NetEase has wrapped up the final quarter of FY2018 - and the year overall - on a high.
Net revenues for Q4 2018 hit $2.9 billion (RMB 19.8 billion), an increase of 35.8 per cent year-over-year. Meanwhile, gross profit climbed 33.3 per cent year-over-year to reach $1.1 billion (RMB 7.7 billion).
NetEase combined the quarterly results with a wrap-up of FY2018. Net revenue for the 12 months hit $9.7 billion (RMB 67.2 billion), with gross profit reaching $4.1 billion (RMB 5.2 billion).
Online games services - which includes sales from mobile - brought in $1.6 billion (RMB 11 billion) in revenue for Netease over Q4 2018. For the year total, that sector hit net revenues of $5.8 billion (RMB 40.2 billion).
The publisher attributed this performance to the continued successes of games like Fantasy Westward Journey and battle royale genre champion Knives Out, alongside a Chinese chart-topping start for Night Falls: Survival.
On the up
"We finished the year with total annual net revenues of RMB67 billion, a 24 per cent increase from 2017, driven by a diverse portfolio of online games as well as healthy growth in our e-commerce, advertising services and other internet product and service offerings," said CEO and director William Ding.
“Throughout the year we also made a number of advancements to better position us on the world's stage, most notably in Japan.
"While online games remain the cornerstone of our business, we also see huge potential in e-commerce, music and online education. These will be the primary focus of our business strategy in 2019.”
China’s game freeze may have hit the region’s market hard, but NetEase was largely able to weather the storm. Between itself and Tencent, China’s two biggest publishers saw a 382 per cent increase in international mobile games revenue.
NetEase vice president Ken Li will be a speaker at Pocket Gamer Connects Seattle on March 13th to 14th. Head to the website for more details on the event.
