Q1 2026 Sea Ltd Earnings Call
Speaker #1: Good morning and good evening to all, and welcome to the Sea Ltd First Quarter 2026 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.
Operator: Good morning, good evening to all, and welcome to the Sea Limited Q1 2026 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. For operator assistance throughout the call, please press star 0. Finally, if you would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd like to now turn and welcome the call over to Ms. Rebecca Lee to begin the conference. Please go ahead.
Operator: Good morning, good evening to all, and welcome to the Sea Limited Q1 2026 Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star by the number one on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, press star one again. For operator assistance throughout the call, please press star zero. Finally, if you would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded. Thank you. I'd like to now turn and welcome the call over to Ms. Rebecca Lee to begin the conference. Please go ahead.
Speaker #1: After this video's remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by the number 1 on your telephone keypad.
Speaker #1: If you would like to withdraw your question, press star 1 again. For operator assistance throughout the call, please press star 0, and finally, if you would like to if you would like to advise all participants that this call is being recorded.
Speaker #1: Thank you. I'd like to now turn and welcome the call over to Miss Rebecca Lee to begin the conference. Please go ahead.
Speaker #2: Hello, everyone, and welcome to Sea 2026 First Quarter Earnings Conference Call. I am Rebecca from Sea's Investor Relations team. On this call, we may make forward-looking statements, which are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and may not be realized in the future for various reasons, as stated in our press release.
Rebecca Lee: Hello, everyone, welcome to Sea's Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I am Rebecca from Sea's Investor Relations team. On this call, we may make forward-looking statements, which are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties and may not be realized in the future for various reasons, as stated in our press release. Also, this call includes the discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA. We believe these measures can enhance our investors' understanding of the actual cash flows of our major businesses when used as complement to our GAAP disclosures. For a discussion of the use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation with the closest GAAP measures, please refer to the section on non-GAAP financial measures in our press release. I have with me Sea's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Forrest Li; President, Chris Feng; and Chief Financial Officer, Tony Hou.
Rebecca Lee: Hello, everyone, welcome to Sea's Q1 2026 Earnings Conference Call. I am Rebecca from Sea's Investor Relations team. On this call, we may make forward-looking statements, which are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties and may not be realized in the future for various reasons, as stated in our press release. Also, this call includes the discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA. We believe these measures can enhance our investors' understanding of the actual cash flows of our major businesses when used as complement to our GAAP disclosures. For a discussion of the use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliation with the closest GAAP measures, please refer to the section on non-GAAP financial measures in our press release. I have with me Sea's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Forrest Li; President, Chris Feng; and Chief Financial Officer, Tony Hou.
Speaker #2: Also, this call includes the discussion of certain non-GAAP financial measures, such as adjusted EBITDA. We believe these measures can enhance our investors' understanding of the actual cash flows of our major businesses when used as a complement to our GAAP disclosures.
Speaker #2: For discussion of the use of non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations with the closest GAAP measures, please refer to the section on non-GAAP financial measures in our press release.
Speaker #2: I have with me Sea's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Xiaodong Li; President, Chris Fung; and Chief Financial Officer, Tony Hou. Our management will share strategy and business updates, operating highlights, and financial performance for the first quarter of 2026.
Rebecca Lee: Our management will share strategy and business updates, operating highlights, and financial performance for Q1 2026. This will be followed by a Q&A session in which we welcome any questions you have. With that, let me turn the call over to Forrest.
Rebecca Lee: Our management will share strategy and business updates, operating highlights, and financial performance for Q1 2026. This will be followed by a Q&A session in which we welcome any questions you have. With that, let me turn the call over to Forrest.
Speaker #2: This will be followed by a Q&A session, in which we welcome any questions you have. With that, let me turn the call over to Boris.
Speaker #3: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. We have had a strong start to the year. In the first quarter, Sea generated over $7 billion of revenue, representing 47% year-on-year growth.
