Aurora Mobile Stock

Aurora Mobile Limited, through its subsidiaries, engages in the software-as-a-service (SAAS) business, which includes developer services, financial risk management, market intelligence, and location-based intelligence services in the People's Republic of China (the PRC or China, including Hong Kong and Macau).

The company provides customer engagement and marketing technology services in mainland China. Through its developer services, the company gains access to, aggregate, cleanse, structure, and encrypt vast amounts of real-time and anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data. The company utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to derive actionable insights and knowledge from this data, enabling its customers to make better business decisions.

The company provides a comprehensive suite of services to mobile app developers in mainland China. The company's developer services easily integrate with all types of mobile apps and provide core in-app functionalities needed by developers, including push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service (SMS), one-click verification, and other service under JG Alliance. Its services had been used by approximately 695,080 mobile app developers in a great variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, and education, as of December 31, 2022. The company is the partner of choice for many major internet companies, as well as many leading brands in various industries. The number of mobile apps utilizing at least one of the company's developer services, or the cumulative app installations were 1,871,000 as of December 31, 2022.

The company's developer services can be integrated into multiple apps on the same device, which allows it to receive device-based data from different and multiple dimensions, both online and offline.

The company has developed a variety of solutions that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers in a number of different areas. Its solutions include:

Vertical Applications mainly include market intelligence, financial risk management, and location-based intelligence.

Market Intelligence: The company provides investment funds and corporations with real-time market intelligence solutions, such as its product iApp, which provides analysis and statistical results on the usage and trends of mobile apps in China.

Financial Risk Management: The company assists financial institutions, licensed lenders, and credit card companies in making informed lending and credit decisions.

Location-Based Intelligence (iZone): The company helps retailers and those from other traditional brick-and-mortar industries, such as real estate developers, track and analyze foot traffic, conduct targeted marketing, and make more informed and impactful operating decisions, such as site selection.

Collectively, the developer services and vertical applications are termed SAAS Businesses.

The company has built a robust technology infrastructure to support the usage of SAAS Businesses throughout China on a real-time basis. It has developed a proprietary network of over 7,400 servers, including cloud servers, strategically located around the country to provide services across all telecom providers throughout China. This extensive and carefully designed server network allows the company to provide customers with real-time access and usage of its software-as-a-service (SAAS) products.

The company's developer services provide core in-app functionalities, including push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service (SMS), one-click verification, and other services under JG Alliance. device connection. Through its developer services, the company gains access to selected and anonymous device-level data that is necessary for, and relevant to, the services provided. The company's centralized data processing platform stores, cleanses, structures, and encrypts data that was collected and aggregated. It utilizes AI and machine learning technologies to conduct modeling exercises and in order to gain actionable and effective insights. Based on its data foundation and leveraging its AI-powered centralized processing platform, the company has developed a variety of vertical applications that offer industry-specific, actionable insights for customers.

Developer Services

The company provides a comprehensive suite of services to mobile app developers in China. Starting from 2020, the company further breakdowns the Developer Service revenue into Subscription Service and Value-Added Service. Its subscription service under developer services provides core in-app functionalities needed by developers, including push notification, instant messaging, analytics, sharing and short message service (SMS), one-click verification and other services under JG Alliance. The company's value-added service includes both JG Alliance and Advertisement SAAS. The functionalities of its developer services are delivered in the form of software development kits (SDKs) that contain ready-to-use source codes and allow for simple integration into a wide variety of mobile apps. The company also offers application programming interfaces (APIs) that create connectivity and automate the process of message exchange between the mobile apps and its backend network. Moreover, the company also provides app developers using its services with an interactive web-based service dashboard, allowing them to utilize and monitor its services through simple controls on an ongoing basis. The company's developer services easily integrate with all types of mobile apps and support all major mobile operating systems, including iOS, Android, and Winphone. Through these functionalities, developers are able to accelerate the development and deployment of their apps into the market and focus their efforts on optimizing their app operations and improving end-user experience.

The company's developer services had been used by a cumulative number of approximately 695,080 developers in mobile apps in a wide variety of industries, such as media, entertainment, gaming, financial services, tourism, ecommerce, and education, as of December 31, 2022. The number of mobile apps utilizing at least one of the company's developer services, or the cumulative app installations were 1,871,000 as of December 31, 2022. Almost all of the app developers who use the company's developer services use its push notification services, and a portion of those developers also use other developer services in addition to push notification.

