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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 

FORM 20-F

 

(Mark One)

 

 

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

 

Commission file number: 001-38369

 

Huami Corporation

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Its Charter)

N/A

(Translation of Registrant’s Name Into English)

Cayman Islands

(Jurisdiction of Incorporation or Organization)

Building H8, No. 2800, Chuangxin Road Hefei, 230088 People’s Republic of China

(Address of Principal Executive Offices)

David Cui, Chief Financial Officer Building H8, No. 2800, Chuangxin Road Hefei, 230088 People’s Republic of China Phone: +86 551-65837200 Email: david.cui@huami.com

(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)

 

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

 

None

(Title of Class)

 

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

As of December 31, 2019, there were (i) 91,459,708 Class A ordinary shares issued and outstanding, par value US$0.0001 per share (excluding the 4,099,780 Class A ordinary shares issued to the depositary bank for bulk issuance of ADSs reserved for future issuances upon the exercise or vesting of awards granted under the 2015 Share Incentive Plan and the 2018 Share Incentive Plan), and (ii) 156,060,279 Class B ordinary shares issued and outstanding, par value US$0.0001 per share.

 

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

o Yes   x 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.

o Yes   x No

 

Note — Checking the box above will not relieve any registrant required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 from their obligations under those Sections.

 

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.

x Yes   o No

 

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

x Yes   o No

 

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

 

 

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. x

 

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

 

Indicate by check mark 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.

o Item 17   o 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).

o Yes   x No

 

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

 

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

 

o Yes   o No

 

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

 

INTRODUCTION		1
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS		1
PART I		2
ITEM 1.	IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS	2
ITEM 2.	OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE	2
ITEM 3.	KEY INFORMATION	2
ITEM 4.	INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY	37
ITEM 4A.	UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS	61
ITEM 5.	OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS	61
ITEM 6.	DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEES	80
ITEM 7.	MAJOR SHAREHOLDERS AND RELATED PARTY TRANSACTIONS	91
ITEM 8.	FINANCIAL INFORMATION	94
ITEM 9.	THE OFFER AND LISTING	94
ITEM 10.	ADDITIONAL INFORMATION	95
ITEM 11.	QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK	107
ITEM 12.	DESCRIPTION OF SECURITIES OTHER THAN EQUITY SECURITIES	107
PART II.		109
ITEM 13.	DEFAULTS, DIVIDEND ARREARAGES AND DELINQUENCIES	109
ITEM 14.	MATERIAL MODIFICATIONS TO THE RIGHTS OF SECURITY HOLDERS AND USE OF PROCEEDS	109
ITEM 15.	CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES	110
ITEM 16A.	AUDIT COMMITTEE FINANCIAL EXPERT	111
ITEM 16B.	CODE OF ETHICS	111
ITEM 16C.	PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT FEES AND SERVICES	111
ITEM 16D.	EXEMPTIONS FROM THE LISTING STANDARDS FOR AUDIT COMMITTEES	111
ITEM 16E.	PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES BY THE ISSUER AND AFFILIATED PURCHASERS	111
ITEM 16F.	CHANGE IN REGISTRANT’S CERTIFYING ACCOUNTANT	111
ITEM 16G.	CORPORATE GOVERNANCE	112
ITEM 16H.	MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE	112
PART III.		112
ITEM 17.	FINANCIAL STATEMENTS	112
ITEM 18.	FINANCIAL STATEMENTS	112
ITEM 19.	EXHIBITS	112

 

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INTRODUCTION

 

Unless otherwise indicated and except where the context otherwise requires, in this annual report on Form 20-F:

 

·                  “ADSs” refer to our American depositary shares, each of which represents four Class A ordinary shares;

 

·                  “ADRs” refer to the American depositary receipts that evidence our ADSs;

 

·                  “China” or the “PRC” refers to the People’s Republic of China, excluding, for the purpose of this annual report only, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan;

 

·                  “Class A ordinary shares” refer to our class A ordinary shares, par value US$0.0001 per share;

 

·                  “Class B ordinary shares” refer to our class B ordinary shares, par value US$0.0001 per share;

 

·                  “Huami,” “we,” “us,” “our company” or “our” refer to Huami Corporation, our Cayman Islands holding company and its subsidiaries, its consolidated variable interest entities and the subsidiaries of the consolidated variable interest entities;

 

·                  “Memorandum and Articles” refer to the second amended and restated memorandum of association and articles of association adopted by a special resolution passed on January 12, 2018 and effective on February 12, 2018;

 

·                  “Mobile App MAUs” refer to monthly active users of our mobile apps, which are represented by the number of accounts that have been logged into on our mobile apps during a given calendar month. The numbers of our Mobile App MAUs are calculated using internal company data that have not been independently verified. It is possible that some users may have set up more than one account;

 

·                  “ordinary shares” refer to our Class A and Class B ordinary shares, par value US$0.0001 per share;

 

·                  “Our platform” refers to the products and mobile apps that we provide to users and platform partners;

 

·                  “our VIEs” refer to Anhui Huami Information Technology Co., Ltd., a company incorporated in the PRC, and Huami (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd., a company incorporated in the PRC;

 

·                  “RMB” or “Renminbi” refers to the legal currency of China;

 

·                  “Shunyuan Kaihua” or “our WFOE” refers to Beijing Shunyuan Kaihua Technology Co., Ltd., a wholly owned foreign enterprise incorporated with limited liability in the PRC;

 

·                  “US$,” “U.S. dollars,” “$,” or “dollars” refer to the legal currency of the United States;

 

·                  “Xiaomi” refers to Xiaomi Corporation, of which we have been a major partner to design and manufacture Xiaomi Wearable Products; and

 

·                  “Xiaomi Wearable Products” refer to Xiaomi-branded smart bands, watches (excluding children watches and quartz watches), scales and associated accessories.

 

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

 

This annual report on Form 20-F contains forward-looking statements that relate to our current expectations and views of future events. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigations Reform Act of 1995.

 

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

 

·                  our goals and strategies;

 

·                  our future business development, financial conditions and results of operations;

 

·                  the expected growth of the smart wearable devices industry;

 

·                  our expectations regarding demand for and market acceptance of our products and services;

 

·                  our expectations regarding our relationships Xiaomi, our other distributors, customers, contract manufacturers, component suppliers, strategic partners and other stakeholders;

 

·                  competition in our industry; and

 

·                  relevant government policies and regulations relating to our industry.

 

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

 

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

 

Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars and from U.S. dollars to Renminbi in this annual report are made at a rate of RMB6.9618 to US$1.00, the exchange rate in effect as of December 31, 2019 as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. We make no representation that any Renminbi or U.S. dollar amounts could have been, or could be, converted into U.S. dollars or Renminbi, as the case may be, at any particular rate, or at all.

 

PART I

 

ITEM 1.                                                IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

 

Not applicable.

 

ITEM 2.                                                OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

 

Not applicable.

 

ITEM 3.                                                KEY INFORMATION

 

A.                                    Selected Financial Data

 

Our Selected Consolidated Financial Data

 

The following selected consolidated statements of operating data for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 and selected consolidated cash flow data for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report. The selected consolidated statements of operating data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2016, the selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and selected consolidated cash flow data for the years ended December 31, 2015 and 2016 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements that are not included in this annual report. Our consolidated financial statements are prepared and presented in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America, or U.S. GAAP.

 

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You should read the selected consolidated financial information in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and related notes and “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” included elsewhere in this annual report. Our historical results are not necessarily indicative of our results expected for future periods.

 

		Years Ended December 31,
		2015		2016		2017		2018		2019
		RMB		RMB		RMB		RMB		RMB		US$
		(in thousands, except for per share data)
Selected Consolidated Statements of Operating Data:
Revenues(1)		896,458		1,556,476		2,048,896		3,645,335		5,812,255		834,878
Cost of revenues(2)		785,867		1,280,324		1,554,194		2,705,885		4,344,512		624,050
Gross profit		110,591		276,152		494,702		939,450		1,467,743		210,828
Operating expenses:
Research and development expenses(3)		61,553		132,304		153,827		263,220		430,822		61,884
General and administrative expenses(3)		69,984		102,644		114,880		213,973		248,462		35,689
Selling and marketing expenses(3)		19,168		27,821		44,026		96,538		181,975		26,139
Total operating expenses		150,705		262,769		312,733		573,731		861,259		123,712
Operating (loss)/income		(40,114	)	13,383		181,969		365,719		606,484		87,116
Other income and expenses:
Realized gain from investments		—		—		2,373		261		1,822		262
Interest income		255		754		3,003		11,595		33,478		4,809
Gain from fair value change of long-term investments		—		—		—		7,860		—		—
Impairment loss from long-term investments		—		—		—		(7,590	)	(2,600	)	(373	)
Other income		1,109		14,726		4,555		8,768		13,186		1,894
(Loss)/income before income tax		(38,750	)	28,863		191,900		386,613		652,370		93,708
Income tax benefit/(expense)		897		(3,088	)	(27,611	)	(52,036	)	(77,887	)	(11,188	)
(Loss)/income before (loss)/income from equity method investments		(37,853	)	25,775		164,289		334,577		574,483		82,520
(Loss)/income from equity method investments		—		(1,829	)	2,806		1,743		(1,112	)	(160	)
Net (loss)/income		(37,853	)	23,946		167,095		336,320		573,371		82,360
Less: net loss attributable to non-controlling interest		—		—		(587	)	(3,726	)	(1,825	)	(262	)
Net (loss)/income attributable to Huami Corporation		(37,853	)	23,946		167,682		340,046		575,196		82,622
Net (loss)/income per share attributable to ordinary shareholders of Huami Corporation:
Basic (loss)/income per ordinary share		(1.22	)	(0.22	)	0.68		0.54		2.35		0.34
Diluted (loss)/income per ordinary share		(1.22	)	(0.22	)	0.65		0.51		2.24		0.32

 

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Notes:

 

(1)         Includes RMB876.7 million, RMB1,449.9 million, RMB1,778.6 million, RMB2,817.0 million and RMB4,281.0 million (US$614.9 million) with related parties for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

 

(2)         Includes RMB762.9 million, RMB1,198.3 million, RMB1,355.5 million, RMB2,141.1 million and RMB3,342.1 million (US$480.1 million) with related parties for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

 

(3)         Share-based compensation expenses were included in operating expenses. Our share-based compensation expenses were the result of (i) our grants of options, restricted shares and restricted share units under our share incentive plans to our employees, and (ii) the share restriction agreements entered into among our founders and our preferred shareholders in relation to our private financing transactions in January 2014 and April 2015. For the years ended December 31, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, we recorded share-based compensation expenses of RMB37.2 million, RMB50.8 million, RMB51.5 million, RMB55.3 million and RMB17.8 million (US$2.6 million), respectively, in relation to the vesting of the restricted shares of our founders under the share restriction agreements.

 

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

 

		As of December, 31
		2015		2016		2017		2018		2019
		RMB		RMB		RMB		RMB		RMB		US$
		(in thousands)
Selected Consolidated Balance Sheet Data:
Current assets:
Cash and cash equivalents		219,987		153,152		366,336		1,441,802		1,803,117		259,002
Accounts receivable (net of allowance of nil, nil and nil as of December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively)		21,924		19,707		32,867		58,925		188,940		27,140
Amount due from related parties (net of allowance of nil, nil and nil as of December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively)		172,966		476,698		578,454		656,399		1,421,170		204,138
Inventories		89,946		192,372		249,735		484,622		893,806		128,387
Non-current assets:
Property, plant and equipment, net		2,926		10,801		28,755		40,042		64,350		9,243
Total assets		529,079		972,896		1,465,517		3,258,481		5,174,743		743,306
Current liabilities:
Accounts payable		252,073		524,072		707,782		1,064,106		1,999,951		287,275
Bank borrowings		—		10,000		30,000		20,000		—		—
Total liabilities		277,823		634,370		887,735		1,448,903		2,677,155		384,550
Total liabilities, mezzanine equity and equity		529,079		972,896		1,465,517		3,258,481		5,174,743		743,306

 

The following table presents our selected cash flows for the years indicated.

 

		Years Ended December 31,
		2015		2016		2017		2018		2019
		RMB		RMB		RMB		RMB		RMB		US$
		(in thousands)
Selected Consolidated Cash Flow Data:
Net cash (used in)/provided by operating activities		(6,767	)	17,266		238,336		707,605		427,999		61,479
Net cash used in investing activities		(4,911	)	(99,387	)	(38,881	)	(324,841	)	(112,703	)	(16,188	)
Net cash provided by financing activities		214,063		10,024		20,089		639,170		25,609		3,678
Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents		202,385		(72,097	)	219,544		1,021,934		340,905		48,969
Exchange rate effect on cash and cash equivalents		10,226		5,262		(3,175	)	60,357		11,274		1,619
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at the beginning of year		7,376		219,987		153,152		369,521		1,451,812		208,540
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash at end of year		219,987		153,152		369,521		1,451,812		1,803,991		259,128

 

B.                                    Capitalization and Indebtedness

 

Not applicable.

 

C.                                    Reasons for the Offer and Use of Proceeds

 

Not applicable.

 

D.                                    Risk Factors

 

Risks Related to Our Business

 

Xiaomi is our most important customer and distribution channel. Any deterioration of our relationship with Xiaomi or reduction of sales of Xiaomi Wearable Products could have a material adverse effect on our operating results.

 

Xiaomi is the sole customer and distribution channel for all Xiaomi Wearable Products, and it held 14.5% of our total outstanding shares as of March 31, 2020. For the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, sales of Xiaomi Wearable Products contributed 78.8%, 66.9% and 72.2% of our revenues, respectively.

 

We entered into a strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi in October 2017, which grants us the most-preferred-partner status globally to develop future Xiaomi Wearable Products. This strategic cooperation agreement can be terminated by Xiaomi and we can therefore lose the most-preferred-partner status if we fail to meet the various requirements set out in the agreement, such as requirements on product launching timetable, product quality and annual sales target of Xiaomi Wearable Products. In addition, Xiaomi has the option to develop by itself or engage other companies to develop similar and competing products, if such companies can offer better terms and services than we do—for example such companies may ask for less profit sharing or less intellectual property rights from their cooperation with Xiaomi. The strategic cooperation agreement will expire in October 2020; we cannot assure you that we will be able to renew this agreement upon its expiry or on the same terms. If for any reason, we cannot maintain our cooperation relationship with Xiaomi or renew the strategic cooperation agreement with terms equally favorable to us as compared to those in the existing agreement, our business and operation results may be materially and adversely affected. For more details of the strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi, including under what circumstances it can be early terminated, please see “Item 7. Major Shareholders and Related Party Transactions—B. Related Party Transaction—Our Relationship with Xiaomi—Strategic Cooperation Agreement.”

 

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In addition, pursuant to our business cooperation agreement with Xiaomi, we and Xiaomi shall jointly set the retail price of Xiaomi Wearable Products (including the Mi Band Series). Because we cannot unilaterally determine the retail price of Xiaomi Wearable Products, we cannot assure you that we will be able to continue to introduce Xiaomi Wearable Products with retail price levels that can sustain or improve our gross or net profit margins. In addition, marketing considerations on the part of Xiaomi and other factors beyond our control may also cause Xiaomi Wearable Products to be priced at relatively low levels that may negatively affect the gross and net profit margins of Xiaomi Wearable Products, as a result of which our business and operation results may be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, negative publicity related to Xiaomi, including products offered by Xiaomi, the celebrities Xiaomi is associated with, or even the labor policies of any of Xiaomi’s suppliers or manufacturers may have a material adverse effect on the sales of our products.

 

In addition, Xiaomi sells a broad spectrum of electronic products through its online and offline channels. We cannot assure you that our products can always receive the same level of attention and promotion efforts from Xiaomi as they have been so far receiving. In the event that Xiaomi dedicates less resources in promoting and selling our products, our revenue may decrease as well. If we lose Xiaomi as our customer or distribution channel for any reason, we will need to build a larger distribution network on our own, which can be time and resource consuming, and there is no assurance that we can achieve that in an effective and efficient manner, or at all. In November 2019, Xiaomi launched its own smart watch product, the Xiaomi Mi Watch series. We believe this launch has, to some extent, diluted potential buyers’ attention to the watches we designed and manufactured for Xiaomi and our self-branded watches that are available on Xiaomi’s platforms, and we expect the dilution to continue, which negatively affects our sales performance and in turn, our results of operations.

 

When exercising its rights as our shareholder, Xiaomi may take into account not only the interests of our company and our shareholders but also its interests and the interests of its other affiliates. The interests of our company and our shareholders may at times conflict with the interests of Xiaomi and its affiliates. Such conflicts may result in lost corporate opportunities for our company, including opportunities to enter into lines of business that may overlap with those pursued by Xiaomi and/or the companies within its ecosystem.

 

If we fail to successfully and timely develop and commercialize new products, services and technologies, our operating results may be materially and adversely affected.

 

Historically, sales of smart bands and watches contributed a significant majority of our revenues and our growth has been influenced by our product launches and product cycle. In particular, sales of our smart band products and watches (including Xiaomi- and Amazfit-branded products) contributed 86.6%, 90.7% and 91.8% of our total revenues in the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. Our future growth depends on whether we can continually develop and introduce new generations of our existing product lines and new forms of smart wearable technology with enhanced functionalities and value-added services in a timely manner. This is particularly important in the current industry landscape where technology and consumer preference evolve constantly and rapidly, which may cause our existing products to reach the end of their lifecycles prematurely and require us to introduce new products with enhanced functionalities to sustain our growth. Our capability to roll out new or enhanced products and services in turn depend on a number of factors, including timely and successful research and development efforts by us as well as our suppliers to bring cutting-edge technologies to the market, quality control of service provision and product manufacturing and the effectiveness of our distribution channels. Pursuant to our strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi, we are also required to consult Xiaomi regarding the product launch timetable for Xiaomi Wearable Products. If we are unable to commercialize appealing new products, functionalities, services or innovative technologies leveraging our data in a timely manner and introduce them to consumers at attractive price points compared to our existing products and competing products, or our new products, services or technologies are not accepted or adopted by consumers, our competitors may increase their market share, which could adversely impact our operating results. In addition, the research and development of new or enhanced products and services can be complex and costly. Given the complexity, we could experience delays in completing the development and introduction of new and enhanced services and products in the future. Our research and development effort may not yield the benefits we expect to achieve at all after we dedicate our time and resources into it.

 

We are endeavoring to apply our products in more scenarios, and medical use is one area that we put in significant efforts. Some of our existing products monitor users’ cardiac cycle, which have significant potential for medical application. We have obtained the medical device registration certificate for our ECG health band products, and we will also need to obtain the same certificate if our other products are to be used for medical application. The process of obtaining regulatory clearances or approvals to market a medical device for our other products, however, can be costly and time consuming. We may not be able to obtain these clearances or approvals on a timely basis, or at all, in order to extend our business into the medical use wearable device market. Moreover, even if we successfully obtain the required approvals for our products, given the complex and stringent nature of regulations on medical devices, failure to comply with applicable National Medical Products Administration regulations will subject us to enforcement actions such as fines, civil penalties or recalls of products, which could harm our reputation and operating results.

 

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We operate in highly competitive markets and the scale and resources of some of our competitors may allow them to compete more effectively than we can, which could result in a loss of our market share and a decrease in our revenue and profitability.

 

We offer a number of products and services and compete with a variety of competitors. For example, the smart wearables market has a multitude of participants, including consumer electronics companies specialized in smart wearable technology, such as Fitbit and Garmin; large, broad-based consumer electronics companies that either compete in our market or adjacent markets, or have announced plans to do so, such as Huawei, Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi; traditional health and fitness companies and traditional watch companies. We also face competition from local providers of similar products in the various regions and countries where our products are distributed. Intensified competition may result in pricing pressures and reduced profit margins and may impede our ability to continue to increase the sales of our products or cause us to lose market share, any of which could substantially harm our results of operations.

 

Many of our existing and potential competitors enjoy substantial competitive advantages, such as: (i) longer operating history, (ii) the capacity to leverage their sales efforts and marketing expenditures across a broader portfolio of products, (iii) more established relationships with a larger number of suppliers, contract manufacturers and channel partners, (iv) access to larger and broader user bases, (v) greater brand recognition, (vi) greater financial, research and development, marketing, distribution and other resources, (vii) more resources to make investments and acquisitions, (viii) larger intellectual property portfolios, and (ix) the ability to bundle competitive offerings with other products and services.

 

If we are unable to anticipate and satisfy consumer preferences in a timely manner or if technological innovation renders existing smart wearable technology non-competitive or obsolete, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

 

Consumer preferences in smart wearable devices are changing rapidly and difficult to predict. Consumers may decide not to purchase our products and services as their preferences shift to different types or designs of smart wearable devices, or even move away from these categories of products and services altogether. In particular, new technologies might bring about industry-wide impacts and make the category of smart bands and watches less appealing or obsolete. In addition, our new products and services with additional features have higher prices than many of our earlier products, which may not appeal to as large a consumer base. Accordingly, if we fail to anticipate and satisfy consumer preferences in a timely manner, or if it is perceived that our future products and services will not satisfy consumer preferences, our business may be adversely affected.

 

In addition, as the smart wearable technology continues to develop, the functions of smart bands and smart watches may converge, which in turn may cause our smart band product lines to compete with our smart watch product lines and inhibit our future growth.

 

Our future success depends on our ability to promote our own brands and protect our reputation. The failure to establish and promote our brands, including Amazfit, and any damage to our reputation will hinder our growth.

 

Since September 2015, we have begun to use the brand, “Amazfit,” to sell our products that are not designed and manufactured for Xiaomi to address the middle to high-end market. Prior to that, all of our products were Xiaomi Wearable Products. We believe the strategy to establish and promote our own brand is crucial to our future success as it expands our addressable market and gives us more flexibility in terms of pricing, distribution and marketing compared to our cooperation with Xiaomi on Xiaomi Wearable Products. We have invested, and will need to continue to dedicate, significant time, efforts and resources to build our own brand recognition. Shipments of our self-branded products have increased from approximately 3.1 million units in 2018 to approximately 3.9 million units in 2019. For the year ended December 31, 2019, revenues from our self-branded products and others segment, substantially all of which was from the sales of our self-branded products, were RMB1,618.6 million (US$232.5 million), representing 27.8% of our total revenues. However, we cannot guarantee that the shipment of our self-branded products will continue to grow, or that our promotion efforts will ultimately be successful, as it involves numerous factors including the effectiveness of our marketing efforts, our ability to provide consistent, high quality products and services, and our consumers’ satisfaction with the technical support and software updates we provide.

 

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In addition, negative publicity related to our brand, products, contract manufacturers, component suppliers, distributors, strategic partners and the celebrities we are associated with could damage and offset our effort to promote our own brands. For example, our company name in Chinese character, “华米,” has been preempted as a trademark by a company unaffiliated to us under certain trademark categories in China. This company currently manufactures and sells products and service lines similar to ours using this trademark. As a result, consumers may be confused and associate any quality issue on the products and services they provide with us, which will have an adverse impact on our brand image. In addition, although brand security initiatives are in place, we cannot guarantee that our efforts against the counterfeiting of our brands will be successful. If a third-party copies our products in a manner that projects lesser quality or carries a negative connotation, our brand image could be materially and adversely affected. Furthermore, our company name Huami and our brand Amazfit have been preempted as trademarks by third parties in a number of countries overseas, including Spain, Indonesia and Paraguay (with respect to Amazfit and related logos). The trademark holder in Indonesia has transferred its right to us. While we are contesting the registration of these trademarks by such third parties in each of these countries, we cannot assure you that we will prevail in these proceedings.

 

We do not have internal manufacturing capabilities and rely on several contract manufacturers to produce our products. If we encounter issues with these contract manufacturers, our business, brand and results of operations could be harmed.

 

We do not maintain our own manufacturing capabilities and rely on contract manufactures to produce our products. We assign the production of Mi Band series and Mi Smart Scale series to a number of manufacturers while each of our self-branded product lines is assigned to a corresponding manufacturer. We may experience operational difficulties with our manufacturers, including reductions in the availability of production capacity, failures to comply with product specifications, insufficient quality control, failures to meet production deadlines, increases in manufacturing costs and longer lead time required. Our manufacturers may experience disruptions in their manufacturing operations due to equipment breakdowns, labor strikes or shortages, natural disasters, component or material shortages, cost increases or other similar problems. In addition, we may not be able to renew contracts with our contract manufacturers or identify manufacturers who are capable of producing new products we target to launch in the future.