Forrest Li: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. We have had a strong start to the year. In Q1, Sea generated over $7 billion of revenue, representing 47% year-on-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA exceeded $1 billion for the first time. As we have shared before, 2026 is a year where we are leaning into growth investments to deepen our competitive moat while maintaining financial discipline. Our strong revenue growth reflects the effectiveness of these investments, and we are already seeing unique economics start to improve for some of these initiatives. We believe this is the right approach to maximize long-term value, giving the significant runway for growth still ahead of us in our market. With that, let me take you through each business's performance. Starting with Shopee. Shopee delivered another record-setting quarter, achieving new highs in GMV, gross order values, and revenue.
Forrest Li: Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining today's call. We have had a strong start to the year. In Q1, Sea generated over $7 billion of revenue, representing 47% year-on-year growth. Adjusted EBITDA exceeded $1 billion for the first time. As we have shared before, 2026 is a year where we are leaning into growth investments to deepen our competitive moat while maintaining financial discipline. Our strong revenue growth reflects the effectiveness of these investments, and we are already seeing unique economics start to improve for some of these initiatives. We believe this is the right approach to maximize long-term value, giving the significant runway for growth still ahead of us in our market. With that, let me take you through each business's performance. Starting with Shopee. Shopee delivered another record-setting quarter, achieving new highs in GMV, gross order values, and revenue.
Speaker #3: Adjusted EBITDA exceeded $1 billion for the first time. As we have shared before, 2026 is a year where we are leaning into growth investment to deepen our competitive moat.
Speaker #3: While maintaining financial discipline, our strong revenue growth reflects the effectiveness of these investments, and we are already seeing unit economics start to improve for some of these initiatives.
Speaker #3: We believe this is the right approach to maximize long-term value, given the significant runway for growth still ahead of us in our market. With that, let me take you through each business's performance.
Speaker #3: Starting with Shopee, Shopee delivered another record-setting quarter, achieving new highs in GMV, gross order volume, and revenue. GMV grew 30% year-on-year in the first quarter. At the same time, we maintained financial discipline, generating an adjusted EBITDA of over $220 million.
Forrest Li: GMV grew 30% year-on-year in Q1. At the same time, we maintained financial discipline, generating an adjusted EBITDA of over $220 million. Our monetization strengthened further in Q1. Ad revenue grew 80%, and ad take rate increased by more than 90 basis points year-on-year. Ad-paying sellers and their average ad spend both increased by around 35% year-on-year, reflecting the strong value sellers see in our ad offering. Our results validate the operational priorities we have laid out for Shopee, improving price competitiveness, service quality, and our content ecosystem. Our strong execution across these priorities drove user acquisition and engagement in Q1. Average monthly active buyers increased 16% year-on-year, and the buyer purchase frequency grew around 12% year-on-year. We continue to deepen our structural moat across logistics, Shopee VIP, and content.
Forrest Li: GMV grew 30% year-on-year in Q1. At the same time, we maintained financial discipline, generating an adjusted EBITDA of over $220 million. Our monetization strengthened further in Q1. Ad revenue grew 80%, and ad take rate increased by more than 90 basis points year-on-year. Ad-paying sellers and their average ad spend both increased by around 35% year-on-year, reflecting the strong value sellers see in our ad offering. Our results validate the operational priorities we have laid out for Shopee, improving price competitiveness, service quality, and our content ecosystem. Our strong execution across these priorities drove user acquisition and engagement in Q1. Average monthly active buyers increased 16% year-on-year, and the buyer purchase frequency grew around 12% year-on-year. We continue to deepen our structural moat across logistics, Shopee VIP, and content.
Speaker #3: Our monetization strengthened further in the first quarter. Net revenue grew 80%, and net take rate increased by more than 90 basis points year-on-year. Net paying sellers and their average ad spend both increased by around 35% year-on-year.
Speaker #3: Reflecting the strong value sellers see in our ad offering, our results validate the operational priorities we have laid out for Shopee: improving price competitiveness, service quality, and our content ecosystem.
Speaker #3: Our strong execution across these priorities drove user accreditation and engagement in the first quarter. Average monthly active buyers increased 16% year-on-year, and the buyer purchase frequency grew around 12% year-on-year.
