The9's sales and losses mount in H1 2012
While revenue is up year-over-year, losses are way up
Chinese online game developer The9 has announced its fiscal earnings report for the first and second quarter of 2012. For the first quarter ended on March 31, 2012, total revenue came to RMB48.6 million ($7.7 million/£4.84 million), an 89 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011. The9 blames increased marketing expenses and product development for a net loss to shareholders of RMB111.4 million ($17.5 million/£11 million), more than double the RMB52.6 million ($8.3 million/£5.2 million) lost in the first quarter of 2011.
For the second quarter ended on June 30, 2012, The9 recorded net revenues of RMB54.8 million ($8.6 million/£5.5 million), an increase of 115 percent over the same period in 2011. Net loss to shareholders came to RMB118.0 million ($18.6 million/£11.7 million), a whopping 881 percent increase over the RMB12.0 million ($1.9 million/£1.2 million) lost in same period last year.
"We have a very high level of confidence in the two Massively Multiplayer Online shooting games in our pipeline. Firefall just released the biggest patch update ever in early August and received highly positive feedback from gamers. Firefall will be commercialized in the U.S. very soon and Red 5 will release more beta invites in the U.S. to attract more gamers to join Firefall," said The9 chief executive officer Jun Zhu.
"Planetside 2 is another well-known game for which we obtained the license in China. Planetside 2 is already in closed beta in the U.S. We are now localizing the game in China and plan to start the internal technical test in China by the end of this year. We believe these two robust games in our pipeline will significantly strengthen our capability in achieving further growth. "