The following summary consolidated financial data for the periods and as of the dates indicated are qualified by reference to, and should be read in conjunction with, our consolidated financial statements and related notes and “Item 5. Operating and Financial Review and Prospects”.

Our historical results do not necessarily indicate our results to be expected for any future period.

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

The following tables set forth our user information and their purchase amounts during the indicated years:

Exchange Rate Information

Our business is primarily conducted in China and all of our revenues are denominated in Renminbi. Periodic reports made to shareholders will be expressed in Renminbi with translations of Renminbi amounts into U.S. dollars at the then current exchange rate solely for the convenience of the reader. Conversions of Renminbi into U.S. dollars in this annual report are based on the noon buying rate as set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from Renminbi to U.S. dollars and from U.S. dollars to Renminbi in this annual report were made at a rate of RMB6.4778 to US$1.00, the noon buying rate in effect as of December 31, 2015. 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, the rates stated below, or at all. The PRC government imposes control over its foreign currency reserves in part through direct regulation of the conversion of Renminbi into foreign exchange and through restrictions on foreign trade. On April 22, 2016, the noon buying rate was RMB6.5004 to US$1.00.

The following table sets forth information concerning exchange rates between the Renminbi and the U.S. dollar for the periods indicated.

Not Applicable.

Not Applicable.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have temporarily suspended all of our online lottery sales services since April 4, 2015, and currently we are not generating any revenue from these operations. There is no clear indication as to how long the temporary suspension will last.

Since March 2015, all provincial sports lottery administration centers to which we provide sport lottery sales services have temporarily suspended accepting online purchase orders for lottery products, in response to the Notice related to Self-Inspection and Self-Remedy of Unauthorized Online Lottery Sales, or the Self-Inspection Notice, which was jointly promulgated by the Ministry of Finance, or the MOF, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sports of the People’s Republic of China on January 15, 2015.

The Self-Inspection Notice requires provincial and municipal government branches, including financial, civil affairs and sports bureaus, to conduct inspection and take remedial measures for unauthorized online lottery sales within their respective jurisdictions. The scope of inspection includes, among other things, commercial contract arrangements, online lottery products, lottery sales data exchange, online lottery sales channels, and sales commission fees in connection with unauthorized engagements of online sales agents by lottery administration centers. The Self-Inspection Notice further requires a formal report on the result of the self-inspection and self-remedy be submitted by each provincial or municipal government to the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sports of the People’s Republic of China by March 1, 2015.

On February 24, 2015, we were informed by certain provincial sports lottery administration centers that as part of their respective self-inspection processes, such provincial sports lottery administration centers planned to temporarily suspend accepting online purchase orders for lottery products starting from February 25, 2015. On March 2, 2015, we were further informed by the remaining provincial sports lottery administration centers to which we provide sport lottery sales services that such provincial sports lottery administration centers also planned to temporarily suspend accepting online purchase orders for lottery products, in response to the Self-inspection Notice. As a result, our transaction volume decreased significantly. On April 3, 2015, a public announcement, or the Public Announcement, with regard to online lottery sales in China was jointly released by eight competent government authorities, namely, the MOF, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration for Industry & Commerce, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the People’s Bank of China, the General Administration of Sports of China and the China Banking Regulatory Commission. The Public Announcement mandates, among other things, that (i) all lottery institutions, internet companies, and other institutions or individuals which provide unauthorized online lottery sales services, either directly or through agents, shall immediately cease such services. The local governmental authorities of finance, civil affairs and sports shall investigate and sanction unauthorized online lottery sales in their respective jurisdictions according to relevant laws and regulations; (ii) the local government authorities of public security and industry & commerce shall investigate any issuance or sales of illegal lottery within their respective jurisdictions, with necessary assistance from local government authorities of finance, communication, banking regulatory commission, civil affairs, sports and local branches of the People’s Bank of China, and report any criminal activities to the judicial authority for prosecution; and (iii) the lottery issuance authorities that plan to sell lottery products online shall obtain the approval from the Ministry of Civil Affairs or the General Administration of Sports of China by submitting an application to the MOF for written approval. No entity shall provide online lottery sales services without the approval by the MOF.

We believe the close proximity of the promulgation of the Self-Inspection Notice and the Public Announcement signals a potential significant change of regulatory framework in the online lottery market in China. In light of such potential change of regulatory framework, we decided to voluntarily and temporarily suspend all of our online lottery sales services on April 4, 2015. Since we voluntarily and temporarily suspended our online lottery sales services and up to the date of this annual report, we had not generated any revenue from these services, which has caused our financial results to be materially and adversely impacted during the temporary suspension period.

With the promulgation of the Self-Inspection Notice and the Public Announcement, the competent government authorities took further steps to regulate the lottery market in China and sanction unauthorized online lottery sales. After the issuance of the Self-Inspection Notice and the Public Announcement, there has been no indication as to when the online sales of sports lottery products will be permitted to resume, if at all. Therefore, as of the date of this annual report, there is no clear indication as to how long our voluntary temporary suspension of online sports lottery sales services will last, and we have been working and will continue to work with the China Sports Lottery Administration Center to develop a management system to cope with any new regulatory framework to be adopted.

The rules and regulations on online lottery sales service market in China are relatively new and interpretations and implementation thereof have changed substantially on a number of occasions, and their further interpretations and implementation involve uncertainty.

During our 15-year history of providing online lottery sales services, we have encountered a number of significant changes on interpretations and implementation of the rules and regulations in respect of the provision of these services as further described below,

Operations under the Implementing Rules. On September 26, 2010, the MOF issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Online Sales of Lottery, or the Interim Measures, which allows qualified service providers to provide online lottery sales services after obtaining the approval by and the operating permit from the MOF. On January 18, 2012, the MOF, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the General Administration of Sports of China jointly promulgated the Implementing Rules of Regulation on Administration of Lottery, or the Implementing Rules, which set forth, among other things, detailed requirements and qualifications for the approvals to conduct online lottery sales. For a description of relevant PRC laws and regulations on online lottery services, see “Item 4B. Business Overview—Regulation on Lottery Services Industry and Online Lottery Sales.” Applications were submitted to the MOF in connection with the qualifications and approvals of our online lottery sales services for both sports and welfare lottery products provided on our websites, in accordance with the new measures.

Partial suspension in 2012. From March to November 2012, we suspended our online lottery sales services to substantially all of our customers in response to the Urgent Notice with regard to the Implementation of the Implementing Rules of Regulation on Administration of Lottery promulgated by the General Administration of Sports of China on February 28, 2012, or the Urgent Notice. We, however, continued to provide lottery sales services via our mobile applications to mobile users and via our online platform to a limited number of loyal customers and generated service fees from such services. The PRC regulations on lottery sales services via mobile applications and their interpretations are subject to uncertainty. Our PRC legal counsel has advised us, given that the MOF has approved us as an authorized entity to conduct online lottery sales on behalf of China Sports Lottery Administration Center, our operation of lottery sales services prior to November 2012, including sales through our mobile applications and online platform, did not and will not likely to have a material adverse effect on us. However, under the rules and regulations on online lottery sales, the relevant PRC authorities have broad discretion on the lottery sales that are conducted without the approval by the MOF, and have the authority to impose sanctions thereon, including without limitation, levying fines, confiscating illegal income or suspending the operations and other sanctions. We have not received any legal sanctions, but there is no assurance that the competent authorities would not impose any legal sanction. Any legal sanctions imposed on us by the competent authorities could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Approval in 2012 to Conduct Online Sports Lottery Sales. In October 2012, we were notified by China Sports Lottery Administration Center that we were one of the two entities that had been approved by the MOF to conduct online sales of sports lottery products in China on behalf of the China Sports Lottery Administration Center. Since the operation of online sports lottery sales services by China Sports Lottery Administration Center itself was in a pilot phase and subject to further approval by the MOF, our operation of online sales of sports lottery products may be subject to suspension if China Sports Lottery Administration Center fails to obtain such further approval from the MOF. The competent authorities may establish certain management systems to supervise and monitor the online lottery sales, which systems may comprise a sales monitoring system, a back-office management system and an application service platform. The competent authorities may also ask the approved entities, like us, to adopt certain measures to meet specific regulatory requirements that may be adopted from time to time. For example, the competent authorities may monitor or adjust the categories of lottery products being sold online, and supervise the sales procedures and key data of our online lottery sales on a real-time basis, such as those relating to our customer account opening procedures, capital management, database information and risk controls. In addition, we may be required to enter into new lottery agency agreements with the relevant lottery administration center that could have different terms and conditions from those in our existing service agreements with the relevant sports lottery administration centers. As a result, we may have to amend our existing service agreements. Any unfavorable new regulatory requirements or amendments to the key terms of our existing service agreements could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

Temporary suspension since April 2015. As stated above, since April 4, 2015, we have voluntarily and temporarily suspended our online sports lottery sales services in response to the issuance of the Self-Inspection Notice and the Public Announcement.

Uncertainty regarding approval to provide welfare lottery sales services. We offered welfare lottery sales services in the past and, for example, we generated service fees of RMB25.9 million from such services in 2012, accounting for 14.0% of our service fees generated from lottery products in the same year. We ceased to offer sales services for welfare lottery products in November 2012. Consequently, we did not generate any service fees from welfare lottery products in 2013, 2014 and 2015. We plan to resume our online sales services for welfare lottery products after we obtain the relevant approval for such products from the MOF. Chongqing Welfare Lottery Administration Center notified us that it submitted an application for qualification and approval for the online lottery sales services for welfare lottery products to China Welfare Lottery Issuance and Administration Center on November 15, 2010, and such application would be further submitted by China Welfare Lottery Issuance and Administration Center to the MOF for approval. As of the date of this annual report, Chongqing Welfare Lottery Administration Center had not updated us on the status of the application for welfare lottery products. Since the relevant regulations do not set forth a specific time limit for the MOF to issue such approval, we cannot assure you that we would be able to obtain such approval in the near future, or at all.

Our business, operation and financial results have been and will be further materially and adversely impacted by changes in interpretation or the implementation of rules and regulations governing the online lottery sale services in China.

The success of our business depends on our ability to maintain and enhance our reputation and brand.

We believe that our reputation in the industry and among our users as a leading reliable and trustworthy online lottery service provider and our “500wan” brand is of significant importance to the success of our business. A well-recognized brand is critical to increasing our user base and, in turn, increasing our net revenues from service fees. Since the online lottery service market is highly competitive, our ability to remain the market leader in China depends largely on maintaining and enhancing our reputation and brand, which may be difficult and expensive.

We have developed our reputation and established a leading position by providing our users with what we believe are superior and trustworthy services. We have conducted, and may continue to conduct, various marketing and brand promotion activities. We cannot assure you, however, that these activities will be successful and achieve the brand promotion and activity enhancement goals we expected. In addition, any negative publicity in relation to our services or products, regardless of its veracity, could harm our brand image and, in turn, have adverse effects on our user loyalty and stickiness, or result in a reduction in the number of our users. For example, we are aware of certain complaints against our websites on a number of online forums with regard to purchase order processing and prize collections. From 2012 to 2015, we received 251 complaints with regard to order processing and prize collection, and paid a total amount of RMB417,761 to resolve such complaints. Among the 251 complaints, 43 involved compensation amounts over RMB1,000, and the highest amount was RMB257,442. Even though the allegations made in such complaints were not factually proven or the amounts in issue were diminutive, such complaints can nonetheless have a detrimental effect on our reputation. If we fail to maintain and enhance our reputation and brand, or if we incur excessive expenses in our efforts to do so, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Our product portfolio depends on the offerings of the lottery administration centers and could change unfavorably for us as a result of decisions made by them.

Prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, the lottery products we serviced were issued and sold by national and provincial lottery administration centers. We do not have the right to issue lottery products and could not prevent the discontinuation of lottery products that were offered. If the national lottery administration centers had decided to discontinue one or more lottery products or to replace them with other products, this could have led to a decline in our purchase orders and thus would have had an adverse effect on our financial position and results of operations. In addition, if we had wanted to provide services on newly issued lottery products, we would have had to enter into service agreements with the lottery administration centers that issue or sell such new lottery products. We cannot assure you that such service agreements could have been entered into on terms favorable to us, or at all. If our competitors are able to enter into service agreements to service popular newly issued lottery products while we cannot, it could have an adverse effect on our revenue and brand name.

Lottery products offered by provincial lottery administration centers may have been discontinued or subject to restriction and regulations by the relevant national lottery administration centers. In particular, in March 2015 all provincial sports lottery administration centers we serviced temporarily suspended accepting online purchase orders for lottery products in response to the Self-Inspection Notice, which materially and adversely affected our results of operations and financial conditions since such temporary suspension. In addition, due to the popularity of certain lottery products we service, those provincial lottery administration centers with which we did not have service agreements might have chosen to issue similar lottery products on more competitive terms. This may have resulted in a decrease in the purchase orders of those lottery products we serviced and, in turn, resulted in a decrease in the revenue we were able to generate from those lottery products. We cannot assure you that we will be able to reach an agreement with a provincial lottery administration center to obtain the right to service its lottery products that compete with products we currently service. In addition, the relevant lottery authorities could mandate the change of the rules or prize scheme of our current lottery products or stop the issuance of those lottery products altogether due to social policy or other considerations, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations.

We depend on our agreements with a few provincial lottery administration centers for our service fees and such agreements could be terminated, amended or fail to be renewed.

Prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, substantialy all of our revenues were generated from service fees paid to us by a few provincial lottery administration centers. We have entered into non-exclusive service agreements with these lottery centers for terms of one year or five years, and the lottery administration centers may choose to enter into similar arrangements with other service providers. We have long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with a few provincial lottery administration centers, such as Jiangxi Sports Lottery Administration Center. Service fees received from our single largest lottery administration center partner, all of which were generated from sports lottery products, accounted for 51.0%, 35.5% and 42.8% of our total service fees in 2013, 2014 and 2015, respectively. The service fees received from the lottery administration centers represent revenues recognized before the reduction of incentives paid to users and the residual amount of lottery pool contributed by us to the lottery centers. We have a service agreement with Jiangxi Sports Lottery Administration Center that is effective until March 2018 and renewable upon expiration, but Jiangxi Sports Lottery Administration Center can terminate its agreement with us for various reasons or decide not to renew the agreement upon expiration. For example, the service agreement provides that the Jiangxi Sports Lottery Administration Center has the right to monitor our operations and unilaterally terminate the service agreement if we violate relevant laws and regulations. If any of the provincial sports lottery administration centers terminates or decides not to renew its agreement with us, or if the agreement is amended to our disfavor, this could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations and prospects, and we could lose a substantial portion of our revenues.

By March 2015, all sports lottery administration centers have temporarily suspended accepting online purchase orders for lottery products in response to the Self-Inspection Notice, and we have voluntarily and temporarily suspended our online lottery sales services in response to the issuance of the Self-Inspection Notice and the Public Announcement since April 4, 2015. There has been no indication as to when the online sales of sports lottery products will be permitted to resume, if at all. Therefore, as of the date of this annual report, there is no clear indication as to how long our voluntary temporary suspension of online lottery sales services will last.

We have a limited history of being profitable and our business model is subject to uncertainties, which makes it difficult to evaluate our business.

We launched our online lottery services in 2001 and became profitable in 2007. We have a relatively new business model in an emerging and rapidly evolving market. This makes it difficult for you to evaluate our business, financial performance and prospects, and our historical growth rate may not be indicative of our future performance. Although we achieved profitability in recent periods, we cannot assure you that we will be able to achieve similar results or growth in the future. We may not be able to achieve or sustain profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. You should consider our prospects in light of the risks and uncertainties that fast-growing companies in a rapidly evolving market may encounter.

In particular, our net revenues in 2012 were RMB171.5 million, representing a 26.2% decrease as compared to 2011, and we recorded net income attributable to 500.com Limited of RMB4.2 million in 2012, as compared to RMB13.6 million in 2011 primarily due to the adverse impact of voluntary suspension. In addition, we have temporarily suspended all of our lottery sales services since April 4, 2015 in response to the promulgation of the Self-Inspection Notice and the Public Announcement and there is no clear indication as to how long our voluntary temporary suspension will last as of the date of this annual report. As a result of the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services, our net revenues in 2015 were RMB99.6 million, representing an 82.8% decrease as compared to 2014, and we recorded a net loss attributable to 500.com Limited of RMB323.9 million in 2015, as compared to net income attributable to 500.com Limited of RMB157.0 million in 2014. We cannot assure you that even we are able to resume our online sports lottery sales services in the future, our users’ purchasing activities for sports lottery products will return to previous levels and continue to grow at a comparable pace as compared to that of the period prior to the voluntary suspension.

We operate in an intensely competitive environment, which may lead to declining revenue growth or other circumstances that would negatively affect our results of operations.

Prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, we operated in the new and dynamically growing online market for lottery products. There is no guarantee that we could have maintained our position as one of the market leaders. If we are unable to resume our online sports lottery sales services in the future, we anticipate significant competition, primarily from other online lottery service providers that may obtain relevant approvals and licenses to provide online lottery sales services in China. When the approval and licensing system for online lottery service providers is fully implemented in China in the future, we may face increased competition from companies that do not currently operate in the online lottery services industry. For example, if major portal websites obtain relevant approvals and licenses to offer lottery sales services, they may be able to offer similar services at a lower cost or to a larger user group due to their larger operational scales and user bases, which will put us at a competitive disadvantage. We may also face competition from traditional offline lottery agents. If we do not recognize market trends or user demand in a timely manner, we may lose our market share to our competitors, which would have a negative impact on our results of operations.

The lottery industry in China in general and the online lottery service industry in particular may not grow as quickly as expected, which may adversely affect our revenues and business prospects.

Our business and prospects depend on the continuing development and expansion of the lottery industry in China in general and the online lottery service industry in particular. Both China’s lottery industry has, and, prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of online sports lottery sales services in general in China in early 2015, the online lottery service industry had, experienced substantial growth in recent years in terms of both the number of people purchasing lottery products and revenue generated. We cannot assure you, however, that the lottery industry or the online lottery service industry in China may grow as rapidly as it has in the past. Growth of China’s lottery industry and the online lottery services industry are affected by numerous factors, such as GDP growth, growth of individual disposable income, regulatory changes, public perception and receptiveness, users’ trust and confidence level in the online lottery market, users’ general online purchase experience, technological innovations, development of the Internet and Internet-based services, and the macroeconomic environment. For example, the temporary suspension by provincial lottery administration centers in response to the Self-Inspection Notice in March 2015 has had, and is expected to continue to, materially and adversely affected online lottery market in China as long as the temporary suspension continues. If the lottery industry or online lottery service industry in China does not grow as quickly as expected or if we fail to benefit from such growth by failing to successfully implement our business strategies, our user base may decrease and our business and prospects may be adversely affected.

We depend on the technology and advanced information system, which may fail or be subject to disruption.

We are dependent on our IT systems for handling purchase orders, and the efficiency and reliability of our systems are in turn dependent on the functionality and stability of the underlying technical infrastructure. The functionality of the servers used by us and the related hardware and software infrastructure are of considerable significances to our business, our reputation and our ability to attract business partners and users. Our IT systems may be damaged or interrupted by increases in usage, human errors, unauthorized access, destruction of hardware, power cuts not covered by backup facilities, system crashes, software problems, virus attacks, natural hazards or disasters, or similar disruptions or disruptive events. Furthermore, our current IT systems may be unable to support a significant increase in online traffic or increased number of users, whether as a result of organic or inorganic growth of the business. We have in place business continuity procedures, disaster recovery systems and security measures to protect against network or technical failures or disruptions. Despite such procedures, failures in computer processing and weakness in the existing software and hardware cannot be completely prevented or eliminated. Any failure of our IT system and infrastructure could lead to significant costs and disruptions that could reduce our revenues, harm our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our operations.

In addition, we rely on bandwidth providers, communications carriers, data centers and other third parties for key aspects of the process in providing services to our users. Any failure or interruption in the services and products provided by these third parties could limit our ability to operate certain of our businesses, which could in turn have a material adverse effect on our business and financial condition.

We may not be able to develop and launch new services or new technologies in a timely manner or at all, and new services or technologies we manage to develop or provide may not be successful.

Our success in attracting new users and keeping existing users engaged have in the past depended on our ability to consistently develop and launch new and innovative services and technologies. Although we will continue to focus on research and development going forward, we cannot assure you that we will continue to be able to develop our technology to keep up-to-date with developments across the online lottery service industry and to launch new products or technologies in a timely manner or at all. New technologies and software are also less likely to be reliable, robust and resistant to viruses or failure. Given the fast growing online lottery service industry, we may not have enough time to fully test the new technologies and software we have developed before deploying them on our websites, which might cause service problems and negative user experience.

In particular, the number of people who access the Internet through non-PC devices such as mobile phones has increased in recent years. The software we have developed for these devices may not be widely adopted by users of such non-PC devices. If we are unable to attract and retain a substantial number of non-PC device users to our services or if we are slow to develop services and technologies that are more compatible with non-PC devices relative to our competitors, we may fail to capture a significant share of new users or lose our existing users who switch to non-PC devices for their lottery purchase activities.

We could be subject to foreign laws and regulations applicable to lottery services, which could have important legal consequences for us.

We currently only conduct our operations in China, and will continue to do so in the future. We have blocked direct access to our websites and mobile applications from the United States through IP address filtering. We have implemented an identity verification procedure as part of the prize collection process. A user who has won a prize is required to provide his or her valid PRC identification card number and valid PRC bank account number to us for identity and age verification through a government designated entity before we transfer the prize money to such user’s online account registered at our websites and mobile applications. Despite such measures taken by us, it is conceivable that a user with a valid Chinese bank account and a Chinese identification card could place an order or collect a prize at our websites or mobile applications from a jurisdiction other than China and the United States, or that a user could devise a way to evade our blocking measures and access our websites and mobile applications from the United States. In addition, we have not been able to implement the same identity verification process over users registered with websites of third-party online service providers, which conduct their own identity verification processes, and these users may place purchase orders with us and collect prize money they win without providing their identity to us. As a result, we could be subject to foreign laws and regulations applicable to lottery services, which could have important legal consequences for us. The fact that our websites and mobile applications are accessible from a foreign jurisdiction could render our business operations subject to the laws and regulations of such jurisdiction, even though we do not have a physical presence in that jurisdiction. As a result, we could be required to obtain the requisite approval or license for lottery services in such jurisdiction, or could be deemed to have violated the prohibition against lottery services in that jurisdiction.

If we were found to have violated any applicable foreign laws and regulations applicable to lottery services, we could face civil or even criminal liabilities, such as injunctions, restrictive orders, damage awards or fines. Even if we successfully defend ourselves against such allegations, we could nevertheless incur considerable costs in such defense or suffer reputational damage due to the negative publicity associated with such allegations.

Our systems and controls to restrict access to our websites from persons located in the United States may not be adequate.