The company's developer services are built upon its proprietary common module JCore, allowing developers to easily integrate additional and multiple functionalities provided by its developer services, as well as enabling it to react to market change and customer demand by developing and adding additional functionalities.

JCore-Foundation of Developer Services

The company's developer services are built as modules on top of JCore. JCore powers and seamlessly integrates with the company's other service functionality modules and provides uniform code-level support to other modules. The modularity brought by JCore allows developers to conveniently integrate additional modules, enabling mobile app developers to scale their business, reducing app development costs, and improving efficiency.

JCore provides key functions that are shared across all of the company's developer services modules, including dynamic loading, which uploads and downloads code-level communications to and from servers, logging and uploading error messages, protecting core source code from leakage and tampering, and securing data sharing.

The company integrates the basic and commonly used code-level functionalities, such as transmission protocols and dynamic loading, into JCore, and build its developer services based on JCore. This enables the company to focus on addressing the specific needs of app developers, develop new services, and add new functionalities to existing services.

Subscription Service

JPush-Push Notification

The company's push notification service, JPush, effectively enables developers to deliver notifications across different formats and different types of internet access devices. JPush, leveraging the company's technology infrastructure and its strong technological capabilities, provides effective solutions to those challenges.

Through JPush, developers can push customizable messages and rich media messages. Rich media includes advanced messaging functionality such as emoji, picture messaging and localized languages. Developers can also push notifications to a target group of end users classified by tagging those users automatically or manually.

The company also shares statistics regarding delivery results with developers that use JPush, including their history of notifications pushed. Other performance statistics include cumulative number of notifications transmitted, number of users who open the app, the time users spent in the app, daily active users (DAU) and the number of users who are using the app in real time. As part of the VIP premium package, certain developers choose to pay for additional capabilities, including the ability to monitor the results of transmissions in real time and access in-depth customized statistical reports.

Leveraging the company's technology infrastructure built upon a network of over 7,400 servers strategically located across China, JPush enables timely and reliable delivery of notifications, which can translate into a more engaged and larger active user base for developers and, ultimately, scalability of their businesses and higher return on their investment. JPush pushed over 8.4 billion messages to various app end users on an average daily basis in the three months ended December 31, 2022.

The company offers a basic package of push notification services free of charge, and it charges subscription fees, primarily on a monthly basis, for its VIP premium package. Compared to the basic package, the VIP premium package includes more real-time pushes, more offline message storage, exclusive high-speed channels for VIP push notification traffic and customized SDK features.

JAnalytics-Data Analytics

JAnalytics enables developers and business decision makers to quickly understand the operating performance of their apps and customer base. Leveraging its data analytics capabilities, the company is able to process large amounts of device-level mobile behavioral and app operational data in an aggregated and anonymized fashion and generate market trend reports, industry rankings and other customizable statistical reports, allowing app developers to understand their own market position.

JAnalytics includes basic and customizable service offerings. For its basic service offering, the company has ready-to-use event models for real-time querying. Events typically relate to device owners' in-app behavior. Based on the event type selected by the developer, JAnalytics processes and distills data to generate statistical reports. The company's customizable service offering gives developers the flexibility to change the data dimension and the event type according to their choices.

Developers can review JAnalytics results on the company's proprietary dashboard and receive some results on their own backend system through APIs provided by it. The company offers JAnalytics free of charge.

JMessage-Instant Messaging

The company's real-time internet-based instant messaging services, or JMessage, enables developers to easily embed instant messaging functionality into their apps. Built upon JPush's message distribution system, JMessage provides end users with stable and reliable chat features. JMessage features customizable personal chats, group chats and chat rooms. JMessage also supports rich media messaging, voice messaging, pictures, files, offline messaging, and location sharing.

Similar to JPush, the company offers a basic package of instant messaging services free of charge, and it charges subscription fees, primarily on a monthly basis, for its VIP premium package. In comparison to the basic package, the VIP premium package allows for more message exchanges, higher frequency usage of API, more chat rooms, and dedicated communication channels.

JSMS-SMS

The company's SMS services, or JSMS, enable developers to easily integrate SMS text message functions for authentication and serves as an incremental channel for user communication in addition to JPush. Leveraging its strong message distribution system and telecom operators' networks, the company provides fast and reliable delivery of messages to end users with low latency. Developers can also programmatically send, receive, and track SMS messages. The company charges a fee for JSMS based on the number of messages delivered.

JUMS-Unified Messages System

The company's JUMS integrates nine major messaging channels to one platform at no additional cost. JUMS supports various push notification models and provides reports on push notification statistics, message history, user reach analysis, and other insights. By integrating operational metrics of various channels and analyzing conversion rates, JUMS helps businesses better understand their targeted markets and users, and plans accordingly to execute on operational and marketing initiatives. In August 2021, JUMS completed all tests required by the China Telecommunication Technology Labs (CTTL) in terms of system functions, push notification methods and performance, reflecting the full compatibility and compliance of its 5G messaging capabilities.

The company provides free public cloud version of JUMS. For users with higher requirements for multi-channel push notifications and user management, they can upgrade to the premium version of JUMS and enjoy unlimited channel management, higher call frequency limits, message callbacks, blacklists and whitelists preferences, and other exclusive premium services.

JG VaaS - Video as a Service

The company's JG VaaS provides extensive and high-quality short video resources. For apps without the short video feature, APP users can install JG VaaS SDK to allow their users to enjoy short video in both horizontal and vertical formats instantly; for APPs with video service capabilities but are lack of high-quality video contents, APP users can connect to JG VaaS API to access the video resources. Through JG VaaS, APP users can receive personalized video recommendations on a timely basis as all the video contents provided by JG VaaS are tailored to the user profiles. APP developers can also build customized video channels according to its target users base, enabling developers to effectively incentivize users' interest, optimize user experience, and increase users' average daily time spent and stickiness.

JShare-Social Sharing

The company's cross-platform social sharing services (JShare) enable developers to quickly integrate social sharing functionality, such as the ability to share content with selected apps or to authenticate using credentials from another platform. Developers can also track end users' sharing behavior based on the analytics function integrated into JShare. JShare is offered free of charge.

JVerification-One-click Verification

The company's fast integration and one-click verification services, or JVerification, enable developers to quickly verify the cellphone number without verification code to improve conversion rate and user experience by integrating three major telecommunication operators in mainland China. The company provides stable and convenient access so that developers can quickly complete SDK integration without additional development cost. The company charges a fee for JVerification based on the number of messages delivered.

JMLink

The company's JMLink is an enterprise-level deep linking service. It creates a way to improve user growth and activity. JMLink, with its deep link technology, helps direct customers to service with one-link. Short linking service could be integrated into the shared contents. When end-users click the link, targeted app installed on the device would be awakened and the corresponding page would be loaded on the app. JMLink helps promote conversion rate of products and services, thereby improving user growth and engagement.

Private Cloud-based Developer Services

While most of its developer services are provided through public-cloud servers, the company also provides fee-based private cloud-based developer services. The company's private cloud-based packages are designed to provide customizable services to app developers who want a more controlled software environment and more comprehensive technology and customer support. It offers a private cloud-based service option to its JPush, JSMS, JVerification, and JUMS customers. The company charges a fee for the private cloud-based packages on a project basis and a monthly fee for the ongoing maintenance of the private cloud.

Overseas Messaging Service Platform EngageLab

In order to facilitate the overseas expansion of Chinese companies, the company launched its overseas messaging service platform EngageLab in October 2022. EngageLab is a cloud communication platform and offers omni-channel messaging solutions to global enterprises and developers, including push notification service, email service, SMS service and other services. As of December 31, 2022, EngageLab has established partnerships with hundreds of leading enterprises in various industries, including technology, internet, smartphone, video, media, auto, finance, healthcare, and e-commerce.

Others

The company seeks to develop more innovative services to meet the evolving demand of app developers. For example, it has customized its push notification services customers.

Value Added Services

Advertisement SAAS

Advertisement SAAS is the company's data management platform service, which provides tagged and de-identified population data package to customers who can utilize for ads placement without its direct involvement. The company provides advertisement SAAS services by charging a fee based on a percentage of total value of advertisement placed.

JG Alliance

The company provides services in the form of integrated marketing campaigns to advertising customers through JG Alliance. It generates revenue using performance-based fee arrangements where it charges the advertising customers primarily on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) basis.

AD Mediation Platform

AD Mediation Platform leveraged the company's proprietary SDK technology to help mobile app developers access other mainstream advertising platforms in mainland China and help them better monetize their application advertising inventory.

AI-Powered Data Processing Platform

By providing services to mobile app developers, the company gains access to and aggregate massive amounts of anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data that it uses to develop its industry-specific solutions. The company only gains access to selected device-level data that is necessary for, and relevant to, the services provided based on its agreements with app developers and the consents they obtain from end users. The company's developer services can be integrated into various apps on a single device, which allows it to receive data from different and multiple dimensions, both online and offline. The data received through developer services primarily consists of unstructured metadata.

Vertical Applications

The company's Vertical Applications comprise market intelligence, financial risk management, and location-based intelligence (iZone).

From tag generation to product design to day-to-day deployment of its solutions, the company leverages its high-quality and ever-growing data pool and utilize AI and machine learning technology and other advanced data technology to productize its vertical applications. During the development stage of its vertical applications, proprietary indices and tags are generated by its centralized data processing platform. These tags and indices cover multiple dimensions, which the company then selectively utilizes for different solutions depending on solution specific requirements.

Market Intelligence

By leveraging its access to massive amounts of data relating to mobile app operations, the company markets intelligence solutions empower corporations and investors to make business and investment decisions.

The company provides the following three versions of market intelligence solutions:

Enterprise-Oriented Solutions: The company provides industry ranking, competitive analysis, and operational analysis for corporate customers.

Fund-Oriented Solutions: The company provides industry trends analysis, tracks portfolio company growth, and conducts project-oriented case studies for fund managers.

Project-Based Tailor-Made Solutions: The company provides more in-depth analytics services and generate customized statistics reports based on customers' specific requirements.

Customers can subscribe to each version of the company's market intelligence solutions based on either the number of apps covered under the solution or the number of queries. Customers who subscribe to its market intelligence solution based on the number of apps covered can review the operating metrics of those apps they have subscribed to on the company's interactive dashboard. The query-based subscription package provides functions that accommodate ad hoc requests from customers and gives customers more flexibility when they want to search for and review the statistical results of a particular mobile app.

The company primarily provides market intelligence solutions under annual subscriptions. Subscription prices are quoted based on either the number of apps customers subscribe to or the number of queries customers need within a subscription period.

Financial Risk Management

Financial risk management solutions help the company's customers better assess and control their credit and fraud risk exposure, facilitating enterprise risk management and innovative decision-making. It targets customers for financial risk management solutions include financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, as well as emerging financial technology companies. The company provides three types of financial risk management solutions to help its customers make pre-lending decisions, including anti-fraud risk features, and blacklist.

Anti-Fraud Risk Features: The company offers standard packages that include over 10,000 unique risk features that are similar to the basic tags it generates but are more advanced in terms of their structural complexity and tailored for risk assessment in financial industry. The company provides anti-fraud risk features to customers through APIs that automate querying processes, enabling customers to incorporate these risk features into their own risk modeling.

The company develops the risk features based on anonymous device-level mobile behavioral data. It only exchanges such risk features with its customers' backend systems based on their queries, and it does not have access to credit applicants' identification information, which is in its customers' sole control. The company utilizes its proprietary algorithms to help customers determine the broader creditworthiness of a borrower. The company's algorithms can translate complex data and intelligently combine different types of data organized by advanced tags into explainable patterns of behavior that are relevant to the borrower's financial status and creditworthiness.

For customers who subscribe to the company's customizable package, it works closely with them to jointly develop credit assessment models, tailor-made risk features, as well as internal risk management policies.

Blacklist: The company maintains a blacklist that includes primarily potential defaults or frauds predicted based on its data analytics capabilities. It creates an initial blacklist that contains default and delinquency history based on publicly available data and data provided by third parties. The company then utilizes its AI and data analytics capabilities to study this data, identify the behavioral features and patterns that may lead to future default or fraud, apply the identified features and patterns to its own data sets, predict potential default or fraud based on the features and patterns and include the results in its blacklist.

The company provides its financial risk management solutions using a query-based model and charges its customers based on the volume of queries it processes and the number of features they utilize. The company also provides a yearly subscription package that sets an upper limit on the number of queries it processes during the subscription period.