Speaker #3: We continue to deepen our structural mode across logistics, Shopee VIP, and content. First, logistics continues to be one of our most important differentiators. XPS Express remains one of the largest e-commerce logistics solution providers in our market.
Forrest Li: First, logistics continues to be one of our most important differentiators. SPX Express remains one of the largest e-commerce logistics solution providers in our market. We have developed a strong capability to dynamically optimize for speed, cost, and user preference. In Q1, we continued to scale delivery options serving different consumer demands while maintaining cost leadership. We have seen strong adoption of our instant and same-day delivery services. With greater economics of scale, we are seeing lower delivery costs for these faster services compared to last year. For example, in Indonesia, our instant delivery service can deliver orders in as little as 2 hours in urban areas. Order volumes for this service grew over 35% in Q1, with cost per order reducing by around 20% year on year. Scaling this service has enabled us to extend our product assortment into higher frequency categories.
Forrest Li: First, logistics continues to be one of our most important differentiators. SPX Express remains one of the largest e-commerce logistics solution providers in our market. We have developed a strong capability to dynamically optimize for speed, cost, and user preference. In Q1, we continued to scale delivery options serving different consumer demands while maintaining cost leadership. We have seen strong adoption of our instant and same-day delivery services. With greater economics of scale, we are seeing lower delivery costs for these faster services compared to last year. For example, in Indonesia, our instant delivery service can deliver orders in as little as 2 hours in urban areas. Order volumes for this service grew over 35% in Q1, with cost per order reducing by around 20% year on year. Scaling this service has enabled us to extend our product assortment into higher frequency categories.
Speaker #3: We have developed a strong capability to dynamically optimize for speed, cost, and user preference. In the first quarter, we continued to scale delivery options serving different consumer demands, while maintaining cost leadership.
Speaker #3: We have seen strong adoption of our instant and same-day delivery services. With greater economies of scale, we are seeing lower delivery costs per order for these faster services compared to last year.
Speaker #3: For example, in Indonesia, our instant delivery service can deliver orders in as little as two hours in urban areas. Order volumes for this service grew over 35% in the first quarter, with cost per order reducing by around 20% year-on-year.
Speaker #3: Scaling this service has enabled us to extend our product assortment into higher-frequency categories. We expanded partnerships with major convenience stores and pharmacy chains such as Indomaret.
Forrest Li: We expanded partnerships with major convenience stores and pharmacy chains such as Indomaret. At the end of March, we had around 7,000 offline stores available on our instant services. This has shifted more offline purchasing behavior online and into the Shopee ecosystem. Buyers using instant delivery enjoy greater convenience, and we are seeing such buyers spending more with better retention on Shopee. Beyond delivery, we are increasing our focus on fulfillment as a natural extension of our logistics capability. We are making good progress. In Q1, fulfillment order volumes grew by around 25% sequentially. Fulfillment allows for faster and more reliable delivery while enabling sellers to operate and scale more efficiently on our platform. We already see this happening with our fulfillment orders consistently delivering faster than the platform average.
Forrest Li: We expanded partnerships with major convenience stores and pharmacy chains such as Indomaret. At the end of March, we had around 7,000 offline stores available on our instant services. This has shifted more offline purchasing behavior online and into the Shopee ecosystem. Buyers using instant delivery enjoy greater convenience, and we are seeing such buyers spending more with better retention on Shopee. Beyond delivery, we are increasing our focus on fulfillment as a natural extension of our logistics capability. We are making good progress. In Q1, fulfillment order volumes grew by around 25% sequentially. Fulfillment allows for faster and more reliable delivery while enabling sellers to operate and scale more efficiently on our platform. We already see this happening with our fulfillment orders consistently delivering faster than the platform average.
Speaker #3: At the end of March, we had around 7,000 offline stores available on our instant services. This has shifted more offline purchasing behavior online, and into the Shopee ecosystem.
