Sea Ltd Explained

Sea Limited (stylized as: sea) is a tech conglomerate headquartered in Singapore. Established in 2009 by Forrest Li, Sea was initially founded as Garena, a game development and publishing company known for its Free Fire title. The company rebranded itself under the present-day Sea brand in May 2017 after securing funding worth US$550 million, although the Garena brand was retained for its digital entertainment arm.^{[3] [4]} Sea has over 67,000 employees, as of 2022.^[5]

Sea currently functions as a holding company for Garena, SeaMoney, Shopee and Maribank.^[6] Since 2020, Sea is also the owner of Singapore Premier League football club Lion City Sailors FC, after Forrest Li acquired, privatised and renamed Home United.^[7]

History

2009 - 2015

The company initially named Garena was established by Forrest Li in Singapore in 2009. In 2010, Riot Games awarded the publishing rights of League of Legends (LoL) to the company, for the game’s first launch in Southeast Asia.^[8]

By 2014, Garena was valued at 1 billion by The World Startup Report and was ranked as the largest internet company in Singapore by The Economist.^{[9] [10]} In March 2015, the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP), one of the largest pension funds in the world, invested in Garena, increasing the value of the company to over US$2.5 billion.^[11]

Transition

In May 2017, after raising US$550 million in a funding round, Garena underwent a corporate rebranding.^[12] The parent company adopted the name Sea Ltd. to better reflect its diverse range of businesses, which now includes digital entertainment, e-commerce, and digital financial services.^[13] The company's digital entertainment segment retained the Garena name, maintaining its brand identity in the gaming industry.^[14]

2017 - present

Sea listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2017, where it was the first major U.S. IPO from a Southeast Asian tech firm.^[15]

On 9 September 2021, Sea raised US$6 billion in an equity and convertible bond sale, making it Southeast Asia's largest fund raising.^[16] Sea said it planned to use the cash for strategic investments and potential acquisitions.^[17]

In January 2022, Tencent, the Chinese gaming giant, offloaded a US$3 billion investment in Sea.^[18] In the same year, Sea discontinued its investment division and ceased new equity investments.^[19]

In March 2023, Sea opened its digital bank, Maribank, after securing a digital full bank license from Monetary Authority of Singapore.^[20] It also owned banking license in Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines.^[21]

In March 2024, Sea posted its first profitable year since its IPO with an annual net income of US$162.7 million for the 2023 financial year.^[22]

Subsidiaries

Shopee

See main article: Shopee. Shopee is a technology company focused mainly on e-commerce. Shopee was first launched in Singapore in 2015, and has grown to become the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan.^[23] The company also serves consumers and sellers throughout Southeast Asia (Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia), Taiwan, and Brazil.^{[24] [25]}

SeaMoney

SeaMoney is an internet services company specialized in digital payments and financial services. Its offerings include mobile wallet services, payment processing, credit offerings, and related digital financial products and services. These are available in seven markets across Southeast Asia and Taiwan under various brands, including ShopeePay, SPayLater, and other brands.^[26] SeaMoney served over 52 million users as of the second quarter of 2022.^[27]

Garena

See main article: Garena. Garena operates as the digital entertainment division of Sea, managing Garena+, an online gaming and social platform established in 2010.^[28] This platform facilitates the discovery, download, and play of online games. Garena distributes game titles in various countries across Southeast Asia and Taiwan, including MOBA games League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth, the first-person shooter game Point Blank, the mobile MOBA game Arena of Valor and the mobile racing game Speed Drifters.^[29]

In 2017, Garena developed Free Fire, an online action-adventure game that became the most downloaded game on the Google Play Store in 2019.^[30]

