BZUN Baozun Inc

ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

The selected consolidated financial data presented below as of and for the years ended December 31, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 have been prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Our selected consolidated statements of operations data for the three years ended December 31, 2014, 2015 and 2016 and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2015 and 2016 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this document. Our selected consolidated statements of operations data for the years ended December 31, 2012 and 2013, and selected consolidated balance sheet data as of December 31, 2012, 2013 and 2014 have been derived from our audited consolidated financial statements not included elsewhere in this document. The historical results are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in any future period.

The following table sets forth the following operating data for each period indicated:

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In evaluating our business, we consider and use non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations, non-GAAP net income/(loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc., and non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. per ADS, as supplemental measures to review and assess our operating performance. The presentation of these non-GAAP financial measures is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations is income/(loss) from operations excluding share-based compensation expenses. Non-GAAP net income/(loss) is net income/(loss) excluding share-based compensation expenses. Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. is net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. excluding share-based compensation expenses. Non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. per ADS is non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. divided by weighted average number of shares used in calculating net income per ordinary share multiplied by three, as each ADS represents three of our Class A ordinary shares.

We present the non-GAAP financial measures because they are used by our management to evaluate our operating performance and formulate business plans. Non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations, non-GAAP net income/(loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. and non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. per ADS enable our management to assess our operating results without considering the impact of share-based compensation expenses. We also believe that the use of the non-GAAP measures facilitate investors’ assessment of our operating performance.

The non-GAAP financial measures are not defined under U.S. GAAP and are not presented in accordance with U.S. GAAP. The non-GAAP financial measures have limitations as analytical tools. One of the key limitations of using non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations, non-GAAP net income/(loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. and non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. per ADS is that they do not reflect all items of income and expense that affect our operations. Share-based compensation expenses have been and may continue to be incurred in our business and is not reflected in the presentation of non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations, non-GAAP net income/(loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. and non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. per ADS. Further, the non-GAAP measures may differ from the non-GAAP measures used by other companies, including peer companies, and therefore their comparability may be limited. In light of the foregoing limitations, the non-GAAP income/(loss) from operations, non-GAAP net income/(loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. and non-GAAP net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. per ADS for the period should not be considered in isolation from or as an alternative to income/(loss) from operations, net income/(loss), net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc., net income (loss) attributable to ordinary shareholders of Baozun Inc. per ADS, or other financial measures prepared in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

We compensate for these limitations by reconciling the non-GAAP financial measure to the nearest U.S. GAAP performance measure, which should be considered when evaluating our performance. We encourage you to review our financial information in its entirety and not rely on a single financial measure.

A reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 to the nearest U.S. GAAP performance measures is provided below:

Exchange Rate Information

Substantially all of our operations are conducted in China and substantially all of our revenues are denominated in RMB. This annual report contains translations of RMB amounts into U.S. dollars at specific rates solely for the convenience of the reader. Unless otherwise noted, all translations from RMB to U.S. dollars and from U.S. dollars to RMB in this annual report were made at a rate of RMB6.9430 to US$1.00, the exchange rate set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board on December 30, 2016. We make no representation that any RMB or U.S. dollar amounts could have been, or could be, converted into U.S. dollars or RMB, as the case may be, at any particular rate, at the rates stated below, or at all. The PRC government imposes control over its foreign currency reserves in part through direct regulation of the conversion of RMB into foreign exchange and through restrictions on foreign trade. On April 7, 2017, the noon buying rate was RMB6.8978 to US$1.00.

The following table sets forth, for the periods indicated, information concerning exchange rates between the RMB and the U.S. dollar based on the exchange rates set forth in the H.10 statistical release of the Federal Reserve Board.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

We wish to caution the readers that the following important factors, and those important factors described in other reports submitted to, or filed with, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC, among other factors, could affect our actual results and could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward-looking statements made by us or on our behalf. In particular, as we are a non-U.S. company, there are risks associated with investing in ADSs that are not typical with investments in shares of U.S. companies. If any of the following risks actually occurs, our business, financial condition and results of operations would likely suffer. In such case, the trading price of our ADSs could decline, and you could lose all or part of your investment.

Risks Related to Our Business

If the e-commerce market in China does not grow, or grows more slowly than we expect, demand for our services and solutions could be adversely affected.

Continued demand from our existing and potential brand partners to use our services and solutions depends on whether e-commerce will continue to be widely accepted. While online retail has existed in China since the 1990s, only recently have large online retail companies become profitable. The long-term viability and prospects of the online retail business in China remain relatively untested. Our future results of operations will depend on numerous factors affecting the development of the e-commerce industry in China, which may be beyond our control. These factors include:

If consumer utilization of e-commerce channels in China does not grow or grows more slowly than we expect, demand for our services and solutions would be adversely affected, our revenues would be negatively impacted and our ability to pursue our growth strategy would be compromised.

If the complexities and challenges faced by brand partners seeking to sell online diminish, or if our brand partners increase their in-house e-commerce capabilities as an alternative to our solutions and services, demand for our solutions and services could be adversely affected.

One of the key attractions of our solutions and services to brand partners is our ability to help address the complexities and difficulties they face in the e-commerce market in China. If the level of such complexities and difficulties declines as a result of changes in the e-commerce landscape or otherwise, or if our brand partners choose to increase their in-house support capabilities as an alternative to our e-commerce solutions and services, our solutions and services may become less important or attractive to our brand partners, and demand for our solutions and services may decline.

Our success is tied to the success of our existing and future brand partners for which we operate brand e-commerce business.

Our success is substantially dependent upon the success of our brand partners. As we continue to expand and optimize our brand partner base, our future success will also be tied to the success of our future brand partners. We cannot assure you that our efforts to optimize our brand partner base will be successful or will not have any material adverse impact on our business performance or results of operation. The retail business in China is intensely competitive. If our brand partners were to experience any significant decline in their online sales due to any reason, such as newly identified quality or safety issues or decreased popularity of their products, or if they were to have any financial difficulties, suffer impairment of their brands or if the profitability of, or demand for, their products decreases for any other reason, it could adversely affect our results of operations and our ability to maintain and grow our business. Our business could also be adversely affected if our brand partners’ product sales, marketing, brands or retail stores are not successful or if our brand partners reduce their marketing efforts.

If we are unable to retain our existing brand partners, our results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

We provide brand e-commerce service to brand partners primarily pursuant to annual and tri-annual contractual arrangements. These contracts may not be renewed or, if renewed, may not be renewed on the same or more favorable terms for us. We may not be able to accurately predict future trends in brand partners renewals, and our brand partners’ renewal rates may decline or fluctuate due to factors such as level of satisfaction with our services and solutions and our fees and charges, as well as factors beyond our control, such as level of competition faced by our brand partners, their level of success in e-commerce and their spending levels.

In particular, some of our existing brand partners have had years of cooperation with us and we generated a significant portion of our net revenue through (i) the sale of products in the stores of these brands operated by us and (ii) provision of our services to these brand partners, which we collectively refer to as net revenues “related to” these brand partners in order to assess our overall business relationship with them. In 2016, net revenues related to our top three brand partners comprised approximately 19.8%, 18.9% and 12.4% of our total net revenues, respectively. Some of our other brand partners also contributed significantly to our total GMV while our net revenues related to them were less significant (each less than 10% of our total net revenues in 2016) as they mainly utilized our capabilities under the service fee model or consignment model and therefore we did not generate any product sales revenue related to them. However, if such a brand partner terminates or does not renew its business relationship with us, our GMV may be materially and adversely affected. In the past, some brand partners did not renew their business relationships with us and we cannot assure you that our existing brand partners will renew their business relationships with us in the future.Net revenues related to our top 10 brand partners in the aggregate comprised approximately 73.8% of our total net revenues in 2016. If some of our existing brand partners, in particular brand partners with years of cooperation with us, terminate or do not renew their business relationships with us, renew on less favorable terms or for fewer services and solutions, and we do not acquire replacement brand partners or otherwise grow our brand partner base, our results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

Some of our existing brand partners do not allow us to sell products of, or provide similar services to, their competitors, which has restricted and may continue to restrict the development and expansion of our business, including without limitation, the business operation of Maikefeng, our online retail platform that we launched in 2014. We have a variety of products on Maikefeng, some of which may be manufactured or distributed by competitors of our existing brand partners. If the operation of Maikefeng is considered by such brand partners as a breach under relevant distribution and service contracts with them, they may request an early termination of such contracts and claim for damages or other liabilities against us, as a result of which our business operations and reputations may be materially and adversely affected. Further, with the expansion in our business, we may be subject to similar non-compete restrictions requested from existing and future brand partners. Compliance with such restrictions will limit our ability to expand our business. If we are found by these brand partners to be in violation of the non-compete restrictions, we may be subject to breach liabilities, as a result of which our financial condition and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

If we fail to maintain our relationships with e-commerce channels, or if e-commerce channels otherwise curtail or inhibit our ability to integrate our solutions with their channels, our solutions would be less appealing to existing and potential brand partners.

We generate a substantial majority of our revenues from the solutions we provide on e-commerce channels, including but not limited to marketplaces, social media and mobile channels. These e-commerce channels have no obligation to do business with us or to allow us to have access to their channels in the long term. If we fail to maintain our relationships with these channels, they may decide at any time and for any reason to significantly curtail or inhibit our ability to integrate our solutions with their channels.

Additionally, these channels may decide to make significant changes to their respective business models, policies, systems or plans, and those changes could impair or inhibit our brand partners’ ability to use our solutions to sell their products on those channels, or may adversely affect GMV that our brand partners can sell on those channels or reduce the desirability of selling on those channels. Further, these channels could decide to acquire similar capabilities that we possess and compete with us. Any of these could cause our brand partners to re-evaluate the value of our solutions and services and potentially terminate their relationships with us, which would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations.

We rely on the success of certain e-commerce channels such as Tmall.

A substantial majority of our GMV is derived from merchandise sold or services rendered on Tmall. If e-commerce channels such as Tmall are not successful in attracting consumers or their reputations are adversely affected for whatever reasons, our brand partners may cease to sell their products on these channels. As our results of operations rely on the solutions we provide on these e-commerce channels, a decrease in the use of these channels would reduce demands for our services, which would adversely affect our business and results of operations.

We rely in part on a pricing model under which a variable portion of the revenues we generate from our brand partners is based upon the amount of GMV, and any change in the attractiveness of that model may adversely affect our financial results.

We have adopted a pricing model under which a portion of the revenues we generate from our brand partners is variable based on our GMV. If our GMV were to decline, or if our brand partners were to demand fixed pricing terms that do not provide for any variability based on the full value of all purchases transacted and settled on the stores operated by us, our revenues and profitability may be adversely affected.

We may not be able to compete successfully against current and future competitors.

We face intense competition in the market for brand e-commerce solutions and services, and we expect competition to continue to intensify in the future. Increased competition may result in reduced pricing for our services and solutions or a decrease in our market share, any of which could negatively affect our ability to retain existing brand partners and attract new brand partners, our future financial and operating results, and our ability to grow our business.

A number of competitive factors could cause us to lose potential sales or to sell our services and solutions at lower prices or at reduced profitability, including:

In addition, competition may intensify as our competitors raise additional capital and as established companies in other market segments or geographic markets expand into our market segments or geographic markets. If we cannot compete successfully against our competitors, our business and our operating and financial results could be adversely affected.

Material disruption of e-commerce channels could prevent us from providing services to our brand partners and reduce sales in stores operated by us.

E-commerce channels could cease operations unexpectedly due to a number of events, including interruptions in telecommunication services, computer viruses and unlawful access to e-commerce channels. Any material channel downtime or disruption could prevent us from providing services to our brand partners and reduce sales in stores operated by us. Because we operate on a limited number of e-commerce channels, the adverse effects of such downtime and disruption could be significant to our operations as a whole.

The proper functioning of our technology platform is essential to our business. Any failure to maintain the satisfactory performance of our platform could materially and adversely affect our business and reputation.

The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our technology platform are critical to our success and our ability to attract and retain brand partners and provide quality customer services. Any system interruptions caused by telecommunications failures, errors encountered during system upgrades or system expansions, computer viruses, hacking or other attempts to harm our systems that result in the unavailability or slowdown of our technology platform, degraded order fulfillment performance, or additional shipping and handling costs may, individually or collectively, materially and adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

In addition, any system failure or interruption could cause material damage to our reputation and brand image if our systems are perceived to be insecure or unreliable. Our servers may also be vulnerable to computer viruses, physical or electronic break-ins and similar disruptions, which could lead to system interruptions, website slowdown or unavailability, delays or errors in transaction processing, loss of data or the inability to accept and fulfill consumers’ orders. Security breaches, computer viruses and hacking attacks have become more prevalent in our industry. We have experienced in the past and may experience in the future such attacks and unexpected interruptions. We can provide no assurance that our current security mechanisms will be sufficient to protect our IT systems from any third-party intrusions, viruses or hacker attacks, information or data theft or other similar activities. Any such future occurrences could materially and adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations.

Additionally, we must continue to upgrade and improve our technology platform to support our business growth, and failure to do so could impede our growth. However, we cannot assure you that we will be successful in executing these system upgrades and improvement strategies. In particular, our systems may experience interruptions during upgrades, and the new technologies or infrastructures may not be fully integrated with the existing systems on a timely basis, or at all. If our existing or future technology platform does not function properly, it could cause system disruptions and slow response times, affecting data transmission, which in turn could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have historically incurred significant net losses. Although we have achieved profitability since 2015, we may not be able to maintain profitability.