Location-Based Intelligence (iZone and iAudience)

The company's location-based intelligence solutions track foot traffic, providing insights through real-time simulations that are generated based on carefully gauged sample data, helping its customers make smarter and more impactful operational decisions. To provide location-based intelligence solutions, the company first builds 'geofences,' virtual perimeters established around a real-world targeted location, such as car dealerships, shopping malls, tourism sites and neighborhoods. After the geofences are established, the company processes and analyzes the location-based data within the 'geofences' in an aggregated and anonymized fashion in order to quantify the impact of specific business decisions by tracking changes in foot traffic. JG iAudience is a user labeling solution that leverages massive information accumulated via mobile terminals to build a multi-dimensional, accurate, and complete user profiling system. iAudience helps businesses to precisely target different customer demographics, develop personalized operational strategies, improve service quality, and facilitate real-time decision-making process that drives business growth. The company's target customers for location-based intelligence solutions include retailers and those from other traditional brick-and-mortar industries, such as auto dealerships, real estate developers, and shopping malls. The company intends to further broaden the customer base of its location-based intelligence solutions and expand into other industry verticals.

The company offers three main categories of location-based intelligence solutions based on the different goals its customers wish to achieve:

Customer Insights: The company utilizes various data analytics and statistical tools to dissect and analyze a customer's user base, facilitating informed decision making and strategic planning. By tracking and analyzing foot traffic and sample subsets of foot traffic data within the 'geofences,' the company generates simulated models and present these statistical results in easy-to-use and intuitive formats, such as in the form of customized interactive dashboards that visualize visitor volume and call customers' attention to emerging and existing trends in their visitors' behaviors. The company charges monthly fees for subscription-based customer insights solutions and a single fee for each customer insights report delivered to the customers.

Customer Acquisition and Re-Targeting: Based on the location-based intelligence and other insights the company has derived from its datasets, the company provides targeted user acquisition and existing user re-engagement plans through its targeted marketing platform. The company charges a performance-based fee for its customer acquisition and re-targeting solutions based on a cost-per-click (CPC) or cost-per-action (CPA) pricing model.

Operation Optimization: The company helps its customers optimize their business operations. For example, the company provides site selection support and make recommendations to its retailer clients. It charges service fees on a project-by-project basis for its operation optimization solutions.

Research and Development

The company incurred RMB154.5 million (U.S.$22.4 million) of research and development expenses for the year ended December 31, 2022.

Customers

In 2022, the company had 6,060 customers who purchased its SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing within the periods.

Customers of SAAS Businesses: The company's paying customers for SAAS Businesses were 6,060 in 2022. The following describes the company's customer base for each of its SAAS Businesses:

Developer Services: While the company adopts a freemium model for most of its developer services, it charges a fee for JSMS based on the number of messages delivered, and it also charges a subscription fee for the VIP premium package of certain developer services, such as JPush and JMessage and a project-based fee for private cloud-based services provided upon the request of customers.

Market Intelligence: The company's customers for its market intelligence solutions primarily consist of investment funds and corporations that have specific needs to capture real-time market intelligence.

Financial Risk Management: The company's customers for financial risk management solutions are mainly financial institutions, including banks and insurance companies and financial technology companies.

Location-Based Intelligence (iZone): The company's customers for its location-based intelligence solutions primarily include retailers, such as automobile dealers and those from other traditional brick-and-mortar industries ranging from real estate developers to shopping malls.

Sales and Marketing

Sales

The company sells its solutions through its experienced direct sales force. The company's sales force is first organized by product line, with each team responsible for one line of its SAAS, and then further organized into multiple regional teams covering different regions across China.

Intellectual Property

As of December 31, 2022, the company had 60 patent applications pending in mainland China and owned 160 computer software copyrights in mainland China, relating to various aspects of its SAAS Businesses and targeted marketing. In addition, the company had filed 27 trademark applications and maintained 143 trademark registrations and 4 artwork copyrights in China. The company has also registered 162 domain names, including jiguang.cn, among others.

As of December 31, 2022, the company had registered 35 patents.

Regulations

The company holds a valid value-added telecommunications business operation license through the VIE Hexun Huagu, covering the provision of internet information services, issued by Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

History

Aurora Mobile Limited was founded in 2011. The company, a Cayman Islands company, was incorporated in 2014.