UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 20-F

(Mark One)

For the transition period from ___________ to ____________

Commission File Number: 000-30813

N/A

(Translation of Registrant’s name into English)

British Virgin Islands

(Jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)

Unit B, 12/F, Hang Seng Causeway Bay Building, 28 Yee Wo Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, China

(Address of principal executive offices)

Michael Lee, (852) 8191 5550, info@umeworld.com

(Name, Telephone, E-mail and/or Facsimile number and Address of Company Contact Person)

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act.

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act.

___________________

Title of Class

Securities registered or to be registered pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Act.

____________________

Title of Class

Indicate the number of outstanding shares of each of the issuer’s classes of capital or common stock as of the close of the period covered by the annual report.

As of September 30, 2019,2020, there were 104,524,189107,005,276 shares outstanding of the issuer’s ordinary shares.

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. YES ☐     NO ☒

If the report is an annual or transition report, indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Security Exchange Act of 1934. YES ☐     NO ☒

Note – Checking the box above will not relieve any registrant required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Security Act of 1934 from their obligations under those Sections.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Security Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the issuer was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirement for the past 90 days. Yes ☐     No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (Section 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ☐     No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, or a non-accelerated filer. See the definitions of “accelerated filer” and “large accelerated filer” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one).

If an emerging growth company that prepares its financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards† provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

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

Indicate by check mark which basis of accounting the registrant has used to prepare the financial statements included in this filing:

If “Other” has been checked in response to the previous question, indicate by check mark which financial statement item the registrant has elected to follow. Item 17 ☐     Item 18 ☐

If this is an annual report, indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐     No ☒

(APPLICABLE ONLY TO ISSUERS INVOLVED IN BANKRUPTCY PROCEEDINGS DURING THE PAST FIVE YEARS)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed all documents and reports required to be filed by Sections 12, 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 subsequent to the distribution of securities under a plan confirmed by a court. Yes ☐     No ☐

FORM 20-F

For the Years Ended September 30, 2020, 2019 2018 and 20172018

INDEX

PRELIMINARY NOTES

INTRODUCTION

In this annual report, except where the context otherwise requires and for purposes of this annual report only:

Our financial statements are expressed in U.S. dollars, which is our reporting currency. Certain of our financial data in this annual report on Form 20-F are translated into U.S. dollars solely for the reader’s convenience. Unless otherwise noted, all foreign currency translations in this annual report on Form 20-F can be found on Note 2 of our audited consolidated financial statements on page F-10. We make no representation that any Renminbi or U.S. dollar amounts could have been, or could be, converted into U.S. dollars or Renminbi, as the case may be, at any particular rate, at the rate stated above, or at all.

FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMAITON

This annual report contains forward-looking statements that reflect our current expectations and views of future events. These forward looking statements are made under the “safe-harbor” provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

You can identify some of these forward-looking statements by words or phrases such as “may,” “will,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “aim,” “estimate,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” “is/are likely to” or other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include statements relating to:

We have based these forward-looking statements largely on our current expectations and projections about future events and financial trends that we believe may affect our financial condition, results of operations, business strategy and financial needs. Although we believe that our expectations expressed in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, our expectations may later be found to be incorrect. You should read this annual report and the documents that we refer to in this annual report completely and with the understanding that our actual future results may be materially different from and/or worse than what we expect. We qualify all of our forward-looking statements with these cautionary statements.

The forward-looking statements made in this annual report relate only to events or information as of the date on which the statements are made in this annual report. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update or revise publicly any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, after the date on which the statements are made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

PART I

ITEM 1. IDENTITY OF DIRECTORS, SENIOR MANAGEMENT AND ADVISERS

Not Applicable.

ITEM 2. OFFER STATISTICS AND EXPECTED TIMETABLE

Not Applicable.

ITEM 3. KEY INFORMATION

The following selected financial information should be read in connection with, and is qualified by reference to, our consolidated financial statements and their related notes and the section entitled “Operating and Financial Review and Prospects” included elsewhere in this annual report. The consolidated statements of operations and other comprehensive income (loss) data for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2020, 2019 2018 and 20172018 and the consolidated balance sheets data as of September 30, 2020, 2019 and 2018 are derived from audited consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this annual report. Our historical results for any prior period are not necessarily indicative of results to be expected in any future period.

Selected Consolidated Statements of Operations and Other Comprehensive Loss Data:

Selected Consolidated Balance Sheets Data:

Selected Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows Data:

Investment in our ordinary shares involves a high degree of risk. You should carefully consider, among other matters, the following risk factors in addition to the other information in this annual report on Form 20-F when evaluating our business because these risk factors may have a significant impact on our business, financial condition, operating results or cash flow. If any of the material risks described below or in subsequent reports we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) actually occur, they may materially harm our business, financial condition, operating results or cash flow. Additional risks and uncertainties that we have not yet identified or that we presently consider to be immaterial may also materially harm our business, financial condition, operating results or cash flow.

Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

We are exposed to the risks of an economic recession, credit and capital markets volatility and economic and financial crisis (including as a result of the COVID-19 virus pandemic), which could adversely affect the demand for our products and adversely affect the market price of our ordinary shares.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique global and industry-wide challenges, including challenges to our business. In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the temporary closure of many corporate offices and schools across China. Given the strict quarantine measures put in place during this period, normal economic activity throughout China was sharply curtailed and normal in-school education was temporarily suspended. All of our revenues and our workforce are concentrated in China. Consequently, to the extent that COVID-19 exerts long-term negative impact on the Chinese economy, our results of operations and financial performance may be adversely affected

The COVID-19 virus pandemic has resulted in significant financial market volatility and uncertainty in recent months. The extent to which the COVID-19 impacts our results will depend on future developments, which are highly uncertain and will include emerging information concerning the severity of the COVID-19, the vaccine roll-out and actions taken by governments and private businesses to attempt to contain the coronavirus, A continuation or worsening of the levels of market disruption and volatility seen in the recent past could have an adverse effect on us.

Additionally, the pandemic may also affect our overall ability to react timely to mitigate the impact of this event and may hamper our efforts to provide our investors with timely information and comply with our filing obligations with the SEC, especially in the event of office closures, stay-in-place orders and a ban on travel or quarantines.

If we are unable to maintain a good relationship with China Mobile, our business will suffer.

China Mobile is the primary distribution, marketing, promotion and payment platform for UMFun. We generate substantially all of our users through the China Mobile “AND” Education Platform and expect to continue to do so for the foreseeable future. Any deterioration in our relationship with China Mobile would harm our business and adversely affect the value of our ordinary shares.

We are subject to China Mobile’s terms and conditions for application developers, which govern the promotion, distribution and operation of educational applications on the “AND” Education Platform. We have entered into a Product Co-operation Agreement with China Mobile, which governs the promotion, distribution and operation of educational applications on the “AND” Education Platform. This Agreement expires on October 31, 2021.

Our business would be harmed if:

We have benefited from China Mobile’s strong brand recognition and large user base. If China Mobile loses its market position or otherwise falls out of favor with Internet users, we would need to identify alternative channels for marketing, promoting and distributing our products, which would consume substantial resources and may not be effective. In addition, China Mobile has broad discretion to change its terms of service and other policies with respect to us and other developers, and those changes may be unfavorable to us. China Mobile may also change its fee structure, add fees associated with access to and use of the “AND” Education Platform. Any such changes may harm our business.

Changes in the policies, guidelines or practice of mobile network operators or the PRC government with respect to mobile applications and other content may negatively affect our business operations for mobile applicationsapplications..

We rely on PRC mobile network operators, directly and indirectly, to distribute our products to our users. The mobile telecommunication business in China is highly concentrated and major mobile network operators, such as China Mobile, may from time to time issue new policies or change their business practices, requesting or stating their preferences for certain actions to be taken by all mobile service providers using their networks. In addition, the PRC government may also implement new policies or change existing policies regulating the mobile telecommunication business. Such new policies or changes may negatively affect our business operations for mobile applications.

A significant portion of our revenues will be dependent on market acceptance of our online learning and assessment platform and other cloud-based testing technologies, and if we are unable to anticipate and meet our clients’ technological needs and challenges from new technologies and industry standards, our products and services may lose market acceptance or become obsolete, and our margins and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Our advanced technologies for the creation and delivery of online assessment, including our UMFun platform, are a key factor in growing and maintaining our relationships with educational institution clients and educational program content providers. Our future success depends on our ability to upgrade our systems, develop new technologies and anticipate and meet the technical needs of our clients on a regular basis. The emergence in the market of new test creation and delivery technologies or substitute products and services could reduce the competitiveness or result in the obsolescence of our current technologies and services. Moreover, if other companies develop similar technologies offering functionality comparable to that of our technologies, pricing pressure may increase, and our margins and results of operations may be adversely affected. Additionally, industry standards such as standard interfaces and data exchange protocols may be developed for testing technologies, and if these industry standards are incompatible with our technologies, demand for our technologies, products and services may decline significantly. To the extent we are unable to maintain our market position in key testing technologies or anticipate and respond to technological developments and changes in industry standards in a timely and cost-effective manner, our products and services may lose market acceptance or become obsolete.

Technical errors or failures in relation to cloud-based tests delivered through our delivery platform could result in negative publicity, loss of clients, liability claims and costly and disruptive litigation.

Due to the complexity of the technologies, we have developed and use to create and deliver cloud-based learning and assessment services for our clients, there is a risk that technical errors or failures may occur in relation to these services. These may include errors, failures or bugs in our self-developed software applications and test security technologies, breakdowns or failures of our servers and computer networks, and connectivity failures between our networks. While we have not experienced major problems to date due to errors, breakdowns, failures, bugs or defects, we cannot assure you that we will not experience such problems in the future. If such a problem were to occur, it could disrupt or compromise the integrity of the test-taking process or of test content and results, which could lead to negative publicity and loss of clients and may subject us to liability claims. Although we have established a formal crisis management system to respond to technical problems, it has never been tested in a real crisis situation. Any litigation or negative publicity resulting from an error or failure, with or without merit, could result in substantial costs and divert management’s attention and resources from our business and operations.

If we fail to maintain a strong brand identity, our business may not grow, and our financial results may be adversely impacted.

We believe that maintaining and enhancing the value of the “UMFun” brand is important to attracting clients. Our success in maintaining brand awareness will depend on our ability to consistently provide high quality, value-adding, user-friendly and secure products and services. To establish a significant recognition of our “UMFun” brand among schools, teachers, students and parents, we may need to spend significant resources on advertising. As we have limited experience with advertising and other activities required to establish a widely recognized brand, we cannot assure you that we will effectively allocate our resources for these activities or succeed in maintaining and broadening our brand recognition and appeal. If we fail to maintain a strong brand identity, our business may not grow and our financial results may be adversely impacted.

We are subject to the risks relating to significant uncertainties in the interpretation and implementation of, or proposed changes to, the PRC laws and regulations regarding the private education industry in general, and the online K-12 AST (“After-school Tutoring) market in particular. Additionally, certain aspects of our current business operations may be deemed not to be in full compliance with these laws and regulations.

The private education industry in general, and the online K-12 AST market in particular, in the PRC are subject to various laws and regulations that are relatively new and rapidly evolving.

