RISK FACTORS

An investment in our ADSs involves significant risks. You should carefully consider all of the information in this prospectus, including the risks and uncertainties described below, before making an investment in our ADSs. Any of the following risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. In any such case, the market price of our ADSs could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We have a limited operating history in the evolving online medical aesthetic service industry, which makes it difficult to evaluate our future prospects.

We launched our online medical aesthetic service business in November 2013 and have a limited operating history. We have limited experience in most aspects of our business operation, such as our service platform and the production of medical aesthetic-related content on our platform. In addition, we have limited experience in serving our users and medical service providers. As our business develops and as we respond to competition, we may continue to introduce new service offerings and make adjustments to our existing services and to our business operation in general. Any significant change to our business model that does not achieve expected results may have a material and adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. It is therefore difficult to effectively assess our future prospects.

The online medical aesthetic platform service industry may not develop as expected. Prospective users and medical service providers may not be familiar with the development of online medical aesthetic service markets and may have difficulties distinguishing our services from those of our competitors. Convincing prospective users and medical service providers of the value of using our services is important to the success of our business.

You should consider our business and prospects in light of the risks and challenges we encounter or may encounter given the rapidly evolving market in which we operate and our limited operating history. These risks and challenges include our ability to, among other things:

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Our historical growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth. If we are unable to manage the growth and increased complexity of our business, fail to control our costs and expenses, or fail to execute our strategies effectively, our business and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

We have experienced rapid growth in our business and operations since our inception. Our total revenues increased by 428.2% from RMB49.1 million in 2016 to RMB259.3 million in 2017, and further by 138.0% to RMB617.2 million (US$89.8 million) in 2018. Our gross profit increased significantly by 797.6% from RMB23.9 million in 2016 to RMB214.5 million in 2017, and further by 145.1% to RMB525.7 million (US$76.5 million) in 2018. Our gross margin improved from 48.7% in 2016 to 82.7% in 2017, and further improved to 85.2% in 2018. However, our historical growth rates may not be indicative of our future growth, and we may not be able to generate similar growth rates in future periods. Our revenue growth may slow, or our total revenues may decline for a number of possible reasons, including decreasing consumer spending, changes in regulations and government policies, increasing competition, slowing down of China’s medical aesthetic industry, emergence of alternative business models, and general economic conditions. If our growth rate declines, investors’ perceptions of our business and business prospects may be adversely affected and the market price of our ADSs could decline.

We may be subject to consumer claims, regulatory or professional investigations and litigations regarding the medical information and services offered on our platform, which could materially and adversely affect our brand, reputation, and results of operations.

We have implemented a screening procedure through verifying the qualifications and required licenses of medical service providers and paying regular visits to medical service providers, and also have recorded the contact person details of such medical service providers. However, we cannot assure you that all the information of the medical service providers we have is updated in a timely manner. Pursuant to the PRC Consumer Protection Law, under the circumstances where the users suffer injuries or damages due to the service reserved on our platform, they may bring claims or legal proceedings against us as a platform service provider if we fail to provide the real names, addresses and valid contact details of the medical service providers in the event that users request such information for purposes of seeking compensation from the medical service providers. Furthermore, if we know or should have known that medical service providers on our platform use our platform to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of users but we fail to take necessary measures, we may be subject to joint and several liability with the medical service providers. Users may also seek refunds in such situations.

We do not provide any medical treatment ourselves. Medical service providers make their own decisions regarding the medical services provided to our users. Any incorrect decisions on the part of our service providers may result in undesirable or unexpected outcomes, including complications, injuries and potentially death in the most extreme cases. We may be subject to complaints, claims or legal proceedings initiated by our users as a result of any negative physical reaction to services reserved on our platform. We have implemented a strict procedure to verify the qualifications and required licenses of the medical service providers we partner with. However, we cannot assure you that all our medical service providers are fully licensed and qualified as required by PRC law. Pursuant to the PRC E-Commerce Law that became effective on January 1, 2019, we are required to verify the identities of our medical service providers, including but not limited to verification of business licenses and other required qualifications or licenses, and shall take necessary steps if we find out or should have found out that services provided by a service provider do not comply with the requirements of health and safety protections. If we are deemed to have failed to verify the service providers’ qualifications and licenses, or failed to otherwise perform our obligations as a platform with respect to

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services that are pertinent to the life and health of consumers provided through our platform, we may be subject to potential sanctions under PRC law, including suspension of certain business activities, rectification, compensation, and administrative penalties, and may face civil and criminal liabilities. See “Regulation—Regulations on Consumer Protection” and “Regulation—Regulations on E-commerce.”

In addition, as medical aesthetic service focuses on improving our users’ physical appearance, users may have varying expectations of the magnitude of improvement that may result from the medical aesthetic services. Users who are dissatisfied with the services received may request refunds and other compensation from us, complain on our platform and other social media platforms and/or file legal claims against us. We have experienced complaints from our users in the past, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully manage users’ expectation and prevent their complaints, allegations and other claims in the future. Such complaints, allegations and other claims, regardless of merits, may have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects. Although we sometimes offer complimentary services, refunds and/or other insignificant amount of monetary compensations to address users’ complaints, the amounts of which have been immaterial historically, we cannot assure you that we can successfully address all user complaints in the future. Moreover, we require all platform users to have full legal capacity, and minors to be accompanied by their legal guardians, when they use medical services reserved or accessed through our platform. However, we cannot assure you that we can prevent all medical service providers from performing medical procedures on minors without parental consent, or prevent all minors from obtaining medical treatment from service providers without providing parental consent. Such non-compliance by users who are minors or by medical service providers could materially and adversely affect our brand image and reputation.

We may be subject to regulatory or professional investigations and litigations. Any complaint, claim or legal proceeding, regardless of merit, could adversely affect our brand image and reputation. In addition, any legal proceeding that may be brought against us could divert management resources and incur extra costs. A settlement or successful claim against us can result in legal costs, damages, compensation and reputational damage to use and may adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

Characterization of our business as engaging in medical, drug and/or medical device advertisement distribution in China without proper licenses or permits.

As the leading online platform for medical aesthetic services as measured by audience reach, user engagement, transaction value facilitated and trustworthiness, according to Frost & Sullivan, we dedicate ourselves to providing transparent information. The information available on our platform includes but is not limited to information provided by medical service providers, including their registration or practicing license details, contact information, the services they provide, the price of such services and reviews and Beauty Diaries associated with the service providers contributed by users. We also connect our users with medical service providers on our platform. We have adopted internal control and platform regulation measures seeking to ensure the authenticity and pertinence of the medical aesthetic information available on our platform. and endeavor to prevent the information disseminated on our platform from being considered medical, drug or other medical device advertisements.

We believe it is improbable that PRC governmental authorities will deem the content or the format of the information disseminated from and displayed on our platform to constitute medical, drug or other medical device advertisements, and we have not been subject to any

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regulatory authority’s inquiries or investigations in connection with the content or format of information disseminated from and displayed on our platform. However, as advertisement is currently defined vaguely and broadly under the relevant PRC laws and regulations and the available regulatory interpretations, we cannot assure you that the information provided by medical aesthetic services providers on our platform will not be deemed by relevant authorities as advertisement.

If certain information listed on our platform is considered medical advertisement, it will subject us to regulations that may have material impacts on our operations. Medical, drug and/or medical devices advertisement must be approved by relevant PRC authorities before they are distributed, and distributors, among other obligations, are required to review the applicable licenses and permits of the medical service providers, ensure the content displayed is fair and accurate, and take steps to monitor the content of advertisements displayed on their platforms. In addition, distributors are required to label advertisements from other information so that consumers will not be misled. Furthermore, we may be required to scale back, rearrange or alter the content or format of information displayed on our platform, thereby affecting the fundamental of our business model. As a result, compliance with laws and regulations applicable to the advertisement industry could materially and adversely affect our business prospects, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, we will also be subject to increased liability under these laws and regulations and may incur additional costs, such as fines or other penalties, if we fail to comply. Such liabilities and costs could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects. See “Regulation—Regulations on Advertising.” Moreover, we may be subject to additional taxes applicable to the advertisement industry.

If we fail to anticipate user preferences and provide high-quality and reliable content in a cost-effective manner, we may not be able to attract and retain users to remain competitive.

Our success depends on our ability to maintain and grow user engagement on our platform. To attract and retain users and compete against our competitors, we must continue to offer high-quality and reliable content to provide our users with a superior online medical aesthetic service experience. To this end, we must continue to produce original content and source new professional and user-generated content in a cost effective manner. Given that we operate in a rapidly evolving industry, we need to anticipate user preferences and industry changes and respond to such changes timely and effectively. If we fail to continue to offer high-quality and reliable content to our users that cater to the needs and preferences, we may suffer from reduced user traffic and engagement, and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

In addition to content generated by our users and medical service providers, we rely on our in-house team to generate creative ideas for original content and to supervise the original content origination and production process, and we intend to continue to invest resources in content production. We face competition for qualified personnel in a limited pool of high-quality creative talent. If we are not able to compete effectively for talents or attract and retain top talents at reasonable costs, our original content production capabilities would be negatively impacted. Any deterioration in our in-house content production capability, inability to attract creative talents at reasonable costs or losses in personnel may materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.

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If our users and medical service providers do not continue to contribute content that is high-quality, reliable or otherwise valuable to our users, we may experience a decline in user traffic and user engagement.

In addition to content produced by ourselves, our ability to provide users with interesting, reliable and industry-specific content depends on information and content contributed by our users and medical service providers. We believe that one of our competitive advantages is the quality, quantity and open nature of the content on our platform, and that access to reliable, rich and industry-specific content is one of the main reasons users visit So-Young. We seek to foster a broader and more engaged user community, and we encourage influencers, such as social media celebrities and key opinion leaders, and medical service providers to use our platform to share interesting and high quality content.

If our users and medical service providers do not continue to contribute content to our platform as a result of any factors, such as government policy changes and use of alternative communication channels or if their content is not high-quality, reliable or otherwise valuable to users, we may be unable to provide users with attractive content and our user base and user engagement may decline. If we experience a decline in the number of users or the level of user engagement, our business and operating results could be materially and adversely affected.

Our business may be materially and adversely affected by an unfavorable market perception of the overall medical aesthetic industry.

Medical aesthetic services have been gaining popularity in recent years. However, we believe that existing and potential users of the medical aesthetic service industry remain cautious about the risks inherent in medical aesthetic services and are therefore sensitive to any negative review, comment or allegations on the industry in general. Any such allegations, negative news or research results regarding accident, ineffectiveness of services, health risks or inadequate services standard by any medical aesthetic service provider, regardless of merits, may lead to deterioration in consumer confidence in and market perception of the medical aesthetic service industry, and could lead to reduced demand for medical aesthetic services. Moreover, market perception of the medical aesthetic industry may be adversely affected by external factors beyond our control, including restrictive government policies and guidance. As a participant to the industry, we could consequently be exposed to reputational harm and our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects may be adversely affected.

We depend significantly on the strength of our brand and reputation. Any failure to maintain and enhance, or any damage to, our brand image or reputation could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.

