Sea, the Singapore-based tech company, reported a net profit for the three months ending March 31, 2025, which topped analysts’ estimates, on Tuesday.
A strong quarter from its e-commerce division, its biggest business unit, helped drive Sea to a quarterly profit of $410.8 million, higher than the analysts’ average of $353.4 million calculated by Bloomberg. The quarterly profit also reverses a loss of $23 million from the same period a year ago.
Revenue for the quarter rose 30% to reach $4.8 billion, roughly in line with estimates.
Sea’s shares rose about 6.6% in early trading Tuesday to reach $152.21, its highest in three years, though that is still less than half of its peak of around $350 seen in late 2021.
“Our businesses are now all self-sufficient and cash-generating, positioning us well to capture future opportunities,” said CEO Forrest Li on the earnings call. Li added that the strong start gives Sea the confidence to achieve its full-year guidance.
All three of Sea’s businesses, e-commerce, digital financial services, and gaming logged double digit percentage growth.
Its digital financial services, which was recently rebranded to Monee, was the company’s fastest-growing segment. Monee’s revenue for the quarter grew 57.6% to reach $787.1 million.
As of March 31, 2025, consumer and loans principal outstanding stood at $5.8 billion, up 76.5% from the same period a year ago. Sea generates revenue from lending to consumers and small-and-medium enterprises.
Sea’s gaming arm, Garena, reported bookings of $775.4 million, up 51.4% year-on-year. The company also revealed the daily active users for Free Fire, one of its more popular mobile games, during the quarter was close to its pandemic peak.
Yet, the positive first quarter was still mainly driven by online shopping, which formed the bulk of its revenue.
E-commerce revenue rose 28.3% year-on-year to reach $3.5 billion and made up 73% of Sea’s quarterly revenue. Shopee, its e-commerce platform, delivered record-high gross merchandise value and gross order volume for the quarter, Li said.
Shopee primarily operates in Southeast Asia and Taiwan and expanded to Brazil in 2019.
Continued cost-management improvements are helping drive profitability for its largest business segment. Li said on the earnings call the company has reduced the overall logistics cost per order by 6% and 21% in Asia and Brazil, respectively. AI tools for sellers have also helped increase advertising spending on the platform.
“Shopee has started 2025 on very strong footing, delivering high growth while improving profitability across our markets. We remain confident of achieving our full year GMV growth guidance of 20% with improving profitability,” Li said.
