NetEase

[ksir]

Can't find a thread on NetEase, hence creating a new one. 
Please remove if it's a duplicate.

NetEase 2023 full year result released: 
https://ir.netease.com/news-releases/new...-unaudited

"2023 proved to be another landmark year for NetEase Games with continuous cross-category innovations that expand and diversify our robust game portfolio," said Mr. William Ding, Chief Executive Officer and Director of NetEase. "The success of games like Eggy Party and our heralded new titles, such as Racing Master and Dunk City Dynasty, highlights our ability to bring players dynamic and original products in multiple genres. At the same time, we have maintained a strategic advantage with our MMO roots, propelling Justice mobile game to transcend the boundaries of conventional MMO gaming.

Webcast: 
https://edge.media-server.com/mmc/p/od2vdeok/

Its share price was hammered down by 25% to HKD120 (in a day) in 22-Dec-2023 amidst the gaming regulation saga, it's now back above HKD170 
Tencent was down about 12% to HKD274 that day as well and its share price is the same today. 
Apparently even after spending tons of $$ on their new party game (Tencent supposedly expert in this social game area). Eggy party still standing strong and even hit record of 40M DAU in 2024 CNY (wow).
I personally thought Eggy party era was over when Tencent launched and threw $$ into promoting their new party game (which ironically imo more fun than eggy haha )

[ksir]

A good summary of the interesting Q&A from the 2023-Q4 webcast:
网易2024年有什么游戏计划？丁磊刚刚给出了10个回答
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MjM5NTI...subscene=0

The Q&A I found the most interesting (bolden texts to emphasize what imo is important):
Q：《蛋仔派对》从去年年底以来，在全国各地举办了线下推广活动，想了解这个推广是不是造成Q4市场营销费用增长的原因？我们怎么看2024年的营销预估？

A：四季度营销费用的增加当然主要是竞争的因素，我觉得这是正常的，你看今年春节《蛋仔派对》的DAU增长，说明花费获得了积极效果。明年的市场费用对比今年不会有大比例增长，我们一直在探索有效的roi，所以我觉得在经营方面不需要去顾虑。
另外在2024年你明显会看到随着游戏质量越来越高，对其他公司来说，要做一个成功的游戏越来越有挑战性，但网易在做优势高品质游戏上有积累和巨大投入，我们相信2024年也是收获的一年，过去20年积累的经验，会在2024年以后有更大成果出来。

Additional notes:
The more I dive into NetEase, the more I think their strength is in their unique value proposition. 
They tend to specialize in a niche area or trying to differentiate in a more narrow segment. 

For games, it's quite clear to me, how they generally targeting a narrow segment when there's not many players there (or no competitors), eg: Survival game, LifeAfter launched in 2018 in China where they're still on top even till now (last year Tencent launched a new survival game undawn and it's not successful). 

Recently their focus are on below niches:
* Quality racing game (Racing Master - performing really well in Taiwan)
* Unique commercial model in MMO (Justice Mobile - unexpectedly dominating in China)
* NBA street basketball with unique cartoonist style (fun to watch)
* and of course Wuxia (2 wuxia games with different style and segmentation).

But of cos if you focus on narrow segments, your target players pool will be smaller.

Same for Kaola, don't fight with the dominant Taobao & AliEx in mass market, so focus on narrow cross-border higher end stuffs.

Same for Yanxuan, which focusing on quality affordable everyday goods (uniqlo positioning), but the filters are their staffs, bcos it's supposed to be the platform used by their staffs and family and hence the quality of the products must be there. 
I have tried several of Yanxuan products and find myself going back there whenever I need something (to cheapo me, it's really value for money).

I reckon, that is William Ding way of doing business. 
Don't follow the hype, let the bullets fly a while and seek an entry point with specialized products.