Our reputation and brand recognition, which depend on cultivating awareness, trust and confidence among our current or potential users, is critical to the success of our business. We believe a well-recognized brand is crucial to increasing our user base and, in turn, facilitating our effort to monetize our services and enhancing our attractiveness to our users and service providers. Our reputation and brand are vulnerable to many threats that can be difficult or impossible to control, and costly or impossible to remediate. Regulatory inquiries or investigations, lawsuits and other claims in the ordinary course of our business, perceptions of conflicts of interest and rumors, including complaints made by our competitors, among other things, could substantially damage our reputation, even if they are baseless or satisfactorily addressed.

In addition, any perception that the quality of our medical aesthetic services may not be the same as or better than that of other medical aesthetic service platforms can damage our

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reputation. Any negative media publicity about any of the services available on our platform or product or service quality problems at other online medical aesthetic service platforms, including at our competitors, may also negatively impact our reputation and brand. Negative perceptions of medical aesthetic products and services, or the industry in general, may reduce the number of users coming to our platform and the number of transactions conducted through our platform, which would adversely impact our revenues and liquidity position.

We are subject to uncertainties, changes and developments in the regulatory framework in China with respect to the provision of online medical aesthetic services industry.

As the online medical aesthetic service industry in China is at a relatively early stage of development, applicable laws and regulations may be adopted from time to time to address new issues and may require additional licenses and permits other than those we currently have obtained. As a result, substantial uncertainties exist with regard to the implementation and interpretation of and compliance with current and any future laws and regulations applicable to our business. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet all the applicable regulatory requirements, or comply with all the applicable regulations and guidelines at all times. Failure to do so could result in sanctions, fines, penalties or other disciplinary actions, including, among other things, limitations or prohibitions on our future business activities, which may harm our reputation, and consequently materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We have been, and may continue to be, subject to liabilities for infringement, misappropriation or other violations of third-party intellectual property rights or other allegations based on the content available on our platform or services we provide.

We have historically been and may continue to be subject to intellectual property infringement claims or other allegations by third parties for services we provide or for information or content displayed on, retrieved from or linked to our platform, or distributed to our users, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and prospects. We allow users and medical service providers to upload written materials, images, videos and other content on our platform and download, share, link to and otherwise access audio, video and other content on our platform. In addition, we regularly distribute articles, images, audios, videos and other content on our platform and our social media accounts. Although we have set up comprehensive procedures to enable copyright owners to provide us with notice of alleged infringement, given the volume of content available on our platform, it is not possible for us to identify and remove or disable all potentially infringing content that may exist. As a result, third parties may take action and file claims against us if they believe that certain content available on our platform violates their copyrights, rights of reputation, image rights or other intellectual property rights. We have been involved in litigation based on allegations of infringement of third-party intellectual property, including rights of reputation and image rights, due to the content available on our platform. We paid (or are obligated to pay) an aggregate of RMB6.9 million (US$1.0 million) to plaintiffs in alleged intellectual property right infringement lawsuits against us between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2018, as a result of settlements or adverse judgments. As of December 31, 2018, a total of 26 lawsuits against us in connection with our platform were still pending, with the aggregate amount of damages sought under these pending cases being approximately RMB11.3 million (US$1.6 million).

The validity, enforceability and scope of protection of intellectual property rights in internet-related industries, particularly in China, are uncertain and still evolving. Companies in the internet, technology and media industries own, and are seeking to obtain, a large number of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets, and they are frequently involved in litigation

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based on allegations of infringement, misappropriation or other violations of intellectual property rights or other related legal rights. We cannot be certain that our operations or any aspects of our business do not or will not infringe upon or otherwise violate trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property rights held by third parties. Although we have, through our own in-house team or by cooperating with third parties, invested significant time and resources in registering our trademarks and other intellectual property rights, we cannot assure you that we have registered all the trademark rights necessary in our daily operation with competent governmental authorities. As we face increasing competition and as litigation becomes more common in China in resolving commercial disputes, we may need to resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights and we also face a higher risk of being the subject of intellectual property infringement claims. Pursuing or defending intellectual property litigation is costly and can impose a significant burden on our management and employees, and there can be no assurances that favorable final outcomes will be obtained in all cases. Any claims against us, even if they do not result in liability, may harm our reputation. Any resulting liability or expenses, or changes required to our platform to reduce the risk of future liability, may have adverse effect on our business, financial condition and prospects.

Although we have not been subject to claims or lawsuits with respect to copyright infringement outside of China, we cannot assure you that we will not become subject to copyright laws or legal proceedings initiated by third parties in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, as a result of the ability of users to access our content in the United States and other jurisdictions, the ownership of our ADSs by investors in the United States and other jurisdictions, or the extraterritorial application of foreign law by foreign courts. In addition, as a publicly listed company, we may be exposed to increased risk of litigation. If a claim of infringement brought against us in the United States or other jurisdictions is successful, we may be required to, upon enforcement, (i) pay substantial statutory or other damages and fines, (ii) remove relevant content from our platform or (iii) enter into royalty or license agreements that may not be available on commercially reasonable terms or at all. In these cases, our business, financial condition and prospects may be adversely affected.

We may not prevent our medical service providers from breaching their contractual obligations and failing to pay the full amount of fees owed to us, which could materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.

We charge reservation service fees from the medical service providers on our platform when our users use their services as a result of sales leads generated from our platform, as long as the service provider is active on our platform. In most cases, users make reservations with the medical service providers directly on our platform. However, in some circumstances, users may decide to purchase different or additional services during their on-site visits. In these cases, our medical service providers are under contractual obligations to make supplemental payments to us based on the actual transaction value. We have implemented rigorous monitoring procedures and comprehensive platform rules to prevent our medical service providers from underreporting transaction value and failing to pay the full amount of reservation service fees due to us. For example, we reach out to users after their visits and confirm the actual services they have purchased, and we impose monetary and other penalties in accordance with our platform rules against any medical service provider who is found to have misreported the transaction value or underpaid fees. However, we cannot assure you that we can prevent all our medical service providers from breaching their contractual obligations to us and failing to pay the full amount of reservation service fees owed to us. If there is an increase in the level of underpayment or nonpayment by our medical service providers, our business, financial condition and results of operation can be materially and adversely affected.

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We face significant competition; if we are unable to compete effectively, we may lose our market share, and our results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.

As the market for online medical aesthetic services is relatively new, rapidly evolving and intensely competitive, we expect competition to continue and intensify in the future. We face competition from leading search engines, other online medical aesthetic service platforms and general online e-commerce platforms. We expect competition to intensify in the future as current competitors diversify and improve their service offerings and as new participants enter the market. We cannot assure you that we will be able to compete effectively or efficiently with current or future competitors. They may be acquired by, receive investment from or enter into strategic relationships with established and well-financed companies or investors, which would help enhance their competitiveness. Furthermore, the current competitors and new entrants in the online medical aesthetic industry may also seek to develop new service offerings, technologies or capabilities that could render some of the services we offer obsolete or less competitive, and some of them may adopt more aggressive pricing policies or devote greater resources to marketing and promotional campaigns than we do. The Chinese medical aesthetic service market faces competition from developed markets such as South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. The failure of Chinese service providers to compete effectively against their overseas counterparts may materially and adversely impact our financial results. The occurrence of any of these circumstances may hinder our growth and reduce our market share, and thus our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects would be materially and adversely affected.

Our current level of information and reservation services fee rates may decline in the future as a result of competitive and other industry-related factors, and any material reduction in our fee rates may reduce our profitability and materially and adversely affect our business.

We may experience pressure on our information and reservation services fee rates as a result of the competition we face in the online medical aesthetic service industry, as well as macroeconomic factors that are beyond our control. We derive substantially all of our revenues from information and reservation services fees paid by medical aesthetic service providers on our platform.

As the online medical aesthetic industry in China is experiencing significant growth and intensifying competition, we expect that average fee rates for certain medical aesthetic treatment and procedures to decrease. We believe that any downward pressure on these fee rates would likely continue and intensify as more players enter the market and as the Chinese online medical aesthetic market faces increasing competition from other geographic markets, including South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan. A decline in the industry average fee rates in China could in turn lower our fee rates. If our information or reservation services fee rates decrease significantly, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be materially and adversely affected.

Fraudulent or illegal activities on our platform could negatively impact our brand and reputation and cause the loss of users. As a result, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We may be subject to fraudulent or illegal activities on our platform, sometimes through sophisticated schemes or collusion. Our resources, technologies, fraud detection tools and risk management system may be insufficient to accurately detect and timely prevent fraud and misconduct. A significant increase in fraudulent activities could negatively impact our brand and

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reputation, result in losses suffered by users and medical service providers, and reduce user activity on our platform. We may need to adopt additional measures in the future to prevent and reduce fraud, which could increase our costs. High-profile fraudulent activities could also lead to regulatory intervention, and may divert our management’s attention and cause us to incur additional expenses and costs. If any of the foregoing were to occur, our reputation and financial performance could be materially and adversely affected.

Our failure to obtain and maintain approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our business could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial conditions and results of operations.

Our business is subject to governmental supervision and regulation by the relevant PRC governmental authorities, including the Ministry of Commerce, or MOFCOM, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or MIIT, national and local health commissions, the National Radio and Television Administration or NRTA, the National Medical Products Administration, or the NMPA, and other governmental authorities in charge of the relevant categories of services offered by us. Together, these government authorities promulgate and enforce regulations that cover many aspects of the operation of online medical aesthetic business, including entry into this industry, the scope of permissible business activities, licenses and permits for various business activities, and foreign investment.

We have not obtained certain approvals, licenses and permits that may be required for some aspects of our business operations. For example, our platform offers live video broadcasting, video recordings of live streaming videos and original short videos created by ourselves and our service providers. According to the PRC Administrative Provisions on Internet Audio-Visual Program Services, a provider of online audio-visual service is required to obtain a license for online transmission of audio-visual programs, or Audio-Visual License. See “Regulations—Regulations on Internet Audio-Visual Program Services.” We have not obtained the Audio-Visual License for providing internet audio-visual program services and content through our platform in China and we may not be eligible for the Audio-Visual License, because the current PRC laws and regulations require an applicant to be a wholly state-owned or state-controlled entity. In addition, because uncertainty remains regarding the interpretation of relevant concepts including “online publications” under the current PRC laws and regulations, the provision of our self-produced content, including articles on medical aesthetic services, on our online platform may be considered “online publishing” and we may be required to obtain an Internet Publishing License, which we currently do not have. See “Regulations—Regulations on Internet Publishing.”

As of the date of this prospectus, we have not received any notice of warning or been subject to penalties or other disciplinary action from the relevant governmental authorities for lack of approvals and permits. However, we cannot assure you that we will not be subject to any warning, investigations or penalties in the future. If the PRC government deems us as operating without proper approvals, licenses or permits, promulgates new laws and regulations that require additional approvals or licenses or impose additional restrictions on the operation of any part of our business, we may be required to apply for additional approvals, license or permits, or subject to various penalties, including fines, termination or restrictions of the part of our business or revoking of our business licenses, which may adversely affect our business and materially and adversely affect our business, financial conditions and results of operations.

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

Our success depends on our ability to attract new users and retain existing users. We leverage social networks in China as a tool for user acquisition and engagement. We distribute a substantial part of our content through these social network platforms. To the extent that we fail to leverage such social networks, our ability to attract or retain users may be severely harmed. If any of these social networks makes unfavorable changes to its functions or support, or cease to offer its functions or support to us, we may not be able to locate alternative platforms of similar scales to provide similar functions or support to us. Furthermore, we may fail to establish or maintain relationships with additional social network operators to support the growth of our business. Any interruption to or discontinuation of our relationship with the major social network operators in China may severely and negatively impact our ability to continue growing our user base and result in material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our expansion plans, including our plans to expand into new business lines and geographic areas, are subject to uncertainties and risks, and we may not be able to successfully manage our expanded operations.

