Sea Limited, the parent company of Shopee, Garena and SEA Money, announced today (March 2) its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended 31 December 2020.
In 2020, Sea recorded a total GAAP revenue of US$4.4 billion, up 101.1 per cent year-on-year. Meanwhile, its total gross profit was US$1.3 billion, up 123 per cent year-on-year.
Additionally, its total adjusted EBITDA in 2020 was US$107 million compared to US$178.6 million for the full year of 2019.
Here are the key figures:
| Items | 2019 | 2020 | % Change |
| Group Revenue | $2.2B | $4.4B | 101.1% |
| Garena Revenue | $1.13B | $2.0B | 77.5% |
| Shopee Revenue | $0.82B | $1.78B | 116% |
| Expenses | $1.5B | $2.65B | 77.3% |
| Net Loss | $1.45B | $1.62B | 11.4% |
Digital Entertainment Sees Continued Growth Of User Base
Bookings for Garena’s digital entertainment was US$1 billion, up 111.1 per cent year-on-year.
From the Garena bookings, the adjusted EBITDA was US$663.5 million, up 149.1 per cent year-on-year.
Its quarterly active users (QAUs) reached 610.6 million, an increase of 72.1 per cent year-on-year. In terms of paying users, there are 73.1 million quarterly paying users, representing a growth of 119.% growth.
According to App Annie, Garena’s self-developed global hit game Free Fire was the most downloaded mobile game globally for 2020, marking its lead for the second consecutive year.
App Annie’s data also revealed that Free Fire continued to be the highest grossing mobile game in Latin America and in Southeast Asia for the fourth quarter and for the full year of 2020. It has maintained this leading position for the past six consecutive quarters.
In addition, Free Fire was also the highest grossing mobile game in India for the fourth quarter and for the full year of 2020.
YouTube on the other hand, unveiled that Free Fire-related content recorded over 72 billon view counts across its platform globally in 2020.
This makes Free Fire the most viewed mobile-only video game globally on YouTube for both 2019 and 2020. It was also the third most viewed among all video games on YouTube in 2020.
Continuing Its Lead Position In E-Commerce
Shopee’s revenue for Q4 2020 was US$842.2 million, up 178.3 per cent year-on-year.
This included US$627.6 million of marketplace revenue, up 175.4 per cent year-on-year; and US$214.6 million of product revenue, up 187.1 per cent year-on-year.
Shopee’s gross orders totalled 1 billion, an increase of 134.6 per cent year-on-year. Its gross merchandise value (GMV) was US$11.9 billion, an increase of 112.5 per cent year-on-year.
In Indonesia, where Shopee is the largest e-commerce platform, it registered over 430 million orders for the market in Q4 2020, or a daily average of around 4.7 million orders — an increase of over 128 per cent year-on-year.
Shopee also ranked first in Indonesia in terms of average monthly active users, total time spent in app on Android, and downloads in the Shopping category, for Q4 and for the full year of 2020, according to App Annie.
Shopee also ranked first in the Shopping category by average monthly active users, total time spent in app on Android, and downloads for the same period in both Southeast Asia and Taiwan.
Shopee was also the third most downloaded app globally in the Shopping category for the full year of 2020.
Additionally, Shopee ranked first in YouGov’s “Best APAC Buzz Rankings 2020” and ranked eighth in YouGov’s “Best Global Brands 2020”.
Shopee represents one of the only two e-commerce brands in YouGov’s top 10 global brand rankings.
Accelerating Adoption Of Digital Financial Services
In the fourth quarter, Sea continued to see strong growth in the adoption of SeaMoney’s offerings.
Its mobile wallet total payment volume exceeded US$2.9 billion for the quarter and US$7.8 billion for the full year of 2020.
Moreover, quarterly paying users for its mobile wallet services surpassed 23.2 million in the fourth quarter with monthly paying users in Indonesia surpassing 10 million during the quarter.
SeaMoney also continued to expand its suite of online and offline third-party use cases and partnerships.
For instance, it recently expanded its partnership with Google to offer its mobile wallet as a payment option for the Google Play Store in Indonesia, following its partnership with Google in Thailand from March 2020.
Other Notable Milestones
Sea has acquired Hong Kong-licensed global investment management firm Composite Capital Management, which is founded and led by David Ma.
Concurrent with the acquisition, Sea is also establishing Sea Capital, a platform to manage Sea’s overall investment efforts.
In this new venture, Ma will serve as the Chief Investment Officer, reporting directly to Sea’s chairman and group CEO Forrest Li.
Sea Capital will focus on partnering with entrepreneurs using technology to better serve consumers and small businesses.
“Through Sea Capital, we intend to invest into and support the growth of our broader ecosystem to create value for our users, business partners, and communities,” said Sea in a media statement.
“In line with this commitment, we are allocating an initial US$1 billion to be deployed by Sea Capital over the next few years.”
It is confident that the addition of the Composite team and the establishment of Sea Capital will further enhance its investment and capital allocation capabilities in support of Sea’s long-term growth strategies.
For the full year of 2021, Sea expects bookings for digital entertainment to be between US$4.3 billion and US$4.5 billion. The midpoint of the guidance represents an increase of 38.1 per cent from 2020.
It also expects GAAP revenue for e-commerce to be between US$4.5 billion and US$4.7 billion. The midpoint of the guidance represents an increase of 112.3% from 2020.
Comparison To Other Digital Companies
The results for Sea is quite remarkable, and Sea seems to be enjoying the tailwind from the COVID-19 pandemic, where Southeast Asia saw a huge Internet adoption.
Amid the pandemic, Sea managed to more than double its revenue, and it is also forecasting that it will continue its triple digit percentage growth in 2021.
Here’s a quick comparison of Sea’s 2020 revenue performance compared to other e-commerce companies:
| Company | 2020 Revenue | 2020 Revenue Growth |
| Sea | $4.4B | 101.1% |
| Amazon | $386B | 38% |
| Alibaba | $93.8B | 32% |
While Sea lacks behind Amazon and Alibaba in terms of revenue number, it is experiencing a higher growth than both Amazon and Alibaba.
We expect to see these three e-commerce companies to continue their land grab on Southeast Asia’s digital economy over the next few years.
Featured Image Credit: Sea