What happened
Shares of Sea Limited (SE 2.03%) have popped today, up by 11% as of 1:15 p.m. EDT, after the company reported first-quarter earnings. The results missed expectations, but the mobile gaming and e-commerce specialist continues to put up impressive growth figures.
So what
Revenue in the first quarter jumped 58% to $913.9 million, just shy of the $915.4 million in sales that analysts were modeling for. Gross merchandise volume (GMV) in the e-commerce segment soared 74% to $6.2 billion, and adjusted revenue in the digital entertainment business increased 30% to $512.4 million. Quarterly active users grew to 402.1 million, of which 35.7 million were quarterly paying users. Sea's Free Fire game reached a new record of over 80 million peak daily active users (DAUs), with the game seeing a record number of monthly paying users in April.
Image source: Sea Limited.
Net loss in the first quarter was $280.8 million. Excluding stock-based compensation and changes in fair value of 2017 convertible notes, net loss would have been $239.4 million, or $0.52 per share, which was worse than the $0.32 per share in adjusted net losses that the market was expecting.
Now what
"We are fortunate to be in a strong position to play a part in helping our communities navigate these challenging times and get back on the road to recovery," CEO Forrest Li said in a statement. "In addition to contributing funds and essential medical equipment to the frontline fight against the virus, we are doing everything we can to support economic recovery across our markets, leveraging the strengths of our platforms as market leaders in the digital economy."
Li also added that the novel coronavirus outbreak is accelerating the shift to the digital economy, and the tech company should be able to capture a "disproportionate share" of the related growth.
