NetEase Q3 Net Revenues Reaches $3.4 Billion, Music, Game and Education Businesses Boom
NetEase, one of China’s leading internet and online game services providers, announced on Tuesday its unaudited financial results for the third quarter this year. Net revenues were 22.2 billion yuan ($3.4 billion), an increase of 18.9% compared with the third quarter of 2020. Non-GAAP net income attributable to the company’s shareholders was 3.9 billion yuan.
Game Business
In the third quarter of this year, online game services net revenues hit 15.9 billion yuan, an increase of 14.7% compared with the third quarter of 2020. “It was a very fruitful season for diversification of our online games. Our flagship titles remained strong and we introduced several new hits for PC and mobile platforms. New games such as Naraka: Bladepoint and Harry Potter: Magic Awakened, captured interest from passionate game players who appreciated the high quality of game design,” said William Ding, Chief Executive Officer and Director of NetEase.
Naraka: Bladepoint, which broke sales records of buy-to-play games by Chinese developers and led the Steam top-sellers chart, remained in the top 5 for several weeks following its worldwide launch in August. Harry Potter: Magic Awakened led China’s iOS top grossing chart and top download chart following its launch in September. The company’s latest release, The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War in Europe, was launched in Americas, Oceania and Southeast Asia in Q3.
In view of new regulations regarding online games for minors, NetEase Games has implemented a facial recognition verification function to screen for underage users, and carries out special treatment for renting and selling game accounts to minors.
Music Business
NetEase Cloud Music recently reached a copyright cooperation with Modern Sky, Emperor Entertainment (Hong Kong) Limited and China Record Corporation. The gradual opening of music copyright is re-stimulating the vitality of the Chinese music market.
Education Business
In the third quarter, net revenues from Youdao were 1.39 billion yuan, compared with 1.29 billion yuan for the preceding quarter.
As previously disclosed, in order to comply with applicable regulatory requirements, Youdao plans to dispose of its after-school tutoring business for academic subjects which are included in China’s compulsory education system. The move is expected to be completed by the end of 2021. Youdao’s capabilities as an education technology provider have progressed, with steady advancements in STEAM courses, adult learning and smart learning hardware devices.
Recently, NetEase Cloud Classroom announced the launch of Amazon Cloud Technology Chinese Online Training Course, which is open to all users free of charge. This series of courses includes topics such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, architecture design, database, network and security.
