Q3 game revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan, and many games were exposed to minors’ anti-addiction measures are useless.


　　High stock price NetEase has "game dependence"

　　The “home economy” spawned by the epidemic quickly made the online game industry gain momentum.

NetEase’s game business has exceeded 10 billion yuan in revenue for 10 consecutive quarters. Nearly 80% of its revenue comes from games. The industry claims that NetEase is more like a game company, and NetEase’s share price has hit a record high.

When games become its biggest source of revenue, what are the new growth points outside of games?

Recently, a number of NetEase games have been revealed that the anti-addiction measures for minors are useless, and even the chat social channels of popular games are full of vulgar and pornographic comments.

As the winter vacation is approaching, many parents of students worry that their children's addiction to games will affect their physical and mental growth.

　　Text and picture / Ni Ming, all-media reporter of Guangzhou Daily

　　Minor’s real-name authentication is "named but not real"

　　In 2020, the latest group standard of "Online Games Appropriate Age Reminder" stipulates that the age indicator identifier must be placed in a prominent position on the game product interface.

The reporter experienced that after logging in with a minor account, he did not find any obvious age-appropriate reminder on the login page of the "Fantasy Westward Journey" game.

In the "Fantasy Westward Journey" game, although minors' recharge behavior is restricted, they can select and purchase game-related products such as canvas bags, umbrellas, mouse pads, etc. in the surrounding malls, and the amount of consumption is not restricted.

　　The reporter searched for "adult ID card" on the search engine. Not only can I see many websites sharing adult ID card information, but I can also see that there are websites that provide adult ID card generators that can generate ID numbers randomly.

The ID number and the invented name generated through the Internet can be successfully authenticated in games such as "Onmyoji" and "Fifth Personality"; the "Fifth Personality" can be quickly logged in as a tourist without registering a game account, and can be used for a limited time.

　　On e-commerce platforms and game account rental and sales sites, a reporter from Guangzhou Daily saw a large number of players directly selling or renting verified accounts, and said that the accounts have been bound to adult ID cards and are not restricted by the anti-addiction model.

　　Popular game channels frequently show pornography

　　The reporter's in-depth investigation also found that in the "Fantasy Westward Journey" Huasheng Temple sect channel, some players openly "chat", and there were vulgar remarks such as "Is there a sister named Sao" "You give me *ah", some players still Sending pornographic emoticons and pictures, and even multiple pictures showing female private parts appeared in the chat channel. The reporter contacted the publisher according to the information. The price list sent by the other party showed that, in addition to the price of 30 yuan, 50 yuan, and 88 yuan, You can also perform video, phone calls and one-to-one naked chat services.

Some players called out "How did this picture pass the review?" In addition, some adult players reported to reporters that in NetEase's "Onmyoji" game, adult players can also see vulgar and pornographic borders under their accounts. Emoji package, the problem still exists after several reports.

In this regard, Netease Fantasy West Tourist Service stated that it has been banning or banning players who send pornographic information!

(Reporter: But there are still many!) In response to this situation, we will strengthen supervision and let them handle it.

　　At the beginning of the new year, the well-known short video platform "Tik Tok", which has been repeatedly complained about content dissemination, was notified by the National "Anti-Pornography and Anti-illegal" Working Group Office and received the first "top grid" ticket of this year. Gambling, violence or abetting crime".

　　The overall gross profit margin of online games is in a downward channel

　　NetEase's third-quarter 2020 financial report shows that NetEase's third-quarter revenue is about 18.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.5%, net profit is 3 billion yuan; net profit from continuing operations is 3.67 billion yuan.

Among them, online game service revenue was 13.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%, and online game service net revenue accounted for 74.3%.

However, comparing the first quarter of 2019 to the third quarter of 2020, the company’s online game service net revenue growth rate has dropped from 35.26% in the first quarter of 2019 to 20.18% in the third quarter of this year. The year-on-year growth rate of net revenue from online game services fell to single digits in the fourth quarter of 2019.

In addition, it should be noted that the gross profit margin of NetEase's online game services in the third quarter of this year was 63.6%, while its gross profit margins in the first and second quarters of this year were 64.1% and 63.8%, respectively.

　　The reporter combed through the financial report data over the years, NetEase's game business has exceeded 10 billion yuan in revenue for 10 consecutive quarters, and it has always been NetEase's largest source of income.

It accounts for more than 60% of the company's operating income for a long time.

Therefore, from the perspective of the industry, NetEase is more like a game company than the title of an Internet company.

　　From the current point of view, the biggest contribution to game revenue is still NetEase's classic long-term operating games.

The reporter noticed that in 2020, NetEase will be issued a total of 17 new game version numbers, of which 8 are already online mobile games.

It is understood that the following include "Harry Potter: Awakening of Magic", "Diablo: Immortal" and "Pokémon Adventure", etc., a variety of NetEase mobile games will be released before the Spring Festival, the sword refers to the Spring Festival file.

In addition to the first quarter due to the epidemic, the growth rate of the NetEase online game service market accelerated, and then as the impact of the epidemic weakened, the NetEase game sector once again experienced a slowdown in growth.

The slowdown in NetEase game growth is mainly due to the fierce competition in the online game market.

According to Tencent’s third-quarter financial report data released on the 14th, Tencent’s online game revenue increased by 45% to 41.422 billion yuan due to the growth of mobile games such as "Peace Elite" and "King of Glory", which is the two largest of NetEase’s gaming revenue Times more.

　　But in addition to Tencent, Netease and Ali also started to have friction in the game field last year.

At the end of October, NetEase issued an announcement accusing Ali Mutual Entertainment's SLG mobile game "Three Kingdoms: Strategy Edition" for plagiarizing Netease's "Riding the Land".

With the traffic brought by Douyin and Toutiao, ByteDance has also entered the game market long ago.

　　On the other hand, in overseas markets, NetEase's overseas journey only stays in the Asian region represented by Japan, and larger battlefields such as Europe and the United States have not made greater gains.

However, NetEase also plans to launch some games for the European and American markets in the future, such as "Diablo: Immortal" and "Pokémon Adventure", "Harry Potter: Magic Awakening" and other relatively well-known IPs in Europe and the United States.

As for the response and whether it can help NetEase consolidate its position in the overseas game market, we still need to wait for the market to react further.

　　Tencent is far ahead before, and there are giants (bilibili, bytebeat) behind you chasing me, and from time to time, you are overtaken by dark horses (Kuro, Mihayou).

Game analysts believe that with the slowdown in the growth rate of the game business, coupled with the unhealthy structure of a single business whose revenue is highly tied to games, NetEase seems to have touched the ceiling of user increments, and NetEase still needs to tap new ones. Value point.