 

We are susceptible to supply shortages, long lead time for raw materials and components, and supply changes, any of which could disrupt our supply chain and have a material adverse impact on our results of operation because some of the key components of our products, such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) system-on-chip and sensors, come from a limited number or a single source of supply.

 

All of the components and raw materials used to produce our products are sourced from third-party suppliers, and some of these components are sourced from a limited number of or a single supplier. Therefore, we are subject to risks of shortages or discontinuation in supply, long lead time, cost increases and quality control issues given the limited sources of suppliers. In addition, some of our suppliers may have more established relationships with our competitors, and as a result of such relationships, such suppliers may choose to limit or terminate their relationship with us or prioritize our competitors’ orders in the case of supply shortages. We have in the past experienced and may in the future experience component shortages. For example, we experienced component shortages and longer lead time for components such as PPG (photoplethysmography) sensors in 2018, due to higher than expected demand for Xiaomi Wearable Products and our smart watches product lines. In addition, as many of electronics component suppliers are concentrated in East and Southeast Asia, there have been industry-wide conditions, health crisis, natural disasters and global events in the past that have caused material shortages for components, such as a shortage of flash memory in 2011 in aftermath of the tragic earthquake and tsunami in Japan. While component shortages have historically been immaterial, they could be material in the future.

 

In the event of a component shortage or supply interruption from suppliers of key components, we will need to identify alternate sources of supply, which can be time-consuming, difficult and costly. We may not be able to source these components on terms that are acceptable to us, or at all, which may undermine our ability to meet our production requirements or to fill our orders in a timely manner. This could cause delays in shipment of our products, harm our relationships with our customers, distributors and users, and adversely affect our results of operations.

 

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Our operating results could be materially harmed if we or Xiaomi is unable to accurately forecast consumer demand for our products and services or manage our inventory.

 

To ensure adequate inventory supply for our products, we procure raw materials and components based on sales and production forecasts. The ability to accurately forecast demand for our products and services could be affected by many factors, including changes in customer demand for our products and services or our competitors’, sales promotions by us or our competitors, sales channel inventory levels, and unanticipated changes in general market and economic conditions. In addition, as we continue to introduce new products and services, we may also face challenges managing the production plan of our existing products, which may in turn affect the inventory management for our existing products. If we or Xiaomi fails to accurately forecast customer demand, we may experience excess inventory levels or a shortage of products available for sale. After we sell Xiaomi Wearable Products to Xiaomi, Xiaomi will only have limited right of return if the products have quality issues and will largely bear the inventory risks of such products. However, inventory levels in excess of end-customer demand may still ultimately result in inventory write-downs or write-offs and the sale of excess inventory at discounted prices, which may cause our gross margin to suffer and could impair the strength of our brand. On the other hand, in the case we experience shortage of products, we may be unable to meet the demand for our products, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected. We expect that it will become more difficult to forecast demand as we introduce and develop a more diverse product portfolio and as market competition for similar products intensifies.

 

We collect, store, process and use personal information and other user data, which subjects us to governmental regulations and other legal obligations related to privacy, information security, and data protection, and any security breaches or our actual or perceived failure to comply with such legal obligations could harm our brand and business.

 

Due to the volume and sensitivity of the personal information and biometric data we collect and manage and the nature of our products, the security features of our enterprise platform and information systems are critical.

 

We have adopted security policies and measures, including encryption technology, to protect our proprietary data and user information. However, our enterprise platform and information systems may be targets of attacks, such as viruses, malware or phishing attempts by cyber criminals or other wrongdoers seeking to steal our user data for financial gain or to harm our business operations or reputation. The loss, misuse or compromise of such information may result in costly investigations, remediation efforts and notification to affected users. If such content is accessed by unauthorized third parties or deleted inadvertently by us or third parties, our brand and reputation could be adversely affected. Cyber-attacks could also adversely affect our operating results, consume internal resources, and result in litigation or potential liability for us and otherwise harm our business. In addition, according to our cooperation agreement with Xiaomi, both Xiaomi and we have access and can collect and use user data of Xiaomi Wearable Products. Consequently, any leak or abuse of user data by Xiaomi may be perceived by consumers as a result of the compromise of our information security system. Any failure or perceived failure by us to prevent information security breaches or to comply with privacy policies or privacy-related legal and administrative obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other user data, could cause our users to lose trust in us and could expose us to legal claims.

 

A growing number of legislative and regulatory bodies have adopted consumer notification requirements in the event of unauthorized access to or acquisition of certain types of personal data. Such breach notification laws continue to evolve and may be inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another, which might become a particular concern as we accelerate our international expansion. Complying with these obligations could cause us to incur substantial costs and could increase negative publicity surrounding any incident that compromises user data. Any failure to comply with applicable regulations could also result in regulatory enforcement actions against us.

 

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Our patents, know-how, trade secrets and other intellectual property rights and proprietary rights are critical to our success. Any failure to obtain, maintain, enforce or protect our patents and other intellectual property rights would materially and adversely harm our business, competitive position, results of operations and financial condition.

 

We rely on intellectual property rights such as patents, trademarks, copyrights, and domain names in China and other foreign jurisdictions to carry out our business operations. Given our technological advantages and brand recognition, we may become an attractive target to counterfeiting and intellectual property theft activity. Despite the measures we have taken to safeguard our intellectual property rights, any of our intellectual property rights could be challenged, invalidated, circumvented, infringed or misappropriated. In addition, it is often difficult to register, maintain and enforce intellectual property rights in various developing countries around the world, such as in China. Statutory laws and regulations are subject to judicial interpretation and enforcement and may not be applied consistently due to the lack of clear guidance on statutory interpretation. Accordingly, we may not be able to effectively protect our intellectual property rights or to enforce our contractual rights in a number of jurisdictions in which we operate, such as China. Policing any unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly, and the steps we take may be inadequate to prevent the infringement or misappropriation of our intellectual property. In the event that we resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, such litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our managerial and financial resources, and could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or narrowed in scope. We can provide no assurance that we will prevail in such litigation, and even if we do prevail, we may not obtain a meaningful recovery.

 

Various other issues may arise with respect to our intellectual property portfolio. We and Xiaomi are co-owners of certain patents, certain other intellectual properties and user data related to Xiaomi Wearable Products. There is a possibility that Xiaomi may use these intellectual properties and user data to develop and manufacture competing products on its own or engage other companies leveraging such resources to do so. In addition, we may not have sufficient intellectual property rights in all countries and regions where unauthorized third-party copying or use of our proprietary technology may occur and the scope of our intellectual property might be more limited in certain countries and regions. Our existing and future patents may not be sufficient to protect our products, services, technologies or designs and/or may not prevent others from developing competing products, services, technologies or designs. We cannot predict the validity and enforceability of our patents and other intellectual property with certainty.

 

We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.

 

Filing, prosecuting and defending patents and other intellectual property on our products and services in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and we may encounter difficulties in protecting and defending such rights in foreign jurisdictions. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our intellectual property in all countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our intellectual property. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained intellectual property protection to develop their own products and may also export infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.

 

Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of many other countries do not favor the enforcement of patents and other intellectual property protection, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our intellectual property in such countries. Proceedings to enforce our intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions could result in substantial cost and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our intellectual property at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing, and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop.

 

Our business may suffer if it is alleged or determined that our technologies, products, or other aspects of our business infringe third party intellectual property or if third parties infringe our rights.

 

We may fail to own or apply for key trademarks or patents on important products, services, technologies or designs in a timely fashion, or at all, both in China and overseas. For example, our company name in Chinese characters, “华米”, has been registered as a trademark by a company unaffiliated to us in certain trademark categories in China. Furthermore, the pending applications for the registration of “Huami” were initially unsuccessful, challenged or rejected in China, Egypt, Australia, Colombia, EU, Saudi Arabia and India. As such, we currently cannot use the “华米” trademark in certain categories of products and our self-branded products are sold under the brand name of “Amazfit.” In addition, this company currently manufactures and sells products and service lines similar to ours under the “华米” trademark. As a result, consumers may be confused and associate any quality issue on the products and services they provide with us, which will have an adverse impact on our brand image. Furthermore, the “华米” trademark in several other trademark categories—which is contractually owned jointly by Xiaomi and us—is currently registered under the name of Xiaomi alone. Xiaomi is in the process of transferring its title to us pursuant to the relevant agreement. However, in the event that the transfer process is not completed as planned, we will not be able to use “华米” as a trademark in these additional categories as well.

 

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We have registered “Amazfit” as our trademarks in China in several categories and in the U.S., and we are in the process of registering it in additional categories or in combination with logo. There can be no assurance, however, that we will be able to register the trademark of “Amazfit” in all of the categories or formats as we desire. As of the date of this annual report, the pending application of the “Amazfit” logo was initially unsuccessful in China, and the pending applications for registration of “Amazfit” and related logos were initially unsuccessful, challenged or rejected in Thailand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, Egypt, Colombia, Malaysia, Ukraine and Indonesia for reasons including but not limited to third parties having already registered similar marks in those countries.

 

Accordingly, it may be possible, in jurisdictions where the status of various applications is pending, unclear, challenged or rejected, for a third-party owner of the national trademark registration for a similar mark to prohibit the manufacture, sale or exportation of our products in or from that country. Failure to register our trademarks or purchase or license the right to use our trademarks or logos in these countries could limit our ability to obtain supplies from, or manufacture in, less costly markets or penetrate new markets should our business plan include selling our products in those countries. Additionally, we receive from time to time letters alleging infringement of patents, trademarks or other intellectual property rights by us.

 

Any significant cybersecurity incident or disruption of our information technology systems or those of third-party partners could materially damage user relationships and subject us to significant reputational, financial, legal and operation consequences.

 

We depend on our information technology systems, as well as those of third parties, to develop new products and services, operate our platform, host and manage our services, store data, process transactions, respond to user inquiries, and manage inventory and our supply chain. Any material disruption or slowdown of our systems or those of third parties whom we depend upon, including a disruption or slowdown caused by our failure to successfully manage significant increases in user volume, could cause outages or delays in our services, particularly in the form of interruption of services delivered by our mobile applications, which could harm our brand and adversely affect our operating results. We rely on cloud servers maintained by cloud service providers to store our data, and the majority of the data we collected are hosted at Xiaomi’s cloud servers. We are in the process of transferring our overseas data to the Amazon Web Services, and we expect to finish the transfer in 2020. Problems with our cloud service providers or the telecommunications network providers with whom they contract could adversely affect the experience of our users. We cannot guarantee that our cloud service providers will provide us with continuously uninterrupted services. Any change in service levels at our cloud servers or any errors, defects, disruptions, or other performance problems with our platform could harm our brand and may damage the data of our users. If changes in technology cause our information systems, or those of third parties whom we depend upon, to become obsolete, or if our or their information systems are inadequate to handle our growth, we could lose users and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

 

We have adopted security policies and measures, including encryption technology, to protect our proprietary data and user information. However, advances in technology, the expertise of hackers, new discoveries in the field of cryptography or other events or developments could result in a compromise or breach of the technology that we use to protect confidential information. We may not be able to prevent third parties, especially hackers or other individuals or entities engaging in similar activities, from illegally obtaining such confidential or private information we hold by using our products and mobile apps. Such individuals or entities obtaining our users’ confidential or private information may further engage in various other illegal activities using such information. Any negative publicity on the safety or privacy protection mechanisms and policies, and any claims asserted against us or fines imposed upon us as a result of actual or perceived failures, could have a material and adverse effect on our public image, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

 

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Practices regarding the collection, use, storage, transmission and security of personal information by companies operating over the internet and mobile platforms are under increased public scrutiny. As smart wearable and AI technologies continue to evolve, we believe that increased regulation by the PRC government of data privacy on the internet is likely. We may become subject to new laws and regulations applying to the collection, processing or use of personal or user information that could affect how we store, process and share data with our users and partners. For example, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China and the Standardization Administration of China jointly issued the Standard of Information Security Technology—Personal Information Security Specification, which has come into effect in May 2018 and was further amended in March 2020. Pursuant to this standard, personal data controllers, i.e., entities or persons who are authorized to determine the purposes and methods for using and processing personal information, should collect information in accordance with the principles of legality and minimization and should also obtain a consent from the information provider. On November 28, 2019, the Secretary Bureau of the Cyberspace Administration of China, the General Office of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the General Office of the Ministry of Public Security and the General Office of the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly promulgated the Identification Method of Illegal Collection and Use of Personal Information Through App, which provides guidance for the regulatory authorities to identify the illegal collection and use of personal information through mobile apps, and for the app operators to conduct self-examination and self-correction and for other participants to voluntarily monitor compliance. Moreover, regulatory authorities in China have recently increased their supervision on the collection and use of personal information over mobile applications. In December 2019, a notice from a governmental authority was informally forwarded to us, stating that the authority had observed inconvenient operation for users to cancel information pushing and their accounts of one of our apps, which might interfere with users’ exercising of their user right. The notice required us to make rectification or raise an objection and make a defense within a prescribed time limit. In order to optimize user experience of our app, we waived the right to make a defense, and immediately adjusted our privacy policies and offered easier cancellation procedures for users to exercise their rights more conveniently in accordance with the relevant personal information protection laws and regulations within such prescribed time limit. However, we cannot assure you that similar incident will not occur in the future. Any of these incidents may adversely affect our brand and reputation, consume our managerial resources, result in potential liability of us or administrative measures being enforced on us, or otherwise harm our business. In addition, we may need to comply with increasingly complex and rigorous regulatory standards enacted to protect business and personal data in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. For example, the European Union adopted the General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, which became effective on May 25, 2018. The GDPR imposes additional obligations on companies regarding the handling of personal data and provides certain individual privacy rights to persons whose data is stored. The GDPR requires submission of personal data breach notifications to designated European privacy regulator in each country our products are distributed in, and includes significant penalties for non-compliance with the notification obligation as well as other requirements of the regulation.

 

In addition, in the United States, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, governs the privacy and security of health information and require that covered entities, including most health care providers, implement administrative, physical, and technical safeguards to protect the security of individually identifiable health information that is maintained or transmitted electronically. Violations of the HIPAA privacy and security regulations could result in significant civil and criminal penalties. The California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which took effect in January 2020, also establishes certain transparency rules and creates new data privacy rights for users, including more ability to control how their data is shared with third parties. These laws and regulations are evolving and subject to interpretation. Similarly, there are a number of legislative proposals in the European Union, the United States, at both the federal and state level, as well as other jurisdictions that could impose new obligations or limitations in areas affecting our business. In addition, some countries are considering or have passed legislation implementing data protection requirements or requiring local storage and processing of data or similar requirements that could increase the cost and complexity of delivering our services.

 

We generally comply with industry standards and are subject to the terms of our own privacy policies. Compliance with any additional laws could be expensive, and may place restrictions on the conduct of our business and the manner in which we interact with our customers. For each product we develop, we gather personnel from product team, research and development team, security team and legal team to thoroughly assess the privacy risks related to the product. We review the character, potential and defined sales areas, types of personal data to be collected, related purpose for data collection and other aspects of each product to ensure compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including GDPR and CCPA regulations. For upgraded services and additional functions to be added to established products, we go through the same procedures. However, we cannot guarantee that our efforts will be effective or sufficient. Compliance with existing, proposed and recently enacted laws (including implementation of the privacy and process enhancements called for under GDPR) and regulations can be costly. Any failure to comply with applicable regulations could also result in regulatory enforcement actions against us, and the misuse of or failure to secure personal information could also result in violation of data privacy laws and regulations, proceedings against us by governmental entities or others, damage our reputation and credibility and could have a negative impact on revenues and profits.

 

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Significant capital and other resources may be required to protect against information security breaches or to alleviate problems caused by such breaches or to comply with our privacy policies or privacy-related legal obligations. The resources required may increase over time as the methods used by hackers and others engaged in online criminal activities are increasingly sophisticated and constantly evolving. Any failure or perceived failure by us to prevent information security breaches or to comply with privacy policies or privacy-related legal obligations, or any compromise of security that results in the unauthorized release or transfer of personally identifiable information or other customer data, could cause our customers to lose trust in us and could expose us to legal claims. Any perception by the public that online transactions or the privacy of user information are becoming increasingly unsafe or vulnerable to attacks could inhibit the growth of our business in general, which may reduce the number of orders we receive.

 

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

 

Since our founding in December 2013, our company has experienced rapid growth. Continued growth of our business requires us to expand our product development, sales and marketing, and distribution functions, to upgrade our management information systems and other processes and technology, and to secure more space for our expanding workforce. Such expansion could increase the strain on our resources, and we could experience serious operating difficulties, including difficulties in hiring, training, and managing an increasing number of employees.

 

As we only have a limited history of operating our business at its current scale, it is difficult to evaluate our current business and future prospects, including our ability to plan for and model future growth. Our limited operating experience at this scale, combined with the rapidly evolving nature of the market in which we sell our products and services, substantial uncertainty concerning how these markets may develop, and other economic factors beyond our control, reduces our ability to accurately forecast quarterly or annual revenue. As such, any predictions about our future revenue and expenses may not be as accurate as they would be if we had a longer operating history or operated in a more developed and predictable market. Failure to manage our future growth effectively could have an adverse effect on our business, which, in turn, could have an adverse impact on our operating results and financial condition.

 

We are subject to a variety of costs and risks due to our continued expansion internationally that may not be successful and could adversely affect our profitability and operating results.

 

Our products have international versions that are manufactured for sales and distribution in overseas markets. The shipment volume of international versions of our products, as a percentage of our total shipment volume, increased from 23.8% in 2017 to 44.2% in 2018, and further to 51.6% in 2019. International expansion represents a large opportunity to further grow our business and enhance our competitive position, and is one of our core strategies.

 

We may enter into new geographic markets where we have limited or no experience in marketing, selling, and localizing and deploying our products. International expansion has required and will continue to require us to invest significant capital and other resources and our efforts may not be successful. International sales and operations may be subject to risks such as:

 

·                  limited brand recognition (compared with our home market in China);

 

·                  costs associated with establishing new distribution networks;

 

·                  foreign consumers’ preferences and customs;

 

·                  difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations;

 

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·                  burdens of complying with a wide variety of local laws and regulations, including packaging and labeling;

 

·                  adverse tax effects and foreign exchange controls making it difficult to repatriate earnings and cash;

 

·                  political and economic instability;

 

·                  trade restrictions, including sanction-related restrictions;

 

·                  differing employment practices and laws and labor disruptions;

 

·                  the imposition of government controls;

 

·                  lesser degrees of intellectual property protection;

 

·                  tariffs and customs duties and the classifications of our goods by applicable governmental bodies; and

 

·                  a legal system subject to undue influence or corruption.

 

The occurrence of any of these risks could negatively affect our international business and consequently our business and operating results. In addition, the concern over these risks may also prevent us from entering into or releasing certain of our products in certain markets.

 

We had in the past relied on Xiaomi’s brand recognition and distribution channels in markets outside China. In 2019, we explored domestic and international sales and marketing channels for our Amazfit products on our own, and we plan to keep doing so in the foreseeable future. We have incurred expenses on a variety of different sales and marketing efforts designed to enhance our brand recognition and increase sales of our Amazfit products. Our marketing and branding activities may not achieve anticipated results. If we fail to enhance our marketing approaches and experiment with new marketing methods, or fail to do so in a cost-effective manner, our expansion efforts will be hindered.

 

We are exposed to potential liabilities arising from the products we sell, and costs related to defective products could have a material adverse impact on us.

 

Contractual disputes over warranties of our products can arise in the ordinary course of our business. In extreme situations, we may be exposed to potential personal injury liabilities as a result of the misuse or quality defects of the products we sell. There can be no assurance that we will not experience material product liability losses in the future, or that we will be able to defend such claims at a contained level of cost. We currently do not have product liability insurance, and we cannot assure you that we would be able to obtain insurance coverage with sufficient coverage at an acceptable cost in the future. A successful claim brought against us in excess of our available insurance coverage may have a material adverse effect on our business. Although we had insignificant volume of product replacement or product return historically, the cost of product replacements or product returns may be substantial, and we could incur substantial costs in implementing modifications to fix the defects.

 

In addition, due to the nature of some of our smart wearable devices, some users have had in the past and may in the future experience skin irritations or other biocompatibility issues not uncommon with jewelry or other wearable products that stay in contact with skin for extended periods of time. There have been a limited number of reports from some users of certain of our devices experiencing skin irritations. This negative publicity could harm the sales of our products and also adversely affect our relationships with distributors and retailers that sell our products, including causing them to be reluctant to continue to sell our products. If large numbers of users experience these problems, we could be subject to enforcement actions or the imposition of significant monetary fines or other penalties by regulatory agencies, and face personal injury or class action litigation, any of which could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and operating results.

 

We also rely on the accuracy of sensors and our algorithms to ensure that our products can offer high measurement accuracy. Additionally, usages of our products in different physical environments or by different types of users may require delicate modification of our sensors and algorithms. There is, however, no assurance that the functionality of sensors from our suppliers or our algorithms can progress as much and as quickly to meet the demand of our users. Although we have not received any significant claims of the inaccuracy of measurements by our products in the past, these claims may occur from time to time. Such claims may further prompt warranty claims, regulatory investigations and litigation. In that case, our brand may suffer from negative publicity, which may then result in loss of consumer confidence and reduction of sales in our products.

 

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Furthermore, levels of warranty claims or estimated costs of warranty claims might materially affect our gross margins and operating results. Any failure to detect, prevent, or fix defects, or an increase in defects could result in a variety of consequences, including a greater number of returns and replacement of products than expected from Xiaomi for Xiaomi Wearable Products, or from end users for our Amazfit products. This will lead to increases in warranty costs, regulatory proceedings and product recalls, which could harm not only our revenue and operating results, but also our brand name. We currently offer a standard product warranty that the product will operate under normal use. For products that are sold to Xiaomi pursuant to our business cooperation agreement with Xiaomi, we offer an 18-month warranty which includes a six-month warranty to Xiaomi and an additional 12-month warranty to end-users. For products sold directly to end users, the warranty period is 12 months to end users. We generally elect to replace the defective products covered under the warranty. At the time revenue is recognized, an estimate of warranty costs in relation to the products sold is recorded as a component of cost of revenues. Therefore, the occurrence of real or perceived quality problems or material defects in our current and future products could expose us to warranty claims in excess of our current reserves. If we experience greater returns or replacement of defective products from Xiaomi or end users, or greater warranty claims, in excess of our reserves, our brand name could suffer, and our business, revenue, gross margin, and operating results could be harmed.

 

Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in China and globally.

 

The ongoing COVID-19 outbreak has restricted general commercial activities in affected regions and resulted in reduced business volume. It has also caused temporary closures of our offices and limited access by our employees to certain warehouses and logistics centers. The number of our products manufactured reduced in January and February 2020 as our contracted manufacturing facilities have been temporarily shut down, and the manufacturing facilities have still been in ramp-up to its full capacity since March. We estimate a decrease in demand for smart wearable products, both in China and overseas, which may negatively affect our sales performance. In addition, the worldwide outbreak may not only adversely affect our sales performance overseas, but also lead to components and raw materials shortages as we source those from south east Asia, Europe and other areas around the world. We cannot guarantee that our manufacturing capabilities and sales performance will not continue to be negatively affected due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Furthermore, some of the companies we have invested in have suffered from the temporary closure of offices and facilities and the downturn of the macroeconomy resulted from the COVID-19 outbreak. Consequently, we may not receive investment returns as expected, and may lose part or all of our investment in these companies. The duration of such business disruption, the extent of reduced sales and financial impact cannot be reasonably estimated at this time. The COVID-19 outbreak may negatively affect our financial results for fiscal year of 2020, maybe even beyond. The extent to which this outbreak impacts our results will depend on future developments, both in China and globally, which are highly uncertain and cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of this outbreak and the actions to contain this outbreak or treat its impact, among others.