Pursuant to the amended Law for Promoting Private Education of the PRC, or the amended Private Education Law, a private school must obtain a private school operating permit. On April 7, 2021, the State Council promulgated the amended Regulations on the Implementation of the Law for Promoting Private Education of the PRC, or the Implementation Regulations of Private Education Law, which will become effective on September 1, 2021. The Implementation Regulations of Private Education Law provide that a private school engaging in online education activities using internet technology will be required to obtain an appropriate private school operating permit. The Implementation Regulations of Private Education Law, however, do not specify the requirements that an online tutoring service provider like us need to satisfy in order to obtain a private school operating permit, nor do they specify which level of government authority has the authority to accept and review our application for the private school operating permit. The Implementation Regulations of Private Education Law also requires that private schools using internet technology to provide online educational courses will need to establish and implement internet security management systems and adopt technical security measures. According to our consultation with relevant government authorities, they are in the process of promulgating detailed rules that will specify standards and procedures for the online tutoring service providers to apply for the private school operating permits, as well as the level of government authorities that will be in charge of reviewing and issuing such permits. The foregoing detailed rules may not come into force before the effectiveness of the Implementation Regulations of Private Education Law in September 2021, and, according to our consultation with relevant government authorities, we may continue our current operation until the effectiveness of the detailed rules since we have made relevant required filings under the Opinions on Educational Apps. We intend to apply for the private school operating permit once the government authorities start to accept applications. However, since the Implementation Regulations of Private Education Law are newly published and have not become effective, the interpretation and implementation of these regulations still remain uncertain. We cannot assure you that we will be able to obtain a private school operating permit and comply with other regulatory requirements under the Implementation Regulations of Private Education Law and its related rules, if any, in a timely manner, or at all. If we fail to meet these requirements in a timely manner, or at all, we may be subject to fines, confiscation of the gains derived from our non-compliant operations, mandatory modifications to our business practices, suspension of our non-compliant operations or claims for compensation of any economic loss suffered by our students or other relevant parties.

We have significant historical losses and may continue to incur losses in the future.

We have incurred annual operating losses since our inception. Consequently, as of September 30, 2019,2020, we had an accumulated deficit of $30,736,577.$30,885,541. Our revenues for the years ended September 30, 2020, 2019, and 2018 were $4, $113, and 2017 were $113, $758, and $7,927, respectively. Our revenues have not been sufficient to sustain our operations. In order to achieve profitability our revenue streams will have to increase and there is no assurance that revenues can increase to such a level. We may never be profitable. Our ability to achieve profitability is affected by various factors, including:

Many of these factors are beyond our control. We may continue to incur net losses in the future due to our continued investments in content, bandwidth and technology. If we cannot successfully offset our increased costs with an increase in net revenues, our gross margin, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. We may also continue to incur net losses in the future due to changes in the macroeconomic and regulatory environment, competitive dynamics and our inability to respond to these changes in a timely and effective manner.

The Company has limited cash resources and a history of operating losses. These conditions raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. We believe we have developed a viable plan to continue as a going concern. However, the plan relies upon our ability to obtain additional sources of capital and financing. If the amount of capital we are able to raise from financing activities, together with our revenues from operations, is not sufficient to satisfy our capital needs, we may be required to cease operations.

We face significant competition, and if we fail to compete effectively, we may lose our market share or fail to gain additional market share, and our profitability may be adversely affected.

We operate in a highly competitive market subject to rapid technological changes, and increasing competition could lead to pricing pressures, reduced operating margins, loss of market share and increased capital expenditures. The markets for our products and services are highly competitive, and we expect increased competition in the future that could adversely affect our revenue and market share. Our current competitors include but are not limited to:

Some of our competitors may have more resources than we do, and several of the largest K-12 educational publishers may have more experience, larger customer bases and greater brand recognition in the markets we serve. Further, larger established companies with high brand recognition and extensive experience providing various educational products to the K-12 market may develop online products and services that are competitive with our core products and services. These competitors may be able to devote greater resources than us to the development, promotion and sale of their products and services and respond more quickly than we can to new technologies or changes in customer requirements or preferences. We may not be able to compete effectively with current or future competitors, especially those with significantly greater resources or more established customer bases, which may materially adversely affect our sales and our business.

Our failure to protect our intellectual property rights may undermine our competitive position, and litigation to protect our intellectual property rights or defend against third party allegations of infringement may be costly and ineffective.

We believe that our copyrights, trademarks and other intellectual property are essential to our success. We depend to a large extent on our ability to develop and maintain the intellectual property rights relating to our technology and products. We have devoted considerable time and energy to the development and improvement of our websites, our online platform and educational materials.

We rely primarily on copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets and other contractual restrictions for the protection of the intellectual property used in our business. Nevertheless, these provide only limited protection and the actions we take to protect our intellectual property rights may not be adequate. Our trade secrets may become known or be independently discovered by our competitors. Third parties have, in the past, pirated our courses, books and other course materials and may in the future infringe upon or misappropriate our other intellectual property. Infringement upon, or misappropriation of, our proprietary technologies or other intellectual property could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or operating results. Policing the unauthorized use of proprietary technology can be difficult and expensive. Also, litigation may be necessary to enforce our intellectual property rights, protect our trade secrets or determine the validity and scope of the proprietary rights of others. The outcome of such potential litigation may not be in our favor and any success in litigation may not be able to adequately protect our rights. Such litigation may be costly and divert management’s attention away from our business. An adverse determination in any such litigation would impair our intellectual property rights and may harm our business, prospects and reputation. Enforcement of judgments in China is uncertain, and even if we are successful in litigation, it may not provide us with an effective remedy. In addition, we have no insurance coverage against litigation costs and would have to bear all costs arising from such litigation to the extent we are unable to recover them from other parties. The occurrence of any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have not registered copyrights for all of our products, which may limit our ability to enforce them.

We have not registered our copyrights in all of our software, written materials, website information, designs or other copyrightable works. Preventing others from copying our products, written materials and other copyrightable works is important to our overall success in the marketplace. In the event we decide to enforce any of our copyrights against infringers, we will first be required to register the relevant copyrights, and we cannot be sure that all of the material for which we seek copyright registration would be registrable in whole or in part, or that once registered, we would be successful in bringing a copyright claim against any such infringers.

We may be exposed to infringement claims by third parties or held liable for defamation or negligence to third parties for information displayed on, retrieved from or linked by our websites, for the content of the books and reference materials or marketing materials that we or our lecturers publish or distribute or for information delivered or shared through our services, which could disrupt our business and cause us to incur substantial legal costs, or damage our reputation.

We cannot assure you that our services and products do not or will not infringe any intellectual property rights held by third parties. We cannot assure you that in the future we will not receive claims of infringement of third parties’ proprietary rights or claims for indemnification resulting from infringement arising from our services or products. We may also become subject to claims that content on our websites or in the books and reference materials or marketing materials that we or our lecturers publish or distribute is protected by third parties’ copyrights or trademark.

In addition, as a provider of Internet content and other value-added telecommunications services, we may face liability for defamation, negligence and other claims based on the nature and content of the materials displayed on our websites or delivered or shared through our services. We could also be subject to claims based on content accessible on our websites or through our networks, such as content and materials posted by visitors on message boards, online communities, or emails. By providing hypertext links to third-party websites, we may be held liable for copyright or trademark violations by those third-party websites. Third parties could assert claims against us for losses incurred in reliance on any erroneous information distributed by us.

Royalty or licensing agreements, if required, may not be available on acceptable terms, if at all. A successful claim of infringement against us and our failure or inability to obtain a license to use the infringed or similar technology or content on commercially acceptable terms, or at all, could prevent us from producing and offering our services or products or cause us to incur great expense and delay in developing non-infringing services or products. Any of the above events could in turn have a material and adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. Any defamation or negligence claims against us, even if they do not result in liability to us, could cause us to incur significant costs in investigating and defending against these claims. We do not have general liability insurance to cover all potential claims to which we are exposed, and our insurance coverage may not be adequate to indemnify us from all liability that may be imposed.

Concerns about the security of our transaction systems and confidentiality of information on the Internet may reduce use of our services and impede our growth.

Public concerns over the security and privacy of electronic settlement, online transmittal and communications have to some extent constrained the rapid development and expansion of online transactions. If these concerns are not adequately addressed, they will restrict the growth of value-added telecommunications services generally and in particular the use of the Internet as a means of conducting commercial transactions. If a well-publicized breach of security were to occur, general usage of value-added telecommunications services could decline, which could reduce our visitor traffic and the number of course participants, and impede our growth. We are continuously vigilant about protecting and improving our cyber security and have not experienced any material cyberattacks on our information technology systems. We cannot assure you, however, that our current security measures will be adequate or sufficient to prevent any theft or misuse of personal data of our course participants. Further, security breaches could expose us to litigation and possible liability for failing to secure confidential customer information, and could harm our reputation and ability to attract or retain course participants. In addition, we do not have any cyber security insurance coverage for our operations, and any material cyberattack on our information technology systems and our online education websites could expose us to substantial costs and losses.

We are subject to currency fluctuations, which may affect our results.

The majority of our expenses and some of our debts are in Chinese Renminbi, Canadian dollars and U.S. dollars, while our revenues are primarily in Chinese Renminbi. We also incur expenses in Hong Kong dollars related to our Hong Kong subsidiary. The fluctuation of the Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar and U.S. dollar vis-a-vis the Chinese Renminbi could materially impact our operating results and financial position.

We will require additional financing to sustain our operations, and our ability to secure additional financing is uncertain.

We may be unable to raise on acceptable terms, if at all, the substantial capital resources necessary to conduct our operations. If we are unable to raise the required capital, we may be forced to curtail business development activities and, ultimately, cease operations. As at September 30, 2019,2020, we had working capital deficiency of $366,938$346,426 as compared to working capital deficiency of $249,461$366,938 as at September 30, 2018.2019. The independent auditor’s report for the year ended September 30, 20192020 includes an explanatory paragraph stating that our recurring losses from operations and working capital levels raise substantial doubt about our ability to continue as a going concern.

We may be unable to retain key employees or recruit additional qualified personnel.

Because of the specialized educational nature of our business, we are highly dependent upon qualified educational, technical, and managerial and marketing personnel. There is competition for qualified personnel in our business. Therefore, we may not be able to attract and retain the qualified personnel necessary for the development of our business. The loss of the services of existing personnel, as well as the failure to recruit additional key educational, technical, and managerial personnel in a timely manner would harm our research and development programs and our business.

Risks Relating to Our Corporate Structure and Restrictions on Our Industry

We do not have direct ownership of our VIEs in China and rely on VIE Agreements with our VIEs for our business operations, which may not be as effective in providing operational control or enabling us to derive economic benefits as through ownership of controlling equity interests.

We do not have direct ownership of our VIEs in China and rely on and expect to continue to rely on the VIE Agreements with our VIEs in China and their respective shareholders to operate business. VIE Agreements may not be as effective as an ownership of controlling equity interests would be in providing us with control over the VIEs, or in enabling us to derive economic benefits from the operations of, the affiliated consolidated entities. Under the current VIE Agreements, as a legal matter, if any of the affiliated consolidated entities or any of their shareholders fails to perform its, his or her respective obligations under the VIE Agreements, we may have to incur substantial costs and resources to enforce such arrangements, and rely on legal remedies available under PRC laws, including seeking specific performance or injunctive relief, and claiming damages, which we cannot assure you will be effective. For example, if shareholders of a variable interest entity were to refuse to transfer their equity interests in such variable interest entity to us or our designated persons when we exercise the purchase option pursuant to these contractual arrangements, we may have to take a legal action to compel them to fulfill their contractual obligations.

