Operator
各位好,欢迎参加网易2023年第四季度及全年业绩电话会议。今天的会议正在录音中。现在,我将会议转交给Piacente Financial Communications总裁Brandi Piacente女士。请开始,女士。
Operator
Good day, and welcome to the NetEase 2023 Fourth Quarter and Full Year Earnings Conference Call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I would like to turn the conference over to Brandi Piacente, President of Piacente Financial Communications. Please go ahead, ma'am.
Brandi Piacente
谢谢主持人。请注意,今天的讨论将包含与公司未来业绩相关的前瞻性陈述,这些陈述旨在符合美国《私人证券诉讼改革法案》确立的安全港条款。此类陈述并非对未来业绩的保证,并受到某些风险、不确定性、假设和其他因素的影响。其中一些风险超出公司的控制范围,可能导致实际结果与今天新闻稿和本次讨论中提及的内容存在重大差异。关于可能影响网易业务和财务业绩的风险因素的一般性讨论,包含在公司向美国证券交易委员会提交的某些文件中,包括其20-F表格年度报告以及在香港证券交易所网站上的公告和文件。除非法律要求,公司不承担更新其前瞻性信息的义务。在今天的电话会议中,管理层将讨论某些非公认会计准则财务指标,仅用于比较目的。有关非公认会计准则财务指标的定义以及公认会计准则与非公认会计准则财务结果的调节表,请参阅今天早些时候发布的2023年第四季度及全年业绩新闻稿。请注意,我们将在本次电话会议上讨论的关于云音乐的某些财务信息是根据国际财务报告准则编制的。有关更多信息,包括非国际财务报告准则指标的定义以及国际财务报告准则与非国际财务报告准则财务结果的调节表,请参阅云音乐2023年年度业绩公告。提醒一下,本次会议正在录音中。此外,本次电话会议的投资演示文稿和网络直播回放将在网易公司网站ir.netease.com上提供。今天参加电话会议的网易高级管理层包括首席执行官丁磊先生和企业发展副总裁潘磊先生。现在我将电话转交给潘磊先生,他将代读丁磊先生的准备好的讲话。
Brandi Piacente
Thank you, operator. Please note the discussion today will contain forward-looking statements relating to the future performance of the company and are intended to qualify for the Safe Harbor from liability as established by the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, assumptions, and other factors. Some of these risks are beyond the company's control and could cause actual results to differ materially from those mentioned in today's press release and in this discussion. A general discussion of the risk factors that could affect NetEase's business and financial results is included in certain filings of the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 20-F and the announcements and filings on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The company does not undertake any obligation to update its forward-looking information except as required by law. During today's call, management will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures for comparison purposes only. For a definition of non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial results, please see the 2023 fourth quarter and full year earnings news release issued earlier today. Please note that certain financial information regarding Cloud Music we will be discussing on this call has been prepared in accordance with IFRS. For additional information including a definition of non-IFRS measures and a reconciliation of IFRS measure and a reconciliation of IFRS to non-IFRS financial results, please refer to Cloud Music’s annual results announcement for 2023. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. In addition, an investor presentation and a webcast replay of this conference call will be available on the NetEase corporate website at ir.netease.com. Joining us today on the call from NetEase Senior Management is Mr. William Ding, Chief Executive Officer; and Mr. Bill Pang, Vice-President of Corporate Development. I will now turn the call over to Bill, who will read the prepared remark on William’s.
