Sea had a very strong Q2: revenue grew 48% year on year, adjusted EBITDA hit a record, and all three businesses grew. The market responded very positively, sending the share price up more than 14%.
One exchange on the earnings call, however, caught our attention.A Morgan Stanley analyst asked management directly: is Shopee’s ASEAN ecommerce business now profitable?
Management went on to explain the different considerations around take rate, then moved on without giving a direct yes or no.
That is interesting when you put it next to two other numbers: Shopee’s adjusted EBITDA is currently around 0.67% of GMV, while management believes 2-3% is achievable over the medium term.
And it raises a broader question for Southeast Asian e-commerce – including TikTok Shop: at what point does scale actually turn into meaningful profit?
The answer matters well beyond Shopee, especially for anyone trying to understand the economics of ecommerce platforms in Southeast Asia, Latin America and beyond.
In our latest Momentum Works Intelligence article, we also look at Monee’s rapidly expanding loan book and its push into Brazil (where it will face Nubank and Mercado Pago), why AI was everywhere on the call but Migoo was absent, and where Shopee is trying to find its next sources of traffic.
You can read it here.
