As filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on September 23, 2020.

Registration No. 333-248943

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

AMENDMENT NO. 1 TO

FORM F-1

REGISTRATION STATEMENT

UNDER

THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited

(Exact name of Registrant as specified in its charter)

Not Applicable

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

Building E, Xiaomi Science and Technology Park, No. 33 Xierqi Middle Road,

Haidian District

Beijing, 100085, the People’s Republic of China

+86 10 6292 7777

(Address, Including Zip Code, and Telephone Number, Including Area Code, of Registrant’s Principal Executive Offices)

Cogency Global Inc.

122 East 42nd Street, 18th Floor New York, NY 10168

+1 800-221-0102

(Name, address, including zip code, and telephone number, including area code, of agent for service)

Copies to:

Approximate date of commencement of proposed sale to the public: As soon as practicable after the effective date of this registration statement.

If any of the securities being registered on this Form are to be offered on a delayed or continuous basis pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act of 1933, check the following box.  ☐

If this Form is filed to register additional securities for an offering pursuant to Rule 462(b) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(c) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

If this Form is a post-effective amendment filed pursuant to Rule 462(d) under the Securities Act, check the following box and list the Securities Act registration statement number of the earlier effective registration statement for the same offering.  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an emerging growth company as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act of 1933.

Emerging growth company  ☒

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act.  ☐

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

CALCULATION OF REGISTRATION FEE

The registrant hereby amends this registration statement on such date or dates as may be necessary to delay its effective date until the registrant shall file a further amendment which specifically states that this registration statement shall thereafter become effective in accordance with Section 8(a) of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or until the registration statement shall become effective on such date as the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, acting pursuant to such Section 8(a), may determine.

The information in this prospectus is not complete and may be changed. We may not sell these securities until the registration statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission is effective. This prospectus is not an offer to sell these securities and it is not soliciting an offer to buy these securities in any state where the offer or sale is not permitted.

Subject to Completion

Preliminary Prospectus dated September 23, 2020

16,421,576 American Depositary Shares

Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited

Representing 246,323,640 Ordinary Shares

This is a public offering of American depositary shares, or ADSs, representing ordinary shares of Kingsoft Cloud Holdings Limited. We are offering a total of 8,000,000 ADSs. The selling shareholders identified in this prospectus are selling 8,421,576 ADSs. Each ADS represents 15 of our ordinary shares, par value US$0.001 per share. We will not receive any proceeds from the sale of ADSs by the selling shareholders.

The ADSs representing our ordinary shares are listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “KC.” On September 18, 2020, the closing trading price for the ADSs, as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market, was US$38.67 per ADS.

Neither the United States Securities and Exchange Commission nor any other regulatory body has approved or disapproved of these securities or determined if this prospectus is truthful or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

We are an “emerging growth company” under the U.S. federal securities laws and will be subject to reduced public company reporting requirements. Investing in our ordinary shares involves risks. See “Risk Factors” beginning on page 18 of this prospectus.

The underwriters expect to deliver the ADSs against payment in U.S. dollars in New York, New York on             , 2020.

The date of this prospectus is             , 2020.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

We have not authorized anyone to provide any information other than that contained in this prospectus or in any free writing prospectus prepared by or on behalf of us or to which we may have referred you. We take no responsibility for, and can provide no assurance as to the reliability of, any other information that others may give you. We and the underwriters have not authorized any other person to provide you with different or additional information. We, the selling shareholders and the underwriters are making an offer to sell the ADSs only in jurisdictions where offers and sales are permitted. This offering is being made in the United States and elsewhere solely on the basis of the information contained in this prospectus. You should assume that the information appearing in this prospectus is accurate only as of the date on the front cover of this prospectus, regardless of the time of delivery of this prospectus or any sale of the ADSs representing our ordinary shares. Our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may have changed since the date on the front cover of this prospectus.

Until                , 2020 (the 25th day after the date of this prospectus), all dealers that buy, sell or trade the ADSs, whether or not participating in this offering, may be required to deliver a prospectus. This is in addition to the obligation of dealers to deliver a prospectus when acting as underwriters and with respect to their unsold allotments or subscriptions.

RISK FACTORS

You should consider carefully all of the information in this prospectus, including the risks and uncertainties described below and our consolidated financial statements and related notes, before making an investment in the ADSs. Any of the following risks and uncertainties could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. The market price of the ADSs could decline significantly as a result of any of these risks and uncertainties, and you may lose all or part of your investment. When determining whether to invest, you should also refer to the other information contained in this prospectus, including our financial statements and the related notes thereto. You should also carefully review the cautionary statements referred to under “Forward-looking Statements.” Our actual results could differ materially and adversely from those anticipated in this prospectus.

RISKS RELATING TO OUR BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY

We have experienced rapid growth and expect our growth to continue, but if we fail to effectively manage our growth, then our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

We have experienced substantial growth in our business since inception. Our total revenues have increased from RMB1,236.0 million in 2017 to RMB2,218.2 million in 2018, and further increased to RMB3,956.4 million (US$560.0 million) in 2019, and have increased from RMB1,780.9 million in the six months ended June 30, 2019 to RMB2,925.7 million (US$414.1 million) in the six months ended June 30, 2020. This growth has placed and may continue to place significant demands on our managerial, administrative, operational, financial and other resources. Furthermore, we intend to grow by expanding our business, increasing market penetration of our existing solutions and products and developing new ones. To manage this growth, we must develop and improve our existing administrative and operational systems, our financial and management controls, and further expand, train and manage our work force. In addition, the expansion of our systems and infrastructure will require us to commit substantial financial, operational and management resources before our revenues increase and without any assurances that our revenues will increase. Moreover, continued growth could strain our ability to maintain reliable service levels for our customers. If we fail to achieve the necessary level of efficiency as we grow, our growth rate may decline and investors’ perceptions of our business and prospects may be adversely affected and the market price of the ADSs could decline.

Moreover, our limited operating history may not be indicative of our future growth or financial results. There is no assurance that we will be able to maintain our historical growth rates in future periods. We began operations in 2012 and much of our growth has occurred in recent years. As a result, our business model has not been fully proven, which subjects us to a number of uncertainties, including our ability to continue our growth.

We have a history of net loss and we are uncertain about our future profitability.

We have incurred net loss of RMB714.3 million, RMB1,006.4 million, RMB1,111.2 million (US$157.3 million), RMB521.1 million and RMB751.7 million (US$106.4 million) in 2017, 2018, 2019 and the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2020, respectively. We cannot assure you that we will be able to generate net profits in the future. Our net loss has resulted primarily from our cost of revenues and investments made to grow our business, such as, in research and development efforts. We expect our costs and expenses to increase in absolute amounts as we continue to grow our business. Moreover, we intend to continue to invest heavily in the foreseeable future in expanding our infrastructure, improving our technologies, hiring qualified research and development personnel and offering additional solutions and products, which is expected to cause our cost of revenues and research and development expenses to increase continuously and rapidly. We also plan to invest heavily in sales, marketing and branding efforts. Moreover, as a public company, we may incur significantly more expenses for legal, accounting, and other administrative and compliance affairs. These efforts may be more costly than we expect and our revenues may not increase sufficiently to offset the expenses, which may result in significantly increased operating and net loss in the short term with no assurance that we will eventually achieve our intended long-term benefits or profitability.

To support our business growth, we are continuously optimizing and expanding our infrastructure including data centers, and investing heavily in our research and development efforts, which may negatively impact our cash flow, and may not generate the results we expect to achieve.