 

An occurrence of a widespread health epidemic or other outbreaks could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

In addition to the impact of COVID-19, our business could be adversely affected by the effects of epidemics, such as the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, or the H1N1 virus, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, avian influenza or other epidemics or outbreaks on the economic and business climate. A prolonged outbreak of any of these illnesses or other adverse public health developments in China or elsewhere in the world could have a material adverse effect on our business operations. Such outbreaks could significantly impact the online and offline retail industry and cause a temporary closure of the facilities we use for our operations. Such impact or closures would severely disrupt our operations and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our operations could be disrupted if any of our employees or employees of our partners were suspected of having the COVID-19, the H1N1 virus, SARS or avian influenza, since this could require us or our partners to quarantine some or all of such employees or disinfect the facilities used for our operations and may deter our customers or potential customers from purchasing or accepting our products. In addition, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that an outbreak harms the global or Chinese economy in general, such as wars, acts of terrorism, snowstorms, earthquakes, fire, floods, environmental accidents, power shortage or communication interruptions.

 

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We cooperate with a wide range of strategic partners to enable diversified application scenarios, further enhance the performance of our products and expand our sales channels. If we fail to expand or maintain the pool of our strategic partners, the number of application scenarios, the performance of our products and our sales channels may not grow or develop as quickly, or at all, which may reduce the attractiveness of our products. Any underperformance or negative publicity of our strategic partners may also adversely affect our operating results.

 

It requires resources and contributions from a variety of market players to capitalize on the data and user base that we have accumulated so far. We have been actively seeking strategic cooperation opportunities on this front to create diverse application scenarios of our products. Furthermore, we have been pursuing collaborative relationships with leading wearable hardware companies with advanced know-how in order to develop increasingly sophisticated products, as well as partnership opportunities to expand our sales channels. We anticipate that we will continue to leverage strategic relationships with existing strategic partners to grow our business while pursuing new relationships with additional strategic partners. Pursuing, establishing and maintaining relationships with strategic partners require significant time and resources. If we fail to expand or maintain the pool of our partners, the growth of application scenarios, the development and performance of our products and the expansion of our sales channels may slow down or even wither, which in turn may affect the willingness of our users to purchase our products.

 

As in any cooperation relationship, the success of our initiatives to extend the application scenarios of and further drive the performance of our products, as well as our sales channels, together with our strategic partners involves many factors beyond our control. Additionally, there can be no assurances that our choices of strategic partners can always deliver satisfactory performance to our users, that our strategic partners would not replace us with any of our competitors, and that our current strategic partners would not leave the market. Further, as we associate ourselves with these strategic partners in providing services, any negative publicity on them may also have adverse impact on our own reputation.

 

Our future success depends on the continuing efforts of our key employees, including our founder Mr. Wang Huang, and on our ability to attract and retain highly skilled personnel and senior management.

 

Our future success depends, in part, on our ability to continue to attract and retain highly skilled personnel. In particular, we are highly dependent on the contributions of our founder Mr. Wang Huang, as well as other members of our senior management team. The loss of any key personnel could be disruptive to our operations and research and development activities, reduce our employee retention and revenue, and impair our ability to compete.

 

Certain director may have conflicts of interest.

 

One of our directors Mr. De Liu is also a co-founder and a senior vice president of Xiaomi. Such association may give rise to potential conflicts of interest, especially with regarding to our business cooperation with Xiaomi. Directors of our company are required by law to act honestly and in good faith with a view to the best of our interests and to disclose any interest that they may have in any of our projects or opportunities. In addition, we have adopted a code of ethics and an audit committee charter. The code of ethics provides that an interested director needs to refrain from participating in any discussion among senior officers of our company relating to an interested business and may not be involved in any proposed transaction with such interested business. Furthermore, the audit committee charter provides that most related party transactions must be pre-approved by the audit committee, a majority of which consists of independent directors. Our audit committee charter, however, exempts the pre-approval requirement for related party transactions that are immaterial to us or not unusual by nature. In the event of such transactions with Xiaomi, Mr. Liu will still be entitled to vote in our board meeting, and we cannot assure you that Mr. Liu’s decision will not be impacted by any potential conflict of interest arising from his relationship with Xiaomi.

 

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

 

We adopted a share incentive plan in 2015 and 2018, which we refer to as the 2015 Plan and the 2018 Plan, respectively, in this annual report, for the purpose of granting share-based compensation awards to employees, directors and consultants to incentivize their performance and align their interests with ours. We recognize expenses in our consolidated statement of income in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Under our two share incentive plans, we are authorized to grant options and other types of awards. The maximum aggregate number of shares which may be issued pursuant to all awards under the 2015 Plan is 14,328,358 Class A ordinary shares. The maximum aggregate number of shares which may be issued initially pursuant to all awards under the 2018 Plan is 9,559,607 ordinary shares. The number of shares reserved for future issuances under the 2018 Plan will be increased by (i) a number equal to 1.0% of the total number of outstanding shares, or (ii) such number of shares as may be determined by our board of directors, on the first day of each calendar year during the term of the 2018 Plan beginning in 2018. As of March 31, 2020, awards to purchase 13,796,269 Class A ordinary shares under the 2015 Plan have been granted and outstanding, excluding awards that were forfeited or cancelled after the relevant grant dates. As of March 31, 2020, awards to purchase 6,936,025 Class A ordinary shares under the 2018 Plan have been granted and outstanding, excluding awards that were forfeited or cancelled after the relevant grant dates. As of December 31, 2019, our unrecognized share-based compensation expenses amounted to RMB55.7 million (US$8.0million).

 

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We believe the granting of share-based awards is of significant importance to our ability to attract and retain key personnel and employees, and we will continue to grant share-based compensation to employees in the future. As a result, our expenses associated with share-based compensation may increase, which may have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

 

Competition for highly skilled personnel is often intense and we may incur significant costs or not successful in attracting, integrating, or retaining qualified personnel to fulfill our current or future needs. We have, from time to time, experienced, and we expect to continue to experience, difficulty in hiring and retaining highly skilled employees with appropriate qualifications. In addition, if any of our senior management or key personnel joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose knowhow, trade secrets, business partners and key personnel. Furthermore, perspective candidates and existing employees often consider the value of the equity awards they receive in connection with their employment. Thus, our ability to attract or retain highly skilled employees may be adversely affected by declines in the perceived value of our equity or equity awards. Furthermore, there are no assurances that the number of shares reserved for issuance under our share incentive plans will be sufficient to grant equity awards adequate to recruit new employees and to compensate existing employees.

 

Higher labor costs and inflation may adversely affect our business and our profitability.

 

Labor costs in China have risen in recent years as a result of the enactment of new labor laws and social development. Given our contract manufacturers are currently all located in China, rising labor costs in China will increase their costs, which in turn may be reflected in the manufacturing fees charged by these contract manufacturers to us.

 

In addition, we have witnessed growing inflation rates in many areas of the world, and particularly in Asia where we procure most of our raw materials, which adversely affects us and our suppliers alike.

 

The rising costs as a result of higher labor cost of our contract manufacturers and increasing raw material price, on the other hand, cannot be easily passed to end consumers in the form of higher retail sale prices due to severe competition in the smart wearable device market. Our profitability therefore may be adversely affected if labor cost and inflation continue to rise in the future.

 

Our business is subject to seasonal fluctuations and if our sales fall below our forecasts, our overall financial conditions and results of operations could be adversely affected.

 

Our business is subject to seasonal fluctuations, which may be caused by product launches and various promotional events hosted by our distributors. Our revenues have been higher in the fourth quarter each year primarily as a result of (i) holiday sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and during the lead-up to Christmas and (ii) promotional events organized by TMall and other e-commerce platforms. Accordingly, any shortfall in expected fourth quarter revenue would adversely affect our annual operating results.

 

Furthermore, our rapid growth may obscure the extent to which seasonality trends have affected our business. Accordingly, yearly or quarterly comparisons of our operating results may not be useful and our results in any particular period will not necessarily be indicative of the results to be expected for any future period.

 

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You should not rely on our Mobile App MAU or number of registered users metrics as indicators of future retention of users, continual user engagement or other revenue opportunities.

 

Our MAU metric tracks the number of the accounts that have been logged into on our mobile apps during a given calendar month. Our number of registered users metric tracks the number of users who have completed the registration process on our mobile apps as of a specified date. They do not fully capture the frequency and duration that users engage with our devices as users may not sign in or stay logged in on our mobile apps when using our devices. The Mobile App MAU and the number of registered users metrics only represent the potential size or growth of our user community and are not necessarily indicators of the actual size and growth of our user community. In addition, most of the services provided on our mobile apps currently are offered to users for free once they have purchased our smart wearable devices. Therefore, our Mobile App MAU metric should not be relied upon as an indicator of the level of retention of individual users in the future, continual user engagement or the potential size and growth of our user community, all of which are indicators for other potential revenue opportunities.

 

We may engage in acquisition and investment activities, which could require significant management attention, disrupt our business, dilute shareholder value, and adversely affect our operating results.

 

As part of our business strategy, we may acquire or make investments in other companies, products, or technologies to enhance the features and functionality of our devices, and accelerate the expansion of our platform and network of strategic partners. We may not be able to find suitable acquisition or investment candidates and we may not be able to complete acquisition and investment on favorable terms, if at all. If we do complete acquisition and investment as we expect, we may not ultimately strengthen our competitive position or achieve our goals; and any acquisition and investment we complete could be viewed negatively by users or investors. In addition, if we fail to successfully integrate such acquisitions, or the technologies associated with such acquisitions, into our company, the revenue and operating results of the combined company could be adversely affected.

 

Acquisitions and investments may disrupt our ongoing operations, divert management from their primary responsibilities, subject us to additional liabilities, increase our expenses, and adversely impact our business, financial condition, operating results, and cash flows. In particular, certain early-stage enterprises that we have invested in may require a significant amount of cash to develop their businesses and maintain their daily operations, and therefore are susceptible to market risks. We may not accurately forecast the financial impact of an acquisition or investment transaction, including accounting charges. We would have to pay cash, incur debt, or issue equity securities to pay for any such acquisition and investment, each of which may affect our financial condition or the value of our capital stock and could result in dilution to our shareholders. We had RMB423.3 million (US$60.8 million) of short-term and long-term investments as of December 31, 2019.

 

Furthermore, our financial results could be adversely affected by our investments or acquisitions. The investments and acquired assets or businesses may not generate the financial results we expect. They could result in the occurrence of significant investments and goodwill impairment charges, and amortization expenses for other intangible assets. Most of our investee companies are in their early stages and may not be able to achieve profitability or generate positive operating cash flows in the near future. A partial or complete loss of our investments in these investee companies is possible.

 

Additionally, we may receive indications of interest from other parties interested in acquiring some or all of our business. The time required to evaluate such indications of interest could require significant attention from management, disrupt the ordinary functioning of our business, and adversely affect our operating results.

 

An economic downturn or economic uncertainty may adversely affect consumer discretionary spending and demand for our products and services.

 

Our products and services may be considered discretionary items for consumers. Factors affecting the level of consumer spending for such discretionary items include general economic conditions, and other factors, such as consumer confidence in future economic conditions, fears of recession, the availability and cost of consumer credit, levels of unemployment, and tax rates. As global economic uncertainty remains, trends in consumer discretionary spending also remain unpredictable and subject to reductions. Unfavorable economic conditions may lead consumers to delay or reduce purchases of our products and services and consumer demand for our products and services may not grow as we expect. Our sensitivity to economic cycles and any related fluctuation in consumer demand for our products and services may have an adverse effect on our operating results and financial condition.

 

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COVID-19 had a severe and negative impact on the Chinese and the global economy in the first quarter of 2020. Whether this will lead to a prolonged downturn in the economy is still unknown. Even before the outbreak of COVID-19, the global macroeconomic environment was facing numerous challenges. The growth rate of the Chinese economy had gradually slowed since 2010, and the impact of COVID-19 on the Chinese economy in 2020 is likely to be severe. China had a negative gross domestic product, or GDP growth in the first quarter of 2020, which broke the record of the continued GDP growth in China for the past decades. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies which had been adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies, including the United States and China, even before 2020. Unrest, terrorist threats and the potential for war in the Middle East and elsewhere may increase market volatility across the globe. There have also been concerns about the relationship between China and other countries, including the surrounding Asian countries, which may potentially have economic effects. In particular, there is significant uncertainty about the future relationship between the United States and China with respect to trade policies, treaties, government regulations and tariffs. Economic conditions in China are sensitive to global economic conditions, as well as changes in domestic economic and political policies and the expected or perceived overall economic growth rate in China. Any severe or prolonged slowdown in the global or Chinese economy may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

 

We are subject to governmental economic sanctions laws that could subject us to liability and impair our ability to compete in international markets.

 

Exports of our products must be made in compliance with various economic and trade sanctions laws in different jurisdictions. For example, U.S. economic sanctions prohibit the provision of products and services to countries, governments, and persons targeted by U.S. sanctions. Even though we take precautions to prevent our products from being provided to the targets of U.S. sanctions, our products, including our firmware updates, could be provided to those targets through independent distributors despite such precautions. Any such provision could have negative consequences, including government investigations, penalties and reputational harm. We could be subject to future enforcement action with respect to compliance with governmental economic sanctions laws, which could result in penalties and costs and consequentially have a material effect on our business and operating results. Changes in U.S. and international trade policies, particularly with regard to China, may adversely impact our business and operating results.

 

The U.S. government has recently made statements and taken certain actions that may lead to potential changes to U.S. and international trade policies, including imposing several rounds of tariffs affecting certain products manufactured in China. It is unknown whether and to what extent new tariffs (or other new laws or regulations) will be adopted, or the effect that any such actions would have on us or our industry and customers. While cross-border business between China and the U.S. may not be an area of our focus, any unfavorable government policies on international trade, such as capital controls or tariffs, may affect the demand for our products and services, impact the competitive position of our products or prevent us from being able to sell products in certain countries. If any new tariffs, legislation and/or regulations are implemented, or if existing trade agreements are renegotiated or, in particular, if the U.S. government takes retaliatory trade actions due to the recent U.S.-China trade tension, such changes could have an adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

 

Our use of open source software could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and subject us to possible litigation.

 

Some of the technologies we use incorporate open source software, and we may incorporate open source software in the future. Such open source software is generally licensed by its authors or other third parties under open source licenses. These licenses may subject us to certain unfavorable conditions, including requirements that we offer our products and services that incorporate the open source software for no cost, that we make publicly available the source code for any modifications we made or derivative works we created based upon, incorporating, or using the open source software, or that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of the particular open source license. Additionally, if a third-party software provider has incorporated open source software into the software that we license from such provider, we could be required to disclose or provide at no cost any of our source code that incorporates or is a modification of such licensed software. If the author or other third party distributor of the open source software that we use or license were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of the applicable license, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages and enjoined from the sale of our products and services that contained the open source software. Any of the foregoing could disrupt the distribution and sale of our products and services and harm our business.

 

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We do not maintain insurance coverage which could expose us to significant costs and business disruption.

 

We do not maintain liability insurance coverage for our products and business operation. A successful liability claim against us due to injuries suffered by our users could materially and adversely affect our financial conditions, results of operations and reputation. In addition, we do not have any business disruption insurance. Any business disruption event could result in substantial cost to us and diversion of our resources.

 

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

 

We are subject to the reporting obligations under the U.S. securities laws. The Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, as required under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, has adopted rules requiring a public company to include a report of management on the effectiveness of such company’s internal control over financial reporting in its annual report on Form 20-F. In addition, once we cease to be an “emerging growth company,” as such term is defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act of 2012 (as amended by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act of 2015), or the JOBS Act, an independent registered public accounting firm for a public company must issue an attestation report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

 

Although our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2019, historically, we and our independent registered accounting firm have identified one material weakness, as latest as in the course of auditing our consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2018. We will endeavor to maintain an effective internal control system, but any failure may cause our management and our independent registered public accounting firm to not be able to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting at a reasonable assurance level in the future. This could in turn result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements and negatively impact the trading price of our ADSs. Furthermore, we have incurred and may need to incur additional costs and use additional management and other resources in an effort to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and other requirements going forward.

 

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

 

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

 

Our WFOE has entered into a series of contractual arrangements with our VIEs and their respective shareholders, respectively, which enable us to (i) exercise effective control over our VIEs, (ii) receive substantially all of the economic benefits of our VIEs, and (iii) have an exclusive option to purchase all or part of the equity interests and assets in our VIEs when and to the extent permitted by PRC law. As a result of these contractual arrangements, we have control over and are the primary beneficiary of our VIEs and hence consolidate their financial results into our consolidated financial statements under U.S. GAAP. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure” for further details.

 

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

 

·                  discontinuing or placing restrictions or onerous conditions on our operations through any transactions between our WFOE and our VIEs;

 

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·                  imposing fines, confiscating the income from our WFOE or our VIEs, or imposing other requirements with which we or our VIEs may not be able to comply;

 

·                  requiring us to restructure our ownership structure or operations, including terminating the contractual arrangements with our VIEs and deregistering the equity pledges of our VIEs, which in turn would affect our ability to consolidate, derive economic interests from, or exert effective control over our VIEs; or

 

·                  restricting or prohibiting our use of the proceeds of our initial public offering and our ADS offering in April 2019 to finance our business and operations in China.

 

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

 

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

 

We have relied and expect to continue to rely on contractual arrangements with our VIEs and their shareholders to conduct certain of our key businesses. These contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing us with control over our VIEs. For example, our VIEs and their shareholders could breach their contractual arrangements with us by, among other things, failing to conduct their operations in an acceptable manner or taking other actions that are detrimental to our interests.

 

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

 

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

 

We refer to the shareholders of each of our VIEs as its nominee shareholders because although they remain the holders of equity interests on record in each of our VIEs, pursuant to the terms of the relevant power of attorney, each such shareholder has irrevocably authorized our WFOE to exercise his, her or its rights as a shareholder of the relevant VIE. However, if our VIEs or their shareholders fail to perform their respective obligations under the contractual arrangements, we may have to incur substantial costs and expend additional resources to enforce such arrangements. We may also have to rely on legal remedies under PRC law, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and claiming damages, which we cannot assure will be effective under PRC law. For example, if the shareholders of our VIEs refuse to transfer their equity interest in our VIEs to us or our designee if we exercise the purchase option pursuant to these contractual arrangements, or if they otherwise act in bad faith toward us, then we may have to take legal actions to compel them to perform their contractual obligations.

 

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

 

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

 

The shareholders of our VIEs may have potential conflicts of interest with us. These shareholders may breach, or cause our VIEs to breach, or refuse to renew, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and our VIEs, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to effectively control our VIEs and receive economic benefits from them. For example, the shareholders may be able to cause our agreements with our VIEs to be performed in a manner adverse to us by, among other things, failing to remit payments due under the contractual arrangements to us on a timely basis. We cannot assure you that when conflicts of interest arise any or all of these shareholders will act in the best interests of our company or such conflicts will be resolved in our favor. Currently, we do not have any arrangements to address potential conflicts of interest between these shareholders and our company. If we cannot resolve any conflict of interest or dispute between us and these shareholders, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which could result in disruption of our business and subject us to substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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Our current corporate structure and business operations may be affected by the newly enacted Foreign Investment Law

 

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress promulgated the Foreign Investment Law or the FIL, which took effect on January 1, 2020, and replaced the previous laws regulating foreign investment in China, namely, the PRC Equity Joint Venture Law, the PRC Cooperative Joint Venture Law and the Wholly Foreign-owned Enterprise Law, together with their implementation rules and ancillary regulations, or collectively, the Outdated FIE Laws. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulation on Foreign Investment.”

 

Meanwhile, the Implementation Rules to the Foreign Investment Law came into effect on January 1, 2020, which clarify and elaborate on the relevant provisions of the Foreign Investment Law. However, uncertainties still exist in relation to interpretation and implementation of the FIL, especially in regard to, including, among other things, the nature of variable interest entities contractual arrangements and specific rules regulating the organization form of foreign-invested enterprises within the five-year transition period. The FIL does not explicitly classify whether variable interest entities that are controlled through contractual arrangements would be deemed as foreign-invested enterprises, but it has a catch-all provision under the definition of “foreign investment” that includes investments made by foreign investors in China through other means as provided by laws, administrative regulations or rules of the State Council, so there is still a possibility for future laws, administrative regulations or provisions of the State Council to stipulate contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment. Therefore, there can be no assurance that our control over our VIEs through contractual arrangements will not be deemed as foreign investment in the future. In the event that any possible implementing regulations of the FIL, any other future laws, administrative regulations or provisions deem contractual arrangements as a way of foreign investment, or if any of our operations through contractual arrangements is classified in the “restricted” or “prohibited” industry in the future “negative list” under the FIL, our contractual arrangements may be deemed as invalid and illegal, and we may be required to unwind the variable interest entity contractual arrangements and/or dispose of any affected business, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business operation. Also, if future laws, administrative regulations or provisions mandate further actions to be taken with respect to existing contractual arrangements, we may face substantial uncertainties as to whether we can complete such actions in a timely manner, or at all. Furthermore, under the FIL, foreign investors and foreign-invested enterprises will be subject to legal liabilities if they fail to report investment information in accordance with the FIL. In addition, the FIL provides that foreign-invested enterprises established according to the existing laws regulating foreign investment may maintain their structure and corporate governance within a five-year transition period, which means that we may be required to adjust the structure and corporate governance of certain of our PRC subsidiaries in such transition period. Failure to take timely and appropriate measures to cope with any of these or similar regulatory compliance challenges could materially and adversely affect our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.

 

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

 

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

 

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

 

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While the Chinese economy has experienced significant growth over the past decades, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy, and the rate of growth has been slowing since 2012. Any adverse changes in economic conditions in China, in the policies of the Chinese government or in the laws and regulations in China could have a material adverse effect on the overall economic growth of China. Such developments could adversely affect our business and operating results, lead to reduction in demand for our services and adversely affect our competitive position. The Chinese government has implemented various measures to encourage economic growth and guide the allocation of resources. Some of these measures may benefit the overall Chinese economy, but may have a negative effect on us. For example, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by government control over capital investments or changes in tax regulations. In addition, in the past the Chinese government has implemented certain measures, including interest rate adjustment, to control the pace of economic growth. These measures may cause decreased economic activity in China, which may adversely affect our business and operating results.

 

Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system and changes in laws and regulations in China could adversely affect us, and any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our business may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

 

We conduct our business primarily through our PRC subsidiaries and consolidated variable interest entities in China. Our operations in China are governed by PRC laws and regulations. Our PRC subsidiaries are subject to laws and regulations applicable to foreign investment in China. The PRC legal system is a civil law system based on written statutes. Unlike the common law system, prior court decisions may be cited for reference but have limited precedential value. The PRC legal system is evolving rapidly, and the interpretation of many laws, regulations and rules may contain inconsistencies and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involves uncertainties.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

PRC regulation of loans to and direct investment in PRC entities by offshore holding companies and governmental control of currency conversion may delay or prevent us from using the proceeds of our initial public offering and our ADS offering in April 2019 to make loans or additional capital contributions to our PRC subsidiaries, which could materially and adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to fund and expand our business.

 

We are an offshore holding company conducting our operations in China through our PRC subsidiaries and VIEs. We may make loans to our PRC subsidiaries and VIEs subject to the approval or registration from governmental authorities and limitation of amount, or we may make additional capital contributions to our wholly foreign-owned subsidiaries in China. Any loans to our wholly foreign-owned subsidiaries in China, which are treated as foreign-invested enterprises under PRC law, are subject to foreign exchange loan registrations. In addition, SAFE issued the Circular on the Management Concerning the Reform of the Payment and Settlement of Foreign Currency Capital of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, or the SAFE Circular No. 19, which took effect on June 1, 2015. Pursuant to the SAFE Circular No. 19, an FIE shall use its capital pursuant to the principle of authenticity and self-use within its business scope. The capital of an FIE shall not be used for the following purposes: (i) directly or indirectly used for payment beyond the business scope of the enterprises or  the payment prohibited by relevant laws and regulations; (ii) directly or indirectly used for investment in securities or investments other than banks’ principal-secured products unless otherwise provided by relevant laws and regulations; (iii) the granting of loans to non-affiliated enterprises, except where it is expressly permitted in the business license; and (iv) paying the expenses related to the purchase of real estate that is not for self-use (except for the foreign-invested real estate enterprises). On October 23, 2019, SAFE promulgated the Circular Regarding Further Promotion of the Facilitation of Cross-Border Trade and Investment, or the SAFE Circular No. 28. The SAFE Circular No. 28 allows foreign-invested enterprises whose business scope does not include investment, or non-investment foreign-invested enterprises, to make equity investments in the PRC with their capital funds in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. As the SAFE Circular No. 28 is newly issued and the relevant government authorities have broad discretion in its interpretation, it is unclear whether SAFE will, in actual practice, permit such capital funds to be used for equity investments in the PRC.