If (i) the applicable PRC authorities invalidate these contractual arrangements for violation of PRC laws, rules and regulations, (ii) any variable interest entity or its shareholders terminate the contractual arrangements or (iii) any variable interest entity or its shareholders fail to perform their obligations under these contractual arrangements, our business operations in China would be materially and adversely affected, and the value of your stock would substantially decrease. Further, if we fail to renew these contractual arrangements upon their expiration, we would not be able to continue our business operations unless the then current PRC law allows us to directly operate businesses in China.

In addition, if any VIE or all or part of its assets become subject to liens or rights of third-party creditors, we may be unable to continue some or all of our business activities, which could materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If any of the VIE undergoes a voluntary or involuntary liquidation proceeding, its shareholders or unrelated third-party creditors may claim rights to some or all of these assets, thereby hindering our ability to operate our business, which could materially and adversely affect our business and our ability to generate revenues.

All of VIE Agreements are governed by PRC law and provide for the resolution of disputes through arbitration in the PRC. The legal environment in the PRC is not as developed as in some other jurisdictions, such as the United States. As a result, uncertainties in the PRC legal system could limit our ability to enforce these contractual arrangements. In the event we are unable to enforce these contractual arrangements, we may not be able to exert effective control over our operating entities and we may be precluded from operating our business, which would have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

If the PRC government determines that the agreements that establish the structure for operating our business in China are not in compliance with applicable PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to severe penalties.

PRC laws and regulations currently require any foreign entity that invests in the education business in China to be an educational institution with relevant experience in providing education services outside China. None of our offshore holding companies is an educational institution or provides education services. To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we have entered into (i) a series of contractual arrangements among UMeLook (Guangzhou) Information Technology Co. Ltd. (“UMeLook Guangzhou”), Guangzhou XinYiXun Network Technology Co. Ltd. (“Guangzhou XinYiXun”) and their respective shareholders. Accordingly, Guangzhou XinYiXun is our VIE, and we rely on the contractual arrangements with our VIE and their respective shareholders, or the VIE Contractual Arrangements, to conduct most of our services in China.

We have been and are expected to continue to be dependent on our VIE in China to operate our education business until we qualify for direct ownership of educational businesses in China. Pursuant to the VIE Contractual Arrangements, we, through our wholly owned subsidiaries in China, exclusively provide comprehensive intellectual property licensing, technical and business support services to UMeLook Guangzhou and Guangzhou XinYiXun, our Consolidated Affiliated Entities in exchange for payments from them. In addition, the VIE Contractual Arrangements provide us with the ability to effectively control our VIE and its respective existing and future subsidiaries and schools, as applicable.

It is uncertain whether any new PRC laws, rules or regulations relating to variable interest entity structures will be adopted or if adopted, what they would provide. In August 2018, the Ministry of Justice published a draft Implementation Rules for Private Education Law, or the draft Implementation Rules, for review. The draft Implementation Rules, among other things, provide that entities implementing group-based education shall not control non-profit schools by merger, acquisition, franchise or contractual arrangements. The draft Implementation Rules also provide that transactions among private schools and their affiliates shall be fair and open to public. For those agreements entered into by non-profit schools and their affiliates which is long-term or involving important interests or repeated performance, the educational authorities shall audit the necessity, legitimacy and legal compliance of such agreements. Such requirements, if remained in the final version and signed into law, may challenge the validity and enforceability of our VIE Contractual Arrangements.

If the corporate structure and contractual arrangements through which we conduct our business in China are found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or such arrangements are determined as illegal and invalid by PRC courts, arbitration tribunals or regulatory authorities, or if we fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, we would be subject to potential actions by the relevant PRC regulatory authorities with broad discretion, which actions could include:

Any of these actions could cause significant disruption to our business operations and severely damage our reputation, which would in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If any of these actions results in our inability to direct the activities of our Consolidated Affiliated Entities that most significantly impact their economic performance, and/or our failure to receive the economic benefits from our Consolidated Affiliated Entities, we may not be able to consolidate these entities in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, we do not believe that such actions would result in the liquidation or dissolution of our company, our wholly owned subsidiaries in China or our VIE.

Our contractual arrangements may be subject to national security review under PRC laws and regulations and, thus, be challenged by relevant regulatory authorities.

On February 3, 2011, the General Office of the State Council issued the Circular of the General Office of the State Council on the Establishment of Security Review System for Foreign Investors’ Merger and Acquisition of Domestic Enterprises (the “Circular on the Establishment of Security Review”), which became effective on March 4, 2011. Among other things, the Circular on the Establishment of Security Review stipulates that the scope of the security review lies in foreign investors’ acquisition of domestic military enterprises, military-related enterprises, enterprises involving sensitive military facilities and other enterprises that impact national defense security; foreign investors’ acquisition of domestic enterprises which may provide foreign investors with de facto control over industries relating to national security, such as important agricultural products, energy and natural resources, infrastructures, transportation services, technologies and major equipment manufacturing. On August 25, 2011, the Ministry of Commerce issued the Circular of the Ministry of Commerce on the Implementation of Security Review System for Foreign Investors’ Merger and Acquisition of Domestic Enterprises (the “Circular on the Implementation of Security Review”), which became effective on September 1, 2011. Among other things, the Circular on the Implementation of Security Review further specifies that whether a foreign investors’ acquisition of domestic enterprises falls within the scope of the security review depends on the said transaction’s substantive content and practical influence. Foreign investors shall not circumvent the security review through any arrangements or schemes, including but not limited to trust, lease and/or contractual arrangements.

According to our PRC counsel, as our contractual arrangements were established in 2013, the new security review system may apply to our contractual arrangements. We cannot guarantee, however, that the Ministry of Commerce will not promulgate additional implementing rules or new rules that will bring our contractual arrangements under the scope of the security review system. Moreover, according to a press conference held by the Ministry of Commerce on September 20, 2011, there are no specific laws or regulations governing contractual arrangements like the ones that we employ, but the Ministry of Commerce together with other authorities would study how to regulate them in the future. Hence, we cannot assure you that our contractual arrangements will not be subject to new regulations that will be issued by relevant regulatory authorities and that such new regulations will not have a material adverse effect on our existing structure.

We rely on the VIE Contractual Arrangements for our PRC operations, which may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership.

We have relied and expect to continue to rely on the VIE Contractual Arrangements to operate our education business in China. See “Item 4.C. - Information on the Company - Organizational Structure - VIE Contractual Arrangements.” The VIE Contractual Arrangements may not be as effective in providing us with control over our Consolidated Affiliated Entities as direct ownership. If we had direct ownership of the Consolidated Affiliated Entities, we would be able to exercise our rights as a shareholder to effect changes in the board of directors of these entities, which in turn could effect changes, subject to any applicable fiduciary obligations, at the management level. However, under the VIE Contractual Arrangements, we rely on the performance by our Consolidated Affiliated Entities and their respective shareholders of their obligations under the contracts to exercise control over and receive economic benefits from our Consolidated Affiliated Entities.

Any changes in the PRC foreign investment legal regime may materially and adversely affect our operations and the contractual arrangements.

In January 2015, the Ministry of Commerce, or MOC, published a discussion draft of the proposed Foreign Investment Law for public review and comments, and on March 15, 2019, the Foreign Investment Law was promulgated and implemented on January 1, 2020. The draft Foreign Investment Law expanded the definition of foreign investment and introduced the principle of “actual control” in determining whether a company is considered a foreign-invested enterprise, or 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 did not take a position on what actions will be taken with respect to the existing companies with the “variable interest entity” structure, whether or not these companies are controlled by Chinese parties. The final Foreign Investment Law does not include the contractual control concept from the 2015 draft and so the government’s view on variable interest entities continues to be unclear. The Foreign Investment Law also retains a comprehensive oversight over all “foreign investors who invest in China through laws, administrative regulations or other methods prescribed by the State Council”. Foreign investment refers to any investment activity directly or indirectly carried out by foreign natural persons, enterprises, or other organizations, including investment in new construction project, establishment of foreign funded enterprise or increase of investment, merger and acquisition, and investment in any other way stipulated under laws, administrative regulations, or provisions of the State Council. Accordingly, it cannot be ruled out that the National People’s Congress or relevant departments may introduce a series of related supporting policies in the future to resolve any ambiguity on the application of the Foreign Investment Law.

If the ownership structure, contractual arrangements and business of our company or any of our Consolidated Affiliated Entities are found to be in violation of any existing or future PRC laws or regulations, or we fail to obtain or maintain any of the required permits or approvals, the relevant governmental authorities would have broad discretion in dealing with such violation, including levying fines, confiscating our income or the income of our Chinese subsidiaries and VIE, revoking the business licenses or operating licenses of our Chinese subsidiaries or VIE, discontinuing or placing restrictions or onerous conditions on our operations, requiring us to undergo a costly and disruptive restructuring, restricting or prohibiting our use of proceeds from our offerings to finance our business and operations in China, and taking other regulatory or enforcement actions that could be harmful to our business. Any of these actions could cause significant disruption to our business operations and severely damage our reputation, which would in turn materially and adversely affect our business, financial condition and results of operations. If any of these occurrences results in our inability to direct the activities of our VIE, and/or our failure to receive economic benefits from our VIE, we may not be able to consolidate their results into our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP.

We may rely on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our PRC subsidiaries to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have, and any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to make payments to us could have a material and adverse effect on our ability to conduct our business.

We are a holding company, and we may rely on dividends and other distributions on equity paid by our PRC subsidiaries for our cash and financing requirements, including the funds necessary to pay dividends and other cash distributions to our shareholders and service any debt we may incur. If our PRC subsidiaries incur debt on their own behalf in the future, the instruments governing the debt may restrict their ability to pay dividends or make other distributions to us. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may require UMeLook Guangzhou to adjust its taxable income under the contractual arrangements it currently has in place with our PRC consolidated VIE in a manner that would materially and adversely affect its ability to pay dividends and other distributions to us.

Under PRC laws and regulations, our PRC subsidiaries, which are wholly foreign-owned enterprises may pay dividends only out of their respective accumulated profits as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations. In addition, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise is required to set aside at least 10% of its accumulated after-tax profits each year, if any, to fund a certain statutory reserve fund, until the aggregate amount of such fund reaches 50% of its registered capital. At its discretion, a wholly foreign-owned enterprise may allocate a portion of its after-tax profits based on PRC accounting standards to an enterprise expansion fund, or a staff welfare and bonus fund. The statutory reserve funds, enterprise expansion funds and staff welfare and bonus funds are not distributable as cash dividends.

Any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to pay dividends or make other distributions to us could materially and adversely limit our ability to grow, make investments or acquisitions that could be beneficial to our business, pay dividends, or otherwise fund and conduct our business.

Our contractual arrangements may be subject to scrutiny by the PRC tax authorities, and a finding that we owe additional taxes could substantially reduce our consolidated net income and the value of your investment.

Under 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 among our PRC subsidiary and our PRC consolidated VIE do not represent an arm's-length price and adjust our PRC consolidated VIE's income in the form of a transfer pricing adjustment. A transfer pricing adjustment could, among other things, result in a reduction, for PRC tax purposes, of expense deductions recorded by our PRC consolidated VIE, which could in turn increase their tax liabilities. In addition, the PRC tax authorities may impose late payment fees and other penalties to our PRC consolidated VIE for under-paid taxes. Our consolidated net income may be materially and adversely affected if our tax liabilities increase or if we are found to be subject to late payment fees or other penalties.

