NetEase, Inc., a leading online gaming and Internet technology company in China, is leveraging its strong domestic franchises to compete spectacularly on a global level.
App Annie, the popular mobile business intelligence company, reported that in April 2015, NetEase's self-developed mobile game, Fantasy Westward Journey, was the fourth highest-grossing iOS game in the world.
The original Fantasy Westward Journey is an immensely popular PC game that has been growing steadily in revenues for over a decade.
The successful expansion of the franchise from PC to mobile platforms, and from China to worldwide, is indicative of the rising power of Chinese brands in the global market.
The Fantasy Westward Journey mobile game was launched on March 25, 2015, and since then has dominated the #1 spot in the China iOS App Store's top grossing chart.
The company moreover announced last month that the game had achieved over 2 million peak concurrent users.
Blizzard's seal of quality
The spectacular popularity of Fantasy Westward Journey is the culmination of NetEase's successful efforts in the rapidly growing mobile gaming market, having followed the releases of multiple popular top-quality titles from 2013.
Games from NetEase are considered to be the highlights of the growing gaming industry in China. Now NetEase is casting their sights abroad, having already achieved great results with international partnerships.
At the end of 2013, following years of successful partnership with Blizzard Entertainment (with World of Warcraft®, StarCraft®II, Heroes of the Storm™ and Diablo III®: Reaper of Souls™ as licensed titles) NetEase successfully obtained the license for Hearthstone™: Heroes of Warcraft™, Blizzard Entertainment's free-to-play online strategy card game, while in March 2015 the company successfully licensed Facebook's Game of the Year, Cookie Jam, and F1 Race Stars.
NetEase recently announced its expansion into the Western market with the establishment of a new US office dedicated to bringing games culturalized for consumers outside of China.
Getting better
2015 has already been a stand-out year for NetEase.
Their recently released financial reports for the first quarter of 2015 showed that their revenues increased 54.2% year-over-year. NetEase has an obvious competitive advantage in Chinese markets, but their mature operational expertise also gives them leverage in the successful introduction of their products overseas.
Whether developed in-house or licensed, NetEase games have come to be recognized by the industry and consumers everywhere to embody NetEase's guiding principle of 'quality' which has been reflected in the company's most successful financial results to date.
In 2015, NetEase is continuing to draw attention to the strength of Chinese companies, and in assisting overseas companies to access the huge potential of the 1.3 billion-strong Chinese market.