Our technological capabilities and infrastructure are critical to our success. We have been continuously optimizing and expanding our infrastructure and investing heavily in our research and development efforts. Our research and development expenses increased from RMB399.2 million in 2017 to RMB440.5 million in 2018, and further increased to RMB595.2 million (US$84.2 million) in 2019, and increased from RMB267.8 million in the six months ended June 30, 2019 to RMB426.5 million (US$60.4 million) in the six months ended June 30, 2020. Moreover, our IDC costs increased from RMB1,033.2 million in 2017 to RMB1,890.5 million in 2018, and further increased to RMB2,856.6 million (US$404.3 million) in 2019, and increased from RMB1,419.8 million in the six months ended June 30, 2019 to RMB1,898.7 million (US$268.7 million) in the six months ended June 30, 2020. The industry in which we operate is subject to rapid technological changes and is evolving quickly in terms of technological innovation. We need to invest significant resources, including financial and human resources, in research and development to lead technological advances in order to make our solutions and products innovative and competitive in the market. As a result, we expect that our research and development expenses will continue to increase. Furthermore, development activities are inherently uncertain, and we might encounter practical difficulties in commercializing our development results. Our significant expenditures on research and development may not generate corresponding benefits. Given the fast pace with which the technology has been and will continue to be developed, we may not be able to timely upgrade our technologies in an efficient and cost-effective manner, or at all. New technologies in our industry could render our technologies, our infrastructure or solutions that we are developing or expect to develop in the future obsolete or unattractive, thereby limiting our ability to recover related development costs, which could result in a decline in our revenues, profitability and market share.

The market in which we participate is competitive, and if we do not compete effectively, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be harmed.

The cloud service market is competitive and rapidly evolving. The principal competitive factors in our market include completeness of product offerings, level of customization of solutions, credibility with developers, global reach, ease of integration and programmability, product features, platform scalability, reliability, security and performance, brand awareness and reputation, the strength of sales and marketing efforts, customer support, as well as the cost of deploying and using our products.

Some of our existing competitors and potential competitors have larger scale, greater brand name recognition, longer operating histories, more established customer relationships and greater resources than we do. As a result, our competitors may be able to respond more quickly and effectively than we can to new or changing opportunities, technologies, standards or customer requirements. In addition, some competitors may offer products, solutions or services that address one or a limited number of functions at lower prices, with greater depth than our products or in different geographies. Our current and potential competitors may develop and market new products, solutions and services with comparable functionality to ours, and this could force us to decrease prices in order to remain competitive. With the introduction of new products, solutions and services and new market entrants, we expect competition to intensify in the future. In addition, some of our customers may choose to use our products and solutions and our competitors’ products and solutions at the same time.

We have recorded negative cash flows from operating activities historically. If we fail to collect accounts receivable from our customers in a timely manner, our business operations and financial results may be materially and adversely affected.

We have experienced net cash outflow from operating activities. We recorded net cash used in operating activities of RMB134.5 million, RMB383.1 million and RMB439.1 million (US$62.2 million) in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively. Although we generated net cash inflow from operating activities for the six months ended

June 30, 2020, we may incur net cash outflow during our operations in the future. The cost of continuing operations could further reduce our cash position, and an increase in our net cash outflow from operating activities could adversely affect our operations by reducing the amount of cash available to meet the capital needs for our daily operation and future business expansion.

We typically extend to our customers credit terms ranging from 30 to 180 days, resulting in accounts receivable. We generally make a credit assessment of our customers before entering into an agreement with them. Nevertheless, we cannot assure you that we are or will be able to accurately assess the creditworthiness of each customer. Furthermore, we also serve customers in certain rapidly evolving and competitive industries, some of which have also been highly regulated, such customers’ financial soundness is subject to changes to the industry trend or relevant laws and regulations, which is beyond our control. Any change in our customers’ business and financial conditions may affect our collection of accounts receivable. Any delay in payment or failed payment may adversely affect our liquidity and cash flows, which in turn cause material adverse effects on our business operations and financial results.

We receive a substantial portion of our revenues from a limited number of customers, and the loss of, or a significant reduction in usage by, one or more of our Premium Customers would result in lower revenues and could harm our business.

Our future success is dependent on establishing and maintaining successful relationships with a diverse set of customers. We currently receive a substantial portion of our revenues from a limited number of customers. In 2017, 2018, 2019 and the six months ended June 30, 2019 and 2020, our total revenues generated from Premium Customers accounted for 93.7%, 95.3%, 97.4%, 97.2% and 98.3% of our total revenues in the same periods, respectively. Revenues generated from our three largest customers accounted for 27% (Xiaomi), 19% and 10%, respectively, of our total revenues in 2017; 25% (Xiaomi), 24% and 11%, respectively, of our total revenues in 2018; 31%, 14% (Xiaomi) and 12%, respectively, of our total revenues in 2019; and 32%, 16% and 10% (Xiaomi), respectively, of our total revenues in the six months ended June 30, 2020. It is likely that we will continue to be dependent upon a limited number of customers for a significant portion of our revenues for the foreseeable future and, in some cases, the portion of our revenues attributable to one single customer may increase in the future. The loss of one or more Premium Customers or a reduction in usage by any Premium Customers would reduce our revenues. If we fail to maintain existing customers or develop relationships with new customers, our business would be harmed.

We operate in an emerging and evolving market. If our market does not grow as we expect, or if we fail to adapt and respond effectively to rapidly changing technology, evolving industry standards, changing regulations, and changing customer needs, requirements or preferences, our products and solutions may become less competitive.

The cloud service market is at an early stage of development. There are uncertainties over the size and rate at which this market will grow, as well as whether our solutions and products will be widely adopted. Moreover, the cloud industry, including public cloud and enterprise cloud, are subject to rapid technological change, evolving industry standards, changing regulations, as well as changing customer needs, requirements and preferences. The success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to adapt and respond effectively to these changes on a timely basis. If we are unable to develop new solutions and products that satisfy our customers and provide enhancements and new features for our existing products that keep pace with rapid technological and industry change, our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected. If new technologies emerge that are able to deliver competitive products and services at lower prices, more efficiently, more conveniently or more securely, such technologies could adversely impact our ability to compete effectively.

Our platform must also integrate with a variety of network, hardware, software platforms and technologies, and we need to continuously modify and enhance our products and platform to adapt to changes and innovation.

For example, if customers adopt new software platforms or infrastructure, we may be required to develop new versions of our products to be compatible with those new software platforms or infrastructure. This development effort may require significant resources, which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. Any failure of our products and platform to operate effectively with evolving or new software platforms and technologies could reduce the demand for our products. If we are unable to respond to these changes in a cost-effective manner, our products may become less marketable and less competitive or obsolete, and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Security incidents and attacks on our platform, products or solutions, or our global network infrastructure could lead to significant costs and disruptions that could harm our business, financial results, and reputation.

Our business is dependent on providing our customers with safe, reliable and high-quality cloud services. Maintaining the security and availability of our infrastructure, systems, platform, network, and the security of information we hold is a critical issue for us and our customers. Attacks on our customers and our own network are frequent and take a variety of forms, including DDoS attacks, infrastructure attacks, botnets, malicious file attacks, cross-site scripting, credential abuse, ransomware, viruses, worms, and malicious software programs. Malicious actors can attempt to fraudulently induce employees or suppliers to disclose sensitive information through spamming, phishing, or other tactics. In addition, unauthorized parties may attempt to gain physical access to our facilities in order to infiltrate our information systems. We may be subject to cyber-attacks from third parties. Since our customers share our multi-tenant architecture, material attacks on any one of our customers could have a negative effect on other customers. These attacks have significantly increased the bandwidth used on our platform and have strained our network. If attacks like these were to occur in the future and if we do not have the systems and processes in place to respond to them, our business could be harmed.

In recent years, cyber-attacks have increased in size, sophistication, and complexity, increasing exposure for our customers and us. We may become an attractive target for attacks on our infrastructure intended to destabilize, overwhelm, or shut down our platform. The costs incurred by us to avoid or alleviate cyber or other security problems and vulnerabilities will be significant. However, our efforts to address these problems and vulnerabilities may not be successful. Any significant breach of our security measures could:

The occurrence of any of these events could harm our business or damage our brand and reputation, lead to customer credits, loss of customers, higher expenses, and possibly impede our present and future success in retaining and attracting new customers. Security incidents or attacks on our infrastructure would be damaging to our reputation and could harm our business.

Similar security risks exist with respect to our business partners and our third-party suppliers for information technology support services and administrative functions. As a result, we are subject to the risk that cyber-attacks on our business partners and third-party suppliers may adversely affect our business even if an attack or breach does not directly impact our systems. It is also possible that security breaches sustained by our competitors could result in negative publicity for our entire industry that indirectly harms our reputation and diminishes demand for our platform.

Export controls and economic or trade restrictions that are imposed on certain of our business partners or their suppliers may affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The U.S. government has added several Chinese companies and institutions to the Entity List under the Export Administration Regulations, and imposed targeted economic and trade restrictions on them that, if not waived, will limit their access to U.S.-origin goods and technologies, as well as goods and technologies that contain a significant portion of U.S.-origin goods and technologies. We believe the immediate and direct impacts on our business resulting from such restrictions are limited, because our sales to the entities on the Entity List have represented a negligible portion of our results of operations. Nonetheless, given the important role played by such Chinese high-tech companies on the Entity List in the global supply chain or in China for industries including telecommunications, information technology infrastructure, artificial intelligence and IoTs, prolonged restrictions against such companies could cause a material negative impact to all such industries, which may in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. Similar or more expansive restrictions that may be imposed on our business partners or their suppliers by the U.S. or other jurisdictions in the future may materially and adversely affect such business partners or their suppliers, which would in turn affect our business.

Although we have started to adopt procedures to comply with U.S. trade laws and regulations, such laws and regulations are complex and likely subject to frequent changes, and the interpretation and enforcement of the relevant regulations involve substantial uncertainties, which may be driven by political and/or other factors that are out of our control or heightened by national security concerns. Such potential restrictions, as well as any associated inquiries or investigations or any other government actions, may be difficult or costly to comply with and may, among other things, delay or impede the development of our technology, products and solutions, hinder the stability of our supply chain, and may result in negative publicity, require significant management time and attention and subject us to fines, penalties or orders that we cease or modify our existing business practices, any of which may have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If our expansion into new verticals is not successful, our business, prospects and growth momentum may be materially and adversely affected.

Leveraging our top-notch infrastructure resources and years of technology accumulation, we are able to provide innovative integrated cloud solutions specifically designed to address the diversified needs of our customers across different verticals. We have a track record of successfully expanding into and becoming a leader in new verticals. We cannot assure you, however, that we will be able to maintain this momentum in the future. Expanding solution categories involves new risks and challenges. Our lack of familiarity with new verticals may make it more difficult for us to keep pace with the evolving customer demands and preferences. In addition, there may be one or more existing market leaders in any vertical that we decide to expand into. Such companies may be able to compete more effectively than us by leveraging their experience in doing business in that markets as well as their deeper industry insight and greater brand recognition among customers. We will need to comply with new laws and regulations applicable to these businesses, the failure of which would adversely affect our reputation, business, results of operations and financial condition. Expansion into any new vertical may place significant strain on our management and resources, and failure to expand successfully could have a material adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Our business is subject to natural disasters, extreme weather conditions, health epidemics and other catastrophic incidents, and to interruption by man-made problems such as power disruptions, computer viruses, data security breaches or terrorism.

China has in the past experienced significant natural disasters, including earthquakes, extreme weather conditions, as well as health scares related to epidemic diseases, and any similar event could materially impact our business in the future. If a disaster or other disruption were to occur in the future that affects the regions where we operate our business, our operations could be materially and adversely affected due to loss of personnel

and damage to property. Even if we are not directly affected, such a disaster or disruption could affect the operations or financial conditions of our customers, which could harm our results of operations.

In addition, our business could be affected by public health epidemics, such as the outbreak of avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, Zika virus, Ebola virus or other disease. In late December 2019, a strain of SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 disease, was reported to have surfaced in Wuhan, China. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization reportedly declared this COVID-19 outbreak a health emergency of international concern. On February 28, 2020, the World Health Organization reportedly increased the assessment of the risk of spread and the risk of impact of COVID- 19 to very high at global level. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 a pandemic. With an aim to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, the PRC government has imposed various strict measures across the PRC including, but not limited to, travel restrictions, mandatory quarantine requirements, and postponed resumption of business operations. A few of our enterprise cloud service customers may experience business disruption as a result of measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, resulting in potential delay of certain enterprise cloud service projects. Additionally, as COVID-19 continues to evolve into a worldwide health crisis, it has adversely affected the global economy and financial markets, such as significant declines in the global stock markets. If the COVID-19 outbreak is not effectively controlled in a short period of time, our business and results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent the COVID-19 outbreak harms the China or world economy generally. In addition, our business and results of operations could also be adversely affected to the extent the COVID-19 outbreak harms the business of our customers, who may experience reduced business volume, delay or suspend procurement of cloud services, or reduce their IT spending, which in turn may have a negative impact on the demands for our products and solutions. The extent to which the COVID-19 outbreak impacts our financial condition and results of operations for the full year of 2020 cannot be reasonably estimated at this time and will depend on future developments that currently cannot be predicted, including new information which may emerge concerning the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak and the actions to contain the COVID-19 outbreak or treat its impact, and the impact on the economic growth and business of our customers for the foreseeable future, among others. Any future outbreak of public health epidemics may restrict economic activities in affected regions, resulting in reduced business volume, disrupt our business operations and adversely affect our results of operations.

Although we maintain incident management and disaster response plans, in the event of a major disruption caused by a natural disaster or man- made problem, such as power disruptions, computer viruses, data security breaches or terrorism, we may be unable to continue our operations and may endure system interruptions, reputational harm, delays in our development activities, lengthy interruptions in service, breaches of data security and loss of critical data, any of which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we are not able to maintain and enhance our brand and increase market awareness of us, or effectively develop and expand our marketing and sales capabilities, then our ability to attract new customers may be harmed and our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

We believe that maintaining and enhancing the “Kingsoft Cloud” brand identity and increasing market awareness of our company, products and solutions, is critical to achieving widespread acceptance of our products and solutions, to strengthen our relationships with our existing customers and to our ability to attract new customers. The successful promotion of our brand will depend largely on our continued marketing efforts, our ability to continue to offer high quality products and services, our ability to maintain relationships with bandwidth and hardware suppliers, our ability to be thought leaders in the cloud service market and our ability to successfully differentiate our products and platform from competing products and services. Our brand promotion and thought leadership activities may not be successful or yield increased revenues. In addition, independent industry analysts often provide reviews of our products and competing products and services, which may significantly influence the perception of our products in the marketplace. If these reviews are negative or not as strong as reviews of our competitors’ products and services, then our brand may be harmed.

