NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTES) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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Operator: Your next question comes from Kenneth Fong with Credit Suisse. Please go ahead.

Kenneth Fong: [Foreign Language] Thank you for taking my question and congrats for the very strong set of results. I have a question about the gross profit margin. What’s the game business and overall business gross profit margin outlook for second half and 2024 as we see strong performance of self-developed titles and continuous channel optimization? Thank you.

Charles Yang: Okay. Thank you, Kenneth. It’s Charles. In the interest of time, let me answer this question directly in English. As you have rightfully put, NetEase prioritizes our R&D resources and attention to self-developed proprietary games, which would yield, relatively speaking, much higher margin vis-a-vis licensed games. In the first half of this year, we continue to enhance our game services-related GP margins largely because the termination of certain licensed games as well as very strong performance of our self-developed legacy games such as FWJ, WWJ, as well as new games such as Eggy Party. In the second half, as you can already tell, that we launched multiple new exciting very, very strong-performing games in June. So the trajectory of more self-developed games contributing to higher margins is somewhat sustainable.

Margaret Shi: Thank you, Kenneth. Next question, please.

Kenneth Fong: Thank you.

Operator: Next question comes from Natalie Wu with Haitong International. Please go ahead.

Natalie Wu: [Foreign Language] Thanks for taking my question. My question is related with the games overseas expansion plan. Just want to get an update both in short term and the long term, which market and regions will be the focus for your game expansion? And wondering if you can give us an update of your overseas expansion plan and target, both in short term and long term. And Charles, you’ve mentioned that Naraka’s transition and other party in your prepared remarks. So just wondering if your — if NetEase get any expiration on license lessons or learns from these kind of recent initiatives. And lastly, just one housekeeping, what’s the overseas wrapping contribution for game in last quarter? Thank You.

William Ding: [Foreign Language] So in terms of geographical focus, both North America and Europe, Japan and Korea. So in terms of — and the markets are very different in the sense that in the China market, mobile game is a mainstream and console game second place. Whereas in overseas market, console and PC games are still the mainstream. And thirdly, in terms of genres a lot of the games that’s popular — a lot of genres are popular in China probably do not apply for overseas market. So what are the genres that will attract overseas audiences is a topic that we are studying. I was — we have spent a lot of time evaluating and I’m sure that very soon, we’ll be able to introduce to the world the right genre, the right answer. Thank you.

Charles Yang: And, Natalie, for your second part of the question. Overseas games revenue, well, since the strong performance of Eggy Party from Q4, the year-end of last year, the overseas revenue percentage has slightly declined to a single-digit from previously around 10-ish. So — but again the primary reason of that percentage mix to change is mainly due to the strong performance of certain of our new games launched mostly in domestic market. Now with Justice Mobile and Racing Master’s strong debut launch in June, we would expect my domestic games — particularly domestic mobile games in the second half to continue to grow — outgrow fast — at a faster rate than my overseas game revenue.

Margaret Shi: Thank you.

Natalie Wu: Thank you.

Operator: Your next question comes from –

Margaret Shi: Thank you, operator. No, I think this — that’s what the time we got for today. I think that’s all the questions — all the time we’ve got for today, so maybe this concludes the question-and-answer session. So thank you once again for joining us today. If any further questions, please feel free to contact us directly or Piacente Financial Communications. Thank you. Have a good day.

Operator: Thank you. The conference has ended. You may now disconnect your line. Thank you.

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