Quinstreet (QNST) Risk Factors

The market for online marketing is intensely competitive, and we expect this competition to continue to increase in the future both from existing competitors and, given the relatively low barriers to entry into the market, from new competitors. We compete both for clients and for high-quality media. We compete for clients on the basis of a number of factors, including return on investment of clients' marketing spending, price and client service. We compete with Internet and traditional media companies for high quality media and for a share of clients' overall marketing budgets, including: - online marketing or media services providers such as LendingTree and MediaAlpha in the financial services client vertical;- offline and online advertising agencies;- major Internet portals and search engine companies with advertising networks;- other online marketing service providers, including online affiliate advertising networks and industry-specific portals or performance marketing services companies;- digital advertising exchanges, real-time bidding and other programmatic buying channels;- third-party publishers with their own sales forces that sell their online marketing services directly to clients;- in-house marketing groups and activities at current or potential clients;- offline direct marketing agencies;- mobile and social media; and - television, radio and print companies. Finding, developing and retaining high quality media on a cost-effective basis is challenging because competition for web traffic among websites and search engines, as well as competition with traditional media companies, has resulted and may continue to result in significant increases in media pricing, declining margins, reductions in revenue and loss of market share. In addition, if we expand the scope of our services, we may compete with a greater number of websites, clients and traditional media companies across an increasing range of different services, including in vertical markets where competitors may have advantages in expertise, brand recognition and other areas. Internet search and social media companies with brand recognition have significant numbers of direct sales personnel and substantial proprietary advertising inventory and web traffic that provide a significant competitive advantage and have a significant impact on pricing for Internet advertising and web traffic. Some of these companies may offer or develop more vertically targeted products that match users with products and services and, thus, compete with us more directly. The trend toward consolidation in online marketing may also affect pricing and availability of media inventory and web traffic. Many of our current and potential competitors also have other competitive advantages over us, such as longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, larger client bases, greater access to advertising inventory on high-traffic websites and significantly greater financial, technical and marketing resources. As a result, we may not be able to compete successfully. Competition from other marketing service providers' online and offline offerings has affected and may continue to affect both volume and price, and, thus, revenue, profit margins and profitability. If we fail to deliver results that are superior to those that other online marketing service providers deliver to clients, we could lose clients and market share, and our revenue may decline.

Our business is dependent on attracting a large number of visitors to our owned and operated and our third-party publishers' websites and providing inquiries in the form of clicks, leads, calls, applications and customers to our clients, which depend in part on our reputation within the industry and with our clients. Certain other companies within our industry have in the past engaged in activities that others may view as unlawful or inappropriate. These activities by third-parties, such as spyware or deceptive promotions, may be seen as characteristic of participants in our industry and may therefore harm the reputation of all participants in our industry, including us. Our ability to attract visitors and, thereby, potential customers to our clients, also depends in part on our clients providing competitive levels of customer service, responsiveness and prices to such visitors. If our clients do not provide competitive levels of service to visitors, our reputation and therefore our ability to attract additional clients and visitors could be harmed. In addition, from time to time, we may be subject to investigations, inquiries or litigation by various regulators, which may harm our reputation regardless of the outcome of any such action. For example, in 2012 we responded to a civil investigation conducted by the attorneys general of a number of states into certain of our former education client vertical marketing and business practices resulting in us entering into an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance agreement. Negative perceptions of our business may result in additional regulation, enforcement actions by the government and increased litigation, or harm to our ability to attract or retain clients, third-party publishers or strategic partners, any of which may affect our business and result in lower revenue. Any damage to our reputation, including from publicity from legal proceedings against us or companies that work within our industry, governmental proceedings, users impersonating or scraping our websites, unfavorable media coverage, consumer class action litigation, or the disclosure of security breaches, cyber-attacks or other similar incidents, could adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The online media and marketing industry is characterized by rapidly changing standards, changing technologies, frequent new or enhanced product and service introductions and changing user and client demands. The introduction of new technologies and services embodying new technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the emergence of new industry standards and practices could render our existing technologies and services obsolete and unmarketable or require unanticipated investments in technology. We continually make enhancements and other modifications to our proprietary technologies as well as our product and service offerings. This includes expansion into new categories (e.g., health insurance). Our product changes may contain design or performance defects that are not readily apparent. Expanded category offerings may experience issues as we launch new products and services. If our proprietary technologies or our new or enhanced products and services fail to achieve their intended purpose or are less effective than the technologies or products and services used by our competitors, our business could be harmed. In particular, we have incorporated and may continue to incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning, ("AIML"), solutions into our