RISK FACTORS

An investment in the ADSs involves significant risks. You should carefully consider all the information in this prospectus, including the risks and uncertainties described below, before making an investment in the 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 the ADSs could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Relating to Our Business and Industry

If we fail to retain our existing users, keep them engaged or further grow our user base, our business, operation, profitability and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

The size of our user base and the level of our user engagement are critical to our success. Our voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform depends on our ability to maintain and increase the size of our user base and user engagement level. We may be unable to attract and retain users or convert non-paying users into paying users. A decline in our user base may also adversely affect the engagement level of our users and vibrancy of the Yalla community, which may in turn reduce attractiveness of our platform and reduce our monetization opportunities. Any of these factors could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Maintaining and improving the size of our user base and level of user engagement is critical to our continued success. To maintain and improve the size of our user base and high level of user engagement, we would have to ensure that we adequately and timely respond to changes in user preferences, adapt to cultural differences in our target markets, and offer new features that may attract new users, among others. There is no guarantee that we could meet any or all of these goals. A number of factors could negatively affect user retention, growth and engagement, including if:

If we cannot retain our existing users and expand our user base, the network effect provided by the social nature of our platform will diminish and the popularity of our platform and its profitability may be materially and adversely affected. As a result, our results of operations and financial conditions may be material and adversely affected.

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We face risks and uncertainties regarding the growth of the voice-centric social networking and entertainment industry and market acceptance of our platform and services.

The voice-centric social networking and entertainment industry is a relatively new and evolving industry. The growth of the voice-centric social networking and entertainment industry and the level of demand and market acceptance of our platform and services are subject to a high degree of uncertainty. Our future operating results will depend on a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include:

If we fail to anticipate and effectively manage these risks and uncertainties, our market share may decrease, and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

If we fail to effectively manage our growth and control our spending to maintain such growth, our brand, business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We have experienced a period of rapid growth and expansion that has placed, and continues to place, significant strain on our management and resources. However, given our limited operating history and the rapidly evolving markets in which we compete, we may encounter difficulties as we expand our operations, technology and product development, selling and marketing, and general and administrative capabilities. We cannot assure you that this level of growth will be sustainable in the future. We believe that our continued growth will depend on our ability to attract and retain users, develop an infrastructure to serve and support an expanding user base, increase user engagement levels, explore new monetization avenues, and convert non-paying users to paying users, among others. We cannot assure you that we will be successful with any of the above.

To manage our growth and maintain profitability, we expect our costs and expenses to continue to increase in the future as we anticipate that we will need to continue to implement, from time to time, a variety of new and upgraded operational and technology systems. We will also need to expand, train, manage and motivate our workforce and manage our relationships with users. All of these endeavors involve risks and will require substantial management efforts, skills and significant additional expenditures. We expect to continue to invest in our infrastructure in order to enable us to provide our services rapidly and reliably to users. Continued growth would put strains on our ability to maintain reliable service levels for all of our users. Managing our growth will require significant expenditures and involve the allocation of valuable management resources. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency in our organization as we grow, our business, operating results and financial condition could be harmed.

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Our revenue model for voice-centric social networking and entertainment community may not remain effective and we cannot guarantee that our future monetization strategies will be successfully implemented or generate sustainable revenues and profit.

We operate our voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform using a revenue model whereby users can get free access to the basic functions on our platform but have the options to purchase virtual currencies. Users can spend virtual currencies to purchase virtual items or upgrade services, on our platform. We have generated, and expect to continue to generate, our revenues primarily from users’ consumptions of virtual items and upgrade services on our platform. Although our voice-centric social networking and entertainment business has experienced significant growth in recent years, we may not achieve a similar growth rate in the future, as the user demand for this service may change, decrease substantially or dissipate, or we may fail to anticipate and serve user demands effectively.

Although we design the virtual currency systems on our platform based on our knowledge about users’ preferences and behavior, there can be no assurance that users will continue to purchase and spend our virtual currencies. If users’ spending habits change and they choose to only access our platform for free without additional purchases, we may not be able to continue to successfully implement the virtual currency-based revenue model for our platform, in which case we may have to develop other value-added services or products to monetize our user base. We cannot guarantee that our attempts to monetize our user base will continue to be successful, profitable or widely accepted, and therefore the future revenue and income potential of our business are difficult to evaluate.

If we fail to maintain and enhance our brand or if we incur excessive expenses in this effort, our business, results of operations and prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

We believe that maintaining and enhancing our brand is of significant importance to the success of our business. A well-recognized brand is important to increasing the number of users and the level of engagement of our users. Since we operate in a highly competitive market, brand maintenance and enhancement directly affect our ability to maintain our market position.

We have developed our Yalla brand mostly through word of mouth referrals and advertisement on search engines, app stores and other social media platforms. As we expand, we may conduct various additional marketing and brand promotion activities using more methods and channels to continue promoting our brand. We cannot assure you, however, that these activities will be successful or that we will be able to achieve the brand promotion effect we expect.

In addition, any negative publicity in relation to our platform, services or operations, regardless of its veracity, could harm our brands and reputation. We have sometimes received, and expect to continue to receive, complaints from users regarding the quality of the services we offer. Negative publicity or public complaints may harm our reputation, and if complaints against us are not addressed to users’ satisfaction, our reputation and our market position could be significantly harmed, which may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects.

We plan to continue expanding into additional markets where we have limited operating experience and may be subject to increased business, economic and other risks that could affect our operating results.

We are headquartered in the UAE, and MENA is our key market. As of June 30, 2020, our mobile platform was available in over 100 countries, with Yalla in eight languages and Yalla Ludo in three languages. We believe the sustainable growth of our business depends on our ability to increase the penetration of our products in both our existing and new markets. Our continued international operations and global expansion may result in increased costs and expose us to a number of challenges and risks, including:

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In particular, we face significant challenges to ensure the content presented on our platform is in compliance with the different regulatory frameworks in the jurisdictions in which our platform is available. These jurisdictions may impose stringent restrictions on the content generated by users and onerous requirements for online platforms to monitor content, and our expansion into new markets could cause substantial increases in our compliance costs. Our experience in existing markets may be of limited value in new markets. The different and potentially more stringent regulatory environments in the new markets may increase our risk exposure in our operations. Any incidents related to our failure to comply with applicable laws and regulations or remove inappropriate content could materially and adversely affect our business operations and our reputation.

Our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected by these challenges and risks associated with our global operations.

We face competition in several major aspects of our business. If we fail to compete effectively, we may lose users, which could in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We face competition in several major aspects of our business. We directly compete with other voice-centric social networking and entertainment platforms for users. In addition, we compete with other social networking and entertainment platforms. Some of our competitors may have longer operating histories and significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources than we do, and in turn may have an advantage in attracting and retaining users and potential business partners. In addition, our competitors may have significantly larger user bases and more established brand names and user stickiness than we do and therefore are able to more effectively leverage their user bases and brand names to provide online social network and other products and services, and thereby increase their respective market shares. In addition, as user preferences evolve, new forms of mobile entertainment may emerge in the future and compete with our platform.

If we are not able to compete effectively, our overall user base and level of user engagement may decrease, which could reduce the number of our paying users or make us less attractive to potential users and potential business partners. We may be required to devote additional resources to further increasing our brand recognition and promoting our platform and services, and such additional spending may adversely affect our profitability and may not generate the expected results cost-effectively, or at all. Furthermore, if we are involved in disputes with any of our competitors that result in negative publicity to us, such disputes, regardless of their veracity or outcome, may harm our reputation or brand image and in turn lead to a reduced number of users for our platform. Any legal proceedings or measures we take in response to such disputes may be expensive, time-consuming and disruptive to our operations and divert our management’s attention.

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Our limited operating history with a relatively new business model in a relatively new market makes it difficult to evaluate our business and growth prospects.

Our business operations commenced in April 2016, with commercialization beginning in the same year. We have experienced growth in the number of active users and total revenues in recent years. Our average MAUs increased from 2.2 million in the three months ended December 31, 2018 to 4.2 million in the same period of 2019, and further increased to 12.5 million in the second quarter of 2020. Our paying users experienced similar rapid growth during the period. Our revenues increased by 49.8% from US$42.4 million in 2018 to US$63.5 million in 2019, and increased by 99.6% from US$26.4 million in the six months ended June 30, 2019 to US$52.8 million in the same period in 2020. Our net income more than doubled from US$11.4 million in the six months ended June 30, 2019 to US$25.2 million in the six months ended June 30, 2020, representing net margins of 43.3% and 47.8%, respectively. However, our operational and financial growth in 2018, 2019 and the six months ended June 30, 2020 may not be indicative of our future performance, as our operating results represent a limited history and sample size and may be hard to repeat in the future. For example, since the COVID-19 outbreak, people in impacted regions, including MENA, have generally spent more time online and engaged in more online social networking and entertainment activities, which contributed to the significant increase in our MAU, paying users, revenues and net income in the six months ended June 30, 2020. We cannot assure you that we will be able to maintain such growth after quarantine measures and other restrictions due to COVID-19 pandemic are lifted and more offline activities are resumed in our target markets. Moreover, the PRC government exempted or reduced certain enterprises’ contributions to basic pension insurance, unemployment insurance, and work injury insurance due to the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, and our PRC subsidiaries were exempted from contributions to certain social insurance between February 2020 and June 2020. Our costs and expenses will likely increase after these exemptions are removed.

Many elements of our business are evolving. The markets for our voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform and the related services are relatively new and rapidly developing and are subject to significant challenges, especially in terms of converting non-paying users to paying users, maintaining a stable paying user base and attracting new paying users. Our business plan relies heavily upon an expanding user base and the resulting increased revenues from users’ consumptions of virtual items and upgrade services, as well as our ability to capitalize on growth opportunities in the social networking and entertainment industry and explore other monetization avenues. We may not succeed in any of these aspects.

As the voice-centric social networking and entertainment industry in our target markets is relatively young, there are few proven methods of projecting user demand or available industry standards on which we can rely. Our current monetization method is also at a relatively preliminary stage. For example, if we fail to properly manage the volume and price of our virtual items or upgrade services, our users may be less likely to purchase them. We cannot assure you that our monetization attempts will be successful, profitable or accepted by users, and therefore it may be difficult to gauge the income potential of our business.

Addressing these risks and uncertainties will require significant capital expenditures and allocation of valuable management and employee resources. If we fail to successfully address any of the above risks and uncertainties, the size of our user base, our revenues and our operating margin may decline.

Our community culture is vital to our success. Our operations may be materially and adversely affected if we fail to maintain the culture of the Yalla community.