Bill Pang
感谢Brandi,也感谢各位参与今天的电话会议。在开始之前,我想提醒大家,我们今天讨论的所有百分比均以人民币计算。2023年是网易创新发展的又一年。我们推动了各业务板块的发展势头,2023年全年及第四季度的收入和利润均实现同比增长。网易游戏持续的跨品类创新正在积极扩展和丰富我们不断增长的游戏产品组合。除了我们在MMO和中华文化衍生游戏方面的固有优势外,2023年我们在多元化游戏品类中取得了里程碑式的成功和突破。这种强大的组合正在推动我们的游戏业务发展,新游戏和经典游戏在第四季度均表现健康。 首先看看我们部分MMO游戏在此期间的表现,我们仍然高度致力于通过新鲜内容和激动人心的游戏内活动(如《梦幻西游》年度庆典)来支持和增强我们备受尊敬的经典IP(如《梦幻西游》和《大话西游》)的持久吸引力。第四季度,我们举办了一系列嘉年华主题活动,重新激发了玩家的热情,再次印证了《梦幻西游》IP的重要性及其作为中国最具影响力的MMORPG之一的地位。这些旗舰游戏的长盛不衰也凸显了我们通过持续的游戏内创新来提升传统游戏标准的承诺和能力。 除了传统的MMO游戏,我们的新MMO游戏正在突破MMO游戏的边界。我们在《逆水寒》等游戏中引入的革命性进步正在推动整个游戏类型的发展,并持续获得玩家青睐。第四季度,《逆水寒》系列游戏活跃用户数达到1亿的新里程碑,涵盖了广泛而多元的用户群体。根据我们的经验,这些都是游戏具备强劲运营寿命潜力的明显迹象。创新的《赛季志》既引入了新的玩法,又降低了入门门槛,持续吸引和激励着现有用户和新用户。丰富的挑战和成就系统进一步增强了游戏体验,无论是参与PvP副本、战斗导向的PvP环节还是休闲游戏模式,每个人都能发展个人兴趣并获得同等奖励。 我们为强化品牌和吸引玩家所采取的措施也正在取得成效。通过将玩家的其他兴趣与我们的游戏相结合,并给予他们更多的游戏内自主权和选择权,我们在游戏与玩家社区之间建立了更深层次的联系。例如,在第四季度,玩家得以参与《逆水寒》系列联动策划人的评选。根据玩家的热门选择,我们与国风人气组合
Bill Pang
Thank you, Brandi and thank you everyone for participating in today’s call. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that all percentages we're talking about here today are in RMB. 2023 marks another year of innovation for NetEase. We drove momentum across our businesses, expanding our top and bottom lines year-over-year for both 2023 and the fourth quarter. Continuous cross-category innovation at NetEase Games is actively expanding and diversifying our ever-growing game portfolio. On top of our inherent strengths in MMO and Chinese culture-derived titles, in 2023, we have landmark success and breakthroughs in diversified genres. This powerful combination is driving our game business with healthy fourth quarter performance from both our new and time-honored titles. Looking first at some of our MMO performance for the period, we remain highly committed to supporting and growing the robust appeal of our esteemed legacy franchises, such as Fantasy Westworld Journey and Westworld Journey Online, with fresh content and exciting in-game events like our annual celebration for Fantasy Westworld Journey. In the fourth quarter, we held a series of carnival-themed events that re-invigorated players, reaffirming the importance of Fantasy Westworld Journey's IP and its stature as one of the most influential MMORPGs in China. The longevity of these flagship titles also underscore our commitment and ability to elevate traditional game standards through ongoing in-game innovation. Adding to our conventional MMO titles, our new MMOs are pushing the boundary of what MMOs can be. The revolutionary advancements we have introduced with games like Justice are evolving the genre as a whole and continue to gain player momentum. In the fourth quarter, the Justice Lishuihan [ph] franchise reached a new milestone of 100 million active users, encompassing a broad and diverse user base. In our experience, these are telltale signs of games' potential for robust operating longevity. The innovative Renovation Seasonal Magazine, which both introduced new pursuits and reduced entry barriers, continues to captivate and inspire current users and new users alike. These are bolstered by rich challenges and achievements where everyone can develop individual interests and be rewarded equally, whether playing in PvP instances, combat-focused PvP sessions, or casual gameplay modes. The steps we are taking to strengthen our brand and engage players are also bearing fruit. By integrating players' other interests with our games and giving them more in-game autonomy and choices, we create deeper connections between our games and player communities. For example, in the fourth quarter, players got to weigh in on the selection of collaboration planners for Justice franchise. In response to players' popular choices, we established a collaboration with the Chinese fan sensation, Finnish Legend providing players a voice in shaping their gaming experience has proved highly resonant with our community. The event was a huge success, led by players' world of marketing, with friends' recommendations driving the bulk of newcomers to the game. In addition to our MMOs, we made headway across a diverse set of genres in 2023, broadening our reach across more casual game players and entering new genres, such as sports and simulation games. These are not only extend and enrich our broader NetEase community, but also highlight our ability to bring highly successful games to players in more diverse game categories. Touching on a few of successes in genres that are new to us, Dunk City Dynasty, [Indiscernible] has emerged as a groundbreaking basketball game. Here we have successfully attracted a large user base to a genre that was previously considered relatively small in China. To build on the game's initial success, we are providing more for our players, adding further diversified gameplay and exciting player to the team rosters. We have been expanding the player lineup since the fourth quarter, introducing MVPA stars like James Harden, Russell Westbrook, Joel Emmett, Jamal Murray, and Aaron Gordon, as well as CBA legends, including Yi Jianlian and Guo Ai Lun. Beyond the game itself, we are committed to spread basketball game culture. To foster broader basketball game community growth, we are launching a foundation valued at more than RMB10 million this year to support the sport development, including sponsoring university basketball games and facilitating event promotions. We expect this initiative to extend the reach of our game and the sport itself across a broader audience. Racing Master, Dian Feng Ji Su, is another new hit for us, offering top-tier content for all the racing fans. During the fourth quarter, we enriched the player experience with an extended selection of international professional racetracks and aspirational supercars, catering to our robust demand from our player community. Following its official launch in China in June, Racing Master is now available in Hong Kong, Macau, and most