PRSS 2017 Annual Report

15 Mobile devices are increasingly used for e-commerce transactions. A significant and growing portion of our users access our platforms through mobile devices. We may lose users if we are not able to continue to meet our users’ mobile and multi-screen experience expectations. The variety of technical and other configurations across different mobile devices and platforms increases the challenges associated with this environment. In addition, a number of other companies with significant resources and a number of innovative startups have introduced products and services focusing on mobile markets. Our ability to successfully address the challenges posed by the rapidly evolving market for mobile transactions is crucial to our continued success, and any failure to continuously increase the volume of mobile transactions effected through our platforms could harm our business. Our business model focuses on user-generated content and as a result, controversial political and social expressions appear on our site that may impact our brand name or with which current or potential customers or business partners may not wish to be associated. We have built our business by providing consumers an outlet for self-expression through unique or customized goods that they can share with their friends, their communities and the world. Our service is often used for the expression of political and cause- related issues that may generate strong opinions on many sides of a given issue, including in other customers and potentially with the business partners who supply us with content or inventory and to those who choose to invest in our company. As a result, our websites frequently attract the attention of media outlets that may not understand the user-generated nature of our business model and attribute sentiments expressed by our users to our company or its management team. Additionally, because our service provides a platform for the expression of controversial ideas and humor, our site could be the target of negative social media or petition campaigns, computer attacks or boycotts by well-organized special interest groups or filtered by foreign countries, which may adversely impact our growth and operations. Our distribution and channel partners may likewise become uncomfortable with aspects of our user-generated content business model in light of their own content usage policies and may cut back or refuse to display our products or otherwise limit our merchandising opportunities thus impacting our results of operations. We believe we must maintain a balance among the encouragement of self-expression in our users that creates a content-rich experience, the needs and concerns of our business partners and our mutual desire to protect our brand and our companies. If we fail to maintain this balance and lose partners, customers, or potential customers due to judgments made about the content on our websites, or conversely if we alienate corporate partners or businesses who wish to employ our customization services for their content or products without fear of negative reflection on their brand images, we risk damage to our brand and reputation and ultimately our business and results of operations. Because our sales and revenue rely on consumer spending of discretionary income, uncertain macroeconomic conditions in the United States and world economies may materially and adversely affect our financial results. The majority of our revenue is generated from sales through our consumer e-commerce websites and our customized products are largely found in categories of consumer goods that would be deemed non-essentials. As a result, our sales are driven largely by discretionary consumer spending habits and preferences. Historically, consumer purchasing on discretionary items declines during economic downturns and periods of uncertainty regarding future economic prospects or when disposable income or consumer lending is lower. While not always directly related to actual consumer behavior, macro-economic conditions such as global currency and debt concerns, stock market volatility, levels of unemployment, increased fuel or commodity prices and transportation costs, and conditions in the commercial consumer lending and housing markets, among other factors, fuel uncertainty over future macro- economic conditions and prospects of a prolonged recessionary spending climate. Many other factors contribute to economic conditions in the U.S., including taxation and distribution concerns. Deterioration of macroeconomic conditions in the near term or long term, or the perception that such deterioration might occur, could reduce demand for our products either temporarily or in the long term. Our revenue could likewise decline and our results could be materially and adversely affected by such trends. Our ability to anticipate, identify and respond quickly to consumer spending pressures and prevailing economic conditions will be challenged if such economic uncertainties continue or particularly during peak periods for our sales that historically have occurred in our fiscal fourth quarter. The proper functioning of our websites is essential to our business and any failure to maintain the satisfactory performance, security and integrity of our websites will materially and adversely affect our business, reputation, financial condition and results of operations. The satisfactory performance, reliability and availability of our websites, our marketing activities, our transaction-processing systems and our network infrastructure are critical to our success. Our revenue depends on the number of visitors who shop on our websites and the volume of orders we fulfill. Any system delays, interruptions or disruptions to our servers caused by telecommunications failures, computer viruses, physical break-ins, domain attacks, hacking or other attempts to harm our systems