Speaker #3: Buyers using instant delivery are enjoying greater convenience, and we are seeing such buyers spending more with better retention on Shopee. Beyond delivery, we are increasing our focus on fulfillment as a natural extension of our logistics capability.
Speaker #3: We are making good progress. In the first quarter, fulfillment order volumes grew by around 25% sequentially. Fulfillment allows for faster and more reliable delivery, while enabling sellers to operate and scale more efficiently on our platform.
Speaker #3: We already see this happening, with our fulfillment orders consistently delivering faster than the platform average. In Asia, over one-third of parcels fulfilled by us were delivered within the next day in March.
Forrest Li: In Asia, over one-third of parcels fulfilled by us were delivered within the next day in March, much higher than the platform average. The combination of fulfillment with our extensive delivery network allows us to drive significant improvements in both service quality and cost efficiency. For example, in Taiwan, our collection point network expanded to over 3,100 locations at the end of Q1, nearly 50% more locations compared to just a year ago. We leverage our growing fulfillment capability to scale initiatives such as shipping directly to lockers without additional packaging, improving speed while reducing costs. With these efforts, average buyer waiting time improved 12% in Q1 year on year. We reported double-digit GMV growth year on year in Q1 in Taiwan, deepening e-commerce penetration and strengthening our market leadership there. Second, our Shopee VIP program.
Forrest Li: In Asia, over one-third of parcels fulfilled by us were delivered within the next day in March, much higher than the platform average. The combination of fulfillment with our extensive delivery network allows us to drive significant improvements in both service quality and cost efficiency. For example, in Taiwan, our collection point network expanded to over 3,100 locations at the end of Q1, nearly 50% more locations compared to just a year ago. We leverage our growing fulfillment capability to scale initiatives such as shipping directly to lockers without additional packaging, improving speed while reducing costs. With these efforts, average buyer waiting time improved 12% in Q1 year on year. We reported double-digit GMV growth year on year in Q1 in Taiwan, deepening e-commerce penetration and strengthening our market leadership there. Second, our Shopee VIP program.
Speaker #3: Much higher than the platform average. The combination of fulfillment with our extensive delivery network allows us to drive significant improvements in both service quality and cost efficiency.
Speaker #3: For example, in Taiwan, our collection point network expanded to over 3,100 locations at the end of the fourth quarter, nearly 50% more locations compared to just a year ago.
Speaker #3: We leveraged our growing fulfillment capability to scale initiatives such as shipping directly to lockers without additional packaging, improving speed while reducing cost. With these efforts, average buyer waiting time improved 12% in the first quarter year-on-year.
Speaker #3: We recorded double-digit GMB growth year-on-year in the first quarter in Taiwan, deepening e-commerce penetration and strengthening our market leadership there. Second, our Shopee VIP program.
Speaker #3: This subscription-based membership program continues to gain strong traction and drive user engagement. By the end of March, total subscribers across our Asian markets surpassed 10 million, up more than 40% from the previous quarter.
Forrest Li: This subscription-based membership program continues to gain strong traction and drive user engagement. By the end of March, total subscribers across our Asian markets surpassed 10 million, up more than 40% from the previous quarter, with strong program retention averaging above 80%. Across all markets, our Shopee VIP members have consistently demonstrated double-digit spending uplift after subscribing by as much as 30% to 40% in some markets. Shopee VIP members now contribute around 20% of GMV across Asia. Building on this success, we have rolled out our Shopee VIP program in Brazil in April. Third, our content ecosystem continues to grow healthily. In Q1, orders from live streaming and short-form video grew more than 50% year-on-year. These orders accounted for more than 25% of total physical goods orders in Southeast Asia.
Forrest Li: This subscription-based membership program continues to gain strong traction and drive user engagement. By the end of March, total subscribers across our Asian markets surpassed 10 million, up more than 40% from the previous quarter, with strong program retention averaging above 80%. Across all markets, our Shopee VIP members have consistently demonstrated double-digit spending uplift after subscribing by as much as 30% to 40% in some markets. Shopee VIP members now contribute around 20% of GMV across Asia. Building on this success, we have rolled out our Shopee VIP program in Brazil in April. Third, our content ecosystem continues to grow healthily. In Q1, orders from live streaming and short-form video grew more than 50% year-on-year. These orders accounted for more than 25% of total physical goods orders in Southeast Asia.