recently, Taiwan. We're a top the local iOS download and browsing chart in the first week of its launch. As we extend our reach across a growing range of genres, we are also capturing the attention of more female players with innovative games like Shijie zhi wai. With this ACG-style womens romance game, we have once again defied conventions, introducing an infinite school backdrop and bringing players more storytelling and gameplay innovation. We released the Shijie zhi wai in January this year, and the players continue to embrace it, having topped China's iOS download gaming chart during its first week on the market. For our blockbuster Eggy party, Danzai Pai Dui [ph] we continue to cultivate our EGC ecosystem. Building on players' enduring enthusiasm, in December, we introduced a new feature, Eggy Code, unleashing even more content creation potential by offering an engaging and easy coding tool for our players. Coding lines can be now translated into user-friendly toy blocks to control events, actions, and conditions more readily, allowing creators to further unleash their creativity. This newest innovation pushes our game coding limits, greatly increasing creation flexibility for the game's more than 26 million creators. To further expand our rich catalog of diverse games, we have a number of new titles under development. Today, I'd like to mention a couple of our new coming games that will be rolling out this year. First is She Diao Condor Hero. Based on one of China's most popular martial arts novels, She Diao is an open-world RPG that will be launching across PC, mobile, and cloud gaming platforms. We have established a highly immersive martial art world for the game, featuring open explorations and rich storytelling. All players will embark on their journey within a single server that can accommodate over 10 million players simultaneous online interaction. Multiple rounds of tasks has shown an excellent performance so far. And we are on course for She Diao soft launch on March 28th this year. Next comes Where Winds Meet, [Indiscernible], which is designed to bring players an open world gaming experience comparable to console gameplay. The game features realistic martial arts combat experience and an inclusive art style with a unique historical backdrop. We successfully concluded testing on the PC side in December, and we are currently gearing up for the game's launch later this year. Additionally, we are thrilled to announce that we have received license approval for Naraka Breakpoint, Onmyoji [ph] on mobile earlier this week. We are excited to extend the immersive combat experience enjoyed by players on PC and console platforms to mobile world. On the global stage, we continue to add studios around the world that demonstrate our ability to draw on local talent and extend our international appeal. We are thrilled to announce the latest addition to our game studio portfolio. World Untold in Vancouver, Canada, and our newest U.S. addition, BulletFarm, headquartered in Los Angeles. World Untold is led by industry veteran, Mac Walters, who has over two decades of experience in game and writing. Well-known for his contribution in the acclaimed Mass Effect series. We welcome Mac and his team, who will be dedicated in creating new IP with their debut product already underway. The remote first studio, BulletFarm, is led by David Vanderhaar and his team of industry veterans. David is an award-winning and experienced game developer, best known for leadership on the Call of Duty franchise. They are currently working on an ambitious new AAA game set in the original universe, with an emphasis on collaborative gameplay. We're looking forward to his contribution in creating more highly anticipated titles for our portfolio. As we have always said, people are most valuable, and talent development is one of our top priorities. The tailored course we offer our employees across various career development stage and professions ensure that native culture foster sustainable talent incubation. I'm pleased to announce that in the first quarter of 2024, we were the sole Chinese internet company to be awarded the ATD Excellence in Practice Award. This prestigious award and acknowledgement from the global talent development industry is an honor that further strengthens our commitment to cultivating the new wave of internet talent. Alongside with our business momentum, we have assumed increasing social responsibility. This comes with a result for that minors [ph] in our internet endeavors. In addition to our existing anti-addiction system, we have started integrating several functions, including a minor mode across our China-based game lineup to protect minors. And we'll continue to steer the gaming ecosystem towards a healthier trajectory with our innovative products and technology. Now let's move to Youdao. In the fourth quarter, Youdao continue to propel technological innovation and product development. Further improving profitability and cashflow. In our learning services, we have consistently raised the quality of our unique courses. Digital content services kept its healthy growth momentum in the fourth quarter. In addition, the retention rates were approximately 70% in the fourth quarter for both advanced level programming courses and Go courses. In 2023, 340 students from our programming courses received awards in the CSP programming competition held in China. Notably, 106 students won first prize, comparison over 20% of all the award recipients. We believe that our students' success highlights the high standard and effectiveness of our courses. Additionally, the utilization of our cutting-edge AI technology and the enhancement of our data infrastructure drove Youdao’s online marketing services revenue to reach a record-breaking RMB474.1 million in the fourth quarter. These AI-driven advancements have empowered us to enhance our