The Chinese government exerts substantial influence over the manner in which we must conduct our business activities. We are currently not required to obtain approval from Chinese authorities to list on U.S exchanges nor the execution of VIE Agreements, however, if our VIE or the holding company were required to obtain approval in the future and were denied permission from Chinese authorities to list on U.S. exchanges, we will not be able to continue listing on U.S. exchange, continue to offer securities to investors, or materially affect the interest of the investors and cause significantly depreciation of our price of Ordinary Shares.

The Chinese government has exercised and continues to exercise substantial control over virtually every sector of the Chinese economy through regulation and state ownership. Our ability to operate in China may be harmed by changes in its laws and regulations, including those relating to taxation, environmental regulations, land use rights, property and other matters. The central or local governments of these jurisdictions may impose new, stricter regulations or interpretations of existing regulations that would require additional expenditures and efforts on our part to ensure our compliance with such regulations or interpretations. Accordingly, government actions in the future, including any decision not to continue to support recent economic reforms and to return to a more centrally planned economy or regional or local variations in the implementation of economic policies, could have a significant effect on economic conditions in China or particular regions thereof, and could require us to divest ourselves of any interest we then hold in Chinese properties.

For example, the Chinese cybersecurity regulator announced on July 2, 2021, that it had begun an investigation of Didi Global Inc. (NYSE: DIDI) and two days later ordered that the company’s app be removed from smartphone app stores. As such, the Company’s business segments may be subject to various government and regulatory interference in the provinces in which they operate. The Company could be subject to regulation by various political and regulatory entities, including various local and municipal agencies and government sub-divisions. The Company may incur increased costs necessary to comply with existing and newly adopted laws and regulations or penalties for any failure to comply.

Furthermore, it is uncertain when and whether the Company will be required to obtain permission from the PRC government to list on U.S. exchanges or enter into VIE Agreements in the future, and even when such permission is obtained, whether it will be denied or rescinded. Although the Company is currently not required to obtain permission from any of the PRC federal or local government to obtain such permission and has not received any denial to list on the U.S. exchange and or enter into VIE Agreements, our operations could be adversely affected, directly or indirectly, by existing or future laws and regulations relating to our business or industry.

Risks Related to Our Ordinary Shares

The market price of our ordinary shares is volatile.

The market price of our ordinary shares has been, and we expect it to continue to be, highly unstable. Factors, including our announcement of technological improvements or announcements by other companies, regulatory matters, research and development activities, new or existing products or procedures, signing or termination of licensing agreements, concerns about our financial condition, operating results, litigation, government regulation, developments or disputes relating to agreements, patents or proprietary rights, and public concern over the safety of activities or products have had a significant impact on the market price of our stock. We expect such factors to continue to impact our market price for the foreseeable future.

Our ordinary shares are classified as "penny stock" under SEC rules that may make it more difficult for our shareholders to resell our ordinary shares.

Our ordinary shares are traded on the OTC Market. As a result, the holders of our ordinary shares may find it more difficult to obtain accurate quotations concerning the market value of the ordinary shares. Shareholders also may experience greater difficulties in attempting to sell the shares than if there were listed on or quoted on a national stock exchange. Because our ordinary shares are not traded on a national stock exchange , and the market price of our ordinary shares is less than $5.00 per share, our ordinary shares are classified as "penny stock." Rule 15g-9 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 imposes additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers that recommend the purchase or sale of penny stocks to persons other than those who qualify as an "established customer" or an "accredited investor." This includes the requirement that a broker-dealer must make a determination that investments in penny stocks are suitable for the customer and must make special disclosures to the customer concerning the risks of penny stocks. Application of the penny stock rules to our ordinary shares could adversely affect the market liquidity of the shares, which in turn may affect the ability of holders of our ordinary shareholders to resell the shares. We have a significant number of options and warrants outstanding that could be exercised in the future. Subsequent resales of these and other shares could cause our share price to decline. This could also make it more difficult to raise funds at acceptable levels, via future securities offerings.

We have identified material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting. If we fail to develop and maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting, we may be unable to accurately report our financial results or prevent fraud, and investor confidence and the market price of our ordinary shares may be materially and adversely affected.

We have identified “material weaknesses” and other control deficiencies including significant deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting. As defined in the standards established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board of the United States, or PCAOB, a “material weakness” is a deficiency, or combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting, such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of the annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.

One material weakness that has been identified related to our lack of sufficient financial reporting and accounting personnel with appropriate knowledge of U.S. GAAP and SEC reporting requirements to properly address complex U.S. GAAP accounting issues and to prepare and review our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures to fulfill U.S. GAAP and SEC financial reporting requirements. As our operations continue to expand, we plan to hire additional accounting and finance staff to increase segregation of duties and also invest in technology infrastructure to support our financial reporting function. Despite all these remedial measures, we might efficiently address the weaknesses we have identified.

We are subject to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, or Section 404, requires that we include a report from management on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting in our annual report on Form 20-F beginning with this report. In addition, once we cease to be an “emerging growth company” as such term is defined in the JOBS Act, our independent registered public accounting firm must attest to and report on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting. Our management may conclude that our internal control over financial reporting is not effective. Moreover, even if our management concludes that our internal control over financial reporting is effective, our independent registered public accounting firm, after conducting its own independent testing, may issue a report that is qualified if it is not satisfied with our internal controls or the level at which our controls are documented, designed, operated or reviewed, or if it interprets the relevant requirements differently from us. In addition, after we become a public company, our reporting obligations may place a significant strain on our management, operational and financial resources and systems for the foreseeable future. We may be unable to timely complete our evaluation testing and any required remediation.

During the course of documenting and testing our internal control procedures, in order to satisfy the requirements of Section 404, we may identify other weaknesses and deficiencies in our internal control over financial reporting. In addition, if we fail to maintain the adequacy of our internal control over financial reporting, as these standards are modified, supplemented or amended from time to time, we may not be able to conclude on an ongoing basis that we have effective internal control over financial reporting in accordance with Section 404. If we fail to achieve and maintain an effective internal control environment, we could suffer material misstatements in our financial statements and fail to meet our reporting obligations, which would likely cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information. This could in turn limit our access to capital markets, harm our results of operations, and lead to a decline in the trading price of our ordinary shares. Additionally, ineffective internal control over financial reporting could expose us to increased risk of fraud or misuse of corporate assets and subject us to potential delisting from the stock exchange on which we list, regulatory investigations and civil or criminal sanctions. We may also be required to restate our financial statements from prior periods.

Lack of independent directors

We cannot guarantee that our Board of Directors will have a majority of independent directors in the future. In the absence of a majority of independent directors, our executive officers, who are also shareholders and directors, could establish policies and enter into transactions without independent review and approval thereof. This could present the potential for a conflict of interest between us and our shareholders generally and the controlling officers, stockholders or directors.

Ownership of our ordinary shares by current officers and directors.

The present officers and directors own approximately 16.49%16.31% of our issued and outstanding ordinary shares, and are therefore no longer in a position to elect all of our directors and otherwise control the Company. As of the date of this annual report, Vago International Limited controlled by Yee W. Chu beneficially owned approximately 52.01%51.18% of our outstanding capital stock. Chu therefore has significant influence over management and affairs and over all matters requiring shareholder approval, including the election of directors and significant corporate transactions, such as a merger or other sale of our company or our assets, for the foreseeable future. This concentrated control limits or severely restricts our shareholders’ ability to influence corporate matters and, as a result, we may take actions that our shareholders do not view as beneficial. As a result, the market price of our ordinary shares could be adversely affected.

We do not expect to pay dividends, and any return on your investment will likely be limited to the appreciation of our common stock.

We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, for the foreseeable future, to repay indebtedness and to fund the development and growth of our business. We do not intend to pay any dividends to holders of our ordinary shares and the agreements governing our credit facility significantly restrict our ability to pay dividends. As a result, capital appreciation in the price of our ordinary shares, if any, will be your only source of gain or income on an investment in our ordinary shares.

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

We are a British Virgin Islands company and substantially all of our assets are located outside of the United States. Nearly all of our current operations are conducted in China. In addition, most of our directors and officers are nationals and residents of countries other than the United States. A substantial portion of the assets of these persons are located outside the United States. As a result, it may be difficult to effect service of process within the United States upon these persons. It may also be difficult to enforce in U.S. court judgments obtained in U.S. courts based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us and our officers and directors, most of whom are residents of countries other than the United States and the substantial majority of whose assets are located outside of the United States. In addition, there is uncertainty as to whether the courts of the British Virgin Islands or China would recognize or enforce judgments of U.S. courts against us or such persons predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the securities laws of the United States or any state. In addition, there is uncertainty as to whether such British Virgin Islands or PRC courts would be competent to hear original actions brought in the British Virgin Islands or China against us or such persons predicated upon the securities laws of the United States or any state.

Risks Related to Doing Business in China

Uncertainties in the interpretation and enforcement of PRC laws and regulations could limit the legal protections available to you and us.

The PRC legal system is based on written statutes. Unlike common law systems, it is a system in which legal cases have limited value as precedents. In the late 1970s, the PRC government began to promulgate a comprehensive system of laws and regulations governing economic matters in general. The overall effect of legislation over the past three decades has significantly increased the protections afforded to various forms of foreign or private-sector investment in China. Our PRC subsidiaries are subject to various PRC laws and regulations generally applicable to companies in China. However, since these laws and regulations are relatively new and the PRC legal system continues to rapidly evolve, the interpretations of many laws, regulations and rules are not always uniform and enforcement of these laws, regulations and rules involve uncertainties.

From time to time, we may have to resort to administrative and court proceedings to enforce our legal rights. However, 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. Furthermore, the PRC legal system is based in part on government policies and internal rules (some of which are not published in a timely manner or at all) that may have retroactive effect. As a result, we may not be aware of our violation of these policies and rules until sometime after the violation. Such uncertainties, including uncertainty over the scope and effect of our contractual, property (including intellectual property) and procedural rights, and any failure to respond to changes in the regulatory environment in China could materially and adversely affect our business and impede our ability to continue our operations.

The enforcement of the PRC Labor Contract Law and other labor-related regulations in the PRC may adversely affect our business and our results of operations.

The PRC Labor Contract Law became effective and was implemented on January 1, 2008, which was amended on December 28, 2012. It has reinforced the protection of employees who, under the PRC Labor Contract Law, have the right, among others, to have written labor contracts, to enter into labor contracts with no fixed terms under certain circumstances, to receive overtime wages and to terminate or alter terms in labor contracts. According to the PRC Social Insurance Law, which became effective on July 1, 2011, and the Administrative Regulations on the Housing Funds, companies operating in China are required to participate in pension insurance, work-related injury insurance, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, maternity insurance and housing funds plans, and the employers must pay all or a portion of the social insurance premiums and housing funds for their employees.

As a result of these laws and regulations designed to enhance labor protection, we expect our labor costs will continue to increase. In addition, as the interpretation and implementation of these laws and regulations are still evolving, our employment practice may not at all times be deemed in compliance with the new laws and regulations. If we are subject to severe penalties or incur significant liabilities in connection with labor disputes or investigations, our business and results of operations may be adversely affected.

Regulation and censorship of information disseminated over the internet in China may adversely affect our business and reputation and subject us to liability for information displayed on our website.

The PRC government has adopted regulations governing internet access and the distribution of news and other information over the internet. Under these regulations, internet content providers and internet publishers are prohibited from posting or displaying over the internet content that, among other things, violates PRC laws and regulations, impairs the national dignity of China, or is reactionary, obscene, superstitious, fraudulent or defamatory. Failure to comply with these requirements may result in the revocation of licenses to provide internet content and other licenses, and the closure of the concerned websites. The website operator may also be held liable for such censored information displayed on or linked to the websites. If our website is found to be in violation of any such requirements, we may be penalized by relevant authorities, and our operations or reputation could be adversely affected.