In the United States, some credit card companies have classified online purchase orders of U.S. state-issued lottery products as online gambling and thus denied such purchase orders, despite the fact that many such purchases are exempt from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, enacted in 2006. The UIGEA is silent on whether lottery products issued by non-U.S. state entities are exempt from the definition of online gambling. There are several other U.S. federal laws relevant to online gaming, including the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, the Federal Interstate Wire Act, the Illegal Gambling Business Act, the Interstate Transportation of Wagering Paraphernalia Act and the Interstate and Foreign Travel or Transportation in Aid of Racketeering Enterprising Act. In addition, laws and regulations exist in various individual U.S. states that limit or prohibit online games of chance. Although prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, the services we provided to our users were solely related to lottery products issued and sold by national and authorized provincial lottery administration centers in China, we cannot assure you that the United States Department of Justice or other federal or state regulatory authorities will not deem our business as being in violation of the UIGEA or any of the laws mentioned above if purchase orders are placed on our platform from users in the United States not successfully blocked by our system. Violations of such laws can lead to criminal and civil penalties, including substantial fines, injunctions, damage claims and jail terms for persons accountable.

As a precaution, we have implemented technological and other measures to prevent persons in the United States from accessing our websites and mobile applications. These measures could fail or otherwise be inadequate, either currently or as a result of future technological developments. This may result in allegations or accusations of our violations of the above-mentioned or other applicable laws or regulations of the United States, and actions brought against us based on such violations, which could have a material adverse effect on our operations, financial performance and prospects.

Our service agreements with certain third-party Internet companies may be amended or terminated.

We generate a portion of our net revenues pursuant to cooperation agreements with certain third-party Internet companies. We build and maintain embedded lottery purchase webpages for websites of these Internet companies which redirect user purchase orders to our websites. We pay these third-party Internet companies a predetermined fixed percentage of the total purchase amount generated by purchase orders redirected to us from their websites. In 2013, 2014 and 2015, such payments to certain Internet companies accounted for 5.3%, 9.8% and 7.8% of our net revenues, respectively. We also provide lottery information packages to the lottery information channels of some portal websites. The third-party Internet companies that we work with may request amendments to the material terms of our cooperation agreements in a manner that is unfavorable to us or decide to terminate such cooperation agreements. In particular, if any of these companies decide to start offering its own online lottery services after terminating its cooperation arrangement with us, users formerly redirected to our websites through websites of these companies may decide to use these companies’ services instead, which would have a negative impact on our net revenues.

We are exposed to contractual claims by third parties arising from regulatory actions, which could damage our reputation and results of operations.

We have entered into various service, online payment and advertisement agreements with a number of third parties. Many of these agreements contain warranties, indemnities and termination provisions in which we have made representations and warranties to the counterparties as to the legitimacy of our operations and our compliance with relevant laws and regulations. If a claim or regulatory action is brought against our counterparties alleging that our historical business conduct breached such provisions on which our counterparties have relied, whether as a result of judicial proceedings or a change of law or otherwise, we may face material claims or regulatory actions and may owe damages to the relevant third parties. We may also remain liable for any outstanding fees payable to the counterparty of an agreement which has been terminated.

Any extended periods in the future without our users winning substantial prizes could result in losses in revenues and profits for us.

As of December 31, 2015, 8 prizes of over RMB10 million, 76 prizes of RMB5 million to RMB10 million, and 570 prizes of RMB1 million to RMB5 million had been awarded to users who purchased their lottery products using our online lottery service platform. Our users’ record of winnings is one of the factors contributing to our ability to attract new users and retain existing users. Winning of number-based lotteries arise purely by chance during the lottery draws. No assurance can be given that there will not be long periods in the future without any of our users winning a prize of significant amount, which could lead to a reduction in user activity and therefore a shortfall in our revenue and profit.

Our operations and services relating to sports lottery products depend on the scheduling and live broadcasting of major sports events.

Prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, our operations and services relating to sports lotteries were affected by the scheduling and live broadcasting of the underlying sports events. In particular, a significant portion of our service fees prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, were derived from results of international soccer games. Disruptions to the scheduling and broadcasting of those games may have a material impact on our results of operations. In some instances, the scheduling of major sports events occurs seasonally (for example, European soccer) or at regular but infrequent intervals (for example, the FIFA World Cup). The cancellation, postponement or curtailment of significant sports events, due to, among other things, adverse weather conditions, terrorist acts, other acts of war or hostility or the outbreak of infectious diseases, or cancellation of, disruption to, or postponement of the live broadcasting of such sports events, due to contractual disputes, technical or communication problems, or the insolvency of a major broadcaster, could materially adversely affect our operations and services relating to sports lotteries.

Future strategic acquisitions may have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation and results of operations.

We may acquire additional assets, products, technologies or businesses that are complementary to our existing business if we are presented with appropriate opportunities. Future acquisitions and subsequent integration of newly acquired assets and businesses into our own would require significant attention from our management and could result in a diversion of resources from our existing business, which in turn could have an adverse effect on our business operations. Acquired assets or businesses may not generate the financial results we expect. In addition, acquisitions could result in the use of substantial amounts of cash, potentially dilutive issuances of equity securities, the occurrence of significant goodwill impairment charges, amortization expenses for other intangible assets and exposure to potential unknown liabilities of the acquired business. Moreover, the cost of identifying and consummating acquisitions may be significant. In addition to possible shareholders’ approval, we may also have to obtain approvals and licenses from the relevant government authorities in the PRC for the acquisitions and to comply with any applicable PRC laws and regulations, which could result in increased cost and delay.

Negative publicity about our operations, or problems such as underage and compulsive lottery activities, fraud and corruption in sports matches may adversely affect our reputation and business.

Social responsibility policies are a key consideration in lottery laws and regulations. There are concerns as to the ability of online lottery service providers to effectively block minors from purchasing lottery products online and the possible increase in compulsive lottery activity due to the relative ease of making online lottery purchases. Publicity regarding such concerns could harm our brand and image. If the perception develops that online lottery operators or the lottery industry as a whole is failing to adequately protect minors and vulnerable lottery purchasers, we may face increased social resistance. Damage to the industry’s reputation could also lead to the withdrawal of support for the industry from the government or the tightening of regulations, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

Negative publicity about potential fraud (including money laundering) and corruption in sports matches (including collusion and match-fixing), even if not directly or indirectly connected with us or our services, may adversely impact our reputation and the willingness of the public to participate in the purchase of sports lotteries. As a result, the number of potential users available to us could be adversely affected.

Undetected errors with regard to historical or real-time data in our information platform could adversely affect our user experience, which may materially and adversely affect our reputation and business.

Prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, our information database provided to our users real-time updated information on all 13 national lottery products and 96 provincial lottery products, as well as historical data, charts analytical tools and account management tools and functions. Although we intended to ensure the accuracy and reliability of all data in our information database, in a number of instances, users had complained on online forums of being misled by the wrong historical data and users have also alleged that the winning numbers posted by us differ from the actual winning numbers published by the relevant national or provincial lottery administration centers. Such complaints and allegations, whether with or without merit, may damage our reputation as a credible online lottery service provider and adversely affect user experience, which could materially and adversely affect our reputation and business.

We may fail to detect fraudulent activities of our users or employees.

Online transactions may be subject to sophisticated schemes or collusion to defraud or other illegal activities, and there is a risk that our platform may be used for those purposes either by our users or our employees. While we intended to continue our efforts to protect our business and our users from such illegal activities, including a user identity verifying system and pre-payment procedures to protect against fictitious transactions, the controls and procedures we have implemented may not be effective in all cases. Failure to protect our operations and our users from fraudulent activity either by other users or our employees could result in reputational damage to us and could materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

We rely on individual employees to handle prize collection using their personal bank accounts, which creates a risk of misappropriation of funds.

Under the current prize payout rules for national and provincial lottery products, prizes can only be claimed by natural persons who present the winning lottery tickets at the time of collection. Prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, since we did not distribute physical tickets to individual users and needed to collect prizes on behalf of the winning users, we relied on certain of our employees to maintain bank accounts opened in their individual names into which winning prizes are first deposited before they are transferred into the bank account of E-Sun Sky Network Technology Co., Ltd., or E-Sun Sky Network, which then allocated the prize money to the winners’ accounts. We adopted several measures to ensure that such individual accounts are under our strict control. See “Item 4B. Business Overview—Purchase Order Processing and Prize Collection.” Although, prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, we had never had an incident where prize money deposited in an employee’s account was misappropriated, there is no assurance that, if we are able to resume our online sports lottery sales services in the future, misappropriations of prize money will not happen in the future, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and financial results. Currently, there is no indication as to whether we need to use the bank accounts of individual employees in the future.

Failure to adequately protect user account information could have a material adverse effect on us.

We process our users’ personal data (including name, address, age, bank details and lottery purchase history) as part of our business and therefore must comply with data protection laws in China. Data protection laws restrict our ability to collect and use personal information relating to our users and potential users. Notwithstanding our IT and data security and other systems, we may not be effective in detecting any intrusion or other security breaches, or safeguarding against sabotage, hackers, viruses and cyber crime. We are exposed to the risk that personal data could be wrongfully accessed and/or used, whether by employees, users or other third parties, or otherwise lost or disclosed or processed in breach of data protection laws. If we or any of the third party service providers whom we rely on fail to transmit users information and payment details online in a secure manner or if any such theft or loss of personal users data were to otherwise occur, it could subject us to liabilities under the data protection laws or result in the loss of the goodwill of our users.

We have no insurance coverage against product liability claims or business interruptions.

As the insurance industry in China is still in an early stage of development, insurance companies in China currently offer limited business insurance products. We do not have any product liability insurance or business interruption insurance. As we continue to increase the number of lottery products we service, we may be increasingly exposed to claims related to such lottery products. Any such claims, business disruption, or natural disaster could result in us incurring substantial costs and a diversion of our resources away from our business, which would have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

We might not be able to adequately protect our intellectual property rights.

We believe our trademarks, software, technology know-how and other intellectual property provide competitive advantages to us, which are important to our achievements to date and our future success. We have invested significant resources to develop our brand name, 500wan, which is an important asset to us. We cannot assure you that steps taken to protect our intellectual property rights will be sufficient to prevent infringement of our intellectual property rights. If we fail to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, including our rights in our trademarks and know-how, it could have a material adverse effect on our operations.

The validity, enforceability and scope of protection available under intellectual property laws with respect to the Internet industry in China are uncertain and evolving. Implementation and enforcement of PRC intellectual property-related laws have historically been deficient and ineffective. Accordingly, protection of intellectual property rights in China may not be as effective as in the United States or other western countries. Furthermore, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive, and we may need to resort to litigation to enforce or defend our copyrights or other intellectual property rights or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of our proprietary rights or those of others. Such litigation and any adverse determination thereof could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention away from our business.

We may be subject to allegations or liabilities for infringement of third-party intellectual property rights based on the content available on our websites or information services we provide.

We provide our users with real-time and historical lottery-related news, data, analyses, real-time match scores and other contents on our information platform. We obtain such contents from a third-party professional sports information agency as well as publicly available sources. The user forum of our websites also hosts a significant amount of content generated by our users. We cannot assure you that we will not be subject to allegations, claims or lawsuits by third parties regarding the use of lottery or sports related information or any other content on our websites, which may infringe upon the intellectual property rights of such third parties. If such claims are found valid by the courts and we are ordered to remove the content from our websites, our information platform will become less attractive and our user experience and satisfaction will be adversely affected. Even if we successfully defend ourselves against such claims or allegations, we could nevertheless incur considerable costs in such defense or suffer reputational damage due to the negative publicity associated with such claims or allegations.

We rely on our senior management and key employees.

Our success is dependent upon the expertise and continued service of our senior management and other key personnel. Our founder, and Chairman, Mr. Man San Law, has 15 years of experience in the lottery service industry. Mr. Law is a pioneer of the online lottery service market who has been at the forefront of developing innovative online products and solutions and has established relations with market participants in China. Our CEO, Mr. Zhengming Pan, who has substantial experiences in management and corporate finance, is also crucial to our operations and development. Most of our senior management team members have 15 years of experience in information technology or Internet related industries. They are crucial to our smooth operation and continued innovation. In addition, we rely on a limited number of specialized staff members in certain areas of our IT operations where we do not receive support from external service providers. Furthermore, our ability to expand our operations to accommodate our anticipated growth will also depend on our ability to attract and retain additional personnel such as qualified risk managers, finance, management, marketing, technical and other personnel. Competition for these employees is intense due to the limited number of qualified personnel. It may be difficult for us to manage our business and meet our objectives if we fail to attract and retain such personnel and our results of operations or financial condition may be adversely affected.

