Share-based compensation

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2025

Share-based compensation

Share-based compensation

17. Share-based compensation

In April 2018, the Company established a trust to hold 51,624,000 of the Company’s issued Class A ordinary shares. These ordinary shares were contributed by the Co-Founders and employees and held in a trust (the “Trust”) for the benefit of the employees who are under the 2018 Equity Incentive Plan.

In April 2021, the Board of Directors of the Company amended the 2018 Plan. Under the Amended 2018 Plan, in April 2021 and on every January 1 thereafter during which the 2018 Plan remains in effect, the maximum aggregate number of Class A ordinary shares which may be subject to awards under the 2018 Plan will be automatically increased by 15.0% of the total number of Class A ordinary shares issued and outstanding on December 31 of the preceding calendar year, if and whenever the unallocated Class A ordinary shares which may be issuable under the 2018 Plan account for less than 3% of the then total issued and outstanding Class A ordinary shares.

(a) Restricted share units

The following table summarizes the RSUs activity for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2024 and 2025:

	Number of	Weighted average
	shares	grant date fair value
		US$
Outstanding as of December 31, 2022	123,791,055	0.60
Granted	102,323,925	0.15
Forfeited	(28,129,155)	0.29
Vested	(51,031,395)	0.60
Outstanding as of December 31, 2023	146,954,430	0.35
Granted	494,060,175	0.10
Forfeited	(21,423,390)	0.22
Vested	(49,645,830)	0.61
Outstanding as of December 31, 2024	569,945,385	0.12
Granted	229,907,010	0.07
Forfeited	(62,462,055)	0.07
Vested	(186,096,045)	0.16
Outstanding as of December 31, 2025	551,294,295	0.09

In 2025, the Company granted 229,907,010 RSUs to the Company’s employees under the Amended 2018 Plan. The Company used closing price of ordinary share to determine the fair value of the RSUs. Compensation expense related to RSUs with service conditions is recognized over the requisite service period, which is generally the vesting term of up to five years. The vesting shares came from those treasury stocks already held by the Company. The total fair value of RSUs vested during the years ended December 31, 2023, 2024 and 2025 was US$30,812, US$16,415 and US$28,977, respectively. The aggregate fair value of the unvested RSUs as of December 31, 2025 was US$53,561.

As of December 31, 2025, there was US$48,664 unrecognized compensation expense related to RSUs, which is expected to be recognized over a weighted-average period of 38 months.

(b) Share options

The following table summarizes the share options for the years ended December 31, 2023, 2024 and 2025:

		Weighted-Average	Weighted
		per Share	Average
	Number of	Exercise	Remaining	Aggregate
	shares	Price	Contractual Term	Intrinsic Value
		US$	Years	US$
Outstanding as of December 31, 2022	114,000,000	0.76	8.12	—
Granted	30,000,000	0.40	—	—
Outstanding as of December 31, 2023	144,000,000	0.69	7.53	—
Cancelled	(84,000,000)	0.81	—	—
Outstanding as of December 31, 2024	60,000,000	0.50	7.02	—
Outstanding at of December 31, 2025	60,000,000	0.50	6.04	—
Vested as of December 31, 2025	60,000,000	0.50	6.04	—
Exercisable as of December 31, 2025	60,000,000	0.50	6.04	—

The aggregate intrinsic value as of December 31, 2025 in the table above is zero as the fair value of the Company’s ordinary share on December 31, 2025 is lower than the exercise price.

As of December 31, 2025, there was no unrecognized compensation expense related to share options.

The assumptions used to estimate the fair value of the share options granted were as follows:

	For the Year Ended December 31,
	2023
Risk-free rate of return (1)	3.85% to 3.92	%
Dividend yield (2)	0	%
Expected volatility (3)	124.86	%
Expected term (4)	10 years
Exercise multiple (5)	2.80
Fair value of ordinary share	US$0.12 per ordinary share

1) The risk-free rate of return was estimated based on the yield of US Strip Bond with a maturity life equal to the remaining maturity life of the Company’s options as of the valuation date.

2) Dividend yield is zero as the Company has never declared or paid any cash dividends on its shares, and the Company does not anticipate any dividend payments in the foreseeable future.

3) The expected volatility was estimated based on the historical volatility of comparable peer public companies and the Company with a time horizon close to the contract life of the Company’s options.

4) Expected term is the contract life of the option.

5) The expected exercise multiple was estimated as the average ratio of the stock price to the exercise price of when employees would decide to voluntarily exercise their vested options. As the Company did not have sufficient information of past employee exercise history, it has considered the statistics by making reference to a widely-accepted academic research publication.