real-time API technology capabilities, diversify our time base, and broaden the scope of our applications. Our smart devices saw an expected year-on-year decline in the net revenue in the fourth quarter. This was due to the organizational initiative for our strategic channel structures, as mentioned last quarter. The steps we have taken are directed at reducing low ROI sales channels, which, in turn, affected China's channel inventory in the short term, but are expected to serve our long-term ROI-driven objectives. Encouragingly, we have observed signals indicating a recovery, including a return to healthy development in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter. The sales channel's optimization has been completed. Our commitment to technological innovation remains central to Youdao's business. We have consistently advanced our proprietary LLM unit and accelerated the development of large-language model applications since the fourth quarter. Expanding our capabilities in virtual human tutoring, we upgraded the digital human language coach Hi Echo in the fourth quarter, further enhancing its conversational capabilities. To augment students' learning experiences, we introduced the AI tutor into our recently launched Youdao Smart Learning Path X-20. The AI tutor adeptly responds to students' inquiries on the Path, simulating the interaction of a human tutor. Furthermore, we are observing the tangible impact of AI technology in truly improving performance. Our existing LLM features, particularly AI bots, continue to receive user acclaim, contributing to more than 100% year-on-year growth in the translation substitution fees for three consecutive quarters. Turning to NetEase Cloud Music, in the fourth quarter of 2023, Cloud Music continued to navigate quality development across our music-centric ecosystem while further extending robust monetization momentum in the core online music business and improving overall profitability. The revenue from substitution-based membership in the fourth quarter continued a solid upward trend. This growth was primarily driven by an increase in the number of subscribers, along with a moderate improvement in ARPU as a result of our diligence in strengthening our music-centric monetization capabilities. With the introduction of new premium offerings, including expensive content and innovative features, as well as broadening membership privileges and joint programs with external partners, we notably grew our subscriber base in the fourth quarter. Moreover, we considerably improved our profitability for Cloud Music throughout 2023, achieving full-year positive adjusted net profit under IFRS for the first time. We remain committed to fostering strong partnerships with music copyright holders and are actively working towards deepening this collaboration to expand our catalog of music label content, promote advantageous music genres, and increase album sales in collaboration with the top artists. In particular, music genres such as hip-hop and Chinese folk have been asserted in popularity on our platform and we continue to cultivate content in these advantageous genres. 2023 also marked our debut of the physical album market with our first co-published physical album, Hua Chenyu's new album, Xīwǎng Hòu [ph], followed by the successful sales of Zhang Jie's physical album, [Indiscernible] in the fourth quarter. We continue to enhance our support system for independent artists by actively investing to initiatives that bolster musicians, improving music creation tools, and expand online and offline music exposure. We aim to help independent artists increase their influence and commercial income, ultimately strengthening the original music ecosystem on our platform. As of November 2023, our platform had over 684,000 registered independent artists who contributed around 3.1 million music tracks to our library. Drawing on our expertise in music, a wide and varied user base and in-depth user insights, our in-house studios continue to enrich our content matrix, offering high quality and unique music content. Our studios are gaining increasing ground in advantageous music genres. For instance, we produced a number of popular tracks in the fourth quarter, including Sunshine Boy and Sunshine Girls, 2023, [Indiscernible], 2023, and Shengshan, further solidifying our competitiveness in the hip hop genre. Turning to our private label consumer brand, in 2023, Yanxuan continued to strengthen its brand presence with highly popular products in focus categories. With increasing consumer recognition of domestic made products in China, Yanxuan has established a solid brand awareness across pet supplies and household cleaning, as well as office supplies and food, among others. Sales growth remains steady in 2023, with double digits increase in specific e-commerce channels year-over-year. Simultaneously, we are continuously optimizing Yanxuan's supply chain to improve cost efficiency by integrating automated systems. In 2024, we will continue to provide Yanxuan customers with consistent, high quality, original products. Across our business lines, the cornerstone of our competitive edge is our innovation. With our robust R&D capability, we have consistently produced unique products that drive our company and industry's research forward. In 2024, we remain committed to these principles, and we will bring more high quality products to the market. By crafting outstanding products, we can simultaneously create value for both our user community and our stakeholders. This concludes William's comments. I will now provide a brief review of our 2023 annual results with focus on the fourth quarter. Given the limited time on today's call, I'll be presenting some abbreviated financial highlights. We encourage you to read through our press release issued earlier today for further details. Our total net revenue for 2023 for