We incurred net losses of RMB37.8 million and RMB59.8 million during the years ended December 31, 2013 and 2014, respectively. Although we recorded net income of RMB22.6 million during the year ended December 31, 2015 and net income of RMB85.4 million (US$12.3 million) during the year ended December 31, 2016, we may not be able to continue to achieve profitability and even if we were able to continue to attain profitability on an annual basis, we may not be able to sustain profitability on a quarterly basis. We anticipate that our operating expenses will increase substantially in the foreseeable future as we increase the scale of our operations. To continue to achieve profitability, we will need to increase our revenue sufficiently to offset these higher expenses or increase sales of the products and services that have higher profitability or significantly reduce our expense level and if we are forced to reduce our expenses, our growth strategy could be compromised. If we are not able to maintain profitability, the value of our company and our ADSs could decline significantly.

In addition, our growth and profitability are affected by our revenue mix, which may vary over time because we work with our brand partners under different combinations of business models to achieve their objectives. Accordingly, our historical performance may not be indicative of future operating results.

We may not be successful in growing our Maikefeng platform.

In March 2014, we launched our online retail platform, Maikefeng, which offers authentic and high-quality products at discounted prices through our Maikefeng mobile application. In May 2015, we opened up our Maikefeng platform to third-party sellers to diversify its product offerings and improve operational efficiency. We review the performance of our Maikefeng business as a separate segment and we recorded operating loss of RMB17.1 million, RMB55.3 million, and RMB53.8 million (US$7.7 million) from this segment in 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively. We may not be able to increase GMV from Maikefeng segment as we have had a relatively short history in operating an online retail platform and we completed the transition of Maikefeng from a proprietary retail channel to an open marketplace only in May 2015. The operational mechanism is relatively new to us and the supplier relationships, customer acquisition dynamics and other requirements for our online marketplace may not be the same as those for our online direct sales operations, which may create challenge to the management of our Maikefeng platform. In addition, we do not have as much control over the storage and delivery of products sold on our online marketplace as we do over the products sold directly by ourselves. If any third-party seller does not control the quality of the products that it sells on our platform, or if it does not deliver the products or delivers them late or delivers products that are materially different from its description of them, or if it sells certain products without licenses or permits as required by the relevant laws and regulations even though we have requested such licenses or permits in our standard form contract with third-party seller, the reputation of our platform and our brand may be materially and adversely affected, and we could face claims that we should be held liable for losses. If we cannot successfully address new challenges and compete effectively, we may not be able to recover costs of our investments and eventually achieve profitability, and our future results of operations and growth prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Our expansion into new product categories may expose us to new challenges and more risks.

We currently serve brand partners in the apparel, appliances, electronics, home and furnishings, food and health products, cosmetics, fast moving consumer goods, insurance and automobile categories. In the future, we may provide services to brand partners in new product categories in which we have limited experience and operating history. This may make predicting our future results of operations more difficult than it otherwise would be. Therefore, our past results of operations should not be taken as indicative of our future performance. If we cannot successfully address new challenges and compete effectively, we may not be able to recover costs of our investments and eventually achieve profitability, and our future results of operations and growth prospects may be materially and adversely affected.

Our results of operations are subject to fluctuations due to the seasonality of our business and other events.

We have experienced and expect to continue to experience seasonal fluctuations in our revenues. These seasonal patterns have caused and will continue to cause fluctuations in our operating results. Our results of operations historically have been seasonal primarily because consumers increase their purchases during particular promotional activities, such as Singles Day (which is an online sales promotion event and falls on November 11 of each year) and the impact of seasonal buying patterns within certain categories such as apparel. In addition, we generally experience a lower level of sales activity in the first quarter due to the Chinese New Year holiday, during which consumers generally spend less time shopping online and businesses in China are generally closed.

In anticipation of increased sales activity during holiday seasons, we increase our inventory levels and incur additional expenses such as by hiring a significant number of temporary employees to supplement our permanent staff. If our revenues are below seasonal expectations during these dates, our operating results could be below the expectations of securities analysts and investors. Due to the nature of our business, it is difficult to predict the seasonal pattern of our sales and the impact of this seasonality on our business and financial results. In the future, our seasonal sales patterns may become more pronounced, may strain our personnel, customer service operations, fulfillment operations and shipment activities and may cause a shortfall in revenues compared to expenses in a given period. As a result, the trading price of our ADSs may fluctuate from time to time due to seasonality.

In addition, if too many consumers access the online stores operated by us within a short period of time due to increased promotions or other demand, we may experience system interruptions that make such online stores unavailable or prevent us from transmitting orders to our fulfillment operations, which may reduce the volume of transactions in the stores that we operate as well as the attractiveness of such online stores to consumers. In anticipation of increased sales activity during holiday seasons, we and our brand partners increase our inventory levels. If we and our brand partners do not increase inventory levels for popular products in sufficient amounts or are unable to restock popular products in a timely manner, we and our brand partners may fail to meet customer demand which could reduce the attractiveness of such online stores. Alternatively, if we overstock products, we may be required to take significant inventory markdowns or write-offs, which could reduce profits.

We have experienced rapid growth in recent years, and failure to adequately manage our expansion could impair our ability to deliver high-quality solutions to our brand partners.

Expansion has placed, and continues to place, significant strain on our management and resources. To accommodate our growth, we anticipate that we will need to implement a variety of new and upgraded operational and financial systems, procedures and controls, including the improvement of our accounting and other internal management systems. We will also need to continue to expand, train, manage and motivate our workforce and manage our relationships with our brand partners, suppliers, third-party merchants and other service providers. All of these endeavors involve risks and will require substantial management effort and significant additional expenditures. We cannot assure you that we will be able to manage our growth or execute our strategies effectively, and any failure to do so may have a material adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Our investments in other entities may not be successful and we may incur significant losses as a result.

We have made investments in third parties that are complementary to our business and operations. In the future, we may pursue strategic alliances or joint ventures and potential strategic acquisitions that are complementary to our business and operations, including opportunities that can help us promote our solutions to new brand partners, expand our service offerings and improve our technology infrastructure. Strategic alliances or joint ventures with third parties could subject us to a number of risks, including risks associated with sharing proprietary information, non-performance or default by counterparties, and increased expenses in establishing these new alliances, any of which may materially and adversely affect our business. We may have little ability to control or monitor the actions of our strategic partners. To the extent a strategic partner suffers any negative publicity as a result of its business operations, our reputation may be negatively affected by virtue of our association with such party.

In addition, we may not be successful in achieving the strategic objective upon which any given investment or joint venture is premised, and we could lose all or part of our investment. For example, we recorded a net loss of RMB0.6 million on our investment in Automoney Inc., or Automoney, an automobile performance solution provider in the PRC which we jointly established with an unrelated party investor, in 2015. We may be required to perform impairment assessment and recognize impairment loss on any of our other investments in the future. Any such losses may have a material adverse effect on our results of operations, and in particular, our net income or loss.

We may fail to expand effectively to international markets.

We have been expanding and will continue to expand our business internationally, which may cause our business to be susceptible to international business risks and challenges. We started offering our brand partners end-to-end solutions in Hong Kong in 2013. In October 2014, we established Taiwan Baozun Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary, to expand our provision of brand e-commerce service to Taiwan. In October 2015, we established Baozun (Japan) Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary, seeking to introduce more Japanese brands to Chinese consumers. In September 2016, we established our joint venture of Shanghai Baozun-CJ E-commerce Co., Ltd., or Baozun-CJ, to introduce highly sought-after Korean brands to Chinese consumers. International operations are subject to inherent risks and challenges that could adversely affect our business, such as compliance with international legal and regulatory requirements and managing fluctuations in currency exchange rates. We cannot assure you that our various international expansion efforts can be completed as planned or achieve the intended results. Any negative impact from our international business efforts could also negatively impact our business, operating results and financial conditions as a whole. In addition, we may face additional competition from local companies. Local companies may have a substantial competitive advantage because of their greater understanding of, and focus on, local customers.

If we fail to manage our accounts receivable and inventories effectively, our results of operations, financial condition and liquidity may be materially and adversely affected.

Under the distribution model, we generally grant a credit period of no more than two weeks to the customers of our products. Under the service fee model, we normally charge service fees from our brand partners with a credit period of one month to four months. As of December 31, 2014, 2015, and 2016, our accounts receivables amounted to RMB229.5 million, RMB364.8 million, and RMB624.8 million (US$90.0 million), respectively. Our accounts receivables turnover days were 39 days, 42 days, and 53 days in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The increases in the amount of our accounts receivables and the accounts receivables turnover days were due to the increase in our revenues generated from services. Our inventories was RMB243.0 million,,RMB334.3 million and RMB312.1 million (US$44.9 million) as of December 31, 2014, 2015 and 2016, respectively.

The amount and turnover days of our accounts receivables and inventories may increase in the future, which will make it more challenging for us to manage our working capital effectively and our results of operations, financial conditions and liquidity may be materially and adversely affected.

We rely on our ability to enter into marketing and promotional arrangements with online services, search engines, directories and other websites to drive traffic to the stores we operate. If we are unable to enter into or properly maintain these marketing and promotional arrangements, our ability to generate revenue could be adversely affected.

We have entered into marketing and promotional arrangements with online services, search engines, directories and other websites to provide content, advertising banners and other links to our brand partners’ e-commerce businesses. We expect to rely on these arrangements as significant sources of traffic to our brand partners’ e-commerce businesses and to attract new brand partners. If we are unable to maintain these relationships or enter into new arrangements on acceptable terms, our ability to attract new brand partners could be harmed. Further, many of the parties with which we may have online advertising arrangements provide advertising services for other marketers of goods. As a result, these parties may be reluctant to enter into or maintain relationships with us. Failure to achieve sufficient traffic or generate sufficient revenue from purchases originating from third parties may limit our brand partners’ and our ability to maintain market share and revenue.

We may not be able to respond to rapid changes in channel technologies or requirements.

The e-commerce market is characterized by rapid technological changes and frequent changes in rules, specifications and other requirements for our brand partners to be able to sell their merchandise on particular channels. Our ability to retain existing brand partners and attract new brand partners depends in large part on our ability to enhance and improve our existing solutions and introduce new solutions that can adapt quickly to these technological changes on the part of channels. To achieve market acceptance for our solutions, we must effectively anticipate and offer solutions that meet frequently changing channel requirements in a timely manner. If our solutions fail to do so, our ability to renew our contracts with existing brand partners and our ability to create or increase demand for our solutions will be impaired.

If we and our brand partners fail to anticipate changes in consumers’ buying preferences and adjust product offering and merchandising of the stores that we operate accordingly, our results of operation may be materially and adversely impacted.

Our success depends, in part, upon our ability and our brand partners’ ability to anticipate and respond to consumer trends with respect to products sold through the stores that we operate. Constantly changing consumer preferences have affected and will continue to affect the online retail industry. We must stay abreast of emerging consumer preferences and anticipate product trends that will appeal to existing and potential consumers. Our dedicated store operation teams work closely with our brand partners to manage inventory and site content of the brand stores that we operate. In order to be successful, we and our brand partners must accurately predict consumers’ tastes and avoid overstocking or understocking products. If we or our brand partners fail to identify and respond to changes in merchandising and consumer preferences, sales on our brand partners’ e-commerce businesses could suffer and we or our brand partners could be required to mark down unsold inventory, which could negatively impact our financial results.

Any deficiencies in China’s telecommunication infrastructure could impair our ability to provide e-commerce solutions to our brand partners and materially and adversely affect our results of operations.

Our business depends on the performance and reliability of the telecommunication infrastructure in China. The availability of our technology platform depends on telecommunications carriers and other third-party providers for communications and storage capacity, including bandwidth and server storage, among other things. Almost all access to the internet and mobile network is maintained through state-owned telecommunication carriers under administrative control, and we obtain access to end-user networks operated by such telecommunications carriers and service providers to present our internet platform to consumers. We have experienced service interruptions in the past, which were typically caused by service interruptions at the underlying external telecommunications service providers, such as the internet data centers and broadband carriers from which we lease services. Service interruptions prevent brand partners from utilizing our technology platform, and frequent interruptions could frustrate consumers and discourage them from attempting to place orders, which could cause us and our brand partners to lose consumers and adversely affect our results of operations.

Software failures or human errors could cause our solutions to oversell our brand partners’ inventory or misprice their offerings, which would hurt our reputation and reduce demand for our services and solutions.

Some of our brand partners rely on our solutions to automate the allocation of their inventories simultaneously across multiple online channels, as well as to ensure that their sales comply with the policies of each channel. In many instances, our personnel operate our solutions on behalf of our brand partners. In the event that our solutions do not function properly, or if there are human errors on the part of our service staff, our brand partners might inadvertently sell more inventories than they actually have in stock or make sales that violate channel policies. Overselling their inventories could force our brand partners to cancel orders at rates that violate channel policies. Errors in our software or human error could cause transactions to be incorrectly processed that would cause GMV and, as a result, our fees to be overstated. We have experienced rare instances of such errors in the past and might experience similar occurrences in the future could reduce demand for our solutions and hurt our business reputation. Brand partners could also seek recourse against us in these cases.

Any suspension or termination of our cooperation with Cainiao may have a material and adverse effect on our business and results of operation.

In September 2016, we signed a warehousing service cooperation agreement with Zhejiang Cainiao Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cainiao Network Technology Co., Ltd., or Cainiao, a logistics data platform operator affiliated with Alibaba Group Holding Limited, or Alibaba Group, which allowed us to provide warehousing services to a wider variety of merchants through Cainiao’s logistics data platform. Operations of our warehouse and cooperation with Cainiao and any third-party seller are subject to challenges that could adversely affect our business. To guarantee our performance under the cooperation agreement with Cainiao, we are required to make a performance deposit with Cainiao and Cainiao may deduct from our deposit under certain circumstances if we fail to meet their standards. In addition, failure by us to comply with the terms of the cooperation agreement or any suspension or termination of our cooperation agreement with Cainiao could harm our reputation, reduce the utilization of our warehousing services, prevent us from enjoying the benefits provided by Cainiao’s logistics data platform, and thus materially and adversely affect our business operations and financial condition.