platform, offerings, services, and features, including those based on large language models, and these applications may become more important to our operations or to our future growth over time. We expect to utilize AIML solutions to help drive future growth in our business, but there can be no assurance that we will realize the desired or anticipated benefits from AIML or properly implement or market our AIML solutions. Our competitors and other third parties may incorporate AIML into their products more quickly or more successfully than us, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our results of operations. Additionally, our offerings based on AIML may expose us to additional lawsuits and regulatory investigations and subject us to legal liability as well as brand and reputational harm. For example, if the content, analyses, or recommendations that AIML applications assist in producing are or are alleged to be deficient, inaccurate, or biased, or infringe on third-party intellectual property rights, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be adversely affected. Regulatory uncertainty, including the lack of comprehensive federal legislation, a patchwork of existing and proposed frameworks, and emerging regulatory initiatives, may expose us to compliance challenges and uncertainties. Our failure to adapt to these changes could result in legal and reputational consequences including being required to adjust or limit our use of AI in certain jurisdictions to comply with new and evolving AI laws and regulations. Additionally, the use of AIML applications has resulted in, and may in the future result in, cybersecurity incidents that implicate the personal data of end users of such applications. Any such cybersecurity incidents related to our use of AIML applications could adversely affect our reputation and results of operations. AIML also presents emerging ethical issues and if our use of AI becomes controversial, we may experience brand or reputational harm. We are investing in AIML. Our investments include partnering with companies to bring AIML to our platform. Our competitors are pursuing similar opportunities. These competitors may, as a result of greater resources, branding, or otherwise, adopt and implement AIML faster or more successfully than we do, which could impair our ability to compete effectively and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. It is also possible that our investments in AIML do not result in the benefits we anticipate, or enable us to maintain our competitive advantage. For example, we may not accurately anticipate market demand or offer AIML that improves end user experience. Our future success will also depend in part on our ability to successfully adapt to rapidly changing online media formats and other technologies. If we fail to adapt successfully, we could lose clients or advertising inventory and our business, financial condition, and results of operations could be harmed.

Our success and future growth depend upon the continued services of our management team, including Douglas Valenti, Chief Executive Officer, and other key employees in all areas of our organization. From time to time, there may be changes in our key employees resulting from the hiring or departure of executives and employees, which could disrupt our business. We have, in the past, experienced declines in our business and a depressed stock price, making our equity and cash incentive compensation programs less attractive to current and potential key employees. If we lose the services of key employees or if we are unable to attract and retain additional qualified employees, our business and growth could suffer.

When a user visits our websites, we use technologies, including "cookies," to collect information such as the user's IP address. We also have relationships with data partners that collect and provide us with user data. We access and analyze this information in order to determine the effectiveness of a marketing campaign and to determine how to modify the campaign for optimization. The use of cookies is the subject of litigation, regulatory scrutiny and industry self-regulatory activities, including the discussion of "do-not-track" technologies, guidelines and substitutes to cookies. With respect to industry self-regulatory activities, the leading web browsing companies have started or announced their intent to block or phase out third-party cookies from their web browsers. Additionally, users are able to block or delete cookies from their browser. Periodically, certain of our clients and publishers seek to prohibit or limit our collection or use of data derived from the use of cookies. Furthermore, actions by service providers could restrict our ability to deliver Internet-based advertising. For example, if email service providers ("ESPs") categorize our emails as "promotional," then these emails may be directed to an alternate and less readily accessible section of a consumer's inbox. In the event ESPs materially limit or halt the delivery of our emails, or if we fail to deliver emails to consumers in a manner compatible with ESPs' email handling or authentication technologies, our ability to contact consumers through email could be significantly restricted. In addition, if we are placed on "spam" lists or lists of entities that have been involved in sending unwanted, unsolicited emails, or if internet service providers prioritize or provide superior access to our competitors' content, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected. Interruptions, failures or defects in our data collection systems, as well as data privacy and security concerns and regulatory changes or enforcement actions affecting our or our data partners' ability to collect user data, could also limit our ability to analyze data from, and thereby optimize, our clients' marketing campaigns. If our access to data is limited in the future, we may be unable to provide effective technologies and services to clients and we may lose clients and revenue. Actions by operating system platform providers or application stores such as Apple or Google may affect our offerings or services or how we collect, use, and share data from end-user devices in connection with our ad campaigns. For example, Apple implemented a requirement for applications using its mobile operating system, iOS, to affirmatively (on an opt-in basis) obtain an end user's permission to track user activity across apps or websites or access users' device advertising identifiers for advertising and advertising measurement purposes, as well as other restrictions. In addition, Google has announced that it will cease support for advertising cookies that permit the tracking of users across sites and applications and instead will introduce new advertising targeting solutions from its Privacy Sandbox. The long-term impact of these and other privacy and regulatory changes remains uncertain and may harm our growth, business, and profitability.