Any malicious or inadvertent negative allegations made by the media or other parties about the foregoing or other aspects of our company, including but not limited to our shareholders, management, business, compliance with law, financial condition or prospects, whether with merit or not, could severely hurt our reputation and harm our business and results of operations.

We may receive complaints from our customers on our products, pricing and customer support. If we do not handle customer complaints effectively, our brand and reputation may suffer, our customers may lose confidence in us and they may reduce or cease their use of our products. In addition, our customers may post and discuss on social media about our products, solutions and relevant services, including our products and platform. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to generate positive customer feedback and minimize negative feedback on social media channels where existing and potential customers seek and share information. If actions we take or changes we make to our products, solutions or platform upset these customers, their online commentary could negatively affect our brand and reputation. Complaints or negative publicity about us, our products, solutions or platform could materially and adversely impact our ability to attract and retain customers, our business, results of operations and financial condition.

As we also provide services to a wide range of enterprise clients and institutions, negative publicity about such counterparties, including any failure by them to adequately protect customer information, to comply with applicable laws and regulations or to otherwise meet required quality and service standards could harm our reputation.

The promotion of our brand also requires us to make substantial expenditures, and we anticipate that these expenditures will increase as our market becomes more competitive and as we expand into new markets. To the extent that these activities increase revenues, the increased revenues still may not be enough to offset the increased expenses we incur. If we do not successfully maintain and enhance our brand, then our business may not grow, we may see our pricing power reduced relative to competitors and we may lose customers, all of which would adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our business depends on customers increasing their use of our products and solutions, and any loss of customers or decline in their use of our products and solutions could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our ability to grow and generate incremental revenues depends, in part, on our ability to maintain and grow our relationships with existing customers and to have them increase their usage of our platform. If our customers do not increase their use of our products, then our revenues may decline and our results of operations may be harmed. Substantially all of our customers do not have long-term contractual financial commitments to us. We cannot accurately predict customers’ usage levels and the loss of customers or reductions in their usage levels of our products may each have a negative impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition. Reductions in usage from existing customers and the loss of customers could cause our net dollar retention rate to decline in the future if customers are not satisfied with our products, the value proposition of our products or our ability to otherwise meet their needs and expectations. Further, some of our customers may choose to develop their own solutions that do not include our products, or adopt a multi-cloud strategy decreasing usage of our products. They may also demand reductions in pricing as their usage of our products increases, which could have an adverse impact on our gross margin. If a significant number of customers cease using, or reduce their usage of our products, then we may not be able to achieve our growth target, and may need to spend significantly more on sales and marketing than we currently plan to spend in order to maintain or increase revenues from customers. Such additional sales and marketing expenditures could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

A significant portion of our revenues were derived from customers in a limited number of industries. The intensifying competition, change in sector trend and landscape and government policies may have a direct impact on those industries and negatively affect the stability of our clients, which may subsequently have negative impact on our business.

A significant portion of our revenues were derived from customers engaged in a limited number of industries in China, some of which are emerging and highly competitive, such as video and game. Any change in the competitive landscape, market trend or user behaviors in such sectors may have a negative impact on our customers, thus harm their ability to make payments and maintain and increase the usage of our products and solutions. In addition, some of these industries in China are highly regulated by the PRC government and numerous regulatory authorities of the central PRC government are empowered to issue and implement regulations governing various aspects of these industries. As the laws and regulations are evolving and some of them are relatively new, changes to the current laws and regulations may harm our business and results of operation. In addition, interpretation and enforcement of such laws and regulations involve significant uncertainty. As a result, in certain circumstances it may be difficult to determine what actions or omissions may be deemed to be in violations of applicable laws and regulations. If these laws and regulations or the uncertainty associated with their interpretation negatively impact the industries where our customers operate, our business may be adversely affected as well.

If the adoption of our cloud products and solutions by our customers is slower than we expected, our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Our business has relied on the adoption of our cloud products and solutions by a broad array of customers. Our ability to further increase our customer base, and achieve broader market acceptance of our products and solutions will depend, in part, on our ability to effectively organize, focus and train our sales and marketing personnel. Our ability to achieve significant revenue growth in the future will depend, in part, on our ability to recruit, train and retain a sufficient number of experienced sales professionals. Our recent hires and planned hires may not become as productive as quickly as we expect and we may be unable to hire or retain sufficient numbers of qualified individuals in the future in the markets where we do business.

As we seek to increase the adoption of our products and solutions by our customers, we may incur higher costs and longer sales cycles. The decision to adopt our products and solutions may require the approval of multiple technical and business decision makers, including security, compliance, procurement, operations and IT. In addition, while customers may quickly deploy our products and solutions on a limited basis before they will commit to deploying our products and solutions at scale, they often require extensive education about our products and solutions and significant customer support time, engage in protracted pricing negotiations and seek to secure readily available development resources.

We require a significant amount of capital to fund our operations and respond to business opportunities. If we cannot obtain sufficient capital on acceptable terms, or at all, our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We may make investments from time to time in product development, technologies, branding, sales and marketing to remain competitive. In the past, our principal sources of liquidity included bank loans, loans from Kingsoft Group and the proceeds received from the issuance and sale of our shares. See “Description of Share Capital—History of Securities Issuances.” Our ability to obtain additional financing in the future is subject to a number of uncertainties, including those relating to:

Although we expect to rely less on financing support from our existing shareholders and rely increasingly on net cash provided by operating activities and financing through capital markets and commercial banks for our liquidity needs as our business continues to grow and as we are a public company, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in our efforts to diversify our sources of capital. If we cannot obtain sufficient capital, we may not be able to implement our growth strategies, and our business, financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We may be unable to obtain additional capital in a timely manner or on acceptable terms or at all. In addition, due to future capital needs and other business reasons, we may need to sell additional equity or debt securities or obtain a credit facility. The sale of additional equity or equity-linked securities could dilute our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness would result in increased debt service obligations and could result in operating and financing covenants that would restrict our operations or our ability to pay dividends to our shareholders.

Our ability to maintain customer satisfaction depends in part on the consistency and quality of our customer support services through the product cycle. Failure to maintain continuous and high-quality customer support could have an adverse effect on our business, results of operation, and financial condition.

We believe that customer satisfaction is key to our business. In order to deliver high-level customer satisfaction, we must successfully assist our customers in deploying and continuing to use our products and solutions, resolving performance issues, addressing interoperability challenges with the customers’ existing IT infrastructure, and responding to security threats, cyber-attacks and performance and reliability problems that may arise from time to time. The IT architecture of our customers, particularly the larger organizations, are very complex and may require high levels of focused support to effectively utilize our platform and products. Because our platform and products are designed to be highly configurable and to rapidly implement customers’ reconfigurations, customer errors in configuring our platform and products can result in significant disruption to our customers. Our support organization will face additional challenges associated with our international operations, including those associated with delivering support and documentation in languages other than Chinese and English. Increased demand for customer support, without corresponding increases in revenues, could increase our costs and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

There can be no assurance that we will be able to hire sufficient personnel as and when needed, particularly if our sales exceed our internal forecasts. To the extent that we are unsuccessful in hiring, training, and retaining adequate support resources, our ability to provide high-quality and timely support to our customers will be negatively impacted, and our customers’ satisfaction with our network could be adversely affected. Any failure to maintain high-quality customer support, or a market perception that we do not maintain high-quality customer support, could adversely affect our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition, particularly with respect to our large enterprise customers.

