Luokung Technology Corp. [LKCO] Filings

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

☐ 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, 2022

OR

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

For the transition period from __________ to __________

☐ 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 ________

Commission file number: 001-34738

Luokung Technology Corp.

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Not applicable

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

Miss. Qinyu Zhao

B9-8, Block B, SOHO Phase II, No. 9, Guanghua Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing
People’s Republic of China 100020
Tel: (86) 10-65065217
(Name, telephone, Email and/or facsimile number and address of company contact person)

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

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

none

(Title of Class)

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

none

(Title of Class)

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report. 492,498,688 Ordinary Shares of par value of US$0.01 each 21,794,872 Series A Preferred Shares of par value of US$0.01 each and 2,500,000 Preferred Shares of par value of US$0.01 each outstanding as of December 31, 2022.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. ☐ Yes   ☒ No

If this report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. ☐ Yes   ☒ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant: (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. ☒ Yes   ☐ No

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted 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 and post 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 definition of “accelerated filer and large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

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

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

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

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

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. Item 17 ☐   Item 18 ☐

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).  ☐ Yes   ☒ No

In this annual report:

Special Note Regarding Forward-looking Statements

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

You can identify these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “likely to” or other similar expressions. We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about:

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

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

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS.

Not applicable.

ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE.

Not applicable.

ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION.

Our Holding Company Structure and Contractual Arrangements with the Consolidated VIEs and their Respective Individual Shareholders

Luokung Technology Corp. is not a Chinese operating company, but a British Virgin Islands holding company with operations conducted by our subsidiaries and through contractual arrangements with variable interest entities (“VIEs”) based in China. Investors in our company are purchasing an interest in our British Virgin Islands holding company, and not in a Chinese operating company. This structure involves unique risks to investors. The VIE structure enables investors to share economic interests in China-based companies in sectors where foreign direct investment is prohibited or restricted under laws and regulations in the Chinese mainland, and investors in our ordinary shares may never hold equity interests in the Chinese operating company. In addition, the legality and enforceability of the contractual agreements between our PRC subsidiaries, the VIEs, and their nominee shareholders, as a whole, have not been tested in court. Chinese regulatory authorities could disallow this structure, which would likely result in a material change in our operations and/or a material change in the value of the securities we have listed, which could cause the value of such securities to significantly decline or become worthless. See “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors – If the PRC government deems that our agreements with our variable interest entities (our “VIEs”) do not comply with PRC regulatory restrictions on foreign investment in the relevant industries or other laws or regulations of the PRC, 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, which may materially reduce the value of our ordinary shares.” for a more detailed discussion of risks we face as a result of our VIE structure.

The contractual arrangements with the consolidated VIEs may not be as effective as ownership in ensuring receiving economic benefits from the business operations in the PRC and we may incur substantial costs to enforce the terms of the arrangements. See “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure – If the PRC government deems that our agreements with our variable interest entities (our “VIEs”) do not comply with PRC regulatory restrictions on foreign investment in the relevant industries or other laws or regulations of the PRC, 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, which may materially reduce the value of our ordinary shares.”

Our corporate structure is subject to risks associated with our contractual arrangements with the VIEs. Investors may never directly hold equity interests in the VIEs. If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating our business do not comply with the PRC laws and regulations, or if these regulations or their interpretations change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations. Our holding company, our PRC subsidiaries, the VIEs, and our investors face uncertainty about potential future actions by the PRC government that could affect the enforceability of the contractual arrangements with the VIEs and, consequently, significantly affect the financial performance of the VIEs and our company as a whole.

The following diagram illustrates our corporate structure and the place of formation and affiliation of each of our subsidiaries and affiliates as of December 31, 2022.

VIE Arrangements with VIEs and Their Respective Shareholders

Exclusive Option Agreement

Each VIE equity holder has granted the Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprises (“WFOEs”) exclusive call options to purchase the nominal equity interest in the VIEs at an exercise price equal to (i) with regard to Zhong Chuan Shi Xun, the minimum price as permitted by applicable PRC laws, or (ii) with regard to Beijing BotBrain, RMB10 in aggregate, or if appraisal is required as requested by relevant PRC laws, the price as determined by the relevant parties, or (iii) with regard to eMapgo Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd (“EMG”), RMB 1 in aggregate or other price as determined by the relevant parties, provided that if required by relevant PRC laws, the minimum price as permitted by PRC laws shall apply. The WFOEs may designate another entity or individual to purchase the nominal equity interests, if applicable, under the call options. Each call option is exercisable subject to the condition that applicable PRC laws, rules and regulations do not prohibit completion of the transfer of the nominal equity interests pursuant to the call option. The VIEs shall not declare any dividend or other distribution to its equity holders without the approval of the WFOEs. With regard to Zhong Chuan Shi Xun and Beijing BotBrain, the exclusive call option agreements remain in effect for ten (10) years and may be renewed at the election of the WFOEs. With regard to EMG, the exclusive call option agreement shall remain in effect until all nominal equity interest under the call option has been transferred to the WFOE or its designated entity or individual.

Equity Pledge Agreements

As for Zhong Chuan Shi Xun and Beijing BotBrain, pursuant to the relevant equity pledge agreements, the relevant VIE equity holders have pledged all of their interests in the equity of the VIEs as a continuing security interest in favor of the corresponding WFOEs to secure the performance of obligations by the VIEs and/or the equity holders under the exclusive business cooperation agreements. Each WFOE is entitled to exercise its right to dispose of the VIE equity holders’ pledged interests in the equity of the VIE in accordance with applicable PRC laws in the event of any breach or default, and VIE equity holders shall cease to be entitled to any rights or interests associated with their nominal equity interests in the VIEs. These equity pledge agreements remain in force until and unless the obligations of the VIE equity holders to the WFOEs under the exclusive business cooperation agreements have been fulfilled.

As for EMG, pursuant to the relevant equity pledge agreement, the relevant VIE equity holder has pledged all of its nominal equity interest in the VIE as a continuing first priority security interest in favor of the corresponding WFOE to secure the performance of obligations by the VIE as set forth in the relevant exclusive option agreement, proxy agreement, the equity pledge agreement and the VIE’s obligation to repay the secured indebtedness. The VIE equity holder shall not be entitled to receive any dividend associated with its nominal equity interest without the approval of the WFOE, and the dividend received by the VIE equity holder shall be deposited in the account designated by the WFOE and subject to the supervision of the WFOE. In the event of any breach or default, the WFOE shall be entitled to all rights to relief, including but not limited to disposing the nominal equity interest held by the VIE equity holder. The equity pledge agreement shall remain in force until and unless the obligations of the VIE equity holder to the WFOE under the exclusive option agreement, proxy agreement, the equity pledge agreement have been fulfilled or all the secured indebtedness has been paid off.

Power of Attorney

As for Zhong Chuan Shi Xun and Beijing BotBrain, pursuant to the relevant power of attorney, each of the relevant VIE equity holders irrevocably appoints the corresponding WFOE as its attorney-in-fact to exercise on its behalf any and all rights that such equity holder has in respect of its nominal equity interests in the relevant VIE conferred by relevant laws and regulations and the articles of associate of such VIE. The power of attorney shall remain effective as long as such VIE equity holder remains as a shareholder of Zhong Chuan Shi Xun or Beijing BotBrain.

As for EMG, pursuant to the relevant power of attorney, the relevant VIE equity holder irrevocably appoints certain the person designated by the corresponding WFOE as its attorney-in-fact to exercise on its behalf any and all rights that such equity holder has in respect of its nominal equity interest in the relevant VIE conferred by relevant laws and regulations and the articles of associate of such VIE. The power of attorney of EMG shall remain effective until March 11, 2044, and will be renewed automatically for another ten (10) years unless the parties to the power of attorney agree otherwise.

Exclusive business cooperation agreements 

As for Zhong Chuan Shi Xun and Beijing BotBrain and EMG, each relevant VIE has entered into an exclusive business services agreement with the corresponding WFOE, pursuant to which the relevant WFOE provides exclusive business services to the VIE. In exchange, (i) Zhong Chuan Shi Xun pays a service fee to the corresponding WFOE which shall be no less than 80% of Zhong Chuan Shi Xun’s after-tax profits; (ii) Beijing BotBrain pays a service fee to the corresponding WFOE which shall be reasonably determined by such WFOE based on certain factors; (iii) EMG pays a service fee to the corresponding WFOE which shall be 20% of EMG’s annual income. Luokung exercises control over the VIEs through a Call Option Agreement, an Equity Pledge Agreement, an Exclusive Business Cooperation Agreement and a Proxy Agreement. The amount of service fees to be paid by EMG and BotBrain shall be determined solely by the WFOE or as mutually agreed by the WFOE and the VIEs. Based on the control Luokung exercises through these agreements and based on its ability to determine the fees paid by EMG and BotBrain, Luokung is considered the primary beneficiary of the VIEs.

There are also substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws, regulations and rules regarding the status of the rights of our British Virgin Islands holding company with respect to its contractual arrangements with the VIEs and their respective shareholders. 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 any of the VIEs is found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant PRC regulatory authorities would have broad discretion to take action in dealing with such violations or failures. See “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Doing Business in China – PRC laws and regulations govern our businesses. If we are found to be in violation of such PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to sanctions. In addition, changes in and uncertainties with respect to such PRC laws and regulations may materially and adversely affect our business.”

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress promulgated the Foreign Investment Law of the PRC, (the “Foreign Investment Law”), which came into effect on January 1, 2020. The Foreign Investment Law replaced the Law on Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Ventures, the Law on Sino-Foreign Contractual Joint Ventures and the Law on Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprises as the legal foundation for foreign investments in China. The Foreign Investment Law stipulates certain forms of foreign investment, which do not include the contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment but stated that foreign investment includes “foreign investors invest through any other methods under laws, administrative regulations or provisions prescribed by the State Council”. There are uncertainties in determining whether our contractual arrangements constitute foreign investments and there is no guarantee that the VIE contractual arrangements and the business of the VIEs and their subsidiaries will not be materially and adversely affected in the future.

Rules and regulations in China can change quickly with little advance notice and the PRC government may intervene or influence a registrant’s operations at any time, or may exert more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers. It is uncertain whether any new PRC laws, rules or regulations affecting the VIE structure will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. See “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Doing Business in China - PRC laws and regulations govern our businesses. If we are found to be in violation of such PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to sanctions. In addition, changes in and uncertainties with respect to such PRC laws and regulations may materially and adversely affect our business.” There can be no assurance that the VIE Arrangements will be deemed by the relevant governmental or judicial authorities to be in compliance with the existing or future applicable PRC laws and regulations, or the relevant governmental or judicial authorities may in the future interpret the existing laws or regulations with the result that the contractual arrangements will be deemed to be in compliance of the PRC laws and regulations.

Our subsidiaries and the VIEs face various legal and operational risks and uncertainties associated with being based in or having our operations primarily in China and the complex and evolving PRC laws and regulations. For instance, we face risks and uncertainties associated with regulatory approvals on offerings conducted overseas by and foreign investment in China-based issuers, the use of the VIEs, anti-monopoly regulatory actions, and oversight on cybersecurity and data privacy. These legal and operational risks and uncertainties associated with being based in China may materially and adversely change our operations, affect the value of our ordinary shares, significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors could cause the value of our securities to significantly decline or be worthless. For a detailed description of risks related to doing business in China, see “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Doing Business in China.”

PRC government’s significant authority in regulating our operations and its oversight and control over offerings conducted overseas by, and foreign investment in, China-based issuers could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors. Implementation of industry-wide regulations in this nature may cause the value of such securities to significantly decline or be of little or no value. For more details, see “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Doing Business in China.”

As of the date of this annual report, neither we nor the VIEs have been involved in any investigations initiated by any PRC regulatory authority, nor has any of them received any inquiry, notice or sanction for the business operation, accepting foreign investment or listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market. However, since these statements and regulatory actions by China’s government are newly published, official guidance and related implementation rules have not been issued. It is highly uncertain what future impact such modified or new laws and regulations will have on our daily business operations, the ability to accept foreign investments and our continued listing on the Nasdaq Stock Market. See “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Doing Business in China - PRC laws and regulations govern our businesses. If we are found to be in violation of such PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to sanctions. In addition, changes in and uncertainties with respect to such PRC laws and regulations may materially and adversely affect our business.” These risks and uncertainties arising from the legal system in China, including risks and uncertainties regarding the enforcement of laws and quickly evolving rules and regulations in China, could result in a material adverse change in our operations and the value of our ordinary shares.

Recent statements by the Chinese government indicate an intent to exert more oversight and more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers. Any such actions by the Chinese government could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to conduct our business, accept foreign investments, or list on a U.S. or other foreign exchange, including our ability to offer or continue to offer its securities to investors and cause the value of the securities being registered hereby to significantly decline or become worthless. Although we believe our operating structure is legal and permissible under the Chinese law and regulations currently in effect, Chinese regulatory authorities could take a different position on the interpretation and enforcement of laws and regulations and disallow our holding company structure, which would likely result in a material adverse change in our operations and/or the value of our securities being offered, including that it could cause the value of such securities to significantly decline or become worthless. See “Item 3. Key Information - D. Risk Factors - Risks Related to Doing Business in China - Recent statements by the Chinese government indicate an intent to exert more oversight and more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers. Any such actions by the Chinese government could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to conduct our business, accept foreign investments, or list on a U.S. or other foreign exchange, including our ability to offer or continue to offer its securities to investors and cause the value of the securities being registered hereby to significantly decline or become worthless.”

Permissions Required from the PRC Authorities for Our Operations

We conduct our business primarily through our subsidiaries, including the VIEs, in China. Our operations in China are governed by PRC laws and regulations. As of the date of this annual report, neither we nor the VIEs have been involved in any investigations initiated by any PRC regulatory authority, nor has any of them received any inquiry, notice or sanction for our operations or our issuance of securities to investors. Nevertheless, the Standing Committee of the National people’s Congress (the “SCNPC”) or PRC regulatory authorities may in the future promulgate laws, regulations or implementing rules that requires us, our subsidiaries, the VIEs or their subsidiaries to obtain permissions from PRC regulatory authorities to approve the VIE operations.

