Chinese online gaming firm The9 (NCTY) says net revenues for the first quarter of 2008 increased by 4% quarter-over-quarter and by 63% year-over-year to CNY439.4 million as it announced its unaudited financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2008.

Jun Zhu, chairman and CEO of The9 said in a prepared statement, "In the first quarter of 2008, we attained aggregate peak concurrent users of approximately 1.2 million for games that are currently in commercial operations, and as of March 31, 2008, we had over 38.1 million total registered users."

Net revenues attributable to the operations of subscription-based games, which included revenues from game playing time, merchandise and installation package sales, increased by 1% quarter-over-quarter and by 47% year-over-year to CNY392.4 million in the first quarter of 2008. Net income for the first quarter of 2008 was CNY89.7 million, a 4% increase from CNY86.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, and a 36% increase from CNY66.1 million in the first quarter of 2007.

As at March 31, 2008, The9's total cash and cash equivalents balance was CNY1.78 billion, compared to CNY2.2 billion as of December 31, 2007.