Following a decline in profit in 2022, Sea reported that it had stabilized the performance of its digital entertainment business in 2023.^[31] The company indicated that Garena had maintained steady demand for its popular title, Free Fire, which achieved a peak of over 100 million daily active users in February 2024.^[32]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Sea Posts First Annual Profit in 2023 as Shopee Clocks Strong Revenue Growth . Khamila . Mulia . Deal Street Asia . 2024-03-04.
2. Web site: Sea Group . 2023-09-28 . Sea Group . en.
3. Web site: May 8, 2017 . Tech company Garena raises US$550m, rebrands as Sea . The Straits Times.
4. Web site: 2022-03-24 . 'Stay hungry, stay foolish': How Forrest Li built the biggest internet company in Southeast Asia . 2022-03-25 . KrASIA . en.
5. Web site: Sea: Number of Employees 2016-2022 SE . 2022-06-13 . www.macrotrends.net.
6. Web site: March 6, 2019 . Sea is raising up to $1.5B for its Shopee e-commerce business in Southeast Asia . TechCrunch.
7. Web site: Chia . Han Keong . 14 February 2020 . Lion City Sailors are Singapore's first privatised football club .
8. Web site: Bernardo . Anna . 2022-11-09 . Riot Games to take back League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics publishing in SEA from Garena in 2023 . 2024-09-09 . Yahoo News . en-SG.
9. Web site: Singapore's Tech Company Garena Valued At USD1 Billion . https://web.archive.org/web/20140808014216/http://www.businessinsider.sg/singapores-tech-company-garena-valued-usd1-billion/ . 8 August 2014.
10. News: Start me up . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20170630085756/http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2014/07/daily-chart-6# . 2017-06-30 . 2017-07-13 . The Economist.
11. News: Grant . Jeremy . March 2015 . Ontario Teachers Pension Plan bets on Asia with Garena stake . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20180627003457/https://www.ft.com/content/3f6ba438-bfff-11e4-9708-00144feab7de# . 2018-06-27 . 2018-11-27 . Financial Times.
12. News: Lee . Yoolim . 8 May 2017 . Garena Rebrands as Sea After Raising $550 Million in New Funding . limited . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20170514202410/https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-08/garena-rebrands-as-sea-after-raising-550-million-in-new-funding . 14 May 2017 . 4 November 2019 . Bloomberg.
13. News: Chia Yan Min . 9 May 2017 . Tech firm Garena gets renamed as Sea . The Straits Times . Singapore Press Holdings . 23 July 2019 . 23 July 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190723081249/https://www.straitstimes.com/business/companies-markets/tech-firm-garena-gets-renamed-as-sea . live .
14. Web site: Garena rebrands to Sea and raises $550 million more to focus on Indonesian e-commerce . 8 May 2017 . 7 August 2020 . Garena was founded in 2009 as an online gaming platform and its games business will retain that name. . 22 October 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20201022161526/https://techcrunch.com/2017/05/07/sea-change/ . live .
15. Web site: Russell . Jon . 2017-10-21 . Southeast Asia gaming and e-commerce firm Sea ends first day on NYSE up 8% . 2024-09-09 . TechCrunch . en-US.
16. News: Murdoch . Scott . 2021-09-10 . Singapore's Sea Ltd secures $6 billion in mega fund raising . 2022-03-07 . Reuters . en.
17. Web site: 2021-09-09 . Sea Group seeks to raise up to USD 7.2 billion in Southeast Asia's largest ever equity round . 2022-03-07 . KrASIA . en.
18. Web site: 2022-03-02 . Amid regulatory crackdowns, Tencent takes a tactical approach to its investments . 2022-03-25 . KrASIA . en.
19. Web site: Yong . Yimie . 2023-06-02 . Singapore's Sea Ltd winds down investment arm - report . TechNode Global . en-US.
20. News: Ang . Prisca . Sea opens digital bank MariBank to public on invite-only basis . 10 November 2024 . Straits Times . March 14, 2023.
21. News: Chiang . Sheila . Sea Group's digital bank launches in Singapore to a select group of individuals . 10 November 2024 . CNBC . 15 March 2023 . en.
22. Web site: Chong . Claudia . 2023-12-22 . Sea to post first profitable year since IPO: CEO . 2024-09-09 . The Business Times . en.
23. Web site: 2024-06-01 . Top Websites Ranking . similarweb.
24. Web site: 2022-01-12 . As Shopee expands aggressively around the world, will it become the 'Amazon of emerging economies'? . 2022-03-07 . KrASIA . en.
25. Web site: 24 November 2015 . Garena's Shopee could be on its way to beating Carousell in Asia . 3 February 2022 . Tech in Asia . en-US.
26. Web site: SeaMoney Bringing Digital Financial Services To Millions . 2022-03-07 . www.seamoney.com . en.
27. Web site: 2021-08-18 . Sea Group posts 160% gain in Q2 profits as net losses widen . 2022-03-07 . KrASIA . en.
28. Web site: Balea . Jum . 2016-03-31 . Tech in Asia - Connecting Asia's startup ecosystem . www.techinasia.com . en-US.
29. Web site: Garena . www.garena.sg.
30. Web site: Obedkov . Evgeny . 2021-08-17 . Mobile battle royale Free Fire surpasses 150 million peak daily active players . 2022-10-21 . Game World Observer . en-US . 14 October 2022 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221014062027/https://gameworldobserver.com/2021/08/17/garena-free-fire-surpasses-150-million-peak-daily-active-players . live .
31. Web site: Cher . Benjamin . 2024-03-09 . Garena’s gaming revival could prove a false dawn for Sea . The Business Times . en.
32. News: Poh . Olivia . 2024-03-04 . Sea’s Shares Climb After Big Spending Helps It Fight TikTok . Bloomberg.com . en.