Sea shares jump almost 20% after strong Q2, as CEO Forrest Li searches for new growth opportunities
The owner of the e-commerce platform Shopee reported quarterly revenue that jumped almost 40% year-on-year to reach $5.3 billion.
Strong second quarter results sent shares of Sea, the Singaporean tech company, up 19% in New York trading on Tuesday. Shares are now up more than 60% for the year thus far, even as shares are still far from their 2021 highs.
Sea reported revenue of $5.3 billion for the quarter ending June 2025, an almost 40% jump year-on-year. Net income also reached $414.2 million, more than five times greater than the $79.9 million profit recorded a year ago.
All three of Sea’s business divisions—e-commerce platform Shopee, video game developer Garena and fintech unit Monee—posted double-digit percentage point revenue growth.
“The momentum from our strong start to 2025 has continued into the second quarter. All three of our businesses have delivered robust, healthy growth, giving us greater confidence of delivering another great year,” said CEO Forrest Li in prepared remarks.
Shopee, the leading e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, is still the biggest contributor to Sea’s business, contributing 72% of total revenue. Shopee’s gross merchandise value grew 25% over the first half of the year compared to 2024.
Monee, Sea’s recently rebranded financial services arm, also maintained strong growth. Its loan book expanded by 94% year-on-year last quarter, reaching $6.9 billion.
Sea’s success
Sea, No. 15 on the Southeast Asia 500, has now recorded two straight years of profit, a milestone for the company after a period of painful cost-cutting and restructuring.
In previous earnings calls, Li credited AI tools and its logistics network for improving profitability in Sea’s e-commerce department.
On Wednesday, Li said that Sea has “reached a stage where we can pursue growth opportunities while improving profitability.”
One such growth opportunity is Brazil. Shopee expanded to Brazil in 2019, and is now one of the country’s leading e-commerce platforms. In a call with analysts, both Li and CFO Tony Hou were bullish on Sea’s prospects in Brazil.
Hou said that Sea had “meaningful room” to grow in Brazil, even as competitors like PDD Holdings’ Temu and ByteDance’s TikTok entered the market. Li also pointed to Brazil’s potential as a market for Sea’s financial services business, pointing to “very good growth” in loan book value for the second quarter.
