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As we continue to expand our business internationally, we will face risks associated with expanding into markets where we have limited or no experience and where we may be less well-known or have fewer local resources. If we fail to execute our global expansion strategy, we may be subject to a variety of risks inherent in doing business internationally, including:.
Table of Contents As we expand further into new and existing countries, regions and markets, these risks could intensify, and efforts we make to expand our businesses and operations internationally may not be successful. Failure to expand internationally and manage the complexity of our global operations successfully could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. We are still in the early stage of generating revenue from our users outside of China. There can be no assurance we will be as effective or efficient in generating revenue from our users outside China as we were in generating revenue from our users in China.
We have devoted, and will need to continue to devote, substantial managerial, financial and human resources to devise and implement monetization strategies and product and service offerings that are suitable for diverse overseas markets with different user needs, competitive landscapes and operational requirements. If we fail to generate revenue from our users outside of China in an effective and efficient manner, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected. Our business is subject to complex and evolving laws and regulations in various countries and regions where we have business.
Many of these laws and regulations are subject to change and uncertain interpretation, and could result in claims, changes to our business practices, monetary penalties, increased cost of operations, or declines in user growth or engagement, or otherwise harm our business.
We are subject to a variety of laws and regulations that involve matters important to or may otherwise impact our business, including, among others, provision of internet information, sales of internet advertising, providing live streaming and short video broadcasting services, online sale of pharmaceutical products, providing family planning services, user privacy, data protection, protection of minors, foreign exchange and taxation. In addition, foreign laws and regulations can impose different obligations or be more restrictive than those in the PRC. These laws and regulations are continuously evolving and can be subject to significant change.
As a result, the application, interpretation, and enforcement of these laws and regulations are often uncertain, particularly in the rapidly evolving industries in which we operate and any new jurisdiction into which we enter. In addition, these laws and regulations may be interpreted and applied inconsistently by different agencies or authorities and in different jurisdictions, and inconsistently with our current policies and practices. These laws and regulations may be costly to comply with, and such compliance or any associated inquiries or investigations or any other government actions may delay or impede our development of new products and services, result in negative publicity, increase our operating costs, require significant management time and attention, and subject us to remedies, administrative penalties and even criminal liabilities that may harm our business, including fines assessed for our current or historical business operations, or demands or orders that we modify or cease existing business practices.
The promulgation of new laws or regulations, or the new interpretation of existing laws and regulations, in each case that restrict or otherwise unfavorably impact the ability or manner in which we provide our products and services could require us to change certain aspects of our business and operations to ensure compliance, which could decrease demand for products and services, reduce revenues, increase costs, require us to obtain more licenses, permits, approvals or certificates, or subject us to additional liabilities. To the extent any new or more stringent measures are required to be implemented, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.
Such differences may impose more stringent requirements and restrictions on the content we present outside of China. Our experience gained from our operations in China may not apply to our overseas operations. In addition, the regulatory framework for live streaming and social networking services is still developing and remains uncertain in many countries where we offer our services. New laws and regulations may also be adopted from time to time to address new issues that come to the attention of local government authorities.
Considerable uncertainties still exist with respect to the interpretation and implementation of existing and any future laws and regulations governing our business activities in these areas. In addition, we may be required to impose more stringent content monitoring measures, be in compliance with relevant content regulatory regimes, obtain relevant licenses or permits or renew or expand the coverage of our existing licenses, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to timely obtain or maintain all the required licenses or permits or make any necessary filings applicable in the future, or comply with other relevant regulatory requirements.
If we fail to obtain, hold or maintain any of the required licenses or permits or make necessary filings on time or at all, or fail to comply with other regulatory requirements, we may be subject to various penalties. Cultural differences may also pose additional challenges to our efforts in content control. Therefore, such different and possibly more stringent regulatory and cultural environments may increase the risk exposure to our daily operations in foreign jurisdictions.
Due to the uncertainties in the regulatory environment of the industries in which we operate, there can be no assurance that we have obtained or applied for all the approvals, permits and licenses required for conducting our business and all activities, or that we would be able to maintain our existing approvals, permits and licenses or obtain any new approvals, permits and licenses if required by any future laws or regulations.
If we fail to obtain and maintain approvals, licenses or permits required for our business, or to comply with relevant laws and regulations, we could be subject to liabilities, fines, penalties and operational disruptions, or we could be required to modify our business model, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. The success of our business depends in part on our ability to develop and provide our users with new and innovative products and services.
Our business is growing and becoming more complex, and our ability to engage, retain, increase and engage our user base and to increase our revenue will depend heavily on our ability to quickly and successfully develop and launch new and innovative products and services.
The industries in which we operate are evolving rapidly and users expect to see new features and experience new products and services offered by us within a relatively short period of time. Over the years, we have been continuously upgrading our social networking platform.
Users can enjoy our premium services by subscribing for our membership services, communicate with each other in various means, such as text, pictures, videos, voice and gaymojis, share their lives or view the lives of other users, enjoy talent shows, interact with broadcasters and send virtual gifts to broadcasters. We have also started offering health-related and family planning services to our users to address their growing needs.
We may introduce significant changes to our existing products and services or develop and introduce new and unproven products and services. Developing and integrating new products and services could also be expensive and time-consuming, and these efforts may not yield the benefits we expect to achieve at all. If new or enhanced products or services fail to engage our users, customers or business partners, we may fail to attract or retain users or to generate sufficient revenue, operating margin, or other value to justify our investments, any of which may seriously harm our business.
Table of Contents We have incurred, and may continue to incur net losses in the future. We recorded net losses of RMB We recorded a net loss of RMB7.
Paolo Beria, a transport expert at Polytechnic University of Milan, says hundreds of new jobs have been created so far in Italy as coach travel has expanded, especially in the north. Sign in to Sixth Tone. Ma, 39, said he saw his mission as working to legitimize same-sex relationships at a time when gay people, especially in China, still face discrimination. We expect that our business will continue to be significantly dependent on revenue collected from paying users in the near future. These efforts may not be sufficient to prevent minors from using Blued or our other products and services. The church is also seeking to adapt to a post-Christian nation while retaining its relevance. We may not be able to effectively integrate new technologies on a timely basis or at all, which may decrease user satisfaction with our products and services.
Although we have narrowed our net loss in recent periods, such positive trend may not continue. Our ability to achieve profitability is affected by various factors, many of which are beyond our control, such as the continual development of the industries in which we operate, both in China and other countries and regions, changes in the macroeconomic and regulatory environment or competitive dynamics and our inability to respond to these changes in a timely and effective manner.
We also expect our costs to increase on an absolute basis due to our continued investment in services, products, technology and development and our continued sales and marketing initiatives. If we cannot successfully offset our increased costs with a significant increase in total revenues, our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We may continue to incur net losses in the future.
Blued, one of the biggest gay dating apps in the world, has One gay-dating app, Zank, was shut down by the government, and a lesbian-dating app, Rela, words like “gay” and “tongzhi” from its Chinese website, changing the official “light blue,” after the color of the water off the Qinhuangdao coast. Ma Baoli, the founder of China's biggest gay dating app, Blued, in the a life as a gay man, furtively running a website for gay people across China at a time when Then in , his superiors at a police department in Qinhuangdao, of its services, including chat, live-streaming and a news feed, are free.
The availability of our mobile app in countries and regions with anti-LGBTQ public policies, negative sentiment toward the LGBTQ community or where homosexuality is illegal may subject our users to danger, and may lead to our application being blocked or banned, which could have an adverse effect on our reputation and business. Currently, our mobile app Blued is available in certain countries and regions with anti-LGBTQ public policies, negative cultural, social or religious sentiment toward the LGBTQ community, and where homosexuality is illegal.
