Southeast Asia e-commerce leader faces tough competition
TikTok, Temu, Alibaba all seek bigger slice of region’s market
Sea Ltd. reported first-quarter earnings that exceeded analysts’ estimates, a sign that the Southeast Asia e-commerce leader is managing to navigate fierce competition from the likes of ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok.
The shares jumped 5.1% in morning trading.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were $401 million, the company said Tuesday. While that’s a 21% decline from a year earlier, it topped the $222 million analysts expected on average. Sales also beat estimates, and the net loss of $23.7 million was narrower than analysts predicted.
Sea is fighting to maintain its dominance in Southeast Asia’s e-commerce arena as competition from deep-pocketed rivals such as TikTok and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Lazada heats up. Newer entrants like Shein and PDD Holdings Inc.’s Temu are also gaining users in the region of about 675 million people, where more shoppers are moving online.
The results are set to give confidence to investors focused on assessing if Sea can sustain double-digit growth rates while improving its bottom line. Its shares have advanced more than 80% from a mid-January low and are hovering close to their highest in 12 months. Yet they remain far below historic highs.
The earnings beat comes even as Sea spends on marketing to ward off rivals, and on research and development to add live-streaming and artificial intelligence features. E-commerce gross merchandise volume, or the value of goods sold, rose 36% to $23.6 billion, topping estimates. Revenue for the group climbed 23% to $3.7 billion.
The company’s gaming arm, known for its hit Free Fire, is struggling to come up with new titles to boost sales. Revenue at the unit, called Garena, declined about 15% to $458 million.
What Bloomberg Intelligence Says
Marketing costs will likely stay elevated, but adjusted Ebitda should still grow as Shopee’s dominance in Southeast Asian e-commerce and a dense user ecosystem lure more merchants into high-margin services such as advertising. This scale advantage might be its strongest defense against the encroachment of TikTok, IPO-bound Shein and PDD Holdings’ Temu in e-commerce in the region.
— Nathan Naidu, analyst
Sea has said it expects to earn its second straight annual profit this year. The profitability improvements have been driven by a ruthless cost-cutting drive, including thousands of job cuts, which helped it post its first annual net income since a 2017 listing. Still, founder Forrest Li has said Sea would ramp up efforts to build out its live-streaming arm, which would potentially help it cope with rising competition but pit it against TikTok and weigh on margins.
