We depend significantly on the strength of our brand and reputation. Any failure to maintain and enhance, or any damage to, our brand image or reputation could materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and prospects.
Our reputation and brand recognition, which depend on cultivating awareness, trust and confidence among our current or potential users, is critical to the success of our business. We believe a well-recognized brand is crucial to increasing our user base and, in turn, facilitating our effort to monetize our services and enhancing our attractiveness to our users and service providers. Our reputation and brand are vulnerable to many threats that can be difficult or impossible to control, and costly or impossible to remediate. Regulatory inquiries or investigations, lawsuits and other claims in the ordinary course of our business, perceptions of conflicts of interest and rumors, including complaints made by our competitors, among other things, could substantially damage our reputation, even if they are baseless or satisfactorily addressed.
In addition, any perception that the quality of our medical aesthetic services may not be the same as or better than that of other medical aesthetic service platforms can damage our reputation. Any negative media publicity about any of the services available on our platform or product or service quality problems at other online medical aesthetic service platforms, including at our competitors, may also negatively impact our reputation and brand. Negative perceptions of medical aesthetic products and services, or the industry in general, may reduce the number of users coming to our platform and the number of transactions conducted through our platform, which would adversely impact our revenues and liquidity position.
We are subject to uncertainties, changes and developments in the regulatory framework in China with respect to the provision of online medical aesthetic services industry.
As the online medical aesthetic service industry in China is at a relatively early stage of development, applicable laws and regulations may be adopted from time to time to address new issues and may require additional licenses and permits other than those we currently have obtained. As a result, substantial uncertainties exist with regard to the implementation and interpretation of and compliance with current and any future laws and regulations applicable to our business. We cannot assure you that we will be able to meet all the applicable regulatory requirements, or comply with all the applicable regulations and guidelines at all times. Failure to do so could result in sanctions, fines, penalties or other disciplinary actions, including, among other things, limitations or prohibitions on our future business activities, which may harm our reputation, and consequently materially and adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations.
We face risks related to health epidemics, natural disasters, and other outbreaks, which could significantly disrupt our operations.
Given the nature of the medical aesthetic industry, our business could be significantly and adversely affected by health epidemics, including the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak in China and globally, Ebola virus disease, H1N1 flu, H7N9 flu, avian flu or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS. In addition, our business operations could be disrupted if any of our employees is suspected of having COVID-19, Ebola virus disease, H1N1 flu, H7N9 flu, avian flu, SARS or other epidemic disease, since it could require our employees to be quarantined and/or our offices to be disinfected. In addition, our results of operations could be adversely affected to the extent that any of these epidemics harms the Chinese economy in general.
We are also vulnerable to natural disasters and other calamities. Fire, floods, typhoons, earthquakes, power loss, telecommunications failures, break-ins, war, riots, terrorist attacks or similar events may give rise to server interruptions, breakdowns, system failures, technology platform failures or internet failures, which could cause the loss or corruption of data or malfunctions of software or hardware as well as adversely affect our ability to provide services on our platform.
Our business generates and processes data in the ordinary course, and we are required to comply with laws of mainland China and other applicable laws relating to privacy and cybersecurity. The improper use or disclosure of data could have a material and adverse impact on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
As a business that provides mobile apps and generates revenue primarily from online subscriptions, we face risks inherent in handling and protecting data and are subject to various regulatory requirements relating to the security and privacy of data. The challenges we face relating to our handling and protection of data include, in particular: