On Monday, 4^th March, Sea Limited (SE.US) announced a loss of 19 cents per share from the sales garnering $3.62 billion in the fourth quarter. Analysts expected a loss of 20 cents from a revenue of $3.57 billion. Sea is a significant internet services provider in Southeast Asia, managing operations in sectors such as digital entertainment, online shopping, and digital payments and financial services. 

The financial results could potentially alleviate apprehensions surrounding the decelerating expansion of Sea’s e-commerce platform, Shopee. Concurrently, Shopee is endeavoring to maintain its competitive edge against formidable rivals like ByteDance’s TikTok and Alibaba’s (BABA.US) Lazada. For the last quarter, Sea’s e-commerce sales increased 23% YoY to $2.6 billion. Additionally, Sea Chief Executive Forrest Li announced that Sea anticipates an upward surge in Shopee’s gross merchandise volume (the total value of goods sold) for 2024, projecting it to be in the “high-teens range”. The company reported a 7% annual increase in its total e-commerce operations’ GMV, reaching $78.5 billion in 2023. Li further revealed that Shopee’s adjusted EBITDA would become positive during the latter half of the year.  

E-commerce was ahead while other businesses fell behind. The sales of the company’s digital entertainment division experienced a decrease of 46%, amounting to $511 million in the fourth quarter. This was below the anticipated $546 million due to the lack of new products.  

In the face of intense rivalry, Li announced plans to augment Shopee’s investments back in August last year. He is intensifying his pursuit to expand their live-streaming business, a proactive step that might diminish profit margins and initiate a cost contest with competitors like TikTok and Alibaba. However, he deems this is essential to maintain their market position.  

(Sea Stock Performance One-year Chart) 

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