Changes in China’s economic, political or social conditions or government policies could have a material adverse effect on our business and operations.

A significant portion of our business operations is conducted in China and all of our sales are made in China. Accordingly, our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects may be influenced to a significant degree by political, economic and social conditions in China generally and by continued economic growth in China as a whole.

China’s economy differs from the economies of most developed countries in many respects, including the level of government involvement, level of development, growth rate, control of foreign exchange and allocation of resources. Although the PRC government has implemented measures since the late 1970s 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 PRC 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 the PRC economic growth through allocating resources, controlling payment of foreign currency-denominated obligations, setting monetary policy, and providing preferential treatment to particular industries or companies.

While China’s economy has experienced significant growth over the past decades, growth has been uneven, both geographically and among various sectors of the economy, and the rate of growth has been slowing. Some of the governmental measures may benefit the overall Chinese economy, but may have a negative effect on us. For example, our financial condition and results of operations may be adversely affected by government control over capital investments or changes in tax regulations. Any stimulus measures designed to boost the Chinese economy may contribute to higher inflation, which could adversely affect our results of operations and financial condition. For example, certain operating costs and expenses, such as employee compensation and office operating expenses, may increase as a result of higher inflation.

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

The global financial markets experienced significant disruptions in 2008 and the United States, Europe and other economies went into recession. The recovery from the lows of 2008 and 2009 was uneven and it is facing new challenges, including the escalation of the European sovereign debt crisis since 2011 and the slowdown of the PRC economy since 2012. There is considerable uncertainty over the long-term effects of the expansionary monetary and fiscal policies that have been adopted by the central banks and financial authorities of some of the world’s leading economies. There have also been concerns over unrest in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, which have resulted in volatility in oil and other markets. In addition, there have been concerns about the territorial disputes involving China in Asia and the economic effects of such disputes. Economic conditions in China are sensitive to global economic conditions. Although the PRC economy has grown significantly in the past decade, that growth may not continue, as evidenced by the slowing of the growth of the PRC economy since 2012. Any severe or prolonged slowdown in the PRC economy may materially and adversely affect our business, results of operations and financial condition. In addition, continued turbulence in the international markets may adversely affect our ability to access capital markets to meet liquidity needs.

ITEM 4. INFORMATION OF THE COMPANY

We were originally incorporated as AlphaRx Inc. (“AlphaRx”) under the laws of the State of Delaware in 1997 as a pharmaceutical research & development company. We were domiciled in the British Virgin Islands (the “BVI”) and continued as a BVI registered company in January 2013. On March 8, 2013, AlphaRx changed its name to UMeWorld Limited.

AlphaRx was a specialty pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing therapies to treat and manage pain. Prior to November 2011, the business of the Company was focused on reformulating FDA approved and marketed drugs using its proprietary site-specific nano drug delivery technology. From 2000 until June 2011, substantial efforts and resources were devoted to understanding our nano drug delivery technology and establishing a product development pipeline that incorporated this technology with selected molecules.

On November 4, 2011, we ceased all operations in the drug development business and adopted a new corporate development strategy that changed the business operation of the Company to digital media and digital education with an intense focus on China.

On August 30, 2012, we acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of UMeLook Holdings Limited (“UMeLook”), a digital media & education startup with an intense focus on China. The acquisition of UMeLook was completed as a share exchange through the issuance of 70,000,000 common shares of AlphaRx to the shareholders of UMeLook in exchange for all of the issued and outstanding shares in UMeLook. There were no changes of control of our officers and Board of Directors as a result of the UMeLook acquisition. Due to PRC’s legal restrictions on foreign ownership and investment in the value-added telecommunications market, we operate our online platform through Guangzhou XinYiXun Technology Co. Ltd (“Guangzhou XinYiXun”), our consolidated variable interest entity, or VIE, in the PRC. Guangzhou XinYiXun holds our VATS (“Value-Added Telecommunication Services”) license necessary to operate our online platform in China, our registered trademarks in China and three of our registered software copyright that are essential to the Company's online operation in PRC.

As a holding company with no material operations of our own. We rely on a series of contractual arrangements among UMeLook (Guangzhou) Information Technology Co., Ltd (“UMeLook Guangzhou”), Guangzhou XinYiXun and its shareholders to operate our online platformbusiness in China. We do not have equity interestsNeither we nor our subsidiaries own any share in Guangzhou XinYiXun. However, as a result of these contractual arrangements, we are the primary beneficiary of Guangzhou XinYiXun and treat it as our consolidated VIE under U.S. GAAP.

In 2017, we launched a day-care & private tutoring product trial targeting Grade 1 to Grade 6 students under the UMTang brand, this UMTang product trail was terminated in 2017 due to government regulations and licensing issues.

On November 4, 2019, the Company entered into an acquisition agreement with Beijing Radish Green Vegetable Education Technology Co., Ltd. (“Proud Kids”) in an all-stock transaction. Pursuant to the agreement, Proud Kids’ shareholders will receive up to 37,500,000 ordinary shares of the Company upon closing. The acquisition agreement, as amended, was terminated by the Company on April 30, 2020.

From 2013 to present, we have been focusing primarily on the development of our principal product, UMFun.

We are an offshore holding company conducting our operations in China through our variable interest entity, Guangzhou XinYiXun. Neither we nor our subsidiaries own any share in Guangzhou XinYiXun. Instead, we control and receive the economic benefits of Guangzhou XinYiXun’s business operation through VIE Agreements.

We are an educational technology company and a visionary player in the online educational landscape in China. UMFun, our K-12 flagship product, combines “gamification” and “adaptive learning”. It is a cloud-based assessment and learning analytics platform that can intelligently analyze and adapt to a student's performance and personalizes the delivery of proprietary educational items in accordance with their individual learning needs. UMFun received the prestigious “2016 Top 100 Online Education Product” designation in China.

UMFun provides standards-based instruction, practice, assessments and productivity tools that improve the performance of educators and students via a proprietary online & mobile platform. UMFun helps students in kindergarten through 12th grade, or K-12, master grade level academic standards in a fun and engaging manner.

UMFun combines rigorous content that is highly customized to specific standards in math, English & Chinese with interactive features and games that engage students and reinforce and reward learning achievement. Our programs also enable educators to track student performance in real-time to address individual student learning gaps, while allowing administrators to monitor student progress and measure teacher effectiveness.

We capitalize on two significant trends in China’s education market: (1) an increased focus on higher academic standards and educator accountability for student achievement, which has led to periodic assessment in the classroom to gauge student learning and inform instruction, and (2) the increased availability and utilization of web and mobile-based technologies to enhance and supplement teacher instruction, engage today’s technology-savvy learners and improve student outcomes.

China Mobile Partnership

In July 2014, we entered into a business relationship with China Mobile Limited, to be a partner on its “AND” Education Platform. This collaboration with China Mobile is a major cornerstone in our business plan. China Mobile created its “AND” Education Platform in 2003, the largest of its kind in the world, and is a closed pay-for-use communication portal system and operated independently by China Mobile’s wholly-owned provincial subsidiaries. System-wide, it is used by over ninety million teachers, students and parent subscribers.

In 2016, China Mobile began consolidating the individual provincial “AND” education offerings into one “AND” Education National Platform. In June 2017, UMFun was chosen to be listed on the “AND” Education National Platform. This national platform listing is also a major milestone for us, as UMFun will become incrementally available to China Mobile's "AND" Education Platform subscribers in 31 provinces across China.

To date, we have acquired substantially all of our users through China Mobile. We expect to continue to acquire a substantial portion of our users from the China Mobile “AND” Education Platform for the foreseeable future. We have signed a Product Co-operation Agreement with China Mobile for the sale and distribution of UMFun on the “AND” Education National Platform which expires on October 31, 2021. We have not generated any revenue through our partnership with China Mobile, and significant financial resources are required to accelerate the UMFun commercialization process on the “AND” Education National Platform. There can be no assurance that we will be able to obtain enough capital to fund UMFun’s commercialization, and without such capital, we may be required to cease all UMFun development.

Our Principal Product

We are an educational technology company with a focus on the K-12 education market in China. UMFun, our principal product, provides standards-based instruction, practice, assessments and productivity tools that improve the performance of educators and students via a proprietary online and mobile platform.

Core Educational Principles

We believe that one of the key factors to our success lies in our core educational principles that guide product design and development:

UMFun

UMFun is a subscription-based online product that provides standards-based instruction, practice, assessment and productivity tools for teachers and students. UMFun is specifically built from the requirements for a subject area in a grade level in a particular province. Our curriculum includes math, Chinese and the English languages. Subscriptions are typically for one year but is also available on a monthly basis.

Students can log in to UMFun from any computer or mobile device with internet access. Students can take control and move through the UMFun program, earning awards as each standard is mastered. Once logged in, students move through the content in a traditional, multiple choice test mode which includes short game segments to reward student achievement. Teachers can customize sessions for the number of questions asked as well as the number of correct answers needed to reach proficiency in a standard or sub-topic. The questions are dynamically generated and therefore constantly changing, compelling students to learn concepts rather than memorize answers. Upon answering a question incorrectly, students are shown the correct answer along with a detailed explanation of this response. UMFun offers add-on features and programs, such as a benchmark assessment that enables educators to predict student performance on the end-of-year assessment and provides diagnostic information to guide instruction.

Our Competitive Strengths

We believe the following are our key competitive strengths:

Personalized learning experience. Our proprietary algorithms intelligently analyze a student’s performance and personalizes the delivery of proprietary educational items to address their individual learning needs and to improve students’ performance in core skill areas. Our data-driven approach to each step of a student's learning process, as well as our highly interactive lessons enable us to provide students with highly personalized learning experience. By analyzing a student's profile, learning objectives and proficiency, and considering the key learning points of our curriculum, our system recommends a study plan that suits individual students.

Real-time Student Tracking. Built-in Remediation and Enrichment. We provide real-time reporting on student achievement, allowing educators to quickly identify learning gaps and provide targeted instruction and practice. UMFun provides students with immediate feedback and explanations and, when required, remediation content designed to build foundational skills in order to accelerate students to grade-level proficiency.

Engaging, Fun and Easy to Use for Students. Our product utilizes a simple, graphical user interface that is intuitive and easy to use. In addition, UMFun incorporates games and rewards in order to make learning fun and engaging for students. By engaging students and providing them with the tools they need to succeed, we enable them to take control of their own learning, boost their confidence and keep them interested in using our products, while creating a culture of academic success.

Accessible, Dynamic online and mobile Platform. UMFun is delivered entirely online and cross-platform so it can be used by teachers, parents and students on any computer or mobile device wherever internet access is available.

High Impact, Low Cost Solution. By providing a single, comprehensive solution for core subjects across a wide range of grade levels, UMFun eliminates the need for parents to have multiple learning products, saving them both time and money. In addition, at an average monthly price per student of US $1.60, we offer parents a compelling value proposition compared to off-line private tutoring.

Visionary and passionate management team with strong academic partners. Our visionary management team is passionate about education and has been instrumental in driving the success of our business. Our academic partners, Sun Yat Sen University and South China Normal University, are ranked as top universities in China by all the most influential and widely observed international university rankings. We believe our management team's collective experience and strong execution capabilities present a significant advantage and enable us to realize attractive growth opportunities.