According to Article 7 of the Measures of Cybersecurity Review (“the New CAC Measures”) which was promulgated by the Cyber Administration of China, together with 12 other departments on December 28, 2021 and entered into force and effect on February 15, 2022, a network platform operator that holds personal information of more than one million users shall report to Cybersecurity Review Office for cybersecurity review when it seeks to list its securities overseas. During such reviews, the network platform operator may be required to take measures to prevent and mitigate risk, and such measures could cause disruptions to our operations. Cybersecurity review could also result in negative publicity with respect to the network platform operator and diversion of its managerial and financial resources, which could materially and adversely affect its business, financial conditions, and results of operations. The New CAC Measures do not apply to the Company or any of its subsidiaries or the VIEs as of the date of this annual report. The Company and any of its subsidiaries or the VIEs are not critical information infrastructure operators purchasing network products and services or online platform operators carrying out data processing activities that affect or may affect national security. We hold less than 1 million users’ personal information. We believe we are not subject to the cybersecurity review under the New CAC Measures. As of the date of this report, we have not been involved in any investigations on cybersecurity review initiated by the CAC, and we have not received any warning, sanction or penalty in such respect. We believe that we are compliant with the regulations or policies that have been issued by the CAC as of the date of this annual report. As of the date of this annual report, for entities that have been listed overseas before the implementation of the New CAC Measures and intend to issue additional shares rather than doing a public listing, the New CAC Measures do not clearly stipulate that such entities or their subsidiaries, as network platform operators, shall report to Cybersecurity Review Office for cybersecurity review. The New CAC Measures remain unclear on whether such requirements will be applicable to companies which are already listed in the United States, such as us. It also remains uncertain whether any future regulatory changes would impose additional restrictions on companies like us. The aforementioned policies and any related implementation rules to be enacted may subject us to additional compliance requirements in the future. As these opinions were recently issued, official guidance and interpretation of the opinions remain unclear in several respects at this time. Therefore, we cannot assure you that we will remain fully compliant with all new regulatory requirements of these opinions or any future implementation rules on a timely basis, or at all. Please see “Risk Factor - Recent greater oversight by the CAC over data security, particularly for companies seeking to list on a foreign exchange, could adversely impact our business and our offering” for more detailed discussion.

On July 30, 2021, in response to the recent regulatory developments in China and actions adopted by the PRC government, the Chairman of the SEC issued a statement asking the SEC staff to seek additional disclosures from offshore issuers associated with China-based operating companies before their registration statements will be declared effective. On August 1, 2021, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (the “CSRC”) stated in a statement that it had taken note of the new disclosure requirements announced by the SEC regarding the listings of Chinese companies and the recent regulatory development in China, and that both countries should strengthen communications on regulating China-related issuers. To the best of our knowledge, as of the date of this annual report, current Chinese laws and regulations do not forbid us from issuing securities overseas. On December 24, 2021, the CSRC published the Administration of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the “Draft Administrative Provisions”) and the Administration Measures for the Filing of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the “Draft Filing Measures”). The Draft Administrative Provisions and the Draft Filing Measures lay out requirements for filing and include unified regulation management, strengthening regulatory coordination, and cross-border regulatory cooperation. On February 17, 2023, the CSRC promulgated the Trial Administrative Measures of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the “Trial Measures”), which took effect on March 31, 2023. On the same date, the CSRC circulated Supporting Guidance Rules No. 1 through No. 5, Notes on the Trial Measures, Notice on Administration Arrangements for the Filing of Overseas Listings by Domestic Enterprises and relevant CSRC Answers to Reporter Questions, or collectively, the Guidance Rules and Notice, on CSRC’s official website. The Trial Measures, together with the Guidance Rules and Notice reiterate the basic principles of the Draft Administrative Provisions and Draft Filing Measures, and clarified and emphasized several aspects, which include but are not limited to: (1) criteria to determine whether an issuer will be required to go through the filing procedures under the Trial Measures; (2) exemptions from immediate filing requirements for issuers including those that have already been listed in foreign securities markets, including U.S. markets, prior to the effective date of the Trial Measures, but these issuers shall still be subject to filing procedures if they conduct refinancing or are involved in other circumstances that require filing with the CSRC; (3) a negative list of types of issuers banned from listing or offering overseas, such as issuers whose affiliates have been recently convicted of bribery and corruption; (4) issuers’ compliance with web security, data security, and other national security laws and regulations; (5) issuers’ filing and reporting obligations, such as obligation to file with the CSRC after it submits an application for initial public offering to overseas regulators, and obligation after offering or listing overseas to file with the CSRC after it completes subsequent offerings and to report to the CSRC material events including change of control or voluntary or forced delisting of the issuer; and (6) the CSRC’s authority to fine both issuers and their relevant shareholders for failure to comply with the Trial Measures, including failure to comply with filing obligations or committing fraud and misrepresentation. Specifically, pursuant to the Trial Measures, our future securities offerings in Nasdaq Capital Market where we have previously offered and listed shall also be filed with the CSRC within 3 working days after the offering is completed. As the Trial Measures are newly issued, there remain uncertainties regarding its interpretation and implementation. Therefore, we cannot assure you that we will be able to complete the filings for our future offering and fully comply with the relevant new rules on a timely basis, if at all. In addition, we cannot guarantee that we will not be subject to tightened regulatory review and we could be exposed to government interference in China.

In addition, as of the date of this annual report, except for business license, foreign investment information report to the commerce administrative authority and foreign exchange registration or filing, our consolidated affiliated Chinese entities are not required to obtain any other licenses and permits from the PRC government authorities, and our holding company, our subsidiaries and the VIEs in China have obtained all the licenses and permits that are requisite for the business operations in China. However, given the uncertainties of interpretation and implementation of relevant laws and regulations and the enforcement practice by government authorities, we may be required to obtain certain licenses, permits, filings, permissions or approvals for the functions and services that we provided in the future, or to offer securities, in China.

If we, our subsidiaries, or the VIEs (i) do not receive or maintain such permissions or approvals, should the approval be required in the future by the PRC government, (ii) inadvertently conclude that such permissions or approvals are not required, or (iii) applicable laws, regulations, or interpretations change and we are required to obtain such permissions or approvals in the future, our operations and financial conditions could be materially adversely affected, our ability to offer securities to investors could be significantly limited or completely hindered and our securities may substantially decline in value or be worthless. As of the date of this annual report, our PRC legal counsel has advised us that, based on its understanding of the current PRC laws and regulations, we will not be required to submit an application to the CSRC for the approval under the M&A Rules for our offshore offerings because (i) the CSRC currently has not issued any definitive rule or interpretation concerning whether our offshore offerings are subject to this regulation; and (ii) no provision in the M&A Rules classifies the contractual arrangements under the VIE agreements as a type of acquisition transaction falling under the M&A Rules. However, our PRC legal counsel has further advised us that there remains some uncertainty as to how the M&A Rules will be interpreted or implemented in the context of an overseas offering, and its opinions summarized above are subject to any new laws, rules and regulations or detailed implementations and interpretations in any form relating to the M&A Rules. As of the date of this annual report, according to our PRC Counsel, as we are a listed company, we are not subject to the filing requirements as regulated by the Trial Measures. However, pursuant to the Trial Measures, our future securities offering in the Nasdaq Capital Market where we have previously offered and listed shall be filed with the CSRC within 3 working days after the offering is completed. As the Trial Measures are newly issued, there remain uncertainties regarding its interpretation and implementation. Therefore, we cannot assure you that we will be able to complete the filings for our future offering and fully comply with the relevant new rules on a timely basis, if at all. These regulatory agencies may impose fines and penalties on our operations in China, limit our ability to pay dividends outside of China, limit our operations in China, delay or restrict the repatriation of the proceeds into China or take other actions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, as well as the trading price of our securities. The CSRC, the Cyberspace Administration of China or other PRC regulatory agencies also may take actions requiring us, or making it advisable for us, to halt any securities offering we may undertake in the future. Consequently, if you engage in market trading or other activities in anticipation of and prior to settlement and delivery, you do so at the risk that settlement and delivery may not occur. In addition, if the CSRC, the Cyberspace Administration of China or other regulatory PRC agencies later promulgate new rules requiring that we obtain more approvals in the future, we may be unable to obtain such approvals or a waiver of such approval requirements, if and when procedures are established to obtain such a waiver. Any uncertainties and/or negative publicity regarding such an approval requirement could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our securities. These legal and operational risks and uncertainties associated with being based in China may materially and adversely change our operations, affect the value of our ordinary shares, significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer securities to investors could cause the value of our securities to significantly decline or be worthless.

PCAOB and the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act

The Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act (the “HFCAA”), recent regulatory actions taken by the SEC and PCAOB, and proposed rule changes submitted by U.S. stock exchanges calling for additional and more stringent criteria to be applied to China-based public companies could add uncertainties to our capital raising activities and compliance costs. The HFCAA requires a foreign company to certify it is not owned or controlled by a foreign government if the PCAOB is unable to audit specified reports because the company uses a foreign auditor not subject to PCAOB inspection. If the PCAOB determines that it is unable to inspect our auditors for three consecutive years, our securities may be prohibited to trade on a national exchange. Furthermore, on June 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed the Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, which, if enacted, would amend the HFCAA and require the SEC to prohibit an issuer’s securities from trading on any U.S. stock exchanges if its auditor is not subject to PCAOB inspections for two consecutive years instead of three, and thus, would reduce the time before our securities may be prohibited from trading or delisted. On December 20, 2021, the PCAOB issued a report on its determinations that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely PCAOB-registered public accounting firms headquartered in mainland China or Hong Kong because of positions taken by PRC authorities in those jurisdictions. Our independent registered public accounting firm that issued the audit report for our financial statements for 2022 and 2021, as an auditor of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the PCAOB, is subject to laws in the United States pursuant to which the PCAOB conducts regular inspections to assess our auditor’s compliance with the applicable professional standards, and thus our auditor is not subject to the determinations announced by the PCAOB on December 16, 2021. However, we cannot be certain whether SEC or other U.S. regulatory authorities would apply additional and more stringent criteria to Chinese issuers including us as related to the audit of our financial statements. Trading in your securities may be prohibited under the HFCAA if the PCAOB determines that it cannot inspect or investigate completely our auditor, and that as a result an exchange may determine to delist your securities.

On August 26, 2022, the PCAOB signed a Statement of Protocol with the CSRC and the Ministry of Finance of the PRC (the “Statement of Protocol”), which is intended to enable the PCAOB to inspect and investigate completely registered public accounting firms in mainland China and Hong Kong. According to a statement released by the PCAOB, the Statement of Protocol (i) provides the PCAOB with sole discretion to select the firms, audit engagements and potential violations it inspects and investigates without consultation with, nor input from, Chinese authorities, (ii) puts procedures in place for PCAOB inspectors and investigators to view complete audit work papers with all information included and for the PCAOB to retain information as needed and (iii) provides the PCAOB with direct access to interview and take testimony from all personnel associated with the audits the PCAOB inspects or investigates. While the Chairs of both the PCAOB and the SEC made statements supporting the Statement of Protocol, both emphasized that this is only the first step in the process. On December 15, 2022, the PCAOB issued a new Determination Report which: (1) vacated the December 16, 2021 Determination Report; and (2) concluded that the PCAOB has been able to conduct inspections and investigations completely in the PRC in 2022. The December 15, 2022 Determination Report cautions, however, that authorities in the PRC might take positions at any time that would prevent the PCAOB from continuing to inspect or investigate completely. As required by the HFCAA, if in the future the PCAOB determines it no longer can inspect or investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in the PRC, the PCAOB will act expeditiously to consider whether it should issue a new determination. On December 29, 2022, the Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act was signed into law, which officially reduce the number of years auditor is not subject to PCAOB inspections to two consecutive years. As such, uncertainties remain regarding how it will impact China-based issuers and there is no assurance that the PCAOB will continue being able to execute, in a timely manner, its future inspections and investigations. As required by the HFCAA, if in the future the PCAOB determines it no longer can inspect or investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in the PRC, the PCAOB will act expeditiously to consider whether it should issue a new determination, and upon that time the Company will only have two years to comply with PCAOB audits.

A. [Reserved.]

B. CAPITALIZATION AND INDEBTEDNESS.

Not applicable.

C. REASONS FOR THE OFFER AND USE OF PROCEEDS.

Not applicable.

D. RISK FACTORS.

An investment in our ordinary shares involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described below together with all other information contained in this annual report, including the matters discussed under “Special Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements,” before you decide to invest in our ordinary shares. You should pay particular attention to the fact that we are a holding company with substantial operations in China and are subject to legal and regulatory environments that in many respects differ from those of the United States. If any of the following risks, or any other risks and uncertainties that are not presently foreseeable to us, actually occur, our business, financial condition, results of operations, liquidity and our future growth prospects would be materially and adversely affected. You should also consider all other information contained in this annual report before deciding to invest in our ordinary shares.

Risk Factors Summary

Our business is subject to a number of risks and uncertainties from business operations, having business in China, and being incorporated in British Virgin Islands, including the following highlighted risks:

Risk Factors Summary – Risks Related to Doing Business in China

We may undertake acquisitions, investments, joint ventures or other strategic alliances, which could have a material adverse effect on our ability to manage our business. In addition, such undertakings may not be successful.

Our strategy includes plans to grow both organically and through acquisitions, participation in joint ventures or other strategic alliances. Joint ventures and strategic alliances may expose us to new operational, regulatory and market risks, as well as risks associated with additional capital requirements. We may not be able, however, to identify suitable future acquisition candidates or alliance partners. Even if we identify suitable candidates or partners, we may be unable to complete an acquisition or alliance on terms commercially acceptable to us. If we fail to identify appropriate candidates or partners, or complete desired acquisitions, we may not be able to implement our strategies effectively or efficiently.

