The9's Revenues Decline Due to Loss of WoW License

The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY), an online game operator and developer in China, said net revenues for the third quarter of 2009 decreased by 91% quarter-over-quarter and decreased by 94% year-over-year to RMB25.5 million (US$3.7 million), mainly due to a decrease in revenue from World of Warcraft (WoW), for which its license agreement expired on June 7, 2009.

In the third quarter of 2009, net revenues attributable to the operations of non-WoW games increased by 55% quarter-over-quarter. The sequential increase was mainly due to an increase of revenue from Soul of The Ultimate Nation after the launch of new content upgrade and a theft-proof security system, and revenue contribution for a complete quarter from EA SPORTS FIFA Online 2, Atlantica and its first web-based game, Jiu Zhou Zhan Ji.

Aggregate active users increased by 6% to 3.4 million quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter, which was mainly due to Jiu Zhou Zhan Ji. Aggregate active paying accounts increased by 48% to 108,000 quarter-over-quarter in the third quarter, mainly due to SUN's improved performance.

The quarterly average revenue per user was RMB240, compared withRMB221 in the previous quarter. For the third quarter of 2009, net loss  was RMB73.6 million (US$10.8 million), which decreased by 7% from net loss of RMB79.2 million (US$11.6 million) in the second quarter of 2009 and compared with net income of RMB80.5 million (US$11.8 million) in the third quarter of 2008.