The game seems almost over for Chinese online entertainment and game company The9 Limited as its newly-announced unaudited financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2009, show a net revenue decrease of 91%.
Jun Zhu, chairman and CEO of The9 said, "Although our revenue loss cannot be recovered within a short period of time, we are glad to see that our research and development capabilities continue to strengthen as a result of our investments. Our proprietary games have shown substantive progress and a strong potential to be well received by Chinese game players."
Net revenues for the third quarter of 2009 decreased by 91% quarter-over-quarter and decreased by 94% year-over-year to CNY25.5 million, mainly due to a decrease in revenue from World of Warcraft, for which the company's license agreement expired on June 7, 2009. Rival NetEase.com now operates WoW in China.
In the third quarter of 2009, net revenues attributable to the operations of non-WoW games increased by 55% quarter-over-quarter. The sequential increase was mainly due to an increase of revenue from Soul of The Ultimate Nation after the launch of new content upgrade and a theft-proof security system, and revenue contribution for a complete quarter from EA Sports Fifa Online 2, Atlantica and the company's first web-based game, Jiu Zhou Zhan Ji.
Aggregate active users increased by 6% to 3.4 million quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter, which was mainly due to Jiu Zhou Zhan Ji. Aggregate active paying accounts increased by 48% to 108,000 quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter, mainly due to SUN's improved performance. The quarterly average revenue per user was CNY240, compared with CNY221 in the previous quarter.
Gross loss for the third quarter of 2009 was CNY8.1 million, compared to gross profit of CNY64.3 million in the second quarter of 2009 and gross profit of CNY163.0 million in the third quarter of 2008.