Speaker #3: With strong program retention averaging above 80%, across all markets, our Shopee VIP members have consistently demonstrated double-digit spending uplift after subscribing—by as much as 30% to 40% in some markets.
Speaker #3: Shopee VIP members now contribute around 20% of GMV across Asia. Building on this success, we have rolled out our Shopee VIP program in Brazil in April.
Speaker #3: Third, our content ecosystem continues to grow healthily. In the first quarter, orders from live streaming and short-form video grew more than 50% year-over-year. These orders accounted for more than 25% of total physical booth orders in Southeast Asia.
Speaker #3: To further strengthen our content ecosystem, we continue to deepen our content partnerships. Orders driven by YouTube more than doubled year-on-year. Our collaboration with Meta is scaling well.
Forrest Li: To further strengthen our content ecosystem, we continue to deepen our content partnerships. Orders driven by YouTube more than doubled year on year. Our collaboration with Meta is scaling well, with over 4.5 million affiliates across our markets, up nearly 30% quarter on quarter. In Indonesia, we have extended our Meta collaboration to enable seamless product promotion and checkout, not just on Facebook, but also on Instagram. I would also like to highlight our strong performance in Brazil and the growing role AI is playing in our business. Brazil was our fastest-growing market in Q1, while continuing to be profitable. We continue to outpace the market on GMV growth, driven by increases in active buyers, purchase frequency, and average basket size. This strong performance was supported by solid fundamentals, including wide product assortment at competitive prices and our structural logistics cost advantage.
Forrest Li: To further strengthen our content ecosystem, we continue to deepen our content partnerships. Orders driven by YouTube more than doubled year on year. Our collaboration with Meta is scaling well, with over 4.5 million affiliates across our markets, up nearly 30% quarter on quarter. In Indonesia, we have extended our Meta collaboration to enable seamless product promotion and checkout, not just on Facebook, but also on Instagram. I would also like to highlight our strong performance in Brazil and the growing role AI is playing in our business. Brazil was our fastest-growing market in Q1, while continuing to be profitable. We continue to outpace the market on GMV growth, driven by increases in active buyers, purchase frequency, and average basket size. This strong performance was supported by solid fundamentals, including wide product assortment at competitive prices and our structural logistics cost advantage.
Speaker #3: With over 4.5 million affiliates across our markets, up nearly 30% quarter on quarter. In Indonesia, we have extended our Meta collaboration to enable seamless product promotion and checkout.
Speaker #3: Not just on Facebook, but also on Instagram. I would also like to highlight our strong performance in Brazil, and the growing role AI is playing in our business.
Speaker #3: Brazil was our fastest-growing market in the first quarter, while continuing to be profitable. We continue to outpace the market on GMB growth, driven by increases in active buyers, purchase frequency, and average basket size.
Speaker #3: This strong performance was supported by solid fundamentals, including a wide product assortment at competitive prices and our structural logistics cost advantage. We also made steady progress strengthening our presence in the upmarket segment, enabled by our strong logistics capability.
Forrest Li: We also made steady progress strengthening our presence in the up-market segment, enabled by our strong logistics capability. We continued to improve delivery time by more than 1 day in Q1 compared to last year. We opened 3 new fulfillment centers, bringing our total to 5. These efforts allowed us to onboard more merchants, especially to Shopee Mall, supporting stronger spending among buyers. In Q1, GMV from Shopee Mall sellers more than doubled year-on-year and now contributes around 16% of GMV. We remain confident in Brazil's long-term growth potential and in our ability to further strengthen our competitive position in this market. Onto AI. We have taken a practical, results-oriented approach embedding AI into our operations to drive better outcomes for our users and greater efficiency across our platform. This is already making a meaningful impact.
