, to assist in the collection of taxes with respect to income generated by merchants from transactions conducted on our platforms. Merchants operating businesses on our platform may be deficient in their tax registration. PRC tax authorities may enforce registration requirements that target these merchants on our platforms and may request our assistance in these efforts. As a result, these merchants may be subject to more stringent tax compliance requirements and liabilities and their business on our platforms could suffer or they could decide to terminate their relationship with us, which could in turn negatively affect us. According to the E-Commerce Law, the e-commerce platform operators shall submit the identity information and the information related to tax payment of the merchants on the platform to the tax authorities. We may also be requested by tax authorities to assist in the enforcement of tax regulations, such as disclosure of transaction records and bank account information of the merchants, and withholding against our merchants. If that occurs, we may lose existing merchants and potential merchants might not be willing to operate their business on our platforms. We may be subject to liabilities if we fail to cooperate with the relevant PRC tax authorities to assist in the enforcement as requested. Stricter tax enforcement by the PRC tax authorities may also reduce the activities by merchants on our platforms. Any of these results could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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Our business may be subject to seasonal sales fluctuations which could result in volatility or have an adverse effect on the market price of our ADSs.

We experience seasonality in our business, reflecting a combination of seasonal fluctuations in internet usage and traditional retail seasonality patterns. For example, we generally experience less user traffic and purchase orders during the Chinese New Year holiday season in the first quarter of each year. Furthermore, online sales in China are significantly higher in the fourth quarter of each calendar year than in the preceding three quarters. Due to the foregoing factors, our financial condition and results of operations for future quarters may continue to fluctuate and our historical quarterly results may not be comparable to future quarters. As a result, the trading price of our ADSs may fluctuate from time to time due to seasonality.

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

We adopted a global share incentive plan in 2015 (the “2015 Plan”) and a share incentive plan in 2018 (the “2018 Plan”) for the purpose of granting share-based compensation awards to employees, directors and consultants to incentivize their performance and align their interests with ours. Under each of the share incentive plans, we are authorized to grant options and other types of awards. The maximum aggregate number of ordinary shares which may be issued pursuant to all awards under the 2015 Plan is 581,972,860 Class A ordinary shares, subject to adjustment and amendment, and the maximum aggregate number of shares which may be issued pursuant to all awards under the 2018 Plan was initially 363,130,400 Class A ordinary shares, plus an annual increase on the first day of each fiscal year of our company during the term of the 2018 Plan commencing with the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2019, by an amount equal to the lessor of (i) 1.0% of the total number of shares issued and outstanding on the last day of the immediately preceding fiscal year, and (ii) such number of shares as may be determined by our board of directors. In March 2021, our board of directors approved an amendment to the 2018 Plan to increase the annual increase percentage from 1.0% to 3.0% effective from the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2022. See “Item 4. Information on the Company-B. Compensation” for further details. We recognized substantial share-based compensation expenses in our consolidated financial statements in connection with these grants, and may continue to incur such expenses in the future.

We believe the granting of share-based compensation is of significant importance to our ability to attract and retain key personnel and employees, and we will continue to grant share-based compensation to employees in the future. As a result, our expenses associated with share-based compensation may increase, which may have an adverse effect on our results of operations. We may re-evaluate the vesting schedules, lock-up period, exercise price or other key terms applicable to the grants under our currently effective share incentive plans from time to time. If we choose to do so, our expenses associated with share-based compensation may increase, which may have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

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If we fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, our ability to accurately and timely report our financial results or prevent fraud may be adversely affected, and investor confidence and the market price of our ADSs may be adversely impacted.

We are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act of 1934, or Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Sarbanes-Oxley Act, and the rules and regulations of the Nasdaq Global Select Market. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal control over financial reporting. Commencing with our fiscal year ending December 31, 2019, we must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal control over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our Form 20-F filing for that year, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act . In addition, as we have ceased to be an “emerging growth company” as such term is defined in the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting beginning with our annual report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2020. Our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2020. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures”.  If we fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal control, we will not be able to conclude and our independent registered public accounting firm will not be able to report that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in our future annual report on Form 20-F covering the fiscal year in which this failure occurs. Effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports. Any failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could prevent us from identifying fraud and result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could have a material and adverse effect on the trading price of our ADSs. Furthermore, we may need to incur additional costs and use additional management and other resources as our business and operations further expand or in an effort to remediate any significant control deficiencies that may be identified in the future.

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

In September 2019, we issued US$1 billion in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2024 (the “2024 Notes”). The 2024 Notes do not bear regular interest, and will mature on October 1, 2024.

In November 2020, we issued US$2 billion in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025 (the “2025 Notes”). The 2025 Notes do not bear regular interest, and will mature on December 1, 2025.

We may not have sufficient funds to fulfill our payment obligations under the 2024 Notes and the 2025 Notes, including to repay the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes upon maturity, to settle conversions of the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes in cash, to repurchase the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes upon a tax redemption or an optional redemption thereof or, at the holders’ election, upon a fundamental change (as defined in the terms of the 2024 Notes and the 2025 Notes, respectively) or on the specified dates set forth in the terms of the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes.

We derive most of our revenues from, and hold most of our assets through, our subsidiaries. As a result, we may rely in part upon distributions and advances from our subsidiaries in order to help us meet our payment obligations under the 2024 Notes, the 2025 Notes and our other obligations. Our subsidiaries are distinct legal entities and do not have any obligation, legal or otherwise, to provide us with distributions or advances. We may face tax or other adverse consequences, or legal limitations, on our ability to obtain funds from these entities. In addition, our ability to obtain external financing in the future is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including:

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If we are unable to obtain funding in a timely manner or on commercially acceptable terms, we may not be able to meet our payment obligations under the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes, which in turn may constitute a default under the existing and/or future agreements governing our indebtedness.

Changes in U.S. and international trade policies, particularly with regard to China, may adversely impact our business and operating results.

The U.S. government has recently proposed, among other actions, imposing new or higher tariffs on specified products imported from China to penalize China for what it characterizes as unfair trade practices and China has responded by proposing new or higher tariffs on specified products imported from the United States. For example, in 2018, the United States announced three finalized tariffs that applied exclusively to products imported from China, totaling approximately US$250 billion, and in May 2019 the United States increased from 10% to 25% the rate of certain tariffs previously levied on Chinese products. Trade tension between China and the United States may intensify, and the United States may adopt even more drastic measures in the future. Although cross-border business may not be an area of our focus, if we plan to sell our products internationally in the future, any unfavorable government policies on international trade, such as capital controls or tariffs, may affect the demand for our products and services, impact the competitive position of our products or prevent us from being able to sell products in certain countries. If any new tariffs, legislation and/or regulations are implemented, or if existing trade agreements are renegotiated such changes could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations. In addition, future actions or escalations by either the United States or China that affect trade relations may cause global economic turmoil and potentially have a negative impact on our business.

In addition, recent economic and trade sanctions threatened and/or imposed by the U.S. government on a number of China-based technology companies have raised concerns as to whether, in the future, there may be additional regulatory challenges or enhanced restrictions involving other China-based technology companies in areas such as data security, information technology or other business activities. Similar or more expansive restrictions that may be imposed by the U.S. or other jurisdictions in the future, may materially and adversely affect our ability to acquire technologies, systems or devices that may be important to our technology infrastructure, service offerings and business operations.

We do not have any business insurance coverage.

The insurance industry in China is still at an early stage of development, and insurance companies in China currently offer limited business-related insurance products. We do not have any business liability or disruption insurance to cover our operations. We have determined that the costs of insuring for these risks and the difficulties associated with acquiring such insurance on commercially reasonable terms make it impractical for us to have such insurance. Any uninsured risks may result in substantial costs and the diversion of resources, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

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

COVID-19 had a negative impact on the Chinese and the global economy in the first half of 2020. Whether this will lead to a prolonged downturn in the economy is still unknown. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the global macroeconomic environment was facing numerous challenges. There was 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, even before 2020. Unrest, terrorist threats and the potential for war in the Middle East and elsewhere may increase market volatility across the globe. There have also been concerns about the relationship between China and other countries, including the surrounding Asian countries, which may potentially have economic effects. In particular, there is significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and China with respect to trade policies, treaties, government regulations and tariffs. Any severe or prolonged slowdown in the global economy may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We and certain of our directors and officers have been named as defendants in several lawsuits, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operation, cash flows and reputation.

Between August and December 2018, several putative shareholder class action lawsuits have been filed against us and certain of our directors and officers. See “Item 8. Financial Information—A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information—Legal Proceedings” for more details. We are currently unable to estimate the potential loss, if any, associated with the resolution of the outstanding lawsuit, if it proceeds. We may continue to be a target for lawsuits in the future, including putative class action lawsuits brought by shareholders and lawsuits arising from contractual disputes in the ordinary course of our business. There can be no assurance that we will be able to prevail in our defense or reverse any unfavorable judgment on appeal, and we may decide to settle lawsuits on unfavorable terms. Any adverse outcome of these cases, including any plaintiffs’ appeal of the judgment in these cases, could result in payments of substantial monetary damages or fines, or changes to our business practices, and thus have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operation, cash flows and reputation. In addition, all or part of the defense costs, or any liabilities that may arise from these matters may not be covered by any insurance. The litigation process may utilize a significant portion of our cash resources and divert management’s attention from the day-to-day operations of our company, all of which could harm our business. We may also be subject to claims for indemnification related to these matters, and we cannot predict the impact that indemnification claims may have on our business or financial results.

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

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

Foreign ownership of certain parts of our businesses including value-added telecommunications services (“VATS”) is subject to restrictions under current PRC laws and regulations. For example, foreign investors are not allowed to own more than 50% of the equity interests in a value-added telecommunications service provider (excluding e-commerce) and any such foreign investor must have experience in providing value-added telecommunications services overseas and maintain a good track record.

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We are a Cayman Islands company and our PRC subsidiaries, namely our WFOEs, are considered foreign-invested enterprises. Accordingly, our WFOEs are not eligible to provide value-added telecommunications services. As a result, we currently conduct our e-commerce business activities through Shanghai Xunmeng, a subsidiary of our VIE, which holds a VATS License for (i) online data processing and transaction processing business (operating e-commerce), (ii) internet content-related services, (iii) domestic call center business, and (iv) information services. Shanghai Xunmeng is wholly owned by our VIE, namely Hangzhou Aimi, which has obtained a VATS License covering online data processing and transaction processing business (operating commerce, excluding internet finance and e-hailing services) and internet content-related services (excluding information search and inquiry services and real-time interactive information services). We entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Hangzhou Aimi and its shareholders, which enable us to (i) exercise effective control over our VIE, (ii) receive substantially all of the economic benefits of our VIE, and (iii) have an exclusive option to purchase all or part of the equity interests and assets in our VIE when and to the extent permitted by PRC law. As a result of these contractual arrangements, we have control over and are the primary beneficiary of our VIE and hence consolidate its financial results and its subsidiary into our consolidated financial statements under U.S. GAAP. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure” for further details.

In the opinion of our PRC legal counsel, (i) the ownership structures of our VIE in China and Hangzhou Weimi are not in violation of applicable PRC laws and regulations currently in effect; and (ii) the contractual arrangements between Hangzhou Weimi, our VIE and its shareholders governed by PRC law are legal, valid, binding and enforceable in accordance with its terms and applicable PRC laws. However, our PRC legal counsel has also advised us that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws, regulations and rules. Accordingly, the PRC regulatory authorities may take a view that is contrary to the opinion of our PRC legal counsel. It is uncertain whether any new PRC laws or regulations relating to variable interest entity structures will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. If we or our VIE are found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant PRC regulatory authorities would have broad discretion to take action in dealing with such violations or failures, including:

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

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We face uncertainties with respect to the implementation of the Foreign Investment Law and how it may impact the viability of our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.

On March 15, 2019, the NPC approved the Foreign Investment Law, which has taken effect on January 1, 2020 and replaced the Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law, the Sino-Foreign Cooperative Joint Venture Enterprise Law and the Foreign Owned Enterprise Law, together with their implementation rules and ancillary regulations, to become the legal foundation for foreign investment in the PRC. The Foreign Investment Law embodies the legislative efforts to unify the corporate legal requirements for both foreign and domestic investments. Under the Foreign Investment Law, “foreign investment” refers to the investment activities directly or indirectly conducted by foreign individuals, enterprises or other foreign entities in China. The Foreign Investment Law stipulates three forms of foreign investment, and does not explicitly stipulate contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment. On December 26, 2019, the State Council promulgated the Implementation Regulations on the Foreign Investment Law, which came into effect on January 1, 2020. The Implementation Regulations on the Foreign Investment Law does not stipulate whether contractual arrangements should be deemed as a form of foreign investment. Before clarification or confirmation by future laws, administrative regulations or provisions promulgated by the State Council on nature of contractual arrangements, there is no assurance that contractual arrangement would not be considered as foreign investment under the Foreign Investment Law. In addition, the Foreign Investment Law stipulates that activities constituting “foreign investment” includes foreign investors investing in China through “any other methods” under laws, administrative regulations, or provisions prescribed by the State Council. The State Council may in the future enact laws or issue administrative regulations or provisions to classify contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment, at which time it would be uncertain as to regulation on such contractual arrangements and whether such contractual arrangements would be deemed to be in violation of the foreign investment restrictions. There is no guarantee that our contractual arrangements and our business will not be materially and adversely affected in the future due to changes in PRC laws and regulations. If future laws, administrative regulations or provisions prescribed by the State Council mandate further actions to be completed by companies with existing contractual arrangements, we may face substantial uncertainties as to the timely completion of such actions. Failure to take timely and appropriate measures to cope with any of these or similar regulatory compliance challenges could materially and adversely affect our current corporate structure and business operations.

The rights and functions of the Pinduoduo Partnership, once effective, may impact your ability to appoint executive directors and nominate the chief executive officer of the company, and the interests of the Pinduoduo Partnership may conflict with your interests.

Under our currently effective articles of association, the Pinduoduo Partnership, upon and for so long as certain conditions are satisfied, will be entitled to nominate two executive directors (if there are no more than 5 directors on the board of directors) or three executive directors (if there are more than 5 but no more than 9 directors on the board of directors) and nominate the chief executive officer candidate of our company. Such executive director candidate duly nominated by the Pinduoduo Partnership shall be approved and appointed by our board of directors and serve as an executive director of our company until expiry of his or her terms (if any), removal by the Pinduoduo Partnership, the shareholders by an ordinary resolution or vacation of office if such executive director, among other things, resigns his office by notice in writing to us or dies or is found to be or becomes of unsound mind. The chief executive officer candidate nominated by the Pinduoduo Partnership shall stand for appointment by the nominating and corporate governance committee of the board of directors. If the candidate is not appointed by the nominating and corporate governance committee in accordance with the then effective articles of association of the company, the Pinduoduo Partnership may nominate a replacement nominee until the nominating and corporate governance committee appoints such nominee as chief executive officer, or if the nominating and corporate governance committee fails to appoint more than three candidates nominated by the Pinduoduo Partnership consecutively, the board of directors may then nominate and appoint any person to serve as our chief executive officer in accordance with the then effective articles of association of the company. See “Item 6. Directors, Senior Management and Employees—A. Directors and Senior Management— Pinduoduo Partnership”. This governance structure and contractual arrangements will limit your ability to influence corporate matters, including the matters determined at the board level.

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In addition, the interests of the Pinduoduo Partnership may not coincide with your interests, including certain managerial decisions such as partner compensation. For example, each year, once an aggregate bonus pool is approved by the board of directors, the partnership committee of the Pinduoduo Partnership will make further determinations as to, among other things, the allocation of the current bonus pool among all partners and these allocations may not be entirely aligned with the interest of shareholders who are not partners. Because the partners may be largely comprised of members of our management team, the Pinduoduo Partnership and its executive director nominees may focus on the operational and financial results that may differ from the expectations and desires of shareholders. To the extent that the interests of the Pinduoduo Partnership differ from your interests on certain matters, you may be disadvantaged.