In addition, our ability to successfully integrate acquired companies and their operations may be adversely affected by several factors. These factors include:

If we fail to integrate acquired companies efficiently, our earnings, revenue growth and business could be negatively affected.

Due to intense competition for highly-skilled personnel, we may fail to attract and retain enough sufficiently trained employees to support our operations; our ability to bid for and obtain new projects may be negatively affected and our revenues could decline as a result.

The IT industry relies on skilled employees, and our success depends to a significant extent on our ability to attract, hire, train and retain qualified employees. There is significant competition in China for professionals with the skills necessary to develop the products and perform the services we offer to our customers. Increased competition for these professionals, in the mobile application design area or otherwise, could have an adverse effect on us if we experience significant increase in the attrition rate among employees with specialized skills, which could decrease our operating efficiency and productivity and could lead to a decline in demand for our services.

In addition, our ability to serve existing customers and business partners and obtain new business will depend, in large part, on our ability to attract, train and retain skilled personnel that enable us to keep pace with growing demands for spatial-temporal big-data processing and interactive location-based services, evolving industry standards and changing customer preferences. Our failure to attract, train and retain personnel with the qualifications necessary to fulfill the needs of our existing and future customers or to assimilate new employees successfully could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our failure to retain our key personnel on business development or find suitable replacements of the key personnel upon their departure may lead to shrinking new implementation projects, which could materially adversely affect our business.

Our business depends substantially on the continuing efforts of our senior executives and other key personnel, and our business may be severely disrupted if we lose their services.

Our future success heavily depends upon the continued services of our senior executives and other key employees, particularly since we recently appointed a new Chairman. We are reliant on the services of Mr. Xuesong Song, our Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and member of our board of directors. If one or more of our senior executives or key employees is unable or unwilling to continue in his or her present position, we may not be able to replace such employee easily, or at all, we may incur additional expenses to recruit, train and retain replacement personnel, our business may be severely disrupted, and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially adversely affected.

Our business could suffer if our executives and directors compete against us and our non-competition agreements with them cannot be enforced.

If any of our senior executives or key employees joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose customers, know-how and key professionals and staff members to them. Also, if any of our business development managers who keep a close relationship with our customers and business partners joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose customers, and our revenues may be materially adversely affected. Most of our executives have entered, or will soon enter, into employment agreements with us that contain or will contain non-competition provisions. However, if any dispute arises between our executive officers and us, such non-competition provisions may not be enforceable, especially in China, where all of these executive officers and key employees reside, in light of the uncertainties with China’s legal system. See “Risk Factors — Risks Related to Doing Business in China — Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system could adversely affect us.”

Our computer networks may be vulnerable to security risks that could disrupt our services and adversely affect our results of operations.

Our computer networks may be vulnerable to unauthorized access, computer hackers, computer viruses and other security problems caused by unauthorized access to, or improper use of, systems by third parties or employees. We have been the target of attempted cyber-security breaches in the past and expect that we will continue to be subject to such attempts in the future. A hacker who circumvents security measures could misappropriate proprietary information or cause interruptions or malfunctions in operations. Computer attacks or disruptions may jeopardize the security of information stored in and transmitted through computer systems and mobile devices of our customers. Actual or perceived concerns that our systems may be vulnerable to such attacks or disruptions may deter customers from using our services. As a result, we may be required to expend significant resources to protect against the threat of these security breaches or to alleviate problems caused by these breaches, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Widespread health developments, including the recent global COVID-19 pandemic, could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business has been, and may continue to be, impacted by the fear of exposure to or actual effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, such as recommendations or mandates from governmental authorities to close businesses, limit travel, avoid large gatherings or to self-quarantine. These impacts could place limitations on our ability to execute on our business plan and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We continue to monitor the situation, have actively implemented policies and procedures to address the situation, and may adjust our current policies and procedures as more information and guidance become available to address the evolving situation. The impact of COVID-19 may also exacerbate other risks discussed in this Report, any of which could have a material effect on us.

If we do not continually enhance our solutions and service offerings, we may have difficulty in retaining existing customers and attracting new customers.

We believe that our future success will depend, to a significant extent, upon our ability to enhance our existing technologies, applications and platform, and to introduce new features to meet the preferences and requirements of our customers in a rapidly developing and evolving market. Unexpected technical, operational, distribution or other problems could delay or prevent the introduction of one or more of these products or services, or any products or services that we may plan to introduce in the future. Our present or future products may not satisfy the evolving preferences and tastes of our customers, and these solutions and services may not achieve anticipated market acceptance or generate incremental revenue. If we are unable to anticipate or respond adequately to the need for service or product enhancements due to resource, technological or other constraints, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

If we are unable to develop competitive new products and service offerings our future results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our future revenue stream depends to a large degree on our ability to utilize our technology in a way that will allow us to offer new types of products in relation to maps and geospatial data processing, mobile applications and services to a broader customer base. We will be required to make investments in research and development in order to continually develop new products, software applications and related service offerings, enhance our existing products, platform, mobile applications and related service offerings and achieve market acceptance of our mobile applications and service offerings. We may incur problems in the future in innovating and introducing new products, mobile applications and service offerings. Our development-stage products, mobile applications may not be successfully completed or, if developed, may not achieve significant customer acceptance. If we are unable to successfully define, develop and introduce competitive new mobile applications, and enhance existing mobile applications, our future results of operations would be adversely affected. The timely availability of new applications and their acceptance by customers are important to our future success. A delay in the development of new applications could have a significant impact on its results of operations.

Changes in technology could adversely affect our business by increasing our costs, reducing our profit margins and causing a decline in our competitiveness.

China’s spatial-temporal big-data processing and interactive location-based services industry, in which we operate, is characterized by rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, frequent introductions of new services and solutions and enhancements as well as changing customer demands. New solutions and new technologies often render existing solutions and services obsolete, excessively costly or otherwise unmarketable. As a result, our success depends on our ability to adapt to the latest technological progress, such as the 5G standard and technologies, and to develop or acquire and integrate new technologies into our products, mobile applications and related services. Advances in technology also require us to commit substantial resources to developing or acquiring and then deploying new technologies for use in our operations. We must continuously train personnel in new technologies and in how to integrate existing systems with these new technologies. We may not be able to adapt quickly to new technologies or commit sufficient resources to compete successfully against existing or new competitors in bringing to market solutions and services that incorporate these new technologies. We may incur problems in the future in innovating and introducing new mobile applications and service offerings. Our development of new mobile applications and platform enhancements may not be successfully completed or, if developed, may not achieve significant customer acceptance. If we fail to adapt to changes in technologies and compete successfully against established or new competitors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Problems with the quality or performance of our software or other systems may cause delays in the introduction of new solutions or result in the loss of customers and revenues, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our products are complex and may contain defects, errors or bugs when first introduced to the market or to a particular customer, or as new versions are released. Because we cannot test for all possible scenarios, our systems may contain errors that are not discovered until after they have been installed or implemented, and we may not be able to timely correct these problems. These defects, errors or bugs could interrupt or delay the completion of projects or sales to our customers. In addition, our reputation may be damaged and we may fail to acquire new projects from existing customers or new customers. Errors may occur when we provide systems integration and maintenance services. Even in cases where we have agreements with our customers that contain provisions designed to limit our exposure to potential claims and liabilities arising from customer problems, these provisions may not effectively protect us against such claims in all cases and in all jurisdictions. In addition, as a result of business and other considerations, we may undertake to compensate our customers for damages arising from the use of our solutions, even if our liability is limited by these provisions. Moreover, claims and liabilities arising from customer problems could also result in adverse publicity and materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. We currently do not carry any product or service liability insurance and any imposition of liability on us may materially and adversely affect our business and increase our costs, resulting in reduced revenues and profitability.

Our products may contain undetected software defects, which could negatively affect our revenues.

Our software products are complex and may contain undetected defects. Although we test our products, it is possible that errors may be found or occur in our new or existing products after we have delivered those products to the customers. Defects, whether actual or perceived, could result in adverse publicity, loss of revenues, product returns, a delay in market acceptance of our products, loss of competitive position or claims against us by customers. Any such problems could be costly to remedy and could cause interruptions, delays, or cessation of our product sales, which could cause us to lose existing or prospective customers and could negatively affect our results of operations.

We may be subject to infringement, misappropriation and indemnity claims in the future, which may cause us to incur significant expenses, pay substantial damages and be prevented from providing our services or technologies.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to carry out our business without infringing the intellectual property rights of third parties. Patent and copyright law covering software-related technologies is evolving rapidly and is subject to a great deal of uncertainty. Our self-developed or licensed technologies, processes or methods may be covered by third-party patents or copyrights, either now existing or to be issued in the future. Any potential litigation may cause us to incur significant expenses. Third-party claims, if successfully asserted against us may cause us to pay substantial damages, seek licenses from third parties, pay ongoing royalties, redesign our services or technologies, or prevent us from providing services or technologies subject to these claims. Even if we were to prevail, any litigation would likely be costly and time-consuming and divert the attention of our management and key personnel from our business operations.

Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may undermine our competitive position, and subject us to costly litigation to protect our intellectual property rights.

Any misappropriation of our technology or the development of competitive technology could seriously harm our business. We regard a substantial portion of our hardware and software systems as proprietary and rely on statutory copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret laws, customer license agreements, employee and third-party non-disclosure agreements and other methods to protect our proprietary rights. Nevertheless, these resources afford only limited protection and the actions we take to protect our intellectual property rights may not be adequate. In particular, third parties may infringe or misappropriate our proprietary technologies or other intellectual property rights, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, intellectual property rights and confidentiality protection in China may not be as effective as in the United States, and policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology can be difficult and expensive. Further, litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. The outcome of any such litigation may not be in our favor. Any such litigation may be costly and may divert management attention, as well as our other resources, away from our business. An adverse determination in any such litigation will impair our intellectual property rights and may harm our business, prospects and reputation. In addition, we have no insurance coverage against litigation costs and would have to bear all litigation costs in excess of the amount recoverable from other parties. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our solutions incorporate a portion of, and work in conjunction with, third-party hardware and software solutions. If these third-party hardware or software solutions are not available to us at reasonable costs, or at all, our results of operations could be adversely impacted.

Although our hardware and software systems and mobile applications primarily rely on our own core technologies, some elements of our systems incorporate a small portion of third-party hardware and software solutions. If any third party were to discontinue making their intellectual property available to us or our customers on a timely basis, or increase materially the cost of their licensing such intellectual property, or if our systems or applications failed to properly function or interoperate with replacement intellectual property, we may need to incur costs in finding replacement third-party solutions and/or redesigning our systems or applications to replace or function with or on replacement third-party proprietary technology. Replacement technology may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all, and we may be unable to develop alternative solutions or redesign our systems or applications on a timely basis or at a reasonable cost. If any of these were to occur, our results of operations could be adversely impacted.

Our ability to sell our products is highly dependent on the quality of our service and support offerings, and our failure to offer high quality service could have a material adverse effect on our ability to market and sell our products.

Our customers depend upon our customer service and support staff to resolve issues relating to our products. High-quality support services are critical for the successful marketing and sale of our products. If we fail to provide high-quality support on an ongoing basis, our customers may react negatively and we may be materially and adversely affected in our ability to sell additional products to these customers. This could also damage our reputation and prospects with potential customers. Our failure to maintain high-quality support services could have a material and adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Weaknesses in our internal controls over financial reporting or disclosure controls and procedures may have a material adverse effect on our business, the price of our ordinary shares, operating results and financial condition.

We are required to establish and maintain appropriate internal controls over financial reporting and disclosure controls and procedures. Pursuant to Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the related rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), every public company is required to include a management report on its internal controls over financial reporting in its annual report, which contains management’s assessment of the effectiveness of the company’s internal controls over financial reporting. This requirement first applied to our annual report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended on September 30, 2011. In connection with our assessments of our disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls over financial reporting, management concluded that as of December 31, 2021, our disclosure controls and procedures and our internal controls over financial reporting were not effective due to lack of U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“U.S. GAAP”) expertise in our current accounting team. Please refer to the discussion under Item 15, “Controls and Procedures” for further discussion of our material weakness as of December 31, 2021. Should we be unable to remediate the material weakness promptly and effectively, such weakness could harm our operating results, result in a material misstatement of our financial statements, cause us to fail to meet our financial reporting obligations or prevent us from providing reliable and accurate financial reports or avoiding or detecting fraud. This, in turn, could result in a loss of investor confidence in the accuracy and completeness of our financial reports, which could have an adverse effect on the trading price of our ordinary shares. Any litigation or other proceeding or adverse publicity relating to the material weaknesses could have a material adverse effect on our business and operating results.

We have very limited insurance coverage which could expose us to significant costs and business disruption.

We do not maintain any insurance coverage for our leased properties. Should any natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, floods, typhoons or any acts of terrorism occur in Beijing, China, where our head office is located and most of our employees are based, or elsewhere in China, we might suffer not only significant property damages, but also loss of revenues due to interruptions in our business operations, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results or financial condition.

The insurance industry in China is still at an early stage of development. Insurance companies in China offer limited business insurance products, and do not, to our knowledge, offer business liability insurance. As a result, we do not have any business liability insurance coverage for our operations. Moreover, while business disruption insurance is available, we have determined that the risks of disruption and cost of the insurance are such that we do not require it at this time. Any business disruption, litigation or natural disaster might result in substantial costs and diversion of resources, particularly if it affects our technology platforms which we depend on for delivery of our software and services, and could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We may be liable to our customers for damages caused by unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information, whether through our employees or otherwise.

We are typically required to manage, utilize and store sensitive or confidential customer data in connection with the products and services we provide. Under the terms of our customer contracts, we are required to keep such information strictly confidential. We seek to implement specific measures to protect sensitive and confidential customer data. We require our employees to enter into non-disclosure agreements to limit such employees’ access to, and distribution of, our customers’ sensitive and confidential information and our own trade secrets. We can give no assurance that the steps taken by us in this regard will be adequate to protect our customers’ confidential information. If our customers’ proprietary rights are misappropriated by our employees, in violation of any applicable confidentiality agreements or otherwise, our customers may consider us liable for that act and seek damages and compensation from us. However, we currently do not have any insurance coverage for mismanagement or misappropriation of such information by our employees. Any litigation with respect to unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information might result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention.