We employ a pricing model and strategy that subjects us to various challenges that could make it difficult for us to derive sufficient value from our customers.

We generally charge public cloud service customers on a monthly basis based on utilization and duration. We generally charge enterprise cloud service customers on a project basis. Such pricing model requires us to undertake significant projections and planning on our costs. If our projections and plans differ significantly from those actually incurred, our business could be harmed. We do not know whether our current or potential customers or the market in general will continue to accept this pricing model going forward and, if it fails to gain acceptance, our business could be harmed. In addition, if our competitors adopt new pricing models that become more attractive to customers, our business could be harmed.

We also generally rely on telecommunication operators for network bandwidth and third parties servers or server racks based on expected usage from our customers. In certain of our arrangements with such

telecommunication operators, we have made minimum purchase commitments to secure bandwidth resources, which may be underutilized. For example, in April 2020, we entered into a non-cancelable one-year internet data center service agreement, pursuant to which we have a contractual minimum purchase commitment amounting to RMB240.0 million and we shall pay additional fees for usages above the committed amount. Such costs are fixed in nature for some amount of time, so it may not be possible to reduce the costs in a timely manner if the usage from our customers declines. If our customers use our platform in a manner that is inconsistent with how we have invested in bandwidth, servers, and racks, our business could be harmed. In addition, we have historically adopted an aggressive pricing strategy to gain a certain share in the market. To the extent that such strategy helps us increase revenues, the increased revenues still may not be enough to offset the increased cost and expenses we incur. Moreover, we may have to keep the price of our products and solutions being on par with our competitors to remain in our competitive position. If we are not able to advance our technologies and effectively control costs, our business, results of operation and financial condition may be negatively affected.

Defects or errors in our products or solutions could diminish demand for our products or solutions, harm our business and results of operations and subject us to liability.

Our customers use our products for important aspects of their businesses, and any errors, defects or disruptions to our products and any other performance problems with our products could damage our customers’ businesses and, in turn, hurt our brand and reputation. We provide regular updates to our products, which have in the past contained, and may in the future contain, undetected errors, failures, vulnerabilities and bugs when first introduced or released. Real or perceived errors, failures or bugs in our products could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our platform, loss of competitive position, lower customer retention or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may be required, or may choose, for customer relations or other reasons, to expend additional resources in order to help correct the problem. In addition, we may not carry insurance to compensate us for any losses that may result from claims arising from defects or disruptions in our products. As a result, our reputation and our brand could be harmed, and our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

In addition, our solutions and products must interoperate with our customers’ existing internal networks and infrastructure. These complex internal systems are developed, delivered, and maintained by the customer and a myriad of vendors and service providers. As a result, the components of our customers’ infrastructure have different specifications, rapidly evolve, utilize multiple protocol standards, include multiple versions and generations of products, and may be highly customized. We must be able to interoperate and provide products to customers with highly complex and customized internal networks, which requires careful planning and execution between our customers, our customer support teams and, in some cases, our channel partners. Further, when new or updated elements of our customers’ infrastructure or new industry standards or protocols are introduced, we may have to update or enhance our technologies and infrastructure to allow us to continue to provide our products to customers. Our competitors or other vendors may refuse to work with us to allow their products to interoperate with our platform and products, which could make it difficult for our platform and products to function properly in customer internal networks and infrastructures that include these third-party products.

We may not deliver or maintain interoperability quickly or cost-effectively, or at all. These efforts require capital investment and engineering resources. If we fail to maintain compatibility of our solutions, platform and products with our customers’ internal networks and infrastructures, our customers may not be able to fully utilize our solutions, platform and products, and we may, among other consequences, lose or fail to increase our market share and experience reduced demand for our products, which would materially harm our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Our sales and onboarding cycles with customers can be long and unpredictable, and our sales and onboarding efforts require considerable time and expense, which may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The timing of our sales with our enterprise customers and related revenue recognition is difficult to predict because of the length and unpredictability of the sales cycle for these customers. In addition, for our enterprise customers, the lengthy sales cycle for the evaluation and implementation of our products and solutions may also cause us to experience a delay between expenses for such sales efforts and the generation of corresponding revenues. The length of our sales cycle for these enterprise customers, from initial evaluation to payment, can range from one to six months and can vary substantially from customer to customer. We may have to expend significant money and resources before recognizing revenues from those enterprise customers.

Similarly, the onboarding and ramping process with new enterprise customers can take several months. As the purchase of our products can be dependent upon customer initiatives, our sales cycle can extend to even longer periods of time. Customers frequently require considerable time to evaluate, test, and qualify our product offering prior to entering into or expanding a contract commitment. During the sales cycle, we expend significant time and money on sales and marketing and contract negotiation activities, which may not result in a completed sale. Additional factors that may influence the length and variability of our sales cycle include:

We face challenges from the evolving regulatory environment and user attitude toward data privacy and protection. Actual or alleged failure to comply with data privacy and protection laws and regulations could materially and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We operate in the regulatory environment in which data privacy and protection is evolving. We cannot assure you that relevant governmental authorities will not interpret or implement the laws or regulations in ways that negatively affect the cloud service industry, our clients and us. Regulatory investigations, restrictions, penalties and sanctions, whether targeted at us or not, may negatively affect the market environment in which we operate, our existing or potential clients, and our products and services, which may in turn have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and financial condition. It is also possible that we may become subject to additional or new laws and regulations regarding data privacy and protection in connection with the data we have access to and the data products and services we provide to our clients. Moreover, we may become subject to regulatory requirements as a result of utilization of our products and services by residents of, or travelers who visit, certain jurisdictions, such as the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union, or the GDPR. Complying with additional or new regulatory requirements could force us to incur substantial costs or require us to change our business practices. Moreover, if a high profile security breach occurs with respect to our competitors, people may lose trust in the security of cloud service providers generally, including us, which could damage the reputation of the industry, result in heightened regulation and strengthened regulatory enforcement and adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We expect that we will continue to face uncertainty as to whether our efforts to comply with evolving obligations under global data protection, privacy and security laws will be sufficient. For example, during an inspection conducted by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of People’s Republic of China (“MIIT”) in September 2019, the Cybersecurity Administration Office of MIIT found that certain functions of our cybersecurity system did not satisfy relevant requirements imposed by the telecommunications authority and our user data system did not provide sufficient data and privacy protection. We are currently implementing certain rectification measures in accordance with the inspection results. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with applicable laws and regulations could result in reputational damage or proceedings or actions against us by governmental authorities, individuals or others. These proceedings or actions could subject us to significant civil or criminal penalties and negative publicity, require us to change our business practices, increase our costs and materially harm our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, our current and future relationships with customers, vendors and other third parties could be negatively affected by any proceedings or actions against us or current or future data protection obligations imposed on them under applicable law, including the GDPR. Furthermore, a data breach affecting personal information could result in significant legal and financial exposure and reputational damage that could potentially have an adverse effect on our business.

Our business partners and customers may be subject to regulations related to the handling and transfer of certain types of sensitive and confidential information. Any failure of our partners or customers to comply with applicable laws and regulations would harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our business partners and customers that use our products may be subject to privacy- and data protection-related laws and regulations that impose obligations in connection with the collection, processing and use of personal data, financial data, health data or other similar data.