Any interruption in our fulfillment operations for an extended period may have an adverse impact on our business.

Our ability to process and fulfill orders accurately depends on the smooth operation of our fulfillment and logistics network and our ability to accurately take orders from Cainiao’s logistics data platform and fulfill the orders. Our fulfillment and logistics infrastructure may be vulnerable to damage caused by fire, flood, power outage, telecommunications failure, break-ins, earthquake, human error and other events. If any of our fulfillment and logistics infrastructures were rendered incapable of operations, then we may be unable to fulfill any orders. We do not carry business interruption insurance, and the occurrence of any of the foregoing risks could have a material adverse effect on our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.

We depend on third-party delivery service providers to deliver products to consumers, and if they fail to provide reliable delivery services, our business and reputation may be materially and adversely affected.

We rely on third-party delivery service providers to deliver products to consumers, and any major interruptions to or failures in these third parties’ delivery services could prevent the timely or successful delivery of products. These interruptions may be due to unforeseen events that are beyond our control or the control of these third-party delivery companies, such as inclement weather, natural disasters, transportation interruptions or labor unrest or shortage. If products are not delivered on time or are delivered in a damaged state, consumers may refuse to accept products and may claim refund from us or our brand partners, and brand partners may have less confidence in our services. As a result, we may lose brand partners, and our financial condition and reputation could suffer.

We are subject to third-party payment processing related risks.

We accept payments using a variety of methods, including online payments with credit cards and debit cards issued by major banks in China, payment through third-party online payment platforms such as Alipay and Tenpay, and payment on delivery. For certain payment methods, including credit and debit cards, we pay interchange and other fees, which may increase over time and raise our operating costs and lower our profitability. We may also be subject to fraud and other illegal activities in connection with the various payment methods we offer, including online payment and payment on delivery options. We are also subject to various rules, regulations and requirements, regulatory or otherwise, governing electronic funds transfers, which could change or be reinterpreted to make it difficult or impossible for us to comply. If we fail to comply with these rules or requirements, we may be subject to fines and higher transaction fees and lose our ability to accept credit and debit card payments from consumers, process electronic funds transfers or facilitate other types of online payments, and our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

If we are unable to provide high-quality customer service, our business and results of operations may be materially and adversely affected.

We depend on our online customer service representatives in our customer service center to provide live assistance to online shoppers. If our online customer service representatives fail to satisfy the individual needs of customers, our brand partners’ sales could be negatively affected, and we may lose potential or existing brand partners, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business generates and processes a large amount of data, and the improper use or disclosure of such data could harm our reputation as well as have a material adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Our business generates and processes a large quantity of personal, transaction, demographic and behavioral data. We face risks inherent in handling large volumes of data and in protecting the security of such data. In particular, we face a number of challenges relating to data from transactions and other activities on our platform, including:

Negative publicity, including negative internet postings, about us, our Baozun brand, management, brand partners and product offerings may have a material adverse effect on our business, reputation and the trading price of our ADSs.

Negative publicity about us, our Baozun brand, management, brand partners and product offerings may arise from time to time. Negative comments about the stores operated by us, products offered in such stores, our business operation and management may appear in internet postings and other media sources from time to time and we cannot assure you that other types of negative publicity of a more serious nature will not arise in the future. For example, if our customer service representatives fail to satisfy the individual needs of our consumers, our consumers may become disgruntled and disseminate negative comments about our product offerings and services. In addition, our brand partners may also be subject to negative publicity for various reasons, such as consumers’ complaints about the quality of their products and related services or other public relation incidents of such brand partners, which may adversely affect the sales of products of these brand partners in the stores operated by us and indirectly affect our reputation.

Moreover, negative publicity about other online retailers or e-commerce service providers in China may arise from time to time and cause consumers to lose confidence in the products and services we offer. Any such negative publicity, regardless of veracity, may have a material adverse effect on our business, our reputation and the trading price of our ADSs.

If counterfeit products are sold in the stores or platform we operate, our reputation and financial results could be materially and adversely affected.

We represent reputable brands, and we source goods from our brand partners directly or through third party procurement agents authorized by our brand partners. However, their measures of safeguarding against counterfeit products sold through e-commerce may not be adequate. Although we have indemnity clauses in most of our contracts with our brand partners, sales could decline and we may suffer reputational harm. We may be subject to sanctions under applicable laws and regulations if we are deemed to have participated or assisted in infringement activities associated with counterfeit goods, which may include injunctions to cease infringing activities, rectification, compensation, administrative penalties and even criminal liability, depending on the gravity of such misconduct. Furthermore, counterfeit products may be defective or inferior in quality as compared to authentic products and may pose safety risks to consumers. If consumers are injured by counterfeit products sold through the stores or platform we operate, we may be subject to lawsuits, severe administrative penalties and criminal liability. We believe our reputation is extremely important to our success and our competitive position. The discovery of counterfeit products sold through the stores or platform we operate may severally damage our reputation among brand partners, and they may refrain from using our services in the future, which would materially and adversely affect our business operations and financial results.

Any lack of requisite approvals, licenses or permits applicable to our business or failure to comply with PRC laws and regulations may have a material and adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business is subject to supervision and regulation by relevant PRC government authorities, including without limitation the Ministry of Commerce, or the MOFCOM, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, or the MIIT, the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, or the SAIC, and the State Food and Drug Administration. These government authorities promulgate and enforce regulations that cover many aspects of operation of online retailing and distribution of products such as food and medical devices, including entry into these industries, scope of permitted business activities, licenses and permits requisite for business operation, and restriction on foreign investments. We are required to hold a number of licenses and permits in connection with our business operation. For example, we were historically required to obtain a food distribution permit to operate the food distribution business under the Administrative Measures on Food Distribution Permits, or the Food Distribution Measures, issued by the SAIC in July 2009. With the Administrative Measures for the Permit of Food Business released by China Food and Drug Administration in August 2015 and the abolishment of the Food Distribution Measures in November 2015, the food distribution permit would be gradually replaced by the food business permit commencing from October 2015, and we are required to apply for food business permits upon the expiration of the food distribution permits currently held by us. In addition, historically we were required to obtain the approval for the establishment of a foreign-invested enterprise, or an FIE, engaging in the sales of goods over the internet under the Administrative Measures on Foreign Investment in the Commercial Sector, or the Commercial Sector Measures, issued by the MOFCOM in 2004 and amended in 2015. With the abolishment of the Commercial Sector Measures in November 2016, the establishment of a foreign-invested commercial enterprise specializing in online sales may be subject to filing with the competent counterpart of the MOFCOM. Meanwhile, the brand partners we partner with are also obliged to hold licenses and meet regulatory requirements in order for them to sell products themselves or through our e-commerce solutions. While we currently hold all material licenses and permits required for our business operations, we cannot assure you that we will not be required to renew these licenses and permits upon their expiration or to expand the current business scope of these licenses and permits or to obtain new licenses or permits in the future as a result of our business expansion, change in our business operations or change in laws and regulations applicable to us.

As e-commerce business via internet and mobile network is still evolving in China, new laws and regulations may be adopted from time to time, and substantial uncertainties exist regarding interpretation and implementation of current and future PRC laws and regulations applicable to our business operations. We cannot assure you that our current business activities will not be found in violation of any future laws and regulations or any of the laws and regulations currently in effect due to changes in the relevant authorities’ interpretation of these laws and regulations. For example, the MIIT released the new Classified Catalog of Telecommunications Services, or the Telecommunication Catalog, on December 29, 2015, which came into effect on March 1, 2016 and specifies that information services provided through mobile networks are recognized as internet information services, and service providers, like operators of mobile application stores, will be required to meet certain qualifications, including obtaining an ICP license covering internet information services rendered through mobile network. In addition, according to the Telecommunication Catalog and other MIIT rules, operating a marketplace platform that connects sellers and buyers is categorized as online data processing and transaction processing services, and therefore such service providers are required to obtain a value-added telecommunication license covering online data processing and transaction processing services. With the expansion of our business via mobile channels, in particular, because our Maikefeng platform now primarily serves as a marketplace platform, our PRC subsidiaries and variable interest entity, or VIE, may therefore be required to obtain such ICP license or expand the current scope of our ICP license held through our VIE to cover internet information services rendered through mobile network or to cover other scopes such as online data processing and transaction processing service that may be required by the government authorities from time to time.

If we fail to adapt to any new regulatory requirement or any competent government authority considers that we operate our business operation without any requisite license, permit or approval, or otherwise fails to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, we may be subject to administrative actions and penalties against us, including fines, confiscation of our incomes, revocation of our licenses or permits, or, in severe cases, cessation of certain business. In addition, if our brand partners are found by government authorities to have operated their business through us without requisite approvals, licenses or permits or otherwise to be in violation of applicable laws and regulations, they may be ordered to take rectification actions. Any of these actions may have a material and adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our leased property interests and title with respect to certain land and buildings we may acquire may be defective and our right to lease and use the properties affected by such defects may be challenged, or we may fail to extend or renew our current leases or locate desirable alternatives for our facilities on commercially acceptable terms, which could cause significant disruption to our business.

We leased 23 premises in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for our offices, customer service center and warehouses as of December 31, 2016. Some of the lessors of these leases have not provided us with sufficient documents to prove their ownership of the premises or their rights to lease the premises to us for our intended use. We may not be able to maintain such leases if the lessors are not legal owners of the properties or do not have competent authorizations from the legal owners of the properties or have not obtained requisite governmental approvals in respect of our leases. In addition, we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully extend or renew our leases upon expiration of the current term or locate desirable alternatives for our facilities on commercially reasonable terms or at all, and may therefore be forced to relocate our affected operations. In addition, we may acquire certain land use right and titles in the relevant buildings for business operation purposes from time to time. For example, we have entered into contracts to acquire the land use right and buildings located in Suzhou, China. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—D. Property, Plants and Equipment.” Our intended use of the land and buildings we may acquire may not be consistent with their approved usage, and some approvals, licenses and permits may be yet to be obtained for the construction and continuous use of such buildings. We cannot assure that we will be able to successfully remedy the defects or obtain all the requisite approvals, licenses or permits. These could disrupt our operations and result in significant relocation expenses, which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. In addition, we compete with other businesses for premises at certain locations or of desirable sizes. As a result, even though we could extend or renew our leases, rental payments may significantly increase as a result of the high demand for the leased properties. In addition, we may not be able to locate desirable alternative sites for our facilities as our business continues to grow and failure in relocating our affected operations could adversely affect our business and operations.

We may be subject to product liability claims that could be costly and time-consuming.

We sell products manufactured by third parties, some of which may be defective. If any product that we sell were to cause personal injury or injury to property, the injured party or parties could bring claims against us as the retailer of the product. These claims will not be covered by insurance as we do not maintain any product liability insurance. Similarly, we could be subject to claims that consumers of the online stores operated by us or our Maikefeng platform were harmed due to their reliance on our product information, product selection guides, advice or instructions. If a successful claim were brought against us, it could adversely affect our business. We may have the right under applicable laws, rules and regulations to recover from the relevant brand partners’, manufacturers’ or distributors’ compensation that we are required to make to consumers or end users in connection with a product liability, personal injury or a similar claim, if such relevant party is found responsible. However, there can be no assurance that we will be able to recover all or any amounts from these parties. We have historically encountered some call back of the products sold to consumers through our online store due to defective products, which has caused adverse effect on our operations. Any future product liability claim or large scale of call back due to defective products discovered, regardless of its merit or success, could result in the expenditure of funds and management time and adverse publicity and could have a negative impact on our business and financial condition.

We depend on key management as well as experienced and capable personnel generally, and any failure to attract, motivate and retain our staff could severely hinder our ability to maintain and grow our business.

Our future success is significantly dependent upon the continued service of our key executives and other key employees. If we lose the services of any member of management or key personnel, we may not be able to locate suitable or qualified replacements, and may incur additional expenses to recruit and train new staff, which could severely disrupt our business and growth.

Competition for talent in the PRC e-commerce industry is intense, and the availability of suitable and qualified candidates in China is limited. Competition for these individuals could cause us to offer higher compensation and other benefits to attract and retain them. Even if we were to offer higher compensation and other benefits, there is no assurance that these individuals will choose to join or continue to work for us. Any failure to attract or retain key management and personnel could severely disrupt our business and growth.

If we are unable to recruit, train and retain qualified personnel or sufficient workforce while controlling our labor costs, our business may be materially and adversely affected.

Our future success depends, to a significant extent, on our ability to recruit, train and retain qualified personnel, particularly technical, fulfillment, marketing and other operational personnel with experience in the e-commerce industry. Since our industry is characterized by high demand and intense competition for talent and labor, we can provide no assurance that we will be able to attract or retain qualified staff or other highly skilled employees that we will need to achieve our strategic objectives. Particularly, our fulfillment infrastructure is labor intensive and requires a substantial number of blue-collar workers, and these positions tend to have higher than average turnover. As of December 31, 2016, we employed a total of 303 logistics personnel. We may hire additional employees in connection with the strengthening of our fulfillment capabilities. We have observed an overall tightening of the labor market and an emerging trend of shortage of labor supply. Failure to obtain stable and dedicated warehousing, delivery and other labor support may lead to underperformance of these functions and cause disruption to our business. Labor costs in China have increased with China’s economic development, particularly in the large cities where we operate our fulfillment centers and more generally in the urban areas where we maintain our delivery and pickup stations. It is also costly to employ qualified personnel who have the knowledge and experience of working with leading global brands. In addition, our ability to train and integrate new employees into our operations may also be limited and may not meet the demand for our business growth on a timely fashion, or at all, and rapid expansion may impair our ability to maintain our corporate culture.

