SHANDA Interactive Entertainment Ltd posted a US$30.8 million profit in the fourth quarter, recovering from a huge loss a year ago. The Shanghai-based firm attributed the turnaround to the success of its free-play model launched at the end of 2005. There is no charge for game time, but the company profits from the sale of virtual weapons and advertising.

Shanda, which competes against bigger rival NetEase.com and The9.com, will launch 16 new games in 2007 and attract more players. Shanda's fourth-quarter net profit, including a one-time gain of 66.8 million yuan from the disposal of Sina shares, jumped 66 percent from the previous three months to 240.3 million yuan (US$30.8 million), compared with a loss of 538.9 million yuan a year earlier. Revenue rose 30.5 percent year on year to 470.6 million yuan, according to the Nasdaq-listed Shanda.

Fourth-quarter online game revenue, mainly from multiplayer role-playing titles such as the "Legend of MIR II," rose 44 percent to 450 million yuan year on year. Shanda reported 2.29 million paying customers for those games, up from the previous quarter's 2.14 million.

In a domestic market valued at 7.8 billion yuan, Shanda earned a 20.5 percent share of total revenues behind NetEase.com's 24.0 percent. The The9.com's market share jumped to 12.7 percent from 9.3 percent, powered by the world's most popular multiplayer role-playing game "World of WarCraft".

Shanda also will launch 16 new games in 2007. Among them are six online multiplayer games, including "Kong-Fu Masters" and "LaTale." Shanda sold 3.7 million shares in the Internet portal Sina last November and said this month that it is looking to sell another four million for as much as US$133.6 million.

Source:未知