To serve our expanding user base and our users’ evolving medical service needs, we continuously expand into new geographic areas and offer new services. Expansion into diverse locations and business categories involves new risks and challenges. Our lack of familiarity with these new geographic areas and service offerings may make it more difficult for us to anticipate user demand and preferences.

We have mainly focused on service providers in the major urban centers in China, and we plan to expand our nationwide network coverage to penetrate further into China’s smaller cities. We also plan to expand further into international markets. There is no assurance that our geographic expansion strategies will be successful. As we enter markets and countries that are new to us, we must tailor our services and business model to the unique circumstances of such markets and countries, which can be complex, difficult and costly, and divert management and personnel resources. In addition, we may face competition from platforms that may have more experience with operations in such markets and countries. In addition, laws and business practices that favor local competitors or prohibit or limit foreign ownership of certain businesses, or our failure to adapt our practices, systems, processes and business models effectively to user preferences of each country into which we expand, could slow our growth. Certain markets in which we operate have, or certain new markets in which we may operate in the future may have, lower margins than our more mature markets, which could have a negative impact on our overall margins as our revenues from these markets grow over time.

We also plan to continue to introduce and expand new services on our platform. Expansion into diverse new products and service categories involves new risks and challenges. Our lack of familiarity with these new service offerings and lack of relevant customer data may make it more difficult for us to anticipate customer demand and preferences and manage legal, operational, competitive and other risks. We cannot assure you that we will be able to recoup our investments in introducing these new service categories. If we fail to execute our expansion strategies effectively or address the challenges and risks we encounter when executing our expansion strategies, our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

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

While we generated net income in 2017 and 2018, we incurred a net loss in 2016. We anticipate that our operating costs and expenses will increase in the foreseeable future as we continue to grow our business, attract users, further enhance and develop our service offerings, enhance our technology capabilities and increase our brand recognition. These efforts may prove more costly than we currently anticipate, and we may not succeed in increasing our revenues sufficiently to offset these higher expenses. There are other external and internal factors that could negatively affect our financial condition. For example, the transaction volume achieved on our platform may be lower than expected, which may lead to lower-than-expected revenues. Furthermore, we have adopted a share incentive plan in the past and may adopt new share incentive plans in the future, which have caused, and will result in, significant share-based compensation expenses to us. We generate all of our total revenues from information and reservation services fees charged to medical aesthetic service providers we partner with. Any material decrease in our information or reservation services fees would have a substantial impact on our financial condition. As a result of the foregoing and other factors, we may again incur net losses in the future.

Any failure to protect our content and other intellectual property could harm our business and competitive position.

We believe that trademarks, trade secrets, copyright and other intellectual property we use are critical to our business. We rely on a combination of trademark, copyright and trade secret protection laws in China, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions to protect our intellectual property and our brand. Protection of intellectual property rights in China may not be as effective as in the United States or other jurisdictions, and as a result, we may not be able to adequately protect our intellectual property rights, which could adversely affect our revenues and competitive position. In addition, any unauthorized use of our intellectual property by third parties may adversely affect our revenues and our reputation. In particular, we may have difficulty addressing the threats to our business associated with piracy of our content, particularly our original content. Our content may be potentially subject to unauthorized consumer copying and illegal digital dissemination without an economic return to us. We adopt a variety of measures to mitigate risks associated with piracy, including by litigation and through technology measures. We cannot assure that such measures will be effective.

In addition, while we typically require our employees who may be involved in the development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who in fact develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. In addition, such agreements may be breached. Accordingly, we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us related to the ownership of such intellectual property.

Furthermore, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive, and we may need to resort to litigation to enforce or defend intellectual property or to determine the enforceability, scope and validity of our proprietary rights or those of others. Such litigation and an adverse determination in any such litigation could result in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention.

We may be held liable for information or content displayed on, retrieved from or linked to our platform, which may materially and adversely affect our business and operating results.

As we serve as a social platform for our users, we may be held liable for content that is posted, made available through or linked to our platform. Although we have required our

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in-house content-generating team, users and service providers to post only legally compliant and inoffensive materials and have set up screening procedures, our requirements and screening procedures may fail to eliminate all potentially noncompliant content. As the live video broadcasting communications on our platform are conducted in real time, we are generally unable to examine the content generated before they are streamed. Therefore, it is possible that some of the live content on our platform may engage in illegal, obscene, incendiary or subversive conversations or activities, including posting of inappropriate or illegal content that may be deemed unlawful under PRC laws and regulations. In addition, we may fail to fully screen and prevent medical service providers from posting inauthentic user pictures and reviews on our platform. If the PRC authorities find that we have not adequately managed or supervised the content on our platform, they may impose legal sanctions on us, including, in serious cases, suspending or revoking the licenses needed to operate our platform. Moreover, we may face potential claims for libel or slander in connection with our platform content, or a third party may find content on our platform offensive or indecent and take other legal action against us. Any such claim, with or without merit, could be time-consuming and costly to defend, and may result in litigation and divert management’s attention and resources. If we incur costs or liability as a result of these events, our business, financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.

Privacy concerns relating to our services and the use of user information could negatively impact our user base or user engagement. If we fail to protect the confidential information of our users, whether due to cyberattacks, computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins, or other reasons, we may be subject to liabilities imposed by relevant laws and regulations, and our reputation and business may be materially and adversely affected.

Concerns about the collection, use, disclosure or security of personal information or chat history or other privacy-related matters, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation, cause us to lose users, customers and service providers and subject us to regulatory investigations, all which may adversely affect our business. We collect contact information, browsing history and other personal data from our users in order to better understand our users and their needs and to support our big data analytical capabilities for more targeted services. Due to the volume and sensitivity of the personal information and biometric data we collect and manage, the security features of our platform and information systems are critical. We have adopted security policies and measures, including encryption technology, to protect our proprietary data and user information. We also conduct a rigorous data-masking process before providing user information to medical aesthetic professionals. While we strive to comply with applicable data protection laws and regulations, as well as our privacy policies pursuant to our terms of use and other obligations we may have with respect to privacy and data protection, any failure or perceived failure to comply with these laws, regulations or policies may result in inquiries and other proceedings or actions against us by government agencies or others, as well as negative publicity and damage to our reputation and brand, each of which could cause us to lose users and service providers and have an adverse effect on our business and operating results.

In addition, any systems failure or compromise of our security that results in the unauthorized access to or release of the data of our users or service providers could significantly harm our reputation and brand. We expect to continue expending significant resources to protect against security breaches. The risk that these types of events could seriously harm our business is likely to increase as we expand the number of services we offer and increase the size of our user base. Our practices may also become inconsistent with new laws or regulations concerning data protection, or the interpretation and application of existing consumer and data protection laws or regulations, which is often uncertain and in flux. In addition to the possibility of fines, such inconsistency could result in substantial costs or

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requirement that we change our practices, which could have an adverse effect on our business and operating results. See also “—Risks Related to Doing Business in China—Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system could adversely affect us.”

We rely on proper operation and maintenance of our online platform. Any deficiencies, malfunction, capacity restraint, operation interruption or undetected programming failure or flaws could harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.

We conduct our business activities through our online platform. Therefore, the satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our online platform are critical to our success and our ability to attract and retain users. The reliability and availability of our online platform depends on telecommunications carriers and other third-party providers for communications and storage capacity, including bandwidth and server storage, among other things. If we are unable to enter into and renew agreements with these providers on acceptable terms, or if any of our existing agreements with such providers are terminated as a result of our breach or otherwise, our ability to provide our services to our users could be adversely affected. In addition, service interruptions can prevent users from accessing our platform and making transactions, and frequent interruptions could frustrate users and discourage them from using our platform, which could cause us to lose users and adversely affect our operating results.

In addition, our platform and internal systems rely on software that is highly technical and complex, and depend on the ability of such software to store, retrieve, process and manage immense amounts of data. The software on which we rely has contained, and may now or in the future contain, undetected programming errors or flaws. Some errors may only be discovered after the code has been released for external or internal use. Errors or other design defects within the software on which we rely may result in a negative experience for users using our platform or disruptions to the operations of our medical service providers, delay introductions of new features or enhancements, result in errors or compromise our ability to support effective user service and enjoyable user engagement. Any errors, bugs or defects discovered in the software on which we rely could result in harm to our reputation and loss of users, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial conditions.

Failure or poor performance of third-party software, infrastructure or systems on which we use could adversely affect our business. In particular, our users use third-party payment service providers to make payments on our platform. If these payment services are restricted or curtailed in any way or become unavailable to us or our users for any reason, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

We use third parties to provide and maintain certain infrastructure that is important to our business. If such services become limited, restricted, curtailed or less effective or more expensive in any way or become unavailable to us for any reason, our business may be materially and adversely affected. The infrastructure of our third-party service providers may malfunction or fail due to events out of our control, which could disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Any failure to maintain and renew our relationships with these third parties on commercially favorable terms, or to enter into similar relationships in the future, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

Historically, we had engaged in collecting payments on behalf of third parties, which may be deemed as having provided payment settlement services, thereby exposing us to potential penalties. We have since begun to cooperate with several third parties for the billing, payment

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and escrow functions on our platform. The commercial banks and third-party online payment service providers that we work with are subject to the supervision by the People’s Bank of China, or the PBOC. The PBOC may publish rules, guidelines and interpretations from time to time regulating the operation of financial institutions and payment service providers that may in turn affect the availability of services provided by such entities for us. For example, in November 2017, the PBOC published a notice (the “PBOC Notice”) on the investigation and administration of illegal offering of settlement services by financial institutions and third-party payment service providers to unlicensed entities. We believe that our partnership with the commercial banks and third-party online payment service providers are not in violation of the PBOC Notice, but we cannot assure you that the PBOC or other governmental authorities will hold the same view with ours. If required by the PBOC or new legislation, the commercial banks or the payment service providers may modify or suspend the services they offer to us, and we may be required to obtain additional license and incur additional expenses. If the PBOC or other governmental authorities deem our cooperation with the commercial banks and payment service providers as in violation of relevant laws and regulations, we may be subject to penalties, fines, legal sanctions or suspension of the relevant functions on our platform. See “Regulations—Regulations on Payment Services.”

If major mobile application distribution channels change their standard terms and conditions in a manner that is detrimental to us, or suspend or terminate their existing relationship with us, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We currently cooperate with Apple’s app store and major PRC-based Android app stores to distribute our So-Young mobile application to users. As such, the promotion, distribution and operation of our application are subject to such distribution platforms’ standard terms and policies for application developers, which are subject to the interpretation of, and frequent changes by, these distribution channels. If these third-party distribution platforms change their terms and conditions in a manner that is detrimental to us, or refuse to distribute our application, or if any other major distribution channel with which we would like to seek collaboration refuses to collaborate with us in the future on commercially favorable terms, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Our future growth depends on the further acceptance of the internet and particularly the mobile internet as an effective platform for assessing medical aesthetic services and content.