We rely on contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders for a large portion of our business operations, which may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing operational control.

Our VIE contributed 77.3%, 58.5% and 65.1% of our consolidated total revenues in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. We have relied and expect to continue to rely on contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders to conduct our business. For a description of these contractual arrangements, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure”. These contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing us with control over our VIE. For example, our VIE and its shareholders could breach their contractual arrangements with us by, among other things, failing to conduct their operations in an acceptable manner or taking other actions that are detrimental to our interests.

If we had direct ownership of our VIE, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of our VIE, which in turn could implement changes, subject to any applicable fiduciary obligations, at the management and operational level. However, under the current contractual arrangements, we rely on the performance by our VIE and its shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to exercise control over our VIE. The shareholders of our consolidated VIE may not act in the best interests of our company or may not perform their obligations under these contracts. Such risks exist throughout the period in which we intend to operate certain portions of our business through the contractual arrangements with our VIE. If any dispute relating to these contracts remains unresolved, we will have to enforce our rights under these contracts through the operations of PRC law and arbitration, litigation and other legal proceedings and therefore will be subject to uncertainties in the PRC legal system. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—Any failure by our VIE or its shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them would have a material and adverse effect on our business.” Therefore, our contractual arrangements with our VIE may not be as effective in ensuring our control over the relevant portion of our business operations as direct ownership would be.

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

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

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All of the agreements under our contractual arrangements are governed by PRC law and provide for the resolution of disputes through arbitration in China. Accordingly, these contracts would be interpreted in accordance with PRC law and any disputes would be resolved in accordance with PRC legal procedures. The legal system in the PRC is not as developed as in some other jurisdictions, such as the United States. As a result, uncertainties in the PRC legal system could limit our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system and changes in laws and regulations in China could adversely affect us.” Meanwhile, there are very few precedents and little formal guidance as to how contractual arrangements in the context of a VIE should be interpreted or enforced under PRC law. There remain significant uncertainties regarding the ultimate outcome of such arbitration should legal action become necessary. In addition, under PRC law, rulings by arbitrators are final, parties cannot appeal the arbitration results in courts, and if the losing parties fail to carry out the arbitration awards within a prescribed time limit, the prevailing parties may only enforce the arbitration awards in PRC courts through arbitration award recognition proceedings, which would require additional expenses and delay. In the event we are unable to enforce these contractual arrangements, or if we suffer significant delays or other obstacles in the process of enforcing these contractual arrangements, we may not be able to exert effective control over our VIE, and our ability to conduct our business may be negatively affected.

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

Messrs. Lei Chen and Jianchong Zhu hold 86.6% and 13.4% equity interests in our VIE, respectively. They are employees of our company and have entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Hangzhou Weimi, pursuant to which we have control over and are the primary beneficiary of our VIE. These shareholders of our VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure”. These shareholders may breach, or cause our VIE to breach, or refuse to renew, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and our VIE, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to effectively control our VIE and receive economic benefits from it. For example, the shareholders may be able to cause our agreements with our VIE to be performed in a manner adverse to us by, among other things, failing to remit payments due under the contractual arrangements to us on a timely basis. We cannot assure you that when conflicts of interest arise any or all of these shareholders will act in the best interests of our company or such conflicts will be resolved in our favor.

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

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

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Although under our current contractual arrangements, (i) to the extent applicable, the spouse of each of the shareholders of our VIE has executed a spousal consent letter, under which the spouse agrees not to raise any claim against the equity interest, and to take every action to ensure the performance of the contractual arrangements, and (ii) it is expressly provided that the rights and obligations under the contractual agreements shall be equally effective and binding on the heirs and successors of the parties thereto, or that our VIE shall not assign or delegate its rights and obligations under the contractual agreements to third parties without our prior consent, we cannot assure you that these undertakings and arrangements will be complied with or effectively enforced. In the case any of them is breached or becomes unenforceable and leads to legal proceedings, it could disrupt our business, distract our management’s attention and subject us to substantial uncertainties as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Risks Related to Doing Business in China

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

Substantially all of our assets and operations are located in China. Accordingly, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be influenced to a significant degree by political, economic and social conditions in China generally. The Chinese economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the level of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. Although the Chinese government has implemented measures emphasizing the utilization of market forces for economic reform, the reduction of state ownership of productive assets, and the establishment of improved corporate governance in business enterprises, a substantial portion of productive assets in China is still owned by the government. In addition, the Chinese government continues to play a significant role in regulating industry development by imposing industrial policies.

The Chinese government also exercises significant control over China’s economic growth through allocating resources, controlling payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policy, and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies.

While the Chinese economy has experienced significant growth over the past decades, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy, and the rate of growth has been slowing since 2012, and the impact of COVID-19 on the Chinese economy in 2020 was severe. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China’s real GDP growth rate was 6.7%, 6.0% and 2.3% in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively. There have also been concerns about the relationships among China and other Asian countries, the relationship between China and the United States, as well as the relationship between the United States and certain Asian countries such as North Korea, which may result in or intensify potential conflicts in relation to territorial, regional security and trade disputes. Any adverse changes in economic conditions in China, in the policies of the Chinese government or in the laws and regulations in China could have a material adverse effect on the overall economic growth of China. Such developments could adversely affect our business and operating results, lead to reduction in demand for our services and adversely affect our competitive position. Any disruptions or continuing or worsening slowdown could significantly reduce domestic commerce activities in China, which could lead to significant reduction in merchants’ demand for and spending on the various services we offer. An economic downturn, whether actual or perceived, a further decrease in economic growth rates or an otherwise uncertain economic outlook in China could have a material adverse effect on business and consumer spending and, as a result, adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. The Chinese government has implemented various measures to encourage economic growth and guide the allocation of resources. Some of these measures may benefit the overall Chinese economy, but may have a negative effect on us. For example, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by government control over capital investments or changes in tax regulations.

In addition, because we hold a significant amount of cash and cash equivalents and short-term investments, if financial institutions and issuers of financial instruments that we hold become insolvent or if the market for these financial instruments become illiquid as a result of a severe economic downturn, our business and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Circular on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Investment in and Operation of Value-added Telecommunications Business, issued by the MIIT in July 2006, prohibits domestic telecommunications service providers from leasing, transferring or selling telecommunications business operating licenses to any foreign investor in any form, or providing any resources, sites or facilities to any foreign investor for their illegal operation of a telecommunications business in China. According to this circular, either the holder of a value-added telecommunications services operation permit or its shareholders must directly own the domain names and trademarks used by such license holders in their provision of value-added telecommunications services. The circular also requires each license holder to have the necessary facilities, including servers, for its approved business operations and to maintain such facilities in the regions covered by its license. Shanghai Xunmeng owns the relevant domain names and trademarks in connection with our online platform and has the necessary personnel to operate our online platform.

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

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

Shanghai Xunmeng, a subsidiary of our VIE, was recognized as a “high and new technology enterprise” in November 2018 and was eligible for a preferential tax rate of 15% from 2018 to 2020. Shenzhen Qianhai Xinzhijiang Information Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of ours located in Qianhai District, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, was eligible for a preferential tax rate of 15% and has been applying such preferential tax rate since then. The preferential tax rate was available from 2014 to 2020. Government subsidies and preferential tax treatments are subject to discretions of the relevant governmental authorities and our eligibility for them are therefore out of our control. Discontinuation of any preferential tax treatments or imposition of any additional taxes could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

You may experience difficulties in effecting service of legal process, enforcing foreign judgments or bringing actions in China against us or our management named in the annual report based on foreign laws.

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, we conduct substantially all of our operations in China and substantially all of our assets are located in China. In addition, all our senior executive officers reside within China for a significant portion of the time and most are PRC nationals. As a result, it may be difficult for you to effect service of process upon us or those persons inside mainland China. It may also be difficult for you to enforce in U.S. courts judgments obtained in U.S. courts based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us and our officers and directors as most of our current directors and officers are nationals and residents of countries other than the United States and substantially all of the assets of these persons are located outside the United States. In addition, there is uncertainty as to whether the courts of the Cayman Islands or the PRC would recognize or enforce judgments of U.S. courts against us or such persons predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state.

The recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments are provided for under the PRC Civil Procedures Law. PRC courts may recognize and enforce foreign judgments in accordance with the requirements of the PRC Civil Procedures Law based either on treaties between China and the country where the judgment is made or on principles of reciprocity between jurisdictions. China does not have any treaties or other forms of written arrangement with the United States that provide for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. In addition, according to the PRC Civil Procedures Law, the PRC courts will not enforce a foreign judgment against us or our directors and officers if they decide that the judgment violates the basic principles of PRC laws or national sovereignty, security or public interest. As a result, it is uncertain whether and on what basis a PRC court would enforce a judgment rendered by a court in the United States.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The conversion of Renminbi into foreign currencies, including U.S. dollars, is based on rates set by the People’s Bank of China. The Renminbi has fluctuated against the U.S. dollar, at times significantly and unpredictably. The value of Renminbi against the U.S. dollar and other currencies is affected by changes in China’s political and economic conditions and by China’s foreign exchange policies, among other things. We cannot assure you that 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, to the extent that we need to convert U.S. dollars we receive from our initial public offering, follow-on offerings or convertible senior notes offerings into Renminbi for our operations, appreciation of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar would have an adverse effect on the Renminbi amount we would receive from the conversion. Conversely, if we decide to convert our Renminbi into U.S. dollars for the purpose of making payments for dividends on our ordinary shares or ADSs, payments when due on the 2024 Notes or the 2025 Notes, or for other business purposes, appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Renminbi would have a negative effect on the U.S. dollar amount available to us.

Very limited hedging options are available in China to reduce our exposure to exchange rate fluctuations. As of December 31, 2020, we had used some 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.

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

The PRC government imposes controls on the convertibility of the Renminbi into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of China. We receive substantially all of our revenues in Renminbi. Under our current corporate structure, our Cayman Islands holding company primarily relies on dividend payments from our PRC subsidiary to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions, can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval of SAFE by complying with certain procedural requirements. Specifically, under the existing exchange restrictions, without prior approval of SAFE, cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiary in China may be used to pay dividends to our company. However, approval from or registration with appropriate government authorities is required where Renminbi is to be converted into foreign currency and remitted out of China to pay capital expenses such as the repayment of loans denominated in foreign currencies. As a result, we need to obtain SAFE approval to use cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiary and VIE to pay off their respective debt in a currency other than Renminbi owed to entities outside China, or to make other capital expenditure payments outside China in a currency other than Renminbi.

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In light of the flood of capital outflows from China, the PRC government may from time to time impose more restrictive foreign exchange policies and step up scrutiny of major outbound capital movement. More restrictions and substantial vetting process may be required by SAFE or other government authorities to regulate cross-border transactions falling under the capital account. The PRC government may at its discretion restrict access to foreign currencies for current account transactions in the future. If the foreign exchange control system prevents us from obtaining sufficient foreign currencies to satisfy our foreign currency demands, we may not be able to pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of our ADSs.

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

Among other things, the Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, adopted by six PRC regulatory agencies in 2006 and amended in 2009, established additional procedures and requirements that could make merger and acquisition activities by foreign investors more time-consuming and complex. Such regulation requires, among other things, that MOFCOM be notified in advance of any change-of-control transaction in which a foreign investor acquires control of a PRC domestic enterprise and involves any of the following circumstances: (i) any important industry is concerned, (ii) such transaction involves factors that impact or may impact national economic security, or (iii) such transaction will lead to a change in control of a domestic enterprise which holds a famous trademark or PRC time-honored brand. The M&A Rules also requires that in accordance with the Anti-Monopoly Law promulgated by the Standing Committee of the NPC which became effective in 2008, any merger and acquisitions of domestic enterprises by foreign investors which are deemed concentrations and involve parties with specified turnover thresholds must be cleared by MOFCOM before they can be completed. In addition, PRC national security review rules that became effective in September 2011 require acquisitions by foreign investors of PRC companies engaged in military related or certain other industries that are crucial to national security be subject to security review before consummation of any such acquisition. We may pursue potential strategic acquisitions that are complementary to our business and operations. Complying with the requirements of these regulations to complete such transactions could be time-consuming, and any required approval processes, including obtaining approval or clearance from MOFCOM, may delay or inhibit our ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share.

We are subject to anti-monopoly laws and regulations with respect to investments in or by us. According to the Anti-Monopoly Law, companies conducting certain investments and acquisitions relating to businesses in China as described under the Anti-Monopoly Law must file a notification with the PRC regulator in advance. Furthermore, in February 2021, the Anti-monopoly Committee of the State Council published the Anti-monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy Sector and included concentrations involving companies with VIE structure within the ambit of SAMR’s merger control review, if certain reporting thresholds are met. Any failure or perceived failure to comply with the relevant anti-monopoly laws and guidelines relating to investments in or by us may result in governmental investigations or enforcement actions, litigations or claims against us and could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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PRC regulations relating to offshore investment activities by PRC residents may limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to change their registered capital or distribute profits to us or otherwise expose us or our PRC resident beneficial owners to liability and penalties under PRC laws.

In July 2014, SAFE promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment Through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37. SAFE Circular 37 requires PRC residents (including PRC individuals and PRC corporate entities as well as foreign individuals that are deemed as PRC residents for foreign exchange administration purpose) to register with SAFE or its local branches in connection with their direct or indirect offshore investment activities. SAFE Circular 37 further requires amendment to the SAFE registrations in the event of any changes with respect to the basic information of the offshore special purpose vehicle, such as change of a PRC individual shareholder, name and operation term, or any significant changes with respect to the offshore special purpose vehicle, such as increase or decrease of capital contribution, share transfer or exchange, or mergers or divisions. SAFE Circular 37 is applicable to our shareholders who are PRC residents and may be applicable to any offshore acquisitions that we make in the future.

If our shareholders who are PRC residents fail to make the required registration or to update the previously filed registration, our PRC subsidiaries may be prohibited from distributing their profits or the proceeds from any capital reduction, share transfer or liquidation to us, and we may also be prohibited from making additional capital contributions into our PRC subsidiaries. In February 2015, SAFE promulgated a Notice on Further Simplifying and Improving Foreign Exchange Administration Policy on Direct Investment, or SAFE Notice 13, effective June 2015. Under SAFE Notice 13, applications for foreign exchange registration of inbound foreign direct investments and outbound overseas direct investments, including those required under SAFE Circular 37, will be filed with qualified banks instead of SAFE. The qualified banks will directly examine the applications and accept registrations under the supervision of SAFE.

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All of our shareholders who we are aware of being subject to the SAFE regulations have completed the initial registrations with the local SAFE branch or qualified banks as required by SAFE Circular 37. However, we may not be informed of the identities of all the PRC residents holding direct or indirect interest in our company, and we cannot provide any assurance that these PRC residents will comply with our request to make or obtain any applicable registrations or continuously comply with all requirements under SAFE Circular No. 37 or other related rules. The failure or inability of the relevant shareholders to comply with the registration procedures set forth in these regulations may subject us to fines and legal sanctions, such as restrictions on our cross-border investment activities, on the ability of our wholly foreign-owned subsidiaries in China to distribute dividends and the proceeds from any reduction in capital, share transfer or liquidation to us. Moreover, failure to comply with the various foreign exchange registration requirements described above could result in liability under PRC law for circumventing applicable foreign exchange restrictions. As a result, our business operations and our ability to distribute profits to you could be materially and adversely affected.

Any failure to comply with PRC regulations regarding the registration requirements for employee stock incentive plans may subject the PRC plan participants or us to fines and other legal or administrative sanctions.