We have cultivated an interactive and vibrant online community centered on our voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform. We strive to provide premium user experience by continuously improving user interfaces and features of our platform to adapt to the relevant local cultures and by encouraging social interactions among users. We believe that maintaining and promoting such a vibrant community culture is critical to retaining and expanding our user base. We have taken multiple initiatives to preserve our community culture and values. Leveraging our insights into MENA culture and local user preferences, we infuse our user interfaces with local cultural elements. For non-English versions of Yalla, we update the user interface with color

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themes and logos related to specific local holidays to celebrate with our users, and virtual gifts are typically designed based on local customs. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain our community culture and remain as the preferred platform for our target users. For example, frictions among our users and inflammatory comments posted by Internet trolls and any inappropriate handling of these frictions may damage our community culture and brand image. Any failure to timely screen out and remove illegal or inappropriate content posted on our platform or to identify and close fake accounts of Internet trolls could also adversely affect users’ perception of and experience on our platform. Any damage to our community culture could materially and adversely affect our business prospects and results of operations.

Our business is highly dependent on the proper functioning and improvement of our information technology systems and infrastructure. Our business and operating results may be harmed by service disruptions, or by our failure to timely and effectively scale up and adjust our existing technology and infrastructure.

The popularity of our platform and services and our ability to further monetize our user base depend on our ability to adapt to rapidly changing technologies as well as our ability to continually innovate in response to evolving consumer demands and expectations and market competition. Our ability to provide a superior user experience on our platform depends on the continuous and reliable operation of our IT systems.

We may not be able to procure sufficient bandwidth in a timely manner or on acceptable terms or at all. Failure to do so may significantly impair user experience on our platform and decrease the overall effectiveness of our platform to users. Our IT systems are vulnerable to damage or interruption as a result of fires, floods, earthquakes, power losses, telecommunications failures, undetected errors in software, computer viruses, hacking and other attempts to harm our IT systems. Disruptions, failures, unscheduled service interruptions or a decrease in connection speeds could damage our reputation and cause our users to migrate to our competitors’ platforms. If we experience frequent or constant service disruptions, whether caused by failures of our own IT systems or those of third-party service providers, our user experience may be negatively affected, which in turn may have a material and adverse effect on our reputation and business. We may not be successful in minimizing the frequency or duration of service interruptions. As the number of our users increases and our users generate more content on our platform, we may be required to expand and adjust our technology and infrastructure to continue to reliably store and monitor content generated by users on our platform. It may become increasingly difficult to maintain and improve the performance of our platform, particularly during peak usage times, as our services become more complex and as our user base increases.

We use third-party services and technologies in connection with our business, and any disruption to the provision of these services and technologies to us could result in negative publicity and a slowdown in the growth of our user base, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business partially depends on services provided by, and relationships with, various third parties. For example, we source audio processing and multi-party real-time communication solutions from third parties to support all of our Yalla rooms and we use servers of a third party for data storage and processing. We also rely on third parties to provide software and other IT services to us. If such third parties terminate their services to us or if they encounter technological or other difficulties, we may not be able to find alternative solutions in a timely manner or on terms satisfactory to us. In particular, there are only a limited number of providers of high quality audio processing solutions in the market. In addition, certain third-party software we use in our operations is currently publicly available free of charge. If the provider of any such software decides to charge users or no longer makes the software publicly available, we may need to incur significant costs to obtain licensing, find replacement software or develop it on our own. If we are unable to obtain licensing, find or develop replacement software at a reasonable cost, or at all, our business and operations may be adversely affected.

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In addition, we process purchases of our virtual currencies through third-party payment platforms. If any of these third-party payment platforms suffer from security breaches or leakage of user information, users may lose confidence in such payment systems or channels and refrain from purchasing our virtual currencies, in which case our results of operations would be negatively impacted. See “—The security of operations of, and fees charged by, third-party payment platforms may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.”

Certain of our customer service staff are employees of third-party service providers incorporated in Egypt and the UAE. If the third parties’ employees fail to provide satisfactory services to our users, we may not be able to rectify the deficiency in a timely manner, and our business could be adversely affected. Labor or contractual disputes could also arise among us, the third-party service providers and/or the relevant customer service staff, which could cause disturbance of services to our users.

We exercise no control over the third parties with whom we have business arrangements. If such third parties increase their prices, fail to provide their services effectively, terminate their services or agreements or discontinue their relationships with us, we could suffer service interruptions, reduced revenues or increased costs, any of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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

Our business could be adversely affected by the effects of epidemics or pandemics. In recent years, there have been outbreaks of epidemics in MENA, China and globally. Our business operations could be disrupted if any of our employees are suspected of having COVID-19, H1N1 flu, avian flu or another epidemic or pandemic, 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 the outbreak harms the economy in our target markets in general and the mobile Internet industry in particular. In particular, COVID-19 has spread globally in the first quarter of 2020, including several countries in MENA. Government measures designed to control the spread of the virus, such as restrictions on travel and the closing-down of businesses to the public, may result in a decline of economic activities in our target markets. Such decline may have a material and adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. The extent of such impact will depend largely on future developments, which are highly uncertain, including the severity of the outbreak in our target markets and future government measures in response to the outbreak, among other things. In addition, we have implemented working-from-home arrangements for our employees as a result of the outbreak. While we have not experienced any disruption in our operations, such arrangements may adversely affect the efficiency of our workforce.

To the extent the COVID-19 pandemic adversely affects our business and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section, such as those relating to our ability to grow our user base and implement our monetization strategies.

We are also vulnerable to natural disasters and other calamities. It is possible that we may be unable to recover certain data in the event of a server failure. We cannot assure you that any backup systems will be adequate to protect us from the effects of fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events. Any of the foregoing 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.

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Our business is sensitive to global political and economic conditions. A severe or prolonged downturn in the global economy could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The global macroeconomic environment is facing challenges. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies, including the United States. There have been concerns over unrest and terrorist threats in MENA, Europe and Africa, which have resulted in volatility in oil and other markets, and concerns over the conflicts involving Ukraine, Syria and North Korea.

We are headquartered in the UAE. MENA is our key market. While the UAE is seen to have a relatively stable political environment, certain other jurisdictions in MENA are not. In particular, since early 2011 there have been increased political risks in several countries in the region, including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia and Syria. These risks have ranged from public demonstrations to, in extreme cases, armed conflicts and civil war and have given rise to a number of regime changes and increased political uncertainty across the region. In particular, the armed conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have the potential to further destabilize the region, further increase uncertainty and have a material negative impact on the regional economy. In mid-2017, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and certain other countries imposed sanctions on Qatar, which remain in place. In January 2020, the United States conducted a drone strike that killed the Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, which escalated tensions between the United States and Iran and heightened the risk for a military conflict between the two countries. The fluctuations in oil price and the outbreak of COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2020 may materially and adversely affect the economic conditions in MENA. The financial, political and general economic conditions prevailing from time to time across MENA may affect mobile users’ willingness and ability to spend on the mobile Internet and have a material adverse impact on our performance and operating results. It is not possible to predict the occurrence of events or circumstances such as war or hostilities, or the impact of such occurrences, and no assurance can be given that we would be able to sustain our current profit levels if adverse political events or circumstances were to occur, particularly in MENA. A general downturn or instability in certain sectors of MENA’s economies could have an adverse effect on our business. In addition, we may be affected by unexpected changes in regulations and enforcement, nationalization of assets and other governmental actions by the host countries, government regulations that favor local competitors, changing taxation policies, restrictions on converting foreign currencies into U.S. dollars, most of which are beyond our control. Investors should also note that our business could be adversely affected by political, economic or related developments both within and outside MENA because of inter-relationships within the global financial markets.

Significant political, social and economic instability in one or more of our markets could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Any severe or prolonged slowdown in the global economy may also materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, continued turbulence in the international markets may adversely affect our ability to access capital markets to meet liquidity needs.

We have not recognized any share-based compensation expense in the past but will recognize a substantial amount of share-based compensation expense upon the completion of this offering, which will have a significant impact on our results of operations.

On June 22, 2018, we adopted the 2018 Plan, which was amended and restated on November 19, 2019 and was further amended in June 2020. See “Management—Share Incentive Plans” for a detailed discussion. As of the date of this prospectus, we are authorized to grant share awards for issuance of up to a maximum of 41,733,506 ordinary shares under the 2018 Plan, and options to purchase 41,733,506 ordinary shares under the 2018 Plan have been granted and outstanding. We are required to recognize compensation expense for an equity award over the period in which the recipient is required to provide service in exchange for the equity award. Because the share options granted by us can only be exercised upon completion of this offering, we have not

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recognized share-based compensation expense relating to these share options granted by us yet. We will recognize compensation expenses relating to options vested cumulatively upon the completion of this offering. As of June 30, 2020, the total unrecognized compensation expense associated with share options amounted to US$137.5 million, of which US$32.2 million was based on the degree of service period that had been completed as of June 30, 2020. Assuming that this offering is completed prior to October 31, 2020, we would recognize share-based compensation expenses in the amount of US$60.9 million for the options outstanding as of the date of this prospectus in the three months ending December 31, 2020. On August 31, 2020, we adopted the 2020 Plan. See “Management—Share Incentive Plans” for a detailed discussion. As of the date of this prospectus, we are authorized to grant share awards for issuance of up to a maximum of 2,492,603 ordinary shares under the 2020 Plan, and no share awards have been granted under the 2020 Plan. If additional share options or other equity incentives are granted to our employees, directors or consultants in the future, we will incur additional share-based compensation expense and our results of operations will be further adversely affected.

User growth and engagement depend upon effective interoperation with mobile operating systems, networks, devices and standards that we do not control.

We make our mobile applications available across a variety of mobile operating systems and devices. We are dependent on the effective interoperation of our mobile applications with mobile operating systems, such as Android and iOS, networks, devices and standards, which we do not control. Any changes in such mobile operating systems, networks, devices or standards that degrade the functionality of our mobile applications or give preferential treatment to competitive products could adversely affect usage of our mobile applications and our ability to deliver high quality user experience. We may not be successful in developing relationships with key participants in the mobile industry or in developing mobile applications that operate effectively with these mobile operating systems, networks, devices and standards. In the event that it is difficult for our users to access and use our mobile applications, particularly on their mobile devices, our user growth and user engagement could be harmed, and our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

User misconduct and misuse of our platform may adversely impact our brand image, and we may be held liable for information or content displayed on, retrieved from or linked to our platform, or distributed to our users, and the relevant local authorities may impose restrictions on access to our platform.

Our voice-centric social networking and entertainment platform enables users to chat, play games and engage in various forms of other online communications in real time. We also allow users to share texts, images and other content with each other through our platform. However, our platform does not require real-name registration and identity verification of our users. In addition, because all of the audio and text communications on our platform are conducted in real time, we are unable to examine the content generated by our users on air before they are streamed on our platform. We require all users to agree to our terms of service upon account registration. Our terms of service set out types of content strictly prohibited on our platform, and we have also developed a content monitoring system that utilizes primarily automation, as well as manual screening, to filter inappropriate content. We also encourage users to report any noncompliance of our terms of service. However, due to the immense quantity of user-generated content on our platform, we may not be able to detect all violations of our terms of service or inappropriate or illegal content streamed, displayed or exchanged over our platform, or determine the type of content or actions that may result in liability to us. Our automated screening system may fail to timely screen out and remove inappropriate or illegal content. As such, relevant government authorities could identify inappropriate or illegal content on our platform, which could lead to restrictions on access to our platform in the relevant jurisdictions. Even if we manage to identify and remove offensive content, we may still be held liable. Negative publicity of incidents related to inappropriate or illegal content on our platform or any misuse of our platform by users could also adversely affect our brand image. As a result, our ability to retain or increase our user base and user engagement may be adversely affected, we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenues as anticipated, and our business prospects and financial results could be adversely affected.

Additionally, it is possible that our users may engage in illegal, obscene or incendiary conversations or activities on or through our platform that may be deemed illegal under the relevant local laws and regulations or inappropriate under local cultures or customs, for which we may be subject to potential liability. Content

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generated, including text and images posted, by our users may infringe on rights of others. In addition, because we offer our mobile applications in a large number of jurisdictions, and we have not implemented any user screening procedures, we cannot ensure that our provision of online social networking and entertainment services to all users is in compliance with all applicable laws. The jurisdictions in which our mobile applications are available may have regulations governing the distribution of information over the Internet. These regulations may prohibit the display of content that, among other things, impairs the public interest, or is obscene, superstitious, fraudulent or defamatory. For example, the regulations in some countries in MENA and Southeast Asia prohibit online social networking platforms from being used for dating, pornographic or gambling purposes. While we do not believe our mobile applications are provided to users for any of these purposes, we cannot control how users interact online or offline other than through content monitoring on our mobile applications. We may be subject to fines or other disciplinary actions as prescribed under the relevant local laws and regulations. We may also face claims for defamation, libel, negligence, aiding-and-abetting liability, infringement of copyright, patent, trademark or other intellectual property or third-party rights, other unlawful activities or other theories and claims based on the nature and content of the information delivered on or otherwise accessed through our platform. For example, if any of our users suffers or alleges to have suffered physical, financial or emotional harm as a result of content posted on or conduct initiated from our platform, we may face legal actions initiated by the affected user. In response to such lawsuits, government authorities may take regulatory actions against us based on alleged non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations, such as prohibitions of illegal or inappropriate content on mobile platforms. Defending any such actions could be costly and involve significant time and attention of our management and other resources, which would materially and adversely affect our business and operations. Moreover, the costs of compliance with these regulations may increase as a result of the expansion of our platform, which may adversely affect our results of operations. We may also be required to restrict, discontinue or make other changes to certain features and services provided on our mobile applications, and we may even be prohibited from providing our mobile applications to users in certain jurisdictions. As a result, our business may suffer, our user base, revenue growth and profitability may be materially and adversely affected, and the price of our ADSs may decline.

Malicious software and applications may affect user experience, which could reduce our ability to attract users and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Malicious software and applications may interrupt the operations of our platform and pass on such malware to our users which could adversely hinder user experience. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to successfully block these attacks. If users experience a malware attack by using our platform, our users may associate the malware with our platform. As a result, our reputation, business, and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

The security of operations of, and fees charged by, third-party payment platforms may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

Currently, we process purchases of our virtual currencies through third-party payment platforms. In all of these payment transactions, secured transmission of confidential information such as the users’ credit card numbers and personal information over public networks and through the payment platforms is essential to maintaining consumer confidence.

We do not have control over the security measures of our third-party payment platforms. Any security breaches of a payment platform that we use could expose us to litigation and possible liability for failing to secure confidential customer information and could, among other things, damage our reputation and the perceived security of the other payment platforms that we use. If a well-publicized Internet or mobile network security breach were to occur, users may become reluctant to purchase our virtual currencies, even if such breach did not involve payment systems or methods used by us. In addition, there may be billing software errors that would damage customer confidence in these payment platforms. If any of the above were to occur and damage our reputation or the perceived security of the payment platforms we use, we may lose paying users and users may be discouraged from spending on our platform, which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

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In addition, there are currently only a limited number of reputable third-party payment systems in our target markets. If any of these major payment systems decides to cease to provide services to us, or significantly increases the fee rates it charges us for using its payment systems for our virtual currencies, our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Users’ payments to purchase and use of virtual currencies on our mobile applications could expose us to additional regulatory requirements and other risks that could be costly or difficult to comply with.

We may be subject to a variety of laws and regulations in the various jurisdictions where our users are located in respect of the users’ payments to purchase virtual currencies on our applications through third-party payment platforms, including those governing money transmission, gift cards and other prepaid access instruments, electronic funds transfers, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, gambling, banking and lending. In some jurisdictions, the application or interpretation of these laws and regulations may be unclear. Our efforts to comply with these laws and regulations could be costly and result in diversion of management time and effort and may still not guarantee compliance. In the event that we are found to be in violation of any such legal or regulatory requirements, we may be subject to monetary fines or other penalties, or we may be required to make product or marketing practice changes, any of which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial results. In addition, we may be subject to a variety of additional risks as a result of these payments by users, including potential fraudulent or otherwise illegal activity by users, employees, or third parties.

Changes in laws and regulations related to the Internet and mobile Internet, perceptions toward the use of social media and changes in Internet infrastructure itself may diminish the demand for our platform or products and could adversely affect our business and results of operations.

The success of our business depends upon the continued use of the Internet or mobile Internet and social media. Relevant government regulatory authorities, including those in MENA, may adopt laws or regulations that restrict the use of the Internet, mobile Internet or social media in the future. In addition, government agencies or private organizations may impose additional taxes, fees or other charges for accessing the Internet. These laws, taxes, fees or charges could limit the use of the Internet or mobile Internet or decrease the demand for online social media.

In addition, the performance of our platform could be adversely affected due to delays in the development or adoption of new standards and protocols to handle increased demands of Internet activity, security, reliability, cost, ease-of-use, accessibility and quality of services. The performance of the Internet and mobile Internet has been adversely affected by “viruses,” “worms” and similar malicious programs, as well as the risks associated with other types of security breaches. If the use of the Internet or mobile Internet is reduced as a result of these or other issues, then demand for our platform could decline, which could adversely affect our revenue, business, results of operations and financial condition.

Concerns about collection, use, retention, transfer, disclosure, processing and security of personal data could damage our reputation and deter current and potential users from using our platform and services, or subject us to significant compliance costs or penalties, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Concerns about our practices with regard to the collection, use, retention, transfer, disclosure, processing and security of personal information or other privacy-related matters, such as cybersecurity breaches, misuse of personal data and data sharing without necessary safeguards, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation and operating results. MENA is our key market, and the two data centers with servers that collect and process our user data are located in Germany and Hong Kong. As of June 30, 2020, our platform was available in over 100 countries. The regulatory frameworks regarding privacy issues in many jurisdictions are constantly evolving and can be subject to significant changes from time to time, and therefore we may not be able to comprehensively assess the scope and extent of our compliance responsibility at a global level. Furthermore, the developing

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requirements relating to clear and prominent privacy notices (including in the context of obtaining informed and specific consents to the collection and processing of personal data, where applicable) may potentially deter users from consenting to certain uses of their personal information. In general, negative publicity of us or our industry regarding actual or perceived violations of our users’ privacy-related rights, including fines and enforcement actions against us or other similarly placed businesses, may also impair users’ trust in our privacy practices and make them reluctant to give their consent to share their data with us.

This risk is enhanced in certain jurisdictions with stringent, extra-territorial data protection laws, and the two regulations that have significant impacts on our industry are the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 that became applicable on May 25, 2018, or the GDPR, and the California Consumer Privacy Act that became effective on January 1, 2020, or the CCPA. The GDPR places stringent obligations and operational requirements on processors and controllers of personal data, including, for example, requiring expanded disclosures to data subjects about how their personal data is to be used, limitations on retention of information, mandatory data breach notification requirements, and higher standards for data controllers to demonstrate that they have obtained either valid consent or have another legal basis in place to justify their data processing activities. The GDPR also enhances the rights of data subjects, who may, for example, request access to their personal data, the deletion and amendment of their personal data, or to have their personal data transferred to another service provider. Data subjects also have the right to be compensated for any material or non-material damage suffered as a result of a controller or processor’s non-compliance with the GDPR. Under the GDPR, data protection supervisory authorities are also given various enforcement powers, including that they can levy fines of up to Euro 20 million or up to 4% of an organization’s total worldwide annual turnover for the preceding financial year, whichever is higher, for non-compliance, which significantly increases our potential financial exposure for non-compliance. While the GDPR provides a more harmonized approach to data protection regulation across the EU member states, it also gives EU member states certain areas of discretion and therefore laws and regulations in relation to certain data processing activities may differ on a member state by member state basis, which could further limit our ability to use and share personal data and could require localized changes to our operating model. The EU has also released a proposed Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications 2002, or the ePrivacy Regulation, to replace the EU’s current Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive, or the ePrivacy Directive, to, among other things, achieve a greater harmonization among EU member states and better align the rules governing online tracking technologies and electronic communications (for example, in relation to the use of cookies and similar technologies and protection against email spam) with the requirements of the GDPR. While the ePrivacy Regulation was originally intended to be adopted on May 25, 2018 (alongside the GDPR), it is currently going through the European legislative process, and commentators now expect it to be adopted by the end of 2020. The current draft of the ePrivacy Regulation significantly increases fining powers to the same levels as GDPR and may lead to broader restrictions on our online activities, including efforts to understand followers’ Internet usage and promote ourselves to them. Outside of the EU, many jurisdictions have adopted or are adopting new data privacy and data protection laws, which may result in additional expenses to us and increase the risk of non-compliance. For example, the CCPA creates new data privacy rights for users and new operational requirements for businesses. The CCPA gives California residents expanded rights to access and delete their personal information, opt out of certain personal information sharing (and sales of personal data) and receive detailed information about how their personal information is used. The CCPA provides for civil penalties for violations, as well as a private right of action for data breaches that is expected to increase data breach litigation. Furthermore, we may need to comply with regulations in other territories that may impose further onerous compliance requirements, such as data localization, which prohibits companies from storing data relating to resident individuals in data centers outside the jurisdiction. The proliferation of such laws within jurisdictions and countries in which we operate may result in conflicting and contradictory requirements.

While we strive to comply with our data privacy guidelines as well as all applicable data protection laws and regulations or contract obligations, any failure or perceived failure to comply, including in relation to lawful basis of data processing and providing users with sufficient information with respect to our use of their personal data, may result in proceedings or actions against us, including fines and penalties on us, by government entities

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or proceedings or actions against us by our business partners or others (including enforcement orders requiring us to cease collecting or processing data in a certain way), and could damage our reputation and discourage current and future users from using our mobile applications. In addition, compliance with applicable laws on data privacy requires substantial expenditure and resources, including to continually evaluate our policies and processes and adapt to new requirements that are or become applicable to us on a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction basis, which would impose significant burdens and costs on our operations or may require us to alter our business practices. Concerns about the security of personal data could also lead to a decline in general Internet usage, which could lead to lower registered, active or paying user numbers on our platform. Furthermore, if the local government authorities in our target markets require real-name registration for users of our platform, the growth of our user numbers may slow down and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected. A significant reduction in registered, active or paying user numbers could lead to lower revenues, which could have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to prevent security breaches, cyber-attacks or other unauthorized access to our systems or our users’ data, we may be exposed to significant consequences, including legal and financial exposure and loss of users, and our reputation, business and operating results may be materially and adversely affected.

We collect, store, transmit and process personal and other sensitive data generated by our users through their interactions with our apps. We may be exposed to risks of security breaches or unauthorized access to or cyber-attacks on our systems or the data we store. Our efforts to protect our data may be unsuccessful due to software “bugs,” system errors or other technical deficiencies, mistakes or malfeasance of our employees or contractors, vulnerabilities of our vendors and service providers, or other cybersecurity-related vulnerabilities. Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to prevent and detect security breaches and protect our users’ data, we cannot guarantee that such measures will be sufficient defenses against the evolving techniques used to obtain unauthorized access, disable or degrade services or sabotage systems. Any failure to prevent, detect, or mitigate security breaches, cyber-attacks or other unauthorized access to our systems, theft of users’ accounts or disclosure of our users’ data, including personal information, could result in loss or misuse of such data, interruptions to the services we provide, diminished user experience, loss of user confidence and trust in our products, impairment of our network and technological infrastructure, and harm to our reputation and business, significant legal and financial exposure and potential lawsuits brought by private individuals or regulators. In addition, as we have servers in data centers in Hong Kong and Germany, we may incur significant costs in protecting them against, or remediating, security breaches and cyber-attacks.

We may be required to obtain and maintain licenses and approvals relating to Internet or telecommunications services in certain jurisdictions.

Our platform is available in over 100 countries, and some of these countries may require us to obtain certain licenses, permits or approvals or conduct certain registrations or filings with local authorities in relation to our mobile applications. Considerable uncertainties exist in the interpretation and implementation of laws and regulations governing our business activities in certain jurisdictions, including MENA.

Our mobile applications enable voice-based, real time communications on the Internet. As a result, we may be deemed to offer regulated Internet or telecommunications services that require licenses in certain jurisdictions. For example, the law of Saudi Arabia is unclear about whether we are required or eligible to obtain licenses for our provision of audio social media services, including the Voice Over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, license. It is also unclear whether our mobile applications fall into regulated telecommunications services or violate any other local telecommunication requirements in the jurisdictions in which our mobile applications are available.

In addition, we may be found by regulators and/or licensed telecommunications service providers in the UAE to be providing VoIP services without the requisite licenses. VoIP services are specifically regulated under

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Voice over Internet Protocol Policy, or VoIP Policy, issued by the UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, or the TRA, on December 30, 2009. “VoIP Services” are defined for the purposes of the VoIP Policy as “all of the services and technologies that allow transmitting, receiving, delivering and routing of voice telecommunications by means of Internet Protocol (IP).” Yalla apps’ free voice chat function may be deemed VoIP services, as such chat function delivers voice communications and multimedia content over the Internet.

Based on a strict interpretation of laws and regulations, VoIP services can only be used in the UAE in limited circumstances where:

Under the Telecoms Law, it is a criminal offense that may be penalized by a fine between AED50,000 (US$13,615) and AED1,000,000 (US$272,294) and/or imprisonment of up to two years to provide regulated telecommunication services without being licensed to do so. It is the supplier, rather than the user, that commits this offense. In practice, the main enforcement action taken against unlicensed VoIP service providers is for the licensed service providers to block the VoIP service in the UAE. To our knowledge, the TRA is not expected to issue any further licenses that would allow the holders of such licenses to provide VoIP services.

There are uncertainties in the UAE market regarding the use of VoIP services, as despite the apparently strict legal position concerning the use of VoIP services and the blocking of certain well-known international VoIP service brands in the UAE, many users in the UAE can in fact use various other VoIP applications, such as certain online gaming platforms. Due to such uncertainties around the use of VoIP, there is no guarantee that the chat room features of our platform will remain available in the UAE in the future.

As of the date of this prospectus, we have not obtained any VoIP or other telecommunications license and we have not received any notification from regulators or licensed telecommunications service providers alleging that we provide unlicensed VoIP or telecommunications services. We are nonetheless subject to uncertainties in laws and regulations, including those in MENA. We cannot assure you that we are exempt from the licensing requirements relating to Internet or telecommunications services in the relevant jurisdictions. If our mobile applications were found by a regulatory authority to be in violation of any applicable laws or regulations, such as the lack of requisite approvals or licenses, we may no longer be able to offer our mobile applications in the relevant jurisdiction, and we may also be subject to other penalties. Any such penalties or enforcement actions may disrupt our business operations and materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Third parties may register trademarks or domain names or purchase Internet search engine keywords that are similar to our trademarks, brands or mobile applications, or misappropriate our data and copy our platform, all of which could cause confusion to our users, divert users away from our platform and services or harm our reputation.

Competitors and other third parties may (i) register trademarks or domain names or (ii) in Internet search engine advertising programs and in the header and text of the resulting sponsored links or advertisements, purchase keywords, which are confusingly similar to our trademarks, brands or mobile applications in order to divert potential customers from us to their websites or mobile applications. Preventing such infringing, inappropriate or damaging practices is inherently difficult. If we are unable to prevent such practices, competitors and other third parties may continue to drive potential online customers away from our platform to competing, irrelevant or potentially offensive platforms, which could harm our reputation and cause us to lose revenue.

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Third parties may attempt to misappropriate our data through scraping our platform, robots or other means and aggregate this data on their platforms with data from other companies. In addition, “copycat” platforms or applications may attempt to misappropriate data on our platform and imitate our brand or the functionality of our platform. We may not be able to detect all such platforms in a timely manner and, even if we could, technological and legal measures may be insufficient to stop their operations. In those cases, our available remedies may not be adequate to protect us against such platforms. Regardless of whether we can successfully enforce our rights against these platforms, any measures that we may take could require significant financial or other resources from us. Those platforms may also lure away some of our users or reduce our market share, causing material and adverse effects to our business operations.

We may be subject to intellectual property or other third-party rights infringement claims, which could be time-consuming and costly to defend and may result in diversion of our financial and management resources.

We may be subject to intellectual property or other third-party rights infringement claims, particularly in relation to content generated by our users on our mobile applications. We seek to ensure that our audio streaming and other technologies, as well as the design of our platform and other intellectual properties, are original and do not infringe upon patents, trademarks, copyrights or other intellectual property or other rights held by third parties. However, companies in the Internet, technology and media industries are frequently involved in litigations based on allegations of infringement of intellectual property rights, unfair competition, invasion of privacy, defamation or violations of other rights. There is no guarantee that third-party right holders will not assert intellectual property infringement or other claims against us in the future for our own intellectual property rights or intellectual property or other rights of third parties. Furthermore, content generated by our users through our platform, including real-time content such as text and images, may potentially infringe on copyrights, images or other intellectual property or other rights of third parties, which could adversely affect our business operations or reputation. Users who generate content that may infringe on copyrights or other rights of third parties may not be easily identifiable, if at all, by a plaintiff, who may then choose to file a claim against us, and these users may not have resources to fully indemnify us, if at all, for any such claims.

If we are found to have violated the intellectual property or other rights of third parties, including failure to remove or block or disconnect links to any infringing content upon receipt of the copyright holder’s notice, we may be enjoined from using such intellectual properties and be forced to pay fines and damages. In addition, we may incur substantial expenses and diversion of our financial and management resources in defending against these third-party infringement claims. Successful infringement or other intellectual property or other third-party rights claims against us may result in substantial monetary liabilities, which may disrupt our operations and materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and growth prospects. Any infringement claim, whether with merits or not, generates negative publicity which could harm our brand reputation.

Our intellectual property may not provide adequate protection to us, and we may not be able to prevent others from unauthorized use of our intellectual property, which could harm our business and competitive position.

We regard our trademarks, patents, software copyrights, copyrights, domain names, trade secrets, proprietary technologies and similar intellectual property as critical to our success. We rely on a combination of patent, software copyright, copyright, trademark and trade secret laws and restrictions on disclosure to protect our intellectual property rights. We have invested significant resources to develop our own intellectual property. Failure to maintain or protect these rights could harm our business. For example, we have not registered our “Yalla” or “Yalla Ludo” words or logos as trademarks in certain jurisdictions in which our mobile applications are available. In certain other jurisdictions, our trademark registrations did not cover our main activities such as software and entertainment services. While we are in the process of applying for relevant trademark registrations in the UAE and certain other jurisdictions in MENA, we cannot guarantee that the trademark offices in these

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jurisdictions will grant our trademark applications or that third parties will not oppose our trademark applications. If our trademarks are not granted or successfully challenged, we could be forced to rebrand our products and services, which could result in loss of brand recognition and require us to devote resources to advertising and marketing new brands. In addition, any unauthorized use of our intellectual property by third parties may adversely affect our current and future revenues and our reputation.

Implementation and enforcement of intellectual property-related laws in certain jurisdictions, including those in MENA and the PRC, is still evolving. We have registered software copyrights, patents and trademarks in certain jurisdictions, including in MENA and the PRC. Protection of intellectual property rights in such jurisdictions may not be as effective as in the United States or other developed countries. Furthermore, policing unauthorized use of proprietary technology is difficult and expensive. Despite our efforts to protect our proprietary rights, third parties may attempt to copy or otherwise obtain and use our intellectual property or seek court declarations that they do not infringe upon our intellectual property rights. Monitoring unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult and costly, and we cannot assure you that the steps we have taken will prevent misappropriation of our intellectual property. From time to time, we may have to resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, which could result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources.

Our platform contains open source software, which may pose particular risk to our proprietary software and services in a manner that negatively affects our business.

We use open source software on our platform and will continue to use open source software in the future. There is a risk that open source software licenses could be construed in a manner that imposes unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to provide or distribute our services. Additionally, we may face claims from third parties claiming ownership of, or demanding release of, the open source software or derivative works that we developed using such software. These claims could result in litigation and could require us to make our software source code freely available, purchase a costly license or cease offering the implicated services unless and until we can re-engineer them to avoid infringement. This re-engineering process could require significant additional technology and product development resources, and we may not be able to complete it successfully.

Our business depends substantially on the continuing efforts of our executive officers, key employees and qualified personnel, and our business operations may be severely disrupted if we lose their services or if they are subject to litigation or regulatory investigations and proceedings.

Our future success depends substantially on the continued efforts of our executive officers and key employees. If one or more of our executive officers or key employees were unable or unwilling to continue their services with us, we might not be able to replace them easily, in a timely manner, or at all. Since the Internet industry is characterized by high demand and intense competition for talents, we cannot assure you that we will be able to attract or retain qualified staff or other highly skilled employees. In addition, as our company is relatively young, our ability to train and integrate new employees into our operations may not meet the growing demands of our business which may materially and adversely affect our ability to grow our business and hence our results of operations.

If any of our executive officers and key employees terminates their services with us, our business may be severely disrupted, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected and we may incur additional expenses to recruit, train and retain qualified personnel. If any of our executive officers or key employees joins a competitor or forms a competing company, we may lose know-how and key professionals and staff members. Each of our executive officers and key employees has entered into a non-compete agreement with us. However, we cannot assure you that we would be able to enforce these non-compete agreements.

In addition, our executive officers and key employees may from time to time be subject to litigations and regulatory investigations and proceedings or otherwise face potential civil, criminal or other liabilities in relation

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to commercial, labor, securities or other matters due to past or future conduct of themselves or third parties, which could adversely affect our reputation and these personnel’s ability to continue contributing to our success. These events could also divert management time and attention away from our business and force us to find appropriate replacements for these personnel, which may not be readily available. As a result, our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

Our results of operations are subject to substantial quarterly and annual fluctuations due to a number of factors that could adversely affect our business and the trading price of the ADSs.

We experience seasonality in our business, reflecting seasonal fluctuations in Internet usage. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful. In particular, we may experience a decrease in active users during Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. The Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar, and the month of Ramadan migrates throughout the seasons. For example, while Ramadan falls within the second quarter of each year from 2018 to 2022, it will start in the first quarter and end in the second quarter of 2023. Due to the foregoing factors, our operating results in one or more future quarters or years may fluctuate. In such event, the trading price of the ADSs would likely be materially and adversely affected.

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

Prior to this offering, we are a private company with limited accounting personnel and other resources with which to address our internal controls and procedures. Our management has not completed an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, and our independent registered public accounting firm has not conducted an audit of our internal control over financial reporting. In the course of preparing the consolidated financial statements for the years ended December 31, 2018 and 2019, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified one material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2019, in accordance with the standards established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of the United States, or the PCAOB.

The material weakness that has been identified relates to our lack of sufficient financial reporting and accounting personnel with appropriate knowledge of U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting requirements to properly address complex U.S. GAAP accounting issues, and related presentation and disclosure in accordance with U.S. GAAP and SEC financial reporting requirements. We are in the process of implementing a number of measures to address the material weakness that have been identified. For details, see “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Internal Control Over Financial Reporting.” However, we cannot assure you that we will be able to continue implementing these measures in the future, or that we will not identify additional material weaknesses or significant deficiencies in the future. The audit of our financial statements performed by our independent registered public accounting firm was not designed to provide assurance on internal control over financial reporting or to identify internal control deficiencies, and therefore, we may have other material weaknesses or significant deficiencies that are not yet identified.

Upon the completion of this offering, we will become a public company in the United States subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 will require that we include a report of management on our internal control over financial reporting in our annual report on Form 20-F beginning with our annual report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2021. In addition, once we cease to be an “emerging growth company” as such term is defined in the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our management may conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective. Moreover, even if our management concludes that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, our independent registered public accounting firm, after conducting its own independent testing, may issue a report that is qualified if it is

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not satisfied with our internal controls or the level at which our controls are documented, designed, operated or reviewed, or if it interprets the relevant requirements differently from us. In addition, after we become a public company, our reporting obligations may place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources and systems for the foreseeable future. We may be unable to timely complete our evaluation testing and any required remediation.

Generally, if we fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment, such failure could result in material misstatements in our financial statements and compromise our ability to meet our reporting obligations, which would cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information. Any such material misstatement could in turn limit our access to capital markets and lead to a decline in the trading price of the ADSs. Additionally, ineffective internal control over financial reporting could expose us to increased risk of fraud or misuse of corporate assets and subject us to potential delisting from the stock exchange on which we list, regulatory investigations, civil or criminal sanctions and lawsuits. In addition, our internal controls over financial reporting will not prevent or detect all errors or fraud. A control system, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the control system’s objectives will be met. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that misstatements due to error or fraud will not occur or that all control issues and instances of fraud will be detected.

If we are not able to comply with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in a timely manner, or if we are unable to maintain proper and effective internal controls, we may not be able to produce timely and accurate financial statements. If that were to happen, the market price of the ADSs could decline and we could be subject to sanctions or investigations by the NYSE, SEC or other regulatory authorities.

We may need additional capital, and we may be unable to obtain such capital in a timely manner or on acceptable terms, or at all. Furthermore, our future capital needs may require us to sell additional equity or debt securities that may dilute our shareholders or introduce covenants that may restrict our operations or our ability to pay dividends.

To grow our business and remain competitive, we may require additional capital from time to time. Our ability to obtain additional capital is subject to a variety of uncertainties, including:

We may be unable to obtain additional capital in a timely manner or on acceptable terms or at all. In addition, we may 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.

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We have limited business insurance coverage, so that any uninsured occurrence of business disruption may result in substantial costs to us and the diversion of our resources, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

Insurance companies in the UAE and China currently do not offer as extensive an array of insurance products as insurance companies do in more developed economies. We do not have any business liability or disruption insurance to cover our operations. We have determined that the costs of insuring for these risks and the difficulties associated with acquiring such insurance on commercially reasonable terms make it impractical for us to have such insurance. Any uninsured occurrence may disrupt our business operations, require us to incur substantial costs and divert our resources, which could have an adverse effect on our results of operations and financial condition.

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

We may enter into strategic alliances, including joint ventures or equity investments, with various third parties to further our business purpose from time to time. These alliances could subject us to a number of risks, including risks associated with sharing proprietary information, non-performance by the third parties, increased expenses in establishing new strategic alliances, any of which may materially and adversely affect our business. We may have limited ability to monitor or control the actions of these third parties and, to the extent any of these strategic third parties suffers negative publicity or harm to their reputation from events relating to their business, we may also suffer negative publicity or harm to our reputation by virtue of our association with any such third party.

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

Risks Relating to Doing Business in Certain Countries and Regions

Investments in emerging markets are subject to greater risks than those in more developed markets.

You should also be aware that investments in emerging markets, such as MENA, are subject to greater risks than those in more developed markets, including risks such as:

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Although MENA has enjoyed significant economic growth over the last several years, there can be no assurance that such growth will continue. Moreover, while certain governments’ policies have generally resulted in improved economic performance, there can be no assurance that such level of performance can be sustained.

Accordingly, you should exercise particular care in evaluating the risks involved and must decide whether, in the light of those risks, your investment is appropriate. Generally, investment in emerging markets is only suitable for sophisticated investors who fully appreciate the significance of the risks involved.

The economies of a number of our markets in MENA are highly dependent upon the oil and gas industry.

The UAE’s economy as well as a number of other economies within MENA are highly dependent upon the oil and gas industry. Oil and gas prices fluctuate in response to changes in many factors, including, but not limited to:

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Oil prices declined significantly beginning in June 2014, and although prices have recovered in 2018, they have remained volatile with periodic declines since October 2018, including during the first quarter of 2020. If oil prices decline again, this is likely to have an adverse effect on the GDP and other economic indicators of oil producing markets, such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, and may also negatively impact consumer confidence and purchasing power, resulting in lower overall expenditure by mobile users, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business may be adversely affected by changes in government policies, laws and regulations in the UAE.

Our operating subsidiary in the UAE, Yalla Technology FZ-LLC, functions as our primary business operation center and engages in sales, customer service and other business operations. As such, our business may be adversely affected by changes in government policies, laws and regulations in the UAE. For example, although the UAE currently does not have any corporate tax, there have been periodic discussions about the introduction of corporate tax in the UAE. Moreover, value added tax, or VAT, was introduced in the UAE on January 1, 2018 at a rate of 5%. The relevant legislation provides that electronic services that are automatically delivered over the Internet, over an electronic network or over an electronic marketplace are not subject to VAT in the UAE, if such electronic services are used or enjoyed outside of the UAE. The introduction of VAT in the UAE has not had a material impact on our business. However, any further change in VAT in the UAE could increase the costs for users to purchase our virtual currencies and may reduce user spending as a result, which could adversely affect our revenues.

In addition, the AED, which is the legal currency of the UAE, has been pegged to the US dollar at 3.6725 AEDs per U.S. dollar since November 1997. However, there can be no assurance that the AED will not be de-pegged in the future or that the existing peg will not be adjusted in a manner that negatively impacts the level of economic activities in the UAE or negatively impacts the attractiveness of the UAE as a tourist destination, both of which are important factors that drive the level of payments by users from the UAE. Any such de-pegging or adjustment could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The economic, political and social conditions in MENA and China, as well as government policies, laws and regulations, could affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are headquartered in the UAE. MENA is our key market, and we must comply with the applicable laws and regulations in the jurisdictions of MENA. The regulatory bodies in MENA may not be as fully matured and as established as those of Western Europe and the United States. Existing laws and regulations may be applied inconsistently with anomalies in their interpretation or implementation. Inconsistent interpretation or implementation in relation to existing laws and regulations could restrict our ability to offer our mobile platform in the relevant jurisdictions, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our technology and product development team and certain members of our management are located in the PRC, and two of our operating subsidiaries are incorporated under and governed by the laws of the PRC. Accordingly, our results of operations and prospects are, to a certain degree, subject to economic, political and legal developments in China. The economy of China differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the extent of government involvement, its level of development, its growth rate and its control over foreign exchange. The PRC government plays a significant role in regulating industrial development. It also exercises significant control over China’s economic growth through the allocation of resources, controlling payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policies and providing preferential treatments to particular industries or companies. All of these factors could affect the economic conditions in China and, in turn, our business.