Forrest Li: We also made steady progress strengthening our presence in the up-market segment, enabled by our strong logistics capability. We continued to improve delivery time by more than 1 day in Q1 compared to last year. We opened 3 new fulfillment centers, bringing our total to 5. These efforts allowed us to onboard more merchants, especially to Shopee Mall, supporting stronger spending among buyers. In Q1, GMV from Shopee Mall sellers more than doubled year-on-year and now contributes around 16% of GMV. We remain confident in Brazil's long-term growth potential and in our ability to further strengthen our competitive position in this market. Onto AI. We have taken a practical, results-oriented approach embedding AI into our operations to drive better outcomes for our users and greater efficiency across our platform. This is already making a meaningful impact.
Speaker #3: We continued to improve delivery time by more than one day in the first quarter, compared to last year. We opened three new fulfillment centers, bringing our total to five.
Speaker #3: These efforts allowed us to onboard more merchants, especially to Shopee More, supporting stronger spending among buyers. In the first quarter, GMV from Shopee More sellers more than doubled year-on-year and now contributes around 15% of GMV.
Speaker #3: We remain confident in Brazil's long-term growth potential and in our ability to further strengthen our competitive position in this market. Onto AI. We have taken a practical, resource-oriented approach, embedding AI into our operations to drive better outcomes for our users and greater efficiency across our platform.
Speaker #3: It is already making a meaningful impact. AI-powered enhancements to our search and recommendation algorithm have led to better product discovery. Our AI-generated content tools are helping sellers create more compelling product listings.
Forrest Li: AI-powered enhancements to our search and recommendation algorithms have led to better product discovery. Our AI-generated content tools are helping sellers create more compelling product listings. These efforts supported a 14% improvement in purchase conversion rate year-on-year in Q1. An AI-driven personalization and the targeting helped to contribute to the strong year-on-year ad revenue growth we saw this quarter. On the cost side, around 80% of customer queries are now handled by our AI chatbot. AI usage helped reduce customer service costs per contact by around 30% year-on-year, while maintaining high satisfaction rates. Looking ahead, we are exploring agentic AI experiences. For buyers, we're testing an AI shopping assistant that leverages purchase history and preferences to deliver personalized recommendations and optimized savings. For sellers, we are building an AI agent that acts as a virtual business advisor, providing diagnostics and actionable insights on shop performance.
Forrest Li: AI-powered enhancements to our search and recommendation algorithms have led to better product discovery. Our AI-generated content tools are helping sellers create more compelling product listings. These efforts supported a 14% improvement in purchase conversion rate year-on-year in Q1. An AI-driven personalization and the targeting helped to contribute to the strong year-on-year ad revenue growth we saw this quarter. On the cost side, around 80% of customer queries are now handled by our AI chatbot. AI usage helped reduce customer service costs per contact by around 30% year-on-year, while maintaining high satisfaction rates. Looking ahead, we are exploring agentic AI experiences. For buyers, we're testing an AI shopping assistant that leverages purchase history and preferences to deliver personalized recommendations and optimized savings. For sellers, we are building an AI agent that acts as a virtual business advisor, providing diagnostics and actionable insights on shop performance.
Speaker #3: These efforts supported a 14% improvement in purchase conversion rate year-on-year in the first quarter. Can AI-driven personalization and targeting help to contribute to the strong year-on-year ad revenue growth we saw this quarter?
Speaker #3: On the cost side, around 80% of customer queries are now handled by our AI chatbots. AI usage helped reduce customer service costs per contact by around 30% year-on-year.
Speaker #3: While maintaining high satisfaction rates, we are looking ahead and exploring agentic AI experiences. For buyers, we are testing an AI shopping assistant that leverages purchase history and preferences to deliver personalized recommendations and optimize savings.
Speaker #3: For sellers, we are building an AI agent that acts as a virtual business advisor, providing diagnostics and actionable insights on shop performance. Both are in early stages, with plans to roll them out more widely over time.
