NetEase rakes in profits from mobile gaming

NetEase's logo is seen at ChinaJoy 2012, or the 10th China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference in Shanghai, Feb 29, 2012. [Photo/VCG]

Strong mobile gaming sales boosted internet company NetEase's revenue gains for 2016.

Net revenues surged 67.4 percent for the year to reach 38.2 billion yuan ($5.5 billion), with gross profit up 61.9 percent to 21.7 billion yuan, the Nasdaq listed company said on Thursday.

Growth in profits came from revenue contributions from mobile games, including Onmyoji and New Ghost, as well as its licensed versions of Blizzard's Overwatch and World of Warcraft, NetEase chief executive officer William Ding said.

The company introduced more than 40 new titles last year, and will begin the international release of the game Onmyoji in Japan, Canada, Europe and the United States this year. The indigenous game was named one of the top 10 outstanding games of 2016 in China's iOS app store.

Net revenues from advertising services were 2.2 billion yuan for 2016, compared to 1.8 billion yuan in the preceding fiscal year.

Its two online shopping sites Kaola.com and Yanxuan are also pushing sales of email, e-commerce and other businesses to more than 8 billion yuan, up from 3.7 billion yuan last year.