Southeast Asian Internet Giant Sea More Than Doubles Quarterly Revenues Amid Pandemic…

Singapore-based Sea Ltd. reported Tuesday that its revenue more than doubled in the second quarter, as Southeast Asia’s most valuable technology company continued to expand its e-commerce, online gaming and digital payment businesses during the pandemic.

Revenue in the April to June quarter climbed about 160% to $2.3 billion from the same period last year. Sea’s e-commerce unit, Shopee, contributed $1.2 billion, up 161% from last year, while its digital entertainment arm, Garena, accounted for $1 billion, a 167% increase. The digital financial services unit, SeaMoney, earned $89 million, up 659% from the previous year.

“Our efforts to capture the long-term growth from the shift to digitalization across our markets continued to deliver clear and strong results,” Forrest Li, chairman and cofounder of Sea, said in an earnings call with analysts. “Leveraging the virtuous cycles and network effects both within and across our core businesses, we believe we are very well positioned to capture these long-term growth opportunities.”

Read more on Forbes: Billionaire Forrest Li’s Sea Doubles Revenue As Pandemic Boosts E-Commerce Demand

Garena’s strong results were fueled by the popularity of Free Fire, a battle royale-style multiplayer game, which exceeded 1 billion cumulative downloads on the Google Play store and continued to be the highest grossing mobile game in Southeast Asia, Latin America and India in the second quarter, according to Sea’s earnings report, citing data from data provider App Annie.

Despite the strong revenue growth, Sea remained in the red, with its net loss in the second quarter widening about 10% to $434 million this year, primarily due to higher marketing costs.

The fortunes of Li and his cofounders, Gang Ye and David Chen, more than doubled from last year, as Sea’s shares soared 112% since August last year. The trio became the biggest percentage gainer in this year’s Singapore Rich List, which was released last week.

Li’s net worth sits at $15.9 billion, making the 43-year-old the fifth wealthiest on the Singapore Rich List. Ye, No. 7 on the list, has a net worth of $10.3 billion, while Chen ranks No. 13 with a fortune of $3.1 billion.