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In focus
- Sociolla grows revenue faster than its expenses in 2025
- Sea’s Monee faces a test beyond Shopee
- Jensen Huang investigation puts Singapore’s AI business in the spotlight
Hello reader,
Many consumers want to see and try beauty products before making a purchase.
My wife usually visits physical stores when checking out new cosmetic brands or purchasing products for the first time. She’ll only buy online after testing them out in person.
So it makes sense that offline purchases still dominate Indonesia’s beauty and personal care market. This is the segment Sociolla appears to be targeting.
The company initially sold beauty products exclusively online but has since aggressively expanded its offline presence, even opening a store in Singapore earlier this month.
In 2025, Sociolla recorded a 71% increase in revenue. It was likely supported by the firm’s offline expansion, as it now has around 170 physical stores across Indonesia. On the other hand, its losses widened more than 10x as a non-cash accounting charge weighed on its bottom line.
In today’s first featured story, I analyzed Sociolla’s 2025 financial statements. At its core, the company showed improvements, with a public listing potentially on the cards.
Meanwhile, financial services is becoming an increasingly important business for Southeast Asia’s tech giants. Sea, Grab, and GoTo have all seen rapid growth in their financial services businesses.
For Sea, its financial arm, Monee, is reportedly considering an IPO. The unit has successfully leveraged Shopee’s ecosystem, generating US$1.4 billion in revenue in Q2 2026.
The next question is whether Sea can replicate that success beyond the Shopee ecosystem. David Jimenez Maireles, a fractional chief product officer and digital banking advisor, shares his take on the matter in today’s second top story.
Jofie Yordan, journalist
Top Stories
1️⃣ Sociolla’s revenue jumps 71% in 2025 ahead of potential listing
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