Increases in labor costs or restrictions in the supply of labor in China may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We currently use workers dispatched by third-party labor service agents to provide customer service and perform fulfillment function. As of December 31, 2016, approximately 14.1% of our work force was dispatched by third-party labor service agents. Such labor arrangement does not fully comply with the Interim Provisions on Labor Dispatch, or the Labor Dispatch Provisions, issued in January 2014, which became effective on March 1, 2014, that provides the number of dispatched contract workers hired by an employer shall not exceed 10% of the total number of its work force. These Interim Provisions require us to formulate a plan to reduce the number of our dispatched contract workers to comply with such statutory requirement prior to March 1, 2016. An employer is not permitted to hire any new dispatched contract worker until the number of its dispatched contract workers has been reduced to below 10% of the total number of its employees. In addition, under the Labor Contract Law amended on December 28, 2012, labor dispatch is only allowed to apply to provisional, auxiliary or substitutive positions. As such, we may need to adjust our staffing arrangements which may result in an increase in our labor cost.

As of the date of this annual report, we have not received any warning or notice of potential negative action by relevant labor authorities regarding our labor dispatch arrangement. However, if we are found to be in violation of the rules regulating dispatched contract workers, we may be ordered to rectify the noncompliance by entering into written employment contracts with our dispatched contract workers, and if we fail to rectify within the time period specified by the labor authority, we may be subject to a penalty ranging from RMB5,000 (US$720) to RMB10,000 (US$1,440) per dispatched worker.

Our business generates and processes a large amount of data, and the improper use or disclosure of such data could harm our reputation as well as have a material adverse effect on our business and prospects.

Our business generates and processes a large quantity of personal, transaction, demographic and behavioral data. We face risks inherent in handling and protecting large volumes of data. In particular, we face a number of challenges relating to data from transactions and other activities on our platform, including:

The PRC regulatory and enforcement regime with regard to data security and data protection is evolving. On July 1, 2015, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee promulgated the National Security Law, or the New National Security Law, which took effect on the same date and replaced the former National Security Law promulgated in 1993. The New National Security Law covers various types of national security including technology security and information security. According to the New National Security Law, the state shall ensure that the information system and data in important areas are secure and controllable. In addition, according to the New National Security Law, the state shall establish national security review and supervision institutions and mechanisms, and conduct national security reviews of key technologies and IT products and services that affect or may affect national security. In particular, we are obligated under the New National Security Law to safeguard national security by, for example, providing evidence related to activities endangering national security, providing convenience and assistance for national security work, and providing necessary support and assistance for national security institutions, public security institutions as well as military institutions. As such, we may have to provide data to PRC government authorities and military institutions for compliance with the New National Security Law, which may result in additional expenses to us and subject us to negative publicity which could harm our reputation with users and negatively affect the trading price of our ADSs. There are uncertainties on how the New National Security Law will be implemented in practice. PRC regulators, including the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the MIIT and the Cyberspace Administration, have been increasingly focused on regulation in the areas of data security and data protection. For example, the National People’s Congress Standing Committee promulgated the Cybersecurity Law on November 7, 2016, which will become effective on June 1, 2017, and strengthens the administration on cyber security. See “ — Substantial uncertainties exist with respect to the newly enacted Cybersecurity Law as well as any impact it may have on our business operations.” We expect that these areas will receive greater attention and focus from regulators, as well as attract public scrutiny and attention going forward. This greater attention, scrutiny and enforcement, including more frequent inspections, could increase our compliance costs and, subject us to heightened risks and challenges associated with data security and protection. If we are unable to manage these risks, our reputation and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

As we expand our operations, we will be subject to additional laws in other jurisdictions where our brand partners, consumers and other customers are located. The laws, rules and regulations of other jurisdictions may be at a more mature stage of development, be more comprehensive and nuanced in their scope, and impose more stringent or conflicting requirements and penalties than those in China, compliance with which could require significant resources and costs. Any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with our privacy policies or with any regulatory requirements or privacy protection-related laws, rules and regulations could result in proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others. These proceedings or actions could subject us to significant penalties and negative publicity, require us to change our business practices, increase our costs and severely disrupt our business.

Substantial uncertainties exist with respect to the newly enacted Cybersecurity Law as well as any impact it may have on our business operations.

On November 7, 2016, China enacted its Cybersecurity Law, which will take effect on June 1, 2017, to establish more stringent requirements for network operators. Among others, network operators in the PRC are required to take necessary actions to prevent security attacks and data loss, including data classification and backup and encryption. Furthermore, the Cybersecurity Law systematically specifies requirements on user information protection applicable to network operators, who are prohibited from disclosing without permission or selling individual information with limited exceptions. When network operators become aware of any information that is prohibited by laws and administrative regulations, they are required to immediately cease transmission of such information, and take measures such as deletion of relevant information to prevent its dissemination. Operators must maintain a record of these incidents when they occur and report them to the relevant authorities, who may also request for such reports. Where any prohibited information comes from outside the territory of China, the authorities may additionally request that all relevant institutions take measures to stop the flow of such prohibited information.

We may be deemed a ‘‘network operators’’ and thus will be subject to the various requirements under the Cybersecurity Law. Furthermore, if we are deemed to be an operator of critical information infrastructure, we may be subject to higher standards. However, because the law is newly enacted, there remains high uncertainty in the interpretation and enforcement of the law. In particular, due to lack of details on the implementation of the Cybersecurity Law, we cannot assure you that we would be able to comply with the requirements in a timely manner. Failure to comply with the requirements may lead to fines, order of rectification, confiscation of illegal gains, revocation of the business permit or license and other government actions.

Finally, we procure equipment or software for storage, encryption and decryption from time to time. It remains unclear whether such equipment or software will fall into the category of the so-called “critical network equipment” or “dedicated network security products” due to lack of criteria or standards in the Cybersecurity Law. As such, we cannot assure that the equipment and software we have procured or may procure in the future comply with the requirements, and we may incur additional costs to comply with the requirements. For the summary of Cybersecurity Law, please see “Item 4. Information on the Company—B. Business Overview—Regulations—Regulation Relating to Cybersecurity.”

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

We rely on a combination of trademark, fair trade practice, patent, copyright and trade secret protection laws in China and other jurisdictions, as well as confidentiality procedures and contractual provisions, to protect our intellectual property rights. We also enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees and any third parties who may access our proprietary information, and we rigorously control access to our proprietary technology and information.

Intellectual property protection may not be sufficient in China or other countries in which we operate. Confidentiality agreements may be breached by counterparties, and there may not be adequate remedies available to us for any such breach. Accordingly, we may not be able to effectively protect our intellectual property rights or to enforce our contractual rights in China or elsewhere. In addition, policing any unauthorized use of our intellectual property is difficult, time-consuming and costly and the steps we have taken may be inadequate to prevent the misappropriation of our intellectual property. In the event that we resort to litigation to enforce our intellectual property rights, such litigation could result in substantial costs and a diversion of our managerial and financial resources. We can provide no assurance that we will prevail in such litigation. In addition, our trade secrets may be leaked or otherwise become available to, or be independently discovered by, our competitors. Any failure in protecting or enforcing our intellectual property rights could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be accused of infringing intellectual property rights of third parties and violating content restrictions of relevant laws.

Third parties may claim that the technology or content used in our operation of online stores or our service offerings infringe upon their intellectual property rights. We have been in the past subject to non-material legal proceedings and claims relating to infringement of the intellectual property rights of others. The possibility of intellectual property claims against us increases as we continue to grow, particularly internationally. Such claims, whether or not having merit, may result in our expenditure of significant financial and management resources, injunctions against us or payment of damages. We may need to obtain licenses from third parties who allege that we have infringed their rights, but such licenses may not be available on terms acceptable to us or at all. These risks have been amplified by the increase in the number of third parties whose sole or primary business is to assert such claims. In addition, we have registered or are in the process of registering some marks we used for our business but some of our applications have been or may be rejected by the governmental authority. As some third parties have already registered or may register the trademarks which are similar to the marks we used in our business, infringement claims may be asserted against us, and we cannot assure you that a government authority or a court will hold the view that such similarity will not cause confusion in the market. In this case, we may be required to explore the possibility of acquiring these trademarks from, or entering into exclusive licensing agreements with the third parties, which will cause us to incur additional costs.

China has enacted laws and regulations governing internet access and the distribution of products, services, news, information, audio-video programs and other content through the internet. The PRC government has prohibited the distribution of information through the internet that it deems to be in violation of PRC laws and regulations. If any of the information disseminated through the online stores operated by us were deemed by the PRC government to violate any content restrictions, we would not be able to continue to display such content and could become subject to penalties, including confiscation of income, fines, suspension of business and revocation of required licenses, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The outcome of any claims, investigations and proceedings is inherently uncertain, and in any event defending against these claims could be both costly and time-consuming, and could significantly divert the efforts and resources of our management and other personnel. An adverse determination in any such litigation or proceedings could cause us to pay damages, as well as legal and other costs, limit our ability to conduct business or require us to change the manner in which we operate.

Our ability to raise capital in the future may be limited, and our failure to raise capital when needed could prevent us from growing.

We may in the future be required to raise capital through public or private financing or other arrangements. Such financing may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. Additional equity financing may dilute the interests of our shareholders, and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants and could restrict our operational flexibility and reduce our profitability. If we cannot raise funds on acceptable terms, we may not be able to grow our business or respond to competitive pressures.

We may not have sufficient insurance coverage.

We have obtained insurance to cover certain potential risks, such as property damage. However, insurance companies in China offer limited business insurance products. As a result, we may not be able to acquire any insurance for certain types of risks such as business liability or service disruption insurance for our operations in China, and our coverage may not be adequate to compensate for all losses that may occur, particularly with respect to loss of business or operations. We do not maintain business interruption insurance or product liability insurance, nor do we maintain key-man life insurance. This could leave us exposed to potential claims and losses. Any business disruption, litigation, regulatory action, outbreak of epidemic disease or natural disaster could also expose us to substantial costs and diversion of resources. We cannot assure you that our insurance coverage is sufficient to prevent us from any loss or that we will be able to successfully claim our losses under our current insurance policy on a timely basis, or at all. If we incur any loss that is not covered by our insurance policies, or the compensated amount is significantly less than our actual loss, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected.

The financial soundness of financial institutions with which we place our cash and cash equivalents could affect our financial conditions, business and result of operations.

We place our cash and cash equivalents with authorized financial institutions, which include (i) banks incorporated in China, which are all authorized to operate banking business by China Banking Regulatory Commission and other relevant agencies, and (ii) overseas financial institutions regulated by competent regulatory authorities in their relevant jurisdictions such as Hong Kong. On February 17, 2015, the State Council promulgated the Deposit Insurance Regulation, which requires banks registered within China to provide deposit insurance to depositors. However, pursuant to the Deposit Insurance Regulation, the insurance provided by the banks has a coverage limit of RMB500,000 (US$72,015). Any deterioration of financial soundness of these banks or financial institutions or any failure of such deposit insurance to fully cover our bank deposits would cause credit risks to our cash and cash equivalents placed with them and thus could have a material adverse effect on our financial conditions, business and results of operations.

A severe or prolonged downturn in the global or Chinese economy could materially and adversely affect our business and our financial condition.

The global macroeconomic environment is facing challenges, including the escalation of the European sovereign debt crisis since 2011, the end of quantitative easing by the U.S. Federal Reserve, the economic slowdown in the Eurozone in 2014, and the “Brexit” referendum in the United Kingdom in June 2016, in which the majority of voters voted in favor of an exit from the European Union. Our business and operations are primarily based in China and substantially all of our revenues are derived from our operations in China. Accordingly, our financial results have been, and are expected to continue to be, affected by the economy and data center services industry in China. Although the economy in China has grown significantly in the past decades, it still faces challenges. The Chinese economy has slowed down in recent years. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, China’s gross domestic product growth slowed to 6.7% in 2016. There have been concerns over unrest in the Middle East and Africa. There have also been concerns about the tensions in the relationship between China and other countries, including surrounding Asian countries, which may potentially lead to foreign investors closing down their business or withdrawing their investment in China and thus exiting the China market, and other economic effects. Economic conditions in China are sensitive to global economic conditions, as well as changes in domestic economic and political policies and the expected or perceived overall economic growth rate in China. Any prolonged slowdown in the global or Chinese economy may have a negative impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition, and continued turbulence in the international markets may adversely affect our ability to access the capital markets to meet liquidity needs.

Any occurrence of a natural disaster, widespread health epidemic or other outbreaks could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our business could be materially and adversely affected by natural disasters, such as snowstorms, earthquakes, fires or floods, the outbreak of a widespread health epidemic, such as swine flu, avian influenza, severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, Ebola or other events, such as wars, acts of terrorism, environmental accidents, power shortage or communication interruptions. The occurrence of such a disaster or a prolonged outbreak of an epidemic illness or other adverse public health developments in China or elsewhere in the world could materially disrupt our business and operations. Such events could also significantly impact our industry and cause a temporary closure of the facilities we use for our operations, which would severely disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Our operations could be disrupted if any of our employees or employees of our business partners were suspected of having the swine flu, avian influenza, SARS or Ebola, since this could require us or our business partners to quarantine some or all of such employees or disinfect the facilities used for our operations. In addition, our revenues and profitability could be materially reduced to the extent that a natural disaster, health epidemic or other outbreak harms the global or PRC economy in general. Our operations could also be severely disrupted if our buyers, sellers or other participants were affected by such natural disasters, health epidemics or other outbreaks.

If we fail to maintain proper and effective internal controls, our ability to produce accurate financial statements on a timely basis could be impaired.

We have been subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the rules and regulations of the NASDAQ Global Select Market after the completion of our initial public offering in May 2015. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that we maintain effective disclosure controls and procedures and internal controls over financial reporting. Commencing with our fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, we must perform system and process evaluation and testing of our internal controls over financial reporting to allow management to report on the effectiveness of our internal controls over financial reporting in our Form 20-F filing for that year, as required by Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. In addition, when we cease to be an “emerging growth company” as the term is defined in the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.

