NetEase (NTES) Risk Factors

We could face material and adverse tax consequences if the PRC tax authorities determine that our contracts with our VIEs and their respective shareholders were not entered into based on arm’s-length negotiations. Although our contractual arrangements are similar to those of other companies conducting similar operations in China, if the PRC tax authorities determine that these contracts were not entered into on an arm’s-length basis, they may adjust our income and expenses for PRC tax purposes in the form of a transfer pricing adjustment which may result in an increase in our taxes. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may also impose late payment interest.

William Lei Ding, directly or indirectly holds the majority interest in certain of our VIEs. As a result, Mr. Ding may be able to cause the agreements related to those companies to be amended in a manner that will be adverse to our company, or may be able to cause these agreements not to be renewed, even if their renewal would be beneficial for us. Although we have entered into an agreement that prevents the amendment of these agreements without the approval of the members of our board of directors other than Mr. Ding, we can provide no assurances that these agreements will not be amended in the future to contain terms that might differ from the terms that are currently in place. These differences may be adverse to our interests. In addition, William Lei Ding also holds the entire share capital of Shanghai EaseNet, and we can provide no assurance that Mr. Ding will not cause the agreements related to Shanghai EaseNet to be amended in the future in a manner that will be adverse to us or to contain terms that might differ from the terms that are currently in place. These differences may be adverse to our interests.

Our founder, Chief Executive Officer and director, William Lei Ding, beneficially owned, as of March 31, 2021, approximately 43.2% of our total outstanding shares and is our largest shareholder. Accordingly, Mr. Ding has significant influence in determining the outcome of any corporate transaction or other matter submitted to the shareholders for approval, including mergers, consolidations, the sale of all or substantially all of our assets, election of directors and other significant corporate actions. He also has significant influence in preventing or causing a change in control. In addition, without the consent of this shareholder, we may be prevented from entering into transactions that could be beneficial to us. The interests of Mr. Ding may differ from the interests of our other shareholders.

Our current relationship with certain affiliated entities, including Guangzhou NetEase, Hangzhou Leihuo, Youdao Computer, Shanghai EaseNet, and their ultimate shareholders is based on a number of contracts, and these affiliated companies are considered our VIEs for accounting purposes. The terms of these agreements are often statements of general intent and do not detail the rights and obligations of the parties. Some of these contracts provide that the parties will enter into further agreements on the details of the services to be provided. Others contain price and payment terms that are subject to monthly adjustment. These provisions may be subject to differing interpretations, particularly on the details of the services to be provided and on price and payment terms. It may be difficult for us to obtain remedies or damages from these affiliated entities or their ultimate shareholders for breaching our agreements. Because we rely significantly on these companies for our business, the realization of any of these risks may disrupt our operations or cause degradation in the quality and service provided on, or a temporary or permanent shutdown of, the NetEase websites or other online and mobile platforms.

Youdao, our majority-controlled subsidiary listed on the New York Stock Exchange, may need additional capital in the future to fund its continued operations and support its business growth. As Youdao will continue to invest heavily in improving technologies, expanding its marketing efforts, hiring qualified faculty and R&D, personnel and offering additional products, services and contents, Youdao may not generate sufficient revenue to offset such expenses. In the future, should Youdao require additional liquidity and capital resources to fund its business and operations, Youdao may need to obtain additional financing, including issuing and selling additional equity or equity-linked securities, or issuing additional equity awards to incentivize its employees, which would dilute our interest in Youdao.

