Sea Ltd's $410M Comeback: From Pandemic Darling to Southeast Asia's Profit Machine

In This Article:

Sea Ltd (NYSE:SE) just clocked its fourth straight quarterly profitmarking a clean streak since its last loss in Q1 2024. For Q1 2025, the company reported $4.84 billion in revenue, slightly under the $5.02 billion estimate, but still up nearly 30% year-over-year. Net income hit $410.8 million, and adjusted EBITDA more than doubled to $946.5 million. CEO Forrest Li called it a strong start, backed by improving profitability across all three business lines. Shopee, Monee (formerly SeaMoney), and Garena all delivered growthwith Shopee hitting record order volumes and Garena getting a serious boost from its Free Fire x NARUTO crossover.

Shopee's core marketplace revenue surged 39.2% year-over-year, powered by more transactions and stronger ad monetization. Monee saw 57.6% revenue growth and 62.4% EBITDA gains, with $5.8 billion in outstanding consumer and SME loans. Asset quality remained stable, even as the lending book scaled. Garena had its best quarter since 2021, with bookings jumping 51.4% and paying users up more than 30%. What's emerging is a balanced, profitable, multi-engine businessno longer overly reliant on a single hit product or vertical.

The chart backs this up. From early 2023 through mid-2024, Sea was stuck in neutralrevenue flat, earnings bouncing around. But starting late 2024, something clicked: revenue climbed, EBITDA widened, and net income turned consistently green. Profitability is no longer a quarterly surprise.

Sea Ltd's $410M Comeback: From Pandemic Darling to Southeast Asia's Profit Machine
Sea Ltd's $410M Comeback: From Pandemic Darling to Southeast Asia's Profit Machine

If Sea can keep executing like this, it might not just be backit could be building real momentum across Southeast Asia and beyond.

This article first appeared on GuruFocus.