In February 2012, SAFE promulgated the Notices on Issues Concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plan of Overseas Publicly Listed Company, replacing earlier rules promulgated in 2007. Pursuant to these rules, PRC citizens and non-PRC citizens who reside in China for a continuous period of not less than one year who participate in any stock incentive plan of an overseas publicly listed company, subject to a few exceptions, are required to register with SAFE through a domestic qualified agent, which could be the PRC subsidiaries of such overseas-listed company, and complete certain other procedures. In addition, an overseas-entrusted institution must be retained to handle matters in connection with the exercise or sale of stock options and the purchase or sale of shares and interests. We and our executive officers and other employees who are PRC citizens or who reside in the PRC for a continuous period of not less than one year and who have been granted options are subject to these regulations as our company is an overseas-listed company. Failure to complete SAFE registrations may subject them to fines of up to RMB300,000 for entities and up to RMB50,000 for individuals, and legal sanctions and may also limit our ability to contribute additional capital into our PRC subsidiary and limit our PRC subsidiary’s ability to distribute dividends to us. We also face regulatory uncertainties that could restrict our ability to adopt additional incentive plans for our directors, executive officers and employees under PRC law. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Relating to Foreign Exchange—Regulations on Stock Incentive Plans”.

In addition, the State Administration of Taxation, or SAT, has issued certain circulars concerning employee share options and restricted shares. Under these circulars, our employees working in China who exercise share options or are granted restricted shares will be subject to PRC individual income tax. Our PRC subsidiaries have obligations to file documents related to employee share options or restricted shares with relevant tax authorities and to withhold individual income taxes of those employees who exercise their share options. If our employees fail to pay or we fail to withhold their income taxes according to relevant laws and regulations, we may face sanctions imposed by the tax authorities or other PRC government authorities. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Relating to Foreign Exchange—Regulations on Stock Incentive Plans”.

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Our use of some leased properties could be challenged by third parties or government authorities, which may cause interruptions to our business operations.

Certain of our leasehold interests in leased properties have not been registered with the relevant PRC government authorities as required by PRC law, which may expose us to potential fines if we fail to remediate after receiving notice from the relevant PRC government authorities. In case of failure to register or file a lease, the parties to the unregistered lease may be ordered to make rectifications (which would involve registering such lease with the relevant authority) before being subject to penalties. The penalty ranges from RMB1,000 to RMB10,000 for each unregistered lease, at the discretion of the relevant authority. The law is not clear as to which of the parties, the lessor or the lessee, is liable for the failure to register the lease. Although we have proactively requested that the applicable lessors complete or cooperate with us to complete the registration in a timely manner, we are unable to control whether and when such lessors will do so. In the event that a fine or a portion thereof is imposed on the lessee, and if we are unable to recover from the lessor any fine paid by us, such fine will be borne by us. Moreover, certain lessors have not provided us with valid ownership certificates or authorization of sublease for our leased properties. As a result, there is a risk that these lessors may not have the right to lease such properties to us, in which case the relevant lease agreements may be deemed invalid or we may face challenges from the property owners or other third parties regarding our right to occupy the premises. We are not aware of any actions, claims or investigations being initiated by third parties or competent governmental authorities with respect to the defects in our leased real properties. However, if we are unable to continue our operations on the current premises and cannot find a suitable replacement in a timely manner, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be materially and adversely affected.

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

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

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We believe that we are not a PRC resident enterprise for PRC tax purposes. However, the tax resident status of an enterprise is subject to determination by the PRC tax authorities and uncertainties remain with respect to the interpretation of the term “de facto management body.” If the PRC tax authorities determine that we are a PRC resident enterprise for enterprise income tax purposes, we could be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 25% on our worldwide income, which could materially reduce our net income, and we may be required to withhold a 10% withholding tax from dividends we pay to our shareholders that are non-resident enterprises, including the holders of our ADSs. In addition, non-resident enterprise shareholders (including our ADS holders) may be subject to PRC tax on gains realized on the sale or other disposition of ADSs or ordinary shares, if such income is treated as sourced from within the PRC. Furthermore, if we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, dividends payable to our non-PRC individual shareholders (including our ADS holders) and any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or ordinary shares by such shareholders may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 10% in the case of non-PRC enterprises or a rate of 20% in the case of non-PRC individuals unless a reduced rate is available under an applicable tax treaty. It is unclear whether non-PRC shareholders of our company would be able to claim the benefits of any tax treaties between their country of tax residence and the PRC in the event that we are treated as a PRC resident enterprise. Any such tax may reduce the returns on your investment in the ADSs or ordinary shares.

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

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

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

In October 2017, SAT issued an Announcement on Issues Relating to Withholding at Source of Income Tax of Non-resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 37. Effective December 2017, SAT Circular 37, among others, repealed the Circular 698 and amended certain provisions in SAT Circular 7. According to SAT Circular 37, where the non-resident enterprise fails to declare the tax payable pursuant to Article 39 of the Enterprise Income Tax, the tax authority may order it to pay the tax due within required time limits, and the non-resident enterprise shall declare and pay the tax payable within such time limits specified by the tax authority. However, if the non-resident enterprise voluntarily declares and pays the tax payable before the tax authority orders it to do so within required time limits, it shall be deemed that such enterprise has paid the tax in time.

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

Our ADSs may be delisted under the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act if 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 Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or 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 market in the U.S.

Our auditor is registered with the PCAOB. Pursuant to laws in the United States, the PCAOB has authority to conduct regular inspections over independent registered public accounting firms registered with the PCAOB to assess their compliance with the applicable professional standards. Our auditor is also located in China, a jurisdiction which does not allow the PCAOB to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. As a result, we understand that our auditor is not currently 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 auditors in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our independent registered public accounting firm’s audit procedures or quality control procedures as compared to auditors outside of China that are subject to the PCAOB inspections, which could cause investors and potential investors in our stock to lose confidence in our audit procedures and reported financial information and the quality of our financial statements.

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 continued to discuss with the CSRC and the PRC Ministry of Finance on joint inspections in the PRC of PCAOB-registered audit firms that provide auditing services to Chinese companies that trade on U.S. stock exchanges.

Proceedings instituted by the SEC against Chinese affiliates of the “big four” accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act.

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

In late 2012, this impasse led the SEC to commence administrative proceedings under Rule 102(e) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 against the Chinese accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm. A first instance trial of the proceedings in July 2013 in the SEC’s internal administrative court resulted in an adverse judgment against the firms. The administrative law judge proposed penalties on the firms including a temporary suspension of their right to practice before the SEC, although that proposed penalty did not take effect pending review by the Commissioners of the SEC. On February 6, 2015, before a review by the Commissioner had taken place, the firms reached a settlement with the SEC. Under the settlement, the SEC accepts that future requests by the SEC for the production of documents will normally be made to the CSRC. The firms will receive matching Section 106 requests, and are required to abide by a detailed set of procedures with respect to such requests, which in substance require them to facilitate production via the CSRC. If they fail to meet specified criteria, the SEC retains authority to impose a variety of additional remedial measures on the firms depending on the nature of the failure. Remedies for any future noncompliance could include, as appropriate, an automatic six-month bar on a single firm’s performance of certain audit work, commencement of a new proceeding against a firm, or in extreme cases the resumption of the current proceeding against all four firms. If additional remedial measures are imposed on the Chinese affiliates of the “big four” accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, in administrative proceedings brought by the SEC alleging the firms’ failure to meet specific criteria set by the SEC with respect to requests for the production of documents, we could be unable to timely file future financial statements in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act.

In the event that the SEC restarts the administrative proceedings, depending upon the final outcome, listed companies in the United States with major PRC operations may find it difficult or impossible to retain auditors in respect of their operations in the PRC, which could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, including possible delisting. Moreover, any negative news about 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.

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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 Select Market or deregistration from the SEC, or both, which would substantially reduce or effectively terminate the trading of our ADSs in the United States.

Risks Related to Our ADSs

The trading price of our ADSs may be volatile, which could result in substantial losses to investors.

Since our ADSs became listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on July 26, 2018, the trading price of our ADSs has ranged from US$16.53 to US$202.82 per ADS. The trading price of our ADSs may be volatile and could fluctuate widely due to factors beyond our control. This may happen because of broad market and industry factors, including the performance and fluctuation of the market prices of other companies with business operations located mainly in China that have listed their securities in the United States. The trading performances of other Chinese companies’ securities, including internet and e-commerce companies, may affect the attitudes of investors toward Chinese companies listed in the United States, which consequently may impact the trading performance of our ADSs, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, any negative news or perceptions about inadequate corporate governance practices or fraudulent accounting, corporate structure or matters of other Chinese companies may also negatively affect the attitudes of investors towards Chinese companies in general, including us, regardless of our conduct. In addition, securities markets may from time to time experience significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to our operating performance, such as the recent large decline in share prices in the United States, which may have a material and adverse effect on the trading price of our ADSs. 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:

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

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In the past, shareholders of public companies have often brought securities class action suits against those companies following periods of instability in the market price of their securities, such as the putative class action lawsuits we disclosed in the “Item 8. Financial Information—A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information—Legal Proceedings”. These putative class action suits could divert a significant amount of our management’s attention and other resources from our business and operations and require us to incur significant expenses to defend the suits, which could harm our results of operations. Moreover, these class action suits, 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 or indemnification claims, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Conversion of the 2024 Notes or the 2025 Notes may dilute the ownership interest of the existing shareholders, including holders who had previously converted their 2024 Notes or 2025 Notes.

The conversion of some or all of the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes, will dilute the ownership interests of existing shareholders and existing holders of our ADSs. Any sales in the public market of the ADSs, if any, issuable upon such conversion may increase the opportunities to create short positions with respect to the ADSs, which could adversely affect prevailing market prices of our ADSs. In addition, the existence of the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes may encourage short selling by market participants because the conversion of the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes could depress the price of our ADSs. The price of our ADSs could be affected by possible sales of our ADSs by investors who view the 2024 Notes and/or the 2025 Notes as a more attractive means of equity participation in us and by hedging or arbitrage trading activity, which we expect to occur involving our ADSs.

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

Techniques employed by short sellers may drive down the market price of the ADSs.

Short selling is the practice of selling securities that a seller does not own but rather has borrowed from a third party with the intention of buying identical securities back at a later date to return to the lender. Short sellers hope to profit from a decline in the value of the securities between the sale of the borrowed securities and the purchase of the replacement shares, as short sellers expect to pay less in that purchase than they received in the sale. As it is in short sellers’ interest for the price of the security to decline, many short sellers publish, or arrange for the publication of, negative opinions and allegations regarding the relevant issuer and its business prospects in order to create negative market momentum and generate profits for themselves after selling a security short. These short attacks have, in the past, led to selling of shares in the market.

We have been the subject of short selling, and it is not clear what long-term effect such negative publicity could have on us. We may also be subject to short seller attacks from time to time in the future. If we were to become the subject of any unfavorable allegations, whether such allegations are proven to be true or untrue, we may have to expend a significant amount of resources to investigate such allegations and/or defend ourselves. While we would strongly defend against any such short seller attacks, we may be constrained in the manner in which we can proceed against the relevant short sellers by principles of freedom of speech, applicable state law or issues of commercial confidentiality. Such a situation could be costly and time-consuming, and could divert management’s attention from the day-to-day operations of our company. Even if such allegations are ultimately proven to be groundless, allegations against us could severely impact the market price of our ADSs and our business operations.

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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. 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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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 (2021 Revision) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against our directors, actions by our minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States. Some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States.

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

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

It may be difficult for overseas regulators to conduct investigations 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 investigations 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 investigations or evidence collection activities within China may further increase difficulties faced by you in protecting your interests.

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

The deposit agreements governing the ADSs representing our ordinary shares provide that, subject to the depositary’s right to require a claim to be submitted to arbitration, the federal or state courts in the City of New York have exclusive jurisdiction to hear and determine claims arising under the deposit agreements and in that regard, to the fullest extent permitted by law, ADS holders waive the right to a jury trial of any claim they may have against us or the depositary arising out of or relating to our shares, the ADSs or the deposit agreements, including any claim under the U.S. federal securities laws.

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

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

Nevertheless, if this jury trial waiver provision is not enforced, to the extent a court action proceeds, it would proceed under the terms of the deposit agreements with a jury trial. No condition, stipulation or provision of the deposit agreements or ADSs serves as a waiver by any holder or beneficial owner of ADSs or by us or the depositary of compliance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder.

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

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

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

Holders of ADSs do not have the same rights as our registered shareholders. As a holder of our ADSs, you will not have any direct right to attend general meetings of our shareholders or to cast any votes at such meetings. As an ADS holder, you will only be able to exercise the voting rights carried by the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs indirectly by giving voting instructions to the depositary in accordance with the provisions of the relevant deposit agreement. Under the deposit agreements, you may vote only by giving voting instructions to the depositary. Upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try, as far as is practicable, to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs in accordance with your instructions. If we ask for your instructions, then upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs in accordance with these instructions. If we do not instruct the depositary to ask for your instructions, the depositary may still vote in accordance with instructions you give, but it is not required to do so. You will not be able to directly exercise your right to vote with respect to the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs unless you withdraw such shares, and become the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date for the general meeting. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice of the meeting to withdraw the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs and become the registered holder of such shares to allow you to attend the general meeting and to vote directly with respect to any specific matter or resolution to be considered and voted upon at the general meeting. In addition, under our currently effective memorandum and articles of association, for the purposes of determining those shareholders who are entitled to attend and vote at any general meeting, our directors may close our register of members and/or fix in advance a record date for such meeting, and such closure of our register of members or the setting of such a record date may prevent you from withdrawing the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs and becoming the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date, so that you would not be able to attend the general meeting or to vote directly. If we ask for your instructions, the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We have agreed to give the depositary notice of shareholder meetings sufficiently in advance of such meetings. Nevertheless, we cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out your voting instructions. The deposit agreements provide that if the depositary does not timely receive voting instructions from the ADS holders and if voting is by poll, then such holder shall be deemed, and the depositary shall deem such holder, to have instructed the depositary to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by us to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by the relevant ADSs, with certain limited exceptions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to direct how the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs are voted and you may have no legal remedy if the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented your ADSs are not voted as you requested.

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

We may, from time to time, distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire securities. Under the deposit agreements, 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.

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You may be subject to limitations on the transfer of your ADSs.

Your 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 it 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.

Your investment in our ADSs may be impacted if we are encouraged to issue CDRs in the future.

The Chinese central government is currently proposing new rules that would allow Chinese technology companies listed outside China to list on the mainland stock market through the creation of CDRs. Once the CDR mechanism is in place, we might consider and be encouraged by the evolving Chinese governmental policies to issue CDRs and allow investors to trade our CDRs on Chinese stock exchanges. However, there are uncertainties as to whether a pursuit of CDRs in China would bring positive or negative impact on your investment in our ADSs.

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

As a public company, we incur significant accounting, legal and other expenses. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 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 Sarbanes-Oxley Act relating to internal controls over financial reporting. We expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the other rules and regulations of the SEC, for example, adoption of policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. In addition, we incur additional costs associated with our public company reporting requirements. We cannot predict or estimate with certainty the amount of compliance costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.

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

As a Cayman Islands exempted company listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, we are subject to the Nasdaq Stock Market corporate governance listing standards. However, Nasdaq Stock 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, which is our home country, may differ significantly from the Nasdaq Stock Market corporate governance listing standards. We relied on home country practice exemption with respect to the requirement for annual shareholders meeting and did not hold an annual shareholders meeting in 2019. We relied on our home country practice exemption with respect to the requirement for shareholders’ approval for amending share incentive plans and did not seek shareholders’ approval for the amendment to the 2018 Plan to increase the annual increase percentage from 1.0% to 3.0% effective from the fiscal year beginning January 1, 2022. We may also opt to rely on additional home country practice exemptions in the future. As a result, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they would otherwise enjoy under the Nasdaq Stock Market corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

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There can be no assurance that we will not be classified as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for U.S. federal income tax purposes for any taxable year, which could subject U.S. investors in our ADSs or Class A ordinary shares to significant adverse U.S. income tax consequences.

