How Sea got to its current US$122 billion market cap

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Hello readers,

If you feel like a lot of your friends and colleagues have jumped into investing, you’re probably right.

So let me be that friend who shares an investment update that no one asked for. Do you know if you had invested US$1,000 in Southeast Asian internet giant Sea in 2017, your investment would be worth at least US$14,446 today?

Today we look at,

• The story of Sea’s crazy growth
• A social commerce startup in Vietnam that raised money
• Other newsy highlights such as CNA’s removal of all content about Team Labs and Grab’s plan to pilot delivery robots

PREMIUM SUMMARY

How Sea Group got to its current US$128.1 billion market cap

Meet Sea Group, one of Southeast Asia’s most valuable tech companies. The parent firm of ecommerce platform Shopee and gaming platform Garena currently has a market capitalization of US$128.1 billion. To put that number into perspective, video conferencing Zoom lags behind with a market cap of US$93.17 billion.

• Gamers love him: Avid gamer Forrest Li founded Garena as a PC games publisher and social gaming platform in 2009.
• On a spree: Li went on to roll out several successful products, including e-wallet AirPay for Garena users in 2014, ecommerce platform Shopee in 2015, and hit battle royal game Free Fire in 2017.
• White flag: Of course, not every product was successful. BeeTalk, a messaging app that was a cross between WhatsApp, Facebook, and Tinder, was launched in 2012 but it failed to take off.

Read more: Visualizing Sea’s rapid rise

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

Social commerce reaches Vietnam