Shanda Interactive Entertainment's third-quarter profit beat analysts' expectations, helped by increasing number of online players and a growing non-game business.

The firm earned 435 million yuan (US$64 million) in net profit in the period, a rise of 29 percent from a year ago, beating analysts expectations according to Thomson Reuters. Revenue jumped 47.7 percent annually to 1.38 billion yuan in the quarter, the Nasdaq-listed Internet firm said in a regulatory filing.

Sales at Shanda Games, the developer of popular online game - The World of Legend - rose 45 percent on an annual basis to 1.27 billion yuan, with a 6 percent rise in paid users. But the online game unit's contribution fell from 95.2 percent in the second quarter to 92 percent of Shanda's revenue in the quarter.

But revenue from non-game businesses including online literature and e-sports platform surged 43 percent to 133 million yuan and was in line with the firm's plan to reduce its reliance on income from its game business and create a diversified media company after it spun off the unit in a US$1.04 billion initial public offering in September.

In an investor conference call after the results, Grace Wu, Shanda's chief financial officer, said Shanda Interactive may acquire more game content developers and other digital entertainment content firms with its US$1.6 billion cash.

The company has signed content distribution deals with 24 partners.