We will be a “passive foreign investment company,” or “PFIC,” if, in any particular taxable year, 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 produce or are held for the production of passive income. Although the law in this regard is unclear, we intend to treat our VIE (including its subsidiaries) as being owned by us for U.S. federal income tax purposes, not only because we exercise effective control over the operation of such entity but also because we are entitled to substantially all of its economic benefits, and, as a result, we consolidate its results of operations in our consolidated financial statements. Assuming that we are the owner of our VIE (including its subsidiaries) for U.S. federal income tax purposes, we do not believe that we were a PFIC for the taxable year ended December 31, 2020 and based upon our current and expected income and assets, including goodwill, and the current and projected value of our ADSs, we do not expect to be a PFIC in the current taxable year or for the foreseeable future.

While we do not anticipate becoming a PFIC, changes in the nature of our income or assets, or fluctuations in the market price of our Class A ordinary shares and/or ADSs, may cause us to become a PFIC for future taxable years. If it were determined that we do not own the stock of our VIE for U.S. federal income tax purposes, our risk of being a PFIC may substantially increase. Because PFIC status is a factual determination made annually after the close of each taxable year, there can be no assurance that we will not be a PFIC for the current taxable year or any future taxable year.

If we are a PFIC in any taxable year, a U.S. holder (as defined in “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations”) may incur significantly increased U.S. income tax on gain recognized on the sale or other disposition of the ADSs or Class A ordinary shares and on the receipt of distributions on the ADSs or Class A ordinary shares to the extent such gain or distribution is treated as an “excess distribution” under the U.S. federal income tax rules and such holder may be subject to burdensome reporting requirements. Further, if we are a PFIC for any year during which a U.S. holder holds our ADSs or Class A 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 Class A ordinary shares. For more information see “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—U.S. Federal Income Tax Considerations—Passive Foreign Investment Company Considerations” in this annual report.

Item 4.        Information on the Company

A.        History and Development of the Company

We commenced our commercial operations in 2015 through Hangzhou Aimi Network Technology Co., Ltd., or Hangzhou Aimi, and Shanghai Xunmeng Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Shanghai Xunmeng, in parallel. In June 2016, to streamline the operations of these two companies, Hangzhou Aimi obtained 100% equity interest in Shanghai Xunmeng, and Shanghai Xunmeng became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hangzhou Aimi.

We incorporated Walnut Street Group Holding Limited under the laws of the Cayman Islands as our offshore holding company in April 2015 to facilitate offshore financing. In the same month, we established HongKong Walnut Street Limited, or Walnut HK, our wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary, and Walnut HK established a wholly-owned PRC subsidiary, Hangzhou Weimi Network Technology Co., Ltd., or Hangzhou Weimi. Walnut HK established two additional wholly-owned PRC subsidiaries, Walnut Street (Shanghai) Information Technology Co., Ltd. (formerly known as Shanghai Pinduoduo Network Technology Co., Ltd.) and Shenzhen Qianhai Xinzhijiang Information Technology Co., Ltd., in January 2018 and April 2018, respectively, which, together with Hangzhou Weimi, are referred to as our WFOEs in this annual report. In July 2018, we renamed our company as Pinduoduo Inc.

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Due to restrictions imposed by PRC laws and regulations on foreign ownership of companies that engage in internet and other related business, Hangzhou Weimi later entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Hangzhou Aimi, which we refer to as our VIE in this annual report, and its shareholders. We depend on these contractual arrangements with our VIE, in which we have no ownership interests, and its shareholders to conduct most aspects of our operation. We have relied and expect to continue to rely on these contractual arrangements to conduct our business in China. The shareholders of our VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—The shareholders of our VIE may have potential conflicts of interest with us, which may materially and adversely affect our business and financial condition.”

Under PRC laws and regulations, our PRC subsidiaries may pay cash dividends to us out of their respective accumulated profits. However, the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to make such distribution to us is subject to various PRC laws and regulations, including the requirement to fund certain statutory funds, as well as potential restriction on currency exchange and capital controls imposed by the PRC government. For more details, see “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—We may rely on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our PRC subsidiaries to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have, and any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to make payments to us could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business” and “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations Relating to Dividend Distributions.”

As a result of our direct ownership in our WFOEs and the variable interest entity contractual arrangements, we are regarded as the primary beneficiary of our VIE. We treat it and its subsidiaries as our consolidated affiliated entities under U.S. GAAP, and have consolidated the financial results of these entities in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

On July 26, 2018, our ADSs commenced trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “PDD.” We raised approximately US$1.7 billion in net proceeds from the issuance of new shares from the initial public offering after deducting underwriting commissions and the offering expenses payable by us. In February 2019, we completed a follow-on public offering, and raised approximately US$1.2 billion in net proceeds after deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses payable by us. In September 2019, we completed an offering of US$1.0 billion in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2024. In April 2020, we raised US$1.1 billion in net proceeds from the private placement of our Class A ordinary shares to certain long-term investors. In November 2020, we completed (i) an offering of US$2.0 billion in aggregate principal amount of convertible senior notes due 2025, and (ii) a concurrent follow-on public offering, which raised approximately US$4.1 billion in net proceeds after deducting underwriting discounts and offering expenses payable by us. In December 2020, we raised US$500 million in net proceeds from the private placement of our Class A ordinary shares to a global institutional investor.

Our principal executive offices are located at 28/F, No. 533 Loushanguan Road, Changning District, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. Our telephone number at this address is +86 21-52661300. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is located at the offices of Vistra (Cayman) Limited, P.O. Box 31119 Grand Pavilion, Hibiscus Way, 802 West Bay Road, Grand Cayman, KY1-1205, Cayman Islands. Our agent for service of process in the United States is Puglisi & Associates, located at 850 Library Avenue, Suite 204, Newark, Delaware 19711.

B.        Business Overview

Our Pinduoduo mobile platform provides buyers with a comprehensive selection of value-for-money merchandise and fun and interactive shopping experiences. As a result of our innovative business model, we have been able to quickly expand our buyer base and establish our brand recognition and market position. Our GMV in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was RMB471.6 billion, RMB1,006.6 billion and RMB1,667.6 billion (US$255.6 billion), respectively. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the number of total orders placed on our Pinduoduo mobile platform reached 11.1 billion, 19.7 billion and 38.3 billion, respectively.

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We pioneered an innovative “team purchase” model on our platform. Buyers can access our platform and make team purchases by either visiting our platform directly or through popular social networks, such as Weixin and QQ. They are encouraged to share product information on such social networks, and invite their friends, family and social contacts to form a shopping team to enjoy the more attractive prices available under the “team purchase” option. As a result, buyers on our platform actively introduce us and the products available on our platform to their friends, family and social contacts, some of whom may be new to our platform. New buyers in turn further refer our platform to their broader family and social networks, generating low-cost, effective and organic traffic and frequent interactions and leading to the exponential growth of our buyer base. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the number of active buyers on our platform reached 418.5 million, 585.2 million and 788.4 million, respectively.

Our active buyer base helps attract merchants to our platform, and the scale of our sales volume encourages merchants to offer even more competitive prices and customized products and services to buyers, thus forming a virtuous cycle. In 2020, we had 8.6 million active merchants on our platform, offering a broad range of product categories.

Our “team purchase” model transforms online shopping into a dynamic social experience. We consciously build our platform to resemble a “virtual bazaar” where buyers browse and explore a full spectrum of products while interacting with one another. In contrast to the conventional search-based “inventory index” model, our platform brings out the fun and excitement of discovery and shopping. This embedded social element fosters a highly engaged user base.

Not only is the “team purchase” model an efficient tool for user engagement and expansion, it also encourages users to give feedback and actively participate in improving the supply chain efficiency of the retail market. Through demand aggregation, user preferences and feedback can be channeled to merchants quickly and directly so that merchants can adjust their product designs and production and sales plans accordingly. As a result, upstream suppliers who used to manufacture for other brands joined our “New Brand” initiative and are transformed into manufacturers of their own brands under the “C2M” (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) model.

We leveraged our platform and developed the “Internet + Agriculture” initiative to facilitate direct sales between small-scale farmers and consumers. By making recommendations to consumers based on our understanding of their shopping preferences, we are able to aggregate demand, thereby generating large volumes of orders for our farmer merchants. The large demand helps the farmers to be less dependent on distributors and makes it possible for them to sell directly to consumers, thereby improving the overall supply chain efficiency and reducing cost. Through such an initiative, consumers get fresher and safer products for lower prices, while farmers earn more, which can be reinvested in their farming practices and technology to further improve production efficiency and quality. We work with local governments and academia to facilitate modernization of farming practices and improve production efficiency in rural China through our “Duo Duo Farm” initiative. We also fund research and invest in technology in agriculture with the objective of improving food production, quality control and food safety. In August 2020, we started Duo Duo Grocery, a next-day grocery pick-up service that allows users to order groceries and related products online and collect goods the next day at nearby designated pickup points.

We have experienced substantial growth since our inception in 2015. We currently generate revenues primarily from online marketing services. Our revenues grew from RMB13,120.0 million in 2018 to RMB30,141.9 million in 2019, and further to RMB59,491.9 million (US$9,117.5 million) in 2020. We incurred net loss of RMB10,217.1 million, RMB6,967.6 million and RMB7,179.7 million (US$1,100.3 million) in 2018, 2019 and 2020, respectively.

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Our Platform

We conduct our business primarily through our Pinduoduo mobile platform. Buyers come to our platform to browse, explore and purchase attractive value-for-money merchandise from third-party merchants. The scale of our sales volume attracted merchants to our platform, and encouraged them to offer more competitive prices and customized products and services to buyers. Since our inception, the number of our active buyers and active merchants grew exponentially, and reached approximately 788.4 million and 8.6 million, respectively, in 2020. In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the number of total orders placed on our Pinduoduo mobile platform reached 11.1 billion, 19.7 billion and 38.3 billion, respectively.

Our platform offers “individual purchase” and “team purchase” options. A buyer who opts for the individual purchase option places the order or transacts with a merchant on an individual basis to get speedier order confirmation whereas team purchase buyers combine their purchase orders for a particular merchandise with other buyers to enjoy a lower price. Merchants on our platform typically require at least two buyers to team up in order to take advantage of the “team purchase” option.

With the seamless integration of our platform with major social networks in China, such as Weixin and QQ, our buyers can quickly and smoothly find other potential buyers to form teams either directly on our app or through sending team purchase invitations, or sharing product information or their Pinduoduo shopping experiences with their friends, family and social contacts. The act of sharing is then rewarded by the more attractive purchase price offered through the team purchase option. The embedded social element helps foster a highly engaged user base.

We cooperate with leading third-party online payment service providers in China, including Weixin Pay, QQ Wallet, Alipay and Apple Pay, and enable our buyers to make payments for their purchases easily and efficiently. We do not depend on any particular provider for such services.

Upon an individual purchase order or once a team purchase order is formed on our platform and confirmed to the applicable merchant, the merchant will handle the fulfillment, select the most suitable third-party logistics service provider and arrange for the delivery of products to the buyers. In order to provide our merchants a more efficient integration with third-party logistics service providers, and to provide our buyers greater visibility on the delivery statuses of their purchase orders, we launched our proprietary e-waybill system in the first quarter of 2019. Our e-waybill system is a paperless, digital platform that automates the bulk printing of shipment labels, track and record orders fulfillment history and shipment status, and generate real-time shipment tracking and alerts for our buyers. Most of China’s major third-party logistics service providers have integrated their backend systems with our e-waybill system. Most of our merchants now use our e-waybill system to initiate shipment orders with the third-party logistics service providers they select.

Our Buyers

Direct buyer traffic to our platform is primarily generated from word-of-mouth referrals by our existing buyers as well as the effect of our marketing campaigns. A portion of our buyer traffic comes from our user recommendation or product introduction feature which buyers can share with friends or contacts through social networks such as Weixin and QQ. In addition, buyers may also access our platform and make purchases via our mini-program within Weixin. The user interface of our mini-program is substantially identical to our own mobile app with the same product offerings by the same merchants.

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Our Merchandise Selection

We provide a comprehensive suite of product categories on our platform, including apparel, shoes, bags, mother and childcare products, food and beverage, fresh produce, electronic appliances, furniture and household goods, cosmetics and other personal care items, sports and fitness items and auto accessories. Our GMV in 2018, 2019 and 2020 was RMB471.6 billion, RMB1,006.6 billion and RMB1,667.6 billion (US$255.6 billion), respectively. In 2020, our platform had 8.6 million active merchants.

Merchants on our platform set the price for their products. We encourage merchants to offer the most attractive prices for merchandise sold on our platform. Two listed prices typically apply to each merchandise, one for the individual purchase option and a lower price for the team purchase option. Due to the large sales volume generated on our platform, some of the merchants on our platform also set aside exclusive product supplies for us and offer the most competitive prices for our buyers.

At the same time, we implement strict policies and control measures aimed at ensuring the accuracy of product descriptions on our platform. Our merchant onboarding system is integrated with an identity verification system. After a merchant undergoes our registration process and is admitted to our platform but before it is allowed to place any merchandise on our platform or launch a sales event, it must make a deposit to guarantee its compliance with our platform’s policies and rules, and the amount of such deposit varies depending on merchant type and merchandise category. Before the product information is posted on our platform, we leverage our artificial intelligence-based screening system to identify potential issues and submit questionable merchandise for further review and verification. After product information is posted, our system continues to monitor and conduct semantic analysis on buyer reviews, the results of which are used as inputs for evaluation of the associated merchant’s compliance with our policies. If a merchant is found to have violated our policies, such merchant is required to compensate the buyers in accordance with the service agreement with the merchant on our platform. In addition to responding to buyer complaints, our dedicated merchandise control team also conducts sample test purchases to verify whether product descriptions match the products delivered. A merchant’s record of compliance, together with other factors such as its sales volume and buyer feedback and reviews, is taken into account when our platform compiles such merchant’s ranking, which may affect the level of exposure it receives on our platform and in turn may affect its sales volume. We invest in technical capabilities relating to keyword identification, filtering images, text and video recognition and the development of a blacklisting mechanism. We also reward merchants who sell high-quality products and provide superb services with preferential transaction services fee rates, as part of our continued efforts to improve user experience, thereby creating a virtuous cycle that attracts high-quality merchants and weeds out counterfeit and infringing goods.

Additionally, we require merchants on our platform to strictly abide by a seven-day return period policy for nonperishable products sold by them on our platform. In accordance with the policy, buyers can return the products within the period so long as the products are in their original condition and any usage of such products does not affect the merchants’ ability to resell. Once a buyer submits a return request, the relevant merchant will first review and process the request. In the event that the request cannot be resolved within 48 hours or a dispute escalates, we will be involved to resolve the request or dispute.

Our Services and Values to Merchants

We provide online marketing services to help merchants promote their merchandise more effectively and also offer them additional training resources and merchant support through Duo Duo University. Duo Duo University is easily accessible through our main merchant dashboard and is frequently updated to guide merchants through the various tools available to them on our platform.

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“New Brand” Initiative

In December 2018, we established a “New Brand” initiative to help upstream suppliers, primarily manufacturers, to launch their own brands. By leveraging the traffic on our platform and directing users to discover these value-for-money products, we are able to jump-start the growth of these domestic brands with a steady source of demand. With larger order volumes, these manufacturers are able to realize greater economies of scale and can re-invest those savings by sharing them with consumers or putting them into product development and marketing to build awareness of their own brands. Our platform also channel consumer feedback to manufacturers, giving them guidance on emerging trends and consumer preferences and helping them manage their inventory or improve product designs. In the first phase of the program, we worked with more than 1,500 suppliers, launched more than 4,000 products and generated over 460 million cumulative orders.

Digitizing Agriculture

Under our “Internet + Agriculture” initiative, we leverage our platform to facilitate direct sales between farmers and consumers. By making recommendations to consumers based on our understanding of their shopping preferences, we are able to aggregate demand, thereby generating large volumes of orders for our farmer merchants. The aggregated demand helps them to be less dependent on distributors and makes it possible for them to sell directly to consumers, thereby improving the overall supply chain efficiency and reducing cost.

