NetEase
More info
- Creator
- Ding Lei (William Ding)
- Released
- 1997
- Type
- Internet company
- Headquarters
- Hangzhou
- Website
- neteasegames.com
China's second-largest game company, which began as an email portal and accidentally built an empire of online games, music and pig farming.
Founded in 1997 in Guangzhou by Ding Lei (William Ding), initially as the web portal and email service 163.com. Listed on the Nasdaq under the ticker NTES since 2000. Revenue is now dominated by online games — after Tencent, this is China's biggest game maker — but the group also runs NetEase Cloud Music, the education arm Youdao, and a well-publicised pig farm that Ding started half as a joke and then pursued in deadly earnest.
The company was Blizzard's long-time partner in China, running World of Warcraft there; the relationship fell apart acrimoniously in 2023 and was patched back together in 2024. Ding Lei has at times ranked as China's richest person.