The growth of our business and future prospects depends on our ability to further expand our operations and increase our sales outside of the U.S. as a percentage of our total revenues. Operating globally requires significant resources and management attention and subjects us to regulatory, economic, and political risks that are different from those in the U.S. Our investments and efforts to further expand internationally may not be successful in creating additional demand for our applications outside of the U.S. or in effectively selling subscriptions to our applications in all of the markets we enter. Risks associated with doing business on a global scale that could adversely affect our business, include:
- the need to develop, localize, and adapt our applications and customer support for specific countries;
- the need to successfully develop and execute on a localized go-to-market strategy;
- the need to adhere to local laws and regulations, including those related to data localization, privacy, and anti-corruption, which may make it more difficult to penetrate certain international market segments with highly specialized compliance, contracting, and data sovereignty requirements;
- difficulties in appropriately staffing and managing foreign operations and providing appropriate compensation and benefits for local markets;
- difficulties in leveraging executive presence, maintaining company culture globally, and conforming with local cultural contexts and customs;
- increased travel, real estate, infrastructure, and legal and regulatory compliance costs associated with international operations;
- different pricing environments, longer sales cycles, and longer trade receivables payment cycles, and collections issues;
- new and different sources of competition;
- potentially weaker protection for intellectual property and other legal rights than in the U.S. and practical difficulties in enforcing intellectual property and other rights;
- laws, contracting approaches, customs, and business practices favoring local vendors over U.S.-based companies, which may be increased by geopolitical tensions;
- restrictive governmental actions focused on cross-border trade, such as import and export restrictions, duties, quotas, potential or imposed tariffs, trade disputes, and barriers or sanctions, as well as any retaliatory actions, that may prevent us from offering certain portions of our products or services to a particular market, may increase our operating costs, or may subject us to monetary fines or penalties;
- compliance challenges related to the complexity of multiple, conflicting, and changing governmental laws and regulations, including employment, tax, privacy, intellectual property, financial services, AI, and data protection laws and regulations, as well as challenges with differing legal, alternative dispute, and regulatory systems;
- increased compliance costs related to government regulatory reviews or audits, including those related to international cybersecurity and sustainability requirements;
- increased financial accounting and reporting burdens and complexities;
- the effects of currency fluctuations on our revenues and expenses and customer demand for our services;
- restrictions on the transfer of funds;
- adverse tax consequences and tax rulings; and
- unstable economic and political conditions.
Certain of the above factors have and may continue to negatively impact our ability to sell our applications and offer services globally, reduce our competitive position in foreign markets, increase our costs of global operations, reduce demand for our applications and services from global customers, or subject us to legal or regulatory liability. Additionally, the majority of our international costs are denominated in local currencies and we anticipate that over time an increasing portion of our sales contracts may be outside the U.S. and will therefore be denominated in local currencies. Fluctuations in the value of foreign currencies, which may be amplified by macroeconomic events, may impact our operating results when translated into U.S. dollars. Such fluctuations may also impact our ability to predict our future results accurately. If we are not able to successfully hedge against the risks associated with foreign currency fluctuations, our financial condition and operating results could be adversely affected.