While the internet and the mobile internet have gained increased popularity in China as platforms for medical aesthetic products and content in recent years, many users have limited experience in accessing medical aesthetic services online. For example, users may not consider online content to be reliable sources of medical aesthetic information. If we fail to educate users about the value of our content, our platform and our services, our growth may be limited and our business, financial performance and prospects may be materially and adversely affected. The further acceptance of the internet and the mobile internet as an effective and efficient platform for medical aesthetic services and content is also affected by factors beyond our control, including negative publicity around online medical aesthetic services and potential restrictive regulatory measures taken by the PRC government. If online and mobile networks do not achieve adequate acceptance in the market, our growth prospects, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.

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Real or perceived inaccuracies in our operating metrics may harm our reputation and negatively affect our business.

We rely on certain key operating metrics, such as mobile MAUs and purchasing users, to evaluate the performance of our business. Our operating metrics may differ from estimates published by third parties or from similarly titled metrics used by other companies due to differences in methodology. We calculate these operating metrics using internal company data that have not been independently verified. If we discover material inaccuracies in the operating metrics we use, or if they are perceived to be inaccurate, our reputation may be harmed and our evaluation methods and results may be impaired, which could negatively affect our business. If investors make investment decisions based on operating metrics we disclose that are inaccurate, we may also face potential lawsuits or disputes.

Our success depends on the continuing service of our key employees, including our senior management members and other talent. If we fail to hire, retain and motivate our key employees, our business may suffer.

Our key executives have substantial experience and have made significant contributions to our business, and our continued success is dependent upon the retention of our key management executives, as well as the services provided by our staff and a number of other key managerial, marketing, business development, customer service, technical and operations personnel. The loss of such key personnel could have a material adverse effect on our business. Growth in our business is dependent, to a large degree, on our ability to retain and attract such employees.

Competition for well-qualified employees in all aspects of our business is intense. Our continued ability to compete effectively depends on our ability to attract new employees and to retain and motivate existing employees. If we do not succeed in attracting well-qualified employees or retaining and motivating existing employees and key senior management, our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects may be adversely affected.

We face risks related to natural disasters, health epidemics and other outbreaks, which could significantly disrupt our operations.

We are vulnerable to natural disasters and other calamities. Fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events may give rise to server interruptions, breakdowns, system failures, technology platform failures or internet failures, which could cause the loss or corruption of data or malfunctions of software or hardware as well as adversely affect our ability to provide services on our platform.

Given the nature of the medical aesthetic industry, our business could be significantly and adversely affected by health epidemics, including effects of Ebola virus disease, H1N1 flu, H7N9 flu, avian flu or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. In addition, our business operations could be disrupted if any of our employees is suspected of having Ebola virus disease, H1N1 flu, H7N9 flu, avian flu, SARS or other epidemic disease, since it could require our employees to be quarantined and/or our offices to be disinfected. In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that any of these epidemics harms the Chinese economy in general.

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From time to time we may evaluate and potentially consummate investments and acquisitions or enter into alliances, which may require significant management attention, disrupt our business and adversely affect our financial results.

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

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

Our operating results may fluctuate from period to period, which makes our operating results difficult to predict and could cause our revenue, expenses and profitability to differ from our past performance and/or expectations during certain periods.

The performance of our businesses is subject to seasonal fluctuations. Our business is typically the slowest during the Chinese New Year, which generally falls in the first quarter of the year. In contrast, our business is the strongest and we experience highest volume of sales and platform activities in the fourth quarters of a year. As a result, we believe that comparisons of our operating results over any interim periods in the past may not be an accurate indicator of our future performance. Overall, the historical seasonality of our business has been relatively mild due to our rapid growth but seasonality may increase in the future. Due to our limited operating history, the seasonal trends that we have experienced in the past may not apply to, or be indicative of, our future operating results.

We have limited business insurance coverage.

The insurance industry in China is still in an early stage of development, and insurance companies in China currently offer limited business-related insurance products. We do not maintain business interruption insurance or general third-party liability insurance, nor do we maintain property insurance, product liability insurance or key-man insurance. We consider this practice to be reasonable in light of the nature of our business and the insurance products that are available in China and in line with the practices of other companies in the same industry of similar size in China. Any uninsured risks may result in substantial costs and the diversion of resources, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition.

We may not be able to obtain additional capital when desired, on favorable terms or at all.

Since we launched our business, we have raised substantial financing to support the growth of our business. We may require additional capital to pursue our business objectives and respond to business opportunities, challenges or unforeseen circumstances, including to improve our brand awareness, develop new services or further improve existing services, expand into new geographic areas and acquire complementary businesses and technologies.

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However, additional funds may not be available when we need them on reasonable terms, or at all. Our ability to retain our existing financial resources and obtain additional financing on acceptable terms is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including but not limited to:

If we are unable to obtain adequate financing or financing on satisfactory terms, our ability to continue to pursue our business objectives and respond to business opportunities, challenges or unforeseen circumstances could be significantly limited, and our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects could be adversely affected. In addition, our future capital needs and other business reasons could require us to sell additional equity or debt securities or obtain a credit facility. The sale of additional equity or equity-linked securities could dilute our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations or our ability to pay dividends to our shareholders.

Changes in the level of consumer confidence and spending in China or a general downturn in the Chinese and global economy could materially and adversely affect us.

Our business, financial condition and results of operations are sensitive to changes in overall economic conditions that affect consumer spending in China. The medical aesthetic industry is sensitive to general economic changes. Any slowing in growth rate or decrease in per capita disposable income in China may negatively impact spending by consumers on medical aesthetic services. Many factors outside of our control, including inflation and deflation, interest rates, volatility of equity and debt securities markets, taxation rates, employment and other government policies can adversely affect consumer confidence and spending. While the economy in China has grown significantly over the past decades, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy, and the rate of growth has been slowing.

Moreover, there is considerable uncertainty in the global economic condition as well as concern about the economic effects of the tensions between China and the United States. Any prolonged slowdown in the global or Chinese economy may lead users to delay or reduce use of our services, and consumer demand for our services may not grow as we expect, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Additionally, continued turbulence in the international markets may adversely affect our ability to access the capital markets to meet liquidity needs.

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

China’s overall economy and the average wage in China have increased in recent years and are expected to grow. The average wage level for our employees has also increased in recent years. We expect that our labor costs, including wages and employee benefits, will increase. Unless we are able to pass on these increased labor costs to those who pay for our services, our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

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In addition, we have been subject to stricter regulatory requirements in terms of entering into labor contracts with our employees and paying various statutory employee benefits, including pensions, housing funds, medical insurance, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance to designated government agencies for the benefit of our employees. Pursuant to the PRC Labor Contract Law and its implementation rules, employers are subject to stricter requirements in terms of signing labor contracts, paying minimum wages, paying remuneration, determining the term of employee’s probation and unilaterally terminating labor contracts. In the event that we decide to terminate some of our employees or otherwise change our employment or labor practices, the PRC Labor Contract Law and its implementation rules may limit our ability to effect those changes in a desirable or cost-effective manner, which could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

As the interpretation and implementation of labor-related laws and regulations are still evolving, our employment practices may violate labor-related laws and regulations in China, which may subject us to labor disputes or government investigations. We cannot assure you that we have complied or will be able to comply with all labor-related law and regulations. If we are deemed to have violated relevant labor laws and regulations, we could be required to provide additional compensation to our employees, and our business, financial condition and results of operations will be adversely affected.

We have granted, and may continue to grant, share options and other forms of share-based incentive awards, which may result in significant share-based incentive expenses.

We have adopted the Second Amended and Restated 2018 Share Plan, or the Plan, in March 2019 for the purpose of granting share-based compensation awards to employees, directors and consultants to incentivize their performance and align their interests with ours. Under the Plan, the maximum aggregate number of shares that may be issued pursuant to all awards is 7,700,000 ordinary shares plus an annual increase of 2% of our total outstanding share capital as of December 31 of the immediately preceding calendar year on the first day of each fiscal year, beginning in 2020, or such lesser number of Class A ordinary shares as determined by our board of directors, provide that the aggregate number of shares initially reserved and subsequently increased during the term of the Plan shall not be more than 10% of our total outstanding share capital on December 31 immediately preceding the most recent increase. As of the date of this prospectus, options to purchase 5,061,020 ordinary shares are granted and outstanding under the Plan.

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

We have identified a material weakness in our internal controls as of December 31, 2018, and if we fail to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls to remediate our material weakness over financial reporting, we may be unable to accurately report our results of operations, meet our reporting obligations or prevent fraud.

Prior to this offering, we have been a private company with limited accounting personnel and other resources with which to address our internal controls. In the course of auditing our consolidated financial statements, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified a material weakness in our internal controls. A material weakness is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal controls such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or

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detected on a timely basis. Our material weakness relates to our lack of a sufficient number of financial reporting personnel with the appropriate level of knowledge and experience in the application of U.S. GAAP and Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, rules and regulations commensurate with our reporting requirements. Although we have begun to implement measures to address the material weakness, implementation of those measures may not fully remediate the material weakness in a timely manner. In the future we may determine that we have additional material weaknesses, or our independent registered public accounting firm may disagree with our management assessment of the effectiveness of our internal controls.

If we fail to establish and maintain adequate internal controls, we could suffer material misstatements in our financial statements and fail to meet our reporting obligations, which would likely cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information. This could limit our access to capital markets, adversely affect our results of operations and lead to a decline in the trading price of the ADSs. Additionally, ineffective internal controls could expose us to an increased risk of fraud or misuse of corporate assets and subject us to potential delisting from the stock exchange on which we list or to other regulatory investigations and civil or criminal sanctions. We could also be required to restate our historical financial statements.

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

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

Foreign ownership of certain telecommunication businesses and certain other businesses, such as provision of online medical aesthetic information and services, is subject to restrictions under current PRC laws and regulations. Specifically, foreign ownership of online medical aesthetic information and service provider may not exceed 50%, and the major foreign investor is required to have a record of good performance and operating experience in managing value-added telecommunications business. We are an exempted company incorporated in the Cayman Islands. Beijing So-Young Wanwei Technology Consulting Co., Ltd., or So-Young Wanwei, is our PRC subsidiary and a wholly foreign-owned enterprise under PRC laws. To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we conduct our businesses in China through Beijing So-Young Technology Co., Ltd., or Beijing So-Young, our consolidated affiliated entity, and its subsidiaries, based on a series of contractual arrangements by and among So-Young Wanwei, Beijing So-Young and its shareholders. For a description of these contractual arrangements, see “Corporate History and Structure.” As a result of these contractual arrangements, we exert control over our consolidated affiliated entity and consolidate its financial results in our financial statements under U.S. GAAP.

In the opinion of our PRC counsel, Han Kun Law Offices, the ownership structure of So-Young Wanwei and Beijing So-Young does not result in any violation of PRC laws and regulations currently in effect, and the contractual arrangements between So-Young Wanwei, Beijing So-Young and its shareholders as governed by PRC law will not result in any violation of PRC laws or regulations currently in effect. However, we have been further advised by our PRC counsel that there are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current or future PRC laws and regulations. Thus, the PRC government may ultimately take a view contrary to the opinion of our PRC counsel. If the PRC government otherwise find that we are in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations or lack the necessary permits

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or licenses to operate our business, the relevant governmental authorities would have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including, without limitation:

Any of these events could cause significant disruption to our business operations and severely damage our reputation, which would in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If occurrences of any of these events results in our inability to direct the activities of our consolidated affiliated entity in China that most significantly impact their economic performance, and/or our failure to receive the economic benefits from our consolidated affiliated entity, we may not be able to consolidate the entity in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

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

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

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

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

If our consolidated affiliated entity or its shareholders fail to perform their respective obligations under the contractual arrangements, we may have to incur substantial costs and expend additional resources to enforce such arrangements. We may also have to rely on legal remedies under PRC law, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and contractual remedies, which we cannot assure you will be sufficient or effective under PRC law. For example, if the shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entity were to refuse to transfer their equity interests in our consolidated affiliated entity to us or our designee if we exercise the purchase option pursuant to these contractual arrangements, or if they were otherwise to act in bad faith toward us, then we may have to take legal actions to compel them to perform their contractual obligations.

