南方財經全媒體記者 楊雨萊 廣州報道
Some say Chinese internet industry is kind of like a zoo. There's "penguin factory", a nickname for Tencent; "cat factory" for Alibaba, "dog factory" for JD, and so on. And the Guangzhou-based NetEas, which is dubbed the "pig factory" won its name fair and square by having a founder who is actually involved in pig farming.
As a veteran of China's internet industry, Ding Lei founded NetEase at the age of 26, and became the richest man in China at 32. But at 38, Ding, who's worth over 100 billion yuan, embarked on his "obsession" with pig raising.
Under his leadership, NetEase has been on a rollercoaster ride of dramatic twists and turns. Founded in 1997, NetEase modeled its development after Yahoo. It went on to launch China's first all-Chinese search engine, the first site to offer free personal homepage, and first free mailbox. NetEase once became the most popular website among Chinese netizens.
However, when it went public on NASDAQ in 2000, the dot-com bubble bursted. At the brink of survival, in 2002, NetEase once again took the market by storm with the game "A Chinese Odyssey", propelling its stock price steadily to 72 USD by 2003, crowning NetEase as the "No.1 stock on NASDAQ". As time went on, NetEase's developmental trajectory grew more and more perplexing for onlookers. At times, it ventured into the music industry; At other times, it delved into education. One moment, the CEO was selling towels, and in the next, he's raising pigs.
Many people struggle to define what company NetEase is, but its financial reports provides a clear answer. In the third quarter of 2023, NetEase achieved a net revenue of 27.27 billion yuan, with income from gaming and related services accounting for almost 80%. NetEase is without a doubt a gaming company. It has developed numerous top-tier IPs. And its "on-again, off-again" relationship with Blizzard has also drawn significant attention. In the global mobile gaming market, Tencent leads by a wide margin in revenue. While NetEase ranks fourth, closely trailing Blizzard and Playrix.
However, NetEase's gaming business is not without its challenges. In 2022, Ding Lei proposed an overseas strategy supported by self-developed games and investment. Despite owning more than 30 studios overseas. NetEase's self-developed games didn't quite match up to local alternatives, it struggled to compete with industry giants like MiHoYo and Tencent in overseas markets, and even lagged behind Tier 2 gaming companies like 37 Interactive Entertainment.
Fortunately, these setbacks have limited impact on NetEase's overall performance. In the third quarter of 2023, NetEase achieved a net revenue of 27.27 billion yuan, with a net profit of 7.8 billion yuan, and a year-on-year growth of nearly 18%. Meanwhile, the gross profit margin for the same period reached an impressive 62%. On December 13 of last year, NetEase briefly surpassed Meituan with a market cap of HKD 542.5 billion, to be the fourth-largest internet company in China, ranking only behind Tencent, PDD, and Alibaba.
Despite being "gaming-centric", NetEase also has noteworthy achievements in other businesses. NetEase Cloud Music went public in 2021, becoming the first listed music community globally, and turned losses into profits in the first half of 2023.
Among today's multitude of Chinese internet companies, when compared to rising stars like ByteDance, NetEase may not be the most shinning one, but it certainly stands out as one of the most unique with its inherent distinctiveness and innovation, as part of the rise, develop, and flourish of China's internet industry.
出品：南財國際傳播中心 21新媒體中心 創意互動中心
策劃統籌：于曉娜 丁青云
內容統籌：譚婷 謝珍
責任編輯：黃欣然
執行統籌：黃欣然
設計統籌：林軍明
視頻統籌：白宇航
監制：施詩
英文翻譯&配音：李瑩亮
海外運營監制: 黃燕淑
海外運營內容統籌: 黃子豪
運營支持：曾靜嬌
審校：強燕 魏雯靜 黃志明
本文鏈接：Companies in the GBA｜What gaming company that raises pigs and sells towels？http://www.sq15.cn/show-1-7037-0.html
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