Our auditor, the independent registered public accounting firm that issued the audit report included elsewhere in this annual report, as an auditor of companies that are registered with the SEC and traded publicly in the United States and a firm registered with the U.S. Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, is subject to the laws in the United States pursuant to which the PCAOB conducts regular inspections to assess its compliance with the applicable professional standards. Our auditor is located in, and organized under the laws of, the PRC, which is a jurisdiction where the PCAOB has been unable to conduct inspections without the approval of the Chinese authorities. In May 2013, the PCAOB announced that it had entered into a Memorandum of Understanding on Enforcement Cooperation, or the MOU, with the CSRC, and the PRC Ministry of Finance, or the MOF. The MOU establishes a cooperative framework between the parties for the production and exchange of audit documents relevant to investigations in the United States and the PRC. The PCAOB continues to engage in discussions with the CSRC and the MOF to permit joint inspections in China of audit firms that are registered with the PCAOB and audit China-based companies that trade on U.S. exchanges. However, the implementation procedures of the MOU remain uncertain. In December 2018, the SEC and the PCAOB issued a joint statement highlighting continued challenges faced by the U.S. regulators in their oversight of financial statement audits of U.S.-listed companies with significant operations in China. On April 21, 2020, the SEC and the PCAOB issued another joint statement reiterating the greater risk that disclosures will be insufficient in many emerging markets, including China, compared to those made by U.S. domestic companies. In discussing the specific issues related to the greater risk, the statement again highlights the PCAOB’s inability to inspect audit work paper and practices of accounting firms in China, with respect to their audit work of U.S. reporting companies. In June 2020, the U.S. President issued a memorandum ordering the President’s Working Group on Financial Markets, or the PWG, to submit a report to the President within 60 days of the memorandum that includes recommendations for actions that can be taken by the executive branch and by the SEC or the PCAOB on Chinese companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges and their audit firms. In August 2020, the PWG released the report. In particular, with respect to jurisdictions that do not grant the PCAOB sufficient access to fulfill its statutory mandate, or NCJs, the PWG recommended that enhanced listing standards be applied to companies from NCJs for seeking initial listing and remaining listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Under the enhanced listing standards, if the PCAOB does not have access to work papers of the principal audit firm located in a NCJ for the audit of a U.S.-listed company as a result of governmental restrictions, the U.S.-listed company may satisfy this standard by providing a co-audit from an audit firm with comparable resources and experience where the PCAOB determines that it has sufficient access to the firm’s audit work papers and practices to inspect the co-audit (however, there is currently no legal framework under which such a co-audit could be conducted for a company in China without prior governmental approval). The report recommended a transition period until January 1, 2022 before the new listing standards apply to companies already listed on U.S. stock exchanges. Under the PWG recommendations, if we fail to meet the enhanced listing standards before January 1, 2022, we could face de-listing from the Nasdaq, deregistration from the SEC and/or other risks, which may materially and adversely affect, or effectively terminate, our ADS trading in the United States. There were recent media reports about the SEC’s proposed rulemaking in this regard. It is uncertain whether the PWG recommendations will be adopted, in whole or in part, and the impact of any new rule on us cannot be estimated at this time. This lack of PCAOB inspections in China prevents the PCAOB from fully evaluating audits and quality control procedures of our independent registered public accounting firm. As a result, we and our investors are deprived of the benefits of such PCAOB inspections. The inability of the PCAOB to conduct inspections of auditors in China makes it more difficult to evaluate the effectiveness of our independent registered public accounting firm’s audit procedures or quality control procedures as compared to auditors outside of China that are subject to PCAOB inspections. In addition, the SEC may initiate proceedings against our independent registered public accounting firm, whether in connection with an audit of our company or other China-based companies, which could result in the imposition of penalties against our independent registered public accounting firm, such as suspension of its ability to practice before the SEC. All of these could cause investors and potential investors in us to lose confidence in our audit procedures and reported financial information and the quality of our financial statements. As part of a continued regulatory focus in the United States on access to audit and other information currently protected by national law, in particular China’s, in June 2019, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced bills in both houses of Congress that would require the SEC to maintain a list of issuers for which the PCAOB is not able to inspect or investigate an auditor report issued by a foreign public accounting firm. The Ensuring Quality Information and Transparency for Abroad-Based Listings on our Exchanges (EQUITABLE) Act prescribes increased disclosure requirements for such issuers and, beginning in 2025, the delisting from national securities exchanges such as Nasdaq of issuers included for three consecutive years on the SEC’s list. On May 20, 2020, the U.S. Senate passed S. 945, the Holding Foreign Companies Accountable Act, or the Act. The Act was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on December 2, 2020. The Act was signed into law by the president of the United States on December 19, 2020. In essence, the Act requires the SEC to prohibit foreign companies from listing securities on U.S. securities exchanges if a company retains a foreign accounting firm that cannot be inspected by the PCAOB for three consecutive years, beginning in 2021. On March 24, 2021, the SEC adopted interim final rules relating to the implementation of certain disclosure and documentation requirements of the Act. We will be required to comply with these rules if the SEC identifies us as having a “non-inspection” year under a process to be subsequently established by the SEC. The SEC is assessing how to implement other requirements of the Act, including the listing and trading prohibition requirements described above. The enactment of the Act and any additional rulemaking efforts to increase U.S. regulatory access to audit information in China could cause investor uncertainty for affected SEC registrants, including us, the market price of our ADSs could be materially adversely affected, and we could be delisted if we are unable to meet the PCAOB inspection requirement in time. Our ordinary shares are currently listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. If we are delisted from the Nasdaq, the conversion of ADSs and transfer of the ordinary shares to Hong Kong will necessitate time and certain expenses. The trading price of our ordinary shares may be adversely affected as a result of a substantial number of ADSs being converted to ordinary shares, and there can be no assurance that an active trading market for ordinary shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will be sustained. Our audit committee is aware of the Act and regularly communicates with our independent auditor to monitor developments in the rulemaking.