Through such an initiative, consumers get fresher and safer products for lower prices while farmers earn more, which can be reinvested in their farming practices and technology to further improve production efficiency and quality. This market we created for fresh produce will also enable the logistics companies to optimize their procedures for delivering fresh produce and reduce spoilage during the delivery process, resulting in savings along the supply chain.

We continue to focus on digitization of China’s agriculture value chain as a long-term strategic priority. Our aim is to drive further e-commerce penetration in this segment by improving the efficiencies across the entire value chain and to generate sustainable value to our consumers, our farmer merchants and other ecosystem partners. We take a systems-based approach to this and view the entire agricultural value chain in three key parts: upstream production, midstream transportation and downstream consumption.

At the upstream, we work with farmers and local partners to reorganize small-scale farms into co-operatives and introduce know-how and technology in sustainable and precision farming to achieve better efficiency and economies of scale. At the midstream, we continue to explore potential collaboration with logistics companies to develop a nationwide logistics network optimized for the delivery of perishable agricultural goods. At the downstream, we help farmers sell directly to our users and provide trainings to farmers on operating online agriculture business. We seek to create long-term structural changes that would improve our users’ experience in buying agricultural products online and contribute to the value creation of the agriculture industry.

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Duo Duo Grocery

In August 2020, we started Duo Duo Grocery, our next-day grocery pick-up service. The service caters to the rising consumer demand for more timely and better value-for-money goods without home delivery requirements. Through Duo Duo Grocery, we connect local farmers and distributors directly to local consumers on a daily basis and provide supporting services on the delivery of such goods to consumers. Each day consumers place their orders with merchants through the Duo Duo Grocery channel. The merchants supply the ordered items overnight to regional warehouses. The sorted goods are then delivered from regional warehouses to designated pickup points the next day, where consumers can pick up their purchases.

Technology

Our smooth operations and rapid growth are supported by our proprietary technology. Our leading technology team have created opportunities for continuous improvements in our technology capabilities, which in turn draws new talents to join us. As of December 31, 2020, we had a technology team of more than 4,800 engineers. Many of our engineers have post-graduate degrees and had prior working experience in Google, Microsoft and leading internet companies in China.

Data Security and Protection

We have established a comprehensive security system, supported by our network situational awareness and risk management system that spans from the individual end users across our entire network, covering our platforms, data and services. Our back-end security system is capable of handling hundreds of millions of instances of malicious attacks each day to safeguard the security of our platform and to protect the privacy of our buyers and merchants.

We have a data security team of engineers and technicians dedicated to protecting the security of our data. We have also adopted strict data protection policy to ensure the security of our proprietary data. We collect anonymized, non-confidential user behavior and pattern data based on their interactions with our platform through our social network partners, which have been pre-processed to exclude user identity or other sensitive information. We encrypt confidential personal information we gather from our own platform. To ensure data security and avoid data leakage, we have established stringent internal protocols under which we grant classified access to confidential personal data only to limited employees with strictly defined and layered access authority. We strictly control and manage the use of data within our various departments and do not share data with external third parties, nor do we cooperate with third-party vendors in data analytics efforts.

Marketing

We have been able to build a large base of loyal buyers primarily through word-of-mouth referrals via social networks. To enhance our brand awareness, we conduct online and offline marketing and brand promotion activities such as online advertisements and television commercials. Furthermore, we offer coupons to consumers from time to time.

Competition

The e-commerce industry in China is intensely competitive. Our current or potential competitors include (i) major e-commerce companies in China, (ii) major traditional and brick-and-mortar retailers in China, (iii) retail companies in China focused on specific product categories and (iv) major internet companies in China that do not operate e-commerce business now but may enter the e-commerce business area or are in the process of initiating their e-commerce businesses.

We compete primarily on the basis of:

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Seasonality

We experience seasonality in our business, reflecting a combination of seasonal fluctuations in internet usage and traditional retail seasonality patterns. For example, we generally experience less buyer traffic and purchase orders during the Chinese New Year holiday season in the first quarter of each year. Furthermore, sales are significantly higher in the fourth quarter of each calendar year than in the preceding three quarters. E-commerce companies in China hold special promotional campaigns on November 11 and December 12 each year that boost sales in the fourth quarter relative to other quarters, and we hold a special promotional campaign in the fourth quarter of each year to celebrate the anniversary of the founding of our platform. Due to our limited operating history, the seasonal trends that we have experienced in the past may not apply to, or be indicative of, our future operating results.

Intellectual Property

As of December 31, 2020, we owned 51 computer software copyrights in China relating to various aspects of our operations and maintained approximately 658 trademark registrations inside China and 56 trademark registrations outside China. We also had 339 trademark applications inside China. Our registered domain names include www.pinduoduo.com, among others.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Our Impact

Corporate social responsibility has been central to how we do business, starting with operating with integrity in all we do and extending to serving the community at large in China. We are committed to leveraging our marketplace to better the lives of millions and to promote sustainable development. In 2020, we supported our community of merchants and users through the challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and we contributed to the subsequent economic recovery. We also continued our efforts to promote digital inclusion of rural communities around China and thereby helping to alleviate poverty across the country.

Through our “Internet + Agriculture” initiative, our platform connects millions of farmers to the digital economy. We coached farmers on setting up stores online, provided them with access to end demand, and helped them to increase their household income. We trained young men and women from rural areas to become e-commerce savvy “new farmers.” Many of them became champions for digital inclusion, often catalyzing a multiplier effect and wealth creation for their local communities.

Our efforts in combating poverty through digital inclusion were recognized by China’s central government in February 2021, where we were one of three technology companies commended for their outstanding contributions to China’s poverty alleviation drive. We expect to continue our efforts to promote digital inclusion of rural communities in 2021.

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Regulation

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

Regulations Relating to Foreign Investment

Guidance Catalogue of Industries for Foreign Investment

Investment activities in the PRC by foreign investors are in principal governed by the Guidance Catalogue of Industries for Foreign Investment, which was promulgated and is amended from time to time by the Ministry of Commerce, or MOFCOM, and the National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC. Pursuant to relevant regulations, foreign-invested projects are classified into three categories: “encouraged,” “restricted” and “prohibited.” Industries not listed in these three categories are generally deemed as falling into a fourth category “permitted” unless specifically restricted by other PRC laws. Formation of wholly foreign-owned enterprises is generally allowed in encouraged and permitted industries. Some restricted industries are limited to equity or contractual joint ventures, and in some cases Chinese partners are required to hold the majority interests in such joint ventures. In addition, foreign investment in restricted category projects is subject to government approvals. Foreign investors are not allowed in industries in the prohibited category.

In addition to restrictions on shareholding ownership by foreign investors, there are also requirements on corporate governance practice, such as the composition of board or senior management. Foreign investment in value-added telecommunications services (except for e-commerce, domestic multi-party communications, storage and forwarding classes, and call centers) falls within a negative list, and foreign investors are not allowed to hold more than 50% of the total shares in such business.

In October 2016, MOFCOM issued the Interim Measures for Record-filing Administration of the Establishment and Change of Foreign-invested Enterprises, or FIE Record-filing Interim Measures. Pursuant to the latest FIE Record-filing Interim Measures, except where a special approval is required, the formation of, and subsequent change made to foreign-invested enterprises does not require pre-approval by the MOFCOM or its local counterpart and are only subject to record-filing procedures as long as such action does not involve special entry administration measures. In December 2019, the MOFCOM and the SAIC promulgated the Measures on Reporting of Foreign Investment Information, or the Foreign Investment Information Measures, which became effective on January 1, 2020 and replaced the FIE Record-filing Interim Measures. Pursuant to the Foreign Investment Information Measures, foreign investors and foreign-invested enterprises shall submit investment information through the Enterprise Registration System and the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System operated by the SAIC for their foreign investment directly or indirectly in the PRC.

Pursuant to the Provisions on Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises promulgated by the State Council in December 2001 and most recently amended in February 2016, or the FITE Regulations, the ultimate foreign equity ownership in a value-added telecommunications services provider may not exceed 50%. Moreover, foreign investors need to meet a number of stringent requirements on historical performance and operation track record to be qualified to acquire any equity interest in a value-added telecommunication business in China. Foreign investors that meet these requirements must obtain approvals from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or MIIT, and MOFCOM or their authorized local counterparts, which retain considerable discretion in granting approvals. MIIT issued the Circular on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Investment in and Operation of Value-added Telecommunications Business in July 2006. Under this circular from the MIIT Circular, a domestic company that holds an telecommunications business operating licenses 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.

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Pursuant to publicly available information, the PRC government has issued telecommunications business operating licenses to only a limited number of FIEs, most of which are Sino-foreign joint ventures engaging in the value-added telecommunication business. In June 2015, MIIT issued the Circular on Removing the Restrictions on Equity Ratio Held by Foreign Investors in Online Data Processing and Transaction Processing (Operating E-Commerce) Business to amend the relevant provisions in the FITE Regulations, allowing foreign investors to own more than 50% of equity interest in an operator that “conducts e-commerce” business. However, other requirements provided by the Foreign Investment Telecommunications Rules (such as the track record and experience requirement for a major foreign investor) still apply, and foreign investors are still prohibited from holding more than 50% of equity interest in a provider of other subcategories of value-added telecommunications services.

To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we rely on contractual arrangements with our VIE to operate our e-commerce business in China. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—We rely on contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders for a large portion of our business operations, which may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing operational control.”

Foreign Investment Law

On March 15, 2019, the NPC approved the Foreign Investment Law, which took effect on January 1, 2020 and replaced the Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law, the Sino-Foreign Cooperative Joint Venture Enterprise Law and the Foreign Owned Enterprise Law, together with their implementation rules and ancillary regulations. This new law is now the foundation for regulation on foreign investments in China. The Foreign Investment Law implements a system of pre-entry national treatment with a negative list for foreign investments, pursuant to which (i) foreign entities and individuals are prohibited from investing in the areas that are not open to foreign investments, (ii) foreign investments in the restricted industries must satisfy certain requirements under the law, and (iii) foreign investments in business sectors outside of the negative list will be treated equally with domestic investments. The Foreign Investment Law stipulates three forms of foreign investments, but does not explicitly name contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investments. Notwithstanding the above, the Foreign Investment Law sets a very broad definition of “foreign investment” to catch any activities where foreign investors investing in China through “any other methods” under laws, administrative regulations, or provisions prescribed by the State Council. On December 26, 2019, the State Council promulgated the Implementation Regulations on the Foreign Investment Law, which came into effect on January 1, 2020. However, the Implementation Regulations on the Foreign Investment Law still remains silent on whether contractual arrangements should be deemed as a form of foreign investment. Therefore, it still leaves leeway for future laws, administrative regulations or provisions promulgated by the State Council to classify contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investments. In that case our contractual arrangements might be deemed to be in violation of the foreign investment restriction. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—We face uncertainties with respect to the implementation of the Foreign Investment Law and how it may impact the viability of our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.”

Licenses, Permits and Filings

The PRC government puts extensive regulation over the telecommunications industry, particularly the internet service sector. The State Council, MIIT, MOFCOM, SAIC, the former State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (which has been replaced by the State Administration of Radio and Television), and other relevant government authorities have promulgated an extensive regulatory scheme governing telecommunications, online sales and e-commerce. 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. In addition, uncertainties exist regarding the interpretation and implementation of current and any future PRC laws and regulations applicable to the telecommunications, online sales and e-commerce. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Any lack of additional requisite approvals, licenses or permits required due to regulatory changes of PRC governmental authorities or failure to comply with any requirements of PRC laws and regulations may materially and adversely affect our daily operations and hinder our growth.”

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We are required to hold certain licenses and permits and to make certain filings with the relevant PRC governmental authorities in connection with various aspects of our business, including the following:

Value-Added Telecommunication Business Operating Licenses

In September 2000, the Telecommunications Regulations of the People’s Republic of China were issued by the State Council as the primary governing law on telecommunication services. The Telecom Regulations set out the general framework for the provision of telecommunication services by PRC companies. Under the regulation, telecommunications service providers are required to obtain operating licenses prior to commencement of operations. It draws a distinction between “basic telecommunications services” and “value-added telecommunications services.” In December 2015, MIIT released the Catalog of Telecommunication Business (2015 Revision), under which both the online data processing and transaction processing business (i.e., operating e-commerce business) and information service business, were categorized as value-added telecommunication services. This catalog further specifies the scope of  information service business, which covers information release and delivery services, information search and query services, information community platform services, information real-time interactive services, and information protection and processing services.

In March 2009, MIIT issued the Administrative Measures for Telecommunications Business Operating Permit, which confirm the two types of telecom operating licenses for operators in China, namely, licenses for basic telecommunications services and licenses for value-added telecommunications services. The operation scope of the license will detail the permitted activities of the enterprise to which it is granted. An approved telecommunication services operator shall conduct its business in accordance with the specifications recorded on its value-added telecommunication business operating licenses, or VATS Licenses. In addition, a VATS License holder is required to obtain approval from the original permit-issuing authority before any change to its shareholders or business scope could occur. In February 2015, the State Council has issued the Decisions on Cancelling and Adjusting a Batch of Administrative Approval Items, which, among others, replaced the pre-registration approval requirement for telecommunications business with post-registration approval requirement.

In September 2000, the State Council promulgated the Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services, pursuant to which commercial internet content-related services operators shall obtain a VATS License for internet content provision business, or the ICP License, from the relevant government authorities before engaging in any commercial internet content-related services operations within China.

Our consolidated affiliated entity, Shanghai Xunmeng, the main operating entity which provides platform service to third-party merchants for their sales of products, has obtained a VATS License for online data processing and transaction processing business (operating e-commerce, excluding internet finance and e-hailing services) and internet information services (excluding information search and inquiry services and real-time interactive information services) from Shanghai Communications Administration, and this license will expire in August 2022. Another consolidated affiliated entity, Hangzhou Aimi, has obtained a VATS License for online data processing and transaction processing business (operating e-commerce, excluding internet finance and e-hailing services) and internet information services (excluding information search and inquiry services and real-time interactive information services). The license was issued by Zhejiang Communications Administration and is scheduled to expire in December 2025.

Internet Drug Information Service Qualification Certificate

The State Food and Drug Administration, or the SFDA (which has now been merged into SAIC), promulgated the Administrative Measures on Internet Drug Information Service in July 2004 and certain implementing rules and notices thereafter. These measures set out regulations governing the classification, application, approval, content, qualifications and requirements for internet drug information services. An internet information service operator that provides information regarding drugs or medical equipment must obtain an Internet Drug Information Service Qualification Certificate from the province-level counterpart of the SFDA. Shanghai Xunmeng holds an Internet Drug Information Service Qualification Certificate issued by the Shanghai Municipal Food and Drug Administration for the provision of internet medical information services, and this license will remain valid until January 2022.

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Filing by Online Trading Platforms Providing Services for the Distribution of Publications

We are subject to regulations relating to online trading platform services provided for distribution of publications including books and audio-video products. Pursuant to the Regulation on the Protection of the Right to Network Dissemination of Information promulgated by the State Council, a network service provider of information storage, searching and linking services, should remove the link to a work, performance or audio-video product if the work is suspected of infringing on other’s right. The removal should take place promptly by the service provider upon receipt of a notice alleging such infringement issued by the owner of such work or audio-video products. According to the Provisions on the Administration of the Publication Market, an online trading platform that provides services for the distribution of publications shall complete filing procedures with the competent publication administrative authority. An online trading platform is required to examine the identity of the dealers distributing publications through the platform, verify their business license and Publications Operation Permit, establish a mechanism to prevent and control the trading risks and take effective measures to rectify illicit actions conducted by the dealers distributing publications on the platform. If any entity subject to such requirements fails to complete the filing or fails to fulfill the relevant duties of examination and supervision in accordance with this regulation, it may be subject to an order to cease illegal acts and a warning by the competent publication administrative authority, as well as a penalty not exceeding RMB30,000. Shanghai Xunmeng has completed the requisite procedures with the relevant publication authority.