Any failure or perceived failure by our business partners or customers to comply with applicable laws and regulations could result in their reputational damage or governmental investigations, inquiries, enforcement actions and prosecutions, private litigation, fines and penalties or adverse publicity, which may harm our business partnership and have a negative impact on our business.

We could be harmed by data loss or other security breaches

Because we process, store, and transmit large amounts of data, including personal information, failure to prevent or mitigate risks of data loss or other security breaches, including breaches of our vendors’ or customers’ technology and systems, could expose us or our customers to a risk of loss or misuse of such information, adversely affect our operating results, result in litigation or potential liability for us, deter customers or sellers from using our stores and services, and otherwise harm our business and reputation. We use third-party technology and systems for a variety of reasons, including, without limitation, encryption and authentication technology, employee email, content delivery to customers, back-office support, and other functions. Some of our systems have experienced past security breaches, and, although they did not have a material adverse effect on our operating results, there can be no assurance of a similar result in the future. Although we have developed systems and processes that are designed to protect customer information and prevent data loss and other security breaches, including systems and processes designed to reduce the impact of a security breach at a third-party vendor or customer, such measures cannot provide absolute security. Moreover, in the event of a major system disruption, hardware malfunction or damages to data centers and servers caused by technologies failures, natural disasters or man-made problems, we may experience significant loss of data which would materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Changes in laws and regulations related to the internet or changes in the internet infrastructure itself may diminish the demand for our products and solutions, and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

The future success of our business depends upon the continued use of the internet as a primary medium for commerce, communications and business applications. Chinese or foreign government bodies or agencies have in the past adopted, and may in the future adopt, laws or regulations affecting the use of the internet as a commercial medium. Changes in these laws or regulations could require us to modify our products and platform in order to comply with these changes. In addition, government agencies or private organizations have imposed and may impose additional taxes, fees or other charges for accessing the internet or commerce conducted via the internet. These laws or charges could limit the growth of internet-related commerce or communications generally, or result in reductions in the demand for internet-based products and services such as our products and platform. In addition, the use of the internet as a business tool 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 service. The performance of the internet and its acceptance as a business tool has been adversely affected by “viruses,” “worms,” and similar malicious programs. If the use of the internet is reduced as a result of these or other issues, then demand for our products could decline, which could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We may have insufficient computing resources, transmission bandwidth and storage space, which could result in disruptions and our business, results of operations and financial condition could be adversely affected.

Our operations are dependent in part upon transmission bandwidth provided by third-party telecommunications network providers, access to data centers to house our servers and other computing resources. There can be no assurance that we are adequately prepared for unexpected increases in bandwidth and data center demands by our customers. The bandwidth we have contracted to use or the data centers we have established may become unavailable for a variety of reasons, including service outages, payment disputes, network providers going out of business, natural disasters, networks imposing traffic limits, or governments adopting regulations that impact network operations. In some regions, bandwidth providers have their own services that compete with us, or they may choose to develop their own services that will compete with us. These bandwidth providers may become unwilling to sell us adequate transmission bandwidth at fair market prices, if at all. This risk is heightened where market power is concentrated with one or a few major networks. We also may be unable to move quickly enough to augment capacity to reflect growing traffic or security demands. Failure to put in place the capacity we require could result in a reduction in, or disruption of, service to our customers and ultimately a loss of those customers. Such a failure could result in our inability to acquire new customers demanding capacity not available on our platform.

Our services rely on the stable performance of servers, and any disruption to our servers due to internal and external factors could diminish demand for our products or solutions, harm our business, our reputation and results of operations and subject us to liability.

We rely in part upon the stable performance of our servers for provision of our solutions, products and services. Any disruption to our servers may happen due to internal and external factors, such as inappropriate maintenance, defects in the servers, cyber-attacks targeted at us, occurrence of catastrophic events or human errors. Such disruption could result in negative publicity, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our solutions and products, loss of competitive position, lower customer retention or claims by customers for losses sustained by them. In such an event, we may need to expend additional resources to help with recovering. In addition, we may not carry insurance to compensate us for any losses that may result from claims arising from disruption in servers. As a result, our reputation and our brand could be harmed, and our business, results of operations and financial condition may be adversely affected.

Our use of open source or third-party software could negatively affect our ability to sell our products and solutions, and subject us to possible litigation.

Our products and platform incorporate open source software, and we expect to continue to incorporate open source software in our products and platform in the future. Courts have interpreted few of the licenses applicable to open source software, and there is a risk that these licenses could be construed in a manner that could impose unanticipated conditions or restrictions on our ability to commercialize our products and platform. Moreover, although we have implemented policies to regulate the use and incorporation of open source software into our products and platform, we cannot be certain that we have not incorporated open source software in our products or platform in a manner that is inconsistent with such policies. If we or our employees fail to comply with open source licenses, we may be subject to certain requirements, including requirements that we offer our products that incorporate the open source software for no cost, that we make available source code for modifications or derivative works we create based upon, incorporating or using the open source software and that we license such modifications or derivative works under the terms of applicable open source licenses. If an author or other third party that distributes such open source software were to allege that we had not complied with the conditions of one or more of these licenses, we could be required to incur significant legal expenses defending against such allegations and could be subject to significant damages, enjoined from generating revenues from customers using products that contained the open source software and required to comply with onerous conditions or restrictions on these products. In any of these events, we and our customers could be required to seek licenses from third parties in order to continue offering our products and platform and to re-engineer our products or platform or discontinue offering our products to customers in the event re-engineering cannot be accomplished on a timely basis. Any of the foregoing could require us to devote additional research and development resources to re-engineer our products or platform, could result in customer dissatisfaction and may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our reliance on a limited number of suppliers for certain essential services could adversely affect our ability to manage our business effectively and harm our business.

We rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain essential services to operate our network and provide solutions and products to our customers. For example, we generally rely on a limited number of suppliers to purchase the servers that we use and we ordinarily purchase these equipment on a purchase-order basis. We also rely on a limited number of suppliers for bandwidth and racks. We may experience shortages in components or delays in delivery, including as a result of natural disasters, increased demand in the industry or our suppliers lacking sufficient rights to supply the servers or IDCs in all jurisdictions in which we operate.

Our reliance on these suppliers exposes us to risks, including reduced control over production costs and constraints based on the then current availability, terms, and pricing of these services. We generally do not have any long-term contracts guaranteeing supply with these suppliers. If our supply of certain services is disrupted or delayed, there can be no assurance that additional supplies or services can serve as adequate replacements or that supplies will be available on terms that are favorable to us, if at all. Moreover, even if we can identify adequate replacements on substantially similar terms, our business could be adversely affected until those efforts were completed. Any disruption or delay in the supply of our hardware components may delay the opening of new network facilities, limit capacity expansion or replacement of defective or obsolete equipment at existing network facilities, or cause other constraints on our operations that could damage our customer relationships.

