The sales revenue of China's online gaming industry is expected to reach 27.5 billion yuan (about $4.03 billion) in 2009, according to Ma Huateng, president and CEO of China's leading Internet service provider Tencent Holdings Limited.

Ma made the prediction at the opening ceremony of the Seventh China International Digital Content Expo on Friday.

The third quarter financial reports of major Chinese online game companies including Sohu, Tencent, NetEase and Shanda, showed most of them recorded a 60 percent or even higher increase in gross profit, Beijing Daily reported Saturday.

The sales revenue of China's online gaming industry reached 18.38 billion yuan in 2008, up 76.6 percent from 2007.

An executive from the gaming department of NetEase attributed the continuous growth of the online gaming industry to the development of Internet technologies and preferential policies from the government.

Chinese online game companies' expansion overseas also contributed to the growth.

The Nasdaq-listed Perfect World, a leading Chinese online game developer and operator, entered the Russian market and set up a branch company in the United States in 2009.