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

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

The shareholders of our consolidated variable entity are Mr. Hui Shao, Mr. Xing Jin and Mr. Tao Yu. Mr. Hui Shao is our director, Mr. Xing Jin is our co-founder and chief executive officer, and Tao Yu is our co-founder and chief information officer. Nevertheless, conflicts of interest may arise between the roles of them as shareholders, directors or officers of our company and as shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entity. These shareholders may breach, or cause our consolidated variable entity to breach, or refuse to renew, the VIE Contractual Arrangements we have with them and our consolidated variable entity, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to effectively control our consolidated variable entity and receive economic benefits from such entity. For individuals who are also our directors and officers, we rely on them to abide by the laws of the Cayman Islands, which provide that directors and officers owe fiduciary duties to our company, including duties to act in good faith and in what they believe to be the best interest of our company and not to use their positions for personal gain. The shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entity have executed powers of attorney to appoint So-Young Wanwei or a person designated by So-Young

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Wanwei to vote on their behalf and exercise voting rights as shareholders of our consolidated affiliated entity. We cannot assure you that when conflicts arise, these shareholders will act in the best interest 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 these shareholders, 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.

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

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

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

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

Uncertainties exist with respect to the interpretation and implementation of the newly enacted PRC Foreign Investment Law and how it may impact the viability of our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.

On March 15, 2019, the National People’s Congress approved the Foreign Investment Law, which will come into effect on January 1, 2020 and replace the trio of existing laws regulating

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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 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. However, since it is relatively new, uncertainties still exist in relation to its interpretation and implementation. For instance, under the Foreign Investment Law, “foreign investment” refers to the investment activities directly or indirectly conducted by foreign individuals, enterprises or other entities in China. Though it does not explicitly classify contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment, there is no assurance that foreign investment via contractual arrangement would not be interpreted as a type of indirect foreign investment activities under the definition in the future. In addition, the definition contains a catch-all provision which includes investments made by foreign investors through means stipulated in laws or administrative regulations or other methods prescribed by the State Council. Therefore, it still leaves leeway for future laws, administrative regulations or provisions promulgated by the State Council to provide for contractual arrangements as a form of foreign investment. In any of these cases, it will be uncertain whether our contractual arrangements will be deemed to be in violation of the market access requirements for foreign investment under the PRC laws and regulations. Furthermore, if future laws, administrative regulations or provisions prescribed by the State Council mandate further actions to be taken by companies with respect to existing contractual arrangements, we may face substantial uncertainties as to whether we can complete such actions in a timely manner, or at all. Failure to take timely and appropriate measures to cope with any of these or similar regulatory compliance challenges could materially and adversely affect our current corporate structure, corporate governance and business operations.

We may rely on dividends paid by our PRC subsidiary to fund cash and financing requirements. 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 and to pay dividends to holders of the ADSs and our ordinary shares.

We are a holding company, and we may rely on dividends to be paid by our PRC subsidiary for our cash and financing requirements, including the funds necessary to pay dividends and other cash distributions to the holders of the ADSs and our ordinary shares and service any debt we may incur. If our PRC subsidiary incurs debt on their own behalf in the future, the instruments governing the debt may restrict its ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to us.

Under PRC laws and regulations, wholly foreign-owned enterprises in the PRC, such as So-Young Wanwei, may pay dividends only out of their accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise is required to set aside at least 10% of its after-tax profits each year, after making up previous years’ accumulated losses, if any, to fund certain statutory reserve funds, until the aggregate amount of such a fund reaches 50% of its registered capital. At the discretion of the board of directors of the wholly foreign-owned enterprise, 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 our PRC subsidiary 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.

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Risks Related to Doing Business in China

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

Substantially all of our revenues are derived from China. Accordingly, our results of operations, financial condition and prospects are influenced by economic, political and legal developments in China. Economic reforms begun in the late 1970s have resulted in significant economic growth. However, any economic reform policies or measures in China may from time to time be modified or revised. China’s economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including with respect to the amount of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. While the PRC economy has experienced significant growth in the past 30 years, growth has been uneven across different regions and among different economic sectors.

The PRC government exercises significant control over China’s economic growth through strategically allocating resources, controlling the payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policy and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies. Although the PRC economy has grown significantly in the past decade, that growth may not continue, as evidenced by the slowing of the growth of the PRC economy since 2012. Any adverse changes in economic conditions in China, in the policies of the PRC government or in the laws and regulations in China could have a material adverse effect on the overall economic growth of China. Such developments could adversely affect our business and operating results, lead to reduction in demand for our services and adversely affect our competitive position.

Uncertainties with respect to the PRC legal system could adversely affect us.

The PRC legal system is based on written statutes and court decisions have limited precedential value. The PRC legal system is evolving rapidly, and the interpretations of many laws, regulations and rules may contain inconsistencies and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involves uncertainties.

From time to time, we may have to resort to administrative and court proceedings to enforce our legal rights. However, since PRC judicial and administrative authorities have significant discretion in interpreting and implementing statutory and contractual terms, it may be more difficult to predict the outcome of a judicial or administrative proceeding than in more developed legal systems. Furthermore, the PRC legal system is based, in part, on government policies and internal rules, some of which are not published in a timely manner, or at all, but which may have retroactive effect. As a result, we may not always be aware of any potential violation of these policies and rules. Such unpredictability towards our contractual, property (including intellectual property) and procedural rights could adversely affect our business and impede our ability to continue our operations.

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

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands, while we conduct substantially all of our operations in China, and substantially all of our assets are located in China. In addition, all our senior executive officers reside within China for a significant portion of the time and most are PRC nationals. As a result, it may be difficult for our shareholders to effect service of process upon us or those persons inside China. In addition,

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China does not have treaties providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments of courts with the Cayman Islands and many other countries and regions. Therefore, recognition and enforcement in China of judgments of a court in any of these non-PRC jurisdictions in relation to any matter not subject to a binding arbitration provision may be difficult or impossible.

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

The value of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar and other currencies is affected by changes in China’s political and economic conditions and China’s foreign exchange policies, among other things. On July 21, 2005, the PRC government changed its decade-old policy of pegging the value of the Renminbi to the U.S. dollar, and the Renminbi appreciated more than 20% against the U.S. dollar over the following three years. Between July 2008 and June 2010, this appreciation halted and the exchange rate between the Renminbi and the U.S. dollar remained within a narrow band. Since June 2010, the Renminbi has fluctuated against the U.S. dollar, at times significantly and unpredictably. Since October 1, 2016, Renminbi has joined the International Monetary Fund’s basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Right (SDR) along with the U.S. dollar, the Euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound. In 2018, the Renminbi has depreciated significantly against the backdrop of a surging U.S. dollar and persistent capital outflows of China. With the development of the foreign exchange market and progress towards interest rate liberalization and Renminbi internationalization, the PRC government may in the future announce further changes to the exchange rate system and we cannot assure you that Renminbi will not appreciate or depreciate significantly in value against the U.S. dollar in the future. It is difficult to predict how market forces or PRC or U.S. government policy may impact the exchange rate between Renminbi and the U.S. dollar in the future.

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

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

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

The PRC government imposes controls on the convertibility of the Renminbi into foreign currencies and, in certain cases, the remittance of currency out of China. We receive substantially all of our revenues in Renminbi. Under our current corporate structure, our Cayman Islands holding company may rely on dividend payments from our PRC subsidiary to

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fund any cash and financing requirements we may have. Under existing PRC foreign exchange regulations, payments of current account items, including profit distributions, interest payments and trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions, can be made in foreign currencies without prior approval of the PRC State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or SAFE, by complying with certain procedural requirements. Specifically, under the existing exchange restrictions, without prior approval of SAFE, cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiary in China may be used to pay dividends to our company. However, approval from or registration with appropriate government authorities is required where Renminbi is to be converted into foreign currency and remitted out of China to pay capital expenses such as the repayment of loans denominated in foreign currencies. As a result, we need to obtain SAFE approval to use cash generated from the operations of our PRC subsidiary and consolidated affiliated entity to pay off their respective debt in a currency other than Renminbi owed to entities outside China, or to make other capital expenditure payments outside China in a currency other than Renminbi.

In light of the recent flood of capital outflows of China due to the weakening RMB, the PRC government has imposed more restrictive foreign exchange policies and stepped up scrutiny of major outbound capital movement including overseas direct investment. More restrictions and substantial vetting process are put in place by SAFE to regulate cross-border transactions falling under the capital account. If any of our shareholders regulated by such policies fails to satisfy the applicable overseas direct investment filing or approval requirement timely or at all, it may be subject to penalties from the relevant PRC authorities. The PRC government may at its discretion further restrict access in the future to foreign currencies for current account transactions. If the foreign exchange control system prevents us from obtaining sufficient foreign currencies to satisfy our foreign currency demands, we may not be able to pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of our ADSs.

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

The Regulations on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Companies by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, adopted by six PRC regulatory agencies in 2006 and amended in 2009, and some other regulations and rules concerning mergers and acquisitions established additional procedures and requirements that could make merger and acquisition activities by foreign investors more time consuming and complex, including requirements in some instances that the Ministry of Commerce, or the MOC, be notified in advance of any change-of-control transaction in which a foreign investor takes control of a PRC domestic enterprise. Moreover, the Anti-Monopoly Law requires that the MOC shall be notified in advance of any concentration of undertaking if certain thresholds are triggered. In addition, the security review rules issued by the MOC that became effective in September 2011 specify that mergers and acquisitions by foreign investors that raise “national defense and security” concerns and mergers and acquisitions through which foreign investors may acquire de facto control over domestic enterprises that raise “national security” concerns are subject to strict review by the MOC, and the rules prohibit any activities attempting to bypass a security review, including by structuring the transaction through a proxy or contractual control arrangement. In the future, we may grow our business by acquiring complementary businesses. Complying with the requirements of the above-mentioned regulations and other relevant rules to complete such transactions could be time consuming, and any required approval processes, including obtaining approval from the MOC or its local counterparts may delay or inhibit our ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share.

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

We are an offshore holding company conducting our operations in China through our PRC subsidiary, our variable interest entity and its subsidiaries. We may make loans to our PRC subsidiary, variable interest entity and its subsidiaries, or we may make additional capital contributions to our PRC subsidiary, or we may establish new PRC subsidiaries and make capital contributions to these new PRC subsidiaries, or we may acquire offshore entities with business operations in China in an offshore transaction.