 

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In light of the various requirements imposed by PRC regulations on loans to and direct investment in PRC entities by offshore holding companies, we cannot assure you that we will be able to complete the necessary government registrations or record-filing on a timely basis, if at all, with respect to future loans by us to our PRC subsidiaries or VIEs or with respect to future capital contributions by us to our PRC subsidiaries. If we fail to complete such registrations or record-filing, our ability to use the proceeds from our initial public offering and our ADS offering in April 2019 and to capitalize or otherwise fund our PRC operations may be negatively affected, which could materially and adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to fund and expand our business.

 

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

 

The value of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar and other currencies may fluctuate and is affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions in China and by China’s foreign exchange policies. It is difficult to predict how market forces or PRC or U.S. government policy may impact the exchange rate between the RMB and the U.S. dollar in the future.

 

Significant revaluation of the Renminbi may have a material and adverse effect on your investment. For example, to the extent that we need to convert U.S. dollars we receive from our initial public offering and our ADS offering in 2019 into Renminbi for our operations, appreciation of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar would have an adverse effect on the Renminbi amount we would receive from the conversion. Conversely, if we decide to convert our Renminbi into U.S. dollars for the purpose of making payments for dividends on our ordinary shares or ADSs or for other business purposes, appreciation of the U.S. dollar against the Renminbi would have a negative effect on the U.S. dollar amount available to us.

 

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

 

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

 

The PRC government imposes controls on the convertibility of the Renminbi into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of China. We receive substantially all of our revenues in Renminbi. Under our current corporate structure, our Cayman Islands holding company primarily relies on dividend payments from our PRC subsidiaries to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions, can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval of SAFE by complying with certain procedural requirements. Specifically, under the existing exchange restrictions, without prior approval of SAFE, cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiaries in China may be used to pay dividends to our company. However, approval from or registration with appropriate government authorities is required where Renminbi is to be converted into a foreign currency and remitted out of China to pay capital expenses such as the repayment of loans denominated in foreign currencies. As a result, we need to obtain SAFE approval to use cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiaries and VIEs to pay off their respective debt in a currency other than Renminbi owed to entities outside China, or to make other capital expenditure payments outside China in a currency other than Renminbi. The PRC government may at its discretion restrict access to foreign currencies for current account transactions in the future. If the foreign exchange control system prevents us from obtaining sufficient foreign currencies to satisfy our foreign currency demands, we may not be able to pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of our ADSs.

 

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

 

Among other things, the Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, adopted by six PRC regulatory agencies in 2006 and amended in 2009, established additional procedures and requirements that could make merger and acquisition activities by foreign investors more time-consuming and complex. Such regulation requires, among other things, that in some instances the MOFCOM shall be notified in advance of any change-of-control transaction in which a foreign investor takes control of an affiliated PRC domestic enterprise. Moreover, the Anti-Monopoly Law requires, among other things, that the anti-trust governmental authority shall be notified in advance of any concentration of undertakings if certain thresholds are triggered. In addition, PRC national security review rules which became effective in September 2011 require acquisitions by foreign investors of PRC companies engaged in military related or certain other industries that are crucial to national security be subject to security review before consummation of any such acquisition. We may pursue potential strategic acquisitions that are complementary to our business and operations. Complying with the requirements of these regulations to complete such transactions could be time-consuming, and any required approval processes, including obtaining approval or clearance from the MOFCOM, may delay or inhibit our ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share.

 

PRC regulations relating to the establishment of offshore special purpose companies by PRC residents may subject our PRC resident beneficial owners or our PRC subsidiaries to liability or penalties, limit our ability to inject capital into our PRC subsidiaries, limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to increase their registered capital or distribute profits to us, or may otherwise adversely affect us.

 

In July 2014, SAFE promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment Through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37, to replace the Notice on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Residents’ Financing and Roundtrip Investment Through Offshore Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 75, which ceased to be effective upon the promulgation of SAFE Circular 37. SAFE Circular 37 requires PRC residents (including PRC individuals and PRC corporate entities) to register with SAFE or its local branches in connection with their direct or indirect offshore investment activities. SAFE Circular 37 is applicable to our shareholders who are PRC residents and may be applicable to any offshore acquisitions that we make in the future.

 

Under SAFE Circular 37, PRC residents who make, or have prior to the implementation of SAFE Circular 37 made, direct or indirect investments in offshore special purpose vehicles, or SPVs, will be required to register such investments with SAFE or its local branches. In addition, any PRC resident who is a direct or indirect shareholder of an SPV, is required to update its filed registration with the local branch of SAFE with respect to that SPV, to reflect any material change. Moreover, any subsidiary of such SPV in China is required to urge the PRC resident shareholders to update their registration with the local branch of SAFE. If any PRC shareholder of such SPV fails to make the required registration or to update the previously filed registration, the subsidiary of such SPV in China may be prohibited from distributing its profits or the proceeds from any capital reduction, share transfer or liquidation to the SPV, and the SPV may also be prohibited from making additional capital contributions into its subsidiary in China. On February 13, 2015, SAFE promulgated a Notice on Further Simplifying and Improving Foreign Exchange Administration Policy on Direct Investment, or SAFE Notice 13, which became effective on June 1, 2015. Under SAFE Notice 13, applications for foreign exchange registration of inbound foreign direct investments and outbound overseas direct investments, including those required under SAFE Circular 37, will be filed with qualified banks instead of SAFE. The qualified banks will directly examine the applications and accept registrations under the supervision of SAFE.

 

We have requested PRC residents who we know hold direct or indirect interest in our company to make the necessary applications, filings and registrations as required under SAFE Circular 37 and our PRC resident shareholders, namely Wang Huang, Yunfen Lu, Meihui Fan, Bin Fan, Yi Zhang and Xiaojun Zhang, have completed all necessary initial registrations with the local SAFE branch or qualified banks as required by SAFE Circular 37. However, we may not be informed of the identities of all the PRC residents holding direct or indirect interest in our company, and we cannot provide any assurance that these PRC residents will comply with our request to make or obtain any applicable registrations or comply with other requirements under SAFE Circular 37. The failure or inability of our PRC resident shareholders to comply with the registration procedures set forth in these regulations may subject us to fines and legal sanctions, restrict our cross-border investment activities, limit the ability of our wholly foreign-owned subsidiaries in China to distribute dividends and the proceeds from any reduction in capital, share transfer or liquidation to us, and we may also be prohibited from injecting additional capital into these subsidiaries. Moreover, failure to comply with the various foreign exchange registration requirements described above could result in liability under PRC law for circumventing applicable foreign exchange restrictions. As a result, our business operations and our ability to distribute profits to you could be materially and adversely affected.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

We believe that Huami Corporation is not a PRC resident enterprise for PRC tax purposes. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulation—Regulations on Tax—PRC Enterprise Income Tax.” However, the tax resident status of an enterprise is subject to determination by the PRC tax authorities and uncertainties remain with respect to the interpretation of the term “de facto management body.” If the PRC tax authorities determine that Huami Corporation is a PRC resident enterprise for enterprise income tax purposes, we may be required to withhold a 10% withholding tax from dividends we pay to our shareholders that are non-resident enterprises, including the holders of our ADSs. In addition, non-resident enterprise shareholders (including our ADS holders) may be subject to PRC tax on gains realized on the sale or other disposition of ADSs or ordinary shares, if such income is treated as sourced from within the PRC. Furthermore, if we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, dividends payable to our non-PRC individual shareholders (including our ADS holders) and any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or ordinary shares by such shareholders may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 20% unless a reduced rate is available under an applicable tax treaty. It is unclear whether non-PRC shareholders of our company would be able to claim the benefits of any tax treaties between their country of tax residence and the PRC in the event that we are treated as a PRC resident enterprise. Any such tax may reduce the returns on your investment in the ADSs or ordinary shares.

 

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

 

On December 10, 2009, SAT issued the Notice on Strengthening Administration of Enterprise Income Tax for Share Transfers by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 698, with retroactive effect from January 1, 2008, to December 1, 2017. Pursuant to the SAT Circular 698, where a non-resident enterprise transfers the equity interests of a PRC resident enterprise indirectly by disposition of the equity interests of an overseas holding company, or an Indirect Transfer, and such overseas holding company is located in a tax jurisdiction that: (i) has an effective tax rate less than 12.5% or (ii) does not tax foreign income of its residents, the non-resident enterprise, being the transferor, shall report to the competent tax authority of the PRC resident enterprise this Indirect Transfer.

 

On February 3, 2015, the SAT issued the Public Notice Regarding Certain Corporate Income Tax Matters on Indirect Transfer of Properties by Non-Tax Resident Enterprises, or SAT Public Notice 7. SAT Public Notice 7 extends its tax jurisdiction to not only Indirect Transfers set forth under SAT Circular 698 but also transactions involving transfer of other taxable assets through offshore transfer of a foreign intermediate holding company. In addition, SAT Public Notice 7 provides clearer criteria than SAT Circular 698 for assessment of reasonable commercial purposes and has introduced safe harbors for internal group restructurings and the purchase and sale of equity through a public securities market. SAT Public Notice 7 also brings challenges to both foreign transferor and transferee (or other person who is obligated to pay for the transfer) of taxable assets. Where a non-resident enterprise transfers taxable assets indirectly by disposing of the equity interests of an overseas holding company, which is an Indirect Transfer, the non-resident enterprise as either transferor or transferee, or the PRC entity that directly owns the taxable assets, may report such Indirect Transfer to the relevant tax authority. Using a “substance over form” principle, the PRC tax authority may disregard the existence of the overseas holding company if it lacks a reasonable commercial purpose and was established for the purpose of reducing, avoiding or deferring PRC tax. As a result, gains derived from such Indirect Transfer may be subject to PRC enterprise income tax, and the transferee or other person who is obligated to pay for the transfer is obligated to withhold the applicable taxes, currently at a rate of 10% for the transfer of equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise. Both the transferor and the transferee may be subject to penalties under PRC tax laws if the transferee fails to withhold the taxes and the transferor fails to pay the taxes.

 

On October 17, 2017, the SAT released Public Notice Regarding Issues Concerning the Withholding of Non-resident Enterprise Income Tax at Source, or SAT Public Notice 37, effect from December 1, 2017. SAT Public Notice 37 replaced a series of important circulars, including but not limited to SAT Circular 698, and revised the rules governing the administration of withholding tax on China-source income derived by the non-resident enterprise. SAT Public Notice 37 provided certain key changes to the current withholding regime including, such as (i) the withholding obligation for non-resident enterprise deriving dividend arises on the day the payment is actually made rather than on the day of the resolution to declare the dividends; (ii) the provision that non-resident enterprise shall self-report tax within seven days if their withholding agents fail to withhold is removed, etc.

 

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

 

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The audit report included in this annual report is prepared by an auditor who is not inspected by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board and, as such, you are deprived of the benefits of such inspection.

 

Auditors of companies whose shares are registered with the SEC and traded publicly in the United States, including our independent registered public accounting firm, must be registered with the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or the PCAOB, and are required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB to assess their compliance with the laws of the United States and professional standards applicable to auditors. Our independent registered public accounting firm is located in, and organized under the laws of, the PRC, which is a jurisdiction where the PCAOB, notwithstanding the requirements of U.S. law, is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. Therefore, our independent registered public accounting firm is not currently inspected fully by the PCAOB. This lack of PCAOB inspections in the PRC prevents the PCAOB from regularly evaluating our independent registered public accounting firm’s audits and its quality control procedures. As a result, investors may be deprived of the benefits of PCAOB inspections. In May 2013, the PCAOB announced that it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Enforcement Cooperation with the China Securities Regulatory Commission, or the CSRC, and the PRC Ministry of Finance, which establishes a cooperative framework between the parties for the production and exchange of audit documents relevant to investigations undertaken by the PCAOB, or the CSRC or the PRC Ministry of Finance in the United States and the PRC, respectively. The PCAOB continues to be in discussions with the CSRC and the PRC Ministry of Finance to permit joint inspections in the PRC of audit firms that are registered with the PCAOB and audit Chinese companies that trade on U.S. exchanges. On December 7, 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement highlighting continued challenges faced by the U.S. regulators in their oversight of financial statement audits of U.S.-listed companies with significant operations in China. On April 21, 2020, the SEC and the PCAOB issued another joint statement reiterating the PCAOB’s inability to inspect audit work paper and practices of registered accounting firms in China, with respect to their audit work of U.S. reporting companies. However, it remains unclear what further actions the SEC and PCAOB will take to address the problem.

 

Inspections of other firms that the PCAOB has conducted outside the PRC 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. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in the PRC makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our auditor’s audit procedures or quality control procedures as compared to auditors outside of the PRC that are subject to PCAOB inspections. Investors may lose confidence in our reported financial information and procedures and the quality of our financial statements.

 

As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular China’s, in June 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced bills in both houses of the U.S. Congress that would require the SEC to maintain a list of issuers for which PCAOB is not able to inspect or investigate an auditor report issued by a foreign public accounting firm. The Ensuring Quality Information and Transparency for Abroad-Based Listings on our Exchanges (EQUITABLE) Act prescribes increased disclosure requirements for these issuers and, beginning in 2025, the delisting from U.S. national securities exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange of issuers included on the SEC’s list for three consecutive years. Enactment of this legislation or other efforts to increase U.S. regulatory access to audit information could cause investor uncertainty for affected issuers, including us, and the market price of our ADSs could be adversely affected. It is unclear if this proposed legislation would be enacted.

 

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

 

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

 

In late 2012, this impasse led the SEC to commence administrative proceedings under Rule 102(e) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 against these Chinese accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm. A first instance trial of the proceedings in July 2013 in the SEC’s internal administrative court resulted in an adverse judgment against the firms. The administrative law judge proposed penalties on the firms including a temporary suspension of their right to practice before the SEC, although that proposed penalty did not take effect pending review by the Commissioners of the SEC. On February 6, 2015, before a review by the Commissioner had taken place, the firms reached a settlement with the SEC. Under the settlement, the SEC accepts that future requests by the SEC for the production of documents will normally be made to the CSRC. The firms will receive matching Section 106 requests, and are required to abide by a detailed set of procedures with respect to such requests, which in substance require them to facilitate production via the CSRC. The CSRC initiated a procedure whereby, under its supervision and subject to its approval, requested classes of documents held by the accounting firms could be sanitized of problematic and sensitive content so as to render them capable of being made available by the CSRC to US regulators. Under the terms of the settlement, the underlying proceeding against the four PRC-based accounting firms was deemed dismissed with prejudice at the end of four years starting from the settlement date, which was on February 6, 2019. Despite the final ending of the proceedings, the presumption is that all parties will continue to apply the same procedures, where the SEC will continue to make its requests for the production of documents to the CSRC, and the CSRC will normally process those requests applying the sanitization procedure. We cannot predict whether, in cases where the CSRC does not authorize production of requested documents to the SEC, the SEC will further challenge the four PRC-based accounting firms’ compliance with U.S. law. If additional challenges are imposed on the PRC affiliates of the “big four” accounting firms, we may be unable to timely file future financial statements in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act.

 

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

 

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

 

Risks Related to Our ADSs

 

Recent disruptions in the financial markets and economic conditions could affect our ability to raise capital.

 

In recent years, the United States and global economies suffered dramatic downturns as the result of a deterioration in the credit markets and related financial crisis as well as a variety of other factors including, among other things, extreme volatility in securities prices, severely diminished liquidity and credit availability, ratings downgrades of certain investments and declining valuations of others. The United States and certain foreign governments have taken unprecedented actions in an attempt to address and rectify these extreme market and economic conditions by providing liquidity and stability to the financial markets. If the actions taken by these governments are not successful, the return of adverse economic conditions may cause a significant adverse impact on our ability to raise capital, if needed, on a timely basis and on acceptable terms or at all.

 

The trading price of our ADSs has fluctuated and is likely to be volatile, which could result in substantial losses to investors.

 

Since we first listed our ADSs on the New York Stock Exchange, or NYSE, on February 8, 2018, the trading prices of our ADSs have been and may continue to be subject to wide fluctuations. In 2019, the trading prices of our ADSs on NYSE have ranged from US$7.33 to US$19.06 per ADS.

 

The trading price of our ADSs is likely to be volatile and could fluctuate widely due to factors beyond our control. This may happen because of broad market and industry factors, including the performance and fluctuation of the market prices of other companies with business operations located mainly in China that have listed their securities in the United States. In addition to market and industry factors, the price and trading volume for our ADSs may be highly volatile for factors specific to our own operations, including the following:

 

·                  regulatory developments affecting us or our industry, customers or suppliers;

 

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·                  announcements of studies and reports relating to the quality of our product and service offerings or those of our competitors;

 

·                  changes in the economic performance or market valuations of other smart wearables companies;

 

·                  actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly results of operations and changes or revisions of our expected results;

 

·                  changes in financial estimates by securities research analysts;

 

·                  conditions in the online retail market;

 

·                  announcements by us or our competitors of new product and service offerings, acquisitions, strategic relationships, joint ventures, capital raisings or capital commitments;

 

·                  additions to or departures of our senior management;

 

·                  fluctuations of exchange rates between the RMB and the U.S. dollar;

 

·                  release or expiry of lock-up or other transfer restrictions on our outstanding shares or ADSs;

 

·                  sales or perceived potential sales of additional ordinary shares or ADSs;

 

·                  any actual or alleged illegal acts of our shareholders or management; and

 

·                  proceedings instituted by the SEC against PRC-based accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Sales of substantial amounts of our ADSs in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our ADSs and could materially impair our ability to raise capital through equity offerings in the future. We cannot predict what effect, if any, market sales of securities held by our significant shareholders or any other shareholder or the availability of these securities for future sale will have on the market price of our ADSs.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

We have a dual class ordinary share structure. Our ordinary shares are divided into Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Holders of Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote per share, while holders of Class B ordinary shares are entitled to ten votes per share. Each Class B ordinary share is convertible into one Class A ordinary share at any time by the holder thereof, while Class A ordinary shares are not convertible into Class B ordinary shares under any circumstances. Upon any transfer of Class B ordinary shares by a holder thereof to any person or entity, such Class B ordinary shares shall be automatically and immediately converted into the equal number of Class A ordinary shares.

 

As of March 31, 2020, holders of our Class B ordinary shares held an aggregate of 142,686,699 Class B ordinary shares, which represent 57.6% of the total outstanding shares and 93.1% of total voting power of our outstanding shares. Therefore, our Class B ordinary shareholders have decisive influence over matters requiring shareholders’ approval, including election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or sale of our company or our assets. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and could discourage others from pursuing any potential merger, takeover or other change of control transactions that holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs may view as beneficial.

 

The dual class structure of our ordinary shares may adversely affect the trading market for our ADSs.

 

In 2017, S&P Dow Jones and FTSE Russell announced changes to their eligibility criteria for inclusion of shares of public companies on certain indices, including the S&P 500, to exclude companies with multiple classes of shares and companies whose public shareholders hold no more than 5% of total voting power from being added to such indices. In addition, several shareholder advisory firms have announced their opposition to the use of multiple class structures. As a result, the dual class structure of our ordinary shares may prevent the inclusion of our ADSs, each representing four of our Class A ordinary shares, in such indices and may cause shareholder advisory firms to publish negative commentary about our corporate governance practices or otherwise seek to cause us to change our capital structure. Any such exclusion from indices could result in a less active trading market for our ADSs. Any actions or publications by shareholder advisory firms critical of our corporate governance practices or capital structure could also adversely affect the value of our ADSs.

 

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

 

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

 

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Our directors, officers and principal shareholders collectively control a significant amount of our shares, and their interests may not align with the interests of our other shareholders.

 

As of March 31, 2020, our officers, directors and principal shareholders collectively held 56.0% of total voting power. This significant concentration of share ownership and voting power may adversely affect or reduce the trading price of our ADSs because investors often perceive a disadvantage in owning shares in a company with one or several controlling shareholders. Furthermore, our directors and officers, as a group, have the ability to significantly influence or control the outcome of all matters requiring shareholders’ approvals, including electing directors and approving mergers or other business combination transactions. These actions may be taken even if they are opposed by our other shareholders. This concentration of share 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.

 

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

 

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our Memorandum and Articles, the Companies Law (2020 Revision) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against our directors, actions by our minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States. Some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Holders of ADSs do not have the same rights as our registered shareholders. As a holder of our ADSs, you will not have any direct right to attend general meetings of our shareholders or to cast any votes at such meetings. You will only be able to exercise the voting rights which are carried by the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs indirectly by giving voting instructions to the depositary in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under the deposit agreement, you may vote only by giving voting instructions to the depositary. Upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try, as far as is practicable, to vote the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs in accordance with your instructions. If we ask for your instructions, then upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares in accordance with these instructions. If we do not instruct the depositary to ask for your instructions, the depositary may still vote in accordance with instructions you give, but it is not required to do so. You will not be able to directly exercise your right to vote with respect to the underlying Class A ordinary shares unless you withdraw the shares, and become the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date for the general meeting. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice of the meeting to withdraw the shares underlying your ADSs and become the registered holder of such shares to allow you to attend the general meeting and to vote directly with respect to any specific matter or resolution to be considered and voted upon at the general meeting. In addition, under our amended and restated articles of association, for the purposes of determining those shareholders who are entitled to attend and vote at any general meeting, our directors may close our register of members and/or fix in advance a record date for such meeting, and such closure of our register of members or the setting of such a record date may prevent you from withdrawing the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs and becoming the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date, so that you would not be able to attend the general meeting or to vote directly. If we ask for your instructions, the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We have agreed to give the depositary at least 30 days’ prior notice of shareholder meetings. Nevertheless, we cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out your voting instructions. The deposit agreement provides that if the depositary does not timely receive voting instructions from the ADS holders and if voting is by poll, then such holder shall be deemed, and the depositary shall deem such holder, to have instructed the depositary to give a discretionary proxy to a person designated by us to vote the Class A ordinary shares underlying the relevant ADSs, with certain limited exceptions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to direct how the shares underlying your ADSs are voted and you may have no legal remedy if the shares underlying your ADSs are not voted as you requested.

 

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You may not receive dividends or other distributions on our ordinary shares and you may not receive any value for them, if it is illegal or impractical to make them available to you.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Your ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems it expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. The depositary may close its books from time to time for a number of reasons, including in connection with corporate events such as a right offering, during which time the depositary needs to maintain an exact number of ADS holders on its books for a specified period. The depositary may also close its books in emergencies, and on weekends and public holidays. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of our ADSs generally when our share register or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time

 

if we or the depositary thinks it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason.

 

We are an emerging growth company within the meaning of the Securities Act and may take advantage of certain reduced reporting requirements.

 

We are an “emerging growth company,” as defined in the JOBS Act, and we may take advantage of certain exemptions from requirements applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies including, most significantly, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements  of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 for so long as we remain an emerging growth company. As a result of our current status as an emerging growth company, our investors may not have access to certain information they may deem important.

 

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We will incur increased costs after we cease to qualify as an “emerging growth company.”

 

We are a public company and have incurred significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange, impose various requirements on the corporate governance practices of public companies. As a company with less than US$1.07 billion in revenues for our last fiscal year, we qualify as an “emerging growth company” pursuant to the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include exemption from the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, or Section 404, in the assessment of the emerging growth company’s internal control over financial reporting. The JOBS Act also permits an emerging growth company to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. However, we have elected to “opt out” of this provision and, as a result, we will comply with new or revised accounting standards as required when they are adopted for public companies. This decision to opt out of the extended transition period under the JOBS Act is irrevocable.