We display original content and third-party content on our websites and in our marketing messages. In addition, our clients provide us with advertising creative and financial information (e.g., insurance premium or credit card interest rates) that we display on our owned and operated websites and our third-party publishers' websites. As a result, we face potential liability based on a variety of claims, including defamation, negligence, deceptive advertising, copyright or trademark infringement. We are also exposed to risk that content provided by third-parties or clients is inaccurate or misleading, and for material posted to our websites by users and other third-parties. These claims, whether brought in the United States or abroad, could divert our management's time and attention away from our business and result in significant costs to investigate, defend, and respond to investigative demands, regardless of the merit of these claims. In addition, if we become subject to these types of claims and are not successful in our defense, we may be forced to pay substantial damages.

Adverse macroeconomic conditions could cause decreases or delays in spending by our clients in response to consumer demand and could harm our ability to generate revenue and our results of operations. Changes in the macroeconomic or market conditions and changes in the regulatory environment have in the past affected, and may continue to negatively affect, our clients' businesses, marketing practices and budgets and, therefore, impact our business, financial condition, operating results and cash flows. Worldwide economic conditions remain uncertain due to various global disruptions, including geopolitical events, such as war, the threat of war (including collateral damage from cyberwarfare and targeted security attacks), terrorist activity, natural disasters, climate change and extreme-weather related events, power shortages or outages, major public health issues, including pandemics, and significant local, national, or global events capturing the attention of a large part of the population, which could prevent or hinder our, our third-party publishers' or our clients' ability to do business, increase our costs, and negatively affect our stock price. Adverse consequences resulting from increasing economic or political conflicts between the United States and China, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent economic sanctions imposed by the U.S., NATO and other countries, the Israel-Hamas war and the possible expansion of such conflict in the surrounding areas, and various other market issues may have broader implications on economies outside of their respective regions, including increased instability in the worldwide financial markets and economy, increases in inflation, recessionary economic cycles, and enhanced volatility in foreign currency exchange rates. These uncertainties have in the past and may in the future cause our clients or potential clients to delay or reduce spending, which could negatively impact our revenue and operating results and make it difficult for us to accurately plan future business activities. We, our third-party publishers', and our clients' businesses operate in highly regulated industries, subject to many laws and regulatory requirements, including federal, state, and local laws and regulations regarding unsolicited commercial email, telemarketing, search engines, Internet tracking technologies, comparison shopping platforms, direct marketing, data privacy and security, advertising and consumer protection, pricing, sweepstakes, promotions, intellectual property ownership and infringement, trade secrets, use of artificial intelligence, export of encryption technology, acceptable content and quality of goods, and taxation, among others. Each of our financial services and other client verticals is also subject to various laws and regulations, and our marketing activities on behalf of our clients are regulated. Many of these laws and regulations are frequently changing and can be subject to vagaries of interpretation and emphasis, and the extent and evolution of future regulation is uncertain. Keeping our business in compliance with existing laws and regulations or bringing our business into compliance with new laws and regulations, therefore, may be costly, affect our revenue and harm our financial results. For example, regulation in data privacy and security is rapidly evolving in the U.S. and internationally, including laws, rules and regulations applying to the solicitation, collection, retention, deletion, sharing, use and other processing of personal information. At the U.S. federal level, we are subject to the laws and regulations promulgated under the authority of the Federal Trade Commission, which regulates unfair or deceptive acts or practices (including with respect to data privacy and security). At the state level, we are subject to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (collectively, the "CCPA"). The CCPA requires covered businesses to, among other things, provide disclosures to California residents about their data collection, use, sharing and processing practices and, with limited business exceptions, the CCPA affords such individuals various rights with respect to their personal information, including to request deletion of personal information collected about them and to opt-out of certain personal information selling and sharing practices. A number of other states such as Oregon, Texas, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, and Utah have also enacted comprehensive privacy laws that impose certain obligations on covered businesses, including providing specific disclosures in privacy notices and affording residents with certain rights concerning their personal