Our management conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2016. In addition, our independent registered public accounting firm attested the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting and reported that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2016. See “Item 15. Controls and Procedures.” If we fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment for our financial reporting, we may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We may therefore need to incur additional costs and use additional management and other resources in an effort to comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and other requirements going forward. Moreover, effective internal control over financial reporting is necessary for us to produce reliable financial reports. As a result, any failure to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in the loss of investor confidence in the reliability of our financial statements, which in turn could negatively impact the trading price of our ADSs. Additionally, ineffective internal control over financial reporting could expose us to increased risk of fraud or misuse of corporate assets and subject us to potential delisting from the stock exchange on which we list, regulatory investigations and civil or criminal sanctions.

The audit report included in this annual report is prepared by auditors who are not inspected by the PCAOB and, as such, you are deprived of the benefits of such inspection.

Our independent registered public accounting firm that issues the audit reports included in this annual report, as auditors of companies that are traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the US Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States), or the PCAOB, is required by the laws of the United States to undergo regular inspections by the PCAOB to assess its compliance with the laws of the United States and professional standards. Because our auditors are located in the Peoples’ Republic of China, a jurisdiction where the PCAOB is currently unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities, our auditors are not currently inspected by the PCAOB.

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

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

If additional remedial measures are imposed on the Big Four PRC-based accounting firms, including our independent registered public accounting firm, in administrative proceedings brought by the SEC alleging the firms’ failure to meet specific criteria set by the SEC, with respect to requests for the production of documents, we could be unable to timely file future financial statements in compliance with the requirements of the Exchange Act.

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

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

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

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

Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure

If the PRC government deems that the contractual arrangements in relation to Shanghai Zunyi do not comply with PRC regulatory restrictions on foreign investment in the relevant industries, or if these regulations or the interpretation of existing regulations change in the future, we could be subject to severe penalties or be forced to relinquish our interests in those operations.

Foreign ownership of certain types of internet businesses, such as internet information services, is subject to restrictions under applicable PRC laws, rules and regulations. For example, foreign investors are generally not permitted to own more than 50% of the equity interests in a value-added telecommunication service provider. Any such foreign investor must also have experience and a good track record in providing value-added telecommunications services overseas. Although according to the Notice on Lifting the Restriction to Foreign Shareholding Percentage in Online Data Processing and Transaction Processing Business (Operational E-commerce) promulgated by the MIIT on June 19, 2015, foreign investors are allowed to hold up to 100% of all equity interests in the online data processing and transaction processing business (operational e-commerce) in China, other requirements provided by the Administrative Rules for Foreign Investments in Telecommunications Enterprises (such as the track record and experience requirement for a major foreign investor) still apply. It is unclear how this notice will be implemented and there exist high uncertainties with respect to its interpretation and implementation by authorities.

We are a Cayman Islands holding company and our PRC subsidiaries are considered foreign-invested enterprises, directly or indirectly. Accordingly, none of these PRC subsidiaries is eligible to provide value-added telecommunication services in China. We do not currently provide value-added telecommunication services because sales of goods purchased by us do not constitute providing value-added telecommunication services. Our PRC consolidated VIE, Shanghai Zunyi Business Consulting Ltd., or Shanghai Zunyi, however, holds an ICP license and has developed an e-commerce platform for other trading parties. Shanghai Zunyi is 80% owned by Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu, our co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, and 20% owned by Mr. Michael Qingyu Zhang, our co-founder and a shareholder. Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu and Mr. Michael Qingyu Zhang are both PRC citizens. We did not record any revenues from Shanghai Zunyi in 2012 and 2013, and revenues from Shanghai Zunyi contributed to 1.3%, 3.6%, and 3.0% of our total net revenues in 2014, 2015, and 2016, respectively.

We entered into a series of contractual arrangements with Shanghai Zunyi and its shareholders, which enable us to:

Because of these contractual arrangements, we are the primary beneficiary of Shanghai Zunyi and hence consolidate its financial results as our VIE.

There are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current and future PRC laws, regulations and rules. It is uncertain whether any new PRC laws or regulations relating to contractual arrangement structures will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. In particular, in January 2015, the MOFCOM published a discussion draft of the proposed Foreign Investment Law for public review and comments. Among other things, the draft Foreign Investment Law expands the definition of foreign investment and introduces the principle of “actual control” in determining whether a company is considered an FIE. Under the draft Foreign Investment Law, variable interest entities would also be deemed as FIEs, if they are ultimately “controlled” by foreign investors, and be subject to restrictions on foreign investments. However, the draft law has not taken a position on what actions will be taken with respect to the existing companies with the “variable interest entity” structure. It is uncertain when the draft would be signed into law and whether the final version would have any substantial changes from the draft.

If we or our VIE is found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant PRC regulatory authorities would have broad discretion to take action in dealing with such violations or failures, including:

The imposition of any of these penalties would result in a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business. In addition, it is unclear what impact the PRC government actions would have on us and on our ability to consolidate the financial results of Shanghai Zunyi in our consolidated financial statements, if the PRC government authorities were to find our legal structure and contractual arrangements to be in violation of PRC laws and regulations. If the imposition of any of these government actions causes us to lose our right to direct the activities of Shanghai Zunyi or our right to receive substantially all the economic benefits and residual returns from Shanghai Zunyi and we are not able to restructure our ownership structure and operations in a satisfactory manner, we would no longer be able to consolidate the financial results of Shanghai Zunyi in our consolidated financial statements. Either of these results, or any other significant penalties that might be imposed on us in this event, would have an adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

We rely on contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders for a portion of our business operations, which may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing operational control.

Although a substantial majority of our revenue has historically been generated by our PRC subsidiaries, we have relied and expect to continue to rely on contractual arrangements with Shanghai Zunyi and its shareholders to operate our Maikefeng platform and hold our ICP license to enable us to develop online marketplaces. Such contractual arrangements include: (i) an exclusive technology service agreement which has an initial term of 20 years and will be automatically renewed on a yearly basis thereafter unless otherwise notified by Shanghai Baozun; (ii) an exclusive call option agreement which will remain in effect until all the equity interests and assets that are the subject of such option agreement are transferred to Shanghai Baozun or its designated entities or individuals; (iii) a proxy agreement which has an initial term of 20 years and will be automatically renewed on a yearly basis thereafter unless otherwise notified by Shanghai Baozun; and (iv) equity interest pledge agreements which will remain in full effect until all the secured contractual obligations have been performed or all the secured debts have been discharged. For a description of these contractual arrangements, see “Item 4. Information on the Company—C. Organizational Structure—Contractual Arrangements with Shanghai Zunyi and its Shareholders.” These contractual arrangements may not be as effective as direct ownership in providing us with control over our VIE.

If we had direct ownership of Shanghai Zunyi, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of Shanghai Zunyi, which in turn could effect changes, subject to any applicable fiduciary obligations, at the management level. However, under the current contractual arrangements, we rely on the performance by our VIE and its shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to exercise control over our VIE. However, the shareholders of our VIE may not act in the best interests of our company or may not perform their obligations under these contracts. Such risks exist throughout the period in which we intend to operate our business through the contractual arrangements with our VIE. We may replace the shareholders of our VIE at any time pursuant to our contractual arrangements with it and its shareholders. However, if any dispute relating to these contracts or the replacement of the shareholders remains unresolved, we will have to enforce our rights under these contracts through the operations of PRC law and courts and therefore will be subject to uncertainties in the PRC legal system. See “—Any failure by our VIE or its shareholders to perform their obligations under our contractual arrangements with them would have a material and adverse effect on our business.” Therefore, our contractual arrangements with our VIE may not be as effective in ensuring our control over the relevant portion of our business operations as direct ownership would be.

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

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

All the agreements under our contractual arrangements are governed by PRC law and provide for the resolution of disputes through arbitration in China. Accordingly, these contracts would be interpreted in accordance with PRC law and any disputes would be resolved in accordance with PRC legal procedures. The legal system in the PRC is not as developed as in some other jurisdictions, such as the United States. See “—Risks Related to Doing Business in the People’s Republic of China—There are uncertainties regarding the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws, rules and regulations.” Meanwhile, there are very few precedents and little formal guidance as to how contractual arrangements in the context of a VIE should be interpreted or enforced under PRC law, and as a result it may be difficult to predict how an arbitration panel would view such contractual arrangements. As a result, uncertainties in the PRC legal system could limit our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. Additionally, under PRC law, rulings by arbitrators are final, parties cannot appeal the arbitration results in courts, and if the losing parties fail to carry out the arbitration awards within a prescribed time limit, the prevailing parties may only enforce the arbitration awards in PRC courts through arbitration award enforcement proceedings, which would require additional expenses and delay.

Our VIE holds the ICP license and operates our Maikefeng platform. In the event we are unable to enforce our contractual arrangements, we may not be able to exert effective control over our VIE, and our ability to conduct the Maikefeng businesses may be negatively affected. Considering that the substantial majority of our revenues are currently generated from our subsidiaries instead of our VIE, we do not believe that any failure by us to exert effective control over our VIE would have an immediate material adverse effect on our overall business operations, financial condition or results of operations. However, the business operation of Shanghai Zunyi, our VIE, may grow in the future, and if we fail to maintain effective control over our VIE, we may not be able to continue to consolidate our VIE’s financial results with our financial results, and such failure could in the future materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.

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

Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu and Mr. Michael Qingyu Zhang are the shareholders of our VIE, Shanghai Zunyi. Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu is our co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, while Mr. Michael Qingyu Zhang is our co-founder and a shareholder. They may have potential conflicts of interest with us. These shareholders may breach, or cause our VIE to breach, or refuse to renew, the existing contractual arrangements we have with them and our VIE, which would have a material and adverse effect on our ability to effectively control our VIE and receive substantially all the economic benefits from it. For example, the shareholders may be able to cause our agreements with Shanghai Zunyi to be performed in a manner adverse to us by, among other things, failing to remit payments due under the contractual arrangements to us on a timely basis. We cannot assure you that when conflicts of interest arise, any or all of these shareholders will act in the best interests of our company or such conflicts will be resolved in our favor.

Currently, we do not have any arrangements to address potential conflicts of interest between these shareholders and our company. Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu is also a director of our company. We rely on Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu and Mr. Michael Qingyu Zhang to abide by the laws of the Cayman Islands and China, which provide that directors owe a fiduciary duty to the company that requires them to act in good faith and in what they believe to be the best interests of the company and not to use their position for personal gains. If we cannot resolve any conflict of interest or dispute between us and the shareholders of Shanghai Zunyi, we would have to rely on legal proceedings, which could result in disruption of our business and subject us to substantial uncertainty as to the outcome of any such legal proceedings.

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

Under applicable PRC laws and regulations, arrangements and transactions among related parties may be subject to audit or challenge by the PRC tax authorities. We could face material and adverse tax consequences if the PRC tax authorities determine that the contractual arrangements between Shanghai Baozun, our wholly-owned subsidiary in China, Shanghai Zunyi, our VIE in China, and its shareholders were not entered into on an arm’s-length basis in such a way as to result in an impermissible reduction in taxes under applicable PRC laws, rules and regulations, and adjust Shanghai Zunyi’s income in the form of a transfer pricing adjustment. A transfer pricing adjustment could, among other things, result in a reduction of expense deductions recorded by Shanghai Zunyi for PRC tax purposes, which could in turn increase their tax liabilities. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may impose punitive interest on Shanghai Zunyi for the adjusted but unpaid taxes at the rate of 5% over the basic RMB lending rate published by the People’s Bank of China for a period according to the applicable regulations. Our financial position could be materially and adversely affected if our VIE’s tax liabilities increase or if they are required to pay punitive interest.

Risks Related to Doing Business in the People’s Republic of China

Changes in the political and economic policies of the PRC government may materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations and may result in our inability to sustain our growth and expansion strategies.

A substantial majority of our operations are conducted in the PRC and a substantial majority of our revenue is sourced from the PRC. Accordingly, our financial condition and results of operations are affected to a significant extent by economic, political and legal developments in the PRC.

The PRC economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the extent of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. Although the PRC government has implemented measures emphasizing the utilization of market forces for economic reform, the reduction of state ownership of productive assets, and the establishment of improved corporate governance in business enterprises, a substantial portion of productive assets in China is still owned by the government. In addition, the PRC government continues to play a significant role in regulating industry development by imposing industrial policies. The PRC government also exercises significant control over China’s economic growth by allocating resources, controlling payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policy, regulating financial services and institutions and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies.

While the PRC economy has experienced significant growth in the past three decades, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy. The PRC government has implemented various measures to encourage economic growth and guide the allocation of resources. Some of these measures may benefit the overall PRC economy, but may also have a negative effect on us. Our financial condition and results of operation could be materially and adversely affected by government control over capital investments or changes in tax regulations that are applicable to us. In addition, the PRC government has implemented in the past certain measures, including interest rate increases, to control the pace of economic growth. These measures may cause decreased economic activity, which in turn could lead to a reduction in demand for our services and consequently have a material adverse effect on our businesses, financial condition and results of operations.

There are uncertainties regarding the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws, rules and regulations.

A substantial majority of our operations are conducted in the PRC, and are governed by PRC laws, rules and regulations. Our PRC subsidiaries and VIE are subject to laws, rules and regulations applicable to foreign investment in China. The PRC legal system is a civil law system based on written statutes. Unlike the common law system, prior court decisions may be cited for reference but have limited precedential value.