Forrest Li: Both are in early stages with plans to roll them out more widely over time. In summary, Shopee has had a great start to 2026, delivering strong growth while maintaining financial discipline. We are being deliberate about where we invest in delivery, fulfillment, our Shopee VIP membership program, and user acquisition. We are already seeing some improvement in unit economics, and we expect this to continue over time. Looking ahead, we are confident in the strength of our shopping ecosystem and our ability to execute our strategies. We are on track to deliver our 2026 guidance to grow Shopee's annual GMV by around 25% year-on-year, with full year adjusted EBITDA no lower than $2025 in absolute dollar terms. Next, moving to Money.
Forrest Li: Both are in early stages with plans to roll them out more widely over time. In summary, Shopee has had a great start to 2026, delivering strong growth while maintaining financial discipline. We are being deliberate about where we invest in delivery, fulfillment, our Shopee VIP membership program, and user acquisition. We are already seeing some improvement in unit economics, and we expect this to continue over time. Looking ahead, we are confident in the strength of our shopping ecosystem and our ability to execute our strategies. We are on track to deliver our 2026 guidance to grow Shopee's annual GMV by around 25% year-on-year, with full year adjusted EBITDA no lower than $2025 in absolute dollar terms. Next, moving to Money.
Speaker #3: In summary, Shopee has had a great start to 2026, delivering strong growth while maintaining financial discipline. We are being deliberate about where we invest.
Speaker #3: In delivery, fulfillment, our Shopee VIP membership program, and user acquisition, we are already seeing some improvements in unit economics and we expect this to continue over time.
Speaker #3: Looking ahead, we are confident in the strength of our Shopee ecosystem and our ability to execute our strategies. We are on track to deliver our 2026 guidance to grow Shopee's annual GMV by around 25% year-on-year, with full-year adjusted EBITDA no lower than 2025 in absolute dollar terms.
Speaker #3: Next, moving to Money. Money also had a strong start to the year, with robust year-on-year growth across both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Credit continues to be the primary driver of our growth.
Forrest Li: SeaMoney also had a strong start to the year, with robust year-on-year growth across both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Credit continues to be the primary driver of our growth. Our loan book reached $9.9 billion at the end of March, an increase of more than 70% year-on-year, while maintaining stable asset quality. We continue to expand the credit business along three fronts. First, by deepening existing user relationships, offering them more credit as we get to know them and their repayment behavior better. Second, by acquiring new users, especially in segments with better risk score and greater affluence. These users tend to have better repayment behavior and higher borrowing capacity. Our campaigns to attract such new users with competitive pricing, higher limits, and longer tenure are showing early signs of success.
Forrest Li: SeaMoney also had a strong start to the year, with robust year-on-year growth across both revenue and adjusted EBITDA. Credit continues to be the primary driver of our growth. Our loan book reached $9.9 billion at the end of March, an increase of more than 70% year-on-year, while maintaining stable asset quality. We continue to expand the credit business along three fronts. First, by deepening existing user relationships, offering them more credit as we get to know them and their repayment behavior better. Second, by acquiring new users, especially in segments with better risk score and greater affluence. These users tend to have better repayment behavior and higher borrowing capacity. Our campaigns to attract such new users with competitive pricing, higher limits, and longer tenure are showing early signs of success.
Speaker #3: Our loan book reached $9.9 billion at the end of March, and increased by more than 70% year-on-year while maintaining a stable asset policy. We continue to expand the credit business along three fronts.
Speaker #3: First, by deepening existing user relationships—offering them more credit as we get to know them and their repayment behavior better. Second, by acquiring new users, especially in segments with better risk affluence.
Speaker #3: These users tend to have better repayment behavior and higher borrowing capacity. Our campaigns to attract such new users with competitive pricing, higher limits, and longer tenures are showing early signs of success.
Speaker #3: And third, by expanding our credit use cases beyond Shopee—an important runway for future growth. We are making good headway with off-Shopee expansion. More users are progressing from the on-Shopee escalator to the off-Shopee escalator and personal cash loan.