data. As applicable, such rights may include the right to access, correct, or delete certain personal data, and to opt-out of certain data processing activities, such as targeted advertising, profiling, and automated decision-making. The exercise of these rights may impact our business and ability to provide our products and services. Certain states also impose strict requirements for processing certain personal data, including sensitive information, such as conducting data privacy impact assessments, and allow for statutory fines for noncompliance. In addition, laws in all 50 U.S. states require businesses to provide notice under certain circumstances to consumers whose personal information has been disclosed as a result of a data breach. Further, foreign laws and regulations such as the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (the "EU GDPR"), and the version thereof implemented into the laws of the United Kingdom (the "UK GDPR"), may apply to our business and marketing activities that are offered to European Union and United Kingdom users. The EU GDPR and UK GDPR include a range of compliance obligations and penalties for non-compliance are significant. Although the substantive requirements of the UK GDPR are largely aligned with those of the EU GDPR, exposing us to burdens and risks comparable to the EU GDPR, that may change over time. Preparing for and complying with existing and new data privacy and security laws and regulations requires significant time and resources to ensure we store, use, share and otherwise process personal information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. We also are, and in the future may become, subject to various other obligations relating to data privacy and security, including industry standards, external and internal policies, contracts and other obligations. For example, numerous jurisdictions are considering laws and regulations that would impose additional data privacy and other compliance requirements on the use of Artificial Intelligence ("AI") and could require us to adjust or limit our product offerings in such jurisdictions. Violations or alleged violations of laws and regulations, or any such obligations, by us, our third-party publishers, our clients or our third-party service providers on which we rely to process personal information on our behalf, could result in enforcement actions, litigation, damages, fines, criminal prosecution, unfavorable publicity, and restrictions on our ability to operate, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. In addition, new laws or regulations (including amendments thereof or changes in enforcement of existing laws or regulations applicable to us or our clients) could affect the activities or strategies of us, our clients or our third-party service providers and, therefore, lead to reductions in their level of business with us or otherwise impact our business or our business model. Additionally, in connection with our owned and our third-party publishers' telemarketing campaigns to generate traffic for our clients, we are subject to various state and federal laws regulating telemarketing communications (including SMS or text messaging), including the federal TCPA, which requires prior express written consent for certain types of telemarketing calls and adherence to "do-not-call" registry requirements which, in part, mandate that callers maintain and regularly update lists of consumers who have chosen not to be called and restrict calls to consumers who are on the national do-not-call list. As currently construed, the TCPA does not distinguish between voice and data, and, as such, text and SMS/MMS messages are also "calls" for the purpose of TCPA obligations and restrictions. For violations of the TCPA, the law provides for a private right of action under which a plaintiff may recover monetary damages of $500 for each call or text made in violation of the prohibitions on certain calls made using an artificial or pre-recorded voice or an automatic telephone dialing system and certain calls made to numbers properly registered on the federal "do-not-call" list. The TCPA and other similar state laws are subject to interpretations that may change. We regularly evaluate how this may apply to our business. Our efforts to comply with the TCPA have not had a material impact on traffic conversion rates. However, depending on future traffic and product mix, it could potentially have a material effect on our revenue and profitability, including increasing our and our clients' exposure to enforcement actions, litigation and statutory damages. The TCPA regulations have resulted in an increase in individual and class action litigation against marketing companies for alleged TCPA violations. TCPA violations can result in significant financial penalties, including penalties or criminal fines imposed by the Federal Communications Commission (the "FCC") or fines of up to $1,500 per violation imposed through private litigation or by state authorities. Additionally, we generate inquiries from users that provide a phone number, and a significant amount of revenue comes from calls made by our internal call centers as well as, in some cases, by third-party publishers' call centers. We also purchase a portion of inquiry data from third-party publishers and cannot guarantee that these third-parties will comply with applicable laws and regulations. Any failure by us or the third-party publishers on which we rely for telemarketing, email marketing, and other performance marketing activities to adhere to or successfully implement appropriate processes and procedures in response to existing laws and regulations and changing regulatory requirements could result in legal and monetary liability, significant fines and penalties, or damage to our