Most of these activities are subject to PRC regulations and approvals. For example, loans by us to our wholly owned PRC subsidiary to finance its activities cannot exceed statutory limits and must be registered with the local counterpart of SAFE. If we decide to finance our wholly owned PRC subsidiary by means of capital contributions, these capital contributions are subject to the requirement of making necessary filings in the Foreign Investment Comprehensive Management Information System and registration with other governmental authorities in China. Due to the restrictions imposed on loans in foreign currencies extended to any PRC domestic companies, total principal amount of loans provided by us to each PRC domestic company every year cannot exceed a certain amount. Further, we are not likely to finance the activities of our consolidated affiliated entity by means of capital contributions due to regulatory restrictions relating to foreign investment in PRC domestic enterprises engaged in internet information services and related businesses.

SAFE promulgated Circular on the Reforming of the Management Method of the Settlement of Foreign Currency Capital of Foreign-invested Enterprises, or SAFE Circular 19, effective June 2015, in replacement of the Circular on the Relevant Issues Concerning the Launch of Reforming Trial of the Administration Model of the Settlement of Foreign Currency Capital of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, the Notice from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Relevant Issues Concerning Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Exchange Businesses, and the Circular on Further Clarification and Regulation of the Issues Concerning the Administration of Certain Capital Account Foreign Exchange Businesses. According to SAFE Circular 19, the flow and use of the RMB capital converted from foreign currency-denominated registered capital of a foreign-invested company is regulated such that RMB capital may not be used for the issuance of RMB entrusted loans, the repayment of inter-enterprise loans or the repayment of banks loans that have been transferred to a third party. Although SAFE Circular 19 allows RMB capital converted from foreign currency-denominated registered capital of a foreign-invested enterprise to be used for equity investments within China, it also reiterates the principle that RMB capital converted from the foreign currency-denominated capital of a foreign-invested company may not be directly or indirectly used for purposes beyond its business scope. Thus, it is unclear whether SAFE will permit such capital to be used for equity investments in China in actual practice. SAFE promulgated the Notice of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Reforming and Standardizing the Foreign Exchange Settlement Management Policy of Capital Account, or SAFE Circular 16, effective on June 9, 2016, which reiterates some of the rules set forth in SAFE Circular 19, but changes the prohibition against using RMB capital converted from foreign currency-denominated registered capital of a foreign-invested company to issue RMB entrusted loans to a prohibition against using such capital to issue loans to non-associated enterprises, the repayment of inter-enterprise loans or the repayment of banks loans that have been transferred to a third party. Violations of SAFE Circular 19 and SAFE Circular 16 could result in administrative penalties. SAFE Circular 19 and SAFE Circular 16 may significantly limit

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our ability to transfer any foreign currency we hold, including the net proceeds from this offering, to our PRC subsidiary, which may adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to fund and expand our business in China.

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

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

The SAFE promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Relating to Domestic Resident’s Investment and Financing and Round-Trip Investment through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37, in July 2014 that requires PRC residents or entities to register with SAFE or its local branch in connection with their establishment or control of an offshore entity established for the purpose of overseas investment or financing with such PRC residents or entities’ legally owned assets or equity interests in domestic enterprises or offshore assets or interests. On February 13, 2015, SAFE issued SAFE Circular No. 13, which took effect on June 1, 2015, pursuant to which, the power to accept SAFE registration was delegated from local SAFE to local qualified banks where the assets or interest in the domestic entity was located. SAFE Circular 37 is issued to replace the 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.

If our shareholders who are PRC residents or entities do not complete their registration with the local SAFE branches, our PRC subsidiary may be prohibited from distributing their profits and proceeds from dividends, any reduction in capital, share transfer or liquidation to us, and we may be restricted in our ability to contribute additional capital to our PRC subsidiary. Moreover, failure to comply with the SAFE registration described above could result in liability under PRC laws for evasion of applicable foreign exchange restrictions.

We have used our best efforts to notify PRC residents or entities who directly or indirectly hold shares in our Cayman Islands holding company and who are known to us as being PRC residents to complete the foreign exchange registrations. However, we may not be informed of the identities of all the PRC residents or entities holding direct or indirect interest in our company, nor can we compel our beneficial owners to comply with SAFE registration requirements. We cannot assure you that all shareholders or beneficial owners of ours who are PRC residents or entities have complied with, and will in the future make, obtain or update any applicable registrations or approvals required by, SAFE regulations. Failure by such shareholders or beneficial owners to comply with SAFE regulations, 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 PRC subsidiary’s

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ability to make distributions or pay dividends to us or affect our ownership structure, which could adversely affect our business and prospects.

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

Pursuant to SAFE Circular 37, PRC residents who participate in share incentive plans in overseas non-publicly-listed companies due to their position as director, senior management or employees of the PRC subsidiaries of the overseas companies may submit applications to SAFE or its local branches for the foreign exchange registration with respect to offshore special purpose companies. Our directors, executive officers and other employees who are PRC residents and who have been granted share-based awards may follow SAFE Circular 37 to apply for the foreign exchange registration before our company becomes an overseas listed company. In February 2012, SAFE promulgated the Notices on Issues Concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plans of Overseas Publicly-Listed Company, or SAFE Circular 7. Under SAFE Circular 7 and other relevant rules and regulations, PRC residents and non-PRC citizens who reside in China for a continuous period of not less than one year who participate in stock incentive plan in an overseas publicly-listed company, subject to a few exceptions, are required to register with SAFE or its local branches and complete certain other procedures. Participants of a stock incentive plan who are PRC residents must retain a qualified PRC agent, which could be a PRC subsidiary of 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 stock 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-based awards, 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 stock incentive plan if there is any material change to the stock incentive plan, the PRC agent or the overseas entrusted institution or other material changes. We and our PRC employees or employees who reside in the PRC for a continuous period of not less than one year and who have been granted share-based awards will be subject to SAFE Circular 7 and other relevant rules and regulations upon the completion of this offering. Failure of our PRC share-based award holders to complete their SAFE registrations may subject these PRC residents to fines and legal sanctions and may also limit our ability to contribute additional capital into our PRC subsidiary, limit our PRC subsidiary’s ability to distribute dividends to us, or otherwise materially adversely affect our business.

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

Under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementation rules, an enterprise established outside of the PRC with its “de facto management body” within the PRC is considered a “resident enterprise” and will be subject to PRC enterprise income tax on its global income at the rate of 25%. The implementation rules define the term “de facto management body” as the body that exercises full and substantial control and overall management over the business, productions, personnel, accounts and properties of an enterprise. In 2009, the State Administration of Taxation issued a circular, known as SAT Circular 82, which provides certain specific criteria for determining whether the “de facto management body” of a PRC-controlled enterprise that is incorporated offshore is located in China. Although this circular only applies to offshore enterprises controlled by PRC enterprises or PRC enterprise groups, not those

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controlled by PRC individuals or foreigners, the criteria set forth in the circular may reflect the State Administration of Taxation’s general position on how the “de facto management body” text should be applied in determining the tax resident status of all offshore enterprises. According to SAT Circular 82, an offshore incorporated enterprise controlled by a PRC enterprise or a PRC enterprise group will be regarded as a PRC tax resident by virtue of having its “de facto management body” in China and will be subject to PRC enterprise income tax on its global income only if all of the following conditions are met: (i) the primary location of the day-to-day operational management is in the PRC; (ii) decisions relating to the enterprise’s financial and human resource matters are made or are subject to approval by organizations or personnel in the PRC; (iii) the enterprise’s primary assets, accounting books and records, company seals, and board and shareholder resolutions, are located or maintained in the PRC; and (iv) at least 50% of voting board members or senior executives habitually reside in the PRC.

We believe none of our entities outside of China is a PRC resident enterprise for PRC tax purposes. However, the tax resident status of an enterprise is subject to determination by the PRC tax authorities and uncertainties remain with respect to the interpretation of the term “de facto management body.” If the PRC tax authorities determine that So-Young International Inc. is a PRC resident enterprise for enterprise income tax purposes, we may be required to withhold a 10% withholding tax from dividends we pay to our shareholders that are non-resident enterprises, including the holders of our ADSs. In addition, non-resident enterprise shareholders (including our ADS holders) may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 10% on gains realized on the sale or other disposition of ADSs or ordinary shares at a rate of 10%, if such income is treated as sourced from within the PRC. Furthermore, if PRC tax authorities determine that we are a PRC resident enterprise for enterprise income tax purposes, dividends paid to our non-PRC individual shareholders (including our ADS holders) and any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or ordinary shares by such shareholders may be subject to PRC tax at a rate of 20% (which, in the case of dividends, may be withheld at source by us), if such dividends or gains are deemed to be from PRC sources. These rates may be reduced by an applicable tax treaty, but it is unclear whether non-PRC shareholders of So-Young International Inc. would be able to claim the benefits of any tax treaties between their country of tax residence and the PRC in the event that So-Young International Inc. is treated as a PRC resident enterprise. Any such PRC tax may reduce the returns on your investment in the ADSs.

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

We face uncertainties regarding the reporting on and consequences of previous private equity financing transactions involving the transfer and exchange of shares in our company by non-resident investors. In February 2015, the State Administration of Taxation issued the Bulletin on Issues of Enterprise Income Tax on Indirect Transfers of Assets by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or Bulletin 7. Pursuant to Bulletin 7, an “indirect transfer” of PRC assets, including a transfer of equity interests in an unlisted non-PRC holding company of a PRC resident enterprise, by non-PRC resident enterprises may be re-characterized and treated as a direct transfer of the underlying PRC assets, if such arrangement does not have a reasonable commercial purpose and was established for the purpose of avoiding payment of PRC enterprise income tax. As a result, gains derived from such indirect transfer may be subject to PRC enterprise income tax, and the transferee or other person who is obligated to pay for the transfer is obligated to withhold the applicable taxes, currently at a rate of 10%, for the transfer of equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise. Bulletin 7 does not apply to transactions of sale of shares by investors through a public stock exchange where such shares were acquired from a transaction through a public stock exchange. On October 17, 2017, the SAT issued the Announcement of the State Administration of Taxation on Issues of Tax Withholding regarding

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Non-resident Enterprise Income Tax, or Bulletin 37, which came into effect on December 1, 2017. The Bulletin 37 further clarifies the practice and procedure of the withholding of nonresident enterprise income tax.

There is uncertainty as to the application of Bulletin 37 or previous rules under Bulletin 7. We face uncertainties on the reporting and consequences of private equity financing transactions, share exchanges or other transactions involving the transfer of shares in our company by investors that are non-PRC resident enterprises. Our company may be subject to filing obligations or taxes if our company is the transferor in such transactions, and may be subject to withholding obligations if our company is the transferee in such transactions, under Bulletin 37 and Bulletin 7.

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

Our independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit reports included in our prospectus filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as an auditor of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or the PCAOB, is subject to laws in the United States pursuant to which the PCAOB conducts regular inspections to assess its compliance with applicable professional standards. Because our auditors are located in China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB has been unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities, our auditors are not currently inspected by the PCAOB.

On December 7, 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement highlighting continued challenges faced by the U.S. regulators in their oversight of financial statement audits of U.S.-listed companies with significant operations in China. However, it remains unclear what further actions, if any, the SEC and PCAOB will take to address the problem.

Inspections of other firms that the PCAOB has conducted outside of China have identified deficiencies in those firms’ audit procedures and quality control procedures, which may be addressed as part of the inspection process to improve future audit quality. The lack of PCAOB inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from regularly evaluating our auditors’ audits and its quality control procedures. As a result, investors may be deprived of the benefits of PCAOB inspections.