We are dependent on external service providers with respect to payment and settlement processing, and the provision of faulty services by these providers could lead to financial loss and damage to our reputation.

We are dependent on cooperation with external service providers with specialist knowledge and technology for processing lottery purchase orders. This includes, among other things, data and voice communication, procurement, installation, further development, maintenance and servicing of hardware and software, server housing and payment processing. It is possible that one or more of the external service providers do not perform the services, or that they do not perform them in a timely and accurate manner. It is therefore possible that, due to failures or omissions by the external service providers that we have engaged, we will not be in a position to perform our own services faultlessly or on time. This could lead to revenue losses, liability for damage, and substantial damage to our reputation.

We depend on payment processing for the success of our business.

Prior to the voluntary temporary suspension of our online sports lottery sales services in April 2015, we required our users to deposit funds in their registered accounts in advance of any lottery purchases. Users’ prize money was also deposited in and withdrawn from their respective accounts. Therefore, the provision of convenient, trusted and effective payment processing services to our users and potential users is critical to our business. If we are able to resume our online sports lottery sales services in the future and there is any deterioration or perceived deterioration in the quality of the payment processing services provided by us or any interruption to those services, or if our payment processing services are not performed in a timely manner, our users and potential users may be deterred from using our online lottery services, and we may be subject to user complaints and allegations concerning the mishandling of their funds, which may damage our reputation and have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Our quarterly net revenues and operating results may fluctuate, which makes our results of operations difficult to predict and may cause our quarterly results of operations to fall short of expectations.

Our quarterly revenues and operating results have fluctuated in the past and may continue to fluctuate depending upon a number of factors, many of which are out of our control. For these reasons, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful, and you should not rely on our past results as an indication of our future performance. Our quarterly and annual net revenues and costs and expenses as a percentage of our net revenues may be significantly different from our historical or projected rates. Our operating results in future quarters may fall below expectations. Any of these events could cause the price of our ADSs to fall. Other factors that may affect our financial results include, among others:

Our operating results tend to be seasonal. For instance, we may have lower net revenues during the first quarter of each year primarily due to the Chinese New Year holidays in that quarter.

We could be subject to administrative penalties or business losses if our current user identity verifying system cannot sufficiently prevent us from taking purchase orders from underage users.

According to the Regulation on Administration of Lottery issued by the State Council which came into effect on July 1, 2009, a lottery service provider may be subject to administrative penalties from the local civil affairs authority or the sports administration authorities if it takes lottery purchase orders from underage users. The lottery administration centers have the right to terminate their service agreements with a service provider if it becomes subject to administrative penalties. It is still unclear which security mechanisms have to be introduced for online service providers to protect minors. Although we have adopted a user identity verifying system which allows us to filter out underage users, we cannot assure you that our current system is sufficient for us to identify all underage users. If the relevant authorities determine that we are in violation of any relevant regulations, we may be subject to administrative penalties and we may lose our service agreements with the lottery operation centers.

In addition, a registration process that is as simple as possible and takes only a short time to complete is an important factor in our ability to attract new users. Currently, the age verification step of our registration process is relatively simple. If it becomes apparent that this measure is inadequate, the registration process might have to be made more lengthy and difficult for more in-depth checks, such as requiring users to provide a copy of their Chinese ID card or other identification documents as part of the registration process, which could decrease the number of new registrations or lead to a decrease in users. This could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may lose investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements.

We are subject to reporting obligations under the U.S. securities laws. The SEC, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, adopted rules requiring every public company to include a management report on the company’s internal control over financial reporting in its annual report, which contains management’s assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, an independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. We have been subject to these requirements since the fiscal year ended December 31, 2014.

Our management has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2015. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures.” Our independent registered public accounting firm has issued an attestation report, which has concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective in all material aspects as of December 31, 2015. However, if we fail to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting in the future, our management and our independent registered public accounting firm may not be able to conclude that we have effective internal control over financial reporting at a reasonable assurance level. This could in turn result in 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 anticipate that we will continue to incur considerable costs, management time and other resources in an effort to comply with Section 404 and other requirements of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.

Our grant of employee share options, restricted shares or other share-based compensation and any future grants could have an adverse effect on our net income.

U.S. GAAP prescribes how we account for share-based compensation and may have an adverse impact on our results of operations or the price of our ADSs. U.S. GAAP requires us to recognize share-based compensation as compensation expense in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income generally based on the fair value of equity awards on the date of the grant, with compensation expense recognized over the period in which the recipient is required to provide service in exchange for the equity award. The expenses associated with share-based compensation may reduce the attractiveness of issuing share options or restricted shares under our equity incentive plan. However, if we do not grant share options or restricted shares, or reduce the number of share options or restricted shares we grant, we may not be able to attract and retain key personnel. If we grant more share options or restricted shares to attract and retain key personnel, the expenses associated with share-based compensation may adversely affect our net income.

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

If the PRC government finds that the agreements that establish the structure for operating our businesses in China do not comply with PRC governmental restrictions on foreign investment in the Internet and the lottery business, 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.

Current PRC laws and regulations place certain restrictions on foreign ownership of companies that engage in the Internet and lottery businesses. We conduct our operations in China principally through contractual arrangements among our company 500.com Limited, our wholly owned PRC subsidiary, E-Sun Sky Computer, our consolidated affiliated entities in the PRC and their respective shareholders. Our online lottery services were primarily provided through E-Sun Sky Network, the wholly owned subsidiary of E-Sun Network, Lhasa Yicai, Shenzhen Yicai, and Shenzhen Fenggu, the wholly owned subsidiaries of E-Sun Sky Network, and Guangyi Network, the wholly owned subsidiary of E-Sun Sky Computer. E-Sun Sky Network owns and manages our operating websites, namely, www.500wan.com and www.500.com. Guangtiandi Technology and Youlanguang Technology were established to provide technical support to E-Sun Sky Network. Youlanguang Technology provides services to E-Sun Sky Network relating to the management of our users’ registration information and accounts, while Guangtiandi Technology provides services to E-Sun Sky Network relating to the implementation of the technical interface with the provincial lottery administration centers, the maintenance of our lottery ticket database, and the printing of lottery tickets when needed for the purpose of prize collection. Baifengrun Technology, a wholly owned subsidiary of Guangtiandi Technology, was acquired to develop and operate mobile phone game services to third party customers. 500Fu, a wholly owned subsidiary of E-Sun Sky Network, was established to provide third party payment services. Sumpay.cn and its wholly owned subsidiaries Shangmeng Services and Hangzhou Laiqi, were acquired through Tongfu Technology to provide third party payment services. Our contractual arrangements with E-Sun Network, Guangtiandi Technology, Youlanguang Technology, Tongfu Technology and their respective shareholders (i) enable us to exercise effective control over these entities, and (ii) give us the obligation to absorb losses and the right to receive benefits of these entities, requiring us to treat them as our consolidated affiliated entities and to consolidate their operating results. For a detailed discussion of these contractual arrangements, see “Item 4C. Organization Structure.”

We cannot assure you, however, that we will be able to enforce these contracts. Although we believe we are in compliance with current PRC regulations, we cannot assure you that the PRC government would agree that these contractual arrangements comply with PRC licensing, registration or other regulatory requirements, with existing policies or with requirements or policies that may be adopted in the future. PRC laws and regulations governing the validity of these contractual arrangements are open to varying interpretations and the relevant government authorities have broad discretion in interpreting these laws and regulations. If the PRC government determines that we are not in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, it could revoke our business and operating licenses, require us to discontinue or restrict our operations, restrict our right to collect revenues, block our websites, require us to restructure our operations, impose additional conditions or requirements with which we may not be able to comply, or take other regulatory or enforcement actions against us that could be harmful to our business. The imposition of any of these penalties would result in a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business.

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

Since PRC laws restrict foreign equity ownership in companies engaged in the Internet and lottery businesses in China, we rely on contractual arrangements with our consolidated affiliated entities and their respective shareholders to operate our business in China. If we had direct ownership of E-Sun Network, Guangtiandi Technology, Youlanguang Technology or Tongfu Technology, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of E-Sun Network, Guangtiandi Technology, Youlanguang Technology or Tongfu Technology, which in turn could effectuate changes at the management level, subject to any applicable fiduciary obligations. However, under the current contractual arrangements that were executed on June 1, 2011, amended on May 2, 2013, supplemented December 28, 2013 and further amended on November 18, 2015, we rely on our consolidated affiliated entities and their respective shareholders’ performance of their contractual obligations to exercise effective control over our business in China. In addition, our contractual arrangements generally have a term of 10 years with an automatic extension for a number of years to be determined by E-Sun Sky Computer, which is subject to E-Sun Sky Computer’s unilateral termination right. In general, neither our consolidated affiliated entities nor their respective shareholders may terminate the contracts prior to the expiration date. However, the shareholders of E-Sun Network, Guangtiandi Technology, Youlanguang Technology or Tongfu Technology, may not act in the best interests of our company or may not perform their obligations under these contracts, including the obligation to renew these contracts when their initial term expires. Such risks exist throughout the period in which we intend to operate our business through the contractual arrangements with our consolidated affiliated entities and their respective shareholders. We may replace the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entities at any time pursuant to our contractual arrangements with them and their shareholders. However, if any dispute relating to these contracts remains unresolved, we will have to enforce our rights under these contracts through the operations of PRC law, arbitration and courts and therefore will be subject to uncertainties in the PRC legal system. See “Item3D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure—Any failure by our consolidated affiliated entities or their respective shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them may have a material adverse effect on our business.” Therefore, these contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing us with control over these consolidated affiliated entities.

Any failure by our consolidated affiliated entities or their respective shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them may have a material adverse effect on our business.

Our consolidated affiliated entities and their respective shareholders may fail to take certain actions required for our business or follow our instructions despite their contractual obligations to do so. If they fail to perform their obligations under their respective agreements with us, we may have to rely on legal remedies under PRC laws, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, which may not be effective.

All of these contractual arrangements are governed by PRC laws and provide for the resolution of disputes through arbitration in the PRC. Accordingly, these contracts would be interpreted in accordance with PRC law and any disputes would be resolved in accordance with PRC legal procedures. The legal environment in the PRC is not as developed as compared to certain 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, which may make it difficult to exert effective control over our consolidated affiliated entities, and our ability to conduct our business may be adversely affected.

Contractual arrangements with our consolidated affiliated entities may result in adverse tax consequences to us.

Under applicable PRC tax laws and regulations, arrangements and transactions among related parties may be subject to audit or scrutiny by the PRC tax authorities within 10 years after the taxable year when the arrangements or transactions are conducted. We could face material and adverse tax consequences if the PRC tax authorities were to determine that the contractual arrangements among 500.com Limited, E-Sun Sky Computer, our wholly owned subsidiary in China, our consolidated affiliated entities in China and their respective shareholders were not entered into on an arm’s-length basis and therefore constituted unfavorable transfer pricing arrangements. Unfavorable transfer pricing arrangements could, among other things, result in an upward adjustment of income subject to taxation. Under the contractual agreements we agreed to provide unconditional financial support, through the nominee shareholders, to each consolidated affiliated entity in manners permitted by PRC laws and regulations and further agreed to waive the repayment of any such financial support if needed by such consolidated affiliated entity, which may also result in income tax burden on the nominee shareholders and the consolidated affiliated entities. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may impose interest on late payments on our consolidated affiliated entities for the adjusted but unpaid taxes. Our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected if our consolidated affiliated entities’ tax liabilities increase significantly or if they are required to pay interest on late payments.