RMB103.5 billion, or US$14.6 billion, representing a 7% increase year-over-year. For the fourth quarter, total revenue was RMB27.1 billion, or US$3.8 billion, up 7% year-over-year. For 2023, our net revenue from games and related BES were RMB81.6 billion, or 9% from 2022. Revenue accelerated even faster in Q4 to RMB20.9 billion, up 10% year-over-year. The additional growth was primarily due to increased revenue contribution from launch of new games, such as Justice Mobile, and sustainable development titles like Eggy Party. Revenues from mobile games continue to make up the lion's share of our game business, accounting to 77% of our total net revenue from online game operations in the fourth quarter, and 75% for the year. Youdao's net revenue for 2023 reached RMB5.4 billion, and were up 2% year-over-year in the fourth quarter, in the fourth quarter reaching RMB1.5 billion, primarily due to increased revenue contribution from Youdao's online marketing services. Net e-commerce music net revenue will RMB7.9 billion for the full year, and RMB2 billion in the fourth quarter a 13% and 16% decline respectively compared to the same period last year. As we have previously discussed, the decline reflects lower revenue from social entertainment services as we adjust our focus to improve profitability in a sustainable manner. Net revenue for innovative business and others were RMB8.6 billion for the year, up 9% year-over-year. In Q4, total revenue were RMB2.8 billion up 12.9% year-over-year mainly due to increased revenue contribution from Yanxuan and some of our innovative business. The total gross profit margin was 62% in the fourth quarter compared with 52.2% for the same period in 2022. Looking at our fourth quarter margin in more detail, gross profit margin was 69.5% for games and related BAS compared with 59.1% in the same period last year. The increase will primarily attribute to a higher proportion of net revenues contributed by netting self-developed games. Our gross profit margin for Youdao was 49.9% compared with 53.3% in the same period of last year. The decrease was mainly due to reduced revenue contribution from smart devices, which was partially offset by increased revenue contribution from online marketing services, which carry relatively lower margins. Gross profit for cloud music improved in the fourth quarter reaching 30.3% versus 17.8% in the same period a year ago. The margin improvement primarily resulted from increased revenue scale from membership subscriptions and continued improvement to our cost management measures. For our innovative business and others, gross profit margin was 34.4% compared with 31.5% in the fourth quarter of 2022. The increase was primarily the result of margin improvement in Yanxuan and our advertising services. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter was RMB10 billion, or 37% of total net revenue. Taking a closer look at our cost composition, our selling and marketing expenses as a percentage of total revenue was 15.6% compared with 13.5% for the same period last year, mainly due to increased spending on gaming promotions we support. On a full year basis, selling and marketing expenses accounted for 13.5% of net revenue, which remained relatively stable compared with 2022 when it was 13.9%. Our R&D expenses as a percentage of total net revenue also remained stable year-over-year at 16.5% in the fourth quarter compared with 16.1% for the same period last year. On a full year basis, R&D expenses accounted for 15.9% of net revenue, which remained relatively stable compared to 2022 when it was 15.6%. We remain committed in investing to cost integration and product development. We are also seeing leverage in our R&D investment longer term. Our other income was RMB876 million for the fourth quarter compared with RMB1.5 billion last quarter. The decrease was mainly due to exchange rate of US dollars against RMB fluctuating over the period and mark-to-market value of certain publicly traded securities in our investment portfolio witnessed decrease during the fourth quarter. As per equitable accounting standard, we are required to reflect this fair value changes. The effective tax rate was 13.8% for the full year and the fourth quarter. As a reminder, the effective tax rate is presented on a accrual basis depending on our people policies and our operations. On a non-GAAP net income from continued operations attributes to shareholders for the fourth quarter totaled RMB7.4 billion or US$1 billion up 53% over a year. Non-GAAP basic earning for ADS from a continuous operation for the quarter was US$1.62 or US$0.32 per share. Additionally our cash position remains strong. As of year-end Our net cash position was about RMB110.9 billion compared with RMB95.6 billion at the end of 2022. In accordance with our dividend policy, we're pleased to report that our board of directors has approved a dividend of US$0.21597 per share were US$1.07985 per ADS. Lastly under our current US$5 billion share repurchase program starting in mid-January last year we have repurchased approximately 7.2 million ADSs at December 31st of 2023 for total cost of approximately US$644 million. Thank you for your attention. We would not like to open the call to your questions.
Operator
谢谢。[操作员说明] 第一个问题来自瑞银的Felix Liu。
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Felix Liu with UBS.
Felix Liu
[外语] 谢谢。让我自己翻译。谢谢管理层回答我的问题。祝贺《永劫无间》手游版《Banhao》。我的问题是关于这款游戏。管理层能否分享更多关于游戏研发进展的信息?手游版与PC版有何不同?您预计这款游戏的发布时间是什么时候?非常感谢。
Felix Liu
[Foreign Language] Thank you. Let me translate myself. Thank you, management, for taking my question. And congratulations on Banhao for the mobile version of Naraka Bladepoint. My question is on the game. Can management share a bit more color on the R&D progress of the game? How would the mobile version differ from PC version? And what is your expected launch time for this game? Thank you very much.