 

We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some corporate activities more time-consuming and costly. After we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the other rules and regulations of the SEC. We are currently evaluating and monitoring developments with respect to these rules and regulations, and we cannot predict or estimate with any degree of certainty the amount of additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.

 

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

 

As a Cayman Islands company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, we are subject to the NYSE corporate governance listing standards. However, the NYSE corporate governance listing standards permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, may differ significantly from the NYSE corporate governance listing standards.

 

Pursuant to Sections 303A.01, 303A.04, 303A.05 and 303A.07 of the New York Stock Exchange Listed Company Manual, a company listed on the New York Stock Exchange must have a majority of independent directors, a nominating and corporate governance committee composed entirely of independent directors, a compensation committee composed entirely of independent directors and an audit committee with a minimum of three members. We currently follow our home country practice in lieu of these requirements. We may also continue to rely on these and other exemptions available to foreign private issuers in the future, and to the extent that we choose to do so in the future, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would under the NYSE corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. As a result, you may not be afforded the same protections or information, which would be made available to you, were you investing in a United States domestic issuer.

 

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

 

A non-U.S. corporation will be a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for any taxable year if either (i) 75% or more of its gross income for such year consists of certain types of “passive” income; or (ii) 50% or more of the value of its assets (generally determined on the basis of a quarterly average) during such year is attributable to assets that produce or are held for the production of passive income (the “asset test”). Based on our income and assets (taking into account the market price of our ADSs), we do not believe that we were a PFIC for the taxable year ended December 31, 2019 and do not anticipate becoming a PFIC in the current taxable year or in the foreseeable future. However, no assurance can be given in this regard because the determination of whether we are or will become a PFIC is a fact-intensive inquiry made on an annual basis that depends, in part, upon the composition of our income and assets. Fluctuations in the market price of our ADSs may cause us to become a PFIC for the current or subsequent taxable years because the value of our assets for the purpose of the asset test may be determined by reference to the market price of our ADSs. The composition of our income and assets may also be affected by how, and how quickly, we use our liquid assets.

 

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If we were to be or become a PFIC for any taxable year during which a U.S. Holder (as defined in “Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations”) holds our ADSs or Class A ordinary shares, certain adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences could apply to such U.S. Holder. See “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—United States Federal Income Tax Considerations—Passive Foreign Investment Company Rules.”

 

ITEM 4.                INFORMATION ON THE COMPANY

 

A.                                    History and Development of the Company

 

We commenced operations in December 2013 through Anhui Huami Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Anhui Huami, to develop, manufacture and sell smart wearable devices. In July 2014, we incorporated Huami (Beijing) Information Technology Co., Ltd., or Beijing Huami, to expand our operation.

 

In December 2014, we incorporated Huami Corporation in Cayman Islands as our offshore holding company to facilitate financing and offshore listing. Shortly following its incorporation, Huami Corporation established a wholly-owned Hong Kong subsidiary, Huami HK Limited. From December 2014 to April 2015, our Cayman holding company Huami Corporation issued ordinary shares and preferred shares to the holding vehicles of the then shareholders of Anhui Huami, in proportion to these shareholders’ then respective equity interest percentages in Anhui Huami.

 

In February 2015, Huami HK Limited established a wholly-owned subsidiary in China, Beijing Shunyuan Kaihua Technology Co., Ltd., which we refer to as Shunyuan Kaihua or our WFOE in this annual report. Our WFOE later entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Anhui Huami, Beijing Huami, which two entities we collectively refer to as our VIEs in this annual report, and their respective shareholders. These contractual arrangements enable us to exercise effective control over our VIEs; receive substantially all of the economic benefits of our VIEs; and have an exclusive option to purchase all or part of the equity interests in and assets of them when and to the extent permitted by PRC law. As a result of these contractual arrangements, each of Anhui Huami and Beijing Huami is our consolidated variable interest entity, which generally refers to an entity in which we do not have any equity interests but whose financial results are consolidated into our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP because we have effective financial control over, and are the primary beneficiary of, that entity. We treat each of Anhui Huami and Beijing Huami and their respective subsidiaries as our consolidated affiliated entities under U.S. GAAP and have consolidated their financial results in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, those contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in terms of providing operational control.

 

On February 8, 2018, our ADSs commenced trading on the NYSE under the symbol “HMI.” Counting in the ADSs sold upon the exercise of the over-allotment option by our underwriters, we raised from our initial public offering US$103.9 million in net proceeds after deducting underwriting commissions and discounts and the offering expenses payable by us.

 

In April 2019, we completed a registered follow-on offering of our ADSs, raising US$6.6 million in net proceeds after deducting underwriting commissions and discounts and the offering expenses payable by us.

 

Our principal executive offices are located at Building H8, No. 2800, Chuangxin Road, Hefei, 230088, People’s Republic of China. Our telephone number at this address is +86 551-65837200. Our registered office in the Cayman Islands is located at the offices of Maples Corporate Services Limited at PO Box 309 Ugland House, Grand Cayman, KY1-1104, Cayman Islands. Our agent for service of process in the United States is Puglisi & Associates, located at 850 Library Avenue, Suite 204, Newark, Delaware 19711.

 

SEC maintains an internet site that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC on www.sec.gov. You can also find information on our website https://www.huami.com/investor. The information contained on our website is not a part of this annual report.

 

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B.                                    Business Overview

 

We are a cloud-based healthcare services provider with world-leading smart wearable technology. We shipped 42.3 million units of smart wearable devices in 2019, and we had shipped 121.6 million units between our inception and December 31, 2019. We collaborate with partners across many verticals such as sports and social network, mobile payment and health and related industries. It is our mission to connect health with technology.

 

Our Smart Devices

 

Our smart devices mainly include smart bands, smart watches and smart scales. We have been a major partner of Xiaomi to design and manufacture Xiaomi Wearable Products. Since September 2015, we have begun to use the brand, “Amazfit,” to sell our products that are not designed and manufactured for Xiaomi to address the middle to high-end market. We obtained the China National Medical Products Administration Class II medical device approval for our ECG health band products in April 2018. We are also expanding into new smart device categories. In early 2020, we unveiled four new products spanning three verticals that go beyond smart bands and watches: Amazfit Home Studio, a smart gym hub; Amazfit AirRun, a foldable next-generation treadmill; Amazfit PowerBuds, true wireless stereo fitness earphones with Clip-to-Go design; and Amazfit ZenBuds, sleep-comfort and health monitoring earphones.

 

Smart Bands

 

Mi Band Series

 

Mi Band series is our smart band series that is designed and manufactured for Xiaomi. We introduced the first generation of Mi Band in July 2014, and subsequently Mi Band 2 in June 2016 and Mi Band 3 in May 2018.

 

In June 2019, we launched Mi Band 4, which offers a full color display and heart rate monitor. Users can change the theme of screen and can view call, text and app notifications on Mi Band 4. It is 50 meters waterproof as tested by the National Watch Quality Supervision and Inspection Center. Mi Band 4 comes with a standard version, a more advanced NFC version, and Marvel’s The Avengers limited edition. Mi Band 4 NFC version offers additional functions such as built-in voice query function, control of Mi home furniture through Xiaomi’s intelligent voice assistant (Xiao AI) and payment function.

 

Amazfit Health Bands

 

Amazfit Health Band is what we believe to be one of the first smart band trackers in the market equipped with ECG sensors that have the capabilities to accurately capture heart rate variability and ECG, enabling users to monitor their heart conditions on a real-time basis. We first introduced the Amazfit Health Band in April 2017, which allows us to utilize our proprietary big data technology to analyze users’ heart conditions and notify users who are at heightened risks of cardiovascular diseases through our mobile apps.

 

We launched Amazfit Health Band Huangshan-1 version in August 2019. Our proprietary Huangshan-1 combined with the RealBeats TM AI biological data engine we developed enables 7*24 hours of uninterrupted accurate heart rate monitoring and high precision ECG monitoring for the users. If any heart abnormity is detected, the Huangshan-1 Band will issue alarm immediately. Huangshan-1 Band also enables friends and families of the users to closely follow the health condition of the users through the Amazfit Health cloud service.

 

Smart Watches

 

We have a large variety of smart watch offerings under our Amazfit brand, primarily consisting of the following six series, including flagship, fashion, sport, outdoor and classic and health series.

 

·                  Amazfit Nexo. Amazfit Nexo is our flagship smart watch, introduced in June 2019. It is the second generation of Amazfit Verge. In addition to the functions of last generation, Amazfit Nexo could make 4G LTE phone calls independently with a built-in eSIM module. It could also connect the users’ Bluetooth earphones for enhanced convenience. The 7*24 heart rate recording makes Amazfit Nexo is a valuable training and performance-tracking tool. It also offers an ECG version, and users could make subscription on Amazfit Health APP to get the online doctor interpretation of their electrocardiogram.

 

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·                  Amazfit GTR and GTS. We launched the Amazfit GTR and GTS smartwatch to cater to consumer’s preference for fashionable-looking smart watches. Amazfit GTR comes with a luxurious metal-ceramic covering and a 7*24 display retina screen. It offers hundreds of personalized dials, including a dial with zircon edging designed for female consumers and the Iron Man limited edition designed for Marvel fans. In addition to the fashionable design, Amazfit GTR offers powerful functions, including automatic detects of arrhythmia, built-in GPS and GLONASS dual-positioning system, accurate capture of movement track, 50 meters waterproof and all-day heart rate and activity data monitoring. Amazfit GTS offers all functions of Amazfit GTR, and comes with a square screen that carries more information.

 

·                  Amazfit Stratos. Amazfit Stratos is designed for athletic consumers suitable to their sports needs. It was introduced in December 2017. The latest Amazfit Stratos 3, launched in September 2019, has two chips built-in to support both professional sports mode and daily life mode. It provides various activity and sports modes, covering everyday activities and exercises as well as competitive sports such as triathlon and trail running. Under trail running, hiking and climbing modes, its battery life is up to 70 hours with the GPS continually operating. In addition to the key metrics such as pace, cadence and distance, Amazfit Stratos 3 also provides performance indicators such as maximum oxygen uptake (V02 max), training load, training effect and recovery time.

 

·                  Amazfit T-Rex. Amazfit T-Rex is our outdoor series. It is strong and durable, and operates smoothly in harsh environments. It passed the test for 12 military supply standards. Amazfit T-Rex has a battery life of 20 days. It offers functions such as 50 meters waterproof, 14 sports modes, built-in common tools, and all-day heart rate and activity data monitoring and GPS and GLONASS dual-positioning system.

 

·                  Amazfit Bip. Our classic series, Amazfit Bip, is a lightweight GPS-enabled sports smart watch, first introduced in July 2017. It has a battery life of up to 30 days for regular use and up to 45 days with minimal functions running, and provides four different activity modes, including walking, outdoor/indoor running and biking and tracks pace, distance, elevation, heart rate and other data. Similar to our other products, it sends vibrating alerts for incoming calls, texts, emails and app notifications. In August 2019, we introduced a lighter version, Amazfit Bip Lite.

 

·                  Amazfit Health Watch. Amazfit Health Watch, released in June 2019, demonstrates our expertise in health and wearable technology. It is a smart watch with health monitoring at its core, applying our proprietary Huangshan-1 processor based on RISC-V architecture and with RealBeats AI biological data engine integrated for local real-time screening of arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation. The Amazfit Health Watch is equipped with a 1.28-inch display and weighs only 25 grams. Using our proprietary bio-tracking optical sensor BioTracker PPG, it offers a 7*24-hour uninterrupted accurate heart rate monitoring as well as measuring of other aspects of heart health supported by the ECG sensor equipped. We cooperated with the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine of Peking University First Hospital to test the accuracy of Amazfit Health Watch’s heart condition monitoring function. The 12-lead electrocardiogram test showed that the accuracy rate of ECG AF judgment of Amazfit Health Watch is 97.24%, and the accuracy rate of AFPG judgment is 95.52%.

 

In addition to the six series, we designed and manufactured the Timex Ironman R330 GPS smartwatch, which was launched in early 2020. We plan to launch Amazfit X, our most cutting-edge concept smart watch, in 2020.

 

Smart Scales

 

Mi Smart Scale

 

Mi Smart Scale is our entry-level Bluetooth-connected scale that tracks weight and BMI, first introduced in March 2015. It is embedded with a high-precision sensor and is made of manganese steel. It utilizes three different algorithms to collect and interpret data, achieving half the error margin than that of comparable weighing scales.

 

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Mi Body Fat Scale

 

Mi Body Fat Scale is our advanced smart scale that measures weight, body fat rate, muscle mass, body water percentage, bone mass, metabolism, visceral fat level, BMI, body shape and body health level score. It was first introduced in February 2017. It recognizes up to 16 individual users separately with no limit on weight records storing on cloud service.

 

Others

 

We also offer a wide range of accessories including bands, watch straps, earphones, sportswear, home gym, treadmill etc. Several of our products have been recognized by numerous industrial design awards, including iF Product Design Award, Red Dot Product Design Award and China Red Star Design Award.

 

Products in Development

 

We continue to focus on new product development to address evolving user preferences and enhance our market-leading positions. In general, we launch a new version of our existing smart bands and watches every 12-24 months, in addition to new products and services that we introduce from time to time.

 

Our Mobile Apps

 

We mainly offer two mobile apps: our “Mi Fit” mobile app and our “Amazfit” mobile app. Both of our mobile apps sync automatically with and display real-time data from our devices. They use charts and graphs to display analysis of the activity and biometric data collected from users. Our “Mi Fit” mobile app is designed with a focus on sports and fitness functions while our “Amazfit” mobile app emphasizes functions relating to health and medical care.

 

We launched “Mi Fit” mobile app in July 2014 and “Amazfit” mobile app in November 2015. Since our inception in 2013, we have amassed a large user base. As of December 31, 2019, we had 30.7 million Mobile App MAUs and 148.1 registered users of our mobile apps.

 

We developed our mobile apps to support and expand the functionalities of our smart wearable devices as a way to attract users and promote sales of our wearable devices. We generate certain miscellaneous revenues from our mobile apps, including through sales of products via in-app store and in-app advertising services, and value-added services such as paid courses and paid medical SaaS subscription services. However, the amounts of such revenues are immaterial. We continue to provide innovative features and functionalities to users through our mobile apps, including the following:

 

·                  Workout Tutorials and Health Tips. Users can watch workout tutorials and learn helpful tips in our apps to enhance the effectiveness of their training and to learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

 

·                  Discover. Users can discover and sign up for exciting online and offline sports and fitness events, such as our 21-Day Healthy Lifestyle Challenge and the Beijing International Marathon, directly via our apps, to compete with other users and win rewards from our partners for their participation.

 

·                  Fitness campaigns. We launch fitness campaigns on our mobile apps periodically to encourage users to stay active and engage with our devices and mobile apps.

 

·                  Feed. Users can upload vivid content, such as status updates, workout photos and videos, short videos and live videos to our apps community through Amazfit Circle function to share and interact with friends and fellow users. Users can create posts, follow other users, like and make comments on other users’ posts.

 

·                  E-Commerce. Users can purchase our products and sports gear directly through our in-app store, which is compatible with various payment methods.

 

·                  AI assistant. Our apps are compatible with virtual assistants including Xiao Ai developed by Xiaomi and Amazon Alexa developed by Amazon. Users can connect to these virtual assistants directly from our apps.

 

Data Technology

 

Our strong data technology is vital in enhancing the performance of our products and in further expanding their applications, as well as in enhancing our various data-enabled services.

 

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Data Sources and Storage

 

Our big data storage system stores and processes a massive amount of multi-dimensional user data, including activity data (steps, distance traveled, sleep duration and quality, GPS tracking algorithm, swimming algorithm, etc.), and biometric data (heart rate, ECG, weight, etc.), which serves as the foundation of our big data technology. Based on the foregoing two types of data, we are able to derive additional personal data such as calories burned, BMI, body fat composition, heart health index, personal activity index and even calculate the likelihood of certain heart diseases. We also collect and analyze software and hardware error data and product defects data to optimize our products.

 

Big Data Technology

 

The real-time iteration of our big data model is enabled by our big data infrastructure and algorithms. Our data platform can extract multi-dimensional features from multi-source data in a highly efficient and secure way to support modeling. We use a scalable and flexible database to support the storage and calculation of data points. We currently utilize our big data technology in the following areas:

 

·                  optimize the algorithms that count the number of steps taken by eliminating the effect of certain patterns of the hand movements that are not associated with walking;

 

·                  fine-tune our algorithms for tracking sleep duration and quality and then make personalized adjustment based on users’ sleep patterns;

 

·                  enhance the performance of our built-in GPS, enabling our products to draw users’ running tracks more accurately and more quickly;

 

·                  develop insights into massive market and consumer data, empowering a more streamlined and efficient product design and optimization process;

 

·                  perform statistical analysis to identify certain characteristics that are associated with heart diseases and sleep patterns and make related recommendations to our users;

 

·                  perform statistical analysis to identify certain characteristics that are associated with users’ health and make related recommendations of training courses to our users; and

 

·                  develop the capability to perform more granular analysis on the data we collect from our users and to allow our products to recognize types of activities and sports.

 

Data Privacy and Protection

 

We consider the protection of the personal privacy of each of our users to be of paramount importance. We think it is crucial that our users understand how we handle their information so that they can make informed choices in deciding how such information is used and shared.

 

To this end, we have developed a company-wide policy on data collection and use practices to preserve individual privacy rights in all respects, the key principles of which include: (i) providing adequate notice to users as to how their data is being collected and used, (ii) providing users with the option to opt out, (iii) making reasonable efforts to prevent loss/leak of user data, (iv) giving users access to all information held about them, and (v) enforcing the policy with effective means.

 

We also partner with several leading social networks in China, including WeChat and Weibo. With the consent of our users, we allow them to import certain activity data collected by us to their platforms so that our users can utilize certain interactive functions offered on these social networks. In addition, our users can also import their data to third-party apps such as Apple Health Kit and Google Fit to obtain the data analytic services provided by them. Users can revoke their consent to share data with third parties at any time using their “Mi Fit” or “Amazfit” account settings or the account settings on such third parties’ platforms. If users choose to share their data with a third party, the data is governed by the privacy policy of the third party. We do not distribute or share with third parties our users’ personal data to other companies for advertising or any other purposes.

 

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Research and Development

 

We are passionate about developing new and innovative products and services that will make the world more connected. Our research and development team and our management team co-lead the product development process, including the upgrades for our existing products and the development of new product lines. We take a user centric approach to product development. We constantly engage and communicate with our users via the “Feedback” feature in our mobile apps, customer services, forums and user chat groups and interviews to help us identify meaningful features for users and refine existing products. Our research and development team have successfully developed every aspect of the Mi Band series products, which became highly popular, reaching sales of one million pieces within three months of its release. Our research and development team has responded effectively to technological changes, and is driving continued innovation to unleash the potential of the wearable devices industry.

 

As of December 31, 2019, our total research and development staff consisted of 679 employees. Our global research and development team supports the design and development of our new products. Our research and development team is comprised of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer scientists and mobile app developers. The team is further divided into four sub-groups, including algorithms and AI, software engineering, hardware engineering and third-party service integration.

 

Algorithms and AI

 

Our algorithms and AI team is responsible for developing and refining our proprietary, artificial intelligence-based, computational algorithms, and leveraging the latest technology in artificial intelligence for applications in our products and services. Our algorithms and AI team incorporates open source software with our robust proprietary software to form an enterprise-grade platform to deliver an integrated suite of capabilities for data management, machine learning and advanced analytics. This platform enables us to use vast amount of data from users to better serve and create value for our users and design innovative products and services. Our algorithms and AI team has developed a vibrant ecosystem around our platform, and has been building a growing range of applications on our platform, including the following:

 

·                  Disease diagnosis and health risk prediction. Machine learning is particularly suitable for processing unstructured raw data collected on individual devices by recognizing patterns and connections through which the raw data can be structured and analyzed. The vast amounts of raw data are uploaded to our cloud-based databases and then filtered by our algorithms to identify users with heightened risks of heart diseases or respiratory problems. Those results flagged by our algorithms are then verified by doctors, and the feedback from doctors is input into our algorithms to be used to analyze and filter the new data, thus forming a closed loop to allow us to continually fine-tune our algorithms to obtain more accurate assessment with each update.

 

·                  Sleep monitoring. Currently most sleep disorders can only be diagnosed in laboratories and hospitals. We are collaborating with Stanford Center for Sleep Sciences and Medicine to develop the capability to diagnose sleep disorders through consumer electronics and wearable technologies.

 

·                  Sports and fitness. We are developing algorithms to synthesize a wide variety of users’ daily activity data to understand users’ daily routines and habits and build our recommendation model accordingly through machine learning. Once the recommendation model is set up, we will be able to provide users with recommendations, such as exercise duration and intensity, running posture and foot posture, etc. We can also make personalized activity recommendations to help users achieve their fitness goals, such as weight loss.

 

·                  Biometrics. ECG is just as unique to an individual as fingerprints. We have developed ECG recognition algorithms to recognize the unique cardiac rhythms of users, which can be utilized as a biometric ID to authenticate user’s identity. Currently we are exploring new scenarios where this feature can be applied, such as account login and user identification. In addition, we have developed or are in the process of developing AI algorithms to measure various health parameters, including real time heart rates, heart rate variability, arrhythmia ( including atrial fibrillation), SpO2, blood pressure, and etc., with the bio-sensors embedded in our wearable devices.

 

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Huangshan

 

In September 2018, we introduced the world’s first AI-powered wearable chipset, Huangshan-1. Leveraging the world’s first RISC-V open source instruction set wearable processor, Huangshan-1 features four core artificial intelligence engines — cardiac biometrics engine, ECG, ECG Pro, and Hearth Rhythm Abnormality Monitoring Engine.

 

Huangshan-1 operates alongside an always-on (AON) module designed to transfer sensor data to internal static RAM without waking the primary processor, with dedicated accelerators for neural network workloads. Huangshan-1 also supports real-time movement tracking, real-time biometric identification, real-time warning, among a huge array of functions and can scan the heart rate patterns of users through cloud-based AI, helping to monitor the user’s heart rate carefully, check for any unusual patterns and update users’ health statistics even when the users are not online. With lightning performance and minimal power consumption, we believe Huangshan-1 will be an ideal chipset for the smart wearables technology.

 

Although we expect to continue to make significant investments for the design and manufacture of our products, we believe our proprietary Huangshan-1 will help us to reduce reliance on our existing chipset suppliers, over which we have limited control, and decrease the costs for designing and manufacturing. We started mass production of Huangshan-1 and applied Huangshan-1 to our Amazfit-branded health-oriented products in August 2019. Furthermore, we are developing our next generation AI chip, Huangshan-2, which will be more intelligent than its predecessor and enable more healthcare related functionality to further differentiate our future smart watch products.

 

Software Engineering

 

Our software engineering team is responsible for developing the company-wide software platform to support the integration of our products and applications, the transmission, storage and processing of user data, the implementation of user-product interaction and the development of core technologies. To provide users with valuable data and services, we rely on our software platform to connect individual devices, our cloud-based computing system and end users’ mobile apps. The key elements of our software engineering philosophy include security, reliability and extensibility.

 

Hardware Engineering

 

Our hardware engineering team supports the system-level product design, ultralow power system design and the design of key system components, including antenna, bio-sensors, battery, integrated circuits (“IC”) for battery protection, Bluetooth Low Energy system on chip IC, energy-efficient microprocessor and product testing apparatus. Our hardware engineering team also plays a key role in identifying opportunities for strategic investments upstream.

 

We also continue to pursue strategic partnerships with battery companies to conduct joint research in the areas of energy harvesting and energy conversion to develop high-capacity battery for smart wearable devices. With respect to sensor technology, we currently focus on developing a new PPG sensor that can monitor both heart rate and blood oxygen level, which will form the basis to further enhance the functionalities and broaden the application scenarios of our products. In addition, we are also exploring new ways to connect our products with end users’ mobile devices besides the traditional methods such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.

 

Third-Party Service Integration

 

Our third-party service integration team is responsible for exploring innovative ways to integrate social features with our products and services and introduce new third-party services to our platform. We currently focus on the opportunities in the areas of sports, fitness, health and medical care. For example, we are working with insurance companies to distribute certain insurance products on our platform. We are also exploring cooperation opportunities with fitness trainers to help them tailor training programs and adjust exercise intensity based on our users’ activity and fitness levels. We are also working with clinics and hospitals to directly connect doctors with users via our platform to perform diagnosis for heart diseases and provide rehabilitation services.

