Sea Limited posts 64.4% year-on-year revenue growth in Q1 2022

New York Stock Exchange-listed Sea Limited announced that its revenue grew 64.4% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year to $2.9 billion, beating most analysts forecast.

Total gross profit was $1.2 billion, up 81.3% year-on-year while total net loss was $(580.1) million compared to $(422.1) million for the first quarter of 2021. Total net loss excluding share-based compensation was $(445.1) million compared to $(320.0) million for the first quarter of 2021.

“We recorded solid results across our business in the first quarter of 2022, despite challenging comparisons to the same period last year during heightened COVID-related restrictions. As a result, we are well on track to achieve our previously shared projections of profitability in our Asia markets, while continuing to scale our businesses and capture market share globally,” said Forrest Li, Sea’s Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer.

Q1 2022 Earnings Highlights:

E-commerce:

• GAAP revenue was US$1.5 billion, up 64.4% year-on-year.
• GAAP revenue included US$1.3 billion of GAAP marketplace revenue2, up 75.3% year-on-year, and US$0.3 billion of GAAP product revenue2, up 26.8% year-on-year. GAAP revenue and GAAP marketplace revenue as % of total gross merchandise value (“GMV”) increased from 7.3% and 5.7% a year ago to 8.7% and 7.2%, respectively.
• Gross orders totaled 1.9 billion, an increase of 71.3% year-on-year.
• GMV was US$17.4 billion, an increase of 38.7% year-on-year.
• Gross profit margin for e-commerce improved year-on-year as we have seen faster
  growth of transaction-based fees and advertising income, which have higher profit
  margin compared to revenue generated from other value-added services. At the
  same time, gross profit margin of revenue generated from other value-added
  services also improved quarter-on-quarter.

Digital Entertainment

• GAAP revenue was US$1.1 billion, up 45.3% year–on–year.
• Bookings were US$0.8 billion, compared to US$ 1.1 billion for the first quarter of 2021. This represents compounded annual growth of 27% from the first quarter of 2020.
• Adjusted EBITDA1 was US$431.4 million, compared to US$717.3 million for the first quarter of 2021.
• Adjusted EBITDA represented 52.2% of bookings for the first quarter of 2022, compared to 64.4% for the first quarter of 2021.
• Quarterly active users were 615.9 million, compared to 648.8 million for the first quarter of 2021. This represents compounded annual growth of almost 24% from the first quarter of 2020.
• Quarterly paying users were 61.4 million, representing paying user ratio of 10.0% for the first quarter compared to 12.3% for the same period in 2021. Meanwhile, this represents increase from paying user ratio of 8.9% in the first quarter of 2020.
• Average bookings per user were US$1.3, compared to US$1.7 for the first quarter of 2021.

Digital Financial Services

• GAAP revenue was US$236.0 million, up 359.9% year–on–year.
• Adjusted EBITDA1 was US$(124.9) million, compared to US$(153.1) million for the first quarter of 2021.
• Quarterly active users5 across our SeaMoney products and services reached 49 million, up 78.2% year–on–year.
• In Indonesia, which has the most comprehensive set of products and services among our markets, over 30% of the quarterly active users have used multiple SeaMoney products or services in the first quarter of 2022.
• Total payment volume for the mobile wallet was US$5.1 billion, up 48.5% year–
  on–year.

“Shopee and SeaMoney continued to enjoy operating leverage and efficiency gain as they scale and
strengthen their market leadership positions. With the significant scale, strong leadership and clear
synergies achieved by both businesses in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, our consumer internet
ecosystem in the region is naturally approaching a stage of long–term profitable growth,” Li said.