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Since the PRC legal system continues to evolve rapidly, the interpretations of many laws, regulations and rules are not always uniform and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involves uncertainties, which may limit legal protections available to us. For example, we have been subject to stricter regulatory requirements in terms of our labor contracts with our employees and paying various statutory employee benefits, including pensions, housing fund, medical insurance, work-related injury insurance, unemployment insurance and maternity insurance for the benefit of our employees. We cannot assure you that our employment practices have complied or will be able to comply with all labor-related laws and regulations in the PRC. Furthermore, intellectual property rights and confidentiality protections in China may not be as effective as in the United States or other countries. In addition, we cannot predict the effect of future developments in the PRC legal system, including the promulgation of new laws, changes to existing laws or the interpretation or enforcement thereof, or the preemption of local regulations by national laws. These uncertainties could limit the legal protections available to us and other foreign investors, including you. In addition, any litigation in China may be protracted and result in substantial costs and diversion of our resources and management attention.

Our failure to obtain, maintain or renew licenses, approvals, permits, registrations or filings necessary to conduct our operations could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Regulatory authorities in various jurisdictions oversee different aspects of our business operations. We are required to obtain a number of licenses, approvals, permits, registrations and filings and are subject to certain reporting obligations required for maintaining our subsidiaries and personnel in such jurisdictions. We cannot assure you that we have obtained all of these licenses, approvals, permits, registrations and filings or will continue to maintain or renew all of them or that we have complied with these requirements in full. If we fail to obtain necessary authorizations, we may be subject to various penalties, such as confiscation of illegal revenues, fines and discontinuation or restriction of business operations, which may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, there can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain our existing licenses, approvals, registrations or permits in the relevant jurisdictions, renew any of them when their current term expires, or update existing licenses or obtain additional licenses, approvals, permits, registrations or filings necessary for our business expansion from time to time. If we fail to do so, our business, financial conditions and operational results may be materially and adversely affected.

PRC regulations relating to offshore investment activities by PRC residents and entities may limit our overseas investments or otherwise expose us to liability and penalties under PRC law.

PRC enterprises’ overseas direct investment is under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce, or the MOFCOM, the National Development and Reform Commission, or the NDRC and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or the SAFE, and shall be subject to relevant governing rules. Where PRC enterprises make overseas direct investment, they shall file with or obtain the approval from the MOFCOM and NDRC, or their local counterparts, and register with the banks as well.

The SAFE promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Relating to Domestic Resident’s Investment and Financing and Roundtrip 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.

Certain of our directors and officers have completed initial SAFE registration in connection with our financings in accordance with SAFE under SAFE Circular 37. However, we cannot assure you that they will continue to make required filings or updates upon any subsequent change in a timely manner, or at all. Moreover, we may not at all times be fully aware or informed of the identities of all our shareholders or beneficial owners that are required to make or update such registrations, and we cannot compel our beneficial owners to comply with SAFE registration requirements. As a result, we cannot assure you that all of our shareholders or beneficial owners who are PRC residents or entities have complied with, and will in the future make or obtain any

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applicable registrations or approvals required by, SAFE regulations and outbound investment related regulations, and there is no assurance that such registration, approval, and any subsequent amendment will be completed in a timely manner, or will be completed at all. Certain of our beneficial shareholders who are PRC residents and hold an insignificant number of our shares have not completed their SAFE Circular 37 registration. Failure by these and other shareholders or beneficial owners to comply with SAFE regulations or outbound investment related regulations, could subject such shareholders or beneficial owners to fines or legal sanctions from the relevant PRC authorities, and may result in adverse impact on us, such as restrictions on our overseas or cross-border investment activities or our ability to distribute dividends, or influence on our ownership structure.

Furthermore, as these foreign exchange and outbound investment related regulations are relatively new and their interpretation and implementation have been constantly evolving, it is uncertain how these regulations, and any future regulations concerning offshore or cross-border investments and transactions, will be interpreted, amended and implemented by the relevant government authorities. We cannot assure you that we have complied or will be able to comply with all applicable foreign exchange and outbound investment related regulations.

We may be classified as a “resident enterprise” for PRC enterprise income tax purposes, which could result in unfavorable tax consequences to us and our non-PRC shareholders.

The Enterprise Income Tax Law, or EIT Law, provides that enterprises established outside of the PRC whose “de facto management bodies” are located in the PRC are considered “resident enterprises” and are generally subject to the uniform 25% enterprise income tax rate on their worldwide income. In addition, a circular issued by the State Administration of Taxation, or the SAT, on April 22, 2009, and amended on January 29, 2014 clarified that dividends and other income paid by such “resident enterprises” will be considered to be PRC-source income, subject to PRC withholding tax, currently at a rate of 10%, when recognized by non-PRC enterprise shareholders. This circular also subjects such “resident enterprises” to various reporting requirements with PRC tax authorities. However, it remains unclear how the tax authorities will determine the location of “de facto management bodies” of overseas incorporated enterprises that are controlled by foreign enterprises or individuals. Therefore, although several members of our management are currently located in the PRC, it remains unclear whether the PRC tax authorities would require or permit our overseas registered entities to be treated as PRC resident enterprises. We do not consider our company to be a PRC resident enterprise. However, if PRC tax authorities disagree with our assessment and determine that we are a “resident enterprise,” we may be subject to enterprise income tax at a rate of 25% on our worldwide income and dividends paid by us to our non-PRC shareholders as well as capital gains recognized by them with respect to the sale of our shares or ADSs may be subject to a PRC withholding tax. A determination that we are a PRC resident enterprise would have an impact on our effective tax rate, a material adverse effect on our net income and results of operations, and may require us to withhold tax on dividends to our non-PRC shareholders.

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

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

In February 2015, the SAT issued a Public Notice Regarding Certain Corporate Income Tax Matters on Indirect Transfer of Properties by Non-Tax Resident Enterprises, or SAT Circular 7. SAT Circular 7 provides clearer criteria than SAT Circular 698 for assessment of reasonable commercial purposes and has introduced safe harbors for internal group restructurings and the purchase and sale of equity through a public securities market.

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Where a non-resident enterprise transfers taxable assets indirectly by disposing of the equity interests of an overseas holding company, which is an Indirect Transfer, the non-resident enterprise as either transferor or transferee, or the PRC entity that directly owns the taxable assets, may report such Indirect Transfer to the relevant tax authority. Using a “substance over form” principle, the PRC tax authority may disregard the existence of the overseas holding company if it lacks a reasonable commercial purpose and was established for the purpose of reducing, avoiding or deferring PRC tax. As a result, gains derived from such Indirect Transfer may be subject to PRC enterprise income tax, and the transferee or other person who is obligated to pay for the transfer is obligated to withhold the applicable taxes, currently at a rate of 10% for the transfer of equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise. Both the transferor and the transferee may be subject to penalties under PRC tax laws if the transferee fails to withhold the taxes and the transferor fails to pay the taxes.

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

It may be difficult to effect service of process upon us or our directors or executive officers who reside in China, to enforce against them in China any judgments obtained from non-PRC courts or to bring actions in China against us or our management.

Certain of our directors and executive officers reside within China, and a portion of our assets and the assets of those persons are located within China. It may not be possible for investors to effect service of process upon us or those persons inside China or to enforce against us or them in China any judgments obtained from non-PRC courts. China does not have treaties providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments of courts in the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan or most other western countries. However, judgments rendered by Hong Kong courts may be recognized and enforced in China if the requirements set forth by the Arrangement on Mutual Recognition and Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters by Courts of Mainland and of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Pursuant to Agreed Jurisdiction by Parties Concerned are met. Therefore, recognition and enforcement in China of judgments of a court in any of these jurisdictions other than Hong Kong in relation to any matter not subject to binding arbitration provisions may be difficult or impossible.

Shareholder claims that are common in the United States, including securities law class actions and fraud claims, generally are difficult to pursue as a matter of law or practicality in China. For example, in China, there are significant legal and other obstacles to providing information needed for regulatory investigations or litigation initiated outside China. Although the local authorities in China may establish a regulatory cooperation mechanism with the securities regulatory authorities of other country or region to implement cross-border oversight and regulation, such regulatory cooperation with the securities regulatory authorities in the Unities States may not be efficient in the absence of mutual and practical cooperation mechanism. According to Article 177 of the PRC Securities Law which became effective in March 2020, no overseas securities regulator is allowed to directly conduct investigation or evidence collection activities within the territory of the PRC and no entities or individuals may provide documents or materials in connection with its securities activities to the overseas without proper authorization. While detailed interpretation of or implementation rules under Article 177 have yet to be available, the inability for overseas securities regulators to directly conduct investigation or collect evidence within China may further increase difficulties faced by investors in protecting your interests.

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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 report included in this prospectus, 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 required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB to assess its compliance with the laws of the United States and professional standards. Because our auditors are located in China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB is currently 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 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.

In May 2020, the U.S. senate passed the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the Kennedy Bill. If passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and signed by the U.S. President, the Kennedy Bill would require the SEC to identify issuers whose audit reports are prepared by auditors that the PCAOB is unable to inspect or investigate because of restrictions imposed by non-U.S. authorities. The Kennedy Bill would also require the SEC to prohibit securities of any U.S. listed companies from being traded on any of the U.S. national securities exchanges, such as the NYSE, or in the U.S. “over-the-counter” markets, if the auditor of the U.S. listed companies’ financial statements is not subject to PCAOB inspections for three consecutive years after the law becomes effective. Furthermore, in August 2020, the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, or the PWG, released the Report on Protecting United States Investors from Significant Risks from Chinese Companies. The PWG recommends that the SEC take steps to implement the recommendations outlined in the report. In particular, to address companies from non-cooperating jurisdictions, or NCJs, such as China, that do not provide the PCAOB with sufficient access to fulfill its statutory mandate, the PWG recommends enhanced listing standards on U.S. securities exchanges. This would require, as a condition to initial and continued exchange listing, PCAOB access to work papers of the principal audit firm for the audit of the listed company. Companies unable to satisfy this standard as a result of governmental restrictions on access to audit work papers and practices in NCJs may satisfy this standard by providing a co-audit from an audit firm with comparable resources and experience where the PCAOB determines it has sufficient access to audit work papers and practices to conduct an appropriate inspection of the co-audit firm. To reduce market disruption, the new listing standards could provide for a transition period until January 1, 2022 for currently listed companies. The other recommendations in the report include, among other things, requiring enhanced and prominent issuer disclosures of the risks of investing in certain NCJs such as China.

Enactment of any of such legislation or other efforts to increase the U.S. regulatory access to audit information could cause investor uncertainty for affected issuers, including us, and the market price of the ADSs could be adversely affected. In addition, enactment of these legislations may result in prohibitions on the trading of the ADSs on the NYSE, if our auditors fail to meet the PCAOB inspection requirement in time. It is unclear if and when any of the proposed legislation and regulation will be enacted.