On January 17, 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology promulgated Notice on Cleaning Up and Regulating the Internet Access Service Market, or the Notice on the Internet Access Service, which prohibits the “multi-level sublease” and requires that IDC enterprises shall not sublease the IP address, bandwidth or other network access resources they have obtained from basic telecommunication operators to other enterprises for operating businesses of IDC, Internet service provider (ISP) or others. According to the Notice on the Internet Access Service, enterprises engaged in the businesses of IDC, ISP or content delivery network shall conduct comprehensive self-inspection, rectify violations of the relevant regulations in a timely manner to ensure

their business operations are in compliance with the applicable laws and regulations and the network facilities and network access resources are used in a compliant manner. The regulatory authorities shall urge enterprises in violation of the relevant regulations to make rectifications in a timely manner and take stern actions in accordance with the laws against the enterprises that refuse to make such rectifications, and such enterprises may fail to pass the annual inspection, or the licenses or permits of such enterprises may not be renewed upon expiration and their cooperation with the basic telecommunications operators may be adversely affected under serious circumstances. Due to the evolving regulatory environment and the fact that there is no further interpretations or applications from the competent authorities on such laws and regulations, we cannot be certain whether the supply of IP address and bandwidth from IDC suppliers to us will be determined as “multi-sublease” and prohibited by the competent regulatory authorities. If our historical or current cooperation with third-party IDC suppliers are determined as non-compliant activities, we may no longer be able to collaborate with such IDC suppliers. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether we, as the sublessee, may also be subject to penalties if we were unable to implement effective rectification measures if required by the regulatory authority. If so, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects could be materially and adversely affected. As of the date of this prospectus, we have not received any notice from a regulatory authority that would require us to suspend or rectify our current business cooperation with the IDC suppliers.

We rely on channel partners to distribute some of our products and solutions or provide certain support services. If our channel partners’ access to our platform, products and solutions is interrupted or delayed for any reason, or they fail to deliver quality services to the satisfaction of our customers, our business and results of operation may be harmed.

Some of our public service customers rely on their agents when selecting suppliers or service providers, to save them from the efforts of directly negotiating with a large number of different suppliers or service providers. We work closely with these agents as our channel partners and leverage their understanding of end users’ demands, thereby developing tailored marketing strategies. Before a public service customer launches a project for cloud solutions, it typically lays out the goals it plans to achieve and the budget for the project and engages a third-party agent, which will provide various types of assistance in project implementation, such as advising on financing plan, selecting suppliers, managing construction and integrating work products of different suppliers. If our channel partners fail to continuously provide high quality services to our customers, our business may be harmed.

Any interruption or delay in our channel partners’ access to our platform, products and solutions will negatively impact our customers. Our customers depend on the continuous availability of our network for the delivery and use of our products and solutions. If all or a portion of our network were to fail, our customers and partners could lose access to the internet until such disruption is resolved or they deploy disaster recovery options that allow them to bypass our network. The adverse effects of any network interruptions on our reputation and financial condition may be heightened due to the nature of our business and our customers’ expectation of continuous and uninterrupted internet access and low tolerance for interruptions of any duration. While we do not consider them to have been material, we have experienced, and may in the future experience, network disruptions and other performance problems due to a variety of factors.

Strategic transactions, including acquisitions and investments, may divert our management’s attention and result in debt or dilution to our shareholders. We may be unable to integrate acquired businesses and technologies successfully or achieve the expected benefits of such acquisitions.

We may evaluate and consider potential strategic transactions, including acquisitions of, or investments in, businesses, technologies, services, products and other assets in the future. We also may cooperate with other business partners to expand our products and platform, which could involve preferred or exclusive licenses, additional channels of distribution, discount pricing or investments in other companies.

Any acquisition, investment or business relationship may result in unforeseen operating difficulties and expenditures. In particular, we may encounter difficulties assimilating or integrating the businesses, technologies,

products, personnel or operations of the acquired companies, particularly if the key personnel of the acquired company choose not to work for us, their products or services are not easily adapted to work with our platform, or we have difficulty retaining the customers of any acquired business due to changes in ownership, management or otherwise. Acquisitions may also disrupt our business, divert our resources and require significant management attention that would otherwise be available for development of our existing business. The anticipated benefits of any acquisition, investment or business relationship may not be realized or we may be exposed to unknown risks or liabilities. Moreover, we may record significant impairments on our investments, which could have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

Negotiating these transactions can be time-consuming, difficult and expensive, and our ability to complete these transactions may often be subject to approvals that are beyond our control. Consequently, these transactions, even if announced, may not be completed. For one or more of those transactions, we may:

The occurrence of any of these foregoing could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our business depends substantially on the continuing efforts of our management and other key personnel, as well as a competent pool of talents that supports our existing operations and future growth. If we are unable to retain, attract, recruit and train such personnel, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Our future success depends heavily on the continued contributions of our senior management, many of whom are difficult to replace. In particular, we rely on the expertise, experience and vision of our senior management team. If any of our senior management becomes unable or unwilling to continue to contribute their services to us, we may not be able to replace them easily, or at all. As a result, our business may be severely disrupted, and our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Additionally, our future success also depends on our ability to attract, recruit and train a large number of qualified employees and retain existing key employees. In particular, we rely on our top notch research and development team to develop our advanced algorithms and technologies and our experienced sales personnel to maintain relationship with our customers. In order to compete for talents, we may need to offer higher compensation, better trainings and more attractive career opportunities and other benefits to our employees, which may be costly and burdensome. We cannot assure you that we will be able to attract or retain a qualified workforce necessary to support our future growth. Furthermore, any disputes between us and our employees or any labor-related regulatory or legal proceedings may divert management and financial resources, negatively impact staff morale, reduce our productivity, or harm our reputation and future recruiting efforts. In addition, our ability to train and integrate new employees into our operations may not meet the demands of our growing business. Any of the above issues related to our workforce may materially and adversely affect our operations and future growth.

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

Prior to our initial public offering, we have been a private company with limited accounting and financial reporting personnel and other resources with which we address our internal control over financial reporting. In connection with the audits of our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2018 and 2019 and for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2018 and 2019, we and our independent registered public accounting firm identified a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting. As defined in the standards established by the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, a “material weakness” is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

The material weakness identified is our company’s lack of sufficient accounting and financial reporting personnel with requisite knowledge and experience in application of U.S. GAAP and SEC rules. We are in the process of implementing a number of measures to address the material weakness. See “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations—Internal Control Over Financial Reporting.” However, we cannot assure you that these measures may fully address the material weakness and deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting or that we may conclude that they have been fully remediated.

We are a public company in the United States subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, will require that we include a report from management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our second annual report on Form 20-F. 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. 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 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, as 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.

During the course of documenting and testing our internal control procedures, in order to satisfy the requirements of Section 404, we may identify other weaknesses and deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting. If we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal control over financial reporting, as these standards are modified, supplemented or amended from time to time, we may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404. Generally speaking, if we fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment, it could result in material misstatements in our financial statements and could also impair our ability to comply with applicable financial reporting requirements and related regulatory filings on a timely basis. As a result, our businesses, financial condition, results of operations and prospects, as well as the trading price of the ADSs, may be materially and adversely affected. 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 and civil or criminal sanctions. We may also be required to restate our financial statements from prior periods.

We are in the process of expanding our international operations, which exposes us to significant regulatory, economic and political risks, the failure to handle which may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We see great potentials in expanding our business and promoting our products and solutions globally. Operating in international markets requires significant resources and management attention and will subject us to regulatory, economic and political risks in addition to those we already face in China. Because of our limited experience with international operations, as well as developing and managing sales in international markets, our international expansion efforts may not be successful.

In addition, we will face risks in doing business internationally that could adversely affect our business, including:

In particular, to pursue international expansion, we will focus on “Belt and Road” countries, where the cloud markets are less saturated and present more attractive opportunities. “Belt and Road” initiative refers to China’s proposal to build “Silk Road Economic Belt” and “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” in cooperation with related

countries across Asia, Europe and Africa, focusing on promoting policy coordination, connectivity of infrastructure and facilities, unimpeded trade, financial integration, and strengthened people-to-people ties through a consultative process and joint efforts, with the goal of bringing benefits to all. When focusing on “Belt and Road” countries, our failures in such specific countries due to, among others, political, economic and social instability, and changes in the competitive landscape in the local cloud service market, may have adverse impact on our internal expansion strategy.