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

We provide no incentives to the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entities for the purpose of encouraging them to act in our best interests in their capacity as the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entities. We may replace any of the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entities at any time pursuant to the exclusive option agreements. In addition, each of the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entities has executed a shareholder’s voting power assignment agreement to authorize any person or entity designated by 500.com Limited as permitted by applicable law to vote on their behalf and exercise full voting rights as shareholders of the consolidated affiliated entities. We cannot assure you that when conflicts arise, the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entities will act in the best interests of our company or that conflicts will be resolved in our favor. If we cannot resolve any conflicts of interest or disputes between us and the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entities, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which may be expensive, time-consuming and disruptive to our operations. There is also substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

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

We are a holding company, and we rely principally on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our wholly owned PRC subsidiary, E-Sun Sky Computer, for our cash and financing requirements, including the funds necessary to pay dividends and other cash distributions to our shareholders and service any debt we may incur. If E-Sun Sky Computer incurs 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. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may require us to adjust our taxable income under the contractual arrangements E-Sun Sky Computer currently has in place with our consolidated affiliated entities in a manner that would materially and adversely affect its ability to pay dividends and other distributions to us.

Under PRC laws and regulations, E-Sun Sky Computer, as a wholly foreign-owned enterprise in the PRC, may pay dividends only out of its accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise such as E-Sun Sky Computer is required to set aside at least 10% of its accumulated after-tax profits each year, if any, to fund a statutory reserve fund, until the aggregate amount of such a fund reaches 50% of its registered capital. At its discretion, it may allocate a portion of its after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to staff welfare and bonus funds. These reserve funds and staff welfare and bonus funds are not distributable as cash dividends. Any limitation on the ability of E-Sun Sky Computer to pay dividends or make other distributions to us could materially and adversely limit our ability to grow, make investments or acquisitions that could be beneficial to our business, pay dividends, or otherwise fund and conduct our business.

PRC regulation of loans to, and direct investment in, PRC entities by offshore holding companies and governmental control of currency conversion may limit our use of the proceeds we receive from our public offering to fund our expansion or operations.

As an offshore holding company with a PRC subsidiary, we may (i) make additional capital contributions to our existing PRC subsidiary, E-Sun Sky Computer, (ii) establish new PRC subsidiaries and make capital contributions to these new PRC subsidiaries, (iii) make loans to our PRC subsidiaries or consolidated affiliated entities, or (iv) acquire offshore entities with business operations in China in an offshore transaction. However, most of these uses are subject to PRC regulations and approvals. For example:

On August 29, 2008, SAFE promulgated 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 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. On March 30, 2015, SAFE promulgated SAFE Circular 19, which came into force replacing SAFE Circular 142 on June 1, 2015. SAFE Circular 19 removed certain restrictions previously provided under SAFE Circular 142 for conversion by a foreign-invested enterprise of foreign currency registered capital into RMB and use of such RMB capital. However, SAFE Circular 19 continues to prohibit foreign-invested enterprises from, among other things, using RMB fund converted from its foreign exchange capitals for expenditure beyond its business scope, providing entrusted loans or repaying loans between non-financial enterprises.

We expect that the PRC regulations of loans and direct investment by offshore holding companies to PRC entities may continue to limit our use of the proceeds we receive from our initial public offering. There are no costs associated with registering loans or capital contributions with relevant PRC governmental authorities, other than nominal processing charges. Under the relevant PRC laws and regulations, the PRC governmental authorities are required to process such approvals or registrations or deny our application within a prescribed time period, which is usually less than 90 days. The actual time taken, however, may be longer due to administrative delays. We cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain these government registrations or approvals on a timely basis, if at all, with respect to our future plans to use the U.S. dollar proceeds we receive from our initial public offering for our expansion and operations in China. If we fail to receive such registrations or approvals, our ability to use the proceeds of our initial public offering and to capitalize our PRC operations may be negatively affected, which could materially and adversely affect our liquidity and ability to fund and expand our business.

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

The complexities, uncertainties and rapid changes in PRC regulation of Internet business and companies require significant resources for compliance.

The PRC government extensively regulates the Internet industry, including foreign ownership of, and the licensing and permit requirements pertaining to, companies in the Internet industry. These Internet-related laws and regulations are relatively new and evolving, and their interpretation and enforcement involve significant uncertainty. As a result, in certain circumstances it may be difficult to determine what actions or omissions may be deemed to be in violations of applicable laws and regulations. Issues, risks and uncertainties relating to PRC regulation of the Internet business include, but are not limited to, the following:

The interpretation and application of existing PRC laws, regulations and policies and any new laws, regulations or policies relating to the Internet industry have created substantial uncertainties regarding the legality of existing and future foreign investments in, and the businesses and activities of, the Internet business in China, including our business. We cannot assure you that we have obtained all the permits or licenses required for conducting our business in China or will be able to maintain our existing licenses or obtain any new licenses required under any new laws or regulations. There are also risks that we may be found to violate existing or future laws and regulations given the uncertainty and complexity of China’s regulation of Internet business.

In addition, new laws and regulations governing the use of the Internet could be issued at the national or provincial level, or existing regulations could be interpreted more strictly. No assurance can be given that business on the Internet in general or our online services in particular will not be adversely impacted by further regulations. Technical limitations on Internet use can also be developed or implemented. For example, restrictions can be implemented on personal Internet use in the workplace in general or access to our site in particular. This could lead to a reduction of user activities or a loss of users which in turn could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

Substantial uncertainties exist with respect to the enactment timetable, interpretation and implementation of draft PRC Foreign Investment Law and how it may impact the viability of our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.

The Ministry of Commerce published a discussion draft of the proposed Foreign Investment Law in January 2015 aiming to, upon its enactment, replace the trio of existing laws regulating foreign investment in China, namely, the Sino-foreign Equity Joint Venture Enterprise Law, the Sino-foreign Cooperative Joint Venture Enterprise Law and the Wholly Foreign-invested Enterprise Law, together with their implementation rules and ancillary regulations. The draft Foreign Investment Law embodies an expected PRC regulatory trend to rationalize its foreign investment regulatory regime in line with prevailing international practice and the legislative efforts to unify the corporate legal requirements for both foreign and domestic investments. The Ministry of Commerce is currently soliciting comments on this draft and substantial uncertainties exist with respect to its enactment timetable, interpretation and implementation. The draft Foreign Investment Law, if enacted as proposed, may materially impact the viability of our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations in many aspects.

Among other things, the draft Foreign Investment Law expands the definition of foreign investment and introduces the principle of “actual control” in determining whether a company should be treated as a foreign-invested enterprise, or an FIE. According to the definition set forth in the draft Foreign Investment Law, FIEs refer to enterprises established in China pursuant to PRC law that are solely or partially invested by foreign investors. The draft Foreign Investment Law specifically provides that entities established in China (without direct foreign equity ownership) but “controlled” by foreign investors, through contract or trust for example, will be treated as FIEs. Once an entity falls within the definition of FIE, it may be subject to foreign investment “restrictions” or “prohibitions” set forth in a “negative list” to be separately issued by the State Council later. If an FIE proposes to conduct business in an industry subject to foreign investment “restrictions” in the “negative list,” the FIE must go through a market entry clearance by the Ministry of Commerce before being established. If an FIE proposes to conduct business in an industry subject to foreign investment “prohibitions” in the “negative list,” it must not engage in the business. However, an FIE, during the market entry clearance process, may apply in writing to be treated as a PRC domestic enterprise if its foreign investor(s) is/are ultimately “controlled” by PRC government authorities and its affiliates and/or PRC citizens. In this connection, “control” is broadly defined in the draft law to cover the following summarized categories: (i) holding 50% of more of the voting rights of the subject entity; (ii) holding less than 50% of the voting rights of the subject entity but having the power to secure at least 50% of the seats on the board or other equivalent decision making bodies, or having the voting power to exert material influence on the board, the shareholders’ meeting or other equivalent decision making bodies; or (iii) having the power to exert decisive influence, via contractual or trust arrangements, over the subject entity’s operations, financial matters or other key aspects of business operations.

The “variable interest entity” structure, or VIE structure, has been adopted by many PRC-based companies, including us, to obtain necessary licenses and permits in the industries that are currently subject to foreign investment restrictions in China. See “Item3D. Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure” and “Item 4.C. Information on the Company—Organizational Structure—Contractual Arrangements with Our Consolidated Affiliated Entities.” Under the draft Foreign Investment Law, variable interest entities that are controlled via contractual arrangement would also be deemed as FIEs, if they are ultimately “controlled” by foreign investors. Therefore, for any companies with a VIE structure in an industry category that is included in the “negative list” as restricted industry, the VIE structure may be deemed legitimate only if the ultimate controlling person(s) is/are of PRC nationality (either PRC government authorities and its affiliates or PRC citizens). Conversely, if the actual controlling person(s) is/are of foreign nationalities, then the variable interest entities will be treated as FIEs and any operation in the industry category on the “negative list” without market entry clearance may be considered as illegal.

The draft Foreign Investment Law has not taken a position on what actions shall be taken with respect to the existing companies with a VIE structure, whether or not these companies are controlled by Chinese parties, while it is soliciting comments from the public on this point. Moreover, it is uncertain whether the internet and online sales of lottery products, in which our variable interest entities operate, will be subject to the foreign investment restrictions or prohibitions set forth in the “negative list” to be issued. If the enacted version of the Foreign Investment Law and the final “negative list” mandate further actions, such as Ministry of Commerce market entry clearance, to be completed by companies with existing VIE structure like us, we face uncertainties as to whether such clearance can be timely obtained, or at all.

The draft Foreign Investment Law, if enacted as proposed, may also materially impact our corporate governance practice and increase our compliance costs. For instance, the draft Foreign Investment Law imposes stringent ad hoc and periodic information reporting requirements on foreign investors and the applicable FIEs. Aside from investment implementation report and investment amendment report that are required at each investment and alteration of investment specifics, an annual report is mandatory, and large foreign investors meeting certain criteria are required to report on a quarterly basis. Any company found to be non-compliant with these information reporting obligations may potentially be subject to fines and/or administrative or criminal liabilities, and the persons directly responsible may be subject to criminal liabilities.

The 2006 M&A Rules establish complex procedures for some acquisitions of Chinese companies by foreign investors, which could make it difficult for us to pursue growth through acquisitions in China.

The 2006 M&A Rules include provisions that purport to require approval of the Ministry of Commerce for acquisitions by offshore entities established or controlled by domestic companies, enterprises or natural persons of onshore entities that are related to such domestic companies, enterprises or natural persons, and prohibit offshore entities from using their foreign-invested subsidiaries in China, or through “other means,” to circumvent such requirement. As part of our growth strategy, we obtained control over E-Sun Network, E-Sun Sky Network, Youlanguang and Guangtiandi in June 2011, and Tongfu Technology in December 2015, by entering into contractual arrangements with VIEs and their respective shareholders. We did not seek the approval of the Ministry of Commerce for those transactions based on the legal advice we obtained from our PRC legal counsel in those transactions that such approval was unnecessary. However, the 2006 M&A Rules also prohibit companies from using any “other means” to circumvent the approval requirement set forth therein and there is no clear interpretation as to what constitutes “other means” of circumvention of the requirement under the 2006 M&A Rules. The Ministry of Commerce and other applicable government authorities would therefore have broad discretion in determining whether an acquisition is in violation of the 2006 M&A Rules. If PRC regulatory authorities take a view that is contrary to ours, we could be subject to severe penalties. In addition, we may in the future grow our business in part by acquiring complementary businesses in China. If we are required to obtain the approval from the Ministry of Commerce, completion of such transaction may be delayed or even inhibited. Our ability to expand our business or maintain or expand our market share through future acquisitions would as such be materially and adversely affected.