In 1979, the PRC government began to promulgate a comprehensive system of laws, rules and regulations governing economic matters in general. The overall effect of legislation over the past three decades has significantly enhanced the protections afforded to various forms of foreign investment in China. However, China has not developed a fully integrated legal system, and recently enacted laws, rules and regulations may not sufficiently cover all aspects of economic activities in China or may be subject to significant degrees of interpretation by PRC regulatory agencies. In particular, because these laws, rules and regulations are relatively new, and because of the limited number of published decisions and the non-binding nature of such decisions, and because the laws, rules and regulations often give the relevant regulator significant discretion in how to enforce them, the interpretation and enforcement of these laws, rules and regulations involve uncertainties and can be inconsistent and unpredictable. In addition, the PRC legal system is based in part on government policies and internal rules, some of which are not published on a timely basis or at all, and which may have a retroactive effect. As a result, we may not be aware of our violation of these policies and rules until after the occurrence of the violation.

Any administrative and court proceedings in China may be protracted, resulting in substantial costs and diversion of resources and management attention. Since PRC administrative and court authorities have significant discretion in interpreting and implementing statutory and contractual terms, it may be more difficult to evaluate the outcome of administrative and court proceedings and the level of legal protection we enjoy than in more developed legal systems. These uncertainties may impede our ability to enforce the contracts we have entered into and could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are subject to laws that are applicable to retailers, including advertising and promotion laws and consumer protection laws that could require us to modify our current business practices and incur increased costs.

As an online distributor of goods, we are subject to numerous PRC laws and regulations that regulate retailers generally or govern online retailers specifically. For example, we are subject to laws in relation to advertising and online promotion, such as the Advertising Law, Pricing Law, Anti-Unfair Competition Law, Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Advertising, and also consumer protection laws that are applicable to retailers. In the past, we have been subject to non-material administrative proceedings and penalties due to non-compliances with such laws and regulations and may continue to be subject to allegations of non-compliance with such laws and regulations in the future. Such allegations, which may or may not have merit, may result in administrative penalties and other costs to us, and we may need to adjust some of our advertising and promotional practices as a result.

If these regulations were to change or if we are found to be in violation with them, we may need to spend additional costs to rectify non-compliance, adjust our business practices and could be subject to fines or penalties or suffer reputational harm, which could reduce demand for the products or services offered by us and hurt our business and results of operations. For example, the amended Consumer Protection Law, which became effective in March 2014, further strengthened the protection of consumers and imposed more stringent requirements and onerous obligations on businesses, especially businesses that operate on the internet.

Pursuant to the amended Consumer Protection Law, consumers are generally entitled to return goods purchased within seven days upon receipt without giving any reasons if they purchase the goods over the internet. Consumers whose interests have been damaged due to their purchase of goods online may claim damages against sellers. Moreover, if we deceive consumers or knowingly sell substandard or defective products, we would not only be required to compensate consumers for their losses, but also pay additional damages equal to three times the price of the goods or services.

Operators of online marketplace platforms, such as our VIE, Shanghai Zunyi, which business includes operation of our Maikefeng platform, and Tmall and JD.com who have partnered with us, are also subject to stringent obligations under the amended Consumer Protection Law. For example, where platform operators are unable to provide the real names, addresses and valid contact details of the sellers, the consumers may also claim damages from the platform operators. Operators of online marketplace platforms that know or should have known that sellers use their platforms to infringe upon legitimate rights and interests of consumers but fail to take necessary measures will bear joint and several liabilities with the sellers. As such, we are subject to such risks as the operator of Maikefeng platform. In addition, operators of online marketplace platforms that we partner with may take measures and impose stricter requirements on us or our brand partners as a reaction to their enhanced obligations under the amended Consumer Protection Law.

Similar legal requirements are frequently changed and subject to interpretation, and we are unable to predict the ultimate cost of compliance with these requirements or their effect on our operations. We may be required to make significant expenditures or modify our business practices to comply with existing or future laws and regulations or to satisfy compliance requests from the marketplace platforms we partnered with, which may increase our costs and materially limit our ability to operate our business.

The regulation of the CSRC and other regulations establish more complex procedures for acquisitions conducted by foreign investors that could make it more difficult for us to grow through acquisitions.

On August 8, 2006, six PRC regulatory agencies, including the MOFCOM, the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the State Administration of Taxation, the SAIC, the CSRC, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, or the SAFE, jointly adopted the Rules on Mergers and Acquisitions of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors, or the M&A Rules, which came into effect on September 8, 2006 and were amended on June 22, 2009. The M&A Rules include, among other things, provisions that purport to require that an offshore special purpose vehicle formed for the purpose of an overseas listing of securities in a PRC company obtain the approval of the CSRC prior to the listing and trading of such special purpose vehicle’s securities on an overseas stock exchange. On September 21, 2006, CSRC published on its official website procedures regarding its approval of overseas listings by special purpose vehicles. However, substantial uncertainty remains regarding the scope and applicability of the M&A Rules to offshore special purpose vehicles.

While the application of the M&A Rules remains unclear, we believe, based on the advice of our PRC counsel, Fangda Partners, that the CSRC approval is not required in the context of our initial public offering because (i) when we set up our offshore holding structure, Shanghai Baozun, currently our major PRC subsidiary, was a then existing foreign-invested entity and not a PRC domestic company as defined under the M&A rules, and the acquisition by Baozun Hong Kong Holding Limited of all the equity interest in Shanghai Baozun was not subject to the M&A Rules; and (ii) there is no statutory provision that clearly classifies the contractual arrangement among our PRC subsidiary, Shanghai Baozun, and our PRC VIE, Shanghai Zunyi and its shareholders as transactions regulated by the M&A Rules. However, uncertainties still exist as to how the M&A Rules will be interpreted and implemented, and the opinion of our PRC counsel is subject to any new laws, rules and regulations or detailed implementations and interpretations in any form relating to the M&A Rules. We cannot assure you that the relevant PRC government agencies, including the CSRC, would reach the same conclusion as our PRC counsel. If the CSRC or other PRC regulatory body subsequently determines that we need to obtain the CSRC’s approval for our initial public offering, we may face adverse actions or sanctions by the CSRC or other PRC regulatory agencies. In any such event, these regulatory agencies may impose fines and penalties on our operations in China, limit our operating privileges in China, delay or restrict the repatriation of the proceeds from our initial public offering into the PRC or take other actions that could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, reputation and prospects.

The new regulations also established additional procedures and requirements that are expected to make merger and acquisition activities in China by foreign investors more time-consuming and complex, including requirements in some instances that the MOFCOM be notified in advance of any change-of-control transaction in which a foreign investor takes control of a PRC domestic enterprise, or that the approval from the MOFCOM be obtained in circumstances where overseas companies established or controlled by PRC enterprises or residents acquire affiliated domestic companies. We may grow our business in part by acquiring other companies operating in our industry. Complying with the requirements of the new regulations to complete such transactions could be time-consuming, and any required approval processes, including approval from the MOFCOM, may delay or inhibit our ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share. In addition, our proposed formation of joint venture with, or acquisition of control of, or decisive influence over, any company with revenues within China of more than RMB400 million (US$57.6 million) in the year prior to any proposed joint venture formation or acquisition would be subject to MOFCOM merger control review. As a result of our size, many of the transactions we have taken or may undertake could be subject to MOFCOM merger review. Complying with the requirements of the relevant regulations to complete such transactions could be time-consuming, and any required approval processes, including approval from MOFCOM, may delay or inhibit our ability to complete such transactions, which could affect our ability to expand our business or maintain our market share. In addition, MOFCOM has not accepted merger control filings for any transaction involving parties that adopt a variable interest entity structure. If MOFCOM’s practice remains unchanged, our ability to carry out our investment and acquisition strategy may be materially and adversely affected and there may be significant uncertainty as to whether transactions that we have taken or may undertake would subject us to fines or other administrative penalties and negative publicity and whether we will be able to complete large acquisitions in the future in a timely manner or at all.

PRC regulations relating to investments in offshore companies by PRC residents may subject our PRC-resident beneficial owners or our PRC subsidiaries to liability or penalties, limit our ability to inject capital into our PRC subsidiaries or limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to increase their registered capital or distribute profits.

SAFE promulgated the Circular on Relevant Issues Concerning Foreign Exchange Control on Domestic Residents’ Offshore Investment and Financing and Roundtrip Investment through Special Purpose Vehicles, or SAFE Circular 37, on July 4, 2014, which replaced the former circular commonly known as “SAFE Circular 75” promulgated by SAFE on October 21, 2005. SAFE Circular 37 requires PRC residents to register with local branches of SAFE in connection with their direct establishment or indirect control of an offshore entity, for the purpose of overseas investment and financing, with such PRC residents’ legally owned assets or equity interests in domestic enterprises or offshore assets or interests, referred to in SAFE Circular 37 as a “special purpose vehicle.” SAFE Circular 37 further requires amendment to the registration in the event of any significant changes with respect to the special purpose vehicle, such as increase or decrease of capital contributed by PRC individuals, share transfer or exchange, merger, division or other material event. In the event that a PRC shareholder holding interests in a special purpose vehicle fails to fulfill the required SAFE registration, the PRC subsidiaries of that special purpose vehicle may be prohibited from making profit distributions to the offshore parent and from carrying out subsequent cross-border foreign exchange activities, and the special purpose vehicle may be restricted in its ability to contribute additional capital into its PRC subsidiary. Moreover, failure to comply with the various SAFE registration requirements described above could result in liability under PRC law for evasion of foreign exchange controls. According to the Notice on Further Simplifying and Improving Policies for the Foreign Exchange Administration of Direct Investment released on February 13, 2015 by SAFE, local banks shall examine and handle foreign exchange registration for overseas direct investment, including the initial foreign exchange registration and amendment registration under SAFE Circular 37 from June 1, 2015. Beneficial owners of the special purpose vehicle who are PRC citizens are also required to make annual filing with the local banks regarding their overseas direct investment status.

Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu, Mr. Junhua Wu and Mr. Michael Qingyu Zhang have completed initial filings with the local counterpart of SAFE relating to their investments in us. However, we may not be aware of the identities of all of our beneficial owners who are PRC residents. We do not have control over our beneficial owners and cannot assure you that all of our PRC-resident beneficial owners will comply with SAFE Circular 37 and subsequent implementation rules. The failure of our beneficial owners who are PRC residents to register or amend their foreign exchange registrations in a timely manner pursuant to SAFE Circular 37 and subsequent implementation rules, or the failure of future beneficial owners of our company who are PRC residents to comply with the registration procedures set forth in SAFE Circular 37 and subsequent implementation rules, may subject such beneficial owners or our PRC subsidiaries to fines and legal sanctions. Failure to register or comply with relevant requirements may also limit our ability to contribute additional capital to our PRC subsidiaries and limit our PRC subsidiaries’ ability to distribute dividends to our company. These risks may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

PRC regulations of loans to PRC entities and direct investment in PRC entities by offshore holding companies may delay or prevent us from using the proceeds of our offerings to make loans or additional capital contributions to our foreign-invested enterprises.

We may transfer funds to our directly owned subsidiaries which are FIEs under PRC laws or finance such FIEs by means of shareholder loans or capital contributions upon completion of our offerings. Any such loans to our FIEs cannot exceed statutory limits, which is either the difference between the registered capital and the total investment amount of such FIE or a multiple of the FIE’s net assets in the previous year, and shall be registered or filed with SAFE, or its local counterparts. Furthermore, any capital contributions we make to FIEs shall be field with the MOFCOM or its local counterparts. We may not be able to obtain these government registrations, filing or approvals on a timely basis, if at all. If we fail to receive such registrations, filing or approvals, our ability to provide loans or capital contributions to the FIEs in a timely manner may be negatively affected, which could materially and adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to fund and expand our business. In addition, SAFE promulgated the Circular on the Relevant Operating Issues concerning Administration Improvement of Payment and Settlement of Foreign Currency Capital of Foreign-invested Enterprises, or Circular 142, on August 29, 2008. SAFE promulgated Circular 45 on November 16, 2011 in order to clarify the application of Circular 142. Under Circular 142 and Circular 45, registered capital of a foreign-invested company settled in RMB converted from foreign currencies may only be used within the business scope approved by the applicable governmental authority and may not be used for equity investments in the PRC. In addition, foreign-invested companies may not change how they use such capital without SAFE’s approval, and may not in any case use such capital to repay RMB loans if proceeds of such loans have not been utilized. Violations of Circular 142 or Circular 45 may result in severe penalties. On March 30, 2015, SAFE released the Notice on the Reform of the Management Method for the Settlement of Foreign Exchange Capital of Foreign-invested Enterprises, or SAFE Circular 19, which came into force and superseded SAFE Circular 142 from June 1, 2015. SAFE Circular 19 has made certain adjustments to some regulatory requirements on the settlement of foreign exchange capital of foreign-invested enterprises, and some foreign exchange restrictions under SAFE Circular 142 are lifted. Under SAFE Circular 19, the settlement of foreign exchange by FIEs shall be governed by the policy of foreign exchange settlement at will. In June 2016, SAFE promulgated Circular on Reforming and Regulating Policies on the Control over Foreign Exchange Settlement of Capital Accounts, or SAFE Circular 16, which removed certain restrictions previously provided under several SAFE circulars in respect of conversion by an FIE of foreign currency registered capital into RMB and use of such RMB capital. However, SAFE Circular 19 and SAFE Circular 16 also reiterate that the settlement of foreign exchange shall only be used for purposes within the business scope of the FIEs. As a result, the applicable circulars may significantly limit our ability to transfer the net proceeds from our initial public offering and subsequent offerings or financings to our FIEs, which may adversely affect our liquidity and our ability to fund and expand our business in the PRC.

Any failure to comply with PRC regulations regarding our employee equity incentive plans may subject the PRC plan participants or us to fines and other legal or administrative sanctions.

