PEKING (dpa-AFX) - NetEase.com Inc. (NTES), a China-based provider of online game and web advertising services, on Wednesday reported a 41 percent increase in profit for the third quarter on strong demand for its online games and continued revenue growth from Activision Blizzard Inc.'s (ATVI) World of Warcraft.
The company's net income for the third quarter was 825.76 million yuan or $129.47 million, up from 585.32 million yuan in the year-ago period.
On a per share basis, earnings increased to 0.25 yuan or $0.04 from 0.18 yuan in the year-ago period. Earnings per American depositary share were $0.99, up from $0.70 in the year-ago quarter. On average, thirteen analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected the company to earn $0.86 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.
The latest quarter's results include a net foreign exchange loss of 65 million yuan, compared to foreign exchange gain of 54.3 million yuan in the same period last year.
Total revenues for the quarter rose 39.5 percent to 2.01 billion yuan or $314.75 million from 1.44 billion yuan in the same period last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $277.54 million.
William Ding, Chief Executive Officer and Director of NetEase, said, 'We continued to achieve dynamic growth across our business during the third quarter. The popularity of our self-developed games, as well as continued interest in Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft, led our 12.9% quarter-over quarter and 39.5% year-over-year growth in total revenue.'
Online games revenue increased 40 percent from last year to 1.76 billion yuan, mainly as a result of the growth in the company's self-developed games, along with continued revenue growth from Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft.
Advertising services revenue grew 36 percent to 220.48 million yuan, while wireless value-added service revenues surged 50 percent to 31.30 million yuan.
As of September 30, 2011, the number of registered NetEase email users grew 4.9 percent over the preceding second quarter to 430 million, while the number of micro-blogging users surged 68.6 percent from the second quarter to 88.5 million.
NTES closed Wednesday's regular trade at $45.70, up $1.46 or 3.30 percent on a volume of 1.40 million shares. In after hours, the stock further gained $1.28 or 2.80 percent to $46.98.
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