What happened
Shares of Sea Limited (SE 1.95%) declined by 18.8% in August, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The decline brings the shares of the Asian e-commerce and gaming company down 72.2% for the year to date.
Image source: Getty images.
So what
Sea Limited released its fiscal 2022 second-quarter earnings that saw encouraging top-line growth. Revenue climbed 29% year over year to $2.9 billion, led by revenue increases for both its e-commerce and digital financial services segments. However, net loss ballooned, more than doubling year over year from $433.7 million in Q2 of 2021 to $931.2 million a year later.
It also didn't help that Sea Limited's operating metrics remained weak, especially for its profitable digital entertainment division, Garena. The number of quarterly active users declined by 15% year over year to 619.3 million but managed to edge up 0.6% higher than the previous quarter's 615.9 million. The number of quarterly paying users, however, reported its third consecutive quarter-over-quarter decline, falling 8.6% from 1Q2022 to 56.1 million in 2Q2022. On a year-over-year basis, this metric registered a steep 39% plunge.
Things were somewhat better over at the company's e-commerce arm, Shopee. Gross orders jumped by 42% year over year to 2 billion, while gross merchandise value rose 27% year over year to $19 billion. Sea's digital financial services division, SeaMoney, saw a healthy 53% year-over-year jump in quarterly active users that led to a 36% year-over-year increase in total payment volume for the company's mobile wallet.
Now what
Despite the strong numbers at Shopee, various news outlets reported that the division had withdrawn some job offers for positions at its headquarters in Singapore. This move suggests that the unit is slowing down its hiring in anticipation of a slump in consumer demand and spending as the world is wracked by high inflation and the looming threat of a recession.
Sea Limited's gaming unit is also slowing down on its livestream platform and reportedly shutting down projects as the group strives to limit its cash burn rate. Employees at Garena were also told there would be job cuts as the company attempts to boost profitability. From these numbers and the actions of the company, it looks as if it may face a tough slog in reducing its losses as economic conditions get more challenging.
