On the 11th, NetEase (NASDAQ: NTES; HKEX:9999) released its Q4 and full-year 2025 financial report. The data shows that NetEase's total revenue for the year reached 112.6 billion yuan, with Q4 revenue at 27.5 billion yuan. During the subsequent earnings call, NetEase CEO Ding Lei and the management team discussed core topics such as deepening AI technology, global strategy, and long-term game operations, outlining the company's competitive landscape in the AI 2.0 era.

NetEase

AI Redefines the "Threshold of Success": Integration Ability Replaces Pure Production Capacity

Facing the industry impact brought by world model technologies like Genie3, Ding Lei pointed out during the meeting that while AI has lowered the "entry barrier" for game production, it has significantly raised the "success barrier" for top-tier titles. He believes that the core competitiveness of commercially successful games in the future has shifted from pure production capacity to the ability to deeply integrate AI technology with complex numerical systems, long-term economic systems, and in-depth social ecosystems—**"integration capability."**

Strategic Focus: Becoming the "Most Game-Savvy AI Expert"

In terms of investment strategy, NetEase did not blindly follow the trend of general large models but instead firmly pursued a **"vertical deepening"** approach. Ding Lei emphasized, "In vertical fields, high-quality private data is more important than computing power, and application scenarios are more critical than parameter size." NetEase aims to convert technological dividends into a leading advantage in high-quality development and long-term operations through vertical models, talent teams, and AI-native gameplay.

Efficiency Leap: Full-Chain Breakthrough of AI-Native Pipeline

2025 became a key milestone for NetEase's AI industrialization. The financial report shows that NetEase has extensively deployed AI-native pipelines across multiple stages, including art, design, programming, animation, and QA, with production efficiency increasing by up to 300% in some areas.

  • Scale Implementation: Innovative features such as intelligent NPCs, intelligent face customization, and AI teammates have been regularly operated in flagship products such as "Nihao," "Yanyun Sixteen Voices," "Eternal Return," and "Duck Party."

By building this "AI-native" technology and gameplay matrix, NetEase is trying to identify new growth points in the complex global competition.