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

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

In late 2012, this impasse led the SEC to commence administrative proceedings under Rule 102(e) of its Rules of Practice and also under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 against the Chinese accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm. A first instance trial of the proceedings in July 2013 in the SEC’s internal administrative court resulted in an adverse judgment against the firms. The administrative law judge proposed penalties on the firms including a temporary suspension of their right to practice before the SEC, although that proposed penalty did not take effect pending review by the Commissioners of the SEC. On February 6, 2015, before a review by the Commissioner had taken place, the firms reached a settlement with the SEC. Under the settlement, the SEC accepts that future requests by the SEC for the production of documents will normally be made to the CSRC. The firms will receive matching Section 106 requests, and are required to abide by a detailed set of procedures with respect to such requests, which in substance require them to facilitate production via the CSRC. If they fail to meet specified criteria, the SEC retains authority to impose a variety of additional remedial measures on the firms depending on the nature of the failure. Remedies for any future noncompliance could include, as appropriate, an automatic six-month bar on a single firm’s performance of certain audit work, commencement of a new proceeding against a firm, or in extreme cases the resumption of the current proceeding against all four firms. If additional remedial measures are imposed on the Chinese affiliates of the “big four” accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, in administrative proceedings brought by the SEC alleging the firms’ failure to meet specific criteria set by the SEC with respect to requests for the production of documents, we could be unable to timely file future financial statements in compliance with the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, or the Exchange Act.

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

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

In February 2012, SAFE promulgated the Notices on Issues Concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plan of Overseas Publicly-Listed

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Company, replacing earlier rules promulgated in 2007. Pursuant to these rules, PRC residents who participate in any stock incentive plan of an overseas publicly listed company, subject to a few exceptions, are required to register with SAFE through a domestic qualified agent, which could be the PRC subsidiaries of such overseas-listed company, and complete certain other procedures.

In addition, an overseas-entrusted institution must be retained to handle matters in connection with the exercise of stock options and the purchase or sale of shares and interests. We and our executive officers and other employees granted options who are PRC residents will be subject to these regulations when our company becomes an overseas-listed company upon the completion of this offering. We will make efforts to comply with these requirements upon completion of our initial public offering. However, there can be no assurance that they can successfully register with SAFE in full compliance with the rules. Failure to complete SAFE registrations may subject them to fines and legal sanctions and may also limit our ability to make payment under our equity incentive plans or receive dividends or sales proceeds related thereto, to contribute additional capital into our PRC subsidiaries or to conduct other foreign exchange activities, and may further limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to distribute dividends to us. We also face regulatory uncertainties that could restrict our ability to adopt additional incentive plans for our directors, executive officers and employees under PRC law.

Risks Relating to This Offering and the American Depositary Shares

There has been no public market for our shares or the ADSs prior to this offering, and you may not be able to resell the ADSs at or above the price you paid, or at all.

Prior to this offering, there has been no public market for our shares or the ADSs. We will apply for approval of the ADSs representing Class A ordinary shares for listing on the NYSE. Our Class A ordinary shares will not be listed on any exchange or quoted for trading on any over-the-counter trading system. If an active trading market for the ADSs does not develop after this offering, the market price and liquidity of the ADSs will be materially and adversely affected.

Negotiations with the underwriters will determine the initial public offering price for the ADSs which may bear no relationship to their market price after the initial public offering. An active trading market for the ADSs may not develop and the market price of the ADSs may decline below the initial public offering price.

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

The trading prices of the ADSs are likely to be volatile and could fluctuate widely due to factors beyond our control. This may happen because of broad market and industry factors, like the performance and fluctuation in the market prices or the underperformance or deteriorating financial results of other listed companies from emerging markets. The securities of some of these companies have experienced significant volatility since their initial public offerings, including, in some cases, substantial price declines in the trading prices of their securities. The trading performances of the securities of other companies from emerging markets after their offerings, including technology companies and transaction service platforms, may affect the attitudes of investors toward companies from emerging markets listed in the U.S., which consequently may impact the trading performance of the ADSs, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, any negative news or perceptions about inadequate corporate governance practices or fraudulent accounting, corporate structure or matters of other companies from emerging markets may also negatively affect the attitudes of investors towards companies from emerging markets in general, including us, regardless of whether we have conducted any inappropriate activities. Furthermore, securities markets may from time to time experience significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to our operating performance, such as the large decline in share prices in the U.S., China and other jurisdictions in late 2008, early 2009, the second half of 2011, 2015 and the first quarter of 2020, which may have a material and adverse effect on the trading price of the ADSs. In particular, concerns about the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic have triggered significant price fluctuations in the U.S. stock market.

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In addition to the above factors, the price and trading volume of the ADSs may be highly volatile due to multiple factors, including the following:

If securities or industry analysts do not publish research or publish inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the market price for the ADSs and trading volume could decline.

The trading market for the ADSs will depend in part on the research and reports that securities or industry analysts publish about us or our business. If research analysts do not establish and maintain adequate research coverage or if one or more of the analysts who covers us downgrades the ADSs or publishes inaccurate or unfavorable research about our business, the market price for the ADSs would likely decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of our company or fail to publish reports on us regularly, we could lose visibility in the financial markets, which, in turn, could cause the market price or trading volume for the ADSs to decline.

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 our existing shareholders for their ordinary shares on a per ADS basis. As a result, you will experience immediate and substantial dilution of approximately US$                per ADS (assuming no exercise of outstanding options to acquire ordinary shares and no exercise of the underwriters’ option to purchase additional ADSs), representing the difference between our pro forma net tangible book value per ADS of US$                , as of                , 2019, after giving effect to this offering, and the assumed initial public offering price of US$                per ADS. In addition, you will experience further dilution to the extent that our Class A ordinary shares are issued upon the exercise of share options under our share incentive plans. Class A ordinary shares issuable under our share incentive plans may be issued at a purchase price on a per ADS basis that is less than the 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 completion of this offering.

Because we do not expect to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future after this offering, you may not receive any return on your investment unless you sell your Class A ordinary shares or ADSs for a price greater than that which you paid for them.

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. See “Dividend Policy.” Therefore, you should not rely on an investment in the ADSs as a source for any future dividend income.

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Subject to compliance with the applicable Cayman Islands legal requirements, our board of directors has discretion as to whether to distribute dividends. Even if our board of directors decides to declare and pay dividends, the timing, amount and form of future dividends, if any, will depend on, among other things, 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 the ADSs will likely depend entirely upon any future price appreciation of the ADSs. There is no guarantee that the ADSs will appreciate after this offering or even maintain the price at which you purchased the ADSs. You may not realize a return on your investment in the ADSs and you may even lose your entire investment in the ADSs.

Substantial future sales or perceived potential sales of the ADSs in the public market could cause the price of the ADSs to decline.

Sales of the ADSs in the public market after this offering, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of the ADSs to decline significantly. Upon completion of this offering, we will have                  Class A ordinary shares and 24,734,013 Class B ordinary shares outstanding, including                  Class A ordinary shares represented by ADSs newly issued in connection with this offering, assuming the underwriters do not exercise their option to purchase additional ADSs. We, our directors, executive officers and all of our existing shareholders have agreed not to sell any Class A ordinary shares or ADSs for 180 days after the date of this prospectus without the prior written consent of the representatives on behalf of the underwriters, subject to certain exceptions. All ADSs representing our Class A ordinary shares sold in this offering are expected to be freely transferable by persons other than our “affiliates” without restriction or additional registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. All of the other ordinary shares outstanding after this offering will be available for sale, upon the expiration of the lock-up periods described above, subject to volume and other restrictions as applicable under Rule 144 and Rule 701 under the Securities Act. Any or all of these ordinary shares may be released prior to the expiration of the applicable lock-up period at the discretion of the designated representatives. To the extent shares are released before the expiration of the applicable lock-up period and sold into the market, the market price of the ADSs could decline significantly. See “Shares Eligible for Future Sale—Lock-up Agreements.”

Certain major holders of our ordinary shares after completion of this offering will have the right to cause us to register under the Securities Act the sale of their shares, subject to the applicable lock-up periods in connection with this offering. Registration of these shares under the Securities Act would result in ADSs representing these shares becoming freely tradable without restriction under the Securities Act immediately upon the effectiveness of the registration. Sales of ADSs representing these registered shares in the public market could cause the price of the ADSs to decline significantly.

You, as holders of ADSs, may have fewer rights than holders of our Class A ordinary shares and must act through the depositary to exercise those rights.

Holders of ADSs do not have the same rights as our shareholders and may only exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying Class A ordinary shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under our third amended and restated articles of association, the minimum notice period required to convene a general meeting will be ten clear days. Pursuant to such requirement, there needs to be at least 10 days between the notice of a general meeting being given and the general meeting, with neither the date on which the notice is, or is deemed to be, given nor the date of the general meeting being counted towards such 10-day notice period. When a general meeting is convened, you may not receive sufficient notice of a shareholders’ meeting to permit you to withdraw your Class A ordinary shares to allow you to cast your vote with respect to any specific matter. In addition, the depositary and its agents may not be able to send voting materials to you or carry out your voting instructions in a timely manner. We will make all reasonable efforts to cause the depositary to extend voting rights to you in a timely manner, but there can be no assurance that you will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that you can instruct the depositary to vote your ADSs. Furthermore, the depositary and its

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agents will not be responsible for any failure to carry out any instructions to vote, for the manner in which any vote is cast or for the effect of any such vote. As a result, you may not be able to exercise your right to vote and you may lack recourse if your ADSs are not voted as you requested. In addition, in your capacity as an ADS holder, you will not be able to call a shareholders’ meeting.

The deposit agreement, which defines your rights as an ADS holder, may be amended or terminated without your consent.

We and the depositary may amend or terminate the deposit agreement without your consent. If you continue to hold your ADSs after an amendment to the deposit agreement, you agree to be bound by the deposit agreement as amended. See “Description of American Depositary Shares” for more information.

Your right to participate in any future rights offerings may be limited, which may cause dilution to your holdings.

We may, from time to time, distribute rights to our shareholders, including rights to acquire our securities. However, we cannot make rights available to you in the U.S. unless we register both the distribution and sale of the rights and the securities to which the rights relate under the Securities Act or an exemption from the registration requirements is available. Under the deposit agreement, the depositary will not make rights available to you unless both the distribution and sale of the rights and the underlying securities to be distributed to ADS holders are either registered under the Securities Act or exempt from registration under the Securities Act. We are under no obligation to file a registration statement with respect to any such rights or securities or to endeavor to cause such a registration statement to be declared effective and we may not be able to establish a necessary exemption from registration under the Securities Act. Accordingly, you may be unable to participate in our rights offerings in the future and may experience dilution in your holdings.

