Coupang (CPNG 1.09%) and Sea Limited (SE 0.44%) were both popular growth stocks during the buying frenzy in meme and growth stocks in 2021.
Coupang, which owns South Korea's largest e-commerce platform, went public at $35 on March 11, 2021. Its stock closed at its all-time high of $50.45 just four days later. Sea, which owns Southeast Asia's leading e-commerce platform Shopee and the video game publisher Garena, went public at $15 per share on Oct. 20, 2017. Its stock set its record high of $366.99 on Oct. 19, 2021.
Today, Coupang's stock trades at about $27 a share, while Sea trades at roughly $163. Both stocks retreated from their all-time highs as their growth slowed and rising interest rates compressed their valuations. Should you buy either of these stocks as a turnaround play today?
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Coupang is still growing rapidly in a tough market
Coupang, which is based in Seattle, still generates most of its revenue in South Korea. It conquered that market by building its first-party fulfillment centers within seven miles of 70% of South Korea's population, drawing more merchants to its third-party marketplace and expanding its Prime-like Wow subscriptions with more features and digital perks.
Its number of active customers grew from 14.9 million at the end of 2020 to 23.4 million in the first quarter of 2025. Its ranks of Wow subscribers more than doubled from 6 million in 2020 to 13 million in 2023, but it hasn't updated that figure since then.
That expansion was driven by the introduction of the Coupang Play streaming media platform in 2020 and upgrades for its Rocket Delivery, Rocket Fresh grocery, and Coupang Eats food delivery services.
Coupang also launched its marketplace in Taiwan in 2022 and acquired the British online luxury marketplace Farfetch in 2024 to expand beyond South Korea. From 2020 to 2024, its revenue rose at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26%.
It also turned profitable on a generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) basis in 2023 and 2024. The company's profits rose as it expanded its higher-margin third-party marketplace, automated more services, and sold a larger mix of Farfetch's higher-margin luxury products.
From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect Coupang's revenue and GAAP EPS to grow at a CAGR of 13% and 130%, respectively. Those are incredible growth rates for a stock that trades at just 1.4 times this year's sales. Its valuations might be compressed by the near-term concerns about tariffs and trade wars, but it could command a much higher valuation if those headwinds dissipate.
Sea is overcoming its pressing challenges
Sea, which is based in Singapore, turned Shopee into the top e-commerce platform across Southeast Asia and Taiwan. However, that expansion was driven by steep discounts, shipping subsidies, and other loss-leading strategies that were difficult to sustain.
Sea relies on Garena's gaming profits to subsidize Shopee's losses. That strategy worked as its hit battle royale game Free Fire grew like a weed during the pandemic. Unfortunately, Free Fire lost its momentum after the pandemic ended. The game was also banned in India, its fastest-growing market, in 2022.
At the same time, Shopee's growth cooled as it lapped its big growth spurt during the pandemic. Shopee also faced tougher competition from Alibaba's Lazada and Coupang in its core Southeast Asian and Taiwanese markets, respectively.
Instead of capitalizing on its pandemic-driven growth spurt to strengthen its logistics networks, Shopee poured that cash toward expanding into more markets in Latin America, India, and Europe. That was an over-ambitious move that offset its narrowing losses in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.
Despite those challenges, Sea's revenue still increased at a CAGR of 40% from 2020 to 2024. It also turned profitable on a GAAP basis in 2023 and 2024 as it laid off thousands of employees, reined in Shopee's discounts, and scaled back its ambitious overseas expansion plans.
From 2024 to 2027, analysts expect its revenue and GAAP EPS to grow at a CAGR of 20% and 97%, respectively. It expects to strengthen Shopee with new live streaming "social commerce" features, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered automation tools, and an expansion into Vietnam.
As for Garena, the company expects Free Fire to keep growing with a new version (Free Fire Max) and more e-sports tournaments. That's a healthy outlook, but its stock looks pricier than Coupang's at 4.6 times this year's sales.
The better buy: Coupang
Coupang and Sea are both growing rapidly. However, if I had to choose one, I'd stick with Coupang because its business model is more balanced and its stock looks cheaper.
Sea is growing at a faster rate but is still overwhelmingly dependent on a single video game -- which is now seven-and-a-half years old -- to drive its long-term profits. That glaring weakness, along with its higher forward price-to-sales ratio, makes it a less attractive investment than Coupang.