Filing by Third-Party Platforms Providers for Medical Device Online Trading Services

The SFDA promulgated the Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Sale of Medical Devices in December 2017, which became effective in March 2018. Pursuant to such measures, a third-party platform providing online trading services for medical devices shall complete filing procedures with the competent provincial food and drug administrative department. According to the measures, a third-party platform that fails to complete the filing in accordance with the measures may be ordered by the competent provincial food and drug administrative department to make rectification within a prescribed time limit, and failure to make such rectification may subject the platform to public exposure of incompliance and a penalty of not exceeding RMB30,000. Shanghai Xunmeng has completed the requisite procedures with the relevant administrative authority.

Filing by Third-Party Platform Providers for Online Food Trading

In July 2016, the SFDA promulgated the Measures for Investigation and Handling of Illegal Acts Involving Online Food Safety, pursuant to which a third-party platform providing online food trading in the PRC shall file a record with the food and drug administration at the provincial level and obtain a filing number. Where the platform fails to complete such filing, it may be ordered to make rectifications and given a warning by the competent food and drug administration, and failure to make such rectification may be subject to fines ranging from RMB5,000 to RMB30,000. Shanghai Xunmeng has completed the requisite procedures with the competent food and drug administration.

Regulations Relating to E-Commerce

In January 2014, SAIC adopted the Administrative Measures for Online Trading, or the Online Trading Measures. Under the Online Trading Measures, e-commerce platform operators shall examine and register the identity of the merchants when such merchants apply for registration on their e-commerce platforms, review and update the identity information regularly, and keep record of the identity information. It is further provided that e-commerce platform operators shall make publicly available the link to, or the information contained, in the business licenses of such merchants (if the merchants are business entities) or a label confirming the verified identity of the merchants (if the merchants are individuals). A consumer is entitled to return the merchandise within seven days from the date after receipt of the merchandise without a reason, except for customized products, fresh and perishable goods, audio-visual products downloaded online or unpackaged by consumers, computer software and other digital products, and newspapers and journals. Merchants shall, within seven days upon receipt of the returned merchandise, provide full refunds to consumers. In addition, e-commerce platform operators shall not, through contractual terms or other means, set out the provisions that are not fair or reasonable to consumers such as those that exclude or restrain consumers’ rights, relieve or exempt operators’ responsibilities, and increase the consumers’ burdens, and shall not, through contractual terms or technical means, conduct transactions in a forcible manner.

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In August 2018, the Standing Committee of the NPC promulgated the E-Commerce Law, which took effect in January 2019. The E-commerce Law proposes a series of requirements on e-commerce operators including individuals and entities carrying out business online, e-commerce platform operators and merchants on the platform. For example, the E-Commerce Law requires e-commerce platform operators to respect and indiscriminately protect consumers’ legitimate rights and provide options to consumers, and also requires e-commerce operators to clearly point out to consumers their bundle sales in which additional services or products are added by merchants to a purchase, and not to assume consumers’ consent to such bundle sales by default. E-commerce platform operators are required under the E-Commerce Law to establish a credit evaluation system and publicize the credit evaluation rules, and provide consumers with ways to evaluate products sold or services provided on the platform. The E-Commerce Law also requires any e-commerce platform operator to develop, and continuously publish or make publicly available by a prominent link on its home page, its platform service agreement and transaction rules, specifying the rights and obligations of relevant parties with respect to registration and de-registration on the platform, quality assurance and protection of consumer rights and personal information, and to ensure convenient and full access to reading and downloading such service agreement and transaction rules by merchants and consumers. Moreover, according to the E-Commerce Law, e-commerce platform operators, who fail to take necessary actions when they know or should have known any intellectual property infringement, product defects or other infringement of consumer rights by any merchant on the platform, will be imposed a joint liability with the merchants; with respect to the products or services affecting consumers’ life and health, the e-commerce platform operators will bear relevant responsibilities if they fail to review the qualifications of merchants or fail to safeguard the interests of the consumers. In addition, the E-Commerce Law requires e-commerce operators, including individuals and entities carrying out business online, e-commerce platform operators and merchants on these platforms, to display prominently on their home page the information contained in their business licenses or administrative permits relating to their operating businesses. Failure to take necessary actions against merchants on the e-commerce platforms that are not in compliance with such requirements may subject the e-commerce platform operators to rectification within a specified period and a fine between RMB20,000 and RMB100,000.

In December 2018, SAIC issued the “Opinions on Doing Well in E-Commerce Operator Registration,” which requires e-commerce operators, including individuals and entities carrying out business online and e-commerce platform operators and merchants on these platforms, to register with the local branches of SAIC. Individuals selling agricultural products or conducting certain transactions with minimum economic value and low volume are not subject to these registration requirements. Pursuant to these opinions, the e-commerce platform operators shall provide identity information of the merchants on their platform to local branches of SAIC and prompt the merchants failing to make such registrations to comply with the relevant registration requirements. Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Online Transactions promulgated by SAMR in 2021 also require e-commerce platforms to timely remind individuals engaging in online transaction activities across different platforms to register with local branches of SAMR if their cross-platform total annual transaction volume exceeds RMB100,000.

In March 2016, the State Administration of Taxation, the Ministry of Finance and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued the Circular on Tax Policy for Cross-Border E-commerce Retail Imports, which took effect in April 2016. Pursuant to this circular, goods imported through the cross-border e-commerce retail are subject to tariff, import value-added tax, or VAT, and consumption tax based on the types of goods. Individuals purchasing any goods imported through cross-border e-commerce retail are taxpayers, and e-commerce companies, companies operating e-commerce transaction platforms or logistic companies are required to withhold the taxes.

On November 12, 2020, the NRTA issued the Circular on Strengthening the Administration of Live Streaming, or the Notice 78, which requires, among other things, platforms that provide live streaming to register their information and business operations. Pursuant to the circular, internet platforms that operate live streaming business are subject to a series of compliance requirements covering the areas of, among other things, maintenance of sufficient content review staff, training and registration of the content review staff and dynamic adjustment of the content review protocols. Online e-commerce live streaming platforms are required to design mechanisms for qualification verification and real-name authentication of e-commerce business owners and individuals who conduct live streaming marketing on their platforms and keep complete records.

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Regulations Relating to Internet Information Security and Privacy Protection

Internet information in China is regulated from a national security standpoint. The NPC has enacted the Decisions on Preserving Internet Security, which subject violators to potential criminal punishment in China for any attempt to: (i) gain improper entry into a computer or system of strategic importance; (ii) disseminate politically disruptive information; (iii) leak state secrets; (iv) spread false commercial information; or (v) infringe intellectual property rights. The Ministry of Public Security of the PRC has promulgated measures that prohibit use of the internet in ways which, among other things, result in a leak of state secrets or a spread of socially destabilizing content. If an internet information service provider violates these measures, the Ministry of Public Security and its local branches may revoke its operating license and shut down its websites.

In recent years, PRC government authorities have enacted laws and regulations on internet use to protect personal information from any unauthorized disclosure. Under the Several Provisions on Regulating the Market Order of Internet Information Services issued by the MIIT, an internet information service provider may not collect any user personal information or provide any such information to third parties without the consent of the user. An internet information service provider must expressly inform the users of the method, content and purpose of the collection and processing of such user personal information and may only collect such information necessary for the provision of its services. An internet information service provider is also required to properly maintain the user’s personal information, and in case of any leak or likely leak of the user’s personal information, the internet information service provider must take immediate remedial measures and, in severe circumstances, immediately report to the telecommunications authority. Moreover, pursuant to the Ninth Amendment to the Criminal Law issued by the Standing Committee of the NPC in August 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. Any individual or entity that (i) sells or provides personal information to others in a way violating the applicable law, or (ii) steals or illegally obtains any personal information, shall be subject to criminal penalty in severe situation. In addition, the Interpretations of the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate of the PRC on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Law in Handling Criminal Cases of Infringing Personal Information, issued in May 2017, clarified certain standards for the conviction and sentencing of the criminals in relation to personal information infringement. Further, the NPC promulgated a new National Security Law, effective July 2015, to replace the former National Security Law and covers various types of national security including technology security and information security.

In addition, the Standing Committee of the NPC promulgated the Cyber Security Law of the People’s Republic of China, or the Cyber Security Law, effective June 2017, to protect cyberspace security and order. Pursuant to the Cyber Security Law, any individual or organization using the network must comply with the constitution and the applicable laws, follow the public order and respect social moralities, and must not endanger cyber security, or leverage the network to engage in activities that endanger the national security, honor and interests, or infringe on the fame, privacy, intellectual property and other legitimate rights and interests of others. The Cyber Security Law sets forth various security protection obligations for network operators, which are defined as “owners and administrators of networks and network service providers”, including, among others, complying with a series of requirements of tiered cyber protection systems, verifying users’ real identity, localizing the personal information and important data gathered and produced by key information infrastructure operators during operations within the PRC, and providing assistance and support to government authorities where necessary for protecting national security and investigating crimes. Furthermore, MIIT’s Rules on Protection of Personal Information of Telecommunications and Internet Users promulgated in July 2013, effective September 2013, contain detailed requirements on the use and collection of personal information as well as security measures required to be taken by telecommunications business operators and internet information service providers. On November 28, 2019, the Secretary Bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China, the General Office of the MIIT, the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security and the General Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation promulgated the Identification Method of Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information Through App, which provides guidance for regulatory authorities to identify the illegal collection and use of personal information through mobile apps and for mobile app operators to conduct self-examination and self-correction.

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Regulations Relating to Product Quality and Consumer Rights Protection

The PRC Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, as amended in and effective March 2014, and the Online Trading Measures, have provided stringent requirements and obligations on business operators, including internet business operators and platform service providers. For example, consumers are entitled to return goods purchased online, subject to certain exceptions, within seven days upon receipt of such goods for no reason. To ensure that sellers and service providers comply with these laws and regulations, the platform operators are required to implement rules governing transactions on the platform, monitor the information posted by sellers and service providers, and report any violations by such sellers or service providers to the relevant authorities. In addition, online marketplace platform providers may, pursuant to the relevant PRC consumer protection laws, be exposed to liabilities if the lawful rights and interests of consumers are infringed upon in connection with consumers’ purchase of goods or acceptance of services on online marketplace platforms and the online marketplace platform providers fail to provide consumers with the contact information of the seller or manufacturer. In addition, online marketplace platform providers may be jointly and severally liable with sellers and manufacturers if they are aware or should be aware that any seller or manufacturer is using the online platform to infringe upon the lawful rights and interests of consumers and fail to take measures necessary to prevent or stop such activity.

The Civil Code of the PRC, effective 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 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 held jointly liable with the relevant online user for the extended damages.

We are subject to the Civil Code of the PRC, the PRC Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law, and the Online Trading Measures as an e-commerce platform service provider and believe that we are currently in compliance with these regulations in all material aspects.

Regulations Relating to Anti-unfair Competition and Anti-monopoly

On April 23, 2019, the Standing Committee of the NPC amended the PRC Anti-unfair Competition Law, pursuant to which business operators may not engage in anti-competitive activities including but not limited to, unduly influencing transactions, confusing or defrauding consumers, commercial bribery, trade secret infringement and commercial libel. Failure to comply with the Anti-unfair Competition Law and related regulations could result in various administrative penalties, including fines, confiscation of illegal gains and cessation of business activities.

After its promulgation, the relevant PRC anti-monopoly authorities further strengthened enforcement under the Anti-monopoly Law. In February 2021, the Anti-monopoly Committee of the State Council published the Anti-monopoly Guidelines for the Platform Economy Sector, aiming at enhancing anti-monopoly administration of businesses that operate under the platform model and the overall platform economy. According to these guidelines, business practices such as deploying big data analytics to set discriminatory terms for merchandise price or other transaction terms, coercive exclusivity arrangements with transaction counterparties, blocking of competitor interface through technological means and unlawful collection of user data without consent, are prohibited. In addition, the guidelines included concentrations involving companies with VIE structure within the ambit of SAMR’s merger control review, if certain reporting thresholds are met.

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Regulations Relating to Internet Advertising Business

In July 2016, SAIC issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising to regulate internet advertising activities. It defines internet advertising as any commercial advertising that directly or indirectly promotes goods or services through websites, webpages, internet applications and other internet media in the forms of words, picture, audio, video or others, including promotion through emails, texts, images, video with embedded links and paid-for search results. According to these measures, no advertisement of any medical treatment, medicines, food for special medical purpose, medical apparatuses, pesticides, veterinary medicines, dietary supplement or other special commodities or services subject to examination by an advertising examination authority and may be only published after passing the examination. In addition, no entity or individual may publish any advertisement of over-the-counter medicines or tobacco on the internet. An internet advertisement must be identifiable and clearly identified as an “advertisement” to the consumers. Paid search advertisements are required to be clearly distinguished from natural search results. In addition, the following internet advertising activities are prohibited: providing or using any applications or hardware to intercept, filter, cover, fast forward or otherwise restrict any authorized advertisement of other persons; using network pathways, network equipment or applications to disrupt the normal data transmission of advertisements, alter or block authorized advertisements of other persons or load advertisements without authorization; or using fraudulent statistical data, transmission effect or matrices relating to online marketing performance to induce incorrect quotations, seek undue interests or harm the interests of others. Internet advertisement publishers are required to verify relevant supporting documents and check the content of the advertisement and are prohibited from publishing any advertisement with unverified content or without all the necessary qualifications. Internet information service providers that are not involved in internet advertising business activities but simply provide information services are required to block any attempt to publish an illegal advisement that they are aware of or should reasonably be aware of through their information services.

Regulations Relating to Payment Services

In June 2010, the People’s Bank of China, or PBOC, issued the Administrative Measures for the Payment Services of Non-Financial Institutions, or the Payment Services Measures. Under this rule, a non-financial institution must obtain a payment business license, or Payment License, to provide payment services and qualifies as a paying institution. With the Payment License, a non-financial institution may serve as an intermediary between payees and payers and provide some or all of the following services: online payment, issuance and acceptance of prepaid card, bank card acceptance, and other payment services as specified by PBOC. Without PBOC’s approval, no non-financial institution or individual may engage in payment business whether explicitly or in a disguised form.

In November 2017, PBOC published a notice, or the PBOC Notice, on the investigation and administration of illegal offering of settlement services by financial institutions and third-party payment service providers to unlicensed entities. The PBOC Notice intended to prevent unlicensed entities from using licensed payment service providers as a conduit for conducting the unlicensed payment settlement services, so as to safeguard the fund security and information security. We believe that our pattern of receiving settlement services from commercial banks and third-party online payment service providers are not in violation of the PBOC Notice. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We rely on commercial banks and third-party online payment service providers for payment processing and escrow services on our platform. If these payment services are restricted or curtailed in any way or become unavailable to us or our buyers for any reason, our business may be materially and adversely affected.”

Regulations Relating to Intellectual Property in the PRC

Copyright

Pursuant to the Copyright Law of the PRC, copyrights include personal rights such as the right of publication and that of attribution as well as property rights such as the right of production and that of distribution. Reproducing, distributing, performing, projecting, broadcasting or compiling a work or communicating the same to the public via an information network without permission from the owner of the copyright therein, unless otherwise provided in the Copyright Law of the PRC, shall constitute infringements of copyrights. The infringer shall, according to the circumstances of the case, undertake to cease the infringement, take remedial action, and offer an apology, pay damages, etc.

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Trademark

Pursuant to the Trademark Law of the PRC, the right to exclusive use of a registered trademark shall be limited to trademarks which have been approved for registration and to goods for which the use of such trademark has been approved. The period of validity of a registered trademark shall be ten years, counted from the day the registration is approved. According to this law, using a trademark that is identical to or similar to a registered trademark in connection with the same or similar goods without the authorization of the owner of the registered trademark constitutes an infringement of the exclusive right to use a registered trademark. The infringer shall, in accordance with the regulations, undertake to cease the infringement, take remedial action, and pay damages, etc.

