The Shanghai-based company earned 105.1 million yuan (US$13.14 million) in the fourth quarter, including a 19.8 million yuan subsidy that was part of the local government's efforts to promote the city's cyber games, software and semiconductor companies.

Zhu Jun, the chairman of China's No 3 online game firm, said he expects the company's earnings to double this year because The9 will import more games into the country.

The9 posted 312 million yuan in net profit last year, up 331 percent from 2005.

Fourth-quarter revenue grew to 282.7 million yuan, 33 percent more than a year ago.

The Nasdaq-listed The9 attributed its growth to the China operations of Blizzard Entertainment-developed "World of Warcraft," the world's most popular online game. WoW revenue accounted for 99 percent of The9's income.

About 6.8 million paid WoW accounts were activated between when the game was launched in June 2005 and the end of last year, The9 said.

China's No 2 online game firm, Shanda, had about eight million paying players last year.

Market leader NetEase.com is scheduled to report performance figures next month.

"Though The9 has a smaller user base than Shanda and NetEase, it is catching up with them," said iResearch Inc, a Shanghai-based Internet consulting firm.

The9.com's revenue share of China's 7.8 billion yuan online game market jumped to 12.7 percent from 9.3 percent from 2005 to 2006. Shanda's share dropped to 20.5 percent from 35 percent, while NetEase's fell to 24.0 percent from 27.6 percent, according to iResearch Inc.

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