In addition, in August 2011 the Ministry of Commerce issued the Rules of Ministry of Commerce on Implementation of Security Review System of Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors, or the MOFCOM Security Review Rules. The MOFCOM Security Review Rules, effective from September 1, 2011, require certain merger and acquisition transactions to be subject to merger control review or security review. The MOFCOM Security Review Rules further provide that, when deciding whether a specific merger or acquisition of a PRC enterprise by foreign investors is subject to the security review by the Ministry of Commerce, the principle of substance over form should be applied and foreign investors are prohibited from bypassing the security review requirement by structuring transactions through proxies, trusts, indirect investments, leases, loans, control through contractual arrangements or offshore transactions. There is no explicit provision in the MOFCOM Security Review Rules stating that our business falls into the scope subject to the security review.  However, as these rules are relatively new and there is a lack of clear statutory interpretation on the implementation of these new rules, there can be no assurance that the Ministry of Commerce will not apply these rules to our contractual arrangements with E-Sun Network, E-Sun Sky Network, Youlanguang,Guangtiandi, and Tongfu Technology. If we are found to be in violation of the MOFCOM Security Review Rules, or fail to obtain any required approvals, the relevant regulatory authorities would have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including levying fines, confiscating income, revoking our PRC consolidated affiliated entities’ business or operating licenses or requiring us to restructure or unwind the relevant ownership structure or operations. Any of these actions could cause significant disruption to our business operations and may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Further, if the business of any target company that we would like to acquire in the future falls into the ambit of security review, complying with the requirements of the relevant rules could be prohibitively time consuming or we may be legally prohibited from acquiring such company either by equity or asset acquisition, capital contribution or through any contractual arrangement, which could have a material and adverse impact on our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share.

Governmental control of currency conversion may 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 foreign currency out of China. We receive all of our service fees in Renminbi. Under our current corporate structure, our income is primarily derived from dividend payments from our PRC subsidiary. Shortages in the availability of foreign currency may restrict the ability of our PRC subsidiary to remit sufficient foreign currency to pay dividends or other payments to us, or otherwise satisfy their foreign currency-denominated obligations. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and expenditures from trade related transactions, can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval from SAFE by complying with certain procedural requirements. However, approval from SAFE or its local branch is required where Renminbi is to be converted into foreign currency and remitted out of China to pay capital expenses such as the repayment of loans denominated in foreign currencies. The PRC government may also 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 currency to satisfy our currency demands, we may not be able to pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of our ADSs.

Fluctuations in exchange rates of the Renminbi could materially affect our reported results of operations.

The exchange rates between the Renminbi and the U.S. dollar and other foreign currencies are affected by, among other things, changes in China’s political and economic conditions. In July 2005, the PRC government changed its policy of pegging the value of the Renminbi to the U.S. dollar, and the Renminbi was permitted to fluctuate within a band against a basket of certain foreign currencies. As a result, the Renminbi appreciated more than 20% against the U.S. dollar over the following three years. During the period between July 2008 and June 2010, the Renminbi has traded stably within a narrow range against the U.S. dollar. Since June 2010, the Renminbi has started to slowly appreciate further against the U.S. dollar. See “Item 3A. Selected Financial Data—Exchange Rate Information.” However, the People’s Bank of China regularly intervenes in the foreign exchange markets in Renminbi exchange rates and achieves policy goals. In March 2014, the People’s Bank of China widened the band around which the value of the Renminbi is allowed to deviate from the daily reference rate, which may allow for greater volatility in the U.S. dollar and Renminbi exchange rate. There remains significant international pressure on the PRC Government to adopt a more flexible currency policy, which, together with domestic policy considerations, could result in a further and more significant volatility of RMB against the U.S. dollar or other foreign currencies. For example, in August 2015, the RMB depreciated significantly against the U.S. dollar as a result of the PRC Government’s action.

As we may rely on dividends and other fees paid to us by our subsidiaries and affiliated consolidated entities in China, any significant revaluation of the Renminbi may materially and adversely affect our cash flows, net revenues, earnings and financial position, and the value of, and any dividends payable on, our ADSs in U.S. dollars. To the extent that we need to convert U.S. dollars received from our initial public offering into Renminbi for our operations, an 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.

Our operations may be adversely affected by changes in China’s political, economic and social conditions.

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 and by continued economic growth in China as a whole.

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

While the Chinese economy has experienced significant growth over the past decade, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy. 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 the past the Chinese government has implemented certain measures, including interest rate increases, 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. Any significant increase in China’s inflation rate could increase our costs and have a negative impact on our operating margins. In addition, any sudden changes to China’s political system or the occurrence of widespread social unrest could have negative effects on our business and results of operations.

Under the EIT Law, we may be classified as a “resident enterprise” of China. Such classification would likely result in unfavorable tax consequences to us.

Under the new enterprise income tax law, or the EIT Law, and its implementation rules, or the Implementation Rules, both of which became effective on January 1, 2008, an enterprise established outside of the PRC with “de facto management bodies” within the PRC is considered a resident enterprise and is subject to enterprise income tax, or EIT, at the rate of 25% on its global income. The Implementation Rules define the term “de facto management bodies” as “establishments that carry out substantial and overall management and control over the manufacturing and business operations, personnel, accounting, properties, etc. of an enterprise.” The State Administration of Taxation issued the Notice Regarding the Determination of Chinese-Controlled Offshore Incorporated Enterprises as PRC Tax Resident Enterprises on the Basis of De Facto Management Bodies, or Circular 82, on April 22, 2009. Circular 82 provides that a foreign enterprise controlled by a PRC company or a PRC company group will be classified as a “resident enterprise” with its “de facto management bodies” located within China if the following criteria are satisfied: (i) the place where the senior management and core management departments that are in charge of its daily operations perform their duties is mainly located in the PRC; (ii) its financial and human resources decisions are made by or are subject to approval by persons or bodies in the PRC; (iii) its major assets, accounting books, company seals, and minutes and files of its board and shareholders’ meetings are located or kept in the PRC; and (iv) more than half of the enterprise’s directors or senior management with voting rights frequently reside in the PRC. Although Circular 82 only applies to offshore enterprises controlled by PRC enterprises, not those invested in by PRC individuals, like our company, the determining criteria set forth in Circular 82 may reflect the State Administration of Taxation’s general position on how the “de facto management body” test should be applied in determining the tax resident status of offshore enterprises, regardless of whether they are controlled by PRC enterprises or controlled by or invested in by PRC individuals. We do not believe that any of 500.com Limited, Fine Brand Limited or 500wan HK Limited meets all of the criteria above. Although we conduct our business principally through contractual arrangements among our wholly owned PRC subsidiary and our consolidated affiliated entities in the PRC, and decisions relating to our financial and human resource matters are made by personnel of our wholly owned PRC subsidiary and our consolidated affiliated entities in the PRC, each of 500.com Limited, Fine Brand Limited or 500wan HK Limited is a company incorporated outside the PRC. As holding companies, these three entities’ key assets and records, including the resolutions of their respective board of directors and the resolutions of their respective shareholders, are located and maintained outside the PRC. While we do not believe we would be considered a resident enterprise, if the PRC authorities were to subsequently determine that we should be so treated, a 25% EIT on our global income could significantly increase our tax burden and materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

Pursuant to the EIT Law, dividends generated after January 1, 2008 and payable by a foreign-invested enterprise in China to its foreign investors will be 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 and provided that relevant tax authorities approved the foreign investors as the beneficial owners of such dividends under applicable tax regulations. We are a Cayman Islands holding company and substantially all of our income may come from dividends from our PRC subsidiary, E-Sun Sky Computer, through our Hong Kong holding company. The Cayman Islands do not have such a tax treaty with China. According to the Mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Arrangement on Avoiding Double Taxation or Evasion of Taxation on Income between China and Hong Kong entered into in August 2006, or the Double Tax Avoidance Arrangement, and other applicable PRC laws, if a Hong Kong resident enterprise is determined by the relevant PRC tax authority to have satisfied the relevant conditions and requirements under the Double Tax Avoidance Arrangement and other applicable laws, the 10% withholding tax on the dividends the Hong Kong resident enterprise receives from a PRC resident enterprise may be reduced to 5%. To the extent dividends paid by our PRC subsidiary to our Hong Kong holding company are subject to withholding tax, the amount of funds available to us to meet our cash requirements, including the payment of dividends to our shareholders and ADS holders, will be reduced.

Furthermore, the State Administration of Taxation promulgated the Notice on How to Understand and Determine the Beneficial Owners in Tax Agreement in October 2009, or Circular 601, which provides guidance for determining whether a resident of a contracting state is the “beneficial owner” of an item of income under China’s tax treaties and tax arrangements. According to Circular 601, a beneficial owner generally must be engaged in substantive business activities. An agent or conduit company will not be regarded as a beneficial owner and, therefore, will not qualify for treaty benefits. The conduit company normally refers to a company that is set up for the purpose of avoiding or reducing taxes or transferring or accumulating profits. If we and our Hong Kong holding company are not considered resident enterprises, we cannot assure you that any dividends distributed to our Hong Kong holding company will be eligible for a reduced withholding tax rate under the applicable treaty.

Dividends payable to our foreign investors and gains on the sale of our ADSs or ordinary shares by our foreign investors may become subject to taxes under PRC tax laws.

Under the EIT Law and its implementation regulations issued by the State Council, a 10% PRC withholding tax is applicable to dividends payable to investors that are non-resident enterprises, which do not have an establishment or place of business in the PRC or which have such establishment or place of business but the dividends are not effectively connected with such establishment or place of business, to the extent such dividends are derived from sources within the PRC. Similarly, any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or ordinary shares by such investors is also subject to PRC tax at a rate of 10%, subject to any reduction or exemption set forth in relevant tax treaties, if such gain is regarded as income derived from sources within the PRC. If we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, dividends paid on our ordinary shares or ADSs, and any gain realized from the transfer of our ordinary shares or ADSs, would be treated as income derived from sources within the PRC and would as a result be subject to PRC taxation. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—Regulations Regarding the Enterprise Income Tax, Individual Income Tax and Withholding Tax.” Furthermore, if we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, dividends payable to investors that are non-PRC individual investors and any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or ordinary shares by such investors may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 20%, subject to any reduction or exemption set forth in applicable tax treaties. It is unclear whether, if we are considered a PRC resident enterprise, holders of our ADSs or ordinary shares would be able to claim the benefit of income tax treaties or agreements entered into between China and other countries or areas (although we do not expect to withhold at treaty rates if any withholding is required). If dividends payable to our non-PRC investors, or gains from the transfer of our ordinary shares or ADSs by such investors are subject to PRC tax, the value of your investment in our ordinary shares or ADSs may be adversely affected.

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

Pursuant to the Notice on Strengthening Administration of Enterprise Income Tax for Share Transfers by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 698, issued by the State Administration of Taxation, or the SAT, on December 10, 2009 with retroactive effect from January 1, 2008, where a non-resident enterprise transfers the equity interests of a PRC resident enterprise indirectly via disposing 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 of 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 relevant tax authority of the PRC resident enterprise such Indirect Transfer. 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 withholding tax at a rate of up to 10%. SAT Circular 698 also provides that, where a non-PRC resident enterprise transfers its equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise to its related parties at a price lower than the fair market value, the relevant tax authority has the power to make a reasonable adjustment to the taxable income of the transaction.

