NetEase

NetEase is a major Chinese game company distinguished by a "taste-driven" investment and development philosophy, as Benchmark's Mitch Lasky put it — "they really love games and want players to love games too" . The company built its domestic foundation on titles like *Fantasy Westward Journey*, described as one of China's earliest true MMOs, and later secured the transformative China-exclusive Blizzard agency deal for *World of Warcraft* in 2008, which became a pillar of its business for the following 15 years . Unlike Tencent, whose gaming holdings sit within a far larger revenue ecosystem, NetEase operates as a "more pure game publisher" in the Activision mold, with heavier reliance on its core gaming business . The company has also been an active overseas investor, deploying over $1 billion into international studios including Second Dinner and thatgamecompany, while serving as thatgamecompany's Chinese publisher . Its recent loss of the Blizzard agency was noted as a significant blow, with some observers seeing a corresponding contraction in its international operations . Elsewhere's corpus notes that investor Kathy Xu (徐新) has cited her NetEase position as an example of her long-term, Buffett-style concentration .