We are a Cayman Islands company, and the major portion of our assets are located outside the United States and Hong Kong. A substantial portion of our current operations are conducted in the PRC. In addition, some of our directors and executive officers are nationals and residents of countries or areas other than the United States and Hong Kong. A substantial portion of the assets of these persons are located outside the United States and Hong Kong. As a result, it may be difficult or impossible for holders of our shares and ADSs to effect service of process within the United States or Hong Kong upon these persons, or to bring an action against us or against these individuals in the United States or Hong Kong in the event that they believe that their rights have been infringed under the U.S. federal securities laws, Hong Kong laws or otherwise. Even if shareholders are successful in bringing an action of this kind, the laws of the Cayman Islands and China may render them unable to enforce a judgment against our assets or the assets of our directors and officers. There is uncertainty as to whether the courts of the Cayman Islands or the PRC would recognize or enforce judgments. Furthermore, class action lawsuits, which are available in the United States for investors to seek remedies, are generally uncommon in the Cayman Islands and the PRC. The SEC, the U.S. Department of Justice and other U.S. authorities may also have difficulties in bringing and enforcing actions against us or our directors or executive officers in the PRC. The SEC has stated that there are significant legal and other obstacles to obtaining information needed for investigations or litigation in China. China has recently adopted a revised securities law which provides, among other things, that without governmental approval in China, no entity or individual in China may provide documents and information relating to securities business activities to overseas regulators which could present significant legal and other obstacles to obtaining information needed for investigations and litigation conducted outside of China. Furthermore, our Articles of Association are specific to us and include certain provisions that may be different from common practices in Hong Kong, such as the absence of requirements that the appointment, removal and remuneration of auditors must be approved by a majority of our shareholders. As a result of the foregoing, our public shareholders may have more difficulty in protecting their interests through actions against us, our management, our directors or our major shareholders than they would as public shareholders of a company incorporated in the United States or Hong Kong.

The trading price of our ADSs has been and is likely to continue to be volatile and could fluctuate widely in response to a variety of factors, many of which are beyond our control. The trading price of our shares, likewise, can be volatile for similar or different reasons. For example, the trading prices of our ADSs ranged from US$53.17 to US$103.53 per ADS in 2020 and the trading prices of our ordinary shares ranged from HK$125.00 to HK$167.00 per ordinary share in 2020. In addition, the performance and fluctuation of the market prices of other companies with business operations located mainly in China, especially internet and technology companies that have listed their securities in Hong Kong and/or the United States, may affect the overall investor attitude towards Chinese public companies. The securities of some of these companies have experienced and may continue to experience significant volatility, resulting from, among other things, underperformance and deteriorating financial results, negative news or perceptions about inadequate corporate governance practices, and fraudulent behaviors of such companies. Consequently, the trading performance of our shares and/or ADSs may be adversely and materially affected, regardless of our actual operation performance. In addition to market and industry factors, the price and trading volume for our shares and/or ADSs may be highly volatile for factors specific to our operation, including the following: ? variations in our results of operations that are not in line with market or research analyst expectations or changes in financial estimates by securities research analysts; ? announcements of studies and reports relating to the quality of our product and service offerings or those of our competitors; ? changes in the economic performance or market valuations of other market players in our industries; ? announcements made by us or our competitors of new features or functionalities or other product and service offerings, investments, acquisitions, strategic relationships, joint ventures or capital commitments; ? press and other reports, whether or not true, about our business, including negative reports published by short sellers, regardless of their veracity or materiality to us; ? litigation and regulatory allegations or proceedings that involve us and our directors; ? additions to or departures of our management; ? political or market instability or disruptions, and actual or perceived social unrest in the markets where we operate; ? fluctuations of exchange rates among the Renminbi, the Hong Kong dollar and the U.S. dollar; ? sales or perceived potential sales or other dispositions of existing or additional ADSs or other equity or equity-linked securities; ? any actual or alleged illegal acts of our senior management or other key employees; ? any share repurchase program; and ? regulatory developments affecting us or our industry, customers, licensors and other suppliers. In particular, our revenues and results of operations have varied significantly in the past and may continue to fluctuate in the future, which may adversely impact the trading price of our ADSs and shares. Historically, usage of our online games has generally increased around the Chinese holidays, in particular winter and summer school holidays. Our Youdao platform tends to have larger student enrollments in the second and fourth quarters when it offers more courses including, for example, test preparation courses for school exams in the spring and fall semesters and China’s national college entrance exams, national postgraduate entrance exams and college English tests, compared to the rest of the year. Revenues from certain of our innovative businesses and others, including advertising services, have followed the same general seasonal trend throughout each year, with the first quarter of the year being the weakest quarter due to the Chinese New Year holiday and the traditional close of customers’ annual budgets, and the fourth quarter as the strongest. Our e-commerce business revenues are relatively lower during the Chinese New Year holiday season in the first quarter of each year, while sales in the fourth quarter are higher than each of the preceding three quarters due to a variety of promotional activities conducted by retail and e-commerce businesses in China. Accordingly, you should not rely on quarter-to-quarter comparisons of our results of operations as an indication of our future performance. It is possible that future fluctuations may cause our results of operations to be below the expectations of market analysts and investors. This could cause the trading price of our shares, ADSs or any other securities of ours which may become publicly traded to decline. Furthermore, the stock market in general experiences price and volume fluctuations that are often unrelated or disproportionate to the operating performance of companies like us, such as the large decline in share prices in the United States in early 2020. These market and industry fluctuations may significantly affect the trading price of our shares and/or ADSs. In the past, following periods of instability in the market price of a company’s securities, shareholders have often instituted securities class action suits against that company.