There is uncertainty as to the application of SAT Circular 698. For example, while the term “Indirect Transfer” is not clearly defined, it is understood that the relevant PRC tax authorities have jurisdiction regarding requests for information over a wide range of foreign entities having no direct contact with China. Moreover, the relevant authority has not yet promulgated any formal provisions or formally declared or stated how to calculate the effective tax rates in foreign tax jurisdictions, and the process and format for reporting an Indirect Transfer to the relevant tax authority of the PRC resident enterprise. In addition, there are no formal declarations with regard to how to determine whether a foreign investor has adopted an abusive arrangement in order to reduce, avoid or defer PRC tax. SAT Circular 698 may be determined by the tax authorities to be applicable to our offshore restructuring transactions, if any of such transactions were to be determined by the tax authorities to lack reasonable commercial purpose. As a result, we and our non-resident investors in such transactions may be at risk of being taxed under SAT Circular 698 and we may be required to expend valuable resources to comply with SAT Circular 698 or to establish that we should not be taxed under the general anti-avoidance rule of the EIT Law, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations or such non-resident investors’ investments in us.

The PRC legal system embodies uncertainties which could limit the legal protections available to you and us.

As our main operating entities and a substantial majority of our assets are located in China, PRC laws and the PRC legal system in general may have a significant impact on our business operations. Although China’s legal system has developed over the last several decades, PRC laws, regulations and legal requirements remain underdeveloped relative to the United States. Moreover, PRC laws and regulations change frequently and their interpretation and enforcement involve uncertainties. For example, the interpretation or enforcement of PRC laws and regulations may be subject to government rules or policies, some of which are not published on a timely basis or at all. In addition, the relative inexperience of China’s judiciary in some cases may create uncertainty as to the outcome of litigation. These uncertainties could limit our ability to enforce our legal or contractual rights or otherwise adversely affect our business and operations. Furthermore, due to the existence of unpublished rules and policies, and since newly issued PRC laws and regulations may have retroactive effect, we may not be aware of our violation of certain PRC laws, regulations, policies or rules until after the fact.

A failure by our shareholders or beneficial owners who are PRC citizens or residents in China to comply with certain PRC foreign exchange regulations could restrict our ability to distribute profits, restrict our overseas and cross-border investment activities or subject us to liability under PRC laws, which could adversely affect our business and financial condition.

In July 2014, SAFE, issued the Notice on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Administration for PRC Residents Engaging in Overseas Investment Financing and Roundtrip Investments via Overseas Special Purpose Companies, or SAFE Circular 37, which annulled the previously applicable Notice on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Administration for PRC Residents Engaging in Financing and Roundtrip Investments via Overseas Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 75. SAFE Circular 37 states that the PRC institutes, citizens or residents must register with the relevant local SAFE branch or central SAFE in connection with their direct establishment or indirect control of an offshore entity established with their domestic enterprise’s legal assets or equity or overseas legal assets or equity for the purpose of investment and financing, and in connection with a roundtrip investment, whereby the PRC institutes, citizens or residents engage in direct investment activities domestically through the offshore entity directly or indirectly, that is establishment of foreign investment enterprises or projects domestically through setting up new enterprise or merger and acquisition and obtain the ownership, right of control and right of operation and management and other rights and interests. In addition, such PRC institutes, citizens or residents must apply for the registration of the overseas investment foreign exchanges before they invest in the special purpose companies with their domestic legal assets and interests, and amend their SAFE registrations when the offshore special purpose companies undergoes material events , such as the change of their shareholders, names, operation period and other basic information, or their increases or decreases in investment amount, transfers or exchanges of shares, mergers or divisions, or other material events , or offering equity incentive to the directors, supervisors, senior management and other employees with the equity or option of the non-listed special purpose companies, or obtaining the profit, dividend from the special purpose companies or no-longer holding the rights and interests of the special purpose companies due to share transfer, bankruptcy, dissolution, liquidation, expiration of the operation period, change of identity and other reasons or transferring the financing fund back inland after the special purpose companies has completed the overseas financing.

We are committed to complying, and to ensuring that our shareholders and beneficial owners who are PRC citizens or residents comply, with SAFE Circular 37 requirements. We have requested our beneficial owners who are PRC residents to complete the registration under SAFE Circular 37, if applicable. As of the date of this annual report, our beneficial owners who are subject to SAFE Circular 37 registrations are in the process of updating their registrations with the Shenzhen Branch of SAFE. However, we may not be fully informed of the identities of all our beneficial owners who are PRC citizens or residents, and we cannot compel our beneficial owners to comply with SAFE Circular 37 requirements. As a result, we cannot assure you that all of our shareholders or beneficial owners who are PRC citizens or residents have complied with, and will in the future make or obtain any applicable registrations or approvals required by, SAFE Circular 37 or other related regulations. Failure by such shareholders or beneficial owners to comply with SAFE Circular 37, or failure by us to amend the foreign exchange registrations of our PRC subsidiary, could subject us to fines or legal sanctions, restrict our overseas or cross-border investment activities, limit our subsidiaries’ ability to make distributions or pay dividends or affect our ownership structure, which could adversely affect our business and prospects.

A failure to comply with PRC regulations regarding the registration of shares and share options held by our employees who are PRC citizens may subject such employees or us to fines and legal or administrative sanctions.

On February 15, 2012, SAFE promulgated the Notices on Issues concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Share Incentive Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Companies, or the Share Option Rules, which replaced the Application Procedures of Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Employee Share Ownership Plans or Share Option Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Companies issued by SAFE on March 28, 2007. Under the Share Option Rules and other relevant rules and regulations, PRC residents who participate in share incentive plan in an overseas publicly-listed company are required to register with SAFE or its local branches and complete certain other procedures. Participants of a share incentive plan who are PRC residents must 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 the SAFE registration and other procedures with respect to the share incentive plan on behalf of its participants. Such participants must also retain an overseas entrusted institution to handle matters in connection with their exercise of share options, the purchase and sale of corresponding shares or interests and fund transfers. In addition, the PRC agent is required to amend the SAFE registration with respect to the share incentive plan if there is any material change to the share incentive plan, the PRC agent or the overseas entrusted institution or other material changes. As of the date of this annual report, we and our PRC citizen employees who have been granted share options are applying for registration with the Shenzhen branch of SAFE pursuant to the Share Option Rules. See “Item 4B. Business Overview—Regulations on our Industry—Regulations on Foreign Exchange.”

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

Our independent registered public accounting firm issued the audit report included in this annual report and will issue audit reports filed with the SEC in the future. Generally, an auditor of companies that are traded publicly in the United States is registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or PCAOB, and is required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by PCAOB to assess its compliance with the laws of the United States and professional standards. However, as our auditor is located in China, a jurisdiction where PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the PRC authorities, our auditor, like other independent registered public accounting firms operating in China, is currently not inspected by PCAOB.

Inspections of other firms outside of China conducted by PCAOB have identified deficiencies in those firms’ audit procedures and quality control procedures. The inability of PCAOB to conduct inspections of independent registered public accounting firms operating in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our auditor’s audit procedures or quality control procedures. As a result, investors may be deprived of the benefits of PCAOB inspections.

We may be adversely affected by the initial decision issued by the administrative law judge against the Chinese affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms.

In December 2012, the SEC brought administrative proceedings against five accounting firms in China, alleging that the accounting firms refused to produce audit papers and other documents related to certain China-based companies that were under investigation by the SEC for potential accounting fraud. On January 22, 2014, an initial administrative law decision was issued, sanctioning the Chinese affiliates of the Big Four accounting firms and suspending them from practicing before the SEC for a period of six months. The sanction will not take effect until there is an order of effectiveness issued by the SEC. On February 12, 2014, four of these PRC-based accounting firms appealed to the SEC against this decision. In February 2015, each of the four PRC-based accounting firms agreed to a censure and to pay a fine to the SEC to settle the dispute and avoid suspension of their ability to practice before the SEC. The settlement requires the firms to follow detailed procedures to seek to provide the SEC with access to Chinese firms’ audit documents via the CSRC. If the firms do not follow these procedures, the SEC could impose penalties such as suspensions, or it could restart the administrative proceedings. The accounting firms involved have appealed the initial decision to the SEC, and may appeal to the federal appeal court if necessary. The independent registered public accounting firm that will issue the audit reports included in this annual report and our future annual reports to be filed with the SEC is one of the accounting firms named in the SEC’s proceedings, and we may be adversely affected by the outcome of the proceedings. 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 the proceedings against these audit firms may cause investor uncertainty regarding China-based, United States-listed companies and the market price of our ADSs may be adversely affected.

If our independent registered public accounting firm were denied, even temporarily, the ability to practice before the SEC and we are unable to timely find another registered public accounting firm to audit and issue our financial statements, our financial statements could be determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act. Such a determination could ultimately lead to the delisting of our ADSs from the NYSE or deregistration from the SEC, or both, which would substantially reduce or effectively terminate the trading of our ADSs in the United States, result in a sharp decline of our market capitalization and materially and adversely affect the value of your investment in our ADSs.

Risks Related to Our ADSs

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

The trading price of our ADSs may be volatile and could fluctuate widely in response to factors relating to our business as well as external factors beyond our control. Factors such as variations in our financial results, announcements of new business initiatives by us or by our competitors, recruitment or departure of key personnel, changes in the estimates of our financial results or changes in the recommendations of any securities analysts electing to follow our securities or the securities of our competitors could cause the market price for our ADSs to change substantially. At the same time, securities markets may from time to time experience significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to the operating performance of particular companies. For example, in late 2008 and early 2009, the securities markets in the United States, China and other jurisdictions experienced the largest decline in share prices since September 2001. These market fluctuations may also have a material adverse effect on the market price of our ordinary shares.

In addition, 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 may affect the volatility in the price of and trading volumes for our ADSs. In recent years, some of PRC companies having listing their securities on U.S. stock markets have experienced significant volatility, including significant price declines in connection with their initial public offerings. The trading performances of these PRC companies’ securities at the time of or after their offerings may affect the overall investor sentiment towards PRC companies listed in the United States and consequently may impact the trading performance of our ADSs. These broad market and industry factors may significantly affect the market price and volatility of our ADSs, regardless of our actual operating performance. Any of these factors may result in large and sudden changes in the trading volume and price for our ADSs.

The price at which the ADSs are traded may decline below the offering price, meaning that you may experience a decrease in the value of your ADSs regardless of our operating performance or prospects. In the past, following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, shareholders have often instituted securities class action litigation against that company. If we were involved in a class action suit, it could divert the attention of senior management, and, if adversely determined, could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Future sales or perceived sales of our ADSs or ordinary shares by existing shareholders could cause our ADSs price to decline.

If our existing shareholders sell, indicate an intention to sell, or are perceived to intend to sell, substantial amounts of our ordinary shares in the public market after the 90-day contractual lock-up period and the lapse of other legal restrictions on resale discussed in this annual report, the trading price of our ADSs could decline. All ADSs sold in our initial public offering are freely tradable, without restriction, in the public market. The representatives of the underwriters may, in their sole discretion, permit any party subject to lock-up agreements to sell shares prior to the expiration of the lock-up agreements. After the lock-up agreements pertaining to our initial public offering expire (90 days or more from the date of this annual report), all of our outstanding shares will be eligible for sale in the public market, but they will be subject to volume limitations and other restrictions under Rule 144 under the Securities Act. In addition, ordinary shares subject to outstanding options under our share incentive plan will become eligible for sale in the public market to the extent permitted by the provisions of various vesting agreements, the lock-up agreements and Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act. If these additional shares are sold, or if it is perceived that they will be sold in the public market, the trading price of our ordinary shares could decline.

Future issuance of share options or restricted shares may have a diluting effect on existing and future shareholders.

