What happened
Shares of Sea Limited (SE -0.76%) popped today after the Southeast Asian digital gaming and e-commerce company said that it was awarded a full digital bank license in Singapore, its home market.
As result, the stock finished today's session up 8.3%.
Image source: Sea Limited.
So what
Sea Limited operates three complementary businesses. It has a digital gaming platform, Garena; an e-commerce marketplace, Shopee; and a digital payments platform, SeaMoney.
The digital banking license will help it accelerate its growth with SeaMoney and further entrench itself as a digital services provider in its home market. In particular, management sees it as a way to address the unmet financial needs of young Singaporeans and small and medium-sized businesses.
Forrest Li, Sea's CEO said in a statement, "As a proudly homegrown company, we look forward to further contributing to the long-term development of our nation's digital economy, creating more employment opportunities in Singapore, and empowering our whole community to thrive in the digital era."
Now what
Sea Limited has been growing like wildfire this year as the coronavirus pandemic has acted as a tailwind for all three of its business segments. In its third quarter, total revenue jumped 98% to $1.2 billion, and SeaMoney reached total payment volume of $2.1 billion. Quarterly paying users for SeaMoney rose to over 17.8 million, and more than 30% of Shopee's orders now come from its mobile wallet.
The new banking license, therefore, should help fuel growth in both SeaMoney and Shopee, a clear win for Sea.