Pursuant to SAFE Circular 37, PRC residents who participate in share incentive plans in overseas non-publicly-listed companies due to their position as director, senior management or employees of the PRC subsidiaries of the overseas companies may submit applications to SAFE or its local branches for the foreign exchange registration with respect to offshore special purpose companies. Our directors, executive officers and other employees who are PRC residents and who have been granted options may follow SAFE Circular 37 to apply for the foreign exchange registration before our company becomes an overseas listed company. We and our directors, executive officers and other employees who are PRC residents and who have been granted options are subject to the Notice on Issues Concerning the Foreign Exchange Administration for Domestic Individuals Participating in Stock Incentive Plan of Overseas Publicly Listed Company, or the Share Option Rules, issued by SAFE in February 2012, according to which, employees, directors, supervisors and other management members participating in any stock incentive plan of an overseas publicly listed company who are PRC residents are required to register with SAFE through a domestic qualified agent, which could be a PRC subsidiary of such overseas listed company, and complete certain other procedures. Failure to complete the SAFE registrations may subject them to fines and legal sanctions and may also limit the ability to make payment under our equity incentive plans or receive dividends or sales proceeds related thereto, or our ability to contribute additional capital into our wholly-foreign owned enterprises in China and limit our wholly-foreign owned enterprises’ ability to distribute dividends to us. We also face regulatory uncertainties that could restrict our ability to adopt additional equity incentive plans for our directors and employees under PRC law. Shanghai Baozun Wujiang Branch has already completed the SAFE registration under the Share Option Rules.

In addition, the State Administration of Taxation has issued circulars concerning employee share options or restricted shares. Under these circulars, employees working in the PRC who exercise share options, or whose restricted shares or restricted share units, vest, will be subject to PRC individual income tax. The PRC subsidiaries of an overseas listed company have obligations to file documents related to employee share options or restricted shares with relevant tax authorities and to withhold individual income taxes of those employees related to their share options, restricted shares or restricted share units. In addition, the sales of our ADSs or shares held by such PRC individual employees after their exercise of the options, or the vesting of the restricted shares or restricted share units, are also subject to PRC individual income tax. If the employees fail to pay, or the PRC subsidiaries fail to withhold, their income taxes according to relevant laws, rules and regulations, the PRC subsidiaries may face sanctions imposed by the tax authorities or other PRC government authorities.

We rely to a significant extent on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our principal operating subsidiaries to fund offshore cash and financing requirements.

We are a holding company and rely to a significant extent on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our principal operating subsidiaries and on remittances from the VIE, for our offshore cash and financing requirements, including the funds necessary to pay dividends and other cash distributions to our shareholders, fund inter-company loans, service any debt we may incur outside of China and pay our expenses. When our principal operating subsidiaries or the VIE incur additional debt, the instruments governing the debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends or make other distributions or remittances to us. Furthermore, the laws, rules and regulations applicable to our PRC subsidiaries and certain other subsidiaries permit payments of dividends only out of their retained earnings, if any, determined in accordance with applicable accounting standards and regulations.

Under PRC laws, rules and regulations, each of our subsidiaries incorporated in China is required to set aside at least 10% of its net income each year to fund certain statutory reserves until the cumulative amount of such reserves reaches 50% of its registered capital. These reserves, together with the registered equity, are not distributable as cash dividends. As a result of these laws, rules and regulations, our subsidiaries incorporated in China are restricted in their ability to transfer a portion of their respective net assets to their shareholders as dividends. In addition, registered share capital and capital reserve accounts are also restricted from withdrawal in the PRC, up to the amount of net assets held in each operating subsidiary. As of December 31, 2016, we had restricted net assets of RMB427.4 million (US$61.6 million).

Limitations on the ability of the VIE to make remittance to the wholly-foreign owned enterprise and on the ability of our subsidiaries to pay dividends to us could limit our ability to access cash generated by the operations of those entities, including to make investments or acquisitions that could be beneficial to our businesses, pay dividends to our shareholders or otherwise fund and conduct our business.

We may be treated as a resident enterprise for PRC tax purposes under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law, and we may therefore be subject to PRC income tax on our global income.

Under the PRC Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementing rules, enterprises established under the laws of jurisdictions outside of China with “de facto management bodies” located in China may be considered PRC tax resident enterprises for tax purposes and may be subject to the PRC enterprise income tax at the rate of 25% on their global income. “De facto management body” refers to a managing body that exercises substantive and overall management and control over the production and business, personnel, accounting books and assets of an enterprise. The State Administration of Taxation issued the Notice Regarding the Determination of Chinese-Controlled Offshore-Incorporated Enterprises as PRC Tax Resident Enterprises on the Basis of De Facto Management Bodies, or Circular 82, on April 22, 2009, with retroactive effect from January 1, 2008. Circular 82 provides certain specific criteria for determining whether the “de facto management body” of a Chinese-controlled offshore-incorporated enterprise is located in China. Although Circular 82 only applies to offshore enterprises controlled by PRC enterprises, not those controlled by foreign enterprises or individuals, the determining criteria set forth in Circular 82 may reflect the State Administration of Taxation’s general position on how the “de facto management body” test should be applied in determining the tax resident status of offshore enterprises, regardless of whether they are controlled by PRC enterprises. If we were to be considered a PRC resident enterprise, we would be subject to PRC enterprise income tax at the rate of 25% on our global income. In such case, our profitability and cash flow may be materially reduced as a result of our global income being taxed under the Enterprise Income Tax Law. We believe that none of our entities outside of China is a PRC resident enterprise for PRC tax purposes. However, the tax resident status of an enterprise is subject to determination by the PRC tax authorities and uncertainties remain with respect to the interpretation of the term “de facto management body.”

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

Under the Enterprise Income Tax Law and its implementation regulations issued by the State Council, a 10% PRC withholding tax is applicable to dividends payable to investors that are non-resident enterprises, which do not have an establishment or place of business in the PRC or which have such establishment or place of business but the dividends are not effectively connected with such establishment or place of business, to the extent such dividends are derived from sources within the PRC. Similarly, any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or ordinary shares by such investors is also subject to PRC tax at a current rate of 10%, subject to any reduction or exemption set forth in applicable tax treaties or under applicable tax arrangements between jurisdictions, if such gain is regarded as income derived from sources within the PRC. If we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, dividends paid on our ordinary shares or ADSs, and any gain realized from the transfer of our ordinary shares or ADSs, would be treated as income derived from sources within the PRC and would as a result be subject to PRC taxation. Furthermore, if we are deemed a PRC resident enterprise, dividends payable to individual investors who are non-PRC residents and any gain realized on the transfer of ADSs or ordinary shares by such investors may be subject to PRC tax at a current rate of 20%, subject to any reduction or exemption set forth in applicable tax treaties or under applicable tax arrangements between jurisdictions. It is unclear whether if we or any of our subsidiaries established outside China are considered a PRC resident enterprise, holders of our ADSs or ordinary shares would be able to claim the benefit of income tax treaties or agreements entered into between China and other countries or areas. If dividends payable to our non-PRC investors, or gains from the transfer of our ADSs or ordinary shares by such investors are subject to PRC tax, the value of your investment in our ADSs or ordinary shares may decline significantly.

We and our shareholders face uncertainties with respect to indirect transfers of equity interests in PRC resident enterprises or other assets attributed to a Chinese establishment of a non-Chinese company, or immovable properties located in China owned by non-Chinese companies.

On February 3, 2015, the State Administration of Taxation issued the Bulletin on Issues of Enterprise Income Tax on Indirect Transfers of Assets by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or Bulletin 7, which replaced or supplemented previous rules under the Notice on Strengthening Administration of Enterprise Income Tax for Share Transfers by Non-PRC Resident Enterprises, or Circular 698, issued by the State Administration of Taxation, on December 10, 2009. Pursuant to this Bulletin, an “indirect transfer” of assets, including equity interests in a PRC resident enterprise, by non-PRC resident enterprises may be recharacterized and treated as a direct transfer of PRC taxable assets, if such arrangement does not have a reasonable commercial purpose and was established for the purpose of avoiding payment of PRC enterprise income tax. As a result, gains derived from such indirect transfer may be subject to PRC enterprise income tax. According to Bulletin 7, “PRC taxable assets” include assets attributed to an establishment in China, immoveable properties located in China, and equity investments in PRC resident enterprises, in respect of which gains from their transfer by a direct holder, being a non-PRC resident enterprise, would be subject to PRC enterprise income taxes. When determining whether there is a “reasonable commercial purpose” of the transaction arrangement, features to be taken into consideration include: whether the main value of the equity interest of the relevant offshore enterprise derives from PRC taxable assets; whether the assets of the relevant offshore enterprise mainly consists of direct or indirect investment in China or if its income mainly derives from China; whether the offshore enterprise and its subsidiaries directly or indirectly holding PRC taxable assets have real commercial nature which is evidenced by their actual function and risk exposure; the duration of existence of the shareholders, business model and organizational structure of an overseas enterprise; the income tax payable abroad due to the indirect transfer of PRC taxable assets; the replicability of the transaction by direct transfer of PRC taxable assets; and the tax situation of such indirect transfer and applicable tax treaties or similar arrangements. In respect of an indirect offshore transfer of assets of a PRC establishment, the resulting gain is to be included with the enterprise income tax filing of the PRC establishment or place of business being transferred, and would consequently be subject to PRC enterprise income tax at a rate of 25%. Where the underlying transfer relates to the immoveable properties located in China or to equity investments in a PRC resident enterprise, which is not related to a PRC establishment or place of business of a non-resident enterprise, a PRC enterprise income tax at 10% would apply, subject to available preferential tax treatment under applicable tax treaties or similar arrangements, and the party who is obligated to make the transfer payments has the withholding obligation. Where the payor fails to withhold any or sufficient tax, the transferor shall declare and pay such tax to the tax authority by itself within the statutory time limit. Late payment of applicable tax will subject the transferor to default interest. Bulletin 7 does not apply to transactions of sale of shares by investors through a public stock exchange where such shares were acquired from a transaction through a public stock exchange.

We face uncertainties as to the reporting and other implications of certain past and future transactions where PRC taxable assets are involved, such as offshore restructuring, sale of the shares in our offshore subsidiaries or investments. Our company may be subject to filing obligations or taxed if our company is transferor in such transactions, and may be subject to withholding obligations if our company is transferee in such transactions, under Circular 698 and Bulletin 7. For transfer of shares in our company by investors that are non-PRC resident enterprises, our PRC subsidiaries may be requested to assist in the filing. As a result, we may be required to expend valuable resources to comply with Circular 698 and Bulletin 7 or to request the relevant transferors from whom we purchase taxable assets to comply with these circulars, or to establish that our company should not be taxed under these circulars, which may have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the sales of our ADSs or shares held by our PRC individual employees after their exercise under relevant incentive plans are also subject to PRC individual income tax.

Restrictions on currency exchange may limit our ability to utilize our revenue effectively.

Substantially all of our revenue is denominated in Renminbi. The Renminbi is currently convertible under the “current account,” which includes dividends, trade and service-related foreign exchange transactions, but not under the “capital account,” which includes foreign direct investment and loans, including loans we may secure from our onshore subsidiaries or variable interest entity. Currently, Shanghai Baozun, our major PRC subsidiary which is a wholly-foreign owned enterprise, may purchase foreign currency for settlement of “current account transactions,” including payment of dividends to us, without the approval of SAFE by complying with certain procedural requirements such as presenting documentary evidence of such transactions to banks. However, the relevant PRC governmental authorities may limit or eliminate our ability to purchase foreign currencies in the future for current account transactions. Since a significant amount of our future revenue will be denominated in Renminbi, any existing and future restrictions on currency exchange may limit our ability to utilize revenue generated in Renminbi to fund our business activities outside of the PRC or pay dividends in foreign currencies to our shareholders, including holders of our ADSs. Foreign exchange transactions under the capital account remain subject to limitations and require approvals from, or registration with, SAFE and other relevant PRC governmental authorities. This could affect our ability to obtain foreign currency through debt or equity financing for our subsidiaries and the variable interest entity.

Fluctuations in exchange rates could result in foreign currency exchange losses and could materially reduce the value of your investment.

The value of the Renminbi against the U.S. dollar and other currencies may fluctuate and is affected by, among other things, changes in political and economic conditions and the foreign exchange policy adopted by the PRC government. On July 21, 2005, the PRC government changed its policy of pegging the value of the Renminbi to the U.S. dollar. Following the removal of the U.S. dollar peg, the Renminbi appreciated more than 20% against the U.S. dollar over the following three years. Between July 2008 and June 2010, this appreciation halted and the exchange rate between the RMB and the U.S. dollar remained within a narrow band. Since June 2010, the Renminbi has fluctuated against the U.S. dollar, at times significantly and unpredictably, and in the recent years the RMB has depreciated significantly against the U.S. dollar. In April 2012, the PRC government announced that it would allow RMB exchange rate to fluctuate in a wider range. On August 11, 2015, the People’s Bank of China, or the PBOC, allowed the RMB to depreciate by approximately 2% against the U.S. dollar. Since October 1, 2016, the RMB has joined the International Monetary Fund’s basket of currencies that make up the Special Drawing Right (SDR), along with the U.S. dollar, the Euro, the Japanese yen and the British pound. In the fourth quarter of 2016, the RMB has depreciated significantly in the backdrop of a surging U.S. dollar and persistent capital outflows of China. With the development of the foreign exchange market and progress towards interest rate liberalization and Renminbi internationalization, the PRC government may in the future announce further changes to the exchange rate system and there is no guarantee that the RMB will not appreciate or depreciate significantly in value against the U.S. dollar in the future. It is difficult to predict how market forces or PRC or U.S. government policy may impact the exchange rate between the Renminbi and the U.S. dollar in the future. Substantially all of our revenues and costs are denominated in Renminbi. We are a holding company and we rely on dividends paid by our operating subsidiaries in China for our cash needs. Any significant revaluation of the Renminbi may materially reduce any dividends payable on, our ADSs in U.S. dollars.

