Chinese news portal and games developer NetEase on Thursday released its second quarter 2016 unaudited financial results. NetEase CEO William Ding spoke of the company’s broader virtual reality (VR) strategy in the earnings call on Thursday.
NetEase participated in the Series B funding of NextVR, an American VR content provider and live broadcast company, last quarter.
“NetEase has been well prepared to explore and innovate in mobile games since 2009, and that’s why we have been a leader in this field. NetEase also started earlier in VR/AR than most other companies in China with more funds invested in this area,” said Ding in the call.
NetEase showcased its partnership with Google’s Daydream VR in Google I/O 2016. Ding claimed that NetEase is the exclusive partner of Daydream in China, despite the fact that China’s leading smartphone maker Huawei and laptop maker Asus have also made similar claims.
Games were the biggest contributor to the NetEase’s Q2 revenue. According to the results, the company’s net revenue was RMB 8.9 billion (USD 1.3 billion), among which RMB 6.4 billion came from its online games.
Ding said NetEase has developed its own VR/AR games which were being tested, but they would not launch their VR games until the VR hardware devices are mature enough. The company will possibly launch its AR games by the end of this year.
NetEase started its live streaming business four years ago. The company now has three live streaming platforms covering games, talent shows, and news.
NetEase will create its own multi-dimensional immersive VR live streaming. The company has also been developing online courses based on VR technologies, according to Ding.
(Top photo from Valoso.com)