In connection with our initial public offering of shares in Hong Kong, we established a branch register of members in Hong Kong (the “Hong Kong share register”). Our shares that are traded on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, including those represented by ADSs, are registered on the Hong Kong share register, and the trading of these shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange are subject to the Hong Kong stamp duty. To facilitate conversion between ADSs and shares and their respective trading on Nasdaq and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, we moved a portion of our issued shares, including all of the ordinary shares deposited in our ADS program, from our Cayman share register to our Hong Kong share register. Under the Hong Kong Stamp Duty Ordinance, any person who effects any sale or purchase of Hong Kong stock, defined as stock the transfer of which is required to be registered in Hong Kong, is required to pay Hong Kong stamp duty. The stamp duty is currently set at a total rate of 0.2% of the greater of the consideration for, or the value of, shares transferred, with 0.1% payable by each of the buyer and the seller. In February 2021, Hong Kong raised the stamp duty from 0.1% to 0.13%, effective August 2021. To the best of our knowledge, Hong Kong stamp duty has not been levied in practice on the trading of ADSs representing shares of companies that are listed in both the United States and Hong Kong and that have maintained all or a portion of their ordinary shares, including ordinary shares underlying ADSs, in their Hong Kong share registers, or on the deposit of shares in or withdrawal of shares from ADS facilities of that kind. However, it is unclear whether, as a matter of Hong Kong law, the trading of ADSs representing shares of these dual-listed companies or the deposit of shares in or withdrawal of shares from those ADS facilities constitutes a sale or purchase of the underlying Hong Kong-registered ordinary shares that is subject to Hong Kong stamp duty. We advise investors to consult their own tax advisors on this matter. If Hong Kong stamp duty is determined by the competent authority to apply to the trading of those ADSs or deposits of shares in or withdrawal of shares from those ADS facilities, the trading price and the value of your investment in our ADSs and/or shares may be affected.

Under the Deposit Agreement, the depositary will give us a discretionary proxy to vote the shares underlying the ADSs at shareholders’ meetings if holders of these ADSs do not give voting instructions to the depositary, unless: ? we have instructed the depositary that we do not wish a discretionary proxy to be given; ? we have informed the depositary that there is substantial opposition as to a matter to be voted on at the meeting; ? a matter to be voted on at the meeting would have a material adverse impact on shareholders; or ? voting at the meeting is made on a show of hands. The effect of this discretionary proxy is that, if holders of ADSs fail to give voting instructions to the depositary, they cannot prevent our shares underlying their ADSs from being voted, except under the circumstances described above. This may make it more difficult for shareholders to influence our management. Holders of our shares are not subject to this discretionary proxy.

Holders of ADSs may exercise their voting rights with respect to the underlying shares represented by their ADSs only in accordance with the provisions of the Deposit Agreement. Upon receipt of voting instructions from them in the manner set forth in the Deposit Agreement, the depositary will endeavor, in so far as practicable, to vote the underlying shares represented by their ADSs in accordance with these instructions. However, the depositary and its agents may not be able to send voting instructions to holders of 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 ADSs in a timely manner, but they may not receive the voting materials in time to ensure that they can instruct the depositary to vote the underlying shares represented by 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 vote. As a result, holders of ADSs may not be able to exercise their rights to vote and they may lack recourse if the underlying shares represented by their ADSs are not voted as they requested.

