"A large portion of our non-advertising revenues will come from online games and it will be a highlight this year," said Ted Sun, acting chief executive officer of Netease.

He revealed that online gaming contributed about a quarter of Netease's total revenue in the fourth quarter, with more than 5 million players registered with the site.

Sun said Netease will release the second version of Priston Tale in March, which the Internet company imported from South Korea in August.

The company will also release two proprietary games in the third and fourth quarters.

The company yesterday released its financial report for the fourth quarter and the whole of 2002.

Netease's revenues in the fourth quarter grew by 28.7 per cent to US$11.6 million, producing profits of US$5.2 million or 17 US cents per share.

Non-advertising revenues from short messaging services (SMS), online games, online dating and other paid services contributed 86 per cent of the total.

Netease achieved a net profit of US$1.97 million for the whole year, compared with its US$4.97 million loss in 2001.

The Internet portal's revenues in 2002 reached US$28.1 million, more than seven times the 2001 figure.

According to Sun, SMS was the biggest revenue pool for the company, accounting for more than half of the year's total revenue.

The business held US$67.8 million in cash or equivalents by December 31.

Ted Sun said the money would be used for future development, including acquisitions.

(China Daily February 27, 2003)