Patent

Pursuant to the Patent Law of the PRC, after the grant of the patent right for an invention or utility model, except where otherwise provided for in the Patent Law, no entity or individual may, without the authorization of the patent owner, exploit the patent, that is, make, use, offer to sell, sell or import the patented product, or use the patented process, or use, offer to sell, sell or import any product which is a direct result of the use of the patented process, for production or business purposes. After a patent right is granted for a design, no entity or individual shall, without the permission of the patent owner, exploit the patent, that is, for production or business purposes, manufacture, offer to sell, sell, or import any product containing the patented design. Once the infringement of patent is confirmed, the infringer shall, in accordance with the regulations, undertake to cease the infringement, take remedial action, and pay damages, etc.

Domain Name

Pursuant to the Measures for the Administration of Internet Domain Names of China, “domain name” shall refer to the character mark of hierarchical structure, which identifies and locates a computer on the internet and corresponds to the internet protocol (IP) address of that computer. The principle of “first come, first serve” is followed for the domain name registration service. After completing the domain name registration, the applicant becomes the holder of the domain name registered by him/it. Any organization or individual may file an application for settlement with the domain names dispute resolution institution or file a lawsuit in the people’s court in accordance with the law, if such organization or individual consider its/his legal rights and interests to be infringed by domain names registered or used by others.

Regulations Relating to Labor Protection in the PRC

According to the Labor Law of the PRC, or the Labor Law, an employer shall develop and improve its rules and regulations to safeguard the rights of its workers. An employer shall develop and improve its labor safety and health system, stringently implement national protocols and standards on labor safety and health, conduct labor safety and health education for workers, guard against labor accidents and reduce occupational hazards.

The Labor Contract Law of the PRC and the Implementation Regulations on Labor Contract Law, regulate both parties to a labor contract, namely the employer and the employee, and contain specific provisions involving the terms of the labor contract. It is stipulated by the Labor Contract Law and the Implementation Regulations on Labor Contract Law that a labor contract must be made in writing. An employer and an employee may enter into a fixed-term labor contract, an un-fixed term labor contract, or a labor contract that concludes upon the completion of certain work assignments, after reaching agreement upon due negotiations. An employer may legally terminate a labor contract and dismiss its employees after reaching agreement upon due negotiations with the employee or by fulfilling the statutory conditions. Labor contracts concluded prior to the enactment of the Labor Contract Law and subsisting within the validity period thereof shall continue to be honored. With respect to a circumstance where a labor relationship has already been established but no formal contract has been made, a written labor contract shall be entered into within one month from the effective date of the Labor Contract Law.

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According to the Interim Regulations on the Collection and Payment of Social Insurance Premiums, the Regulations on Workplace Injury Insurance, the Regulations on Unemployment Insurance and the Trial Measures on Employee Maternity Insurance of Enterprises, enterprises in the PRC shall provide benefit plans for their employees, which include basic pension insurance, unemployment insurance, maternity insurance, workplace injury insurance and basic medical insurance. An enterprise must provide social insurance by processing social insurance registration with local social insurance agencies, and shall pay or withhold relevant social insurance premiums for or on behalf of employees. The Law on Social Insurance of the PRC has consolidated pertinent provisions for basic pension insurance, unemployment insurance, maternity insurance, workplace injury insurance and basic medical insurance, and has elaborated in detail the legal obligations and liabilities of employers who do not comply with relevant laws and regulations on social insurance.

According to the Interim Measures for Participation in the Social Insurance System by Foreigners Working within the Territory of China, employers who employ foreigners shall participate in the basic pension insurance, unemployment insurance, basic medical insurance, occupational injury insurance, and maternity leave insurance in accordance with the relevant law, with the social insurance premiums to be contributed respectively by the employers and foreigner employees as required. In accordance with such Interim Measures, the social insurance administrative agencies shall exercise their right to supervise and examine the legal compliance of foreign employees and employers, and the employers who do not pay social insurance premiums in conformity with the laws shall be subject to the administrative provisions provided in the Social Insurance Law and other relevant regulations and rules.

According to the Regulations on the Administration of Housing Provident Fund, housing provident fund contributions by an individual employee and housing provident fund contributions by his or her employer shall belong to the individual employee.

The employer shall timely pay up and deposit housing provident fund contributions in full amount and late or insufficient payments shall be prohibited. The employer shall process housing provident fund payment and deposit registrations with the housing provident fund administration center. With respect to companies who violate the above regulations and fail to process housing provident fund payment and deposit registrations or open housing provident fund accounts for their employees, such companies shall be ordered by the housing provident fund administration center to complete such procedures within a designated period. Those who fail to process their registrations within the designated period shall be subject to a fine ranging from RMB10,000 to RMB50,000. When companies violate these regulations and fail to pay up housing provident fund contributions in full amount as due, the housing provident fund administration center shall order such companies to pay up within a designated period, and may further apply to the People’s Court for mandatory enforcement against those who still fail to comply after the expiry of such period.

See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Any lack of additional requisite approvals, licenses or permits required due to regulatory changes of PRC governmental authorities or failure to comply with any requirements of PRC laws and regulations may materially and adversely affect our daily operations and hinder our growth.”

Regulations Relating to Tax in the PRC

Income Tax

The PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law was recently amended in February 2017. The PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law applies a uniform 25% enterprise income tax rate to both foreign-invested enterprises and domestic enterprises, except where tax incentives are granted to special industries and projects. Under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, an enterprise established outside China with “de facto management bodies” within China is considered a “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 regulations to the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, a “de facto management body” is defined as the body that exercises full and substantial control and overall management over the business, productions, personnel, accounts and properties of an enterprise.

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In January 2009, the State Administration of Taxation, or SAT, promulgated the Provisional Measures for the Administration of Withholding of Enterprise Income Tax for Non-resident Enterprises, or the Non-resident Enterprises Measures, pursuant to which entities that have direct obligation to make certain payments to a nonresident enterprise shall be the relevant tax withholders for such non-resident enterprise. Further, the Non-resident Enterprises Measures provide that, in case of an equity transfer between two non-resident enterprises occurring outside China, which is indirectly related to the transfer of equity interests of a PRC resident enterprise, the non-resident enterprise which receives the equity transfer payment shall, by itself or engage an agent to, file tax declaration with the PRC tax authority located at the place of the PRC company whose equity has been transferred, and the PRC company whose equity has been transferred shall assist the tax authorities to collect taxes from the relevant non-resident enterprise. In April 2009, the Ministry of Finance, or MOF, and SAT jointly issued the Notice on Issues Concerning Process of Enterprise Income Tax in Enterprise Restructuring Business. In December 2009, SAT issued the Notice on Strengthening Administration of Enterprise Income Tax for Share Transfers by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or Circular 698. Both the Notice on Issues Concerning Process of Enterprise Income Tax in Enterprise Restructuring Business and Circular 698 became effective retroactively as of January 2008. In February 2011, SAT issued the Notice on Several Issues Regarding the Income Tax of Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 24. By promulgating and implementing these circulars, the PRC tax authorities have enhanced their scrutiny over the direct or indirect transfer of equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise by a non-resident enterprise.

In February 2015, SAT issued the Notice on Certain Corporate Income Tax Matters on Indirect Transfer of Properties by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 7, to supersede existing provisions in relation to the indirect transfer as set forth in Circular 698, while the other provisions of Circular 698 remain in force. SAT Circular 7 introduces a new tax regime that is significantly different from that under Circular 698. SAT Circular 7 extends its tax jurisdiction to capture not only indirect transfers as set forth under Circular 698 but also transactions involving transfer of immovable property in China and assets held under the establishment, and placement in China, of a foreign company through the offshore transfer of a foreign intermediate holding company. SAT Circular 7 also addresses transfer of the equity interest in a foreign intermediate holding company broadly. In addition, SAT Circular 7 provides clearer criteria than Circular 698 on how to assess reasonable commercial purposes and introduces safe harbor scenarios applicable to internal group restructurings. However, it also brings challenges to both the foreign transferor and transferee of the indirect transfer as they have to determine whether the transaction should be subject to PRC tax and to file or withhold the PRC tax accordingly. In October 2017, SAT issued the Announcement on Issues Relating to Withholding at Source of Income Tax of Non-resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 37. SAT Circular 37, effective from December 2017, superseded the Non-resident Enterprises Measures and SAT Circular 698 as a whole and partially amended some provisions in SAT Circular 24 and SAT Circular 7. SAT Circular 37 purports to clarify certain issues in the implementation of the above regime, by providing, among others, the definition of equity transfer income and tax basis, the foreign exchange rate to be used in the calculation of withholding amount, and the date of occurrence of the withholding obligation. Specifically, SAT Circular 37 provides that where the transfer income subject to withholding at source is derived by a non-PRC resident enterprise in instalments, the instalments may first be treated as recovery of costs of previous investments. Upon recovery of all costs, the tax amount to be withheld must then be computed and withheld.

Value-Added Tax

According to the Temporary Regulations on Value-added Tax and the Detailed Implementing Rules of the Temporary Regulations on Value-added Tax, all taxpayers selling goods, providing processing, repair or replacement services or importing goods within the PRC shall pay value-added tax. The tax rate of 17% shall be levied on general taxpayers selling or importing various goods; the tax rate of 17% shall be levied on the taxpayers providing processing, repairing or replacement service; the applicable rate for the export of goods by taxpayers shall be nil, unless otherwise stipulated.

Furthermore, according to the Trial Scheme for the Conversion of Business Tax to Value-added Tax, promulgated by the Ministry of Finance and SAT in November 2011, the State Council began to launch taxation reforms in a gradual manner in January 2012, whereby the collection of value-added tax in lieu of business tax items was implemented on a trial basis in regions showing significant radiating effects in economic development and providing outstanding reform examples, beginning with production service industries such as transportation and certain modern service industries.

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In accordance with a SAT circular that took effect in May 2016, upon approval of the State Council, the pilot program of the collection of value-added tax in lieu of business tax shall be promoted nationwide in a comprehensive manner starting from May 2016, and all taxpayers of business tax engaged in the construction industry, the real estate industry, the financial industry and the life science industry shall be included in the scope of the pilot program with regard to payment of value-added tax instead of business tax.

In April 2018, MOF and SAT jointly promulgated the Circular of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation on Adjustment of Value-Added Tax Rates, or Circular 32, according to which (i) for VAT taxable sales acts or importation of goods originally subject to value-added tax rates of 17% and 11% respectively, such tax rates shall be adjusted to 16% and 10%, respectively; (ii) for purchase of agricultural products originally subject to deduction rate of 11%, such deduction rate shall be adjusted to 10%; (iii) for purchase of agricultural products for the purpose of production and sales or consigned processing of goods subject to tax rate of 16%, such tax shall be calculated at the deduction rate of 12%; (iv) for exported goods originally subject to tax rate of 17% and export tax refund rate of 17%, the export tax refund rate shall be adjusted to 16%; and (v) for exported goods and cross-border taxable acts originally subject to tax rate of 11% and export tax refund rate of 11%, the export tax refund rate shall be adjusted to 10%. Circular 32 became effective on May 1, 2018 and shall supersede existing provisions which are inconsistent with Circular 32.

In March 2019, MOF, SAT and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued the Notice on Measures to Implement the Reform on Value-Added Tax, which came into effect on April 1, 2019. According to the above-mentioned notice, starting from April 1, 2019, taxable sales acts or importation of goods originally subject to value-added tax rates of 16% and 10%, respectively, become subject to lower value-added tax rates of 13% and 9%, respectively. No change of value-added tax rates has been made with respect to our services.

Regulations Relating to Dividend Distributions

The principal regulations governing the distribution of dividends paid by wholly foreign-owned enterprises include the PRC Company Law and the Foreign Investment Law. Under these regulations, foreign-invested enterprises in China may pay dividends only out of their accumulated profits, if any, as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a PRC company is required to set aside at least 10% of its after-tax profit based on PRC accounting standards each year to its general reserves until its cumulative total reserve funds reaches 50% of its registered capital. These reserve funds, however, may not be distributed as cash dividends.

Regulations Relating to Foreign Exchange

Regulations Relating to Foreign Exchange Registration of Overseas Investment by PRC Residents

Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment Through Special Purpose Vehicles, or Circular 37, issued by SAFE in and effective July 2014, regulates foreign exchange matters in relation to the use of special purpose vehicles, or SPVs, by PRC residents or entities to seek offshore investment and financing and conduct round trip investment in China. Under Circular 37, a SPV refers to an offshore entity established or controlled, directly or indirectly, by PRC residents or entities for the purpose of seeking offshore financing or making offshore investment, using legitimate domestic or offshore assets or interests, while “round trip investment” refers to the direct investment in China by PRC residents or entities through SPVs, namely, establishing foreign-invested enterprises to obtain the ownership, control rights and management rights. Circular 37 requires that, before making contribution into an SPV, PRC residents or entities are required to complete foreign exchange registration with SAFE or its local branch. Circular 37 further provides that option or share-based incentive holders of a non-listed SPV can exercise the options or share incentive grants to become a shareholder of such non-listed SPV, subject to registration with SAFE or its local branch.

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PRC residents or entities who have contributed domestic or offshore interests or assets to SPVs but have yet to obtain SAFE registration before the implementation of the Circular 37 shall register their ownership interests or control in such SPVs with SAFE or its local branch. An amendment to the registration is required if there is a material change in the registered SPV, such as any change of basic information (including change of such PRC resident’s name and operation term), increases or decreases in investment amounts, transfers or exchanges of shares, or mergers or divisions. Failure to comply with the registration procedures set forth in Circular 37, or making misrepresentation or failure to disclose controllers of foreign-invested enterprise that is established through round-trip investment, may result in restrictions on the foreign exchange activities of the relevant foreign-invested enterprises, including payment of dividends and other distributions, to its offshore parent or affiliate, and the capital inflow from the offshore parent, and may also subject relevant PRC residents or entities to penalties under PRC foreign exchange administration regulations. In February 2015, SAFE further promulgated the Circular on Further Simplifying and Improving the Administration of the Foreign Exchange Concerning Direct Investment, or SAFE Circular 13. This SAFE Circular 13 has amended SAFE Circular 37 by requiring PRC residents or entities to register with qualified banks rather than SAFE or its local branch in connection with their establishment or control of an offshore entity established for the purpose of overseas investment or financing. Circular 37 is applicable to our shareholders who are PRC residents and may be applicable to any offshore acquisitions that we make in the future. All of our shareholders who, to our knowledge, are subject to the above SAFE regulations have completed the necessary registrations with the local SAFE branch or qualified banks as required by SAFE Circular 37.

In March 2015, SAFE promulgated the Circular on Reforming the Management Approach regarding the Settlement of Foreign Exchange Capital of Foreign-invested Enterprises, or Circular 19. According to Circular 19, the foreign exchange capital of foreign-invested enterprises shall be subject to the Discretional Foreign Exchange Settlement. The Discretional Foreign Exchange Settlement refers to the foreign exchange capital in the capital account of a foreign-invested enterprise for which the rights and interests of monetary contribution has been confirmed by the local foreign exchange bureau (or the book-entry registration of monetary contribution by the banks), and this foreign exchange capital can be settled at the banks based on the actual operational needs of the foreign-invested enterprise. The proportion of Discretional Foreign Exchange Settlement of the foreign exchange capital of a foreign-invested enterprise is temporarily determined to be 100%.

SAFE issued the Circular on Reforming and Regulating Policies on the Control over Foreign Exchange Settlement of Capital Accounts, or Circular 16. Pursuant to Circular 16, enterprises registered in the PRC may also convert their foreign debts from foreign currency to Renminbi on a discretionary basis. Circular 16 provides an integrated standard for conversion of foreign exchange under capital account items (including but not limited to foreign currency capital and foreign debts) on a discretionary basis which applies to all enterprises registered in the PRC. Circular 16 reiterates the principle that Renminbi converted from foreign currency-denominated capital of a company may not be directly or indirectly used for purposes beyond its business scope or prohibited by PRC laws or regulations, and such converted Renminbi shall not be provided as loans to its non-affiliated entities. As Circular 16 is newly issued, and SAFE has not provided detailed guidelines with respect to its interpretation or implementations, it is uncertain how these rules will be interpreted and implemented.