Risks Related to Our Ordinary Shares and ADSs

The trading price of our ADSs has been and is likely to continue to be volatile, which could result in substantial losses to our shareholders.

The trading price of our ADSs has been and is likely to continue to be volatile and could fluctuate widely due to factors beyond our control. This may happen because of broad market and industry factors, like the performance and fluctuation in the market prices or the underperformance or deteriorating financial results of other listed companies based in China. The securities of some of these companies have experienced significant volatility since their initial public offerings, including, in some cases, substantial price declines in the trading prices of their securities. The trading performances of other Chinese companies’ securities after their offerings, including internet and e-commerce companies, may affect the attitudes of investors toward Chinese companies listed in the United States, which consequently may impact the trading performance of our ADSs, regardless of our actual operating performance. In addition, any negative news or perceptions about inadequate corporate governance practices or fraudulent accounting, corporate structure or matters of other Chinese companies may also negatively affect the attitudes of investors towards Chinese companies in general, including us, regardless of whether we have conducted any inappropriate activities. In addition, securities markets may from time to time experience significant price and volume fluctuations that are not related to our operating performance, which may have a material and adverse effect on the trading price of our ADSs.

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

Any of these factors may result in large and sudden changes in the volume and trading price of our ADSs. In addition, the stock market has from time to time experienced significant price and volume fluctuations that are unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies and industries. These market fluctuations may significantly affect the trading price of our ADSs.

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

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

Because we do not expect to pay dividends in the foreseeable future, holders of our ADSs must rely on price appreciation of our ADSs for return on their investment.

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

Our board of directors has complete discretion as to whether to distribute dividends. Even if our board of directors decides to declare and pay dividends, the timing, amount and form of future dividends, if any, will depend on, among other things, our future results of operations and cash flow, our capital requirements and surplus, the amount of distributions, if any, received by us from our subsidiaries, our financial condition, contractual restrictions and other factors deemed relevant by our board of directors. Accordingly, the return on their investment in our ADSs will likely depend entirely upon any future price appreciation of our ADSs. There is no guarantee that our ADSs will appreciate in value or even maintain the price at which holders of our ADSs purchased the ADSs. They may not realize a return on their investment in our ADSs and they may even lose their entire investment in our ADSs.

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

Sales of our ADSs in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our ADSs to decline significantly. As of March 31, 2017, we had 159,967,450 ordinary shares outstanding, including 146,666,712 Class A ordinary shares, among which 80,761,830 Class A ordinary shares were represented by ADS (excluding 10,400,409 Class A ordinary shares issued to our depositary bank for bulk issuance of ADSs reserved for future issuances upon the exercise or vesting of awards granted under our share incentive plans and the shares repurchased by us from the open market under our share repurchase program), and 13,300,738 Class B ordinary shares. All ADSs representing our Class A ordinary shares sold in our offerings will be freely transferable by persons other than our ‘‘affiliates’’ without restriction or additional registration under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Securities Act. Some ordinary shares outstanding after our offerings will be available for sale, upon the expiration of the lock-up periods (if applicable to such holder), subject to volume and other restrictions as applicable under Rules 144 and 701 under the Securities Act. Any or all of these ordinary shares may be released prior to the expiration of the applicable lock-up period at the discretion of the designated representatives. To the extent a substantial amount of shares are released before the expiration of the applicable lock-up period and sold into the market, the market price of our ADSs could decline significantly.

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

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

Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu, our co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer, and Mr. Junhua Wu, our co-founder, director and chief operating officer, have considerable influence over matters requiring shareholder approval. Due to our dual-class voting structure, our ordinary shares consist of Class A ordinary shares and Class B ordinary shares. Based on our dual-class voting structure, on a poll, holders of Class A ordinary shares are entitled to one vote per share in respect of matters requiring the votes of shareholders, while holders of Class B ordinary shares are entitled to ten votes per share. Each Class B ordinary share is convertible into one Class A ordinary share at any time by the holder thereof, while Class A ordinary shares are not convertible into Class B ordinary shares under any circumstances. Upon any transfer of Class B ordinary shares by a holder thereof to any person or entity which is not an affiliate of such holder, such Class B ordinary shares shall be automatically and immediately converted into the equal number of Class A ordinary shares. The Class B ordinary shares beneficially owned by Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu and Mr. Junhua Wu represent 33.6% and 13.9% of the aggregate voting power of our company, respectively, as of March 31, 2017. The interests of Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu and Mr. Junhua Wu may not coincide with the interests of holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs, and they may make decisions with which holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs disagree, including decisions on important topics such as the composition of the board of directors, compensation, management succession and our business and financial strategy. To the extent that the interests of Mr. Vincent Wenbin Qiu or Mr. Junhua Wu differ from the interests of holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs, holders of Class A ordinary shares and ADSs may be disadvantaged by any action that they may seek to pursue. This concentrated control could also discourage others from pursuing any potential merger, takeover or other change of control transactions, which could have the effect of depriving the holders of our Class A ordinary shares and our ADSs of the opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over the prevailing market price.

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

Holders of ADSs do not have the same rights of our shareholders and may only exercise the voting rights with respect to the underlying Class A ordinary shares in accordance with the provisions of the deposit agreement. Under our current memorandum and articles of association, the minimum notice period required to convene a general meeting is 10 days. When a general meeting is convened, holders of our ADSs may not receive sufficient notice of a shareholders’ meeting to permit holders of our ADSs to withdraw their Class A ordinary shares to allow holders of our ADSs to cast their votes with respect to any specific matter. In addition, the depositary and its agents may not be able to send voting instructions to holders of our ADSs or carry out their voting instructions in a timely manner. We will make all reasonable efforts to cause the depositary to extend voting rights to holders of our ADSs in a timely manner, but we cannot assure them that they will receive the voting materials in time to ensure that they can instruct the depositary to vote their ADSs. Furthermore, the depositary and its agents will not be responsible for any failure to carry out any instructions to vote, for the manner in which any vote is cast or for the effect of any such vote. As a result, holders of our ADSs may not be able to exercise their rights to vote and they may lack recourse if the ordinary shares underlying their ADSs are not voted as they requested. In addition, in their capacity as an ADS holder, they are not able to call a shareholders’ meeting.

Right of holders of our ADSs to participate in any future rights offerings may be limited, which may cause dilution to your holdings.

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

Holders of our ADSs may not receive cash dividends if the depositary decides it is impractical to make cash dividends available to holders of our ADSs.

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

Holders of our ADSs may be subject to limitations on transfer of their ADSs.

ADSs are transferable on the books of the depositary. However, the depositary may close its transfer books at any time or from time to time when it deems expedient in connection with the performance of its duties. In addition, the depositary may refuse to deliver, transfer or register transfers of ADSs generally when our books or the books of the depositary are closed, or at any time if we or the depositary deems it advisable to do so because of any requirement of law or of any government or governmental body, or under any provision of the deposit agreement, or for any other reason.

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

We are an exempted company incorporated under the laws of the Cayman Islands. We conduct our operations outside the United States and substantially all of our assets are located outside the United States. In addition, substantially all of our officers are nationals or residents of jurisdictions other than the United States and a substantial portion of their assets are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for our shareholders to bring an action against us or against them in the United States in the event that our shareholders believe that their rights have been infringed under the U.S. federal securities laws or otherwise. Even if our shareholders are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands, the PRC or other relevant jurisdiction may render our shareholders unable to enforce a judgment against our assets or the assets of our directors and officers.

Since we are a Cayman Islands company, the rights of our shareholders may be more limited than those of shareholders of a company organized in the United States.

Under the laws of some jurisdictions in the United States, majority and controlling shareholders generally have certain fiduciary responsibilities to the minority shareholders. Shareholder action must be taken in good faith, and actions by controlling shareholders which are obviously unreasonable may be declared null and void. Cayman Island law protecting the interests of minority shareholders may not be as protective in all circumstances as the law protecting minority shareholders in some U.S. jurisdictions. In addition, the circumstances in which a shareholder of a Cayman Islands company may sue the company derivatively, and the procedures and defenses that may be available to the company, may result in the rights of shareholders of a Cayman Islands company being more limited than those of shareholders of a company organized in the United States.

Furthermore, our directors have the power to take certain actions without shareholder approval which would require shareholder approval under the laws of most U.S. jurisdictions. The directors of a Cayman Islands company, without shareholder approval, may implement a sale of any assets, property, part of the business, or securities of the company. Our ability to create and issue new classes or series of shares without shareholder approval could have the effect of delaying, deterring or preventing a change in control without any further action by our shareholders, including a tender offer to purchase our ordinary shares at a premium over then current market prices.

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

Our fourth amended and restated articles of association contain provisions to limit the ability of others to acquire control of our company or cause us to engage in change-of-control transactions. These provisions have the effect of depriving our shareholders of an opportunity to sell their shares at a premium over prevailing market prices by discouraging third parties from seeking to obtain control of our company in a tender offer or similar transaction. For example, our board of directors has the authority, without further action by our shareholders, to issue preferred shares in one or more series and to fix their designations, powers, preferences, privileges, and relative participating, optional or special rights and the qualifications, limitations or restrictions, including dividend rights, conversion rights, voting rights, terms of redemption and liquidation preferences, any or all of which may be greater than the rights associated with our Class A ordinary shares, in the form of ADS or otherwise. Preferred shares could be issued quickly with terms calculated to delay or prevent a change in control of our company or make removal of management more difficult. If our board of directors decides to issue preferred shares, the price of our ADSs may fall and the voting and other rights of the holders of our Class A ordinary shares and ADSs may be materially and adversely affected.

As a foreign private issuer, we are permitted to, and we may, rely on exemptions from certain NASDAQ corporate governance standards applicable to domestic U.S. issuers. This may afford less protection to holders of our ordinary shares and the ADSs.

We are exempted from certain corporate governance requirements of the NASDAQ Stock Market Rules by virtue of being a foreign private issuer. We are required to provide a brief description of the significant differences between our corporate governance practices and the corporate governance practices required to be followed by domestic U.S. companies listed on the NASDAQ Global Select Market. The standards applicable to us are considerably different than the standards applied to domestic U.S. issuers. For instance, we are not required to:

In addition, in July 2016, our board of directors approved an amendment to our 2015 Share Incentive Plan, or the 2015 Plan, to increase the number of Class A ordinary shares reserved for issuance under our 2015 Plan, and we followed our home country practice that does not require shareholder approval for such amendment.

We have relied on and intend to continue to rely on some of these exemptions. As a result, our shareholders may not be provided with the benefits of certain corporate governance requirements of the NASDAQ Stock Market Rules.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from certain disclosure requirements under the Exchange Act, which may afford less protection to our shareholders than they would enjoy if we were a domestic U.S. company.

As a foreign private issuer, we are exempt from, among other things, the rules prescribing the furnishing and content of proxy statements under the Exchange Act. In addition, our executive officers, directors and principal shareholders are exempt from the reporting and short-swing profit and recovery provisions contained in Section 16 of the Exchange Act. We are also not required under the Exchange Act to file periodic reports and financial statements with the SEC as frequently or as promptly as domestic U.S. companies with securities registered under the Exchange Act. As a result, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they would under the Exchange Act rules applicable to domestic U.S. companies.

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

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

The JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company does not need to comply with any new or revised financial accounting standards until such date that a private company is otherwise required to comply with such new or revised accounting standards. However, we have elected to “opt out” of this provision and, as a result, we comply with new or revised accounting standards as required when they are adopted for public companies. This decision to opt out of the extended transition period under the JOBS Act is irrevocable.

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

As a public company, we incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that we did not incur as a private company. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, as well as rules subsequently implemented by the SEC and the NASDAQ Global Select Market, imposes various requirements on the corporate governance practices of public companies. We qualify as an “emerging growth company” pursuant to the JOBS Act. An emerging growth company may take advantage of specified reduced reporting and other requirements that are otherwise applicable generally to public companies. These provisions include exemption from the auditor attestation requirement under Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in the assessment of the emerging growth company’s internal control over financial reporting and permission to delay adopting new or revised accounting standards until such time as those standards apply to private companies. However, we have elected to “opt out” of this provision and, as a result, we comply with new or revised accounting standards as required when they are adopted for public companies. This decision to opt out of the extended transition period under the JOBS Act is irrevocable.

Compliance with these rules and regulations has increased and will continue to increase our legal and financial compliance costs and has made and will continue to make some corporate activities more time-consuming and costly. When we are no longer an “emerging growth company,” we expect to incur significant expenses and devote substantial management effort toward ensuring compliance with the requirements of Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the other rules and regulations of the SEC. In addition, we have incurred additional costs associated with our public company reporting requirements. It may also be more difficult for us to find qualified persons to serve on our board of directors or as executive officers. We expect these rules and regulations to increase our legal and financial compliance costs, but we cannot predict or estimate the additional costs we may incur or the timing of such costs.

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

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

We believe we were not a passive foreign investment company, or PFIC, for the taxable year ended December 31, 2016, and we do not expect to become a PFIC in the foreseeable future. No assurance can be given as to our PFIC status, however, since the PFIC rules are uncertain in several respects and the determination of whether we are a PFIC for any taxable year can only be made after the end of the year and depends on the market price of our ADSs, which may fluctuate significantly, as well as the composition of our income and assets during the year. See “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences—Passive Foreign Investment Company.”

If we were treated as a PFIC, such characterization could result in adverse United States federal income tax consequences to a United States investor. For example, if we were treated as a PFIC, our United States investors could become subject to increased tax liabilities under United States federal income tax laws and regulations and would become subject to burdensome reporting requirements. See “Item 10. Additional Information—E. Taxation—Material U.S. Federal Income Tax Consequences—Passive Foreign Investment Company.”