We may face intellectual property infringement claims that could be time-consuming and costly to defend. If we fail to defend ourselves against such claims, we may lose significant intellectual property rights and may be unable to continue providing our existing products and services.

It is critical that we use and develop our technology and products without infringing upon the intellectual property rights of third parties, including patents, copyrights, trade secrets and trademarks. Intellectual property litigation is expensive and time-consuming and could divert management’s attention from our business. A successful infringement claim against us, whether with or without merit, could, among others things, require us to pay substantial damages, develop non-infringing technology, or re-brand our name or enter into royalty or license agreements that may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all, and cease making, licensing or using products that have infringed a third party’s intellectual property rights. Protracted litigation could also result in existing or potential customers deferring or limiting their purchase or use of our products until resolution of such litigation, or could require us to indemnify our customers against infringement claims in certain instances. Also, we may be unaware of intellectual property registrations or applications relating to our services that may give rise to potential infringement claims against us. Parties making infringement claims may be able to obtain an injunction to prevent us from delivering our services or using technology containing the allegedly infringing intellectual property. Any intellectual property litigation could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Seasonality and fluctuations in our customers’ spending cycles and other factors can cause our revenues and operating results to vary significantly from quarter to quarter and from year to year.

Our revenues and operating results will vary from quarter to quarter and from year to year due to a number of factors, many of which are outside of our control. Our new lines of business acquired upon the consummation of the asset exchange transaction discussed below see higher customer use and activity during the Chinese New Year holiday than other times during the year, which lead to higher revenue during this period as more customers would like to place more advertising. Historically, the products of our subsidiary Superengine Graphics Software Technology Development (Suzhou) Co., Ltd (“Superengine”) have a pattern of decreased sales in the first fiscal quarter as a result of industry buying patterns. Due to these and other factors, our operating results may fluctuate from quarter to quarter and from year to year. These fluctuations are likely to continue in the future, and operating results for any period may not be indicative of our future performance in any future period.

Our corporate actions are substantially controlled by Mr. Xuesong Song, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, who can cause us to take actions in ways you may not agree with.

Mr. Xuesong Song, our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, beneficially owns 7.75% of our outstanding ordinary shares and 2,500,000 preferred shares, and each preferred share has the right to 399 votes at a meeting of the shareholders of the Company. As a result, Mr. Song has approximately 69.51% of the voting rights of the shareholders of the Company. Mr. Song can exert control and substantial influence over matters such as electing directors, amending our constitutional documents, and approving acquisitions, mergers or other business combination transactions. This concentration of ownership and voting power may also discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, which could deprive our shareholders of an opportunity to receive a premium for their shares as part of a sale of our company and might reduce the price of our shares. Alternatively, our controlling shareholders may cause a merger, consolidation or change of control transaction even if it is opposed by our other shareholders, including those who purchase shares in this offering

We depend on a small number of customers to derive a significant portion of our revenues. If we were to continue being dependent upon a few customers, such dependency could negatively impact our business, operating results and financial condition.

We derived a material portion of our revenues from a small number of customers. In the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, our five largest customers accounted for 61.9%, 43.6% and 49.8% of our total sales, respectively. As our customer base may change from year-to-year, during such years that the customer base is highly concentrated, the fluctuation of our sales to any of such major customers could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results and financial condition. Moreover, our high customer base concentration may also adversely affect our ability to negotiate contract prices with these customers, which may in turn materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Our historical outstanding accounts receivable have been relatively high. Inability to collect our accounts receivable on a timely basis, if at all, could materially and adversely affect our financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

Historically, our outstanding accounts receivable have been relatively high. As of December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, our outstanding accounts receivable before impairment were $28.4 million, $38.1 million and $26.9 million, respectively. Although we conduct credit evaluations of our customers, we generally do not require collateral or other security from our customers. In addition, we have had a relatively high customer concentration. The largest outstanding accounts receivable balance accounted for 25.0%, 18.5% and 27.9% of our total accounts receivable balance as of December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. As a result, an extended delay or default in payment relating to a significant account would likely have a material and adverse effect on the aging schedule and turnover days of our accounts receivable. Our inability to collect our accounts receivable on a timely basis, if at all, could materially and adversely affect our financial condition, liquidity and results of operations.

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

If the PRC government deems that our agreements with our variable interest entities (our “VIEs”) do not comply with PRC regulatory restrictions on foreign investment in the relevant industries or other laws or regulations of the PRC, 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, which may materially reduce the value of our ordinary shares.

We are a holding company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. As a holding company with no material operations of our own, we conduct the majority of our business through our wholly-owned or majority-owned subsidiaries and certain business through operating entities established in the People’s Republic of China, or the PRC, primarily the VIEs. Due to PRC legal restrictions on foreign ownership of certain internet-related businesses we may explore and operate, we operate this business through the VIEs and their subsidiaries and rely on contractual arrangements. As a result of the contractual arrangements, we (i) have the power to direct activities of the VIEs that most significantly affect their economic performance, and (ii) receive the economic benefits from the VIEs that could be significant to them. Accordingly, Luokung Technology Corp. is considered the primary beneficiary of the VIEs and their subsidiaries and has consolidated the financial results of these companies in its consolidated financial statements under the U.S. GAAP for accounting purposes. Neither Luokung Technology Corp. nor its investors has an equity ownership (including foreign direct investment) in, or control through such equity ownership of, the VIEs, and the contractual arrangements are not equivalent to an equity ownership in the business of the VIEs. The ordinary shares that currently listed on the Nasdaq Capital Markets are shares of our British Virgin Islands holding company that maintains service agreements with the associated operating companies. The Chinese regulatory authorities could disallow our structure, which could result in a material change in our operations and the value of our securities could decline or become worthless. For a description of our corporate structure and contractual arrangements, see “Organizational Structure” on page 51 and “VIE Agreements with VIEs and Their Respective Shareholders” on page 56.

We believe that our corporate structure and contractual arrangements comply with the current applicable PRC laws and regulations. We also believe that each of the contracts among our wholly-owned PRC subsidiary, the VIEs and its shareholders is valid, binding and enforceable in accordance with its terms. However, there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws and regulations. Thus, the PRC governmental authorities may take a view contrary to the opinion of us. It is uncertain whether any new PRC laws or regulations relating to variable interest entity structure will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. PRC laws and regulations governing the validity of these contractual arrangements are uncertain and the relevant government authorities have broad discretion in interpreting these laws and regulations. In addition, the legality and enforceability of the contractual agreements between our PRC subsidiaries, the VIEs, and their nominee shareholders, as a whole, have not been tested in court.

If these regulations change or are interpreted differently in the future and our corporate structure and contractual arrangements are deemed by the relevant regulators that have competent authority, to be illegal, either in whole or in part, we may be unable to direct the operations of the consolidated VIEs in the future, which conducts our manufacturing operations, holds significant assets and accounts for significant revenue, and may need to modify such structure to comply with regulatory requirements. However, there can be no assurance that we can achieve this without material disruption to our business. Further, if our corporate structure and contractual arrangements are found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, the relevant regulatory authorities would have broad discretion in dealing with such violations, including:

Furthermore, new PRC laws, rules and regulations may be introduced to impose additional requirements that may be applicable to our corporate structure and contractual arrangements. Occurrence of any of these events could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and the market price of our ordinary shares. In addition, if the imposition of any of these penalties or requirement to restructure our corporate structure causes us to lose the rights to direct the activities of the consolidated VIEs, we would no longer be able to consolidate the financial results of such VIEs in our consolidated financial statements, which may cause the value of our securities to significantly decline or even become worthless.

In addition, while we will take every precaution available to effectively enforce the contractual and corporate relationship of the VIE agreements, these contractual arrangements are less effective than direct ownership and we may incur substantial costs to enforce the terms of the arrangements. For example, the VIEs 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 the VIEs, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of the VIEs, which in turn could implement changes, subject to any applicable fiduciary obligations, at the management and operational level. However, under VIE Agreements, we will rely on the performance by the VIEs and its shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to direct the operation of the VIEs. As such, the shareholders of VIEs may not act in the best interests of our company or may not perform their obligations under these contracts. In addition, failure of the VIE shareholders to perform certain obligations could compel us to rely on legal remedies available under PRC laws, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and claiming damages, which may not be effective.

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

Substantially all of our business operations are conducted in China. Accordingly, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects are subject to a significant degree to economic, political and legal developments in China. Although the Chinese economy is no longer a planned economy, the PRC government continues to exercise significant control over China’s economic growth through direct allocation of resources, monetary and tax policies, and a host of other government policies such as those that encourage or restrict investment in certain industries by foreign investors, control the exchange between RMB and foreign currencies, and regulate the growth of the general or specific market. These government involvements have been instrumental in China’s significant growth in the past 30 years. The reorganization of the telecommunications industry encouraged by the PRC government has directly affected our industry and our growth prospect.

Growth of China’s economy has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy, and the growth of the Chinese economy has slowed down in recent years. Some of the government measures may benefit the overall Chinese economy, but may have a negative effect on us. For example, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by government control over capital investments or changes in tax regulations. Any stimulus measures designed to boost the Chinese economy may contribute to higher inflation, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. For example, certain operating costs and expenses, such as employee compensation and office operating expenses, may increase as a result of higher inflation.

Our business benefits from certain government tax incentives. Expiration, reduction or discontinuation of, or changes to, these incentives will increase our tax burden and reduce our net income.

Under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law passed in 2007 and the implementing rules, both of which became effective on January 1, 2008, or the New Electronic Information and Transactions (“EIT”) Law, a unified enterprise income tax rate of 25% and unified tax deduction standard is applied equally to both domestic-invested enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises, or FIEs. Enterprises established prior to March 16, 2007 eligible for preferential tax treatment in accordance with the then tax laws and administrative regulations shall gradually become subject to the New EIT Law rate over a five-year transition period starting from the date of effectiveness of the New EIT Law. However, certain qualifying high-technology enterprises may still benefit from a preferential tax rate of 15% if they own their core intellectual properties and they are enterprises in certain high-tech industries to be later specified by the government. As a result, if our PRC subsidiaries qualify as “high-technology enterprises,” they will continue to benefit from the preferential tax rate of 15%, subject to transitional rules implemented from January 1, 2008. Our subsidiaries, Beijing Zhong Chuan Shi Xun Technology Limited, Superengine Graphics Software Technology Development (Suzhou) Co., Ltd, eMapgo Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd., DMG Infotech Co., Ltd, and Beijing BotBrain AI Technology Ltd., are qualified as a “high-technology enterprise” until July 15, 2022 to November 18, 2025, respectively, and therefore they have benefited from the preferential tax rate of 15%, subject to transitional rules implemented on January 1, 2008. Although we intend to apply for a renewal of this qualification, if these subsidiaries cease to qualify as a “high-technology enterprise”, or the tax authorities change their position on our preferential tax treatments in the future, our future tax liabilities may materially increase, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

If we were deemed a “resident enterprise” by PRC tax authorities, we could be subject to tax on our global income at the rate of 25% under the New EIT Law and our non-PRC shareholders could be subject to certain PRC taxes.

Under the New EIT Law and the implementing rules, both of which became effective January 1, 2008, an enterprise established outside of the PRC with “de facto management bodies” within the PRC may be considered a PRC “resident enterprise” and will be subject to the enterprise income tax at the rate of 25% on its global income as well as PRC enterprise income tax reporting obligations. The implementing rules of the New EIT Law define “de facto management” as “substantial and overall management and control over the production and operations, personnel, accounting, and properties” of the enterprise. However, as of the date of this annual report, no final interpretations on the implementation of the “resident enterprise” designation are available. Moreover, any such designation, when made by PRC tax authorities, will be determined based on the facts and circumstances of individual cases. Therefore, if we were to be considered a “resident enterprise” by the PRC tax authorities, our global income would be taxable under the New EIT Law at the rate of 25% and, to the extent we were to generate a substantial amount of income outside of PRC in the future, we would be subject to additional taxes. In addition, the dividends we pay to our non-PRC enterprise shareholders and gains derived by such shareholders from the transfer of our shares may also be subject to PRC withholding tax at the rate up to 10%, if such income were regarded as China-sourced income.

Our holding company structure may limit the payment of dividends.

We have no direct business operations, other than our ownership of our subsidiaries. While we have no current intention of paying dividends, should we decide in the future to do so, as a holding company, our ability to pay dividends and meet other obligations depends upon the receipt of dividends or other payments from our operating subsidiaries and other holdings and investments. Current PRC regulations permit our PRC subsidiaries to pay dividends to us only out of their accumulated profits, if any, determined in accordance with Chinese accounting standards and regulations. In addition, each of our subsidiaries in China is required to set aside at least 10% of its after-tax profits each year, if any, to fund a statutory reserve until such reserve reaches 50% of its registered capital. These reserves are not distributable as cash dividends. Furthermore, if our subsidiaries in China incur debt on their own behalf in the future, the instruments governing the debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends or make other payments to us. As a result, there may be limitations on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to pay dividends or make other investments or acquisitions that could be beneficial to our business or otherwise fund and conduct our business.

In addition, under the New EIT Law and the implementing rules that became effective on January 1, 2008, dividends generated from the business of our PRC subsidiaries after January 1, 2008 and payable to us may be subject to a withholding tax rate of 10% if the PRC tax authorities subsequently determine that we are a non-resident enterprise, unless there is a tax treaty with China that provides for a different withholding arrangement.

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 this annual report based on foreign laws.

We are a company incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Islands, we conduct all of our operations in China and all of our assets are located in China. In addition, except for our two independent directors, Mr. David Wei Tang, who is a U.S. citizen, and Mr. Meng Bryan Yap, who is a Singapore citizen, all of our other officers and directors are PRC nationals. Most of our officers and directors reside within China. All or a substantial portion of the assets of these persons are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult to effect service of process within the United States upon these persons.