Bill Pang
[外语] 是的。我来翻译。关于《永劫无间》手游版,我们进行了测试。一切进展顺利。我们去年12月在成都进行了一次测试。结果相当不错。关于您问的手游和PC体验差异的问题,William说的是,在过去两年半的PC运营中,我们积累了丰富的经验。我们正在进行所有必要的修改和优化,以适应手游版本。关于上线日期,一切按计划进行。目前我们最好的估计是在第二季度左右。
Bill Pang
[Foreign Language] Yes. I will do the translation. For the mobile version of Naraka, we did a test. Everything is on track. We did a test in Chengdu back in December. The result was fairly good. Regarding your question on the experience between mobile and PC, what William said is that during the past two and a half years operating on PC, we have accumulated time of experiences. And we're doing all the needed modifications and everything. Optimization for the mobile version. And regarding the going live date, everything is on track. And now our best estimate is somewhere Q2.
Operator
下一个问题来自摩根士丹利的Alex Poon。
Operator
Your next question comes from Alex Poon with Morgan Stanley.
Alex Poon
[外语] 祝贺管理层取得非常强劲的业绩和游戏管线。我的第一个问题是关于《蛋仔派对》的海外扩张。去年我们已经在许多国家上线了,请问我们对2024年这款游戏的最新想法是什么。我的第二个问题与《Project Mugen》的进展有关。非常感谢。
Alex Poon
[Foreign Language] Congratulations management for very strong results and the game pipeline. My first question is regarding the overseas expansion of Eggy Party. We have launched in many countries already last year what our latest thought for the game in 2024. My second question is related to the progress of Project Mugen. Thank you very much.
Bill Pang
[外语] 好的,我来翻译。首先,众所周知《蛋仔派对》在中国取得了成功并积累了丰富经验。关于海外市场,我们现在处于探索期。我们正在逐步推进,验证很多成本投入和想法,尝试不同的方式。[听不清]请保持关注,我们将共同推进《蛋仔派对》的海外市场。关于《Project Mugen》产品的状态,目前处于正常的游戏开发中,当然也在申请版号的过程中。这款产品有非常具体、明确的定位和开发目标,我们希望能在ACG开放世界游戏领域打造出足够旗舰级的作品推向市场。谢谢。下一个问题。
Bill Pang
[Foreign Language] Okay, I will do the translation. First of all, as everybody knows Eggy Party has achieved success in China and with tons of experience. And regarding overseas market, we are in the exploration period now. And we are doing that step by step validating a lot of cost up [ph] and thoughts to try different things out. [Indiscernible] please stay tuned, we are going together for the overseas market of Eggy Party. Regarding the status of product Yugan [ph] is under normal game development now and of course it’s also in the process of trying for the publishing number as well. The product has very specific, very clear positioning and development target and we hope in the area of ACG Open World Game we can make the game flagship enough to have this on the market. Thank you. Next question.
Operator
下一个问题来自美国银行证券的Lei Zhang。
Operator
The next question comes from Lei Zhang with Bank of America Securities.
Lei Zhang
[外语] 谢谢管理层回答我的问题。我的问题是关于海外业务。您能否给我们一些关于海外游戏计划的更新?我们是否有计划扩大或收购更多海外工作室?谢谢。
Lei Zhang
[Foreign Language] Thanks management for taking my question. My question is regarding overseas business. Can you give us some updates on overseas game plan and do we have any plan to expand or acquire more overseas studios? Thank you
Bill Pang
[外语] 目前我们在美国、日本、英国等国家设有工作室。在我们全球化的过程中,这是很正常的。我们在全球各地设立工作室,这很正常。这将成为我们未来的新常态。谢谢。下一个问题。
Bill Pang
[Foreign Language] So now we have studios in U.S. in the United States, Japan, U.K. and other countries. This is quite normal when we are going global. We have set up our studios around the globe, that’s quite normal. And we are going to, it's going to be a new norm for us in the future. Thank you. Next question.
Operator
下一个问题来自中金公司的Yang Bai。
Operator
Your next question comes from Yang Bai with CICC.
Yang Bai
[外语]
Yang Bai
[Foreign Language]
Bill Pang
是的,我来翻译。关于我们对今年的理解,首先我们想说ACG游戏现在已经成为EBITDA[ph]的主要贡献者,放眼全球,现在很多公司都成功做到了这一点。对于网易来说,我们有我们的优势,我们的经验,我们独特的经验和优势,但我们正在做的是不断探索。我们能做的是保持谦逊和积极的态度,不断探索在游戏设计领域进行创新的新方式。关于国内成功与出海之间的协同效应,游戏的乐趣部分是相同的,无论游戏在哪里,玩家在哪里。所以我们可以做的是利用我们在游戏乐趣方面的经验,如何制作有趣的游戏,如何通过设计制作游戏,并将这些应用到全球产品中。谢谢,请下一个问题。
Bill Pang
Yes, I will do the translation. Regarding our understanding of the year, first we would like to say ACG Game is now the EBITDA [ph], looking globally now many companies successfully do that. And for NetEase we have our strengths, our experience our unique experience and strength, but what we are doing is keep exploring. What we can do is keep a humble and accretive attitude and keep exploring the new ways of doing creative, being creative in the year of game, design. And regarding the [Indiscernible] on the synergy between domestic success and going overseas, games the fun part of games are the same, regardless where the game stays, where the player stays. So what we can do is leverage what we learn on the fun part, how to do a fun game, how to do a game by design and apply that to global products. Thank you, and next question please.