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

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

Starting in 2011 the Chinese affiliates of the “big four” accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, were affected by a conflict between U.S. and Chinese law. Specifically, for certain U.S.-listed companies operating and audited in mainland China, the SEC and the PCAOB sought to obtain from the Chinese firms access to their audit

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work papers and related documents. The firms were, however, advised and directed that under Chinese law, they could not respond directly to the U.S. regulators on those requests, and that requests by foreign regulators for access to such papers in China had to be channeled through the CSRC.

In late 2012, this impasse led the SEC to commence administrative proceedings under Rule 102(e) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 against the Chinese accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm. A first instance trial of the proceedings in July 2013 in the SEC’s internal administrative court resulted in an adverse judgment against the firms. The administrative law judge proposed penalties on the firms including a temporary suspension of their right to practice before the SEC, although that proposed penalty did not take effect pending review by the Commissioners of the SEC. On February 6, 2015, before a review by the Commissioner had taken place, the firms reached a settlement with the SEC. Under the settlement, the SEC accepted that future requests by the SEC for the production of documents will normally be made to the CSRC. The firms were to receive matching Section 106 requests, and were required to abide by a detailed set of procedures with respect to such requests, which in substance require them to facilitate production via the CSRC. If they failed to meet specified criteria, the SEC retained authority to impose a variety of additional remedial measures on the firms depending on the nature of the failure. Under the terms of the settlement, the underlying proceeding against the four China-based accounting firms was deemed dismissed with prejudice four years after entry of the settlement. The four-year mark occurred on February 6, 2019. We cannot predict if the SEC will further challenge the four China-based accounting firms’ compliance with U.S. law in connection with U.S. regulatory requests for audit work papers or if the results of such a challenge would result in the SEC imposing penalties such as suspensions. If additional remedial measures are imposed on the Chinese affiliates of the “big four” accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, we could be unable to timely file future financial statements in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act.

In the event the Chinese affiliates of the “big four” become subject to additional legal challenges by the SEC or PCAOB, depending upon the final outcome, listed companies in the United States with major PRC operations may find it difficult or impossible to retain auditors in respect of their operations in the PRC, which could result in financial statements being determined to not be in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act, including possible delisting. Moreover, any negative news about any such future proceedings against these audit firms may cause investor uncertainty regarding China-based, U.S.-listed companies and the market price of our common stock may be adversely affected.

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

The enforcement of the PRC Labor Contract Law and other labor-related regulations in the PRC may adversely affect our business and results of operations.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress enacted the Labor Contract Law in 2008, and amended it on December 28, 2012. The Labor Contract Law introduced specific provisions related to fixed-term employment contracts, part-time employment, probationary

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periods, consultation with labor unions and employee assemblies, employment without a written contract, dismissal of employees, severance, and collective bargaining to enhance previous PRC labor laws. Under the Labor Contract Law, an employer is obligated to sign an unlimited-term labor contract with any employee who has worked for the employer for ten consecutive years. Further, if an employee requests or agrees to renew a fixed-term labor contract that has already been entered into twice consecutively, the resulting contract, with certain exceptions, must have an unlimited term, subject to certain exceptions. With certain exceptions, an employer must pay severance to an employee where a labor contract is terminated or expires. In addition, the PRC governmental authorities have continued to introduce various new labor-related regulations since the effectiveness of the Labor Contract Law.

Under the PRC Social Insurance Law and the Administration of Housing Fund, employees are required to participate in pension insurance, work-related injury insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, maternity insurance, and housing funds and employers are required, together with their employees or separately, to complete the social insurance registration and housing fund registration and pay the social insurance premiums and housing funds for their employees. If we are deemed to have failed to make adequate social insurance and/or housing fund contributions or complete the social insurance registration and housing fund registration, we may be subject to fines and legal sanctions, and our business, financial conditions and results of operations may be adversely affected. These laws designed to enhance labor protection tend to increase our labor costs. In addition, as the interpretation and implementation of these regulations are still evolving, our employment practices may not be at all times be deemed in compliance with the regulations. As a result, we could be subject to penalties or incur significant liabilities in connection with labor disputes or investigations.

Risks Related to Our ADSs and This Offering

An active trading market for our ADSs may not develop and the trading price for our ADSs may fluctuate significantly.

We have applied to list our ADSs on the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC. We have no current intention to seek a listing for our ordinary shares on any stock exchange. Prior to the completion of this offering, there has been no public market for our ADSs or our ordinary shares, and we cannot assure you that a liquid public market for our ADSs will develop. If an active public market for our ADSs does not develop following the completion of this offering, the market price and liquidity of our ADSs may be materially and adversely affected. The initial public offering price for our ADSs will be determined by negotiation between us and the underwriters based upon several factors, and we can provide no assurance that the trading price of our ADSs after this offering will not decline below the initial public offering price. As a result, investors in our securities may experience a significant decrease in the value of their ADSs.

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

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

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volume for our ADSs may be highly volatile for factors specific to our own operations, including the following:

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

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

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

We have adopted a dual-class voting structure such that our ordinary shares consist of Existing Class A ordinary shares and Existing Class B ordinary shares. Holders of Existing Class A ordinary shares and Existing Class B ordinary shares have the same rights other than voting and conversion rights. Each holder of Existing Class A ordinary shares is entitled to ten votes per share and each holder of our Existing Class B ordinary shares is entitled to one vote per share on all matters submitted to them for a vote. Each Existing Class A ordinary share is convertible into one Existing Class B ordinary share, whereas Existing Class B ordinary shares are not convertible into Existing Class A ordinary shares. Upon any transfer of Existing Class A ordinary shares by a holder thereof to any other person or entity, such Existing Class A ordinary shares are automatically and immediately converted into the equal number of Existing Class B ordinary shares. As the date of this prospectus, Mr. Xing Jin, our chief executive officer, together with his affiliates, beneficially owns all of our issued Existing Class A ordinary shares.

Immediately prior to the completion of this offering, we expect to amend our dual-class share structure such that our ordinary shares will consist of Class A ordinary shares and Class B

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ordinary shares. In respect of matters requiring the votes of shareholders, holders of Class A ordinary shares will be entitled to one vote per share, while holders of Class B ordinary shares will be entitled to thirty votes per share based on our proposed dual-class share structure. We will sell Class A ordinary shares represented by our ADSs in this offering. Each Class B ordinary share is convertible into one Class A ordinary share at any time by the holder thereof, while Class A ordinary shares are not convertible into Class B ordinary shares under any circumstances. Upon any sale, transfer, assignment or disposition of any Class B ordinary share by a holder thereof to any person who is not the Founder or an Affiliate of the Founder (as such terms are defined in our post-offering amended and restated articles of association), such Class B ordinary share shall be automatically and immediately converted into one Class A ordinary share.

Immediately prior to the completion of this offering, Mr. Xing Jin, our co-founder, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer, will beneficially own all of our issued Class B ordinary shares. These Class B ordinary shares will constitute approximately 15.6% of our total issued and outstanding share capital immediately after the completion of this offering and 84.7% of the aggregate voting power of our total issued and outstanding share capital immediately after the completion of this offering due to the disparate voting powers associated with our dual class share structure, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their over-allotment option. As a result of the dual-class share structure and the concentration of ownership, Mr. Jin will have considerable influence over matters such as decisions regarding mergers and consolidations, election of directors and other significant corporate actions, and may take actions that are not in the best interest of us or our other shareholders. This concentration of ownership may discourage, delay or prevent a change in control of our company, which could have the effect of depriving our other shareholders of the opportunity to receive a premium for their shares as part of a sale of our company and may reduce the price of the ADSs. This concentrated control will limit your ability to influence corporate matters and could discourage others from pursuing any potential merger, takeover or other change of control transactions that holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs may view as beneficial.

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

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

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

Sales of substantial amounts of our ADSs in the public market after the completion of this offering, or the perception that these sales could occur, could adversely affect the market price of our ADSs and could materially impair our ability to raise capital through equity offerings in the future. The ADSs sold in this offering will be freely tradable without restriction or further registration under the Securities Act, and shares held by our existing shareholders may also be sold in the public market in the future subject to the restrictions in Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act and the applicable lock-up agreements. There will be 13,000,000 ADSs (equivalent to 10,000,000 Class A ordinary shares) outstanding immediately after this offering,

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or 14,950,000 ADSs (equivalent to 11,500,000 Class A ordinary shares) if the underwriters exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs in full. In connection with this offering, we, our directors and executive officers, our existing shareholders and holders of our share-based awards have agreed not to sell any ordinary shares, ADSs or similar securities for 180 days after the date of this prospectus without the prior written consent of the underwriters, subject to certain exceptions. However, the underwriters may release these securities from these restrictions at any time, subject to applicable regulations of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. We cannot predict what effect, if any, market sales of securities held by our significant shareholders or any other shareholder or the availability of these securities for future sale will have on the market price of our ADSs. See “Underwriting” and “Shares Eligible for Future Sale” for a more detailed description of the restrictions on selling our securities after this offering.

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

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

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

We have not determined a specific use for a portion of the net proceeds from this offering and we may use these proceeds in ways with which you may not agree.

We have not determined a specific use for a portion of the net proceeds of this offering, and our management will have considerable discretion in deciding how to apply these proceeds. You will not have the opportunity to assess whether the proceeds are being used appropriately before you make your investment decision. You must rely on the judgment of our management regarding the application of the net proceeds of this offering. We cannot assure you that the net proceeds will be used in a manner that would improve our results of operations or increase our ADS price, nor that these net proceeds will be placed only in investments that generate income or appreciate in value.

The approval of the China Securities Regulatory Commission may be required in connection with this offering under PRC law.

The M&A Rules, which were adopted in 2006 by six PRC regulatory agencies, including the CSRC, and amended in 2009, purport to require offshore special purpose vehicles that are

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controlled by PRC companies or individuals and that have been formed for the purpose of seeking a public listing on an overseas stock exchange through acquisitions of PRC domestic companies or assets to obtain CSRC approval prior to publicly listing their securities on an overseas stock exchange. The interpretation and application of the regulations remain unclear, and if CSRC approval is required, it is uncertain whether it would be possible for us to obtain the approval and any failure to obtain or delay in obtaining CSRC approval for this offering would subject us to sanctions imposed by the CSRC and other PRC regulatory agencies.

Our PRC counsel, Han Kun Law Offices, has advised us that, based on its understanding of the current PRC laws and regulations, we will not be required to submit an application to the CSRC for the approval of the listing and trading of our ADSs on Nasdaq Stock Market LLC because (i) the CSRC currently has not issued any definitive rule or interpretation concerning whether offerings like ours under this prospectus are subject to this regulation, (ii) our wholly owned PRC subsidiary were established by foreign direct investment, rather than through a merger or acquisition of a domestic company as defined under the M&A Rules and (iii) no explicit provision in the M&A Rules classifies the respective contractual arrangements among our PRC subsidiary, our consolidated affiliated entity and its respective shareholders as a type of acquisition transaction falling under the M&A Rules.