You may not receive cash dividends or other distributions if the depositary determines it is illegal or impractical to make them available to you.

The depositary will pay cash distributions on the ADSs only to the extent that we decide to distribute dividends on our Class A ordinary shares or other deposited securities, and we do not have any present plan to pay any cash dividends in the foreseeable future. See “Dividend Policy.” To the extent that there is a distribution, the depositary has agreed to pay to you the cash dividends or other distributions it or the custodian receives on our Class A ordinary shares or other deposited securities after deducting its fees and expenses. You will receive these distributions in proportion to the number of Class A ordinary shares your ADSs represent. However, the depositary may, at its discretion, decide that it is illegal or impractical to make a distribution available to any holders of ADSs. For example, the depositary may determine that it is not practicable to distribute certain property through the mail, or that the value of certain distributions may be less than the cost of mailing them. In these cases, the depositary may decide not to distribute such property to you.

We will incur increased costs and become subject to additional regulations and requirements as a result of becoming a public company, which could lower our profits or make it more difficult to run our business.

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 NYSE, impose various requirements on the corporate governance practices of public companies.

We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and to make some corporate activities more time-consuming and costly. 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

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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 a company with less than US$1.07 billion in net revenues for our last financial 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 assessment of the emerging growth company’s internal control over financial reporting and permission to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. Once 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.

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

Our third amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain anti-takeover provisions that could discourage a third party from acquiring us, which could limit our shareholders’ opportunity to sell their shares, including ordinary shares represented by the ADSs, at a premium.

We have adopted the third amended and restated articles of association to be effective immediately prior to the completion of this offering that contain provisions to limit the ability of others to acquire control of our company or cause us to engage in change-of-control transactions. These provisions could have the effect of depriving our shareholders of an opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over prevailing market prices by discouraging third parties from seeking to obtain control of our company in a tender offer or similar transaction. For example, our board of directors has the authority, without further action by our shareholders, to issue preferred shares in one or more series and to fix their designations, powers, preferences, privileges, and relative participating, optional or other rights and the qualifications, limitations or restrictions, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may be greater than the rights associated with our Class A ordinary shares, in the form of ADSs 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 the ADSs may fall and the voting and other rights of the holders of our Class A ordinary shares and ADSs may be materially and adversely affected. In addition, our third amended and restated memorandum and articles of association contain other provisions that could limit the ability of third parties to acquire control of our company or cause us to engage in a transaction resulting in a change of control, including a provision that entitles each Class B ordinary share to 20 votes in respect of all matters subject to a shareholders’ vote.

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Our third amended and restated articles of association provide that the courts of the Cayman Islands and the U.S. federal courts will be the exclusive forums for substantially all disputes between us and our shareholders, which could limit our shareholders’ ability to obtain a favorable judicial forum for complaints against us or our directors, officers or employees.

Our third amended and restated articles of association that will become effective immediately prior to the completion of this offering provide that, unless otherwise agreed by us, (i) the federal courts of the United States shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear, settle and/or determine any proceeding, action, complaint, dispute, controversy or claim arising under the provisions of the Securities Act or the Exchange Act, which are referred to as the “US Actions;” and (ii) save for such US Actions, the courts of the Cayman Islands shall have exclusive jurisdiction to hear, settle and/or determine any dispute, controversy or claim whether arising out of or in connection with our articles of association or otherwise, including without limitation:

These exclusive-forum provisions may increase a shareholder’s cost and limit the shareholder’s ability to bring a claim in a judicial forum that it finds favorable for disputes with us or our directors, officers or other employees, which may discourage lawsuits against us and our directors, officers and other employees. Any person or entity purchasing or otherwise acquiring any of our shares or other security, such as the ADSs, whether by transfer, sale, operation of law or otherwise, shall be deemed to have notice of and have irrevocably agreed and consented to these provisions. There is uncertainty as to whether a court would enforce such provisions, and the enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ charter documents has been challenged in legal proceedings. It is possible that a court could find this type of provisions to be inapplicable or unenforceable, and if a court were to find this provision in our third amended and restated articles of association to be inapplicable or unenforceable in an action, we may incur additional costs associated with resolving the dispute in other jurisdictions, which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial performance.

ADS 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 holders and beneficial owners of ADSs irrevocably waive the right to a trial by jury in any legal proceeding arising out of or relating to the deposit agreement or the ADSs, including claims under federal securities laws, against us or the depositary to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. The waiver continues to apply to claims that arise during the period when a holder holds the ADSs, even if the ADS holder subsequently withdraws the underlying ordinary shares. If this jury trial waiver provision is prohibited by applicable law, an action could nevertheless proceed under the terms of the deposit agreement with a jury trial. To our knowledge, the enforceability of a jury trial waiver under the federal securities laws has not been finally adjudicated by a federal court. However, we believe that a jury trial waiver provision is generally enforceable under the laws of the State of New York, which govern the deposit agreement, by a federal or state court in the City of New York, which has non-exclusive jurisdiction over matters arising under the deposit agreement. In determining whether to enforce a jury trial waiver provision, New York courts will consider whether the visibility of the jury trial waiver provision within the agreement is sufficiently prominent such that a party has knowingly waived any right to trial by jury. We believe that this is the case with respect to the deposit agreement and the ADSs. In addition, New York courts will not enforce a jury trial waiver provision in order to bar a viable setoff or counterclaim sounding in fraud or

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one which is based upon a creditor’s negligence in failing to liquidate collateral upon a guarantor’s demand, or in the case of an intentional tort claim, none of which we believe are applicable in the case of the deposit agreement or the ADSs. 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 provision of the federal securities laws. If you or any other holder or beneficial owner of ADSs brings a claim against us or the depositary in connection with matters arising under the deposit agreement or the ADSs, including claims under 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, depending on, among other things, the nature of the claims, the judge or justice hearing such claims and the venue of the hearing.

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 transfer books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. In addition, the depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary deems it 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.

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

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Substantially all of our assets are located outside the United States. In addition, substantially all of our directors and executive officers and the experts named in this prospectus reside outside the United States, and most of their assets are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for you to bring an action against us or against them in the United States in the event that you believe that your rights have been infringed under the United States federal securities laws or otherwise. Even if you are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands, the UAE, China or other relevant jurisdiction 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, the UAE and China, see “Enforcement of Civil Liabilities.”

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 limited by shares incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. Our corporate affairs are governed by our memorandum and articles of association, the Companies Law, Cap. 22 (Law 3 of 1961, as consolidated and revised) of the Cayman Islands and the common law of the Cayman Islands.

The rights of shareholders to take action against our directors, actions by minority shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors to us under Cayman Islands law are to a large extent governed by the common law of the Cayman Islands. The common law of the Cayman Islands is derived in part from comparatively limited judicial precedent in the Cayman Islands as well as from the common law of England, the decisions of whose courts are of persuasive authority, but are not binding, on a court in the Cayman Islands. The rights of our shareholders and the fiduciary duties of our directors under Cayman Islands law are not as clearly established as they would be under statutes or judicial precedent in some jurisdictions in the U.S. In particular, the Cayman Islands have a less developed body of securities laws than the U.S. 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.

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Under Cayman Islands law, a list of the names of the current directors and alternate directors (if applicable) of Cayman Islands exempted companies is made available by the Cayman Islands Registrar of Companies for inspection by any person on payment of a fee. The register of mortgages of such companies is open to inspection by creditors and members.

Shareholders of Cayman Islands exempted companies like us have no general rights under Cayman Islands law to inspect corporate records or to obtain copies of lists of shareholders of these companies. Our directors will have discretion under the third amended and restated memorandum and articles of association expected to be effective immediately prior to completion of this offering, 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 resolution or to solicit proxies from other shareholders in connection with a proxy contest.

As a result of all of the above, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests in the face of actions taken by management, members of the board of directors or controlling shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the U.S. For a discussion of significant differences between the provisions of the Companies Law, Cap 22 (Law 3 of 1961, as consolidated and revised) 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.”

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 U.S. domestic public companies.

Because we qualify as a foreign private issuer under the Exchange Act, we are exempt from certain provisions of the securities rules and regulations in the U.S. that are applicable to U.S. domestic issuers, including: (i) the rules under the Exchange Act requiring the filing with the SEC of quarterly reports on Form 10-Q or current reports on Form 8-K; (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 are 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 as press releases, distributed pursuant to the rules and regulations of the NYSE. 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 that would be made available to you were you investing in a U.S. domestic issuer.

We are an emerging growth company 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 various 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 Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 for so long as we are 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.

The JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company does not need to comply with any new or revised financial accounting standards until such date that a private company is otherwise required to comply

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with such new or revised accounting standards. We will take advantage of the extended transition period. As a result of this election, our financial statements may not be comparable to other public companies that comply with the public company effective dates for these new or revised accounting standards.

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

Based on the past and projected composition of our income and assets, and the valuation of our assets, including goodwill, we do not believe we were a passive foreign investment company (a “PFIC”) for our most recent taxable year, and we do not expect to become a PFIC in the current taxable year or the foreseeable future, although there can be no assurance in this regard.

In general, we will be a PFIC for any taxable year in which:

The determination of whether we are a PFIC is made annually. Accordingly, it is possible that we may become a PFIC in the current or any future taxable year due to changes in our asset or income composition. Because we have calculated the value of our goodwill by taking into account the expected market value of our ADSs, a decrease in the price of our ADSs may also result in our becoming a PFIC.

If we are a PFIC for any taxable year during which you hold our ADSs or Class A ordinary shares, our PFIC status could result in adverse United States federal income tax consequences to you if you are a United States Holder, as defined under “Taxation—Certain United States Federal Income Tax Considerations.” For example, if we are or become a PFIC, you may become subject to increased tax liabilities in respect of our ADSs or Class A ordinary shares under United States federal income tax laws and regulations, and will become subject to burdensome reporting requirements. See “Taxation—Certain United States Federal Income Tax Considerations—Passive Foreign Investment Company.” There can be no assurance that we will not be a PFIC for the current or any future taxable year.

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

We are a company incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and we have applied for listing of the ADSs on the NYSE. The NYSE market rules permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, may differ significantly from the NYSE corporate governance listing standards.

Among others, we are not required to: (i) have a majority of the board be independent; (ii) have a compensation committee or a nominating and corporate governance committee consisting entirely of independent directors; (iii) have a minimum of three members on the audit committee; (iv) obtain shareholders’ approval for issuance of securities in certain situations; or (v) have regularly scheduled executive sessions with only independent directors each year.

We intend to rely on the exemptions described above. As a result, you may not be provided with the benefits of certain corporate governance requirements of the NYSE.

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