 

Our Relationship with Xiaomi

 

We have been a major partner of Xiaomi to design and manufacture Xiaomi Wearable Products. Our strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi grants us the most-preferred-partner status globally to develop future Xiaomi Wearable Products. We leverage Xiaomi’s brand recognition and global distribution networks for the sale of Xiaomi Wearable Products as well as products under our own brand. Our sale of Xiaomi Wearable Products to Xiaomi is governed by a business cooperation agreement, pursuant to which Xiaomi is responsible for the distribution and sales of Xiaomi Wearable Products through their networks and sales channels.

 

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We and Xiaomi discuss on, among others, functions, and recommended price range throughout the development process. After we show Xiaomi of prototypes and our internal validation testing results, we start taking orders from Xiaomi for mass production. Xiaomi and us generally discuss order forecast months in advance of the delivery time, which sufficiently allows us to arrange raw material and component procurement and manufacturing. In addition to the recommended price of Xiaomi Wearable Products to be sold to users and wholesalers, we also discuss with Xiaomi and jointly determine discounts offered at promotional events from time to time. We and Xiaomi receive equal shares of gross profit from selling all Xiaomi Wearable Products.

 

In addition to continuing our mutually beneficial relationship with Xiaomi, we have taken a number of initiatives to extend our products’ reach to a broader range of users. Since September 2015, we have started to use the brand name “Amazfit” to market our self-branded products. We differentiate our self-branded products from Xiaomi Wearable Products by targeting mid- to high-end users, offering different functionality and setting different price points.

 

Manufacturing and Fulfillment

 

Procurement and Manufacturing

 

We procure a majority of raw materials and components from suppliers within China, and then consign them to our manufacturers. In general, prices for our raw materials have been relatively stable. Through close coordination with our customers and manufacturers and frequent purchases of components from suppliers, we are able to carry few raw material and in-process inventories and achieve “just in time” production, minimizing inventory risk. For Xiaomi Wearable Products, Xiaomi provides us with production forecasts on a rolling basis, which serves as the primary indicator for our component procurement effort. For our self-branded products, we procure components based on our internal sales and production plan for the next one to two months at the beginning of each month.

 

The key components of our products typically include Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) system-on-chip, PPG sensor, flash memory, gravity sensor, battery and screen. One of the key components we utilize, BLE system-on-chip, is currently procured from a single source of supply. The remaining key components of our products are generally procured from two to three suppliers.

 

We believe that outsourcing the manufacturing of our products enables greater scale and flexibility at lower costs than establishing our own manufacturing facilities. We outsource the manufacturing of our products to a number of contract manufacturers. We assign the production of the Mi Band series and the Mi Smart Scale series to multiple manufacturers while each of our self-branded product lines is assigned to a corresponding manufacturer. Our manufacturers produce our products using design specifications and standards that we establish.

 

We evaluate on an ongoing basis our current contract manufacturers and component suppliers, including whether or not to utilize new or alternative contract manufacturers or component suppliers. We do not maintain purchase commitments with our suppliers. The terms of the supply agreements with our suppliers generally are two to three years. Our suppliers generally also provide direct order fulfillment services with logistics that include delivery of parts and assembly to our manufacturers.

 

Prior to entering commercial production, our new products need to go through three phases, including engineering validation testing, design validation testing and production validation testing. During the initial period after launch, we typically maintain low production volume to test the market and then gradually ramp up based on market reception of such new products.

 

Quality Assurance

 

We are committed to maintaining the highest level of quality in our products. We have designed and implemented a quality management system that provides the framework for continual improvement of products and processes.

 

For our new product lines, we conduct thorough examinations of product samples and each of their components at the product verification testing stage to make sure they satisfy all the technical requirements set forth in our structure design and industrial design. The examination results are recorded on a set of product sample documents, which are further reviewed and approved before they are handed over to our manufacturers to begin commercial production.

 

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For our existing product lines, we also have a quality assurance team that establishes, communicates and monitors quality standards by product category. Suppliers are kept apprised of quality assurance expectations through a vendor management portal environment. In addition, we have quality assurance personnel stationed at the facilities of our key manufacturers to perform sampling inspection to ensure that our manufacturers fully adhere to our quality standards in the production process.

 

Strategic Collaborations

 

Collaboration with PAI Health

 

In June 2018, we began to collaborate with PAI Health, a heart health software company, to deliver health risk assessment services for the insurance industry. This collaboration aims to integrate our high quality smart wearable devices and digital experiences with PAI Health’s unique algorithms for providing a personalized guide for optimal levels of physical activity. PAI Health offers insurers a scientifically validated approach to assess and monitor some of the health risks typically associated with an inactive lifestyle, a growing global health problem. The services we intend to deliver together to insurers include customer acquisition and engagement tools which improve health and reduce costs.

 

Strategic Collaboration with Timex

 

In November 2018, we began to collaborate with Timex Group, a global leader in watchmaking for more than 160 years. We and Timex started to explore opportunities to develop new products and increase global presence in the smart wearables marketplace, pairing Timex’s longstanding expertise as watchmakers with our artificial intelligence technology, App design and manufacturing capabilities. Together, we aim at developing a new generation of smart watches that deliver on performance, style, craftsmanship and price. In February 2020, Timex launched the new Ironman R300, the first Timex product designed and manufactured by us. In addition, Timex and we will explore and develop value-added services, including e-payment, weight management, sports, fitness, and health care related services for users by leveraging our cloud service platform and AI technology and Timex’s vertical integration capabilities in watchmaking.

 

Strategic Collaboration with AliveCor

 

In October 2019, we made a minority interest investment in AliveCor, Inc., one of the industry-leading players in artificial intelligence based personal ECG technology, and a provider of enterprise cardiology solutions with CE and FDA clearance. In connection with this investment, we entered into a licensing agreement with AliveCor, pursuant to which AliveCor Inc. granted us a license under certain patents, algorithm and trademark rights of AliveCor Inc. covering software and devices for wearable and other mobile devices to record ECGs and analyze those ECGs. Leveraging the cutting-edge technology of AliveCor, we will explore the opportunity to deliver new high-performance ECG form factors to global markets.

 

Sales and Marketing

 

Xiaomi directly handles the sales and distributions of Xiaomi Wearable Products and also bears the associated advertising and marketing costs. However, we also play an important role in driving the sales strategy for Xiaomi Wearable Products. For example, we and Xiaomi work together to determine the quantity to be produced, the final selling price, the distribution channel and promotional events.

 

Since September 2015, we have started to use the brand name “Amazfit” to market our self-branded products. In 2019, we engaged in various marketing and branding activities, both in China and globally, to promote our Amazfit brand. We seek to further increase our brand awareness by expanding our marketing efforts, strengthening our competitive differentiation, and providing our users with consistent and high quality products.

 

Our self-branded products are sold via both online and offline channels. In terms of online platforms, we operate storefront on e-commerce platforms including JD.com and TMall in addition to directly selling to certain of these e-commerce platforms who subsequently distribute to end users. For our offline network, we work with both well-established distributors to create points of purchase at their retail stores. In addition, our products have international versions that are manufactured for sales and distribution in overseas markets. In

 

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2019, we explored domestic and international sales and marketing channels for our Amazfit products on our own, and we plan to keep doing so in the foreseeable future.

 

Customer Service

 

User experience is a key focus for our business. We strive to provide personalized support for our users, including support from live customer service representatives.

 

The first point of contact for customer service inquiries is our self-service “Feedback” function embedded in our mobile apps. Our “Feedback” feature works 24/7 to collect complaints from our users. Representatives of Xiaomi and our distribution channels, especially those that manage our e-commerce channels, also provide customer services to users who purchased our products through their channels. These representatives are required to complete mandatory training on product knowledge, complaint handling and communication skills. In addition, we also maintain an internal call center to provide support to our users.

 

Additionally, we have set up mobile chat groups to connect with users who are also enthusiastic followers of our products, and conduct focus group study periodically to better understand what our users desire from our products.

 

Intellectual Property

 

Protection of our intellectual property is a strategic priority for our business. We rely on a combination of patent, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws, as well as confidentiality agreements, to establish and protect our proprietary rights. Except for certain licenses for the off-the-shelf software used in connection with our day-to-day operations, we generally do not rely on third-party licenses of intellectual property for use in our business.

 

As of March 31, 2020, we had obtained 388 patents and had submitted 357 additional patent applications. Our issued PRC patents will expire between 2020 and 2040 and our issued foreign patents will expire between 2024 and 2044. As of March 31, 2020, we had registered 817 trademarks and had submitted 664 additional trademark applications. Our registered PRC trademarks will expire between 2020 and 2030 but can be renewed. Our registered foreign trademarks will expire between 2021 and 2033 but can be renewed. As of March 31, 2020, we had obtained 28 software copyrights.

 

In addition to the foregoing protections, we generally control access to and use of our proprietary and other confidential information through the use of internal and external controls, such as use of confidentiality agreement with our employees and outside consultants.

 

Competition

 

We compete with other companies in every aspect of our business, particularly with companies that are in the smart wearables market. The smart wearables market has a multitude of participants, including consumer electronics companies specialized in smart wearable technology, such as Fitbit and Garmin, large, broad-based consumer electronics companies that either compete in our market or adjacent markets, or have announced plans to do so, such as Huawei, Apple, Samsung and Xiaomi, traditional health and fitness companies and traditional watch companies. We also face competition from local providers of similar products in the different regions and countries where our products are distributed.

 

We believe that the principal competitive factors impacting the market for our products include:

 

·                  brand recognition;

 

·                  breadth of product offerings;

 

·                  functionality;

 

·                  sales and distribution;

 

·                  data accuracy;

 

·                  sensor technology and algorithms;

 

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·                  user services; and

 

·                  pricing.

 

We believe we can compete favorably with our competitors on the basis of these factors. We believe we have one of the largest accumulative registered user bases in the global wearable devices industry as a result of our large shipment volume. The large amount of data we collect from our user base allows us to continuously improve our proprietary algorithms to enhance the performance of our products. We plan to establish our own brands as lifestyle brands by consistently introducing innovative products that offer increasingly rich premium services and functionalities for our self-branded products. While we leverage Xiaomi’s brand recognition and sales channel for Xiaomi Wearable Products, we expect to further expand our own sales channels for our Amazfit products, both in China and globally.

 

We have also developed proprietary chipsets that are highly power efficient. For example, Mi Band 4 can run up to 20 days under normal usage after a full charge. Additionally, this feature allows our products to sample more data from users more frequently, enabling them to even more accurately track the measures while at the same time ensuring stable data transmission.

 

However, the industry in which we compete is evolving rapidly and is becoming increasingly competitive. For additional information, see “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—We operate in highly competitive markets and the scale and resources of some of our competitors may allow them to compete more effectively than we can, which could result in a loss of our market share and a decrease in our revenue and profitability.”

 

Seasonality

 

Our business has historically been subject to seasonal fluctuations, which may be caused by product launches and various promotional events hosted by our distributors. Although we have historically experienced higher sales during the fourth quarter, primarily due to (i) holiday sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and during the lead-up to Christmas and (ii) the “Singles’ Day” online shopping festival organized by TMall, this pattern does not repeat itself every year. We typically experience our lowest sales volume in the first quarter of each year.

 

Regulation

 

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

 

Regulation on Foreign Investment

 

Investment activities in the PRC by foreign investors are principally governed by the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industry, or the Catalogue, which was promulgated and is amended from time to time by the Ministry of Commerce, or the MOFCOM, and the National Development and Reform Commission, or NDRC, and together with the FIE and their respective implementation rules and ancillary regulations. The Catalogue lays out the basic framework for foreign investment in China, classifying businesses into three categories with regard to foreign investment: “encourage,” “restricted” and “prohibited.” Industries not listed in the catalog are generally deemed as falling into a fourth category “permitted” unless specifically restricted by other PRC laws. On June 30, 2019, the MOFCOM and the NDRC jointly released the Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment (2019 Version) and the Special Management Measures (Negative List) for the Access of Foreign Investment (2019), or the 2019 Negative List, which became effective on July 30, 2019, to amend and supplement the Guidance Catalog and replace the previous negative list thereunder.

 

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress promulgated the FIL, which came into effect on January 1, 2020 and replaced the Outdated FIE Laws. The FIL, by means of legislation, establishes the basic framework for the access, promotion, protection and administration of foreign investment in view of investment protection and fair competition.

 

According to the FIL, foreign investment shall enjoy pre-entry national treatment, except for those foreign-invested entities that operate in industries deemed to be either “restricted” or “prohibited” in the “negative list”. The FIL provides that foreign-invested entities operating in foreign “restricted” or “prohibited” industries will require entry clearance and other approvals. However, it is unclear whether the “negative list”

 

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will differ from the 2019 Negative List. In addition, the FIL does not comment on the concept of “de facto control” or contractual arrangements with variable interest entities, however, it has a catch-all provision under definition of “foreign investment” to include investments made by foreign investors in China through means stipulated by laws or administrative regulations or other methods prescribed by the State Council. Therefore, it still leaves leeway for future laws, administrative regulations or provisions to provide for contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system and changes in laws and regulations in China could adversely affect us, and any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our business may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.”

 

The FIL also provides several protective rules and principles for foreign investors and their investments in the PRC, including, among others, that local governments shall abide by their commitments to the foreign investors; foreign-invested enterprises are allowed to issue stocks and corporate bonds; except for special circumstances, in which case statutory procedures shall be followed and fair and reasonable compensation shall be made in a timely manner, expropriate or requisition the investment of foreign investors is prohibited; mandatory technology transfer is prohibited; foreign investors’ funds are allowed to be freely transferred out and into the territory of PRC, which run through the entire lifecycle from the entry to the exit of foreign investment; and providing an all-around and multi-angle system to guarantee fair competition of foreign-invested enterprises in the market economy. In addition, foreign investors or the foreign investment enterprise should be imposed legal liabilities for failing to report investment information in accordance with the requirements. Furthermore, the FIL provides that foreign-invested enterprises established according to the existing laws regulating foreign investment may maintain their structure and corporate governance within five years after the implementing of the FIL, which means that foreign-invested enterprises may be required to adjust the structure and corporate governance in accordance with the current PRC Company Law and other laws and regulations governing the corporate governance.

 

On December 26, 2019, the State Council promulgated the Implementation Rules to the Foreign Investment Law, which became effective on January 1, 2020. The implementation rules further clarified that the State Council encourages and promotes foreign investment, protects the lawful rights and interests of foreign investors, regulates foreign investment administration, continues to optimize foreign investment environment and advances a higher-level opening.

 

On December 30, 2019, the MOFCOM and State Administration for Market Regulation jointly promulgated the Measures for Information Reporting on Foreign Investment, which became effective on January 1, 2020. Pursuant to the Measures for Information Reporting on Foreign Investment, in the case that a foreign investor carries out investment activities in China directly or indirectly, the foreign investor or the foreign invested enterprise shall submit the investment information to the competent commerce department.

 

Regulation on Product Quality

 

The PRC Product Quality Law applies to all production and sale activities in China. Pursuant to this law, products offered for sale must satisfy the relevant quality and safety standards. Enterprises may not produce or sell counterfeit products in any fashion. Violations of state or industrial standards for health and safety and any other related violations may result in civil liabilities and administrative penalties, such as compensation for damages, fines, suspension or shutdown of business, as well as confiscation of products illegally produced and sold and the proceeds from such sales. Severe violations may subject the responsible individual or enterprise to criminal liabilities. Where a defective product causes physical injury to a person or damage to another person’s property, the victim may claim compensation from the manufacturer or from the seller of the product. If the seller pays compensation and it is the manufacturer that should bear the liability, the seller has a right of recourse against the manufacturer. Similarly, if the manufacturer pays compensation and it is the seller that should bear the liability, the manufacturer has a right of recourse against the seller.

 

Regulation on Consumer Protection

 

The PRC Consumer Protection Law, as amended on October 25, 2013 and effective on March 15, 2014, sets out the obligations of business operators and the rights and interests of the consumers. Pursuant to this law, business operators must guarantee that the commodities they sell satisfy the requirements for personal or property safety, provide consumers with authentic information about the commodities, and guarantee the quality, function, usage and term of validity of the commodities. Failure to comply with the Consumer Protection Law may subject business operators to civil liabilities such as refunding purchase prices, exchange of commodities, repairing, ceasing damages, compensation, and restoring reputation, and even subject the business

 

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operators or the responsible individuals to criminal penalties if business operators commit crimes by infringing the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. The amended PRC Consumer Protection Law further strengthens the protection of consumers and imposes more stringent requirements and obligations on business operators, especially on the business operators through the Internet. For example, the consumers are entitled to return the goods (except for certain specific goods) within seven days upon receipt without any reasons when they purchase the goods from business operators via the Internet. The consumers whose interests have been damaged due to their purchase of goods or acceptance of services on online marketplace platforms may claim damages from sellers or service providers.

 

Regulation on Torts

 

Under the Tort Law of the PRC which became effective on July 1, 2010, if damages to other persons are caused by defective products due to the fault of a third party, such as the parties providing transportation or warehousing, the producers and the sellers of the products have the right to recover their respective losses from such third parties. If defective products are identified after they have been put into circulation, the producers or the sellers shall take remedial measures such as issuance of a warning, recall of products, etc. in a timely manner. The producers or the sellers shall be liable under tort if they fail to take remedial measures in a timely manner or have not made efforts to take remedial measures, thus causing damages. If the products are produced or sold with known defects, causing deaths or severe adverse health issues, the infringed party has the right to claim punitive damages in addition to compensatory damages.

 

Regulation on Intellectual Property Rights

 

The PRC has adopted comprehensive legislation governing intellectual property rights, including patents, trademarks, copyrights and domain names.

 

Patents

 

Pursuant to the PRC Patent Law, most recently amended on December 27, 2008, and its implementation rules, most recently amended on January 9, 2010, patents in China fall into three categories: invention, utility model and design. An invention patent is granted to a new technical solution proposed in respect of a product or method or an improvement of a product or method. A utility model is granted to a new technical solution that is practicable for application and proposed in respect of the shape, structure or a combination of both of a product. A design patent is granted to the new design of a certain product in shape, pattern or a combination of both and in color, shape and pattern combinations aesthetically suitable for industrial application. Under the PRC Patent Law, the term of patent protection starts from the date of application. Patents relating to invention are effective for twenty years, and utility models and designs are effective for ten years from the date of application. The PRC Patent Law adopts the principle of “first-to-file” system, which provides that where more than one person files a patent application for the same invention, a patent will be granted to the person who files the application first.

 

Existing patents can become narrowed, invalid or unenforceable due to a variety of grounds, including lack of novelty, creativity, and deficiencies in patent application. In China, a patent must have novelty, creativity and practical applicability. Under the PRC Patent Law, novelty means that before a patent application is filed, no identical invention or utility model has been publicly disclosed in any publication in China or overseas or has been publicly used or made known to the public by any other means, whether in or outside of China, nor has any other person filed with the patent authority an application that describes an identical invention or utility model and is recorded in patent application documents or patent documents published after the filing date. Creativity means that, compared with existing technology, an invention has prominent substantial features and represents notable progress, and a utility model has substantial features and represents any progress. Practical applicability means an invention or utility model can be manufactured or used and may produce positive results. Patents in China are filed with the State Intellectual Property Office, or SIPO. Normally, the SIPO publishes an application for an invention patent within 18 months after the filing date, which may be shortened at the request of applicant. The applicant must apply to the SIPO for a substantive examination within three years from the date of application.

 

Article 20 of the PRC Patent Law provides that, for an invention or utility model completed in China, any applicant (not just Chinese companies and individuals), before filing a patent application outside of China, must first submit it to the SIPO for a confidential examination. Failure to comply with this requirement will result in the denial of any Chinese patent for the relevant invention. This added requirement of confidential

 

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examination by the SIPO has raised concerns by foreign companies who conduct research and development activities in China or outsource research and development activities to service providers in China.

 

Patent Enforcement

 

Unauthorized use of patents without consent from owners of patents, forgery of the patents belonging to other persons, or engagement in other patent infringement acts, will subject the infringers to infringement liability. Serious offences such as forgery of patents may be subject to criminal penalties.

 

When a dispute arises out of infringement of the patent owner’s patent right, Chinese law requires that the parties first attempt to settle the dispute through mutual consultation. However, if the dispute cannot be settled through mutual consultation, the patent owner, or an interested party who believes the patent is being infringed, may either file a civil legal suit or file an administrative complaint with the relevant patent administration authority. A Chinese court may issue a preliminary injunction upon the patent owner’s or an interested party’s request before instituting any legal proceedings or during the proceedings. Damages for infringement are calculated as the loss suffered by the patent holder arising from the infringement, and if the loss suffered by the patent holder arising from the infringement cannot be determined, the damages for infringement shall be calculated as the benefit gained by the infringer from the infringement. If it is difficult to ascertain damages in this manner, damages may be determined by using a reasonable multiple of the license fee under a contractual license. Statutory damages may be awarded in the circumstances where the damages cannot be determined by the above mentioned calculation standards. The damage calculation methods shall be applied in the aforementioned order. Generally, the patent owner has the burden of proving that the patent is being infringed. However, if the owner of an invention patent for manufacturing process of a new product alleges infringement of its patent, the alleged infringer has the burden of proof.

 

As of March 31, 2020, we had 247 patents granted and 193 patent applications pending in China, 141 patents granted and 164 patent applications pending outside China.

 

Trademark Law

 

The PRC Trademark Law and its implementation rules protect registered trademarks. The PRC Trademark Office of National Intellectual Property Administration is responsible for the registration and administration of trademarks throughout the PRC. The Trademark Law has adopted a “first-to-file” principle with respect to trademark registration. As of March 31, 2020, we owned 540 registered trademarks in different applicable trademark categories and were in the process of applying to register 192 trademarks in China, 277 registered trademarks in different applicable trademark categories and were in the process of applying to register 472 trademarks outside China.

 

In addition, pursuant to the PRC Trademark Law, counterfeit or unauthorized production of the label of another person’s registered trademark, or sale of any label that is counterfeited or produced without authorization will be deemed as an infringement to the exclusive right to use a registered trademark. The infringing party will be ordered to stop the infringement immediately, a fine may be imposed and the counterfeit goods will be confiscated. The infringing party may also be held liable for the right holder’s damages, which will be equal to the gains obtained by the infringing party or the losses suffered by the right holder as a result of the infringement, including reasonable expenses incurred by the right holder for stopping the infringement. If the gains or losses are difficult to determine, the court may render a judgment awarding damages of no more than RMB5.0 million.

 

Software Copyright Law

 

In order to further implement the Computer Software Protection Regulations promulgated by the State Council on December 20, 2001, and amended subsequently, the State Copyright Bureau issued the Computer Software Copyright Registration Procedures on February 20, 2002, which apply to software copyright registration, license contract registration and transfer contract registration. As of March 31, 2020, we have registered 28 computer software copyrights in China.

 

Regulation on Domain Name

 

The domain names are protected under the Administrative Measures on the Internet Domain Names promulgated by MIIT, effective on November 1, 2017. MIIT is the major regulatory body responsible for the administration of the PRC Internet domain names, under supervision of which China Internet Network Information Center, or CNNIC, is responsible for the daily administration of CN domain names and Chinese

 

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domain names. On September 25, 2002, CNNIC promulgated the Implementation Rules of Registration of Domain Name, or the CNNIC Rules, which was renewed on June 5, 2009 and May 29, 2012, respectively. Pursuant to the Administrative Measures on the Internet Domain Names and the CNNIC Rules, the registration of domain names adopts the “first to file” principle and the registrant shall complete the registration via the domain name registration service institutions. In the event of a domain name dispute, the disputed parties may lodge a complaint to the designated domain name dispute resolution institution to trigger the domain name dispute resolution procedure in accordance with the CNNIC Measures on Resolution of the Top Level Domains Disputes, file a suit to the People’s Court or initiate an arbitration procedure. As of March 31, 2020, we have registered 85 domain names.