reputation in the marketplace, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, and results of operations. Furthermore, our clients may make business decisions based on their own experiences with the TCPA regardless of our products and the changes we implemented to comply with the new regulations. These decisions may negatively affect our revenue or profitability. Changes in regulations, or the regulatory environment, applicable to us or our media sources, third party publishers or clients could also have a material adverse effect on our business. For example, in December 2023, the FCC adopted new rules to further restrict the transmission of text messages. One of these rules has been appealed and is being subjected to judicial review, but generally these new rules are scheduled to take effect over the course of 2024 and early 2025 to further restrict the transmission of text messages. The rules, among other things, amend TCPA consent requirements to prohibit the practice of allowing a single consumer consent to be grounds for multiple entities to deliver automated marketing calls and text messages, thereby requiring consent for such calls and text messages to be secured and provided on a "one-to-one" basis and requiring the consent to be "logically and topically associated" with the interaction that prompted the consent. Further, the new rules allow the FCC to "red flag" certain numbers, requiring mobile carriers to block texts from those numbers. The rules also codify that the national Do-Not-Call list protections apply to text messaging, making it illegal for marketing texts to be sent to numbers on the national Do-Not-Call registry absent an applicable exception. The FCC order adopting the new rules also encourages providers to make email-to-text messages an opt-in service for end users. Except for the "one-to-one" and "logically and topically associated" consent rule and the "red flag" blocking requirements, the new rules took effect on March 26, 2024. The "one-to-one" and "logically and topically associated" consent rule, which has been appealed, is scheduled to take effect on January 27, 2025, absent judicial intervention. The "red flag" blocking requirements requiring mobile wireless providers to block texts from phone numbers on a "reasonable" do-not-originate list became effective on September 3, 2024 and a similar rule which requires mobile wireless providers to block texts from numbers identified by the FCC through its Enforcement Bureau became effective on July 24, 2024. As another example, in February 2024, the FCC adopted new rules governing the ability of call and text message recipients to revoke consent previously given and thereby "opt-out" of receiving future calls and text messages from a sender. These new rules specify when a call or text message recipient's consent must be considered revoked and create certain presumptions about other forms of consent revocation that a sender of a call or text message can rebut pursuant to a totality of circumstances test administered by the FCC or a court. They also require valid consent revocations to be honored within a reasonable period not to exceed ten business days from receipt of such request. Additionally, when a recipient has consented to several categories of text messages from a sender and opt-out of a text message from that sender, the new rules permit a sender to seek to clarify the scope of the opt-out request through a one-time opt-out confirmation text message. This rule permitting a sender to seek such clarification through a one-time opt-out confirmation text message took effect on April 4, 2024. The remaining consent revocation rules are expected to take effect on April 11, 2025. The FCC rules could have a material adverse impact on our media sources and our clients, especially smaller businesses, as they may not be able to continue to participate in, or may substantially reduce their participation in, the online advertising channel due to increased costs, technological compliance challenges and additional legal risks, including potential liabilities or claims relating to compliance. Decreased participation in online advertising by our media sources or clients as a result of the rules could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operation and financial condition, as it may reduce the availability to us of qualified inquiries. Moreover, our business could be materially and adversely affected directly by the FCC's rules, as we also generate a substantial portion of our revenue from our own operation of websites to generate qualified inquiries. While some of the rules become effective in 2025, recommendations for best practices from associations such as the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association ("CTIA") may encourage mobile wireless carriers to require senders of SMS or text messages to comply with the amended rules ahead of the applicable effective dates. In addition, wireline and mobile wireless carriers or their service providers could elect to impose additional requirements, including with respect to prerecorded calls and the use of short codes and ten-digit long codes to transmit or receive text messages, which could have the effect of hindering our ability to contact consumers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business. The scope and application of these rules and related industry practices may be subject to changes and uncertainties. The operation of or compliance with the rules and related industry practices may decrease our revenues or increase our costs. In addition, any failure by us or our media sources or clients to comply with such laws and practices may subject us to significant liabilities. An increased focus by regulatory agencies on the enforcement of certain regulations