As a company listed under Chapter 19C of the Hong Kong Listing Rules, we have adopted different practices as to certain matters as compared with many other companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. We are not subject to certain provisions of the Hong Kong Listing Rules pursuant to Rule 19C.11, including, among others, rules on notifiable transactions, connected transactions, share option schemes, content of financial statements as well as certain other continuing obligations. In addition, we have been granted a number of waivers and/or exemptions from strict compliance with, among others, the Hong Kong Listing Rules and the SFO. We have also been granted a ruling from the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, as a result of which the Takeovers Codes do not apply to us. Therefore, we will adopt different practices as to those matters as compared with other companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that do not enjoy those exemptions or waivers. However, if 55% or more of the total worldwide trading volume, by dollar value, of our shares and ADSs over our most recent fiscal year takes place on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange will regard us as having a dual primary listing in Hong Kong and we will no longer enjoy certain exemptions or waivers from strict compliance with the requirements under the Hong Kong Listing Rules, the Takeovers Codes and the SFO, which could result in our incurring of incremental compliance costs.

As a Cayman Islands exempted company listed on Nasdaq, we are subject to Nasdaq rules. However, Nasdaq rules permit a foreign private issuer like us to follow the corporate governance practices of its home country. Certain corporate governance practices in the Cayman Islands, which is our home country, may differ significantly from Nasdaq rules applicable to U.S. domestic issuers. For instance, we are not required to: ? have a majority of the board be independent (although all of the members of the audit committee must be independent under the U.S. Exchange Act); ? have a compensation committee or a nominating or corporate governance committee consisting entirely of independent directors; ? have regularly scheduled executive sessions for non-management directors; or ? have executive sessions of solely independent directors each year. We have relied on and intend to continue to rely on some of these exemptions. Specifically, our board of directors adopted our 2009 RSU Plan and 2019 RSU Plan without seeking shareholder approval which is generally required under Rule 5635(c) of the Nasdaq Marketplace Rules. There is no specific requirement under Cayman Islands law for shareholder approval to be obtained with respect to the establishment or amendment of equity compensation arrangements. In situations where we choose to follow home country practices, our shareholders may be afforded less protection than they otherwise would under Nasdaq rules applicable to U.S. domestic issuers.

There is no direct trading or settlement between Nasdaq and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on which our ADSs and the shares are respectively traded. In addition, the time differences between Hong Kong and New York and unforeseen market circumstances or other factors may delay the withdrawal of shares underlying the ADSs or the deposit of shares in exchange for ADSs. Investors will be prevented from settling or effecting the sale of their securities during such periods of delay. In addition, there is no assurance that any exchange of ADSs into shares (and vice versa) will be completed in accordance with the timelines investors may anticipate. Furthermore, the depositary for the ADSs is entitled to charge holders fees for various services including for the issuance of ADSs upon deposit of shares, cancelation of ADSs, distributions of cash dividends or other cash distributions, distributions of ADSs pursuant to share dividends or other free share distributions, distributions of securities other than ADSs and annual service fees. As a result, shareholders who exchange shares into ADSs, and vice versa, may not achieve the level of economic return the shareholders may anticipate.

Subject to compliance with U.S. securities law and the terms of the Deposit Agreement, any holder of ADSs may withdraw the underlying shares represented by the ADSs pursuant to the terms of the Deposit Agreement for trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Holders of our shares may also deposit shares with the depositary in exchange for the issuance of our ADSs. In the event that a substantial number of ADSs are deposited with the depositary in exchange for shares or vice versa, the liquidity and trading price of our ADSs on Nasdaq and shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange may be adversely affected.

Sales of our shares, ADSs, or other equity or equity-linked securities in the public market, or the perception that these sales could occur, could cause the market price of our shares and/or ADSs to decline significantly. All of our shares represented by ADSs were freely transferable by persons other than our affiliates without restriction or additional registration under the U.S. Securities Act. The shares held by our affiliates are also available for sale, subject to volume and other restrictions as applicable under Rule 144 of the U.S. Securities Act, under trading plans adopted pursuant to Rule 10b5-1 or otherwise. Divesture in the future of our shares and/or ADSs by shareholders, the announcement of any plan to divest our shares and/or ADS, or hedging activity by third-party financial institutions in connection with similar derivative or other financing arrangements entered into by shareholders, could cause the price of our shares and/or ADSs to decline. Furthermore, although all of our directors and executive officers have agreed to a lock-up of their shares, any major disposal of our shares and/or ADSs by any of them upon expiration of the relevant lock-up periods (or the perception that these disposals may occur upon the expiration of the lock-up period) may cause the prevailing market price of our shares and/or ADSs to fall which could negatively impact our ability to raise equity capital in the future.