netease

As expats fled China’s zero-COVID, this developer built a sci-fi game for NetEase

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, foreigners have been leaving China in droves to escape the country’s strict “zero-COVID” restrictions, which had limited people’s

Blizzard ends 14-year licensing deal with NetEase in China

In a somewhat surprising turn, Blizzard Activision, the California-based gaming publisher behind global hits like World of Warcraft and Overwatch, will be suspending most of its games in China due to

China’s NetEase snaps up French video game studio Quantic Dream

NetEase, a Chinese technology company and billion-dollar video-game publisher, has acquired French video-game studio Quantic Dream. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The deal means that NetEase no

Metaverse app BUD raises another $37M, plans to launch NFTs

BUD, a nascent app taking a shot at creating a metaverse for Gen Z to play and interact with each other, has raised another round of funding in three months. The Singapore-based startup told TechCrunc

China’s gaming giant NetEase opens first US studio in Austin

NetEase, the second-largest gaming company in China and the sixth-largest in the world, has opened its first U.S.-based studio in Austin as China’s gaming industry slows. The company’s arc

China further limits access to unauthorized foreign games

For years, China has left a loophole open for people to access unauthorized video games, but it’s ready to close it. Many foreign titles lack a Chinese publishing partner like Tencent to help th

China’s tech firms in limbo amid COVID resurgence, US scrutiny

2022 is not looking any easier to many Chinese tech companies. The slew of new cyberspace regulations introduced over the past year or so, from anti-competition rules to restrictions on the use of alg

India bans Garena Free Fire, 53 more China-linked apps

India has banned Tencent’s Xriver, Garena’s Free Fire, NetEase’s Onmyoji Arena and Astracraft and 50 more apps with apparent links to China, the latest in a series of similar blockin

PalmPay raised $100M Series A last August, claims to have 5 million users

Africa-focused payments startup PalmPay raised a $100 million Series A round last year. TechCrunch spotted this news in Partech Africa’s latest end-of-year report on venture capital investments in A

PUBG Mobile maker Krafton sues Apple, Google and rival game developer Garena over ‘clones’

Krafton, the developer behind PlayUnknown’s Battlegrounds,” and the maker of PUBG Mobile, last year’s No. 6 top-grossing mobile game on a global basis, is suing the app stores and a

Apple Music expands Chinese music reservoir via Tencent deal

Apple Music users around the world will soon have access to more Chinese musicians. Tencent Music Entertainment, the online music subsidiary of Tencent, said Tuesday that “record labels and arti

China roundup: Beijing wants tech giants to shoulder more social responsibilities

This week, the gaming industry again became a target of Beijing, which imposed arguably the world's strictest limits on underage players. On the other hand, China's tech titans are hastily answering B

China restricts kids’ online gaming to three hours a week

China’s National Press and Publication Administration has released a notice imposing limits on online gaming for minors. On September 1st, video game companies will have to restrict gaming time to t

China roundup: Alibaba’s sexual assault scandal and more delayed IPOs

A sexual assault case at Alibaba has sparked a new round of #MeToo reckoning in China. Industry observers believe this is a watershed moment for the fight against China's allegedly misogynist tech ind

China roundup: Games are opium, algorithms need scrutiny

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch’s China roundup, a digest of recent events shaping the Chinese tech landscape and what they mean to people in the rest of the world. The question for the tech n

Avatar startup Genies scores $65 million in funding round led by Mary Meeker’s Bond

Over the past several years I’ve covered my fair share of upstart avatar companies that were all chasing the same dream — building out a customizable platform for a digital persona that ga

Boss of Chinese gaming titan NetEase calls for shared parental leave

China’s relaxation of its one-child restriction has not delivered the population targets set by its policy planners. In 2019, the birth rate in China slumped to a seven-decade low, which experts

Maestro nets $15 million for its interactive commerce, community and engagement tools for livestreams

Making money on livestreams has never been easier thanks to a suite of tools from the Los Angeles-based startup Maestro, which just nabbed $15 million in financing to grow its business. As video comme

Virtual social network IMVU raises $35M from China’s NetEase and others

The line between social networking and gaming is increasingly blurring, and internet incumbents are taking notice. NetEase, the second-largest gaming company in China (behind Tencent), is among a grou

Tencent and Universal Music to take Chinese artists global under joint label

Digital entertainment titan Tencent continues to drum up its music ambitions. On Tuesday, Tencent Music Entertainment, majority-owned by Tencent with a 55.6% stake, announced establishing a new joint
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