Our Growth Strategies

Our goal is to strengthen our market position in the online education market in China, creating a foundation for us to develop a global online education platform. We intend to achieve our goal by pursuing the following strategies:

Further enhance our brand image to grow our student base. We believe that building our brand and strengthening our reputation for providing quality online English education is critical to the success of our platform. We seek to deploy marketing initiatives strategically to maximize returns across both online and offline channels.

Expand our curriculum. We believe the quality of our subject offerings is important to our continued growth and success. We intend to devote significant resources and to leverage our knowledge and expertise in the online education industry in China to develop new subject offerings that will better address the needs of our current students and attract new prospective students from various demographic groups.

Strengthen our technologies and data analytics capabilities. We intend to continue to devote resources to our product development efforts. Our proprietary technologies allow us to track a wide range of metrics across our student and teacher base. This has created a substantial database of student and teacher data. We aim to actively enhance the learning experience for our students by analyzing this data, utilizing algorithms to identify trends and traits that will help better address the learning objectives and needs of our students. We seek to improve these processes and algorithms in the future by making them more robust and accurate to continue to offer our students a personalized learning experience.

Pursue selective strategic acquisitions and partnerships. We seek acquisitions and strategic alliances that expand our product and service offerings and provide additional revenue opportunities. We intend to continue to pursue acquisitions that have products, services and businesses that are compatible with our brand identity, culture and corporate mission. We expect that our acquisition activity will be focused primarily on online products and services for our target markets. In addition, we believe our large student audience of over 14 million K-12 students provides a significant and valuable opportunity to enter into strategic relationships in order to cross-sell other appropriate, teacher- and parent approved products to our students.

Competition

The online education services market in China in general, and especially for K-12 students, is fragmented, rapidly evolving and highly competitive. We compete primarily with other providers of supplemental educational materials and online learning tools. We face competition from other companies that provide online education as well as from those that provide traditional offline education in China. We also face competition from other online and mobile platforms or internet companies that plan to expand their business into education.

We believe our principal competitors include:

We believe that we are well-positioned to effectively compete in the markets in which we operate on the basis of our innovative approach to online education, immersive and interactive learning environment, scalable and efficient business model, strong curriculum development capabilities and experienced management team. However, some of our current or future competitors may have longer operating histories, greater brand recognition, or greater financial, technical or marketing resources than we do. For a discussion of risks related to competition, see "Risk Factors—Risk Related to Our Business and Industry - We face significant competition, and if we fail to compete effectively, we may lose our market share or fail to gain additional market share, which would adversely impact our business and financial conditions and operating results."

Emerging Growth Company Status

We are an “emerging growth company”, as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act enacted on April 5, 2012 (the “JOBS Act”). For as long as we are an emerging growth company, we may take advantage of certain exemptions from various reporting requirements that are applicable to other public companies that are not emerging growth companies, including, but not limited to, not being required to comply with the auditor attestation requirements of Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, reduced disclosure obligations regarding executive compensation in our periodic reports and proxy statements, and exemptions from the requirements of holding advisory “say-on-pay” and “say-when-on-pay” votes on executive compensation and shareholder advisory votes on golden parachute compensation. Under the JOBS Act, we will remain an emerging growth company until the earliest of:

The JOBS Act also provides that an emerging growth company may utilize the extended transition period provided in Section 7(a)(2)(B) of the Securities Act, for complying with new or revised accounting standards. However, we are choosing to “opt out” of such extended transition period, and, as a result, we will comply with new or revised accounting standards on the relevant dates on which adoption of such standards is required for companies that are not emerging growth companies. Section 107 of the JOBS Act provides that our decision to opt out of the extended transition period for complying with new or revised accounting standards is irrevocable.

Regulation

PRC Regulations

This section sets forth a summary of the most significant rules and regulations that affect our business activities in China.

Regulations on Online and Distance Education

PursuantRegulation Relating to the Administrative Regulations on Educational Websites and Online and Distance Education Schools issued by the Ministry of Education on July 5, 2000, educational websites and online education schools may provide educational services in relation to higher education, elementary education, pre-school education, teaching education, occupational education, adult education, other education and public educational information services. "Educational websites" refer to organizations providing education or education-related information services to website visitors by means of a database or online education platform connected via the Internet or an educational television station through an Internet Service Provider, or ISP. "Online education schools" refer to educational websites providing academic education services or training services with the issuance of various certificates. Setting up education websites and online education schools is subject to approval from relevant education authorities, depending on the specific types of education. Any educational website and online education school shall, upon the receipt of approval, indicate on its website such approval information as well as the approval date and file number.

On June 29, 2004, the State Council promulgated the Decision on Setting Down Administrative Licenses for the Administrative Examination and Approval Items Really Necessary to be Retained, pursuant to which the administrative license for "online education schools" was retained, while the administrative license for "educational websites" was not retained. On January 28, 2014, the State Council promulgated the Decision on Abolishing and Delegating Certain Administrative Examination and Approval Items, pursuant to which the administrative approval for "online education schools" of higher education was abolished.

Notwithstanding these decisions formulated by the State Council, as the Administrative Regulations on Educational Websites and Online Education Schools were not explicitly abolished, in practice, certain local authorities continue to implement the approval requirement for setting up education websites and online education schools. On February 3, 2016, the State Council promulgated the Decision on Cancelling the Second Batch of 152 Items Subject to Administrative Examination and Approval by Local Governments Designated by the Central Government, explicitly cancelled the approval requirements for operating educational websites and online education schools that provided by the Administrative Regulations on Educational Websites and Online Education Schools, and reiterated the principle that administrative approval requirements may only be imposed in accordance with the Administrative Licensing Law.

Education Law of the PRCApps

On March 18, 1995,December 25, 2018, the PRC National People's Congress promulgated the Education LawGeneral Office of the MOE issued the Notice on Strictly Forbidding Harmful Apps in Primary and Secondary Schools, which stipulates, among other things, that (i) local primary schools, secondary schools and education departments, should conduct comprehensive investigations on Apps in their campus, and should call off using any Apps containing harmful contents (such as commercial advertisements and internet games) or increasing the burden to the students, and (ii) a filing and reviewing system of learning Apps should be established.

On August 10, 2019, the MOE, jointly with certain other PRC government authorities, issued the Opinions on Guiding and Regulating the Orderly and Healthy Development of Educational Mobile Apps, or the Education Law.Opinions on Educational Apps, which requires, among others, mobile Apps that provide services for school teaching and management, student learning and student life, or home-school interactions, with school faculties, students or parents as the main users and with education or learning as the main application scenarios, are educational Apps, which should be filed with competent provincial regulatory authorities for education. The Education Law stipulatesOpinions on Educational Apps also requires, among others, that (i) each provider of educational Apps should obtain the ICP License or complete the ICP filing and obtain the certificate and the grade evaluation report for graded protection of cybersecurity before the completion of filing; (ii) the educational Apps with main users under the age of 18 should limit the use time of its App, specify the range of suitable ages, and strictly monitor the content in its App; (iii) if any educational App will be introduced as a mandatory App to students in any school, such educational App should be approved by the applicable school through its collective decision-making process and be filed with the competent regulatory authorities for education; and (iv) the educational Apps selected by regulatory authorities for education and schools as the teaching or management tools are not allowed to charge any fees to students or parents or offer any commercial advertisements or games. On November 11, 2019, the MOE issued the Administrative Measures on Filing of Educational Mobile Apps. In 2020, the MOE established a public channel that can be used to submit complaints with respect to educational apps and set a penalty points system based on the severity of the complaints. For serious complaints substantiated by relevant government formulates plansauthorities, an appropriate number of penalty points is recorded for the developmentrelevant educational app provider, and remedial measures also may be required. In the event that an educational app provider receives 12 or more penalty points within 12 months or certain types of education, establishesserious complaints, the MOE may revoke such provider’s filing, blacklist such provider, remove its educational app from the app store, publicize the complaint or prohibit such provider from submitting any filings for six months. Complaints can be made against both educational app providers and operatesusers regarding a variety of matters including failure to file or obtain relevant permits; illegal or inappropriate information; inappropriate collection and use of personal information; and violation of relevant requirements for primary and secondary schools and other types of educational institutions, and in principle, enterprises, institution, social organizations and individuals are encouraged to operate schools and other types of educational organizations. It is provided in the Education Law that no organization or individual may establish or operate a school or any other educational institution for commercial purposes. However, private schools may be operated for "reasonable returns" as described in more detail below. On December 27, 2015, the Standing Committee of the PRC National People's Congress, or the NPC Standing Committee, published the Decision on Amendment of the Education Law, which will take effect on June 1, 2016. The NPC Standing Committee narrowed the provision prohibiting the establishment or operation of schools or other educational institutions for commercial purposes to only restricting a school or other educational institution founded with governmental funds or donated assets in the amended Education Law.online after-school training programs.

Regulation Related to Foreign Investment Restrictions

Investments in China by foreign investors and foreign-invested enterprises were previously regulated by the Catalogue of Industries for Guiding Foreign Investment, repealed by the Special Management Measures (Negative List) for the Access of Foreign Investment (2020 Version), or the Negative List, and the Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment (2020 Version), or the Encouraging Catalogue, which were promulgated by the National Development and Reform Commission, or the NDRC, and the Ministry of Commerce on December 27, 2020, and became effective on January 27, 2021. Pursuant to the Encouraging Catalogue and the Negative List, foreign investments are categorized as encouraged, restricted and prohibited. Foreign investments that are not listed in the Negative List or Encouraging Catalogue are permitted categories. According to the Negative List, foreign investors are prohibited from holding more than 50% of equity interests in an enterprise which provides value-added telecommunications services (except for e-commerce business, domestic multi-party communications services, store and forward services and call center services).

The Regulations on Administration of Foreign-Invested Telecommunications Enterprises, or the FITE Regulations, which took effect on January 1, 2002 and last amended on February 6, 2016, are the key regulations for foreign direct investment in telecommunications companies in China. The FITE Regulations stipulate that the foreign investor of a telecommunications enterprise is prohibited from holding more than 50% of the equity interests in a foreign-invested enterprise that provides value-added telecommunications services. In addition, for a foreign investor to acquire any equity interest in a business providing value-added telecommunications services in China, it must demonstrate a positive track record and experience in providing such services.

On July 13, 2006, the MIIT issued the Circular on Strengthening the Administration of Foreign Investment in Value-added Telecommunications Services, or the MIIT Circular 2006, which requires that (i) foreign investors can only operate a telecommunications business in China through establishing a telecommunications enterprise with a valid telecommunications business operation license; (ii) domestic license holders are prohibited from leasing, transferring or selling telecommunications business operation licenses to foreign investors in any form, or providing any resource, sites or facilities to foreign investors to facilitate the unlicensed operation of telecommunications business in China; (iii) value-added telecommunications services providers or their shareholders must directly own the domain names and registered trademarks they use in their daily operations; (iv) each value-added telecommunications services provider must have the necessary facilities for its approved business operations and maintain such facilities in the geographic regions covered by its license; and (v) all value-added telecommunications services providers should improve network and information security, enact relevant information safety administration regulations and set up emergency plans to ensure network and information safety. The provincial communications administration bureaus, as local authorities in charge of regulating telecommunications services, may revoke the value-added telecommunications business operation licenses of those who fail to comply with the above requirements or fail to rectify such noncompliance within specified time limits. Due to the lack of any additional interpretation from the regulatory authorities, it remains unclear what impact MIIT Circular 2006 will have on us or the other PRC internet companies with similar corporate structures and contractual arrangements.