Also, costs from our international expansion efforts and network service provider fees outside of China may be generally higher than domestic rates, our gross margin for international customers may be typically lower than our gross margin for domestic customers. As a result, our gross margin may be impacted and fluctuate as we expand our operations and customer base worldwide.

Our international operations may also be negatively affected by any deterioration of the political and economic relations between China and other countries and sanctions and export controls administered by the government authorities in the foreign countries in which we operate, and other geopolitical challenges.

Our failure to manage any of these risks successfully could harm our international operations, and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Our services to highly regulated organizations are subject to a number of challenges and risks, the failure to handle which may adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

We serve customers in highly regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare and other public service sectors, sales to which are subject to a number of challenges and risks. Selling to such highly regulated organizations can be highly competitive, expensive, and time-consuming, often requiring significant upfront time and expense without any assurance that these efforts will generate a sale. Public service contracting requirements may change and in doing so restrict our ability to sell into public service sector until we comply with the revised requirements. Demand and payment for our services are affected by public service sector budgetary cycles and funding authorizations, with funding reductions or delays adversely affecting public service sector demand for our services. In addition, demand of public service customers for our products and solutions may be reduced or diminished after the completion of our initial public offering subject to the future relationship between China and the United States.

Further, highly regulated organizations may demand shorter contract terms or other contractual provisions that differ from our standard arrangements, including terms that can lead those customers to obtain broader rights in our services than would be standard. Such organizations may have statutory, contractual, or other legal rights to terminate contracts with us or our channel partners due to a default or for other reasons, and any such termination may harm our business. In addition, these organizations may be required to publish the rates we negotiate with them, which could harm our negotiating leverage with other potential customers and in turn harm our business.

We or our business partners with which we collaborate are subject to anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and similar laws, and noncompliance with such laws can subject us to criminal penalties or significant fines and harm our business and reputation.

We are subject to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, the UK Bribery Act 2010, and other anti-corruption, anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, and similar laws in China, the United States and other countries in which we conduct activities. Anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws, which have been enforced aggressively and are interpreted broadly, prohibit companies and their employees and agents from promising, authorizing, making, or offering improper payments or other benefits to government officials and others in the public sector. We leverage our business partners, including channel partners, to sell our products and solutions and host many of our facilities for our network. We may also rely on our business partners to conduct our business abroad. We

and our business partners may have direct or indirect interactions with officials and employees of government agencies or state-owned or affiliated entities and we may be held liable for the corrupt or other illegal activities of our business partners and intermediaries, our employees, representatives, contractors, channel partners and agents, even if we do not explicitly authorize such activities. Further, some of our international sales activity occurs, and some of our network infrastructure or data center is located, in parts of the world that are recognized as having a greater potential for business practices that violate anti-corruption, anti-bribery, or similar laws.

We cannot assure you that all of our employees and agents have complied with, or in the future will comply with, our policies and applicable law. The investigation of possible violations of these laws, including internal investigations and compliance reviews that we may conduct from time to time, could have a material adverse effect on our business. Noncompliance with these laws could subject us to investigations, severe criminal or civil sanctions, settlements, prosecution, loss of export privileges, suspension or debarment from Chinese government contracts and other contracts, other enforcement actions, the appointment of a monitor, disgorgement of profits, significant fines, damages, other civil and criminal penalties or injunctions, whistleblower complaints, adverse media coverage and other consequences. Other internal and government investigations, regulatory proceedings, or litigation, including private litigation filed by our shareholders, may also follow as a consequence. Any investigations, actions, or sanctions could materially harm our reputation, business, results of operations, and financial condition. Further, the promulgation of new laws, rules or regulations or new interpretations of current laws, rules or regulations could impact the way we do business in other countries, including requiring us to change certain aspects of our business to ensure compliance, which could reduce revenues, increase costs, or subject us to additional liabilities.

Certain of our products and solutions are subject to telecommunications-related regulations, and future legislative or regulatory actions could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Some of our products and solutions are subject to existing or potential telecommunication laws and regulations in China. If we do not comply with these rules and regulations, we could be subject to enforcement actions, fines, loss of licenses and possibly restrictions on our ability to operate or offer certain of our products. Any enforcement action by the competent authorities, which may be a public process, would hurt our reputation in the industry, possibly impair our ability to sell our products to customers and could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition.

If we do not comply with any current or future rules or regulations that apply to our business, we could be subject to substantial fines and penalties, and we may have to restructure our offerings, exit certain markets or raise the price of our products. In addition, any uncertainty regarding whether particular regulations apply to our business, and how they apply, could increase our costs or limit our ability to grow. Any of the foregoing could adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. For example, the Notice on the Internet Access Service provides that a company possessing the corresponding telecommunications business operation license should deploy the IDC engine room and server and provide ISP access services in the local place covered under its license. We may be ordered to rectify our illegal activities, subject to confiscation of illegal gains, fines or business suspension, or may be required to obtain additional license or approvals, and we cannot assure you that we will be able to timely obtain or maintain all the required licenses or approvals or make all the necessary filings in the future.

Activities of our customers or the content of their websites and other internet properties could subject us to liability.

Through our network, we provide a wide variety of products that enable our customers to exchange information, conduct business, and engage in various online activities both domestically and internationally. Our customers may use our platform and products in violation of applicable law or in violation of our terms of service or the customer’s own policies. The existing laws relating to the liability of providers of online products and

services for activities of their users are highly unsettled and in flux both within China and internationally. We are currently and, in the future, may be subject to lawsuits and/or liability arising from the conduct of our customers. Additionally, the conduct of our customers may subject us to regulatory enforcement actions and/or liability. We may be a defendant in a number of lawsuits both in China and abroad, alleging copyright infringement based on content that is made available through our customers’ websites. There can be no assurance that we will not face litigation in the future or that we will prevail in any litigation we may face. An adverse decision in one or more of these lawsuits could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Litigations may subject us to claims arising from activities of our customers and content on their websites for large potential damages based on a significant number of online occurrences under statutory or other damage theories. Such claims may result in liability that exceeds our ability to pay. Even if claims against us are ultimately unsuccessful, defending against such claims will increase our legal expenses and divert management’s attention from the operation of our business, which could materially and adversely impact our business and results of operations.

Policies and laws in this area remain highly dynamic, and we may face additional theories of intermediary liability in various jurisdictions. For example, the European Union (the EU) approved a copyright directive that will impose additional obligations on online platforms and failure to comply could give rise to significant liability. Other new laws like this, may also expose internet companies to significant liability. We may incur additional costs to comply with these new laws, which may have an adverse effect on our business, results of operations, and financial condition.

Failure to comply with laws and regulations applicable to our business could subject us to fines and penalties and could also cause us to lose customers or otherwise harm our business.

Our business is subject to regulation by various governmental agencies in China, including agencies responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with various legal obligations, such as value-added telecommunication laws and regulations, privacy and data protection-related laws and regulations, intellectual property laws, employment and labor laws, workplace safety, environmental laws, consumer protection laws, governmental trade laws, import and export controls, anti-corruption and anti-bribery laws, and tax laws and regulations. In certain jurisdictions, these regulatory requirements may be more stringent than in China. These laws and regulations impose added costs on our business. Noncompliance with applicable regulations or requirements could subject us to: