Last updated: 20 May 2026
1. Acceptance of these Terms
These Terms and Conditions (“Terms”) govern your access to and use of thebay.mo (the “Site”), operated by Ruca Limited (“Ruca”, “we”, “us”, or “our”), a company incorporated in the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. The Bay is a brand of Ruca Limited.
By accessing or using the Site, or by submitting any content to The Bay, you agree to be bound by these Terms. If you do not agree to these Terms, please do not access or use the Site.
These Terms incorporate by reference our Privacy Policy. Together, they constitute the entire agreement between you and Ruca Limited regarding your use of the Site.
2. Definitions
For the purposes of these Terms:
• “The Bay” means the editorial brand operated by Ruca Limited and published at thebay.mo.
• “Content” means all material made available on the Site, including but not limited to text, images, photographs, illustrations, graphics, video, audio, podcasts, infographics, data, and any other multimedia material.
• “Site” means thebay.mo, including any subdomain, mobile-optimised version, or successor URL.
• “User”, “you” or “your” means any person who accesses or uses the Site.
3. About The Bay
The Bay is a wholly-owned brand of Ruca Limited, incorporated in Macao. While The Bay sits within Ruca Limited, editorial decisions are made independently by The Bay’s editorial leadership in line with the principles set out in The Bay’s Ethics Policy.
4. Use of the Site
You agree to use the Site only for lawful purposes and in a manner consistent with these Terms and applicable laws. You agree not to:
• engage in any conduct that is unlawful, fraudulent, harassing, abusive, or harmful to others;
• use the Site in any way that could disable, overburden, damage, or impair its operation;
• introduce viruses, trojans, worms, or any other malicious code to the Site or any system connected to it;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to the Site, its servers, or any associated systems or networks;
• collect or harvest personal data of other Users;
• interfere with the use and enjoyment of the Site by others;
• circumvent, disable, or otherwise interfere with any feature that limits access to Content; or
• engage in automated scraping, crawling, or extraction of Content, except that legitimate search engine indexing (such as Googlebot or Bingbot) and authorised AI retrieval bots that cite their sources with attribution are permitted.
5. Linking to The Bay
Deep linking to specific articles or pages on the Site is permitted, provided that links display the URL or article title accurately and do not imply any endorsement, sponsorship, or partnership with The Bay or Ruca Limited.
You may not frame or embed the Site or any of its Content within another website or application without our prior written consent. You may not present The Bay’s Content in a way that obscures attribution or removes copyright notices.
6. Intellectual property
All Content on the Site is owned by Ruca Limited, its licensors, or its contributors, and is protected by copyright under the Macao Copyright Code (Decree-Law No. 43/99/M), trademarks under the Macao Industrial Property Code (Decree-Law No. 97/99/M), and other applicable intellectual property laws.
Trademarks
The Bay, the Ruca Limited name, and the logos, names, and visual identities identifying the Site, its sections, and its commercial partners and contributors are trademarks (whether registered or unregistered) of their respective owners. No use of any trademark is permitted without the prior written consent of the owner.
Permitted personal use
You may access and view Content for your own personal, non-commercial use, provided that you do not remove or alter any copyright, trademark, or attribution notice. You may share links to The Bay’s articles via social media, email, and other personal communication channels.
Permitted attribution-based use
Short excerpts of The Bay’s Content may be reproduced for the purposes of news reporting, review, comment, criticism, education, or research, provided that:
• the excerpt is reasonably brief in proportion to the original work;
• the excerpt is accompanied by clear attribution to The Bay and a link to the original article where possible; and
• the excerpt is not used in a way that misrepresents the original or implies an endorsement that does not exist.
Prohibited uses
Except as expressly permitted above, you may not reproduce, copy, distribute, publish, broadcast, sell, license, modify, translate, create derivative works from, or otherwise commercially exploit any Content without prior written permission from Ruca Limited. You may not remove or modify any copyright, trademark, or attribution notice on any Content.
No implied licence
Nothing in these Terms shall be construed as conferring, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any licence or right to use any trade mark, patent, copyright, or other intellectual property right of Ruca Limited, its affiliates, its licensors, or its contributors.
Licensing requests
Requests for permissions to republish, syndicate, or otherwise license The Bay’s Content should be sent to [email protected].
7. Artificial intelligence and data mining
Ruca Limited expressly prohibits the use of any Content from the Site for the purposes of training, fine-tuning, evaluating, or otherwise developing artificial intelligence systems, machine learning models, generative AI models, or large language models, without prior written agreement.
This prohibition applies to all forms of automated data extraction, scraping, or mining of Content for AI development purposes, including bulk download, individual page scraping, and the use of cached or archived copies obtained from third parties.
In accordance with Article 4(3) of EU Directive 2019/790 (the “DSM Directive”) and equivalent text-and-data-mining provisions under other applicable laws, Ruca Limited expressly reserves all rights in respect of text and data mining of the Content. Machine-readable signals to this effect are made available through the Site’s robots.txt and other applicable mechanisms.
This prohibition does not apply to AI retrieval and search systems that fetch Content in response to specific user queries and that provide clear attribution and a link to the original article on thebay.mo. Such systems are permitted on the same basis as legitimate search engine indexing.
8. User submissions
The Bay welcomes story tips, suggestions, photographs, and other material from its readers. By submitting any material to The Bay (whether by email, social media, or any other means), you grant Ruca Limited a non-exclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, perpetual, and sublicensable licence to use, edit, modify, translate, adapt, publish, reproduce, distribute, and display that material across The Bay’s editorial output and platforms.
You warrant that you own the material you submit, or have the necessary rights to grant the above licence. You warrant that the material does not infringe any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights, and does not contain unlawful, defamatory, or otherwise objectionable content.
Ruca Limited reserves the right to refuse, edit, anonymise, or decline to use any submission, at its sole discretion, without notice or explanation.
9. Sponsored content and partner features
The Bay clearly distinguishes editorial content from paid placements. Sponsored content, branded content, and partner features are labelled accordingly.
Where sponsored content, branded content, or partner features appear on the Site, the relevant sponsor or partner bears responsibility for the accuracy, legality, and intellectual property compliance of statements made about their products, services, or offerings. The Bay reserves the right to refuse, edit, or remove such content at its discretion.
The appearance of any third-party logo, name, product, or service on the Site does not imply any endorsement by The Bay or Ruca Limited beyond what is expressly stated.
10. Third-party content and links
The Site may contain content provided or hosted by third parties (including embedded videos, social media posts, podcasts, advertisements, and external links). The availability and reliability of such content is outside Ruca Limited’s control.
Ruca Limited does not endorse, warrant, or accept any responsibility for third-party content, products, or services, including those of advertisers, sponsors, or partners. Any dealings between you and any third party encountered through the Site are solely between you and that third party.
Embedded social media content (such as posts from X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or similar platforms) is provided by those platforms under their own terms and privacy policies.
11. Disclaimers
The Site and all Content are provided “AS IS” and “AS AVAILABLE”, without warranties of any kind, whether express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement, accuracy, or uninterrupted availability.
The Bay makes no representation or warranty that the Site will be free from errors, viruses, or interruptions, or that defects will be corrected.
No professional advice
The Bay’s Content is provided for general information only and does not constitute professional advice. You should seek qualified professional advice (legal, financial, medical, or otherwise) before making decisions based on Content published on thebay.mo.
Downloads at your own risk
Any Content you download from or otherwise acquire through the Site is downloaded at your own discretion and risk. You are wholly responsible for any damage to your device or loss of data resulting from such downloads.
No warranty from advice
No advice or information, whether oral or written, that you obtain from Ruca Limited or through the Site creates any warranty or guarantee not expressly stated in these Terms.
Internet performance
The performance of the Site depends on the speed, capacity, and reliability of your internet connection, which is outside Ruca Limited’s control. Ruca Limited is not liable for any failure or delay in your access to the Site arising from internet performance.
12. Limitation of liability
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, in no event shall Ruca Limited, its directors, officers, employees, agents, or licensors be liable to you for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages, including but not limited to loss of profits, loss of data, loss of goodwill, or business interruption, arising out of or relating to your use of, or inability to use, the Site, regardless of the legal basis of the claim.
For direct damages, the total aggregate liability of Ruca Limited arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Site is limited to the total amount you have paid Ruca Limited in the twelve (12) months preceding the event giving rise to the claim.
Nothing in these Terms limits or excludes Ruca Limited’s liability where such limitation or exclusion would be unlawful, including in respect of non-waivable rights under the Macao Consumer Protection Law (Decree-Law No. 31/2003/M) and equivalent consumer protection laws.
13. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Ruca Limited, its directors, officers, employees, and agents from and against any claims, damages, losses, liabilities, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or relating to:
• your breach of these Terms;
• your violation of applicable law in connection with your use of the Site;
• any content, material, or submission you provide to The Bay; or
• any infringement by you of any third party’s intellectual property, privacy, or other rights.