Operator
下一个问题来自野村证券的Jialong Shi。
Operator
Your next question comes from Jialong Shi with Nomura.
Jialong Shi
[外语]感谢管理层回答我的问题。我有一个关于《蛋仔派对》的问题。我们知道自去年年底以来,为您的游戏《蛋仔派对》举办了许多线下推广活动。我想知道今年营销支出的趋势如何,去年《蛋仔派对》的推广费用是否加速了您的营销支出?谢谢。
Jialong Shi
[Foreign Language] Thanks management for taking my question. I have a question on Eggy Party. We know that since the end of last year, many offline promotional activities have been held for your game Eggy Party. Just wonder what is the trend for your marketing spend this year, whether or not this promotional expense for Eggy Party was it rather for a acceleration in your marketing expense last year for? Thank you.
Bill Pang
是的,我来翻译。Jialong,你说得对。在第四季度,如果你看我们的营销支出,当然如你所评论的,市场上有一些竞争因素我们需要应对。但同时,如果你看最近的表现,我们在2024年春节期间的表现,《蛋仔派对》实现了4000万日活跃用户的成就,这表明我们投入的举措相当有效。结果相当好,相当有效。展望未来,我们预计营销支出不会有大幅增加,我们会继续探索最有效的营销支出以及更严格的支出管理。营销支出的增加不应成为担忧。William也谈到了一些更大的宏观[ph]背景,正如你所看到的,随着游戏质量的逐年提高,其他公司在市场上竞争变得越来越具有挑战性。对于网易来说,因为我们在游戏开发等方面有长期、长时间的积累,我们也每周都在投资新项目。所以在某种程度上,2024年实际上对我们来说是收获的一年。我们将释放过去20年积累的经验,你会看到越来越多新游戏的结果出来。谢谢,请下一个问题。
Bill Pang
[Foreign Language] Yes, I will do the translation. Jialong you are right. In Q4, if you look at our marketing spending ofcourse as you are commenting there is some factor of competition that we have to deal in the market. But in the meantime, if you look at the recent performance, our performance during the Chinese Year 2024, Eggy Party achieved RMB40 million DAU achievement, which shows that the initiative we spent are quite effective. The result is quite good and quite effective. Looking forward, we don’t see a big increase on the marketing spending and we keep exploring the most effective marketing spending as well as the more rigid work with the spend. And the marketing spending increase shouldn’t be a concern. And William also talked about some greater macro [ph] backdrops that as you can see as the quality of games in general increased year-over-year it’s more and more challenging for other companies to compete in the market. For NetEase, because we have long-term, long time accumulation in the games development everything and we also invest weekly into our new project. So to some extent year of 2024 is actually a year of harvest to us. We are going to unleash the accumulation, experience we accumulated for the past 20 years and you will see more and more result of new games comes out. Thank you and next question please.
Operator
下一个问题来自高盛集团的Lincoln Kong。
Operator
The next question comes from Lincoln Kong with Goldman Sachs.
Lincoln Kong
[外语] 我将自行翻译。我的第一个问题是关于《Where Winds Meet》这款游戏。关于这款游戏的发布计划,这次将是跨平台的全球发布。在测试期间,似乎PC端对设备配置要求相当高。那么这会影响移动端的游戏体验和组件吗?如何让游戏在PC和移动端都适配良好?第二个问题是关于整体市场。我们看到2024年宏观经济和消费存在一些不确定性。那么对于像《Westfall Journey》和《Westfall》这样的长期运营游戏,我们是否观察到用户消费行为或付费意愿的变化?您对今年游戏行业的展望如何?
Lincoln Kong
[Foreign Language] So I will translate myself. My first question is about where we meet. So with our target to launch timeline for this game. It will be a cross-platform global launch for this time. And it seems, during the testing, it requires quite high equipment for the PC world. So would that affect the mobile world in terms of the gameplay and the components? How would that fit in both PC and mobile? And the second question is around the overall market. We do see some of the uncertainty around the macro economy and consumption going forward into 2024. So in those longer-term legacy games like Westfall Journey, and Westfall, do we see any of the change in terms of the user spending behavior or paying willingness on those games? What's our outlook for this year's gaming industry?
