Shanda Games
Series A in 2003
Shanda Games is an online game developer, operator, and publisher offering massively multiplayer online games and mobile games. It distributes its products in China and in overseas markets targeting a large and diverse community of users. It manages and operates online games that are developed in-house, co-developed with professional game developers, acquired through investments, or licensed from third parties. It operates a nationwide network to host hundreds of users playing simultaneously, and adjust the game content to optimize its game players’ experience. As of June 30, 2014, Shanda Games operated 71 massively multiplayer online games and mobile games, and its in-house development capabilities consisted of approximately 1,600 game development personnel and its proprietary game development platform. It licenses games from international and domestic developers. In 2013, the company derived approximately 71% of its net revenues from games that it owns and co-owned. As of June 30, 2014, 42 of its 71 games were licensed from third-party developers on an exclusive basis, two games were jointly developed with a third-party developer, and one game was jointly operated with third-party developers. Its game player base, which consists of 18.4 million average monthly active users and 3.1 million average monthly paying users for its massively multiplayer online games, and 448,900 average daily active users for its mobile games, for the year of 2013, is one of the largest in China. Shanda Games is among the first in China to adopt the item-based revenue model for advanced casual games and is the first to adopt this revenue model for MMORPGs on a large scale. Shanda Games is also expanding its business into overseas markets. In August 2011, it began operating a localized version of Dragon Nest in Singapore. In March 2013, it started to operate Dragon Nest in Europe. In addition, it also licenses certain of its online games, of which it owns the intellectual property rights, to overseas third-parties operators. Markets and regions in which it has presence include Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brazil, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, South Korea, Japan, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Middle East, and Europe. Shanda Games was launched in 1999.