In light of the above restrictions and requirements, we conduct our value-added telecommunications businesses through our VIE, Guangzhou XinYiXun.

Regulation Relating to Online Publishing

On June 27, 2002, the General Administration of Press and Publication, or GAPP (currently known as the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, or the SAPPRFT) and the MIIT jointly promulgated the Tentative Internet Publishing Administrative Measures, or the Internet Publishing Measures, which took effect on August 1, 2002. The Internet Publishing Measures require entities that engage in Internet publishing to obtain an Internet Publishing License for engaging in Internet publishing from the SAPPRFT. Pursuant to the Internet Publishing Measures, the definition of "internet publishing" is broad and refers to the act by ICP services providers to select, edit and process works created by themselves or others and subsequently post such works on the internet or transmit such works to the users' end through internet for the public to browse. The "works" as defined under the Internet Publishing Measures include (i) contents from books, newspapers, periodicals, audio-video products, electronic publications that have already been formally published or works that have been made public in other media, and (ii) all other edited or processed works of literatures, art, natural science, social science, engineering technology, etc.

On February 4, 2016, the SAPPRFT and the MIIT jointly issued the Administrative Provisions on Online Publishing Services, or the Online Publishing Provisions. The Online Publishing Provisions, taking effect as of March 10, 2016, superseded the Internet Publishing Measures. Compared with the Internet Publishing Measures, the Online Publishing Provisions set out more detailed provisions for online publishing activities, which mainly cover issues such as defining online publishing services, licensing and approvals, the administrative and supervisory regime and legal liabilities. According to the Online Publishing Provisions, all online publishing services provided within the territory of China are subject to the Online Publishing Provisions, and an online publishing services permit shall be obtained to provide online publishing services. Pursuant to the Online Publishing Provisions, "online publishing services" refer to providing online publications to the public through information networks; and "online publications" refer to digital works with publishing features such as having been edited, produced or processed and are made available to the public through information networks, including: (i) written works, pictures, maps, games, cartoons, audio/video reading materials and other original digital works containing useful knowledge or ideas in the field of literature, art, science or other fields; (ii) digital works of which the content is identical to that of any published book, newspaper, periodical, audio/video product, electronic publication or the like; (iii) network literature databases or other digital works, derived from any of the aforesaid works by selection, arrangement, collection or other means; and (iv) other types of digital works as may be determined by the SAPPRFT. As the scope of online publication is broad, certain contents we post on our website, such as video-audio clips and course materials, may be deemed as online publications. We currently do not hold the license required to provide online publishing services.

Regulation Relating to Internet Culture Activities

On February 17, 2011, the Ministry of Culture, or MOC, promulgated the Interim Administrative Provisions on Internet Culture, or the Internet Culture Provisions, which became effective on April 1, 2011. The Internet Culture Provisions require ICP services providers engaging in commercial "internet culture activities" to obtain a permit from the MOC. "Internet cultural activities" is defined in the Internet Culture Provisions as an act of provision of Internet cultural products and related services, which includes (i) the production, duplication, importation, and broadcasting of the Internet cultural products; (ii) the online dissemination whereby cultural products are posted on the Internet or transmitted via the Internet to end-users, such as computers, fixed-line telephones, mobile phones, television sets and games machines, for online users' browsing, use or downloading; and (iii) the exhibition and comparison of the Internet cultural products. In addition, "Internet cultural products" is defined in the Internet Culture Provisions as cultural products produced, broadcast and disseminated via the Internet, which mainly include internet cultural products specially produced for the Internet, such as online music entertainment, online games, online shows and plays (programs), online performances, online works of art and online cartoons, and internet cultural products produced from cultural products such as music entertainment, games, shows and plays (programs), performances, works of art, and cartoons through certain techniques and duplicate those to the internet for dissemination.

UMeWorld is a holding company without substantive operations and we conduct our businesses through our subsidiaries and our consolidated VIE, or VIE. The chart below summarizes our current corporate legal structure and identifies our significant subsidiaries and other entities that are material to our business as of the date of this annual report:

(On November 1, 2019, the abovementioned entities, save for UMeWorld, shall be collectively referred to as “Consolidated Affiliated Entities” and each ,Company dissolved UMeLook Holdings Limited, a “Consolidated Affiliated Entity”.)wholly owned subsidiary which was incorporated in the BVI. 

VIE Contractual Arrangements

Due to PRC legal restrictions on foreign investment in and ownership of entities engaged in the education industry, we operate our business through our consolidated VIE, or VIE. PRC laws and regulations currently require any foreign entity that invests in the education industry in China to be an educational institution with relevant experience in providing educational services outside of China. Our offshore holding companies are not educational institutions and do not provide educational services outside China. Accordingly, our offshore holding companies are not allowed to directly engage in the education industry in China. To comply with PRC laws and regulations, we have entered into a series of contractual arrangements with our VIE and its shareholders, through which we are able to consolidate the financial results of our VIE. Neither we nor our subsidiaries own any equity interest in our VIE.

These contractual arrangements allow us to:

As a result of these contractual arrangements, we are the primary beneficiary of our VIE and have consolidated its financial results in our consolidated financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. However, these contractual arrangements may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership and the use of the contractual arrangements exposes us to certain risks. For example, Guangzhou XinYiXun may breach the contractual arrangements with us. In such cases, we would have to rely on legal remedies under PRC law, which may not always be effective, particularly in light of uncertainties in the PRC legal system. See “Risk Factors—Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure.”

If our VIE, Mr. Yilun Liang or Mr. Dong Liang fail to perform its/his obligations under the contractual arrangements, we could be limited in our ability to enforce the contractual arrangements that give us effective control over our Consolidated Affiliated Entities. See “Risk Factors - Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure - We rely on the VIE Contractual Arrangements for our PRC operations, which may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership.” If we are unable to maintain effective control over our affiliated entities, we will not be able to continue consolidating the financial results of our affiliated entities into our financial results. We do not have unfettered access to the revenues from our PRC subsidiaries or Consolidated Affiliated Entities due to the significant legal restrictions on the payment of dividends by PRC companies, foreign exchange control restrictions, and restrictions on foreign investment, among others. See “Risk Factors - We rely on dividends, fees and other distributions paid by our PRC subsidiaries to fund any cash and financing requirements we may have, and any limitation on the ability of our PRC subsidiaries to make payments to us could hinder our ability to conduct our business.”

The following is a summary of the currently effective contractual arrangements by and among us, Guangzhou XinYiXun Network Technology Co. Ltd., and its shareholders, namely Mr. Yilun Liang and Guangzhou Zhongda No.3 Venture Investment Co., Ltd.

Agreements that provide us with effective control over the VIE

Exclusive Management Service Agreement

Pursuant to the Exclusive Management Services Agreement, we have the exclusive right to provide comprehensive technical and business support services to our consolidated VIE. Such services include conducting market research, offering strategic business advice and providing information technology services, advice on mergers and acquisitions, human resources management services, intellectual property licensing services, support for teaching activities and other services that the parties may mutually agree. Without the prior consent of the Company, our consolidated VIE may not accept such services from any third party. In addition, the consolidated VIE is entitled to pay a service fee to the Company, the amount of which is equal to its total revenue less any necessary costs, taxes and expenses. We have discretion to adjust and decide the amount to be paid by the consolidated VIE to us from time to time.

Proxy agreement

In order to ensure that we are able to make all of the decisions concerning the VIE, we have entered into a proxy agreement with the shareholders of the VIE. Pursuant to the proxy agreement, each of its shareholders has irrevocably appointed us as such shareholder’s attorney-in-fact to act for all matters pertaining to such shareholder’s equity interests in the VIE and to exercise all of their rights as shareholders, including but not limited to attending and voting at shareholders’ meetings. As such, we have the sole rights to designate and appoint directors and senior management members of the VIE. The proxy agreement will remain in effect until the respective shareholder ceases to hold any equity interest in the VIE.

Equity pledge agreement

In order to secure the performance of the VIE and its shareholders under the contractual arrangements, each shareholder of the VIE has undertaken to pledge all of their shares in the VIE to us. As of the date of this annual report, the share pledge has been registered with local PRC authorities. If the VIE or any of its shareholders breaches or defaults under any of the contractual arrangements, we have the right to require the transfer of the pledged equity interests in the VIE to us or our designee, to the extent permitted by laws, or require a sale of the pledged equity interest and have priority in any proceeds from the auction or sale of such pledged interests. Moreover, we have the right to collect any and all dividends in respect of the pledged equity interests during the term of the pledge. Unless the VIE and its shareholders have fully performed all of their obligations in accordance with the contractual arrangements and all debts have been fully paid by them to us, the equity pledge agreement will continue to remain in effect.

Agreement that enables us to receive substantially all of the economic benefits from the VIE

In order to ensure that we receive the economic benefits of our consolidated VIE, we have entered into a series of agreements with the consolidated VIE. Under these agreements, we are entitled to substantially all of the economic benefits of our VIE.

Exclusive Management Service Agreement

See “Agreements that provide us with effective control over the VIE” for key terms and conditions.

Exclusive Technology Consultation and Services Agreement”

Pursuant to the Exclusive Technology and Services Agreement, we have the exclusive right to provide technical services to the consolidated VIE. In exchange, the consolidated VIE pays a service fee to us that is based on a predetermined formula based on the financial performance of the consolidated VIE. During the term of this agreement, we are entitled to adjust the service fee at our sole discretion without the consent of the consolidated VIE. We will exclusively own any intellectual property arising from the performance of this agreement.

Agreement that provides us with the option to purchase the equity interests in Guangzhou XinYiXun

Call option agreement

In order to ensure that we are able to acquire all of the equity interests in the VIE at our discretion, we have entered into a call option agreement with the shareholders of the VIE. The option is exercisable by us at any time, provided that doing so is not prohibited by law. The exercise price under the option is the minimum amount required by law and any proceeds obtained by the respective shareholders through the transfer of their equity interests in the VIE shall be used for the repayment of the loans provided by us in accordance with the loan agreements. During the terms of the call option agreement, the shareholders will not grant a similar right or transfer any of the equity interests in the VIE to any party other than us or our designee, nor will such shareholder pledge, create or permit any security interest or similar encumbrance to be created on any of the equity interests. According to the call option agreement, the VIE cannot declare any profit distributions in any form without our prior consent. The call option agreement will remain in effect until the respective shareholder has transferred all of such shareholder’s equity interests in the VIE to us or our designee.

In the opinion of our PRC counsel, Dentons China (formerly Beijing Dacheng (Guangzhou) Law Offices), the contractual arrangements among UMeLook Guangzhou, Guangzhou XinYiXun and its shareholders are valid, binding and enforceable under current PRC law. However, these contractual arrangements may not be as effective in providing control as direct ownership. There are substantial uncertainties regarding the interpretation and application of current or future PRC laws and regulations. For a description of the risks related to our corporate structure, please see "Risk Factors - Risks Related to Our Corporate Structure."

We do not own any real property. We do not lease any office space at this time. We did lease office space in Guangzhou, China. This concluded in September 30, 2017 with no further obligation due. We currently use office space provided by a related party free of charge.

Our servers are primarily hosted at internet data centers owned by major domestic internet data center providers. The hosting services agreements typically have terms of one year. We believe that we will be able to obtain adequate facilities, principally through leasing, to accommodate our future expansion plans.

ITEM 4A. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

Not applicable.