In January 2017, SAFE promulgated the Circular on Further Improving Reform of Foreign Exchange Administration and Optimizing Genuineness and Compliance Verification, or Circular 3. Circular 3 sets out various measures to tighten genuineness and compliance verification of cross-border transactions and cross-border capital flow, which include requiring banks to verify board resolutions, tax filing form, and audited financial statements before wiring foreign invested enterprises’ foreign exchange distribution above US$50,000, and strengthening genuineness and compliance verification of foreign direct investments.

On October 23, 2019, SAFE promulgated the Notice of the Administration of Foreign Exchange on Further Promoting the Convenience of Cross-Border Trade and Investment, which, among other things, non-investment foreign-invested entities may use foreign exchange capital or Renminbi funds converted from the foreign exchange capital to make domestic equity investments, provided that such investments should comply with relevant PRC laws and regulations.

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Our PRC subsidiaries’ distributions to their offshore parents are required to comply with the requirements as described above.

Regulations on Stock Incentive Plans

Pursuant to the Notice on Issues Concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plan of Overseas Publicly Listed Company, or Circular 7, issued by SAFE in February 2012, employees, directors, supervisors and other senior management participating in any stock incentive plan of an overseas publicly listed company who are PRC citizens or who are non-PRC citizens residing in China for a continuous period of not less than one year are generally required to register with SAFE through a domestic qualified agent. We and our directors, executive officers and other employees who are PRC citizens or who reside in the PRC for a continuous period of not less than one year and who have been granted options are subject to these regulations as our company is an overseas-listed company. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Any failure to comply with PRC regulations regarding the registration requirements for employee stock incentive plans may subject the PRC plan participants or us to fines and other legal or administrative sanctions.”

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In addition, SAT has issued certain circulars concerning employee share options or restricted shares. Under these circulars, the employees working in the PRC who exercise share options or are granted restricted shares will be subject to PRC individual income tax. The PRC subsidiaries of such overseas listed company have obligations to file documents related to employee share options or restricted shares with relevant tax authorities and to withhold individual income taxes of those employees who exercise their share options. If the employees fail to pay or the PRC subsidiaries fail to withhold their income taxes according to relevant laws and regulations, the PRC subsidiaries may face sanctions imposed by the tax authorities or other PRC government authorities.

C.        Organizational Structure

The following diagram illustrates our corporate structure, including our principal subsidiaries and our VIE and its principal subsidiary, as of the date of this annual report:

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Note:

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Contractual Arrangements with Our VIE and Its Shareholders

The following is a summary of the currently effective contractual arrangements by and among our wholly-owned subsidiary, Hangzhou Weimi, our VIE and its shareholders. These contractual arrangements enable us to (i) exercise effective control over our VIE; (ii) receive substantially all of the economic benefits of our VIE; and (iii) have an exclusive option to purchase all or part of the equity interests in and assets of it when and to the extent permitted by PRC law.

Agreements that provide us effective control over our VIE

Shareholders’ Voting Rights Proxy Agreement. Pursuant to the amended and restated shareholders’ voting rights proxy agreement dated July 15, 2020, by and among Hangzhou Weimi, Hangzhou Aimi and the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi, each shareholder of Hangzhou Aimi irrevocably authorized Hangzhou Weimi or any person(s) designated by Hangzhou Weimi to exercise such shareholder’s rights in Hangzhou Aimi, including without limitation, the power to participate in and vote at shareholder’s meetings, the power to nominate and appoint the directors, senior management, the power to sell or transfer such shareholder’s equity interest in Hangzhou Aimi, the power to propose to convene an extraordinary shareholders meeting, and other shareholders’ voting rights permitted by the Articles of Association of Hangzhou Aimi. The shareholders’ voting rights proxy agreement remains irrevocable and continuously valid from the date of execution so long as each shareholder remains as a shareholder of Hangzhou Aimi.

Equity Pledge Agreement. Pursuant to the amended and restated equity pledge agreement dated July 15, 2020, by and among Hangzhou Weimi, Hangzhou Aimi and the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi, the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi pledged all of their equity interests in Hangzhou Aimi to Hangzhou Weimi to guarantee their and Hangzhou Aimi’s obligations under the contractual arrangements including the exclusive consulting and services agreement, the exclusive option agreement and the shareholders’ voting rights proxy agreement and this equity pledge agreement, as well as any loss incurred due to events of default defined therein and all expenses incurred by Hangzhou Weimi in enforcing such obligations of Hangzhou Aimi or its shareholders. In the event of default defined therein, upon written notice to the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi, Hangzhou Weimi, as pledgee, will have the right to dispose of the pledged equity interests in Hangzhou Aimi and priority in receiving the proceeds from such disposition. The shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi agree that, without Hangzhou Weimi’s prior written approval, during the term of the equity pledge agreement, they will not dispose of the pledged equity interests or create or allow any other encumbrance on the pledged equity interests. We have completed the registration of the equity pledges with the relevant office of SAIC in accordance with the PRC Property Rights Law.

Spousal Consent Letter. Pursuant to each spousal consent letter, the spouse of the signing shareholder of our VIE unconditionally and irrevocably agreed that the equity interest in Hangzhou Aimi held by such shareholder and registered in his name will be disposed of pursuant to the equity interest pledge agreement, the exclusive option agreement and the shareholders’ voting rights proxy agreement. The spouse of the signing shareholder of our VIE agreed not to assert any rights over the equity interest in Hangzhou Aimi held by the signing shareholder. In addition, in the event that the spouse of the signing shareholder of our VIE obtains any equity interest in Hangzhou Aimi held by the signing shareholder for any reason, the spouse agreed to be bound by the contractual arrangements.

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Agreements that allow us to receive economic benefits from our VIE

Exclusive Consulting and Services Agreement. Under the exclusive consulting and services agreement between Hangzhou Weimi and Hangzhou Aimi, dated June 5, 2015, Hangzhou Weimi has the exclusive right to provide to Hangzhou Aimi consulting and services related to, among other things, design and development, operation maintenance, product consulting, and management and marketing consulting. Hangzhou Weimi has the exclusive ownership of intellectual property rights created as a result of the performance of this agreement. Hangzhou Aimi agrees to pay Hangzhou Weimi service fee at an amount as determined by Hangzhou Weimi. This agreement will remain effective for a ten-year term and then be automatically renewed, unless Hangzhou Weimi gives Hangzhou Aimi a termination notice 90 days before the term ends.

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

Exclusive Option Agreement. Pursuant to the amended and restated exclusive option agreement date July 15, 2020, by and among Hangzhou Weimi, Hangzhou Aimi and each of the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi, each of the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi irrevocably granted Hangzhou Weimi an exclusive call option to purchase, or have its designated person(s) to purchase, at its discretion, all or part of their equity interests in Hangzhou Aimi, and the purchase price shall be the lowest price permitted by applicable PRC law. In addition, Hangzhou Aimi has granted Hangzhou Weimi an exclusive call option to purchase, or have its designated person(s) to purchase, at its discretion, to the extent permitted under PRC law, all or part of Hangzhou Aimi’s assets at the book value of such assets, or at the lowest price permitted by applicable PRC law, whichever is higher. Each of the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi undertakes that, without the prior written consent of Hangzhou Weimi or us, they may not increase or decrease the registered capital, dispose of its assets, incur any debts or guarantee liabilities, enter into any material purchase agreements, enter into any merger, acquisition or investments, amend its articles of association or provide any loans to third parties. Unless terminated by Hangzhou Weimi at its sole discretion, the exclusive option agreement will remain effective until all equity interests in Hangzhou Aimi held by the shareholders of Hangzhou Aimi and all assets of Hangzhou Aimi are transferred or assigned to Hangzhou Weimi or its designated representatives.

In the opinion of King & Wood Mallesons, our PRC legal counsel:

However, we have been further advised by our PRC legal counsel that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws, regulations and rules. If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating our e-commerce business do not comply with PRC government restrictions on foreign investment in our businesses, we could be subject to severe penalties including being prohibited from continuing operations. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating some of our operations in China do not comply with PRC regulations relating to the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations.”

D.        Property, Plant and Equipment

As of December 31, 2020, our principal executive offices were located on leased premises comprising approximately 56,871 square meters in Shanghai, China. Our principal executive offices are leased from independent third parties, and we plan to renew our lease from time to time as needed.

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Our servers are hosted in leased internet data centers in different geographic regions in China. We typically enter into leasing and hosting service agreements with these internet data center providers that are renewed periodically. We believe that our existing facilities are sufficient for our current needs, and we will obtain additional facilities, principally through leasing, to accommodate our future expansion plans.

Item 4A.        Unresolved Staff Comments

None.

Item 5.           Operating and Financial Review and Prospects

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

A.          Operating Results

Key Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

Our results of operations and financial conditions are affected by the general factors affecting China’s retail industry, including China’s overall economic growth, the increase in per capita disposable income and the growth in consumer spending in China. In addition, they are also affected by factors driving online retail in China, such as the growing number of online shoppers, the improved logistics infrastructure and the increasing adoption of mobile payment. Unfavorable changes in any of these general factors could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

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

Our ability to attract and retain buyers and increase buyer activities

User experience is our utmost priority. Attracting, engaging and retaining buyers have been our key focuses since our inception. We measure our effectiveness in attracting and retaining buyers through several key performance indicators, including our active buyers, GMV, annual spending per active buyer and average monthly active users. In 2020, we achieved 788.4 millions of active buyers, RMB1,667.6 billion (US$255.6 billion) of GMV, and RMB2,115.2 (US$324.2) of annual spending per active buyer. For the three months of October to December of 2020, the average monthly active users on our platform was 719.9 million.

Our number of active buyers, annual spending per active buyer and average monthly active users have been increasing. The increases have primarily been driven by the growing popularity and recognition of our brand and platform, the consumer preferences for our innovative shopping experience, wide selection and attractive prices of merchandise offered on our platform, and the positive impact of our promotional and marketing campaigns. As a result, our GMV has also experienced significant growth.

Our ability to grow and retain our buyer base and increase buyer activities depends on our ability to continue to provide value-for-money products and fun and interactive shopping experiences. We also plan to further leverage social networks and word-of-mouth viral marketing, and conduct online and offline marketing and brand promotion activities to attract new buyers and increase buyer activities. In addition, we plan to continue to encourage buyers to place more orders with us through a variety of means, including granting coupons and holding special promotional events. As our business is still at a growth phase and in light of our ability to develop a highly engaged buyer base, we expect continuing growth in our buyer base and buyer activities.

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Our ability to establish and maintain relationships with merchants

In addition to the scale and engagement of active buyers, our growth is also driven by the scale of merchants on our platform. In 2020, the number of active merchants on our platform reached 8.6 million. Merchants are attracted to our platform by our large buyer base and scale of sales volume as well as targeted online marketing and other services provided by us. The increase in the number of active merchants leads to more competitive prices and broader product categories offered on our platform, which in turn helps us attract more buyers, generating powerful network effects.

Our ability to provide popular products on our platform at attractive prices also depends on our ability to maintain mutually beneficial relationships with our merchants. For example, we rely on our merchants to make available sufficient inventory and fulfill large volumes of orders in an efficient and timely manner to ensure our user experience. To date, our buyers and merchants have been increasing in parallel as a result of the network effects of our platform.

Our ability to provide innovative online marketplace services and broaden service offerings

We currently generate revenues primarily from online marketplace services that we provide to merchants. We believe that increasing the value and variety of our online marketplace services and the consequent return on investment to merchants from utilizing these services will increase demand for our services. We aim to enhance the value of our online marketplace services through such means as broadening our service offerings, increasing the size and engagement of our buyer base, improving recommendation features, developing innovative marketing services, and improving the measurement tools available to merchants. For example, in August 2020, we started Duo Duo Grocery, a next-day grocery pick-up service that allows users to order groceries and related products online and collect goods the next day at nearby designated pickup points.

Our ability to manage our costs and expenses by leveraging our scale of business

Our results of operations depend on our ability to manage our costs and expenses. We expect our costs and expenses to continue to increase as we grow our business and attract more buyers and merchants to our platform. Our costs of revenues consist primarily of payment processing fees paid to third party online payment platforms, costs associated with the operation of our platform and others, such as costs and expenses attributable to merchandise sales, delivery and storage fees, bandwidths and server costs, amortizations, depreciation and maintenance costs, payroll, employee benefits and share-based compensation expenses, call center, merchant support services, surcharges and other expenses directly attributable to the online marketplace services. In addition, we have invested significantly in marketing activities to promote our brand and our products and services. Our sales and marketing expenses increased from RMB13,441.8 million in 2018 to RMB27,174.2 million in 2019, and further to RMB41,194.6 million (US$6,313.3 million) in 2020, while sales and marketing expenses as a percentage of our revenues decreased from 102.5% in 2018 to 90.2% in 2019, and further decreased to 69.2% in 2020.

We believe our marketplace model has significant operating leverage and enables us to realize structural cost savings. For example, due to our large buyer base, we are able to attract a large number of merchants, which in turn generates a strong source of demand for our online marketing and other services for merchants. As our business further grows in scale, we believe our massive scale, coupled with the network effects, will allow us to benefit from substantial economies of scale. For example, the costs associated with the operation of our platform as well as our operating expenses do not increase at the same pace as our GMV growth as we do not require a proportional increase in the size of our workforce to support our growth. We achieve economies of scale in our operation as a wider selection of merchandise attracts a larger number of buyers, which in turn drives an increase in the scale of our sales volume and attracts more merchants to our platform. In addition, our scale creates value for our merchants by providing an effective channel for selling large volumes of products and by offering them comprehensive data insights on buyer preferences and market demand. We believe this value proposition will make our platform more attractive to merchants and further increase their sales and spending on our platform. This business model also enables us to avoid the costs, risks and capital requirements associated with sourcing merchandise or holding inventory. As our business further grows, we believe we will be able to take advantage of economies of scale to further improve our operational efficiency over time.

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Impact of COVID-19 on Our Operations and Financial Performance

Substantially all of our revenues and workforce are concentrated in China. In early 2020, in response to the intensifying efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Chinese government took a number of actions, which included extending the Chinese New Year holiday, quarantining individuals suspected of having COVID-19, asking residents in China to stay at home and to avoid public gathering, among other things. COVID-19 also resulted in temporary closure of many corporate offices, retail stores, and manufacturing facilities and factories across China, and put significant strain on merchandise shipping and delivery. Many of the quarantine measures within China have since been significantly relaxed as of the date of this annual report. However, there remain significant uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak and its further development as a global pandemic. Hence, the extent of the business disruption and the related impact on our financial results and outlook for 2021 and the periods beyond cannot be reasonably estimated at this time.

As of December 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of RMB22,421.2 million (US$3,436.2 million) and short-term investments of RMB64,551.1 million (US$9,892.9 million). Our short-term investments mainly include time deposits and wealth management products in financial institutions, which are highly liquid. We believe this level of liquidity is sufficient to successfully navigate an extended period of uncertainty. See also “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—We face risks related to natural disasters, health epidemics and other outbreaks, most notably those related to the outbreak of COVID-19, which could significantly disrupt our operations.”

Key Line Items and Specific Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

Revenues

Under our current business model, we generate revenues primarily from online marketing services. We also generate revenues from transaction services and merchandise sales. The following table sets forth the components of our revenues by amounts and percentages of our total revenues for the periods presented:

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Online marketing services and others. We provide online marketing services primarily to allow merchants to bid for keywords that match product listings appearing in search results on our platform and advertising placements such as banners, links and logos. The placement and the price for such placement are determined through an online bidding system.

Transaction services. We charge merchants fees for transaction-related services that we provide to merchants on our platform. As part of our continued efforts to improve user experience, we reward merchants who sell high-quality products and provide superb services with preferential fee rates.

Merchandise sales. We generate a small portion of revenues from online direct sales, where we acquired products from suppliers and sold them directly to users.

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