Sea nearly doubles Q2 revenue to $1.29b as Shopee continues growth

Southeast Asian internet giant Sea said it has nearly doubled its total adjusted revenue for the quarter compared to last year’s numbers, with contributions from the continued growth of its ecommerce and gaming segments.

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The company said it raked in US$1.29 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2020, jumping 93.4% year-on-year from US$665.4 million in Q2 2019.

It’s gross profit for the quarter also doubled during the period, climbing 106.1% to US$200.8 million from US$97.4 million in the same year-ago quarter.

It’s also had a profitable quarter, with adjusted EBITDA reaching US$7.7 million compared to its US$11 million loss last year.

A major driver in this growth is its ecommerce unit Shopee, which was able to log a 187.7% growth in revenue year-on-year to US$510.6 million.

In Indonesia, where Shopee claims to be the largest ecommerce platform, it registered over 260 million orders for the quarter, or a daily average of 2.8 million orders.

The app ranked first in the country by average monthly active users and total time spent in app on Android in the shopping category, the company said citing data from App Annie. Shopee also held the top spot in both Southeast Asia and in Taiwan by average monthly active users, and total time spent in app on Android.

Shopee remains unprofitable, logging US$305.5 million in adjusted losses for the quarter compared to last year’s US$248.3 million adjusted loss. But it is making progress in its long march to profitability, shaving its adjusted EBITDA loss per order from US$1.01 to US$0.50.

Garena thrives

The company’s digital entertainment segment has continued to perform well, posting US$716.2 million in adjusted revenue.

The amount grew 61.6% year-on-year from Q2 2019’s US$443.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA for the business also jumped 65.4% year-on-year to US$436.2 million.

Sea said that quarterly active users (QAU) for the unit, which houses its gaming and esports division, reached 499.8 million in the quarter, an increase of 61.0% from 310.5 million for the second quarter last year.

More importantly, quarterly paying users also grew by 91.2% year-on-year to 49.9 million, representing 10% of the total QAU.