Bill Pang
[外语] 谢谢。我来翻译。首先,关于您对《Where Winds Meet》的问题。正如我们解释的,《Where Winds Meet》是我们花费三年时间开发的一款高品质武侠题材开放世界RPG游戏。关于具体的图形问题,您不需要担心,玩家也不需要担心。我们的引擎有能力适应不同的硬件平台,既能发挥特定硬件的极限性能,又能确保在不同平台上都能运行。这些都由我们的自研游戏引擎等技术处理好了。同时,游戏本身确实在先进硬件平台上是一款高画质游戏。另外,根据我们的经验,我们看到喜欢武侠文化的玩家喜欢玩这类游戏,我们希望这款游戏能够成为向世界推广武侠文化的载体。关于您第二个关于宏观经济不确定性的问题,这会对游戏表现产生什么影响?根据我们的观察,实际上玩家在不同游戏中花费多少来获得他们追求的乐趣方面相当谨慎。根据我们的经验,这与宏观经济状况关系不大,实际上更与游戏本身的质量相关。正如我们所说,不仅在中国,全球的玩家对游戏质量的要求都越来越高,这使得包括我们在内的所有开发商都需要投入越来越多的精力来制作高质量内容。是的,这就是我们所在的游戏行业宏观环境。谢谢。下一个问题,请。我想我们还有时间回答最后一个问题。
Bill Pang
[Foreign Language] Thank you. I will do the translation. First of all, regarding your question to where Winds Meet. Where Winds Meet, as we explained, is the game we spent three years developing is a very high-quality martial arts-based open-world RPG game. Regarding the specific graphic question, that's something you don't need to worry about and players don't need to worry about either. Our engine has the capability to adapt on different hardware platforms to push the limit of that specific hardware but also make sure it's runnable on different platforms. So that's been taken care of by our in-house game engine and everything. In the meantime, for the game itself, it's indeed a high-graphic game on advanced hardware platforms. Also, from our experience, we saw people like the Wuxia culture like to play the game and we hope this game could be a vehicle that we could promote the Wuxia culture to the world as well. And to your second question regarding the macroeconomy uncertainties, how will that impact the game performance? From our observation, actually, gamers, they spend pretty prudently how much they spend in different games to get the fun they are pursuing. From our experience, it's not very related to macroeconomic conditions. It's actually more related to the quality of the game itself. Now, as we said, the gamers, not only in China, but globally, become more and more picky regarding the quality, which puts all the developers included to spend more and more effort to making high-quality content. Yes, that's kind of the game industry macro we're in. Thank you. And next question, please. I think we have time for one last question.
Operator
谢谢。最后一个问题来自汇丰银行的Ritchie Sun。
Operator
Thank you. Your last question comes from Ritchie Sun with HSBC.
Ritchie Sun
[外语] 我将自行翻译这个问题。那么[听不清]将在3月发布,[听不清]可以在上半年发布。就用户群体而言,这些游戏与我们现有游戏之间的重叠度有多大?网易将如何协调推广和发布时间表以最大化成功率?[听不清]何时发布?谢谢。
Ritchie Sun
[Foreign Language] So I will translate this question myself. So [Indiscernible] will be launched in March, and [Indiscernible] can be launched in the first half. So in terms of the user demographics, how big is the overlapping between these games and our existing games? And how would NetEase coordinate the promotion and launch schedule to maximize the hit rate? And when will [Indiscernible] be launched? Thank you.
Bill Pang
[外语] 关于您提到的两款不同武侠题材游戏,这两款游戏具有完全不同的IP属性。一款深受金庸粉丝喜爱,另一款则更偏向亚洲现实风格设定。两款游戏由不同团队开发,拥有不同的美术风格和系统设置。我们不认为这两款游戏会与其他游戏有大量联动。实际上,我们的观点是市场正在寻求高质量的武侠开放世界游戏。通过在市场上推出两款定位不同的高质量武侠游戏,我们希望进一步推动市场发展。关于上线日期,一切都在准备中,一切按计划进行。是的,一切都在正轨上。谢谢。
Bill Pang
[Foreign Language] So regarding your question on the two different martial arts-based games, these two games have totally different IP attributes. One is very loved by Jin Yong fans. The other one is more like an Asian reality kind of setup. And both games are developed by different teams with different art styles, different system setups. We don't see that the game is going to have a lot of collaboration with other games. And actually, our view is the market is actually looking for high-quality martial arts, open-world games. And by offering two high-quality martial arts games in the market with different positioning, we hope we can push the market further. And on the go-live date, everything is being prepared. Everything is on track. And yes, everything is on track. Thank you.
Operator
问答环节到此结束。现在请将会议交还给Brandi Piacente进行补充或结束语。
Operator
And that concludes the question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Brandi Piacente for any additional or closing comments.
Brandi Piacente
再次感谢大家今天的参与。如果您有任何进一步问题,请随时联系我们。祝您有美好的一天。
Brandi Piacente
Thank you once again for joining us today. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact us and have a great day.
Bill Pang
谢谢。
Bill Pang
Thank you.
Operator
今天的电话会议到此结束。感谢您的参与。您现在可以断开连接。
Operator
That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for participating. You may now disconnect.