However, we cannot assure you that relevant PRC government agencies, including the CSRC, would reach the same conclusion as our PRC counsel, and hence we may face regulatory actions or other sanctions from the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies. If the CSRC or other relevant PRC regulatory authorities subsequently determine that a prior CSRC approval is required, we may face regulatory actions or other sanctions from the CSRC or other PRC regulatory authorities. These regulatory agencies may impose fines and penalties on our operations in China, limit our ability to pay dividends outside of China, limit our operating privileges in China, delay or restrict the repatriation of the proceeds from this offering into China or take other actions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, as well as the trading price of the ADSs. The CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies also may take actions requiring us, or making it advisable for us, to halt this offering before settlement and delivery of the ADSs offered hereby. Consequently, if you engage in market trading or other activities in anticipation of and prior to settlement and delivery, you do so at the risk that settlement and delivery may not occur. In addition, if the CSRC or other regulatory agencies later promulgate new rules or explanations requiring that we obtain their approvals for this offering, we may be unable to obtain a waiver of such approval requirements, if and when procedures are established to obtain such a waiver. Any uncertainties and/or negative publicity regarding such approval requirement could have a material adverse effect on the trading price of the ADSs.

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

We have adopted amended and restated memorandum and articles of association that will become effective immediately prior to the completion of this offering. Our post-offering memorandum and articles of association will contain provisions which could limit the ability of others to acquire control of our company or cause us to engage in change-of-control transactions. These provisions could have the effect of depriving our shareholders of an opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over prevailing market prices by discouraging third parties from seeking to obtain control of our company in a tender offer or similar transaction. Our board of directors has the authority, without further action by our shareholders, to issue preferred shares in one or more series and to fix their designations, powers, preferences, privileges, and relative participating, optional or special rights and the qualifications, limitations

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or restrictions, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may be greater than the rights associated with our ordinary shares, in the form of ADS or otherwise. Preferred shares could be issued quickly with terms calculated to delay or prevent a change in control of our company or make removal of management more difficult. If our board of directors decides to issue preferred shares, the price of our ADSs may fall and the voting and other rights of the holders of our ordinary shares and ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

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

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Law (2018 Revision) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands. The rights of shareholders to take action against our directors, actions by our minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors owed to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors owed to us under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the United States. In particular, the Cayman Islands has a less developed body of securities laws than the United States. Some U.S. states, such as Delaware, have more fully developed and judicially interpreted bodies of corporate law than the Cayman Islands. In addition, Cayman Islands companies may not have standing to initiate a shareholder derivative action in a federal court of the United States.

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

As a result of all of the above, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by our management, members of our board of directors or our controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the United States. For a discussion of significant differences between the provisions of the Companies Law of the Cayman Islands and the laws applicable to companies incorporated in the United States and their shareholders, see “Description of Share Capital—Differences in Corporate Law.”

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

We are a Cayman Islands exempted company and substantially all of our assets are located outside of the United States. All of our current operations are conducted in China. In addition, most of our current directors and officers are nationals and residents of countries other than the

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United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for you to bring an action against us or against these individuals in the United States in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under the U.S. federal securities laws or otherwise. Even if you are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands and of China may render you unable to enforce a judgment against our assets or the assets of our directors and officers. For more information regarding the relevant laws of the Cayman Islands and China, see “Enforceability of Civil Liabilities.”

The depositary for our ADSs will give us a discretionary proxy to vote our Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs if you do not vote at shareholders’ meetings, except under limited circumstances, which could adversely affect your interests.

Under the deposit agreement for the ADSs, if you do not give instructions for voting the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs, the depositary will give us a discretionary proxy to vote those Class A ordinary shares at the shareholders’ meeting if:

The effect of this discretionary proxy is that you cannot prevent our Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs from being voted at the shareholder meeting if the circumstances described above are met. This may make it more difficult for shareholders to influence the management of our company. Holders of our ordinary shares are not subject to this discretionary proxy.

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

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

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

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agreement and the ADSs. It is advisable that you consult legal counsel regarding the jury waiver provision before investing in the ADSs.

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

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

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

Holders of ADSs do not have the same rights as our registered shareholders. As a holder of our ADSs, you will not have any direct right to attend general meetings of our shareholders or to cast any votes at such meetings. You will only be able to exercise the voting rights which are carried by the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs indirectly by giving voting instructions to the depositary in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under the deposit agreement, you may vote only by giving voting instructions to the depositary. If we instruct the depositary to ask for your instructions, then upon receipt of your voting instructions, the depositary will try, as far as is practicable, to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares which are represented by your ADSs in accordance with your instructions. If we do not instruct the depositary to ask for your instructions, the depositary may still vote in accordance with instructions you give, but it is not required to do so. You will not be able to directly exercise your right to vote with respect to the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs unless you withdraw the shares and become the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date for the general meeting.

Under our post-offering memorandum and articles of association that will become effective immediately prior to completion of this offering, the minimum notice period required to be given by our company to our registered shareholders to convene a general meeting will be ten days. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient advance notice of the meeting to withdraw the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs and become the registered holder of such shares to allow you to attend the general meeting and to vote directly with respect to any specific matter or resolution to be considered and voted upon at the general meeting. In addition, under our post-offering memorandum and articles of association that will become immediately effective prior to the completion of this offering, for the purposes of determining those shareholders who are entitled to attend and vote at any general meeting, our directors may close our register of members and/or fix in advance a record date for such meeting, and such closure of our register of members or the setting of such a record date may prevent you from withdrawing the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs and becoming

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the registered holder of such shares prior to the record date, so that you would not be able to attend the general meeting or to vote directly. If we ask for your instructions, the depositary will notify you of the upcoming vote and will arrange to deliver our voting materials to you. We have agreed to give the depositary at least 30 days’ prior notice of shareholder meetings. Nevertheless, we cannot assure you that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote the underlying Class A ordinary shares represented by your ADSs. In addition, the depositary and its agents are not responsible for failing to carry out voting instructions or for their manner of carrying out your voting instructions. This means that you may not be able to exercise your right to direct how the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs are voted and you may have no legal remedy if the Class A ordinary shares underlying your ADSs are not voted as you requested.

As our initial public offering price is substantially higher than our net tangible book value per share, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution.

If you purchase ADSs in this offering, you will pay more for your ADSs than the amount paid by existing shareholders for their ordinary shares on a per ADS basis. As a result, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution of US$9.79 per ADS (assuming no exercise of outstanding options to acquire ordinary shares), representing the difference between our pro forma as adjusted net tangible book value per ADS of US$3.01 as of December 31, 2018, after giving effect to this offering, and the assumed initial public offering price per share of US$12.80 per ADS (the midpoint of the estimated initial public offering price range set forth on the front cover page of this prospectus). In addition, you may experience further dilution to the extent that our ordinary shares are issued upon the exercise of share options. All of the ordinary shares issuable upon the exercise of currently outstanding share options will be issued at a purchase price on a per ADS basis that is less than the initial public offering price per ADS in this offering. See “Dilution” for a more complete description of how the value of your investment in the ADSs will be diluted upon the completion of this offering.

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

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

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

Your ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its books at any time or from time to time when it deems 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

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public holidays. The depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of our ADSs generally when our share register or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary thinks it is advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason.

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

Because we are a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain provisions of the securities rules and regulations in the United States that are applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, including: (i) the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K with the SEC; (ii) the sections of the Exchange Act regulating the solicitation of proxies, consents, or authorizations in respect of a security registered under the Exchange Act; (iii) the sections of the Exchange Act requiring insiders to file public reports of their stock ownership and trading activities and liability for insiders who profit from trades made in a short period of time; and (iv) the selective disclosure rules by issuers of material nonpublic information under Regulation FD.

We will be required to file an annual report on Form 20-F within four months of the end of each fiscal year. In addition, we intend to publish our results on a quarterly basis through press releases, distributed pursuant to the rules and regulations of Nasdaq Stock Market LLC. Press releases relating to financial results and material events will also be furnished to the SEC on Form 6-K. However, the information we are required to file with or furnish to the SEC will be less extensive and less timely compared to that required to be filed with the SEC by U.S. domestic issuers. As a result, you may not be afforded the same protections or information, which would be made available to you, were you investing in a U.S. domestic issuer.

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

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

We will incur increased costs as a result of being a public company, particularly after we cease to qualify as an “emerging growth company.”

Upon completion of this offering, we will become a public company and expect to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, impose various requirements on the corporate governance practices of public companies. As a company with less than US$1.07 billion in revenues for our last fiscal year, we qualify as an “emerging growth company” pursuant to the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include exemption from the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, in the

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assessment of the emerging growth company’s internal control over financial reporting. The JOBS Act also permits an emerging growth company to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. However, we have elected to “opt out” of this provision and, as a result, we will comply with new or revised accounting standards as required when they are adopted for public companies.

We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some corporate activities more time-consuming and costly. After we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the other rules and regulations of the SEC. For example, as a result of becoming a public company, we will need to increase the number of independent directors and adopt policies regarding internal controls and disclosure controls and procedures. We also expect that 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. In addition, we will incur additional costs associated with our public company reporting requirements. 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.

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

As a Cayman Islands exempted company listed on Nasdaq Stock Market LLC, we are subject to the Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards. However, Nasdaq Stock Market LLC rules permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, may differ significantly from the Nasdaq Stock Market corporate governance listing standards. We do not currently plan to utilize the home country exemption for corporate governance matters immediately upon the listing of our ADSs on the Nasdaq Stock Market LLC. However, if we choose to follow home country practice in the future, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they would otherwise enjoy under the Nasdaq corporate governance listing standards applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

We will be a “controlled company” within the meaning of the Nasdaq Stock Market Rules and, as a result, can rely on exemptions from certain corporate governance requirements that provide protection to shareholders of other companies.

Upon the completion of this offering, we will be a “controlled company” as defined under the Nasdaq Stock Market Rules because Mr. Xing Jin, our co-founder, chairman of the board of directors and chief executive officer, will own more than 50% of our total voting power. For so long as we remain a controlled company under that definition, we are permitted to elect to rely, and may rely, on certain exemptions from corporate governance rules. For example, we may rely on the exemption from the corporate governance rule that a majority of our board of directors must be independent directors. As a result, you may not have the same protection afforded to shareholders of companies that are subject to these corporate governance requirements.

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We may be a passive foreign investment company, which could result in adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences to U.S. investors owning our ADSs or ordinary shares.

We will be classified as a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for any taxable year if either (a) 75% or more of our gross income for such year consists of certain types of “passive” income or (b) 50% or more of the value of our assets (determined on the basis of a quarterly average) during such year produce or are held for the production of passive income (the “asset test”). Although the law in this regard is unclear, we intend to treat our VIE (including its subsidiaries) as being owned by us for United States federal income tax purposes, not only because we exercise effective control over the operation of such entities but also because we are entitled to substantially all of their economic benefits, and, as a result, we consolidate their results of operations in our consolidated financial statements. Assuming that we are the owner of our VIE (including its subsidiaries) for United States federal income tax purposes, and based upon our current and expected income and assets, including goodwill (taking into account the expected proceeds from this offering) and projections as to the market price of our ADSs following the offering, we do not presently expect to be a PFIC for the current taxable year or the foreseeable future.

While we do not expect to become a PFIC, because the value of our assets for purposes of the asset test may be determined by reference to the market price of our ADSs, fluctuations in the market price of our ADSs may cause us to become a PFIC for the current or subsequent taxable years. In addition, the composition of our income and assets will also be affected by how, and how quickly, we use our liquid assets and the cash raised in this offering. If we determine not to deploy significant amounts of cash for active purposes or if it were determined that we do not own the stock of our VIE for United States federal income tax purposes, our risk of being a PFIC may substantially increase. Because PFIC status is a factual determination made annually after the close of each taxable year, there can be no assurance that we will not be a PFIC for the current taxable year or any future taxable year.

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

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