 

Regulation on Radio Transmission Equipment

 

The Regulations on Radio Administration of the PRC jointly issued by the State Council and the Central Military Commission on November 11, 2016 and became effective on December 1, 2016, provide requirements concerning verification and approval of the models of radio transmission equipment. Pursuant to this law, except for micro-power short-range radio transmission equipment, whoever manufactures or imports other radio transmission equipment for sales or use on the domestic market shall apply to the State Radio Administration for model verification and approval. Whoever manufactures or imports radio transmission equipment that has not obtained model verification and approval for sales or use on the domestic market shall be ordered by the relevant radio administration to make correction and subject to fines. To comply with these laws and regulations, we have obtained the necessary Radio Transmission Equipment Type Approval Certificates for all of our products manufacturing and selling in the PRC.

 

Regulation on Advertising Business

 

The State Administration for Market Regulation, or the SAMR, is the government agency responsible for regulating advertising activities in the PRC.

 

According to the PRC laws and regulations, companies that engage in advertising activities must obtain from SAMR or its local branches a business license which specifically includes operating an advertising business within its business scope. The business license of an advertising company is valid for the duration of its existence, unless the license is suspended or revoked due to a violation of any relevant law or regulation. PRC advertising laws and regulations set forth certain content requirements for advertisements in the PRC including, among other things, prohibitions on false or misleading content, superlative wording, socially destabilizing content or content involving obscenities, superstition, violence, discrimination or infringement of the public interest. Advertisers, advertising agencies, and advertising distributors are required by PRC advertising laws and regulations to ensure that the content of the advertisements they prepare or distribute is true and in full compliance with applicable law. In providing advertising services, advertising operators and advertising distributors must review the supporting documents provided by advertisers for advertisements and verify that the content of the advertisements complies with applicable PRC laws and regulations. Prior to distributing advertisements that are subject to government censorship and approval, advertising distributors are obligated to verify that such censorship has been performed and approval has been obtained. The release or delivery of advertisements through the Internet shall not impair the normal use of the network by users. The advertisements released in pop-up form on the webpage of the Internet and other forms shall indicate the close flag in prominent manner and ensure one-key close. Violation of these regulations may result in penalties, including fines, confiscation of advertising income, orders to cease dissemination of the advertisements and orders to publish an advertisement correcting the misleading information. In circumstances involving serious violations, SAMR or its local branches may revoke violators’ licenses or permits for their advertising business operations.

 

On July 4, 2016, the State Administration of Industry and Commerce, the predecessor of SAMR, issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising to regulate internet advertising activities. According to these measures, no advertisement of any medical treatment, medicines, food for special medical purpose, medical apparatuses, pesticides, veterinary medicines, dietary supplement or other special commodities or services subject to examination by an advertising examination authority as stipulated by laws and regulations may be published unless the advertisement has passed such examination. In addition, no entity or individual may publish any advertisement of prescription drugs or tobacco on the internet. An internet advertisement must be identifiable and clearly identified as an “advertisement” to the consumers. Paid search advertisements are required to be clearly distinguished from natural search results. In addition, the following internet advertising activities are prohibited: providing or using any applications or hardware to intercept, filter, cover, fast forward or otherwise restrict any authorized advertisement of other persons; using network pathways, network equipment or applications to disrupt the normal data transmission of advertisements, alter or block authorized

 

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advertisements of other persons or load advertisements without authorization; or using fraudulent statistical data, transmission effect or matrices relating to online marketing performance to induce incorrect quotations, seek undue interests or harm the interests of others. Internet advertisement publishers are required to verify relevant supporting documents and check the content of the advertisement and are prohibited from publishing any advertisement with unverified content or without all the necessary qualifications. Internet information service providers that are not involved in internet advertising business activities but simply provide information services are required to block any attempt to publish an illegal advisement that they are aware of or should reasonably be aware of through their information services.

 

To comply with these laws and regulations, we have obtained a business license, which allows us to operate advertising businesses, and adopted several measures. Our advertising contracts require that substantially all advertising agencies or advertisers that contract with us must examine the advertising content provided to us to ensure that such content is truthful, accurate and in full compliance with PRC laws and regulations.

 

Regulation on Medical Device

 

The Regulations on Supervision and Administration of Medical Devices, issued by the State Council in on January 4, 2000, and further amended on March 7, 2014, and on May 4, 2017, respectively, divide medical devices into three types. For Class I medical devices, the record-filing management shall be implemented, while for Class II and Class III ones, the registration management shall be implemented. In case of the application for registration of Class II medical devices, the applicant for registration shall submit the registration application materials to the National Medical Products Administration at the province, autonomous region or municipality level. In case of the application for registration of Class III medical devices, the applicant for registration shall submit the registration application materials to the National Medical Products Administration. The medical device registration certificate for Class II and Class III medical devices is valid for five years. Where engaging in production of Class II and Class III medical devices, the manufacturing party shall obtain the medical device production license. In addition, where engaging in operation of Class II medical devices, an operating enterprise shall also make a record-filing with the National Medical Products Administration.

 

Currently, Anhui Huami Healthcare Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Anhui Huami, has engaged in the development of an ECG sensors-enabled smart band, which will be deemed as Class II medical devices for monitoring ECGs. We have completed the record-filing for operating Class II medical devices. We have also obtained the medical device production license and the National Medical Products Administration Class II medical devices certification for such ECG sensors-enabled smart band.

 

Regulation on Information Security

 

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress promulgated the Cyber Security Law of the PRC, or the Cyber Security Law, which became effective on June 1, 2017, to protect cyberspace security and order. Pursuant to the Cyber Security Law, any individual or organization using the network must comply with the constitution and the applicable laws, follow the public order and respect social moralities, and must not endanger cyber security, or engage in activities by making use of the network that endanger the national security, honor and interests, or infringe on the fame, privacy, intellectual property and other legitimate rights and interests of others. The Cyber Security Law sets forth various security protection obligations for network operators, which are defined as “owners and administrators of networks and network service providers”, including, among others, complying with a series of requirements of tiered cyber protection systems; verifying users’ real identity; localizing the personal information and important data gathered and produced by key information infrastructure operators during operations within the PRC; and providing assistance and support to government authorities where necessary for protecting national security and investigating crimes. To comply with these laws and regulations, we have adopted security policies and measures to protect our cyber system and user information.

 

Regulations on Internet Privacy

 

The Administrative Measures on Internet Information Services, issued by the State Council on January 8, 2011, prohibit ICP service operators from insulting or slandering a third party or infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of a third party. Under the Several Provisions on Regulating the Market Order of Internet Information Services, issued by the MIIT on December 19, 2011, an ICP operator may not collect any user personal information or provide any such information to third parties without the consent of a user. An ICP service operator must expressly inform the users of the method, content and purpose of the collection and

 

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processing of such user personal information and may only collect such information necessary for the provision of its services. An ICP service operator is also required to properly keep the user personal information, and in case of any leak or likely leak of the user personal information, the ICP service operator must take immediate remedial measures and, in severe circumstances, to make an immediate report to the telecommunications regulatory authority. In addition, pursuant to the Decision on Strengthening the Protection of Online Information issued by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress on December 28, 2012 and the Order for the Protection of Telecommunication and Internet User Personal Information issued by the MIIT on July 16, 2013, any collection and use of user personal information must be subject to the consent of the user, abide by the principles of legality, rationality and necessity and be within the specified purposes, methods and scopes. An ICP service operator must also keep such information strictly confidential, and is further prohibited from divulging, tampering or destroying of any such information, or selling or proving such information to other parties. Any violation of the above decision or order may subject the ICP service operator to warnings, fines, confiscation of illegal gains, revocation of licenses, cancellation of filings, closedown of websites or even criminal liabilities.

 

Furthermore, on June 28, 2016, the State Internet Information Office issued the Administrative Provisions on Mobile Internet Applications Information Services, which became effect on August 1, 2016, to further strengthen the regulation of the mobile applications information services. Pursuant to these provisions, owners or operators of mobile applications that provide information services are required to be responsible for information security management, establish and improve the protective mechanism for user information, observe the principles of legality, rightfulness and necessity, and expressly state the purpose, method and scope of, and obtain user consent to, the collection and use of users’ personal information. In addition, the Cyber Security Law also requires network operators to strictly keep confidential users’ personal information that they have collected and to establish and improve user information protective mechanism.

 

To comply with these laws and regulations, we have required our users to consent to our collecting and using their personal information, and established information security systems to protect user’s privacy.

 

Regulation on Employment

 

The Labor Law of the PRC, effective on January 1, 1995 and subsequently amended on August 27, 2009 and December 29, 2018, the PRC Employment Contract Law, effective on January 1, 2008 and subsequently amended on December 28, 2012 and the Implementing Regulations of the Employment Contract Law, effective on September 18, 2008, provide requirements concerning employment contracts between an employer and its employees. If an employer fails to enter into a written employment contract with an employee within one year from the date on which the employment relationship is established, the employer must rectify the situation by entering into a written employment contract with the employee and pay the employee twice the employee’s salary for the period from the day following the lapse of one month from the date of establishment of the employment relationship to the day prior to the execution of the written employment contract. The Labor Contract Law and its implementation rules also require compensation to be paid upon certain terminations, which significantly affects the cost of reducing workforce for employers. In addition, if an employer intends to enforce a non-compete provision in an employment contract or non-competition agreement with an employee, it has to compensate the employee on a monthly basis during the term of the restriction period after the termination or expiry of the labor contract. Employers in most cases are also required to provide severance payment to their employees after their employment relationships are terminated.

 

Enterprises in China are required by PRC laws and regulations to participate in certain employee benefit plans, including social insurance funds, namely a pension plan, a medical insurance plan, an unemployment insurance plan, a work-related injury insurance plan and a maternity insurance plan, and a housing provident fund, and contribute to the plans or funds in amounts equal to certain percentages of salaries, including bonuses and allowances, of the employees as specified by the local government from time to time at locations where they operate their businesses or where they are located. According to the Social Insurance Law, an employer that fails to make social insurance contributions may be ordered to pay the required contributions within a stipulated deadline and be subject to a late fee. If the employer still fails to rectify the failure to make social insurance contributions within the stipulated deadline, it may be subject to a fine ranging from one to three times the amount overdue. According to the Regulations on Management of Housing Fund, an enterprise that fails to make housing fund contributions may be ordered to rectify the noncompliance and pay the required contributions within a stipulated deadline; otherwise, an application may be made to a local court for compulsory enforcement.

 

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Regulation on Tax

 

PRC Enterprise Income Tax

 

The PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, which was promulgated on March 16, 2007 and took effect on January 1, 2008, and further amended on February 24, 2017 and December 29, 2018, imposes a uniform enterprise income tax rate of 25% on all PRC resident enterprises, including foreign-invested enterprises, unless they qualify for certain exceptions. The enterprise income tax is calculated based on the PRC resident enterprise’s global income as determined under PRC tax laws and accounting standards. If a non-resident enterprise sets up an organization or establishment in the PRC, it will be subject to enterprise income tax for the income derived from such organization or establishment in the PRC and for the income derived from outside the PRC but with an actual connection with such organization or establishment in the PRC.

 

The PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementation rules, which was promulgated on December 6, 2007 and amended on April 23, 2019, permit certain “high and new technology enterprises strongly supported by the state” that independently own core intellectual property and meet statutory criteria, to enjoy a reduced 15% enterprise income tax rate. On January 29, 2016, the State Administration for Taxation, or SAT, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the Administrative Rules for the Certification of High and New Technology Enterprises specifying the criteria and procedures for the certification of High and New Technology Enterprises.

 

PRC Value Added Tax

 

On January 1, 2012, the State Council officially launched a pilot value-added tax reform program, or the Pilot Program, applicable to businesses in selected industries. Businesses in the Pilot Program would pay value added tax, or VAT, instead of business tax. The Pilot Program initially applied only to transportation industry and “modern service industries” in Shanghai and would be expanded to eight trial regions (including Beijing and Guangdong province) and nationwide if conditions permit.

 

On March 23, 2016, the MOF and the SAT jointly issued the Circular on the Pilot Program for Overall Implementation of the Collection of Value Added Tax Instead of Business Tax, or Circular 36, which took effect on May 1, 2016. Pursuant to the Circular 36, all of the companies operating in construction, real estate, finance, modern service or other sectors which were required to pay business tax are required to pay VAT, in lieu of business tax. The VAT rate is 6%, except for rate of 11% for real estate sale, land use right transferring and providing service of transportation, postal sector, basic telecommunications, construction, real estate lease; rate of 17% for providing lease service of tangible property; and rate of zero for specific cross-bond activities.

 

On April 4, 2018, the MOF and the SAT jointly promulgated the Circular of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation on Adjustment of Value-Added Tax Rates, or Circular 32, according to which, (i) for VAT taxable sales or importation of goods originally subject to value-added tax rates of 17% and 11% respectively, such tax rates shall be adjusted to 16% and 10%, respectively; (ii) for purchase of agricultural products originally subject to deduction rate of 11%, such deduction rate shall be adjusted to 10%; (iii) for purchase of agricultural products for the purpose of production and sales or consigned processing of goods subject to tax rate of 16%, such tax shall be adjusted to 12%; (iv) for exported goods originally subject to tax rate of 17% and export tax refund rate of 17%, the export tax refund rate shall be adjusted to 16%; and (v) for exported goods and cross-border taxable acts originally subject to tax rate of 11% and export tax refund rate of 11%, the export tax refund rate shall be adjusted to 10%. Circular 32 became effective on May 1, 2018 and shall supersede any previously existing provisions in case of inconsistency.

 

On March 20, 2019, the MOF, the SAT and the General Administration of Customs jointly issued the Announcement on Policies for Deepening the VAT Reform, or Announcement 39, to further lower value-added tax rates. According to the Announcement 39, (i) for general VAT payers’ sales activities or imports that are subject to an existing VAT rate of 16% or 10%, the VAT rate is adjusted to 13% or 9%, respectively; (ii) for the agricultural products purchased by taxpayers to which an existing 10% deduction rate is applicable, the deduction rate is adjusted to 9%; (iii) for the agricultural products purchased by taxpayers for production or commissioned processing, which are subject to an existing VAT rate of 13%, the input VAT will be calculated at a 10% deduction rate; (iv) for the exportation of goods or labor services that are subject to an existing VAT rate of 16%, with the applicable export refund at the same rate, the export refund rate is adjusted to 13%; and (v) for the exportation of goods or cross-border taxable activities that are subject to an existing VAT rate of 10%, with the export refund at the same rate, the export refund rate is adjusted to 9%. The Announcement 39 came into effect on April 1, 2019 and will prevail in case of any conflict with existing provisions.

 

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PRC Dividend Withholding Tax

 

Under the PRC tax laws effective prior to January 1, 2008, dividends paid to foreign investors by foreign-invested enterprises were exempt from PRC withholding tax. Pursuant to the EIT Law and the Implementation Rules, dividends generated after January 1, 2008 and payable by a foreign-invested enterprise in China to its foreign enterprise investors are subject to a 10% withholding tax, unless any such foreign investor’s jurisdiction of incorporation has a tax treaty with China that provides for a different withholding arrangement. Under the China-HK Taxation Arrangement, income tax on dividends payable to a company resident in Hong Kong that holds more than a 25% equity interest in a PRC resident enterprise may be reduced to a rate of 5%. In February 2018, the State Administration of Taxation issued the “Announcement on Issues concerning Beneficial Owners in Tax Treaties”, or Circular No. 9, effective on April 1, 2018, to replace the Circular of the State Administration of Taxation on the Interpretation and the Determination of the Beneficial Owners in the Tax Treaties, effective from October 2009. Circular No. 9 provides a more elastic guidance to determine whether the applicant engages in substantive business activities. Furthermore, under the “Administrative Measures for Non-Resident Taxpayers to Enjoy Treatments under Tax Treaties”, or SAT Circular No. 60, non-resident taxpayers who satisfy the criteria for entitlement to tax treaty benefits may, at the time of tax declaration or withholding declaration through a withholding agent, enjoy the tax treaty benefits, and be subject to follow-up administration by the tax authorities. Where the non-resident taxpayer does not apply to the withholding agent to claim the tax treaty benefits, or the materials and the information stated in the relevant reports and statements provided to the withholding agent do not satisfy the criteria for entitlement to tax treaty benefits, the withholding agent shall withhold tax pursuant to the provisions of PRC tax laws. The SAT issued the Announcement of State Taxation Administration on Promulgation of the Administrative Measures on Non-resident Taxpayers Enjoying Treaty Benefits, or SAT Circular No. 35, on October 14, 2019, which became effective on January 1, 2020. The SAT Circular No. 35 further simplified the procedures for enjoying treaty benefits and replaced the SAT Circular No. 60. According to the SAT Circular No. 35, no approvals from the tax authorities are required for a non-resident taxpayer to enjoy treaty benefits, where a non-resident taxpayer self-assesses and concludes that it satisfies the criteria for claiming treaty benefits, it may enjoy treaty benefits at the time of tax declaration or at the time of withholding through the withholding agent, but it shall gather and retain the relevant materials as required for future inspection, and accept follow-up administration by the tax authorities. In addition, according to a tax circular issued by SAT in February 2009, if the main purpose of an offshore arrangement is to obtain a preferential tax treatment, the PRC tax authorities have the discretion to adjust the preferential tax rate enjoyed by the relevant offshore entity. Although our WFOE is currently wholly owned by Huami HK Limited, we cannot assure you that we will be able to enjoy the preferential withholding tax rate of 5% under the China-HK Taxation Arrangement.

 

Regulation on Foreign Exchange

 

The principal regulations governing foreign currency exchange in China are the Foreign Exchange Administration Regulations, most recently amended on August 5, 2008. Under the Foreign Exchange Administration Regulations, payments of current account items, such as profit distributions and trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval from State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or SAFE, by complying with certain procedural requirements. However, approval from or registration with appropriate government authorities is required where Renminbi is to be converted into foreign currency and remitted out of China to pay capital expenses such as the repayment of foreign currency-denominated loans.

 

On August 29, 2008, SAFE issued the Circular on the Relevant Operating Issues Concerning the Improvement of the Administration of the Payment and Settlement of Foreign Currency Capital of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, or SAFE Circular No. 142, regulating the conversion by a foreign-invested enterprise of foreign currency-registered capital into Renminbi by restricting how the converted Renminbi may be used. SAFE Circular No. 142 provides that the Renminbi capital converted from foreign currency registered capital of a foreign-invested enterprise may only be used for purposes within the business scope approved by the applicable government authority and may not be used for equity investments within China. SAFE also strengthened its oversight of the flow and use of the Renminbi capital converted from foreign currency registered capital of foreign-invested enterprises. The use of such Renminbi capital may not be changed without SAFE’s approval, and such Renminbi capital may not in any case be used to repay Renminbi loans if the proceeds of such loans have not been used. On March 30, 2015, SAFE issued SAFE Circular No. 19, which took effective and replaced SAFE Circular No. 142 on June 1, 2015. Although SAFE Circular No. 19 allows for the use of Renminbi converted from the foreign currency-denominated capital for equity investments in China, the restrictions continue to apply as to foreign-invested enterprises’ use of the converted Renminbi for purposes beyond the business scope, for entrusted loans or for inter-company Renminbi loans. SAFE promulgated the

 

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Notice of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Reforming and Standardizing the Foreign Exchange Settlement Management Policy of Capital Account, or Circular 16, effective on June 9, 2016, which reiterates some of the rules set forth in Circular 19, but changes the prohibition against using Renminbi capital converted from foreign currency-denominated registered capital of a foreign-invested company to issue Renminbi entrusted loans to a prohibition against using such capital to issue loans to non-associated enterprises. Violations of SAFE Circular 19 or Circular 16 could result in administrative penalties. On October 23, 2019, SAFE issued the Circular Regarding Further Promotion of the Facilitation of Cross-Border Trade and Investment, or the SAFE Circular No. 28, pursuant to which all foreign-invested enterprises are allowed to make domestic equity investments with their capital funds in accordance with relevant laws and regulations.

 

On November 19, 2012, SAFE promulgated the Circular of Further Improving and Adjusting Foreign Exchange Administration Policies on Foreign Direct Investment which substantially amends and simplifies the current foreign exchange procedure. Pursuant to this circular, the opening of various special purpose foreign exchange accounts (e.g., pre-establishment expenses accounts, foreign exchange capital accounts and guarantee accounts), the reinvestment of lawful incomes derived by foreign investors in China (e.g. profit, proceeds of equity transfer, capital reduction, liquidation and early repatriation of investment), and purchase and remittance of foreign exchange as a result of capital reduction, liquidation, early repatriation or share transfer in a foreign-invested enterprise no longer require SAFE approval, and multiple capital accounts for the same entity may be opened in different provinces, which was not possible before. In addition, SAFE promulgated the Circular on Printing and Distributing the Provisions on Foreign Exchange Administration over Domestic Direct Investment by Foreign Investors and the Supporting Documents in May 2013, which specifies that the administration by SAFE or its local branches over direct investment by foreign investors in the PRC shall be conducted by way of registration and banks shall process foreign exchange business relating to the direct investment in China based on the registration information provided by SAFE and its branches.

 

On February 13, 2015, SAFE promulgated the Circular on Further Simplifying and Improving the Policies Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Direct Investment, or SAFE Circular No. 13, which took effect on June 1, 2015. SAFE Circular No. 13 delegates the authority to enforce the foreign exchange registration in connection with the inbound and outbound direct investment under relevant SAFE rules to certain banks and therefore further simplifies the foreign exchange registration procedures for inbound and outbound direct investment.

 

Regulation on Foreign Exchange Registration of Offshore Investment by PRC Residents

 

On July 4, 2014, SAFE issued the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37, and its implementation guidelines, which abolished and superseded the Circular on Several Issues concerning Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Residents to Engage in Financing and in Return Investments via Overseas Special Purpose Companies, SAFE Circular 75. Pursuant to SAFE Circular 37 and its implementation guidelines, PRC residents (including PRC institutions and individuals) must register with local branches of SAFE in connection with their direct or indirect offshore investment in an overseas special purpose vehicle, or SPV, directly established or indirectly controlled by PRC residents for the purposes of offshore investment and financing with their legally owned assets or interests in domestic enterprises, or their legally owned offshore assets or interests. Such PRC residents are also required to amend their registrations with SAFE when there is a change to the basic information of the SPV, such as changes of a PRC resident individual shareholder, the name or operating period of the SPV, or when there is a significant change to the SPV, such as changes of the PRC individual resident’s increase or decrease of its capital contribution in the SPV, or any share transfer or exchange, merger, division of the SPV. Failure to comply with the registration procedures set forth in the Circular 37 may result in restrictions being imposed on the foreign exchange activities of the relevant onshore company, including the payment of dividends and other distributions to its offshore parent or affiliate, the capital inflow from the offshore entities and settlement of foreign exchange capital, and may also subject relevant onshore company or PRC residents to penalties under PRC foreign exchange administration regulations.

 

Wang Huang, Yunfen Lu, Meihui Fan, Bin Fan, Yi Zhang and Xiaojun Zhang, our PRC resident shareholders, have completed required registrations with the local counterpart of SAFE in relation to our financing and restructuring to our shareholding structure.

 

Regulation on Employee Share Options

 

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On December 25, 2006, the People’s Bank of China promulgated the Administrative Measures for Individual Foreign Exchange. On February 15, 2012, SAFE issued the Notices on Issues concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Companies, or the Stock Option Rules, which replaced the Application Procedures of Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Employee Stock Ownership Plans or Stock Option Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Companies issued by SAFE on March 28, 2007. Pursuant to the Stock Option Rules, PRC residents who are granted shares or stock options by companies listed on overseas stock exchanges according to the stock incentive plans are required to register with SAFE or its local branches, and PRC residents participating in the stock incentive plans of overseas listed companies shall retain a qualified PRC agent, which could be a PRC subsidiary of such overseas publicly-listed company or another qualified institution selected by such PRC subsidiary, to conduct SAFE registration and other procedures with respect to the stock incentive plans on behalf of these participants. Such participants must also retain an overseas entrusted institution to handle matters in connection with their exercise of stock options, purchase and sale of corresponding stocks or interests, and fund transfer. In addition, the PRC agents are required to amend SAFE registration with respect to the stock incentive plan if there is any material change to the stock incentive plan, the PRC agents or the overseas entrusted institution or other material changes. The PRC agents shall, on behalf of the PRC residents who have the right to exercise the employee share options, apply to SAFE or its local branches for an annual quota for the payment of foreign currencies in connection with the PRC residents’ exercise of the employee share options. The foreign exchange proceeds received by the PRC residents from the sale of shares under the stock incentive plans granted and dividends distributed by the overseas listed companies must be remitted into the bank accounts in the PRC opened by the PRC agents before distribution to such PRC residents. In addition, the PRC agents shall file each quarter the form for record-filing of information of the Domestic Individuals Participating in the Stock Incentive Plans of Overseas Listed Companies with SAFE or its local branches.