In addition, there is uncertainty as to whether the courts of the British Virgin Islands and other jurisdictions would recognize or enforce judgments of United States courts obtained against us or such persons predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state thereof, or would entertain original actions brought in the British Virgin Islands or other jurisdictions against us or such persons predicated upon the securities laws of the United States or any of our state. In particular, China does not have treaties providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments of courts with the British Virgin Islands and many other countries and regions. Therefore, recognition and enforcement in China regarding the judgments of a court in any of these non-PRC jurisdictions in relation to any matters not subject to a binding arbitration provision may be difficult or even impossible.

Adverse regulatory developments in China may subject us to additional regulatory review, and additional disclosure requirements and regulatory scrutiny to be adopted by the SEC in response to risks related to recent regulatory developments in China may impose additional compliance requirements for companies like us with significant China-based operations, all of which could increase our compliance costs, subject us to additional disclosure requirements. In addition, uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system could adversely affect us.

We conduct all of our business through our subsidiaries in China. Our operations in China are governed by PRC laws and regulations. Our PRC subsidiaries are generally subject to laws and regulations applicable to foreign investments in China and, in particular, laws and regulations applicable to wholly foreign-owned enterprises. The PRC legal system is based on statutes. Prior court decisions may be cited for reference but have limited precedential value.

The recent regulatory developments in China, in particular with respect to restrictions on China-based companies raising capital offshore, may lead to additional regulatory review in China over our financing and capital raising activities in the United States. In addition, we may be subject to industry-wide regulations that may be adopted by the relevant PRC authorities, which may have the effect of limiting our service offerings, restricting the scope of our operations in China, or causing the suspension or termination of our business operations in China entirely, all of which will materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We may have to adjust, modify, or completely change our business operations in response to adverse regulatory changes or policy developments, and we cannot assure you that any remedial action adopted by us can be completed in a timely, cost-efficient, or liability-free manner or at all.

On July 30, 2021, in response to the recent regulatory developments in China and actions adopted by the PRC government, the Chairman of the SEC issued a statement asking the SEC staff to seek additional disclosures from offshore issuers associated with China-based operating companies before their registration statements will be declared effective. On August 1, 2021, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (the “CSRC”) stated in a statement that it had taken note of the new disclosure requirements announced by the SEC regarding the listings of Chinese companies and the recent regulatory development in China, and that both countries should strengthen communications on regulating China-related issuers. To the best knowledge of this Company, as of the date of this annual report, current Chinese laws and regulations do not forbid us from issuing securities overseas. On December 24, 2021, the CSRC published the Administration of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the “Draft Administrative Provisions”) and the Administration Measures for the Filing of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the “Draft Filing Measures”). The Draft Administrative Provisions and the Draft Filing Measures lay out requirements for filing and include unified regulation management, strengthening regulatory coordination, and cross-border regulatory cooperation. On February 17, 2023, the CSRC promulgated the Trial Administrative Measures of Overseas Securities Offering and Listing by Domestic Companies (the “Trial Measures”), which took effect on March 31, 2023. On the same date, the CSRC circulated Supporting Guidance Rules No. 1 through No. 5, Notes on the Trial Measures, Notice on Administration Arrangements for the Filing of Overseas Listings by Domestic Enterprises and relevant CSRC Answers to Reporter Questions, or collectively, the Guidance Rules and Notice, on CSRC’s official website. The Trial Measures, together with the Guidance Rules and Notice reiterate the basic principles of the Draft Administrative Provisions and Draft Filing Measures and impose substantially the same requirements for the overseas securities offering and listing by domestic enterprises, and clarified and emphasized several aspects, which include but are not limited to: (1) criteria to determine whether an issuer will be required to go through the filing procedures under the Trial Measures; (2) exemptions from immediate filing requirements for issuers including those that have already been listed in foreign securities markets, including U.S. markets, prior to the effective date of the Trial Measures, but these issuers shall still be subject to filing procedures if they conduct refinancing or are involved in other circumstances that require filing with the CSRC; (3) a negative list of types of issuers banned from listing or offering overseas, such as issuers whose affiliates have been recently convicted of bribery and corruption; (4) issuers’ compliance with web security, data security, and other national security laws and regulations; (5) issuers’ filing and reporting obligations, such as obligation to file with the CSRC after it submits an application for initial public offering to overseas regulators, and obligation after offering or listing overseas to file with the CSRC after it completes subsequent offerings and to report to the CSRC material events including change of control or voluntary or forced delisting of the issuer; and (6) the CSRC’s authority to fine both issuers and their relevant shareholders for failure to comply with the Trial Measures, including failure to comply with filing obligations or committing fraud and misrepresentation. Specifically, pursuant to the Trial Measures, our future securities offerings in the Nasdaq Capital Market where we have previously offered and listed shall also be filed with the CSRC within 3 working days after the offering is completed. As the Trial Measures are newly issued, there remain uncertainties regarding its interpretation and implementation. Therefore, we cannot assure you that we will be able to complete the filings for our future offering and fully comply with the relevant new rules on a timely basis, if at all. In addition, we cannot guarantee that we will not be subject to tightened regulatory review and we could be exposed to government interference in China.

Since 1979, PRC legislation and regulations have significantly enhanced the protections afforded to various forms of foreign investments in China. However, China has not developed a fully integrated legal system and recently enacted laws and regulations may not sufficiently cover all aspects of economic activities in China. In particular, because these laws and regulations are relatively new, and because of the limited volume of published decisions and their nonbinding nature, the interpretation and enforcement of these laws and regulations involve uncertainties. In addition, 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) that may have a retroactive effect. As a result, we may not be aware of our violation of these policies and rules until some time after the violation. In addition, any litigation in China may be protracted and result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention.

Compliance with China’s new Data Security Law, Measures on Cybersecurity Review (revised draft for public consultation), Personal Information Protection Law (second draft for consultation), regulations and guidelines relating to the multi-level protection scheme and any other future laws and regulations may entail significant expenses and could materially affect our business.

China has implemented or will implement rules and is considering a number of additional proposals relating to data protection. China’s new Data Security Law promulgated by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of China in June 2021, or the Data Security Law, took effect in September 2021. The Data Security Law provides that the data processing activities must be conducted based on “data classification and hierarchical protection system” for the purpose of data protection and prohibits entities in China from transferring data stored in China to foreign law enforcement agencies or judicial authorities without prior approval by the Chinese government. As the Data Security Law has not yet come into effect, we may need to make adjustments to our data processing practices to comply with this law.

Additionally, China’s Cyber Security Law, requires companies to take certain organizational, technical and administrative measures and other necessary measures to ensure the security of their networks and data stored on their networks. Specifically, the Cyber Security Law provides that China adopt a multi-level protection scheme (MLPS), under which network operators are required to perform obligations of security protection to ensure that the network is free from interference, disruption or unauthorized access, and prevent network data from being disclosed, stolen or tampered. Under the MLPS, entities operating information systems must have a thorough assessment of the risks and the conditions of their information and network systems to determine the level to which the entity’s information and network systems belong-from the lowest Level 1 to the highest Level 5 pursuant to the Measures for the Graded Protection and the Guidelines for Grading of Classified Protection of Cyber Security. The grading result will determine the set of security protection obligations that entities must comply with. Entities classified as Level 2 or above should report the grade to the relevant government authority for examination and approval.

Recently, the Cyberspace Administration of China (the “CAC”) has taken action against several Chinese internet companies in connection with their initial public offerings on U.S. securities exchanges, for alleged national security risks and improper collection and use of the personal information of Chinese data subjects. According to the official announcement, the action was initiated based on the National Security Law, the Cyber Security Law and the Measures on Cybersecurity Review, which are aimed at “preventing national data security risks, maintaining national security and safeguarding public interests.” On July 10, 2021, the CAC published a revised draft of the Measures on Cybersecurity Review, expanding the cybersecurity review to data processing operators in possession of personal information of over 1 million users if the operators intend to list their securities in a foreign country.

It is unclear at the present time how widespread the cybersecurity review requirement and the enforcement action will be and what effect they will have on the life sciences sector generally and the Company in particular. China’s regulators may impose penalties for non-compliance ranging from fines or suspension of operations, and this could lead to us delisting from the U.S. stock market.

Also, on August 20, 2021, the National People’s Congress passed the Personal Information Protection Law, started to be implemented on November 1, 2021. The law creates a comprehensive set of data privacy and protection requirements that apply to the processing of personal information and expands data protection compliance obligations to cover the processing of personal information of persons by organizations and individuals in China, and the processing of personal information of persons in China outside of China if such processing is for purposes of providing products and services to, or analyzing and evaluating the behavior of, persons in China. The law also proposes that critical information infrastructure operators and personal information processing entities who process personal information meeting a volume threshold to-be-set by Chinese cyberspace regulators are also required to store in China personal information generated or collected in China, and to pass a security assessment administered by Chinese cyberspace regulators for any export of such personal information. Lastly, the draft contains proposals for significant fines for serious violations of up to RMB 50 million or 5% of annual revenues from the prior year.

Interpretation, application and enforcement of these laws, rules and regulations evolve from time to time and their scope may continually change, through new legislation, amendments to existing legislation and changes in enforcement. Compliance with the Cyber Security Law and the Data Security Law could significantly increase the cost to us of providing our service offerings, require significant changes to our operations or even prevent us from providing certain service offerings in jurisdictions in which we currently operate or in which we may operate in the future. Despite our efforts to comply with applicable laws, regulations and other obligations relating to privacy, data protection and information security, and our belief that we are currently in compliance therewith, it is possible that our practices, offerings or platform could fail to meet all of the requirements imposed on us by the Cyber Security Law, the Data Security Law and/or related implementing regulations. Any failure on our part to comply with such law or regulations or any other obligations relating to privacy, data protection or information security, or any compromise of security that results in unauthorized access, use or release of personally identifiable information or other data, or the perception or allegation that any of the foregoing types of failure or compromise has occurred, could damage our reputation, discourage new and existing counterparties from contracting with us or result in investigations, fines, suspension or other penalties by Chinese government authorities and private claims or litigation, any of which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Even if our practices are not subject to legal challenge, the perception of privacy concerns, whether or not valid, may harm our reputation and brand and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Moreover, the legal uncertainty created by the Data Security Law and the recent Chinese government actions could materially adversely affect our ability, on favorable terms, to raise capital, including engaging in follow-on offerings of our securities in the U.S. market or the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong. While we believe that our current operations are in compliance with the laws and regulations of the Cyberspace Administration of China, our operations could be adversely affected, directly or indirectly, by existing or future laws and regulations relating to its business or industry.

Recent greater oversight by the CAC over data security, particularly for companies seeking to list on a foreign exchange, could adversely impact our business and our offering.

On December 28, 2021, the CAC and other relevant PRC governmental authorities jointly promulgated the Cybersecurity Review Measures, which will take effect on February 15, 2022. The Cybersecurity Review Measures provide that, in addition to critical information infrastructure operators (“CIIOs”) that intend to purchase Internet products and services, net platform operators engaging in data processing activities that affect or may affect national security must be subject to cybersecurity review by the Cybersecurity Review Office of the PRC. According to the Cybersecurity Review Measures, a cybersecurity review assesses potential national security risks that may be brought about by any procurement, data processing, or overseas listing. The Cybersecurity Review Measures require that an online platform operator which possesses the personal information of at least one million users must apply for a cybersecurity review by the CAC if it intends to be listed in foreign countries.

On November 14, 2021, the CAC published the Security Administration Draft, which provides that data processing operators engaging in data processing activities that affect or may affect national security must be subject to network data security review by the relevant Cyberspace Administration of the PRC. According to the Security Administration Draft, data processing operators who possess personal data of at least one million users or collect data that affects or may affect national security must be subject to network data security review by the relevant Cyberspace Administration of the PRC. The deadline for public comments on the Security Administration Draft was December 13, 2021. 

As of the date of this annual report, we have not received any notice from any authorities identifying our PRC subsidiaries or the VIEs as CIIOs or requiring us to go through cybersecurity review or network data security review by the CAC. The Cybersecurity Review Measures became effective on February 15, 2022. The standard scope of review under the Cybersecurity Review Measures extends to critical information infrastructure operators that intend to purchase internet products and services and network platform operators engaging in data processing activities, which affect or may affect national security. Further, pursuant to Cybersecurity Review Measures, network platform operators possessing over one million users’ personal information must apply with the Cybersecurity Review Office for a cybersecurity review before any listing at a foreign stock exchange. Besides, the Cybersecurity Review Measures also provide that if the relevant authorities consider that certain network products and services and data processing activities affect or may affect national security, the authorities may conduct a cybersecurity review on its own initiative. Therefore, the Company understands that currently the operations of our PRC subsidiaries and the VIEs and our listing will not be affected and that we will not be subject to cybersecurity review by the CAC for this offering, given that our PRC subsidiary and the VIE possess personal data of fewer than one million individual clients and do not collect data that affects or may affect national security in their business operations as of the date of this annual report and do not anticipate that they will be collecting over one million users’ personal information or data that affects or may affect national security in the near future. Given the Cybersecurity Review Measures were recently promulgated, there remains uncertainty as to how the Cybersecurity Review Measures will be interpreted or implemented. , In addition, the PRC regulatory agencies, including the CAC, may adopt new laws, regulations, rules, or detailed implementation and interpretation related to the Cybersecurity Review Measures and the Security Administration Draft. If any such new laws, regulations, rules, or implementation and interpretation come into effect, we will take all reasonable measures and actions to comply and to minimize the adverse effect of such laws on us. We cannot guarantee, however, that we will not be subject to cybersecurity review in the future. During such reviews, we may be required to suspend our operation or experience other disruptions to our operations. Cybersecurity review could also result in negative publicity with respect to our Company and diversion of our managerial and financial resources, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial conditions, and results of operations.

Governmental control of currency conversion may affect the value of your investment.

The PRC government imposes controls on the convertibility of the RMB into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of China. We receive substantially all of our revenues in RMB. Under our current corporate structure, our income is primarily derived from dividend payments from our PRC subsidiaries. Shortages in the availability of foreign currency may restrict the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to remit sufficient foreign currency to pay dividends or other payments to us, or otherwise satisfy their foreign currency denominated obligations. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and expenditures from trade-related transactions, can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval from SAFE by complying with certain procedural requirements. However, approval from appropriate government authorities is required where RMB 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. The PRC government may also at its discretion restrict access in the future to foreign currencies for current account transactions. If the foreign exchange control system prevents us from obtaining sufficient foreign currency to satisfy our currency demands, we may not be able to pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders.

Fluctuation in the value of the RMB may have a material adverse effect on the value of your investment.

The value of the RMB against the U.S. dollar and other currencies may fluctuate and is affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions. On July 21, 2005, the PRC government changed its decade-old policy of pegging the value of the RMB to the U.S. dollar. Under the new policy, the RMB is permitted to fluctuate within a narrow and managed band against a basket of certain foreign currencies. This change in policy has resulted in an approximate 26.8% appreciation of the RMB against the U.S. dollar between July 21, 2005 and September 30, 2015. Provisions on Administration of Foreign Exchange, as amended in August 2008, further changed China’s exchange regime to a managed floating exchange rate regime based on market supply and demand. Since reaching a high against the U.S. dollar in July 2008, however, the RMB has traded within a narrow band against the U.S. dollar, remaining within 1% of its July 2008 high but never exceeding it. As a consequence, the RMB has fluctuated sharply since July 2008 against other freely-traded currencies, in tandem with the U.S. dollar. In August 2015, the PRC Government devalued its currency by approximately 3%, representing the largest yuan depreciation for 20 years. Concerns remain that China’s slowing economy, and in particular its exports, will need a stimulus that can only come from further cuts in the exchange rate.

It is difficult to predict how long the current situation may continue and when and how it may change again as the People’s Bank of China may regularly intervene in the foreign exchange market to achieve economic policy goals. Substantially all of our revenues and costs are denominated in the RMB, and a significant portion of our financial assets are also denominated in RMB. We principally rely on dividends and other distributions paid to us by our subsidiaries in China. Any significant revaluation of the RMB may materially and adversely affect our cash flows, revenues, earnings and financial position, and the value of, and any dividends payable on, our ADSs or ordinary shares in U.S. dollars. Any fluctuations of the exchange rate between the RMB and the U.S. dollar could also result in foreign currency translation losses for financial reporting purposes.

PRC laws and regulations govern our businesses. If we are found to be in violation of such PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to sanctions. In addition, changes in and uncertainties with respect to such PRC laws and regulations may materially and adversely affect our business.

The PRC legal system is based on written statutes. Unlike under common law systems, decided legal cases have little value as precedents in subsequent legal proceedings. In 1979, the PRC government began to promulgate a comprehensive system of laws and regulations governing economic matters in general and forms of foreign investment (including in respect of wholly foreign owned enterprises) in particular. These laws, regulations and legal requirements are relatively new and are often changing, and their interpretation and enforcement depend to a large extent on relevant government policy and involve significant uncertainties that could limit the reliability of the legal protections available to us.

There are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of PRC laws and regulations, including, but not limited to, the laws and regulations governing our business. These laws and regulations are relatively new and may be subject to change, and their official interpretation and enforcement may involve substantial uncertainty resulting in detrimental reliance by foreign investors. New laws and regulations that affect existing and proposed future businesses may also be applied retroactively.

The PRC government has broad discretion in dealing with violations of laws and regulations, including levying fines, revoking business and other licenses and requiring actions necessary for compliance. We cannot predict the effect of the interpretation of existing or new PRC laws or regulations on our businesses. We cannot assure you that our current ownership and operating structure would not be found in violation of any current or future PRC laws or regulations. As a result, we may be subject to sanctions, including fines, and could be required to restructure our operations or cease to provide certain services. In addition, any litigation in China may be protracted and result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. Any of these or similar actions could significantly disrupt our business operations or restrict us from conducting a substantial portion of our business operations, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The Chinese government may intervene or influence our operations at any time, or may exert more control over offerings conducted overseas and foreign investment in China-based issuers. In addition, the enforcement of laws and regulations in China can change quickly with little advance notice. In 2021, the PRC government initiated a series of regulatory actions and statements to regulate business operations in China with little advance notice, including cracking down on illegal activities in the securities market, enhancing supervision over China-based companies listed overseas, adopting new measures to extend the scope of cybersecurity reviews, and expanding the efforts in anti-monopoly enforcement. Since these statements and regulatory actions are new, it is highly uncertain how soon legislative or administrative regulation making bodies will respond and what existing or new laws or regulations or detailed implementations and interpretations will be modified or promulgated, if any, and the potential impact such modified or new laws and regulations will have on our daily business operation, the ability to accept foreign investments and list on an U.S. or other foreign exchange. In the future, we and the VIEs may pursue potential strategic acquisitions that are complementary to our and the VIEs’ business and operations. Complying with the requirements of the above-mentioned regulations and other rules to complete such transactions could be time-consuming, and any required approval processes may delay or inhibit our and the VIEs’ ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our and the VIEs’ ability to expand business or maintain market share. There is a possibility that the Chinese authorities may promulgate new rules or explanations requiring that we and the VIEs obtain the approval of Chinese authorities for our and the VIEs’ completed or ongoing mergers and acquisitions. Any action by the Chinese government to exert more oversight and control over foreign investment in China-based companies could result in a material change in our operation, cause the value of our ordinary shares to significantly decline or become worthless, and significantly limit, or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer our ordinary shares to investors.

We cannot predict the effects of future developments in government policy or the PRC legal system in general. We may be required in the future to procure additional permits, authorizations and approvals for our existing and future operations, which may not be obtainable in a timely fashion or at all, or may involve substantial costs and unforeseen risks. An inability to obtain, or the incurrence of substantial costs in obtaining, such permits, authorizations and approvals may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Recent statements by the Chinese government indicate an intent to exert more oversight and more control over offerings conducted overseas and/or foreign investment in China-based issuers. Any such actions by the Chinese government could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to conduct our business, accept foreign investments, or list on a U.S. or other foreign exchange, including our ability to offer or continue to offer its securities to investors and cause the value of the securities being registered hereby to significantly decline or become worthless.

The Chinese government recently has published new policies that significantly affected certain industries such as the education and internet industries, and we cannot rule out the possibility that it will in the future release regulations or policies regarding our industry that could require us to seek permission from Chinese authorities to continue to operate our business, which may adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Furthermore, recent statements made by the Chinese government have indicated an intent to increase the government’s oversight and control over offerings of companies with significant operations in China that are to be conducted in foreign markets, as well as foreign investment in China-based issuers like us. Any such action, once taken by the Chinese government, could significantly limit or completely hinder our ability to offer or continue to offer its securities to investors, and could cause the value of such securities to significantly decline or become worthless.

In July 2021, the Chinese government provided new guidance on China-based companies raising capital outside of China, including through arrangements via VIEs. In light of such developments, the SEC has imposed enhanced disclosure requirements on China-based companies seeking to register securities with the SEC. As substantially all of our operations are based in jurisdictions under the Chinese government, any future Chinese, U.S. or other rules and regulations that place restrictions on capital raising or other activities by companies with extensive operations in China could adversely affect our business and results of operations. If the business environment in China deteriorates from the perspective of domestic or international investment, or if relations between China and the United States or other governments deteriorate, the Chinese government may intervene with our operations and our business in China, as well as the value of the securities being offered, may also be adversely affected.

Our auditor is headquartered in the United States, and is subject to inspection by the PCAOB on a regular basis. To the extent that our independent registered public accounting firm’s audit documentation related to their audit reports for our company become located in China, the PCAOB may not be able inspect such audit documentation and, as such, you may be deprived of the benefits of such inspection and our ordinary shares could be delisted from the stock exchange pursuant to the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act.

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

Our independent registered public accounting firm issued an audit opinion on the financial statements incorporated by reference in this annual report filed with the SEC and will issue audit reports related to us in the future. As auditors of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the PCAOB, our auditor is required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB. However, to the extent that our auditor’s work papers become located in China, such work papers will not be subject to inspection by the PCAOB because the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. Inspections of certain other firms that the PCAOB has conducted outside of China have identified deficiencies in those firms’ audit procedures and quality control procedures, which may be addressed as part of the inspection process to improve future audit quality. We are required by the HFCAA to have an auditor that is subject to the inspection by the PCAOB. While our present auditor is located in the United States and the PCAOB is able to conduct inspections on such auditor, to the extent this status changes in the future and our auditor’s audit documentation related to their audit reports for our company becomes outside of the inspection by the PCAOB or if the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate completely our auditor because of a position taken by an authority in a foreign jurisdiction, trading in our ordinary shares could be prohibited under the HFCAA, and as a result our ordinary shares could be delisted from Nasdaq.

On March 24, 2021, the SEC adopted interim final rules relating to the implementation of certain disclosure and documentation requirements of the HFCAA, which became effective on May 5, 2021. We will be required to comply with these rules if the SEC identifies our auditors as having a “non-inspection” year under a process to be subsequently established by the SEC.

On May 13, 2021, the PCAOB proposed a new rule for implementing the HFCAA. Among other things, the proposed rule provides a framework for the PCAOB to use when determining, under the HFCAA, whether it is unable to inspect or investigate completely registered public accounting firms located in a foreign jurisdiction because of a position taken by one or more authorities in that jurisdiction. The proposed rule would also establish the manner of the PCAOB’s determinations; the factors the PCAOB will evaluate and the documents and information it will consider when assessing whether a determination is warranted; the form, public availability, effective date, and duration of such determinations; and the process by which the board of the PCAOB can modify or vacate its determinations. The proposed rule was adopted by the PCAOB on September 22, 2021 and approved by the SEC on November 5, 2021.

On June 22, 2021, the U.S. Senate passed a bill which, if passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed into law, would reduce the number of consecutive non-inspection years required for triggering the prohibitions under the HFCA Act from three years to two, thus reducing the time period before the securities of such foreign companies may be prohibited from trading or delisted. On December 29, 2022, the Accelerating Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act was signed into law, which officially reduce the number of years that the auditor is not subject to inspection to two consecutive years.

The SEC is assessing how to implement other requirements of the HFCAA, 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 the 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 fulfill its statutory mandate. Some of the concepts of these recommendations were implemented with the enactment of the HFCAA. However, some of the recommendations were more stringent than the HFCAA. For example, if a company was not subject to the PCAOB inspection, the report recommended that the transition period before a company would be delisted would end on January 1, 2022.

On December 2, 2021, the SEC issued amendments to finalize the interim final rules previously adopted in March 2021, and established procedures to identify issuers and prohibit the trading of the securities of certain registrants as required by the HFCAA.

On August 26, 2022, the PCAOB signed a Statement of Protocol with the CSRC and the Ministry of Finance of the PRC (the “Statement of Protocol”), which is intended to enable the PCAOB to inspect and investigate completely registered public accounting firms in mainland China and Hong Kong. According to a statement released by the PCAOB, the Statement of Protocol (i) provides the PCAOB with sole discretion to select the firms, audit engagements and potential violations it inspects and investigates without consultation with, nor input from, Chinese authorities, (ii) puts procedures in place for PCAOB inspectors and investigators to view complete audit work papers with all information included and for the PCAOB to retain information as needed and (iii) provides the PCAOB with direct access to interview and take testimony from all personnel associated with the audits the PCAOB inspects or investigates. While the Chairs of both the PCAOB and the SEC made statements supporting the Statement of Protocol, both emphasized that this is only the first step in the process. As such, uncertainties remain regarding how the Statement of Protocol will be implemented and how it will impact China-based issuers and there is no assurance that the PCAOB will be able to execute, in a timely manner, its future inspections and investigations in a manner that satisfies the Statement of Protocol. While the Statement of Protocol may lead to resolution of the previously identified issues, there can be no assurance that this will be the case.

On December 15, 2022, the PCAOB issued a new Determination Report which: (1) vacated the December 16, 2021 Determination Report; and (2) concluded that the PCAOB has been able to conduct inspections and investigations completely in the PRC in 2022. The December 15, 2022 Determination Report cautions, however, that authorities in the PRC might take positions at any time that would prevent the PCAOB from continuing to inspect or investigate completely. As required by the HFCAA, if in the future the PCAOB determines it no longer can inspect or investigate completely because of a position taken by an authority in the PRC, the PCAOB will act expeditiously to consider whether it should issue a new determination.

While the HFCAA is not currently applicable to the Company because the Company’s current auditors are subject to PCAOB review, if this changes in the future for any reason, the Company may be subject to the HFCAA. The implications of this regulation if the Company were to become subject to it are uncertain. Such uncertainty could cause the market price of our ordinary shares to be materially and adversely affected, and our securities could be delisted or prohibited from being traded on Nasdaq earlier than would be required by the HFCAA. If our ordinary shares is unable to be listed on another securities exchange by then, such a delisting would substantially impair your ability to sell or purchase the ordinary shares 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 ordinary shares.

It may be difficult for U.S. regulators, such as the Department of Justice, the SEC, and other authorities, to conduct investigation or collect evidence within China.

Shareholder claims or regulatory investigation that are common in the United States generally are difficult to pursue as a matter of law or practicality in China. For example, in China, there are significant legal and other obstacles to providing information needed for regulatory investigations or litigations 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 regulatory authorities in the Unities States—including the SEC and the Department of Justice—may not be efficient in the absence of mutual and practical cooperation mechanism. Furthermore, according to Article 177 of the PRC Securities Law, which became effective in March 2020, no overseas securities regulator is allowed to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within the PRC territory. While detailed interpretation of or implementation rules under Article 177 have yet to be promulgated, the inability for an overseas securities regulator to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within China may further increase the difficulties you face in protecting your interests.

