Singapore’s tech conglomerate Sea Limited saw its revenue surge 29.6 percent year on year to $4.8 billion in the first quarter, underpinned by strong e-commerce growth.
The firm said in a statement on Tuesday that it achieved a total net income of $410.8 million for the quarter, as compared to total net loss of $23 million a year ago.
The firm’s total adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) was $946.5 million, as compared to $401.1 million for the first quarter of 2024.
“We have delivered another great quarter of strong growth with improving profitability across all three businesses. Our strong start to the year gives us more confidence of achieving our full-year guidance.” said Forrest Li, Sea’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
On e-commerce, he said Shopee has delivered a record-high gross merchandise value (GMV) and gross order volume in the first quarter.
“We sustained market leadership with improved profitability across both Asia and Brazil,
“Our strong execution of our operational priorities – enhancing price competitiveness, improving service quality, and strengthening our content ecosystem – has continued to make Shopee competitive and differentiated,” he added.
On digital financial services, Li shared that SeaMoney had been rebranded to Monee.
“We chose the name Monee because it is simple, cute, and, just like our company’s name Sea, easy to write and pronounce,
“Monee also resonates well with the name of its sister brand, Shopee, reflecting the seamless, synergetic connection between the two ecosystems,” he noted.
On Monee’s performance for the quarter, Li said that Monee delivered another strong set of results, with both revenue and adjusted EBITDA growing more than 50 percent year-on-year while maintaining stable asset quality.
“As we scale, we remain focused on risk management as a top priority,
“We are confident that we can grow Monee in a way that is resilient to credit cycles and profitable into the long term,” he said.
On digital entertainment, Li said Garena had a stellar start to 2025, with its best quarter since 2021.
“Thanks to the phenomenal success of the Free Fire and NARUTO collaboration in January, Free Fire’s average daily active user (DAU) in the first quarter was close to its peak quarterly average DAU during the pandemic,
“We will continue to drive Free Fire’s popularity and longevity, improve localized content across our games, and expand our game portfolio for overall sustained growth,” he added.
The firm’s first quarter e-commerce revenue was $3.5 billion, up 28.3 percent year-on-year. Its gross merchandise value (GMV) was $28.6 billion for the quarter, increasing by 21.5 percent year-on-year.
The segment’s adjusted EBITDA was $264.4 million, as compared to $(21.7) million for the first quarter of 2024.
As for its digital financial services, the segment’s revenue was $787.1 million, soaring 57.6 percent year-on-year.
The segment’s adjusted EBITDA was $241.4 million, up 62.4 percent year-on-year.
As for digital entertainment, the segment’s revenue was $495.6 million, as compared to $458.1 million for the first quarter of 2024.
Its adjusted EBITDA was $458.2 million, surging 56.8 percent year-on-year.
Sea is a global consumer internet company founded in 2009.
The firm operates three core businesses across digital entertainment, e-commerce, as well as digital financial
services, known as Garena, Shopee and Monee, respectively.
Garena is a global online games developer and publisher, while Shopee is the largest pan-regional e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan and has a significant presence in Latin America.
Monee is a digital financial services provider in Southeast Asia and is growing its presence in Brazil.
Sea opens new digital financial services headquarters in Singapore; rebrands SeaMoney to Monee