regarding comparison-shopping could have a material adverse effect on our business. For example, on February 29, 2024, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB") published Consumer Financial Protection Circular 2024-01, Preferencing and steering practices by digital intermediaries for consumer financial products or services (the "Circular"). The Circular advised that operators of comparison-shopping websites may violate the prohibition against "abusive" conduct in the Consumer Financial Protection Act ("CFPA") by steering consumers to certain products or services based on how the site operators are compensated. The Circular also discusses how operators of digital comparison-shopping tools can violate the prohibition on abusive practices by virtue of receiving compensation from financial service providers in exchange for preferential treatment on comparison-shopping sites. The Circular was intended to provide guidance to other law enforcement agencies with authority to enforce the CFPA's "abusiveness" provisions, most notably state attorneys general. Violations of the abusiveness provisions are subject to civil money penalties and possible conduct prohibitions. In connection with our owned and our third-party publishers' email campaigns to generate traffic for our clients, we are also subject to various state and federal laws regulating commercial email communications, including the federal CAN-SPAM Act. For example, in 2012, several of our clients were named defendants in a California Anti-Spam lawsuit relating to commercial emails which allegedly originated from us and our third-party publishers. While the matter was ultimately resolved in our clients' favor, we were nonetheless obligated to indemnify certain of our clients for the fees incurred in the defense of such matter. Further, foreign laws and regulations, such as the Canadian Anti-Spam Law, may also apply to our business activities to the extent we are doing business with or marketing to consumers in foreign jurisdictions. If we or any of our third-party publishers fail to comply with any provisions of these laws or regulations, we could be subject to regulatory investigation, enforcement actions and litigation, as well as indemnification obligations with respect to our clients. Any negative outcomes from such regulatory actions or litigation, including monetary penalties or damages, could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition, results of operation and reputation. From time to time, we are subject to audits, inquiries, investigations, claims of non-compliance and lawsuits by federal and state governmental agencies, regulatory agencies, attorneys general and other governmental or regulatory bodies, any of whom may allege violations of legal and regulatory requirements. For our dispositioned assets or businesses, we retain certain liabilities or obligations in connection with our pre-closing actions or omissions, contractual or otherwise. For example, in June 2012, we entered into an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance agreement following a civil investigation into certain of our marketing practices related to our education client vertical that was conducted by the attorneys general of a number of states; and, in the first quarter of fiscal year 2021, we dispositioned our education client vertical. Because our subsidiary CCM provides performance marketing agency and technology services to clients in financial services, education and other markets, we may still be subject to investigations, audits, inquiries, claims or litigation related to education. If any audits, inquiries, investigations, claims of non-compliance and lawsuits by federal and state governmental agencies, regulatory agencies, attorneys general and other governmental or regulatory bodies are unfavorable to us, we may be required to pay monetary fines or penalties or have restrictions placed on our business, which could materially adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows.

We have entered into and exited certain international markets and may enter into international markets in the future, including through acquisitions. We have limited experience in marketing, selling and supporting our services outside of the United States, and we may not be successful in introducing or marketing our services abroad. There are risks and challenges inherent in conducting business in international markets, such as: - adapting our technologies and services to foreign clients' preferences and customs;- successfully navigating foreign laws and regulations, including marketing, data privacy and security, employment and labor regulations;- changes in foreign political and economic conditions, including as a result of the Russia-Ukraine military conflict or the Israel-Hamas war;- tariffs and other trade barriers, fluctuations in currency exchange rates and potentially adverse tax consequences;- language barriers or cultural differences;- reduced or limited protection for intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions;- difficulties and costs in staffing, managing or overseeing foreign operations;- education of potential clients who may not be familiar with online marketing;- challenges in collecting accounts receivables;- monitoring and complying with economic sanctions, including those resulting from the Russia-Ukraine military conflict; and - successfully interpreting and complying with the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and similar foreign anti-bribery laws, particularly when operating in countries with varying degrees of governmental corruption. If we are unable to successfully expand and market our services abroad, our business and future growth may be harmed, and we may incur costs that may not lead to future revenue.