The grant and exercise of share options or restricted shares to be issued in the future will likely result in a dilution of the value of our ordinary shares for all shareholders. We established a 2011 Share Incentive Plan under which we are able to issue up to 12% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares from time to time. We subsequently adjusted the exercise prices of certain options granted in June 2012 and June 2014. For more details, see “Item 6B. Compensation—Share Incentive Plans.” We may in the future issue additional share options and other share-based awards under the plan, which may dilute the interest of the existing and future shareholders. Moreover, we may seek authorization to increase the number of shares subject to our 2011 Share Incentive Plan, or sell additional securities and/or rights to purchase such securities at any time in the future. Dilution of the value of the ordinary shares will likely result from such sales, which in turn could adversely affect the market price of our ordinary shares and ADSs.

We may become a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, which could result in adverse United States tax consequences to United States investors.

Based on our financial statements and the composition of our income and valuation of our assets, including goodwill, we believe we were not a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for 2015, although there can be no assurances in this regard. Due to the temporary suspension of our online lottery sales and given uncertainty as to the nature of the gain in the underlying assets of Sumpay.cn as determined for U.S. federal income tax purposes at the time we sell our stake in Sumpay.cn, it is unclear whether we will become a PFIC for 2016. Additionally, it is possible that we may be a PFIC in the future. The determination of whether or not we are a PFIC is made on an annual basis and will depend on the composition of our income and assets from time to time. Specifically, for any taxable year we will be classified as a PFIC for United States federal income tax purposes if either (i) 75% or more of our gross income in that taxable year is passive income or (ii) the average percentage of our assets (which includes cash) by value in that taxable year which produce or are held for the production of passive income is at least 50%. The calculation of the value of our assets will be based, in part, on the quarterly market value of our ADSs, which is subject to change. The determination of whether or not we are a PFIC is made on an annual basis and will depend on the composition of our income and assets from time to time. Specifically, for any taxable year we will be classified as a PFIC for United States federal income tax purposes if either (i) 75% or more of our gross income in that taxable year is passive income or (ii) the average percentage of our assets (which includes cash) by value in that taxable year which produce or are held for the production of passive income is at least 50%. The calculation of the value of our assets will be based, in part, on the quarterly market value of our ADSs, which is subject to change. 

In addition, there is uncertainty as to the treatment of our corporate structure and ownership of our consolidated affiliated entities for United States federal income tax purposes. If it is determined that we do not own the stock of our consolidated affiliated entities for United States federal income tax purposes (for instance, because the relevant PRC authorities do not respect these arrangements), we would likely be treated as a PFIC.

If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which you hold our ADSs or ordinary shares, such characterization could result in adverse United States federal income tax consequences to you if you are a United States Holder, as defined under “Item 10E. Taxation—United States Federal Income Taxation.” For example, if we are or become a PFIC, you may become subject to increased tax liabilities under United States federal income tax laws and regulations, and will become subject to burdensome reporting requirements. See “Item 10E. Taxation—United States Federal Income Taxation—Passive Foreign Investment Company.” We cannot assure you that we will not be a PFIC for 2015 or any future taxable year.

You may not be able to participate in rights offerings and may experience dilution of your holdings in relation to any such 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.

In addition, the depositary of our ADSs has agreed to pay to you the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian receives on our ordinary shares or other deposited securities after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of ordinary shares your ADSs represent. However, the depositary may, at its discretion, decide that it is inequitable or impractical to make a distribution available to any holders of ADSs. For example, the depositary may determine that it is not practicable to distribute certain property through the mail, or that the value of certain distributions may be less than the cost of mailing them. In these cases, the depositary may decide not to distribute such property and you will not receive such distribution.

Holders of our Class B ordinary shares will control the outcome of shareholder actions in our company.

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 10 votes per share. Holders of our Class B ordinary shares hold 84,999,159 Class B ordinary shares, or 20.3% of the combined total outstanding ordinary shares (representing 71.8% of the total voting rights) in our company as of December 31, 2015. Their shareholding, in particular the greater voting rights of the Class B ordinary shares, gives Class B ordinary shareholders the power to control any actions that require shareholder approval under Cayman Islands law, our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and the NYSE requirements, including the election and removal of any member of our board of directors, mergers, consolidations and other business combinations, changes to our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the number of shares available for issuance under share incentive plans and the issuance of significant amounts of our ordinary shares in private placements. Due to the disparate voting rights attached to the two classes of our ordinary shares, holders of our Class B ordinary shares could have sufficient voting rights to determine the outcome of all matters requiring shareholder approval even if it should, at some point in the future, hold considerably less than a majority of the combined total of our outstanding Class A and Class B ordinary shares.

As a result of their ownership of Class B ordinary shares, the voting power of holders of our Class B ordinary shares may cause transactions to occur that might not be beneficial to you as a holder of ADSs and may prevent transactions that would be beneficial to you. For example, their voting power may prevent a transaction involving a change of control of us, including transactions in which you as a holder of our ADSs might otherwise receive a premium for your securities over the then-current market price. Similarly, they may approve a merger or consolidation of our company that may result in you receiving a stake (either in the form of shares, debt obligations or other securities) in the surviving or new consolidated company, which may not operate our current business model and dissenter rights may not be available to you in such an event. In addition, holders of our Class B ordinary shares are not prohibited from selling a controlling interest in us to a third party and may do so without your approval. If they sell a controlling interest in us to a third party or otherwise undergo a change of control, any acquirer or successor will be entitled to exercise the voting control and may do so in a manner that could vary significantly from that of our current holders of Class B ordinary shares.

In addition, due to the disparate voting rights attached to these two classes, our Class B ordinary shareholders will have significant voting rights over matters requiring shareholder approval, including the election and removal of directors and certain corporate transactions, such as mergers, consolidations and other business combinations. This concentrated control 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.

Anti-takeover provisions in our charter documents may discourage a third party from acquiring us, which could limit our shareholders’ opportunities to sell their shares at a premium.

Our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association include provisions that could limit the ability of others to acquire control of us, modify our structure or cause us to engage in change-of-control transactions. For example, 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 the powers and rights of these shares, 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. Preferred shares could thus be issued quickly with terms calculated to delay or prevent a change in control or make removal of management more difficult. In addition, if our board of directors issues preferred shares, the market price of our ADSs may fall and the voting and other rights of the holders of our ordinary shares may be adversely affected. 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 us in a tender offer or similar transaction.

We are a Cayman Islands company and, because judicial precedent regarding the rights of shareholders is more limited under Cayman Islands law than under U.S. law, you may have less protection of your shareholder rights than you would under U.S. law.

Our corporate affairs are governed by our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association, the Cayman Islands Companies Law and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against the directors, actions by noncontrolling shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from English common law, which has persuasive, but not binding, authority on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary responsibilities of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States and provides significantly less protection to investors. In addition, some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands.

There is no statutory recognition in the Cayman Islands of judgments obtained in the United States, although a judgment obtained in the United States will be recognized and enforced in the courts of the Cayman Islands at common law, without any re-examination of the merits of the underlying dispute, by an action commenced on the foreign judgment debt in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, provided such judgment (a) is given by a foreign court of competent jurisdiction; (b) imposes on the judgment debtor a liability to pay a liquidated sum for which the judgment has been given; (c) is final; (d) is not in respect of taxes, a fine or a penalty; and (e) was not obtained in a manner and is not of a kind the enforcement of which is contrary to natural justice or the public policy of the Cayman Islands.

You will have limited ability to bring an action against us or against our directors and officers, or to enforce a judgment against us or them, because we are incorporated in the Cayman Islands, because we conduct our operations exclusively in China and most of our directors and officers reside outside the United States.

We are incorporated in the Cayman Islands and conduct our operations exclusively in China. All of our assets are located outside the United States. Most of our directors and officers reside outside the United States and a substantial portion of the assets of those persons are located outside of 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 Cayman Islands or in China in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under the applicable 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. 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, and it is uncertain whether such Cayman Islands or PRC courts would be competent to hear original actions brought in the Cayman Islands or the PRC against us or such persons predicated upon the securities laws of the United States or any state.

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

As a result of all of the above, 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 U.S. company.

Your ability to protect your rights as shareholders through the U.S. federal courts may be limited because we are incorporated under Cayman Islands law.

Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a derivative action in a federal court of the United States. As a result, your ability to protect your interests if you are harmed in a manner that would otherwise enable you to sue in a United States federal court may be limited to direct shareholder lawsuits.

The voting rights of holders of ADSs are limited in several significant ways by the terms of the deposit agreement.

Holders of our ADSs may only exercise their voting rights with respect to the underlying ordinary shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Upon receipt of voting instructions from a holder of ADSs in the manner set forth in the deposit agreement, the depositary will endeavor to vote the underlying ordinary shares in accordance with these instructions. Under our amended and restated memorandum and articles of association and Cayman Islands law, the minimum notice period required for convening a general meeting is five days. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient notice of a shareholders’ meeting to permit you to withdraw your ordinary shares to allow you to cast your vote with respect to any specific matter at the meeting. In addition, the depositary and its agents may not be able to send voting instructions to you or carry out your voting instructions in a timely manner. We will make all reasonable efforts to cause the depositary to extend voting rights to you in a timely manner, but we cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your shares. Furthermore, the depositary and its agents will not be responsible for any failure to carry out any instructions to vote, for the manner in which any vote is cast or for the effect of any such vote. As a result, you may not be able to exercise your right to vote and you may lack recourse if your ordinary shares are not voted as you requested.

The depositary of our ADSs, except in limited circumstances, grants to us a discretionary proxy to vote the ordinary shares underlying your ADSs if you do not vote at shareholders’ meetings, which could adversely affect your interests and the ability of our shareholders as a group to influence the management of our company.

Under the deposit agreement for the ADSs, the depositary gives us a discretionary proxy to vote our ordinary shares underlying your ADSs at shareholders’ meetings if you do not vote, unless:

The effect of this discretionary proxy is that you cannot prevent our ordinary shares underlying your ADSs from being voted, absent the situations described above, and it may make it more difficult for holders of ADSs to influence the management of our company. Holders of our ordinary shares are not subject to this discretionary proxy.

You may not receive distributions on our ordinary shares or any value for them if it is unlawful or impractical for us to make them available to you.

The depositary of our ADSs has agreed to pay you the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian for our ADSs receives on our ordinary shares or other deposited securities after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of our ordinary shares your ADSs represent. However, the depositary is not responsible if 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 pursuant to an applicable exemption from registration. The depositary is not responsible for making a distribution available to any holders of ADSs if any government approval or registration is required for such distribution. We have no obligation to take any other action to permit the distribution of our ADSs, ordinary shares, rights or anything else to holders of our ADSs. This means that you may not receive the distributions we make on our ordinary shares or any value for them if it is unlawful or impractical for us to make them available to you. These restrictions may have a material and adverse effect on the value of your ADSs.

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

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

We incurred, and will continue to incur increased costs as a result of being a public company.

As a public company, we have incurred significant accounting, legal and other expenses that we did not incur when we were a private company, including additional costs associated with our public company reporting obligations. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC, and NYSE, impose various requirements on the corporate governance practices of public companies.

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. Since 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. For example, as a result of becoming a public company, we need to increase the number of independent directors and adopt policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. Operating as a public company will make it more difficult and more expensive for us to obtain director and officer liability insurance, and we may be required to accept reduced policy limits and coverage or incur substantially higher costs to obtain the same or similar coverage. It may also be more difficult for us to find qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. 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.

In the past, shareholders of a public company often brought securities class action suits against the company following periods of instability in the market price of that company’s securities. On February 27, 2015, a purported stockholder class action lawsuit consisting of purchasers of our ADSs during the period between November 22, 2013 and February 25, 2015. For further details on this class action lawsuit, see “Item 4B. Business Overview— Legal and Administrative Proceedings.” When we are involved in a class action suit, it could divert a significant amount of our management’s attention and other resources from our business and operations, which could harm our results of operations and require us to incur significant expenses to defend the suit. Any such class action suit, whether or not successful, could harm our reputation and restrict our ability to raise capital in the future. In addition, if a claim is successfully made against us, we may be required to pay significant damages, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.