Legal consequences for same-sex activities and relationships in countries and regions where same-sex relationships are illegal vary depending on the local law, with the most severe being the death penalty. For example, in early , dozens of apps for the LGBTQ community, including Blued , were blocked by the Google app store upon the request of the Indonesian government.
Finally, while we do not expect that any government that permits us to carry on our business activities will reverse that policy, we cannot guarantee that we will continue to be able to provide our services in any jurisdiction where we currently have legal authority to do so.
If any of our users in these countries and regions are subjected to penalties as a result of using our products and services or if any of our products and services were to be banned in any of these countries and regions, we may be unable to retain existing users and attract new users, and we may be subject to heightened regulatory scrutiny, which would in turn have a material adverse effect on our reputation and business. Because we store, process and use data, some of which contains sensitive personal information, we face concerns over the collection, improper use or disclosure of personal information, which could deter current and potential users from using our products and services, damage our reputation, face regulatory scrutiny, and in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Concerns or claims about our practices with regard to the collection or use of personal information or other privacy-related matters, even if unfounded, could damage our reputation and results of operations. Under the Cyber Security Law of China, any individual or organization using the network must comply with the constitution and the applicable laws in China, and the owners and administrators of networks and network service providers have various security protection obligations.
While we strive to comply with our privacy guidelines as well as all applicable data protection laws and regulations, any failure or perceived failure to comply with these laws, regulations or policy may result in inquiries and other proceedings or actions against us by governmental authorities or others, as well as negative publicity and damage to our reputation and brand, each of which could cause us to lose users and business partners and have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
As a result, we may be held liable for these incidents, and our users may feel insecure and cease to use our products and services. Our reputation may be seriously harmed and we may be unable to retain existing customers and attract new customers, which would in turn have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Any systems failure or compromise of our security that results in the unauthorized access to or release of the data, photo or chat history of our users could significantly limit the adoption of our services, as well as harm our reputation and brand, result in litigation against us, liquidated and other damages, regulatory investigations and penalties, and we could be subject to material liability.
We expect to continue expending significant resources to protect against security breaches. The risk that these types of events could seriously harm our business is likely to increase as we expand the scope of products and services we offer and as we increase the size of our user base. Laws, regulations or policies concerning data protection, medical records and health data, user privacy, rights of publicity, distribution and protection of minors are continuously evolving, generally becoming more stringent and remain subject to significant changes both in the PRC and abroad.
The GDPR imposes more stringent operational requirements for processors and controllers of personal data, including, for example, requiring expanded disclosures about how personal information 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 further provides that European Union member states may make their own additional laws and regulations in relation to certain data processing activities.
We may become subject to these and similar laws and regulations by virtue of having users who reside in these jurisdictions, even if we do not have a physical presence there. In addition, the interpretation and application of these laws or regulations are often uncertain and in flux. Our practice may become inconsistent with these laws and regulations, if so, in addition to the possibility of fines, this could result in an order requiring that we change our practices, which could have an adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Complying with new data laws and regulations could cause us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices in a manner materially adverse to our business. Even if our practices are consistent with existing laws and regulations, we could be subject to enhanced regulatory scrutiny over our data privacy and security practices.
Governmental and regulatory authorities could deem the sensitive personal information we handle as putting national security interests at risk. If relevant authorities were to reach similar conclusions about our company and intervene in our business activities, we could be forced to halt or reverse our expansion into certain countries and regions, we may lose existing users and our reputation may be negatively affected, which would in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If we fail to keep up with technological developments and evolving user expectations, we may fail to maintain or attract users and customers or generate revenues, and our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.
We operate in markets characterized by rapidly changing technologies, evolving industry standards, new product and service announcements, new generations of product enhancements, and changing user expectations. Table of Contents Accordingly, our performance and the ability to further monetize our products and services will depend on our ability to adapt to these rapidly changing technologies and industry standards, and our ability to continually innovate in response to both evolving demands of the marketplace and competitive services.
There may be occasions when we may not be as responsive as our competitors in adapting our products and services to changing industry standards and the needs of our users.