14. Service availability and modifications
The Site may be unavailable from time to time for system maintenance, upgrades, testing, or repair. Ruca Limited may expand, reduce, modify, withdraw, or discontinue any feature or part of the Site, or any Content, at its discretion and without notice.
15. Cookies and tracking
The Site uses cookies and similar tracking technologies. The use of these technologies, including the basis for processing personal data through them, is set out in The Bay’s Privacy Policy.
16. Force majeure
Ruca Limited is not liable for any failure or delay in performance of its obligations under these Terms arising from events beyond its reasonable control, including but not limited to: acts of God, natural disasters, fires, floods, epidemics or pandemics, war, terrorism, civil unrest, acts of government or regulatory authorities, sanctions, internet or telecommunications failures, denial-of-service attacks, power failures, and labour disputes.
17. Events, partnerships and promotions
Tickets to events organised by The Bay or Ruca Limited, paid partnerships, commercial collaborations, contests, giveaways, and similar activities may be subject to specific terms in addition to these Terms. Such specific terms will be made available at the time the relevant activity is offered, and prevail over these Terms in respect of that activity to the extent of any inconsistency.
18. Changes to these Terms
Ruca Limited may update these Terms from time to time to reflect changes in the law, the Site, our services, or our business. The current version is identified by the “Last updated” date at the top of these Terms.
The updated version posted on the Site constitutes notice of the change. Your continued use of the Site after the effective date of any update constitutes your acceptance of the revised Terms.
If you do not accept the revised Terms, you must stop using the Site.
19. Termination
These Terms remain in force for so long as you access or use the Site. You may terminate your relationship with The Bay at any time by ceasing to use the Site.
Ruca Limited may restrict or terminate your access to the Site in accordance with these Terms.
Survival
The provisions of these Terms that by their nature are intended to survive termination — including those relating to intellectual property, AI and data mining, user submissions, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, governing law, dispute resolution, and the general provisions — survive any termination of these Terms.
20. Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China, including but not limited to: the Press Law (Law No. 7/90/M), the Copyright Code (Decree-Law No. 43/99/M), the Industrial Property Code (Decree-Law No. 97/99/M), the Personal Data Protection Act (Law No. 8/2005), the Consumer Protection Law (Decree-Law No. 31/2003/M), and the Macao Civil Code.
The Bay’s audience extends across the Greater Bay Area and beyond. Where applicable, Users in other jurisdictions may have additional rights under their local law, and nothing in these Terms limits any non-waivable consumer rights you may have.
Subject to non-waivable rights of consumers in other jurisdictions, any dispute, controversy, or claim arising out of or relating to these Terms, or the breach, termination, or validity thereof, shall be submitted to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Macao.
Time limit on claims
Any claim arising out of or relating to these Terms or your use of the Site must be brought within one (1) year after the cause of action accrues, except where applicable law mandates a longer limitation period.
21. General provisions
Entire agreement
These Terms, together with the Privacy Policy and any other policies referenced in them, constitute the entire agreement between you and Ruca Limited regarding the Site, and supersede any prior agreements or representations.
Hierarchy of documents
In the event of any conflict, these Terms prevail in respect of use-of-Site matters, the Privacy Policy prevails in respect of personal data handling, and any specific event, partnership, or promotional terms prevail in respect of the relevant activity. The Ethics Policy describes The Bay’s editorial standards and does not create contractual rights for Users.
No third-party beneficiaries
These Terms are between you and Ruca Limited. No third party has any rights to enforce any provision of these Terms.
Severability
If any provision of these Terms is held to be unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions shall continue in full force and effect.
No waiver
No failure or delay by Ruca Limited in exercising any right under these Terms shall operate as a waiver, nor shall any single or partial exercise preclude any other exercise of that or any other right.
Assignment
You may not assign your rights or obligations under these Terms. Ruca Limited may assign its rights and obligations under these Terms to any of its affiliates or to any successor in a corporate transaction (including a sale, merger, restructuring, or acquisition).
No agency
Nothing in these Terms creates an agency, partnership, joint venture, or employment relationship between you and Ruca Limited.
Headings
Section headings are used for convenience only and do not affect the interpretation of these Terms.
Electronic notice
You agree that electronic communications (including by email or notice posted on the Site) satisfy any legal requirement for written communication, where permitted by applicable law.
22. Contact us
For general enquiries: [email protected]
For privacy queries and data subject requests: [email protected]
For legal queries, copyright notices, takedown requests, and licensing: [email protected]