Suvarna Garge (Editor)

NetEase

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Type of site
  
Public

Key people
  
Qiu Shan Ge (CEO)

Revenue
  
38.18 billion CNY (2016)

Headquarters
  
Hangzhou, China

Founder(s)
  
Ding Lei

Industry
  
Internet

CEO
  
Ding Lei (Nov 2005–)

NetEase wwwstockwisedailycomwpcontentuploads201411

Traded as
  
NASDAQ: NTES NASDAQ-100 Component

Founded
  
June 1997; 19 years ago (1997-06) Guangzhou, Guangdong, China

Stock price
  
NTES (NASDAQ) US$ 289.43 +3.16 (+1.10%)24 Mar, 11:42 AM GMT-4 - Disclaimer

Video games
  
Hearthstone, Revelation Online

Baidu netease seem like cheap chinese web stocks


NetEase, Inc. (simplified Chinese: 网易; traditional Chinese: 網易; pinyin: Wǎng Yì) is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centred on content, community, communications and commerce. Founded in 1997, the company was a key pioneer in the development of Internet services for China. Today, NetEase develops and operates some of China's online PC and mobile games, advertising services, e-mail services and e-commerce platforms.

Contents

NetEase has produced some of China's online PC-client games, including Fantasy Westward Journey II and New Westward Journey Online II, as well as other games, such as Tianxia III, Heroes of Tang Dynasty Zero and Ghost II. In partnership with Blizzard Entertainment, Inc., NetEase operates some international online games in China, including World of Warcraft, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, StarCraft II and Diablo III: Reaper of Souls.

NetEase offers multi-platform access to free and fee-based community and communication services, including websites, content channels, YiChat social instant messaging application, NetEase Mobile News Application, Youdao dictionary and Youdao cloud note-taking service.

NetEase is one of the providers of free e-mail services in China, offering features such as voice search and facial recognition. NetEase also offers fee-based premium e-mail services for corporate users. In addition, NetEase has ventures in e-commerce, with offerings such as Kaola, a cross-border e-commerce platform, and Wangyibao, an online payment system. Other online products offered include online video entertainment services: Bobo and CC.

History

The company has grown rapidly since its founding in June 1997, thanks in part to its investment in search engine technology and massively multiplayer online role-playing gaming. Fantasy Westward Journey, an MMORPG developed internally by NetEase, is an online game in China.

Ding Lei (Chinese: 丁磊; pinyin: Dīng Lěi, born October 1971), also known as William Ding, is the founder and CEO of NetEase. He made significant contributions to the development of computer networks in mainland China. According to Hurun Report's China Rich List 2013 he is the 25th wealthiest person in China with an estimated fortune of $4.2 billion. He was the wealthiest man in China at one point.

  • 2004: NetEase's founder and chief architect William Ding (Ding Lei) won the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for his innovative use of information technology. Ding became one of the wealthiest individuals in China after founding NetEase.
  • 2008: The 163.com domain attracted at least 1.8 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com survey.
  • 2010: The site was the 28th most visited site in the world according to Alexa's internet rankings and in August 2010, the site was the 27th most visited site drawing more traffic than the websites of AOL, BBC, Flickr, Craigslist, Apple, CNN, LinkedIn, Adobe, CNet, ESPN.
  • 2012: The company's official English name was changed from NetEase.com, Inc to NetEase, Inc. In April 2012, NetEase began testing a restaurant recommendation mobile app called "Fan Fan". The company collaborated with coursera.org to provide Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) in China.
  • Businesses

    PC-client & Mobile Games: provider of self-developed online client games to Internet users in China; licensee of games by Blizzard Entertainment; developer & publisher of mobile games.

    Internet Media: Operating a network of mobile applications, services and social communication platforms, as well as Internet portals with enriched content.

    E-mail Services: One of the providers of free e-mail services in China.

    Youdao Products: Specialized online tools including Youdao Dictionary, Youdao Cloudnote and Huihui.cn.

    E-commerce: services available to Chinese consumers on both desktop and mobile including Kaola.com, NetEase's self operated cross-border e-commerce platform, online video broadcasting services and insurance products.

    Games

    Top PC Games: Fantasy Westward Journey II, New Westward Journey Online II, New Ghost, Tianxia III, Revelation, Demon Seals, Hegemon-‐King of Western Chu

    Mobile Games: Fantasy Westward Journey mobile, Westward Journey Online mobile, Invincible, Kung Fu Panda 3 mobile game, The X-‐World, Kari-‐ri-‐sei Million Arthur, Chrono Blade and Blizzard Entertainment's Hearthstone®: Heroes of Warcraft

    New games planned for launch: Fantasy Westward Journey: Warriors, New Ghost Mobile, a series of new titles based on novels by Gu Long, and a version of Minecraft and Minecraft: Pocket Edition for China

    Licensed Online Games

  • Commercially launched World of Warcraft in Sept 2009
  • StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm launched in PRC in July 2013
  • Launched free-to-play digital strategy card game Hearthstone : Heroes of Warcraft in PRC in Jan 2014; mobile version launched in April 2015
  • Open beta testing of Heroes of the Storm initiated in China in May 2015
  • Initiated open beta testing in PRC of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls™ in April 2015
  • Three-‐year agreement to license Blizzard's upcoming title Overwatch in PRC
  • Agreement to license Mojangs Minecraft and Minecraft: Pocket Edition in China
  • Operates Overwatch (video game) in China
  • Expansion

    NetEase launched their first Western Headquarters in August 2014 bringing one of the largest tech companies in China to the US. In 2015, NetEase North America, the San Francisco-based arm of the Chinese technology giant, announced a new funding initiative for independent developers. Known as the NetEase Success Fund, the scheme offers an alternative to traditional publishing by providing up to $500,000 for each accepted developer to fund marketing and advertising. Furthermore, developers awarded funding retain the rights, creative control, and full ownership of their products. In December 2015, NetEase Capital Venture arm has made a $2.5 million investment into Reforged Studios, a privately held game studio based in Helsinki.

    Music streaming service

    NetEase has an on-demand music-streaming service; 网易云音乐 (roughly "NetEase cloud music").

    Significance of the number 163

    NetEase's URL is 163.com. This is confusing to many non-Chinese because there seems to be no logical connection between the firm and its URL. While the URL might seem to be a case of Chinese numerology, it is not. Rather, the URL exists because of recent Chinese history: before the availability of broadband internet, users had to dial 163 to get online. Therefore, early internet users recognized the numbers as implying a way to access the internet.

    References

    NetEase Wikipedia