Shopee’s out to deliver profitable growth, but will it succeed?

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Hello reader,

Ecommerce plays a crucial role in my daily life. Whether it’s groceries, medicines, or clothing, I depend on online shopping for my essential needs.

The convenience and vast options offered by ecommerce players are hard to beat. I have attempted in-store shopping a few times, but online platforms consistently draw me back.

So I was not surprised to learn that for Sea Ltd’s (SE, NYSE), its ecommerce arm Shopee accounts for nearly 70% of overall sales. Despite being in the red, its revenue and gross merchandise volume have experienced accelerating growth, pointing towards a promising year for the ecommerce company.

Forrest Li, Sea Group’s CEO and founder, believes that Shopee will maintain its market share in 2024 even as it faces intense competition in Indonesia from a combined TikTok Shop-Tokopedia entity. This will go a long way towards building investor confidence in Sea’s growth prospects.

But the question is, will this growth eventually translate into earnings? And if so, by when? My colleague Simon analyzes this and more in our Big Story this week.

— Samreen

THE BIG STORY

Image credit: Timmy Loen

Sea’s upbeat outlook on Shopee drives enthusiasm, but can it deliver?
Sea ended the year with over US$8 billion in cash, short-term investments, and other liquid securities.

3 Trends to keep an eye on

Hot stocks, earnings reports, restructuring, pressure from activist investors, and more.

Photo credit: Bukalapak

1️⃣ Pulling the plug on BNPL: Indonesia-based Bukalapak (BUKA, IDX) has discontinued its buy now, pay later service, BukaCicilan.

2 Eye-popping facts

The one you didn’t see coming