NetEase's gaming anti-corruption sweep blacklisted 27 partners tied to ¥2B in contracts

In November 2024, NetEase's gaming division announced an internal anti-corruption sweep of its partnership and marketing channels. The sweep identified corrupt practices in the company's dealings with outside partners — agencies, distribution channels and marketing vendors that earn money from game promotion. As a result, 27 partner companies were blacklisted, meaning they were barred from future business with the company, and employees found to be involved were dismissed.

The implicated contract volume was reported at roughly ¥2 billion (about $280 million) — a measure of how large the affected partner economy had become. In January 2025 the company published an expanded list, adding another 58 companies, bringing the total of blacklisted partners to 85.

For an operator whose games generate revenue through live-service operations, channel partnerships and marketing spend, the sweep was a governance reckoning: the money moving to partners was moving without the controls that an internal procurement ledger would have had. The scale of the blacklist suggested the practice was embedded in how the business worked, not an isolated case.

The public part of the episode ended with the blacklist and the dismissals. The structural question — how approvals for partner payments were granted and audited — was left to internal reform, and the case became a reference point for the gaming industry's partner-economy risk across China.