ITEM 5. OPERATING AND FINANCIAL REVIEW AND PROSPECTS

You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and the related notes included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 20-F. This discussion contains forward-looking statements based upon current expectations that involve risks and uncertainties. Our actual results and the timing of selected events could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of various factors, including those set forth under “Item 3.D. Key Information—Risk Factors” and elsewhere in this annual report on Form 20-F.

Overview

We are an offshore holding company conducting our operations in China through our variable interest entity, Guangzhou XinYiXun. Neither we nor our subsidiaries own any share in Guangzhou XinYiXun. Instead, we control and receive the economic benefits of Guangzhou XinYiXun’s business operation through VIE Agreements.

We are an educational technology company and a visionary player in the online educational landscape in China. UMFun, our K-12 flagship product combines “gamification” and “adaptive learning”. It is a cloud-based assessment and learning analytics platform that can intelligently analyze and adapt to a student's performance and personalizes the delivery of proprietary educational items in accordance with their individual learning needs. UMFun received the prestigious “2016 Top 100 Online Education Product” designation in China. The Company has incurred recurring operating losses since inception as it has worked to bring its UMFun to market. Management expects such operating losses will continue until such time that substantial revenues are received from UMFun. Management is currently seeking additional capital through private placements and public offerings of its ordinary shares to fund our operations. There can be no assurance that we will be successful in accomplishing our objectives. Without such additional capital, we may be required to cease operations.

The accompanying financial statements have been prepared assuming the Company will continue as a going concern. We have limited cash resources, recurring cash used in operations and operating losses history. As shown in the accompanying consolidated financial statements, we have an accumulated deficit of approximately $30.74$30.89 million as of September 30, 20192020 and net cash used in operations of $5,86065,681 during the year ended September 30, 2019.2020. These factors, among others, raise substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern.

Results of Operations

The following tables summarize the results of operations for the years ended September 30, 2019, 2018 and 2017 and the annual results of operations for the past three years:

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

The Year Ended September 30, 2020 Compared to the Year Ended September 30, 2019

Revenues

Our revenues decreased from $113 in 2019 to $4 in 2020. This decrease was related to the Company’s lack of funding for any sales and marketing effort.

Cost of Revenues

Our cost of revenues decreased from $590 in 2019 to $0 in 2020. The decrease was due to less headcount-related expenses to service UMFun users.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Our selling, general and administrative expenses increased by 15% from $117,177 in 2019 to $134,953 in 2020. The increase was mainly due to increased audit expenses.

Other Income

We had net other income of $10,765 in 2020, as compared to net other income of $0 in 2019.

Net loss attributable to UMeWorld Limited stockholders

As a result of the cumulative effect of the foregoing factors, we incurred a net loss attributable to UMeWorld Limited stockholders of $148,964 for the year ended September 30, 2020 as compared to net loss of $117,640 for the year ended September 30, 2019, an increase of $31,324 or about 26.635%.

The Year Ended September 30, 2019 Compared to the Year Ended September 30, 2018

Revenues

Our revenues decreased from $758 in 2018 to $113 in 2019. This decrease was related to the Company’s lack of funding for any sales and marketing effort.

Cost of Revenues

Our cost of revenues decreased from $67,778 in 2018 to $590 in 2019. The decrease was due to less headcount-related expenses to service UMFun users.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Our selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by 69.80% from $388,066 in 2018 to $117,177 in 2019. The decrease was mainly due to decreased payroll, marketing and entertainment expenses.

Other Income

Other income decreased from $283,988 in 2018 to $0 in 2019. On October 1, 2017, we dissolved our subsidiary AlphaRx International Holdings Limited and its wholly owned subsidiary AlphaRx Life Sciences Limited, as a result, we recorded a gain on dissolution of subsidiaries of $223,953 in the consolidated statements of operations for this transaction.

Interest Expense on Note Payable

Our interest expense decreased by 100% from $665,875 in 2018 to $0 in 2019 as a result of debt settlement by shares with debt holders. We will continue to seek funding in the form of promissory notes, which will result in ongoing interest expense until more permanent equity financings or other forms of funding are sourced.

Net loss attributable to UMeWorld Limited stockholders

As a result of the cumulative effect of the foregoing factors, we incurred a net loss attributable to UMeWorld Limited stockholders of $117,640 for the year ended September 30, 2019 as compared to net loss of $845,441 for the year ended September 30, 2019,2018, a decrease of $727,801 or about 86.09%.

The Year Ended September 30, 2018 Compared to the Year Ended September 30, 2017

Revenues

Our revenues decreased from $7,927 in 2017 to $758 in 2018. This decrease was primarily due to the termination of UMTang day-care and private tutoring trial, which was terminated on Aug 18, 2017.

Cost of Revenues

Our cost of revenues increased from $24,587 in 2017 to $67,778 in 2018. The increase was due to higher headcount-related expenses to service UMFun users.

Selling, General and Administrative Expenses

Our selling, general and administrative expenses decreased by 56.99% from $902,166 in 2017 to $388,066 in 2018. The decrease was primarily the result of a decrease in compensation and travel as a result of the decision to discontinue UMTang day-care and private tutoring trial.

Other Income

On October 1, 2017, we dissolved our subsidiary AlphaRx International Holdings Limited and its wholly owned subsidiary AlphaRx Life Sciences Limited, as a result, we recorded a gain on dissolution of subsidiaries of $223,953 in the consolidated statements of operations for this transaction.

Interest Expense on Note Payable

Our interest expense increased by 70.97% from $389,480 in 2017 to $665,875 in 2018 as a result of the full amortization of debt discount and interest expense of promissory notes yielding interest at 12% per annum. We will continue to seek funding in the form of promissory notes, which will result in ongoing interest expense until more permanent equity financings or other forms of funding are sourced.

Net loss attributable to UMeWorld Limited stockholders

As a result of the cumulative effect of the foregoing factors, we incurred a net loss attributable to UMeWorld Limited stockholders of $845,441 for the year ended September 30, 2018 as compared to net loss of $1,323,850 for the year ended September 30, 2017, a decrease of $478,409 or about 36.14%. The decrease was primarily due to the termination of our UMTang day-care and private tutoring trial and decrease of selling, general & administrative expense by $514,100, as discussed above.

Liquidity and Capital Resources

Our principal sources of liquidity have been proceeds from the issuance of our ordinary shares and promissory notes to our CEO, directors and shareholders. We intend to finance our future working capital requirements and capital expenditures from cash generated from operating activities and funds raised from financing activities. However, we may require additional cash resources due to changing business conditions or other future developments, including any investments or acquisitions we may decide to selectively pursue. If our existing cash resources are insufficient to meet our requirements, we may seek to sell equity, sell debt securities or borrow from banks. We cannot assure you that financing will be available in the amounts we need or on terms acceptable to us, if at all. The sale of additional equity securities would result in additional dilution to our shareholders. The incurrence of indebtedness and issuance of debt securities would result in debt service obligations and could result in operating and financial covenants that restrict our operations and our ability to pay dividends to our shareholders.

Going Concern

In assessing the Company’s liquidity and its ability to continue as a going concern, the Company monitors and analyzes its cash and cash equivalents and its operating and capital expenditure commitments. The Company’s liquidity needs are to meet its working capital requirements, operating expenses and capital expenditure obligations. If the Company is unable to obtain the additional funding in the immediate future, it will have to cease all operations on a permanent basis.

Working Capital

As of September 30, 20192020 and 2018,2019, we had cash balances of $545$16,890 and $6,426$545 respectively. These funds are primarily located in various financial institutions located in Hong Kong, China.

As of September 30, 2019,2020, we had working capital deficiency of approximately $366,938$346,426 as compared to a working capital deficiency of $249,461$366,938 as of September 30, 2018.2019. Since inception, we have financed operations primarily from the issuance of ordinary shares and promissory notes. We expect to continue ordinary share issuances and issuance of promissory notes to fund our ongoing activities.

We currently do not have sufficient resources to carry out our entire business strategy. Therefore, we will need to raise additional capital to fund our operations sometime in the future. We cannot be certain that any financing will be available when needed. Any additional equity financings will be dilutive to our existing shareholders, and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants on our business and also the issuance of warrants or conversion features which may further dilute our existing shareholders.

We expect to continue to spend capital on:

on the sales and marketing activities related to UMFun, our digital education platform. The inability to raise capital would have a material adverse effect on the Company.

Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements

We have not entered into any financial guarantees or other commitments to guarantee the payment obligations of any unconsolidated third parties. In addition, we have not entered into any derivative contracts that are indexed to our shares and classified as shareholders’ equity, or that are not reflected in our consolidated financial statements. Furthermore, we do not have any retained or contingent interest in assets transferred to an unconsolidated entity that serves as credit, liquidity or market risk support to such entity. Moreover, we do not have any variable interest in any unconsolidated entity that provides financing, liquidity, market risk or credit support to us or engages in leasing, hedging or product development services with us.

Holding Company Structure

Overview

We are a holding company with no material operations of our own, all of our education business in China is conducted through the VIE Contractual Arrangements. See “Item 4. Information on the Company—Company - Organizational Structure—Structure - VIE Contractual Arrangements.” For each of the three years ended September 30, 2020, 2019 and 2018, 2017, revenues from our Consolidated Affiliated Entities constituted substantially all of our total consolidated net revenues.

Conducting most of our operations through the VIE Contractual Arrangements entails a risk that we may lose effective control over our Consolidated Affiliated Entities, which may result in our being unable to consolidate their financial results with our results and may impair our access to their cash flow from operations and thereby reduce our liquidity. See “Item 3. Key Information—Information - D. Risk Factors—Factors - Risks Relating to Our Corporate Structure and Restrictions on Our Industry” for more information, including the risk factors titled “If the PRC government determines that the agreements that establish the structure for operating our business in China are not in compliance with applicable PRC laws and regulations, we could be subject to severe penalties” and “We rely on the VIE Contractual Arrangements for our PRC operations, which may not be as effective in providing operational control as direct ownership.”

Dividend Distributions

As a holding company, our ability to pay dividends and other cash distributions to our shareholders depends primarily upon dividends and other distributions paid to us by our PRC subsidiaries. The amount of dividends paid by each of our PRC subsidiaries to us depends solely on the service and license fees paid to each of our PRC subsidiaries by the relevant Consolidated Affiliated Entity with which it has contractual arrangements.

Under PRC law, all of our PRC subsidiaries and Consolidated Affiliated Entities in China are required to set aside at least 10% of their respective after-tax profits each year, if any, to fund a statutory reserve until such reserve reaches 50% of their respective registered capital. Although the statutory reserves can be used, among other ways, to increase the registered capital and eliminate future losses in excess of retained earnings of the respective companies, the reserve funds are not distributable as cash dividends except in the event of liquidation. Our PRC subsidiaries are permitted to pay dividends to us only out of their respective retained earnings, if any, as determined in accordance with PRC accounting standards and regulations.

Pursuant to the VIE Contractual Arrangements, the earnings and cash of our VIE are used to pay service fees in RMB to UMeLook Guangzhou as applicable, in the manner and amount set forth in the VIE Contractual Arrangements. After paying the applicable withholding taxes, making appropriations for its statutory reserve requirement and retaining any profits from accumulated profits, the remaining net profit of UMeLook Guangzhou would be available for distribution to UMeLook Limited (HK).

The Company has been in a net loss position since inception.

Contractual Obligations and Commitments

Excluding accounts payable and accrued liabilities, we are committed to the followingdo not have any contractual obligations and commitments.