Risks Associated with our Ordinary Shares

The market price of our Ordinary Shares has historically been highly volatile, and you may not be able to resell our ordinary shares at or above your initial purchase price.

There is a limited public market for our ordinary shares. We cannot assure you that there will be an active trading market for our ordinary shares. You may not be able to sell your ordinary shares quickly or at the market price if trading in our ordinary shares is not active.

The trading price of our ordinary shares may be volatile. The price of our ordinary shares could be subject to wide fluctuations in response to a variety of factors, including the following:

In addition, the stock market in general, and the NASDAQ Capital Market and software products and services companies in particular, have experienced extreme price and volume fluctuations that have often been unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of these companies. Broad market and industry factors may negatively affect the market price of our ordinary shares, regardless of our actual operating performance.

Our ordinary shares may be subject to the SEC’s penny stock rules which may make it difficult for broker-dealers to complete customer transactions and trading activity in our securities.

Our ordinary shares may be deemed to be “penny stock” as that term is defined under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Penny stocks generally are equity securities with a price of less than $5.00 (other than securities registered on certain national securities exchanges or quoted on the NASDAQ system, provided that current price and volume information with respect to transactions in such securities is provided by the exchange or system). Penny stock rules impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers who sell to persons other than established customers and “accredited investors.” The term “accredited investor” refers generally to institutions with assets in excess of $5,000,000 or individuals with a net worth in excess of $1,000,000 or annual income exceeding $200,000 or $300,000 jointly with their spouse in each of the prior two years.

The penny stock rules require a broker-dealer, prior to a transaction in a penny stock not otherwise exempt from the rules, to deliver a standardized risk disclosure document in a form prepared by the SEC, which provides information about penny stocks and the nature and level of risks in the penny stock market. Moreover, broker-dealers are required to determine whether an investment in a penny stock is a suitable investment for a prospective investor. A broker-dealer must receive a written agreement to the transaction from the investor setting forth the identity and quantity of the penny stock to be purchased. These requirements may make it more difficult for broker-dealers to effectuate customer transactions and trading activity in our securities. As a result, the market price of our ordinary shares may be depressed, and you may find it more difficult to sell our ordinary shares.

Sales of a substantial number of ordinary shares in the public market by our existing shareholders could cause the price of our ordinary shares to fall.

Sales of a substantial number of our ordinary shares in the public market or the perception that these sales might occur, could depress the market price of our ordinary shares and could impair our ability to raise capital through the sale of additional equity securities. We are unable to predict the effect that sales may have on the prevailing market price of our ordinary shares.

Subject to certain limitations all of our total outstanding shares are now eligible for sale. Sales of ordinary shares by these shareholders could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of our ordinary shares.

Future sales and issuances of our ordinary shares, or rights to purchase our ordinary shares, including pursuant to our 2018 Omnibus Incentive Plan, could result in additional dilution of the percentage ownership of our shareholders and could cause the price of our ordinary shares to fall.

We expect that significant additional capital will be needed in the future to continue our planned operations. To the extent we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, our shareholders may experience substantial dilution. We may sell ordinary shares, convertible securities or other equity securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner we determine from time to time. If we sell ordinary shares, convertible securities or other equity securities in more than one transaction, investors may be materially diluted by subsequent sales. Such sales may also result in material dilution to our existing shareholders, and new investors could gain rights superior to our existing shareholders.

We do not intend to pay dividends on our ordinary shares, so any returns will be limited to the value of our ordinary shares.

We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our ordinary shares. We currently anticipate that we will retain future earnings for the development, operation and expansion of our business and do not anticipate declaring or paying any cash dividends for the foreseeable future. Any return shareholders will therefore be limited to the value of their ordinary shares.

As the rights of shareholders under British Virgin Islands law differ from those under U.S. law, you may have fewer protections as a shareholder.

Our corporate affairs will be governed by our memorandum of association and articles of association, the BVI Business Companies Act, 2004, or the BVI Act, of the British Virgin Islands and the common law of the British Virgin Islands. The rights of shareholders to take legal action against our directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under British Virgin Islands law are to a large extent governed by the BVI Act and the common law of the British Virgin Islands. The common law of the British Virgin Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the British Virgin Islands as well as from English common law, which has persuasive, but not binding, authority on a court in the British Virgin Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under British Virgin Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedents in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the British Virgin Islands has a less developed body of securities laws as compared to the United States, and some states (such as Delaware) have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law.

As a result of all of the above, holders of our ordinary shares may have more difficulty in protecting their interests through actions against our management, directors or major shareholders than they would as shareholders of a U.S. company.

British Virgin Islands companies may not be able to initiate shareholder derivative actions, thereby depriving shareholders of the ability to protect their interests.

British Virgin Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States. The circumstances in which any such action may be brought, and the procedures and defenses that may be available in respect to any such action, may result in the rights of shareholders of a British Virgin Islands company being more limited than those of shareholders of a company organized in the United States. Accordingly, shareholders may have fewer alternatives available to them if they believe that corporate wrongdoing has occurred. The British Virgin Islands courts are also unlikely to recognize or enforce against us judgments of courts in the United States based on certain liability provisions of U.S. securities law; and to impose liabilities against us, in original actions brought in the British Virgin Islands, based on certain liability provisions of U.S. securities laws that are penal in nature. There is no statutory recognition in the British Virgin Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, although the courts of the British Virgin Islands will generally recognize and enforce the non-penal judgment of a foreign court of competent jurisdiction without retrial on the merits.

The laws of the British Virgin Islands provide little protection for minority shareholders, so minority shareholders will have little or no recourse if the shareholders are dissatisfied with the conduct of our affairs.

Under the laws of the British Virgin Islands, there is little statutory law for the protection of minority shareholders other than the provisions of the BVI Act dealing with shareholder remedies. The principal protection under statutory law is that shareholders may bring an action to enforce the constituent documents of the Company, our memorandum of association and articles of association. Shareholders are entitled to have the affairs of the Company conducted in accordance with the general law and its memorandum of association and articles of association.

There are common law rights for the protection of shareholders that may be invoked, largely dependent on English company law, since the common law of the British Virgin Islands is limited. Under the general rule pursuant to English company law known as the rule in Foss v. Harbottle, a court will generally refuse to interfere with the management of a company at the insistence of a minority of its shareholders who express dissatisfaction with the conduct of the company’s affairs by the majority or the board of directors. However, every shareholder is entitled to have the affairs of the company conducted properly according to law and the company’s constituent documents. As such, if those who control the company have persistently disregarded the requirements of company law or the provisions of the company’s memorandum of association and articles of association, then the courts will grant relief. Generally, the areas in which the courts will intervene are the following: (1) an act complained of which is outside the scope of the authorized business or is illegal or not capable of ratification by the majority; (2) acts that constitute fraud on the minority where the wrongdoers control the company; (3) acts that infringe on the personal rights of the shareholders, such as the right to vote; and (4) where the company has not complied with provisions requiring approval of a majority of shareholders, which are more limited than the rights afforded minority shareholders under the laws of many states in the United States.

Anti-takeover provisions in our memorandum of association and articles of association and our right to issue preference shares could make a third-party acquisition of us difficult.

Some provisions of our memorandum of association and articles of association may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company or management that shareholders may consider favorable, including provisions that authorize our board of directors to issue preference shares in one or more series and to designate the price, rights, preferences, privileges and restrictions of such preference shares.

You may not be able to participate in rights offerings and may experience dilution of your holdings as a result.

We may from time to time distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire our securities. However, we may not offer those rights to ordinary shareholders unless both the rights and the underlying securities to be distributed to ordinary shareholders are registered under the Securities Act, or the distribution of them to ordinary shareholders is exempted from registration under the Securities Act with respect to all ordinary shareholders. We are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to any such rights or underlying securities or to endeavor to cause such a registration statement to be declared effective. In addition, we may not be able to rely on an exemption from registration under the Securities Act to distribute such rights and securities. Accordingly, our ordinary shareholders may be unable to participate in our rights offerings and may experience dilution in their holdings as a result.

We may be a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, which could lead to additional taxes for U.S. holders of our ordinary shares.

We do not expect to be, for U.S. federal income tax purposes, a passive foreign investment company, or a PFIC, which is a foreign company for which, in any given taxable year, either at least 75% of its gross income is passive income, or investment income in general, or at least 50% of its assets produce or are held to produce passive income, for the current taxable year, and we expect to operate in such a manner so as not to become a PFIC for any future taxable year. However, because the determination of PFIC status for any taxable year cannot be made until after the close of such year and requires extensive factual investigation, including ascertaining the fair market value of our assets on a quarterly basis and determining whether each item of gross income that we earn is passive income, we cannot assure you that we will not become a PFIC for the current taxable year or any future taxable year. If we are or become a PFIC, a U.S. holder’s ordinary shares could be subject to additional U.S. federal income taxes on gain recognized with respect to the ordinary shares and on certain distributions, plus an interest charge on certain taxes treated as having been deferred under the PFIC rules. Non-corporate U.S. holders will not be eligible for reduced rates of taxation on any dividends received from us if we are a PFIC in the taxable year in which such dividends are paid or in the preceding taxable year.

If the trading price of our ordinary shares fails to comply with the continued listing requirements of the NASDAQ Capital Market, we would face possible delisting, which would result in a limited public market for our ordinary shares and make obtaining future debt or equity financing more difficult for us.

Companies listed on NASDAQ are subject to delisting for, among other things, failure to maintain a minimum closing bid price of $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days. On January 3, 2022, we received a letter from NASDAQ indicating that for the last 30 consecutive business days, the closing bid price of our ordinary shares fell below the minimum $1.00 per share requirement pursuant to NASDAQ Listing Rule 5550(a)(2) and 5810(c)(3)(A) (the “Nasdaq Listing Rules”).

While the notification has no immediate effect on the listing of our ordinary shares on Nasdaq, in accordance with the Nasdaq Listing Rules, we have 180 calendar days from the date of notification, or until July 5, 2022, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement, during which time our ordinary shares will continue to trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market. If at any time before July 5, 2022, the bid price of our ordinary shares closes at or above US$1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days, Nasdaq will provide written notification that we have achieved compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. In the event we do not regain compliance by July 5, 2022, we may be eligible for additional time to regain compliance or may be delisted from Nasdaq.

We cannot guarantee that the price of our ordinary shares will comply with the Nasdaq Listing Rules for continued listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market in the future. If we cannot comply with the Nasdaq Listing Rules, our ordinary shares would be subject to delisting and would likely trade on the over-the-counter market. If our ordinary shares were to trade on the over-the-counter market, selling our ordinary shares could be more difficult because smaller quantities of shares would likely be bought and sold, transactions could be delayed, and security analysts’ coverage of us may be reduced. In addition, broker-dealers have certain regulatory burdens imposed upon them, which may discourage broker-dealers from effecting transactions in our ordinary shares, further limiting the liquidity of our ordinary shares. As a result, the market price of our ordinary shares may be depressed, and you may find it more difficult to sell our ordinary shares. Such delisting from the NASDAQ Capital Market and continued or further declines in our share price could also greatly impair our ability to raise additional necessary capital through equity or debt financing.

ITEM 4. INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY.

A. HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMPANY.

Overview

We are a holding company and conduct our operations through our wholly-owned subsidiary named LK Technology Ltd., a British Virgin Islands limited liability company (“LK Technology”), and its wholly-owned subsidiaries, MMB Limited and its respective subsidiaries, which possess two core brands “Luokuang” and “SuperEngine”. “Luokuang” is a mobile application to provide Business to Customer (B2C) location-based services and “SuperEngine” provides Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Government (B2G) services in connection with spatial-temporal big data processing. In May 2010, we consummated an initial public offering of our American Depository Shares, or ADSs, for gross proceeds of $16 million, and our ADSs were listed on the NASDAQ Capital Market under the ticker symbol “KONE”. On August 17, 2018, we completed the transactions contemplated by the Asset Exchange Agreement (“AEA”) with C Media Limited (“C Media”) entered into on January 25, 2018. On August 20, 2018, we changed our name to Luokung Technology Corp., our American Depository Shares (“ADSs”) were voluntarily delisted from the NASDAQ Capital Market on September 19, 2018 and on January 3, 2019 our ordinary shares started trading on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “LKCO”.

On August 17, 2018, we consummated an asset exchange transaction, pursuant to which we exchanged all issued and outstanding capital stock in Topsky Info-Tech Holdings Pte Ltd., the parent of Softech, for the issued and outstanding capital stock of LK Technology (the “Asset Exchange”). In connection with the Asset Exchange, we changed our name on August 20, 2018, and on September 20, 2018, issued to the shareholders of C Media Limited, the former parent of LK Technology, (i) 185,412,599 of our ordinary shares, par value $0.01 per share and (ii) 1,000,000 of our preferred shares. Upon the consummation of the Asset Exchange, we ceased our previous business operations and became a company focused on the provision of location-based service and mobile application products for long distance rail travelers in China.

On August 25, 2018, LK Technology entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement (the “Agreement”) with the shareholders (“Shareholders”) of Superengine Holding Limited, a limited liability company incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Islands (the “Superengine”), pursuant to which LK Technology acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of Superengine for an aggregate purchase price of US$60 million (the “Purchase Price”), which was paid by the issuance of our Ordinary Shares in an amount equal to the quotient of (x) the Purchase Price divided by (y) the average of the closing prices of the Ordinary Shares on the NASDAQ Capital Market over the 12 months period preceding July 31, 2018. We are a party to the Agreement in connection with the issuance of the Ordinary Shares and certain other limited purposes.

On August 28, 2019, the Company entered into a Share Purchase Agreement, pursuant to which the Company will acquire 100% of the equity interests of Saleya Holdings Limited (“Saleya”) from Saleya’s shareholders for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $120 million. On March 17, 2021, the Company completed the acquisition of 100% equity interest in Saleya for a consideration of (i) a cash amount of $102 million (RMB666 million), (ii) 9,819,926 LKCO ordinary shares and (iii) 1,500,310 LKCO preferred shares pursuant to a supplemental agreement dated February 24, 2021. The main operating subsidiary, eMapgo Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd. is a provider of navigation and electronic map services in China, as well as a provider of Internet map services and geographic information system engineering. The acquisition enables us to develop our smart transportation business, including autonomous driving and vehicle-road collaboration (V2X). From April 2021 to December 2021, Saleya contributed $9.1 million to smart transportation revenue and incurred a net loss of $4.5 million.