 

Our PRC citizen employees who have been granted share options or restricted shares, or PRC grantees, are subject to the Stock Option Rules. If we or our PRC grantees fail to comply with the Individual Foreign Exchange Rule and the Stock Option Rules, we and/or our PRC grantees may be subject to fines and other legal sanctions. We may also face regulatory uncertainties that could restrict our ability to adopt additional share incentive plans for our directors and employees under PRC law. In addition, the State Administration for Taxation has issued certain circulars concerning employee share awards. Under these circulars, our employees working in the PRC who exercise share options or hold the vested restricted shares will be subject to PRC individual income tax. Our PRC subsidiaries have obligations to file documents related to employee share awards with relevant tax authorities and to withhold individual income taxes of those employees who exercise their share options or hold the vested restricted shares. If our employees fail to pay or we fail to withhold their income taxes according to relevant laws and regulations, we may face sanctions imposed by the tax authorities or other PRC government authorities.

 

Regulation on Dividend Distributions

 

As the Foreign Investment Law came into effect on January 1, 2020 and replaced the Outdated FIE Laws, the principal regulations governing distribution of dividends paid by wholly foreign-owned enterprises include the Company Law, and the EIT Law and its implementation rules.

 

Under the current regulatory regime of the PRC, foreign-invested enterprises in the PRC may pay dividends only out of their retained earnings, if any, determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. A PRC company is required to set aside as statutory reserve funds at least 10% of its after-tax profit, until the cumulative amount of such reserve funds reaches 50% of its registered capital unless laws and regulations regarding foreign investment provide otherwise. A PRC company is not permitted to distribute any profits until any losses from prior fiscal years have been offset. Profits retained from prior fiscal years may be distributed together with distributable profits from the current fiscal year.

 

C.                                    Organizational Structure

 

The following chart illustrates our company’s organizational structure, including our principal subsidiaries and consolidated affiliated entities as of the date of this annual report:

 

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Notes:

 

(1)         Messrs. Wang Huang, Yunfen Lu, Meihui Fan, Bin Fan, Yi Zhang and Xiaojun Zhang are beneficial owners of the shares of our company and hold 90.1%, 2.1285%, 2.1285%, 2.1285%, 2.1285% and 1.386% equity interests in Beijing Huami, respectively. They are either directors or employees of our company.

 

(2)         Messrs. Wang Huang and Yunfen Lu are beneficial owners of the shares of our company and hold 99.4% and 0.6% equity interests in Anhui Huami, respectively. They are also directors of our company.

 

The following is a summary of the currently effective contractual arrangements by and among our wholly-owned subsidiary, Shunyuan Kaihua (our WFOE), our VIEs and their respective shareholders.

 

Agreements that provide us with effective control over the VIEs

 

Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreements and Powers of Attorney. Pursuant to the second amended and restated Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreement, dated March 20, 2020, among our WFOE, Anhui Huami and each of the shareholders of Anhui Huami, each of the shareholders of Anhui Huami has executed a power of attorney to irrevocably authorize our WFOE or any person designated by our WFOE to act as his, her or its attorney-in-fact to exercise all of his, her or its rights as a shareholder of Anhui Huami, including, but not limited to, the right to convene and attend shareholders’ meetings, vote on any resolution that requires a shareholder vote, such as the appointment and removal of directors, supervisors and officers, as well as the sale, transfer and disposal of all or part of the equity interests owned by such shareholder. The power of attorney will remain effective until the termination of the Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreement unless otherwise instructed by our WFOE.

 

On March 20, 2020, our WFOE, Beijing Huami and each of the shareholders of Beijing Huami entered into the second amended and restated Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreement and power of attorney, which contain terms substantially similar to the Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreement and power of attorney executed by the shareholders of Anhui Huami described above.

 

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Equity Pledge Agreements. Pursuant to the second amended and restated Equity Pledge Agreement, dated March 20, 2020, among our WFOE, Anhui Huami and each of the shareholders of Anhui Huami, the shareholders of Anhui Huami have pledged 100% equity interests in Anhui Huami to our WFOE to guarantee the performance by the shareholders of their obligations under the Exclusive Option Agreement, the Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreement and the Equity Pledge Agreement, as well as the performance by Anhui Huami of its obligations under the Exclusive Option Agreement, the Shareholder Voting Proxy Agreement, the Exclusive Service Agreement and the Equity Pledge Agreement. In the event of a breach by Anhui Huami or any shareholder of contractual obligations under the Equity Pledge Agreement, our WFOE, as pledgee, will have the right to dispose of the pledged equity interests in Anhui Huami and will have priority in receiving the proceeds from such disposal. The shareholders of Anhui Huami also undertake that, without the prior written consent of our WFOE, they will not dispose of, create or allow any encumbrance on the pledged equity interests. Anhui Huami undertakes that, without the prior written consent of our WFOE, they will not assist or allow any encumbrance to be created on the pledged equity interests. Each shareholder has also executed a power of attorney to irrevocably authorize Wang Huang as his, her or its attorney-in-fact to sign any legal documents that are required or useful in exercising our WFOE’s rights under the Equity Pledge Agreement.

 

On March 20, 2020, our WFOE, Beijing Huami and each of the shareholders of Beijing Huami entered into the second amended and restated Equity Pledge Agreement, which contains terms substantially similar to the Equity Pledge Agreement described above.

 

As of the date of this annual report, we have completed the registration of the equity pledge of Anhui Huami with the competent office of the State Administration for Market Regulation in accordance with the PRC Property Rights Law , and we are in the process of applying for the registration of the equity pledge of Beijing Huami.

 

Loan Agreement. Pursuant to the loan agreement between our WFOE and Mr. Wang Huang, one of shareholders of Anhui Huami, dated November 3, 2017, our WFOE made interest-free loans in an aggregate amount of RMB15 million to Mr. Wang Huang for the exclusive purpose of acquiring equity interests in Anhui Huami. The loans can only be repaid with the proceeds derived from the sale of all of the equity interests in Anhui Huami to our WFOE or its designated representatives pursuant to the Exclusive Option Agreements. The term of the Loan Agreement is ten years from the date of the loan agreement and will be extended on a yearly basis unless otherwise instructed by our WFOE until the loan is repaid.

 

Agreements that allow us to receive economic benefits from the VIEs

 

Exclusive Consultation and Service Agreements. Pursuant to the second amended and restated Exclusive Consultation Service Agreement, dated March 20, 2020, between our WFOE and Anhui Huami, our WFOE has the exclusive right to provide Anhui Huami with the consulting and technical services required by Anhui Huami’ business. Without our WFOE’s prior written consent, Anhui Huami may not accept any services subject to this agreement from any third party. Anhui Huami agrees to pay our WFOE an annual service fee at an amount that is equal to 100% of its net income or the amount which is adjusted in accordance with our WFOE’s sole discretion for the relevant year as well as the mutually-agreed amount for certain other technical services, both of which should be paid within three months after the end of the relevant calendar year. Our WFOE has the exclusive ownership of all the intellectual property rights created as a result of the performance of the Exclusive Consultation and Service Agreement, to the extent permitted by applicable PRC laws. To guarantee Anhui Huami’s performance of its obligations thereunder, the shareholders have pledged their equity interests in Anhui Huami to our WFOE pursuant to the Equity Pledge Agreement. The Exclusive Consultation and Service Agreement will remain effective for an indefinite term, unless otherwise terminated pursuant to mutual agreement in writing or applicable PRC laws.

 

On March 20, 2020, our WFOE, Beijing Huami and each of the shareholders of Beijing Huami entered into the second amended and restated Exclusive Consultation and Service Agreement, which contains terms substantially similar to the Exclusive Consultation and Service Agreement described above.

 

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Agreements that provide us with the option to purchase the equity interests in and assets of the VIEs

 

Exclusive Option Agreements. Pursuant to the second amended and restated Exclusive Option Agreement, dated March 20, 2020, among our WFOE, Anhui Huami and each of the shareholders of Anhui Huami, the shareholders of Anhui Huami have irrevocably granted our WFOE an exclusive option to purchase all or part of their equity interests in Anhui Huami, and Anhui Huami has irrevocably granted our WFOE an exclusive option to purchase all or part of its assets. Our WFOE or its designated person may exercise such options at the lowest price permitted under applicable PRC laws. The shareholders of Anhui Huami undertake that, without our WFOE’s prior written consent, they will not, among other things, (i) create any pledge or encumbrance on their equity interests in Anhui Huami, (ii) transfer or otherwise dispose of their equity interests in Anhui Huami, (iii) change Anhui Huami’s registered capital, (iv) amend Anhui Huami’s articles of association, (v) dispose of Anhui Huami’s material assets (except in the ordinary course of business), or (vi) merge Anhui Huami with any other entity. In addition, Anhui Huami undertakes that, without our WFOE’s prior written consent, it will not, among other things, create any pledge or encumbrance on any of its assets, or transfer or otherwise dispose of its material assets (except in the ordinary course of business). The Exclusive Option Agreement will remain effective until the entire equity interests in and all the assets of Anhui Huami have been transferred to our WFOE or its designated person.

 

On March 20, 2020, our WFOE, Beijing Huami and each of the shareholders of Beijing Huami entered into the second amended and restated Exclusive Option Agreement, which contains terms substantially similar to the Exclusive Option Agreement described above.

 

In the opinion of Zhong Lun Law Firm, our PRC legal counsel:

 

·                  the ownership structures of our VIEs in China and our WFOE comply with all existing PRC laws and regulations; and

 

·                  the contractual arrangements between our WFOE, our VIEs and their respective shareholders governed by PRC law are valid, binding and enforceable, and will not result in any violation of PRC laws or regulations currently in effect.

 

However, our PRC legal counsel has also advised us that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws, regulations and rules. Accordingly, the PRC regulatory authorities may take a view that is contrary to the opinion of our PRC legal counsel. It is uncertain whether any new PRC laws or regulations relating to variable interest entity structures will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. If we or any of our VIEs are found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant PRC regulatory authorities would have broad discretion to take action in dealing with such violations or failures. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating some of our operations in China do not comply with PRC regulations relating to the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations” and “—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system and changes in laws and regulations in China could adversely affect us, and any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our business may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.”

 

D.                                    Property, Plant and Equipment

 

Our headquarters are located in Hefei, where we own and lease the office building with an aggregate floor area of approximately 45,508 square meters. Our research and development facilities, including those for hardware engineering, structure design and mobile app development, and our management and operations facilities, including those for accounting, supply chain management, quality assurance and customer services, are located at our headquarters. We have sales and marketing, communication and business development personnel at our office in Beijing and supply chain management and factory management personnel at our office in Shenzhen. We also have research and development personnel who are responsible for biometric ID design and frontier technology at our office in Cupertino.

 

We currently lease and occupy 6,438 square meters of office space in Shenzhen, 4,363 square meters of office space in Beijing, 1,438 square meters of office space in Nanjing, 791 square meters of office space in Vancouver, 365 square meters of office space in Cupertino, 277 square meters of office space in Shanghai and 182 square meters of office space in Xi’an. These leases vary in duration from 1 year to 7 years.

 

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ITEM 4A.                                       UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

 

None.

 

ITEM 5.                                                OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS

 

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

 

A.                                    Operating Results

 

Key Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

 

Our research and development of innovative products and services

 

We have dedicated and will continue to dedicate significant research and development efforts in developing innovative products and services. For the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, research and development expenses accounted for 49.2%, 45.9% and 50.0% of our total operating expenses and 7.5%, 7.2% and 7.4% of our revenues, respectively. Our future success is significantly dependent on our ability to continually launch products and services that are popular among consumers, particularly relative to those offered by our competitors. The popularity of our products and services in turn affects users’ engagement on our platform, the data of which form a critical foundation of our research and development efforts.

 

Relationship with Xiaomi

 

We have been a major partner of Xiaomi to design and manufacture Xiaomi Wearable Products. Our strategic cooperation agreement with Xiaomi grants us the most-preferred-partner status globally to develop future Xiaomi Wearable Products and provides us with significant business demand, allowing us to commercially launch our products and ramp up our business quickly. Xiaomi is our exclusive distribution channel for all Xiaomi Wearable Products. Historically, we derived a substantial majority of our revenues from the sales of Xiaomi Wearable Products. For the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, revenues from our Xiaomi Wearable Products segment represented 78.8%, 66.9% and 72.2% of our total revenues, respectively. In addition, we leverage Xiaomi’s established distribution network and global presence for the sales and promotion of our self-branded products and international expansion. Therefore, maintaining a close and mutually beneficial relationship with Xiaomi is critical to our operations and future growth.

 

Effective control over material and manufacturing costs

 

Material and manufacturing costs of our products have historically accounted for the largest portion of our cost of revenues. Our ability to effectively control material and manufacturing costs, especially by enhancing our bargaining power with suppliers and manufacturers, has affected and will continue to affect our profitability significantly. We expect our material and manufacturing costs to increase in absolute amounts as we increase our smart wearable device shipment volume. However, given our efficient supply chain management and industry leading market share, we believe we have the ability to control the overall level of material and manufacturing costs as percentage of revenues.

 

Brand promotion and international expansion

 

One of our important growth strategies is to attract new users through enhancing our brand recognition, particularly for our self-branded products. To execute this strategy, we plan to engage in a variety of marketing and brand promotion campaigns both in China and globally, which may cause our selling and marketing expenses to increase in the near future. Selling and marketing expenses as a percentage of our revenues were low historically, but it is possible that they may increase.

 

International expansion also represents a significant opportunity to further grow our business. With our close collaboration with Xiaomi, we have leveraged and plan to continue to leverage Xiaomi’s global distribution network and fan base to expand into Xiaomi’s key target markets. At the same time, we are also building our own distribution network and promoting our own brand with a focus on North America, the European Union, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia, which requires us to dedicate additional time and resources.

 

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Seasonality

 

We have historically experienced higher sales in the fourth quarter, primarily due to (i) holiday sales for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and during the lead-up to Christmas and (ii) “Singles’ Day” online shopping festival organized by TMall. Given the significant seasonality of our sales, timely and effective forecasting and product introductions for the peak seasons are critical to our operations.

 

Impact of COVID-19 on Our Operations.

 

The majority of our revenues are derived from the sales of our smart wearable products in China and overseas. Our results of operations and financial condition in 2020 will be affected by the spread of COVID-19. The COVID-19 has impact on the smart wearable industry, especially on consumers’ demand for smart wearable products, the manufacturing capabilities and supply chains. The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our results of operations in 2020 may depend on the future developments of the outbreak, including new information concerning the global severity of and actions taken to contain the outbreak, which are highly uncertain and unpredictable. In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that the outbreak harms the Chinese and global economy and consumer activities in general. See “Item 3. Key Information—D. Risk Factors— Risks Related to Our Business and Industry—Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in China and globally.”

 

The spread of COVID-19 may negatively affect our results of operations in fiscal year of 2020. We estimate a decrease in demand for smart wearable products, both in China and overseas, due to the downturn in the macroeconomic environment resulted therefrom. Consequently, our sales performance may be negatively affected. In addition, the number of our products manufactured reduced in January and February 2020 as our contracted manufacturing facilities have been temporarily shut down, and the manufacturing facilities have still been in ramp-up to its full capacity since March. The worldwide outbreak may not only adversely affect our sales performance overseas, but also lead to components and raw materials shortages as we source those from south east Asia, Europe and other areas around the world. At the time of this filing, we have taken a series of measures in response to the outbreak, including, among others, remote working arrangement for our employees. These measures could reduce the capacity and efficiency of our operations, which in turn could negatively affect our results of operations.

 

Our cash position at the end of 2019 was RMB1.8 billion (US$0.3 billion). In addition, in early 2020, we borrowed approximately RMB882 million of loan in different currencies from several commercial banks. We will pay close attention to the development of the COVID-19 outbreak, perform further assessment of its impact and take relevant measures to minimize the impact.

 

Key Line Items and Specific Factors Affecting Our Results of Operations

 

Revenues

 

We derive our revenues from two operating segments, (i) Xiaomi Wearable Products, and (ii) our self-branded products and others. The following table sets forth our revenues by segment and as a percentage of total revenues for the periods indicated:

 

		Years Ended December 31,
		2017				2018				2019
		RMB		%		RMB		%		RMB		US$		%
		(in thousands, except for percentages)
Xiaomi Wearable Products		1,614,512		78.8		2,439,534		66.9		4,193,665		602,382		72.2
Self-branded products and others(1)		434,384		21.2		1,205,801		33.1		1,618,590		232,496		27.8
Total revenues		2,048,896		100.0		3,645,335		100.0		5,812,255		834,878		100.0

 

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Note:

 

(1)         The revenue for self-branded products and others includes sales to Xiaomi of RMB163.4 million, RMB359.3 million and RMB77.5 million (US$11.1 million) for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

 

We generate revenues primarily from sales of Xiaomi Wearable Products and our self-branded products. Our Xiaomi Wearable Products include Xiaomi-branded smart bands, scales and associated accessories. Our self-branded products are our Amazfit-branded smart wearable products, which currently include smart bands, watches, modules and associated accessories.

 

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Cost of Revenues

 

Our cost of revenues is comprised of the following:

 

·                  material costs;

 

·                  manufacturing and fulfillment costs of our products;

 

·                  an estimate of warranty costs; and

 

·                  related expenses that are directly attributable to the production of products.

 

We procure a variety of raw materials and components from third-party suppliers, and outsource our manufacturing and order fulfillment activities to third parties. Our product costs fluctuate with the costs of raw materials and underlying product components as well as the prices we are able to negotiate with our contract manufacturers and raw material and component suppliers. Shipping costs for raw materials and components from domestic locations are borne by our suppliers and contract manufacturers. For raw materials and components procured overseas, our suppliers cover the shipping costs from place of origin to China, and we are responsible for the additional logistics costs if we consign these raw materials and components to our contract manufacturers.

 

For products that are sold to Xiaomi pursuant to our business cooperation agreement with Xiaomi, we offer an 18-month warranty which includes a six-month warranty to Xiaomi and an additional 12-month warranty to end-users. For products sold directly to end users, the warranty period is 12 months to end users. We generally elect to replace the defective products covered under the warranty. At the time revenue is recognized, an estimate of warranty costs in relation to the products sold is recorded as a component of cost of revenues.

 

The following table sets forth our cost of revenues by segment and as a percentage of total cost of revenues for the periods indicated:

 

		Years Ended December 31,
		2017				2018				2019
		RMB		%		RMB		%		RMB		US$		%
		(in thousands, except for percentages)
Xiaomi Wearable Products		1,232,792		79.3		1,883,509		69.6		3,296,696		473,541		75.9
Self-branded products and others		321,402		20.7		822,376		30.4		1,047,816		150,509		24.1
Total cost of revenues		1,554,194		100.0		2,705,885		100.0		4,344,512		624,050		100.0

 

The following table sets forth the gross profit and gross margin by segment:

 

		Years Ended December 31,
		2017		2018		2019
		RMB		RMB		RMB		US$
		(in thousands, except for percentages)
Xiaomi Wearable Products		381,720		556,025		896,969		128,841
Self-branded products and others		112,982		383,425		570,774		81,987
Total gross profit		494,702		939,450		1,467,743		210,828
Xiaomi Wearable Products		23.6	%	22.8	%	21.4	%
Self-branded products and others		26.0	%	31.8	%	35.3	%
Overall gross margin		24.1	%	25.8	%	25.3	%

 

Operating expenses

 

We classify our operating expenses into three categories: research and development, general and administrative, and selling and marketing.

 

Research and Development Expenses. Research and development expenses primarily consist of salaries and benefits (including employee benefit expenses and share-based compensation expenses) for research and development personnel and other expenses associated with our research and development activities.

 

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General and Administrative Expenses. General and administrative expenses primarily consist of salaries and benefits (including employee benefit expenses and share-based compensation expenses) for administrative personnel, as well as other expenses primarily relating to professional services and our facilities and other administrative expenses. We expect our general and administrative expenses to increase in absolute amounts in the foreseeable future due to the anticipated growth of our business as well as accounting, insurance, investor relations and other public company costs.

 

Selling and Marketing Expenses. Selling and marketing expenses primarily consist of advertising and promotion expenses (including expenses for new product launch events), salaries and benefits for selling and marketing personnel, expenses related to business development through e-commerce platforms and other expenses associated with our selling and marketing activities. We bear the advertising and marketing expenses for our self-branded products. We do not bear such expenses for Xiaomi Wearable Products. We expect our selling and marketing expenses to increase in absolute amounts as we seek to increase our brand awareness and expand the marketing efforts for our self-branded products in both China and the international markets.

 

Other income

 

Other income primarily consists of subsidies received from local government authorities to encourage technology innovation and investment.

 

Results of Operations

 

The following table sets forth a summary of our consolidated results of operations for the periods indicated, both in absolute amounts and as percentages of our total revenues. This information should be read together with our consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this annual report. The operating results in any period are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for any future period.

 

		Years Ended December 31,
		2017				2018				2019
		RMB		%		RMB		%		RMB		US$		%
		(in thousands, except for percentages)
Summary Consolidated Statements of Operating Data:
Revenues(1)		2,048,896		100.0		3,645,335		100.0		5,812,255		834,878		100.0
Cost of revenues(2)		1,554,194		75.9		2,705,885		74.2		4,344,512		624,050		74.7
Gross profit		494,702		24.1		939,450		25.8		1,467,743		210,828		25.3
Operating expenses:
Research and development expenses(3)		153,827		7.5		263,220		7.2		430,822		61,884		7.4
General and administrative expenses(3)		114,880		5.6		213,973		5.9		248,462		35,689		4.3
Selling and marketing expenses(3)		44,026		2.1		96,538		2.6		181,975		26,139		3.1
Total operating expenses		312,733		15.3		573,731		15.7		861,259		123,712		14.8
Operating income		181,969		8.9		365,719		10.0		606,484		87,116		10.4
Realized gain from investments		2,373		0.1		261		0.0		1,822		262		0.0
Interest income		3,003		0.1		11,595		0.3		33,478		4,809		0.6
Gain from fair value change of long-term investments		—		—		7,860		0.2		—		—		—
Impairment loss from long-term investments		—		—		(7,590	)	(0.2	)	(2,600	)	(373	)	(0.0	)
Other income		4,555		0.2		8,768		0.2		13,186		1,894		0.2
Income before income tax		191,900		9.4		386,613		10.6		652,370		93,708		11.2
Income tax (expense)		(27,611	)	(1.3	)	(52,036	)	(1.4	)	(77,887	)	(11,188	)	(1.3	)
Income before loss from equity method investments		164,289		8.0		334,577		9.2		574,483		82,520		9.9
Income/(loss) from equity method investments		2,806		0.1		1,743		0.0		(1,112	)	(160	)	(0.0	)
Net income		167,095		8.2		336,320		9.2		573,371		82,360		9.9

 

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Notes:

 

(1)         Includes RMB1,778.6 million, RMB2,817.0 million and RMB4,281.0 million (US$614.9 million) with related parties for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

 

(2)         Includes RMB1,355.5 million, RMB2,141.1 million and RMB3,342.1 million (US$480.1 million) with related parties for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

 

(3)         Share-based compensation expenses were included in operating expenses. Our share-based compensation expenses were the result of (i) our grants of options, restricted shares and restricted share units under our share incentive plans to our employees, and (ii) the share restriction agreements entered into among our founders and our preferred shareholders in relation to our private financing transactions in January 2014 and April 2015. For the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, we recorded share-based compensation expenses of RMB51.5 million, RMB55.3 million and RMB17.8 million (US$2.6 million), respectively, in relation to the vesting of the restricted shares of our founders under the share restriction agreements.

 

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