On May 10, 2019 and November 6, 2020, the Company entered into a Stock Purchase Agreement and The Supplementary Agreement to Stock Purchase Agreement with the shareholders of BotBrain AI Limited (“Botbrain”), a limited liability company incorporated under the laws of the British Virgin Islands, pursuant to which the Company acquired 67.36% of the issued and outstanding shares of BotBrain for an aggregate purchase price of $2.5 million (RMB 16.4 million), of which $1.5 million (RMB 9.6 million) was to be paid in cash to obtain 20% of BotBrain and the Company issued 1,789,618 ordinary shares to acquire the remaining 47.36% of BotBrain. The closing of the acquisition was completed on December 4, 2020.

On November 13, 2019, the Company entered into a Share Subscription Agreement with Geely Technology Group Co., Ltd. (“Geely Technology”) to issue 21,794,872 series A preferred shares at a purchase price of $1.95 per share for an aggregate purchase price of $42,500,000. Per the terms of the agreement, the Company recognized $32,910,257 as a loan. The Company received $21,743,857 as of December 31, 2019 and the remaining amount was received in January 2020. Geely Technology may request the repayment after November 2020, under such circumstance, the Company shall pay it back in January of 2021. On December 24, 2020, Geely Technology sent a notice of redemption. The Company is in negotiation for an extension with Geely Technology.

On November 13, 2019, the Company entered into a Securities Purchase Agreement with Acuitas Capital, LLC. and a Warrant to purchase the Company’s ordinary shares pursuant to which the Purchaser subscribed to purchase up to $100,000,000 of units with up to a $10,000,000 subscription at each closing, with each Unit consisting of one ordinary share and one warrant, where each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one ordinary share. The Securities Purchase Agreement contemplates periodic closings of $10,000,000. On July 16, 2020, the Company held the first closing pursuant to the Purchase Agreement and received $10,000,000. The Purchaser had received 7,763,975 ordinary shares on November 13, 2019 in consideration for such $10,000,000. The Purchaser also exercised the Warrant and received 15,897,663 ordinary shares upon the exercise of the Warrant. On December 31, 2020, the Purchase Agreement has been terminated.

On August 10, 2020, the Company entered into a cooperation framework agreement with Nanjing Antong Meteorological Data Limited (“Nanjing Antong”) and Nanjing Weida Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (“Nanjing Weida”), pursuant to which the Company would invest $153,000 (RMB 1 million) each to Nanjing Antong and Nanjing Weida in order to establish a joint venture with Nanjing Antong. On August 27, 2020, the joint venture was established, SuperEngine, eMapgo Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd. (“EMG”) and Nanjing Antong hold 50%, 20% and 30% of equity of interest, respectively. The joint venture engages in real-time traffic information services for China’s high-class highways, urban roads, urban and rural roads, as well as expressway data and travel value-added services.

The following diagram illustrates our corporate structure and the place of formation and affiliation of each of our subsidiaries and affiliates as of December 31, 2022.

The persons or entities that own the equity in each VIE are as follows:

Beijing Zhong Chuan Shi Xun Technology Co., Ltd.

eMapgo Technologies (Beijing) Co., Ltd.

Beijing BotBrain AI Technology Co., Ltd.

Corporate Information

Our principal executive offices are located at B9-8, Block B, SOHO Phase II, No. 9, Guanghua Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing, People’s Republic of China 100020. Our website is www.luokung.com. We routinely post important information on our website. The information contained on our website is not a part of this annual report.

Our agent for service of process in the United States is Worldwide Stock Transfer, LLC, the current transfer agent of the Company, with a mailing address of One University Plaza, Suite 505, Hackensack, New Jersey 07601.

The SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC at www.sec.gov. The Company’s website is www.luokung.com.

B. BUSINESS OVERVIEW.

We are a spatial-temporal intelligent big data services company, as well as a provider of interactive location-based services (“LBS”) and High Definition (“HD”) Maps for various industries in China. Backed by our proprietary technologies and expertise in HD Maps and multi-sourced intelligent spatial-temporal big data, we established city-level and industry-level holographic spatial-temporal digital twin systems and actively serves industries including smart transportation with applications in autonomous driving, smart highway and vehicle-road collaboration, natural resource asset management, covering carbon neutral and environmental protection remote sensing data service, and LBS smart industry applications, including mobile Internet LBS, smart travel, smart logistics, new infrastructure, smart cities, emergency rescue, etc. 

We believe that road-to-vehicle coordination is the keystone for smart travel and autonomous driving in the future. Therefore, smart cars require smart roads. We are actively deploying smart solutions for both vehicles and roads. 

For vehicles, we are supporting eMapgo’s position as an HD Map provider with continued investment in its technical R&D in the fields of autonomous driving data services, simulation services, and full-cognition Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) services with a goal of continuing to optimize, deepen and expand services for automakers and top-tier autonomous driving firms. We believe we have led the development of the industry standard for “Autonomous Driving HD Map Collection Element Model and Interaction Format”, and we expect that eMapgo will continue to play an active role in setting industry standards in the near future.

For roads, we are actively promoting smart road services based on its spatial-temporal digital base, including but not limited to HD Map-based smart road AI digital base, 24/7 road hazard awareness, severe weather perception and other road information data perception service systems and smart management platforms. With these efforts, Luokung aims to assist expressway operators in managing their digitized assets more securely and efficiently and to achieve vehicle-to-road data communication where vehicles can digitally receive roadside information that affects safety, convenience and comfort in real time. We are providing similar smart digital services for China’s new generation smart transportation demonstration project-Changjiu Expressway, a project that showcases our respected position in the field of smart highways.

Although Luokung’s AI spatial-temporal big data services do not directly solve the issue of carbon emissions, we believe that our data service helps policymakers, industry regulators and market service participants monitor real situation and data changes, in their efforts to reduce carbon emissions and to serve as an important digital base for carbon emission trading. We believe that Luokung has established China’s most powerful remote sensing data engine that integrates high-resolution remote sensing, HD maps and various IoT sensor data, enabling us to launch the most efficient remote sensing data processing service. This offering addresses a broader market focus on industrial applications in carbon emission, carbon neutrality, geographical resources, forestry resources, water resources, crops and others, a marketplace we define as a carbon neutrality natural resource asset service business.

As an LBS data services provider of information flow management and market services, the growth of the business is powered by its unified platform capabilities to manage the whole life cycle market services from planning, ordering, fulfilling, conversion monitoring and reporting. It can optimize the delivery effectiveness through account unification for different platforms and intelligent distribution among different marketing channels, formats and creatives to achieve higher efficiency, lower cost and better performance, based on real time feedback loop integrating delivery and result tracking.

Key Technologies

We believe our investments in our products and key technologies provide significant competitive differentiation and our technologies are disruptive innovations in computer graphics systems, spatial-temporal data analysis and processing. Our proprietary algorithms can eliminate certain time-consuming steps in data preprocessing, and maintain same level of high system performance with the amount of data increasing by orders of magnitude. It enables a new wave of technological upgrades in related industries to do more with less time and less power consumption.

Spatial temporal indexing technology.

This technology provides an effective indexing technique, covering both spatial dimension and temporal dimension. It separates the data and indexes, and solves the technological difficulties in spatial temporal big data processing, including storage, updating, management, indexing, reading, spatial relationship computation and analysis. This technology allows the users to efficiently and accurately obtain the data they need, and minimizes the transmission of unnecessary data, which achieves application efficiency not being affected even with explosive growth of data volume.

Adaptive reduction and compression technology

This technology allows full vector spatial data to be processed directly through the adaptive reduction and compression to meet the requirements of transmission performance for internet application. Our competing technologies require preprocessing full vector data into tiles in a rasterized format or in a vector format.

Progressive transmission technology

Progressive transmission technology is one of the key technologies to realize fast response in spatial data application. It supports lossless adaptive progressive transmission of spatial data, and the display and operation of map can be conducted with any network speed, for instance, by scaling, rotating, or translating. The display of map could be adjusted automatically in accordance with the network speed and users’ operation.

Progressive transmission technology makes system response time independent from the growth of spatial data, and also solves the performance problem in dealing with spatial temporal big data. The data integrity between users’ end and server is not compromised as the spatial relationship remains unchanged.

Full vector non-tiled technology

On the strength of our technologies, we support real-time release and real-time update of spatial vector data without the preprocessing step to rasterize the vector data, and we also support personalized display and analysis for the application of spatial data in real-time dynamic environment. Our indexing technology enables clients to establish a fast transmission channel between user and server, for both the large scope analysis and accurately pinning down details. Because the client can access the complete vector data, it solves the problem that only partial analysis could be performed on tiles. This will greatly expand the data computing capability of the client. In most scenarios, indexing can fulfill most of analysis requirements and application functions.

Luokung Smart Digital Base

Luokung Smart Digital Base supports a wide spectrum of data sources and achieves superior data management and processing capabilities in spatio-temporal big data, leveraging our unique technologies in SuperEngine indexing, geo optimized extensions in relational databases and super low latency implementation in handling massive scaled data volume by distributed databases. It solves availability, scalability, efficiency and extensibility in supporting various application scenarios. With ultimate data security and isolation designed in, it supports different deployment options, including on-premise, private cloud, public cloud, and hybrid cloud. Its rich mid-tier services and open architecture which allows third party plug-ins enable quick and efficient development and deployment of applications.

Our Services

Luokung SDKs and APIs. Our location based products, Luokung SDKs and APIs, provide spatial-temporal big data analysis and customized map to software and mobile application developers, and allow location-based contents and information to be integrated and presented on the map, which enables software and mobile application developers to create more diversified business models and service functions. Our proprietary full vector map presents refreshingly new and customizable location-based services to our business partners.

Spatial temporal indexing cloud. The spatial temporal indexing cloud service is a data-level virtualization technology we offer to our clients with high availability, extensibility and granular permission control. Our indexing cloud data centers offer highly integrated, dependable, efficient and secure services to meet the needs of varied spatial temporal requirements covering all types of clients, while shielding the details of data from disclosure to honor requested data protection.

Information SuperEngine. Our information SuperEngine includes the server engine and web graphics image engine. The server engine enables our clients to improve their ability and functions to store, manage and index the spatial temporal big data on the server side, and by establishing spatial temporal index on the server, our clients can rapidly and more efficiently obtain their requested data. Web graphics image engine, supports the rapid transmission of graphics image, and rapid display and edge computing ability for multi-terminal and cross-platform.

Spatial temporal cloud platform. Spatial temporal cloud platform supports deployment on public and private clouds to provide services for both industry users and public users. It provides comprehensive online cloud services including data storage, data resource and platform support, and it supports users to aggregate multi-source spatial data, map services, and Internet of things streaming data. By leveraging variety of industry templates, simple and easy-to-use tools for data editing, analysis and searching, users will be able to generate application systems for specific application scenarios. Various application operations can be performed through the mobile devices and Web browsers.

HD Map. HD Map is a core infrastructural component in smart transportation, autonomous driving and smart cities. Our professional map making fleets incorporate the latest technologies in AI and big data processing for data gathering, data processing, vectorization, map production and quality control, which resulted in improved efficiency and quality of HD Map making process. Our crowd sourcing map making technologies help our maps up to date with low cost and high efficiency. Our server side technology delivers least amount of map data to fulfill the needs of our clients in order to achieve faster response and reduce data transmission cost.

Autonomous driving enabling services. Our services cover a wide spectrum of functionalities, including vehicle side, road side and road-vehicle collaboration. Our capabilities on the vehicle side, in crowdsourcing map making and real-time map updating, in accurate and reliable positioning through multi-sensored intelligent fusion, and in vehicle surrounding awareness, help our partners to build smart cars. Our capabilities on the road side, in highway driving condition monitoring, in hazard condition detection, in intelligent road maintenance, help highway operators realize the benefits of smart roads. Our capabilities on the road-vehicle collaboration make autonomous driving more comfortable and most importantly safer.

Our Strategy

We put more effort on continually improving the quality of our products and services, and the user’s experience of our products, as we believe satisfied users and customers are more likely to recommend our products and services to others. Through these efforts and with the increased use of internet in China, we will build our brand with modest marketing expenditures. We have implemented a number of marketing initiatives to promote our brand awareness among potential users, customers. In addition to our brand positioning in the market, we have also initiated a series of marketing activities to promote our products and technologies among existing and potential users and customers.

We intend to invest heavily in product development to deliver additional features and performance enhancements, deployment models and solutions that can address new end markets. Our investments may involve hiring and associated development, acquisitions and licensing of third-party technology.

We will continue to increase investments in our sales and marketing organizations to expand our current customer base. Our investments will be spread across geographies, customer tiers and industries. We will continue to invest in and foster the growth of our channel relationships in China.

We will continue to drive customer satisfaction and renewals by offering community, standard, enterprise and global support to ensure our customers’ success with our offerings.

We intend to continue our investments in SDKs and APIs that help software developers leverage our platform. Our SDKs enable developers to build solutions that deeply integrate the analytics functionality of our offerings across the enterprise. Through our investments in SDKs and APIs, we intend to promote and extend the capabilities of our offerings to customers who wish to build sophisticated applications and interfaces that leverage our software and services.

Intellectual Property

We have registered the following software copyrights, patents and trademarks for our business operations. We believe this intellectual property forms an integral part of our competitive strength.

Patents:

We have been granted some inventions by the State Intellectual Property Office of PRC. We have patent protections for spatial-temporal big data processing technology and HD map. We have received the following patents:

We also have three patents outside of China.

Software Copyrights:

We have received the following software copyrights from the National Copyright Administration (“NCA”) of PRC:

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