Forrest Li: Third, by expanding our credit use cases beyond Shopee, an important runway for future growth. We are making good headway with off-Shopee expansion. More users are progressing from on-Shopee SPayLater to off-Shopee SPayLater and personal cash loans. Following strong momentum in Malaysia, we are also seeing good traction in some other markets. Off-Shopee SPayLater loans in Thailand and Indonesia exceeded 20% of the SPayLater portfolio at the end of the quarter. Notably, we are seeing strong growth in higher value categories such as electronics and two-wheelers in Indonesia, where installment credit plays a meaningful role in enabling such purchases. Taken together, these efforts resulted in strong growth in both user numbers and loan outstanding per user. In Q1, we added 4.9 million first-time borrowers.
Forrest Li: Third, by expanding our credit use cases beyond Shopee, an important runway for future growth. We are making good headway with off-Shopee expansion. More users are progressing from on-Shopee SPayLater to off-Shopee SPayLater and personal cash loans. Following strong momentum in Malaysia, we are also seeing good traction in some other markets. Off-Shopee SPayLater loans in Thailand and Indonesia exceeded 20% of the SPayLater portfolio at the end of the quarter. Notably, we are seeing strong growth in higher value categories such as electronics and two-wheelers in Indonesia, where installment credit plays a meaningful role in enabling such purchases. Taken together, these efforts resulted in strong growth in both user numbers and loan outstanding per user. In Q1, we added 4.9 million first-time borrowers.
Speaker #3: Following strong momentum in Malaysia, we are also seeing good traction in some other markets. Off-Shopee escalator loans in Thailand and Indonesia exceeded 20% of the escalator portfolio at the end of the quarter.
Speaker #3: Notably, we are seeing strong growth in higher-value categories such as electronics and two-wheelers in Indonesia. Here, installment credit plays a meaningful role in enabling such purchases.
Speaker #3: Taken together, these efforts resulted in strong growth in both user numbers and loan outstanding per user. In the first quarter, we added 4.9 million first-time borrowers.
Speaker #3: Our active credit users crossed 38 million at the end of the quarter, an increase of more than 35% year-on-year. The average loan outstanding per user grew to around $250 at the end of the quarter.
Forrest Li: Our active credit users crossed 38 million at the end of the quarter, an increase of more than 35% year-on-year. An average loan outstanding per user grew to around $250 at the end of the quarter, 25% higher year-on-year. Brazil has become our fourth market to cross $1 billion in loan book size, growing over 250% year-on-year. The strong growth momentum was supported by a localized product we introduced last year, a combined SPayLater and a cash loan limit that aligns well with how Brazilian consumers utilize credit. This led to strong user growth with higher repeat usage, where average loan outstanding per user more than doubled compared to last year. SPayLater penetration on Shopee is around 10% of GMV in Brazil, well below our more mature market, indicating substantial headroom for growth.
Forrest Li: Our active credit users crossed 38 million at the end of the quarter, an increase of more than 35% year-on-year. An average loan outstanding per user grew to around $250 at the end of the quarter, 25% higher year-on-year. Brazil has become our fourth market to cross $1 billion in loan book size, growing over 250% year-on-year. The strong growth momentum was supported by a localized product we introduced last year, a combined SPayLater and a cash loan limit that aligns well with how Brazilian consumers utilize credit. This led to strong user growth with higher repeat usage, where average loan outstanding per user more than doubled compared to last year. SPayLater penetration on Shopee is around 10% of GMV in Brazil, well below our more mature market, indicating substantial headroom for growth.
Speaker #3: Twenty-five percent higher year-on-year. Brazil has become our fourth market to cross $1 billion in loan book size, growing over 250% year-on-year. The strong growth momentum was supported by a localized product we introduced last year.
Speaker #3: A combined escalator and cash loan limit that aligns well with how Brazilian consumers utilize credit. This led to strong user growth, with higher repeat usage where the average loan outstanding per user more than doubled compared to last year.
Speaker #3: Escalator penetration on Shopee is around 10% of GMB in Brazil, well below our more mature markets, indicating substantial headroom for growth. We also obtained the SDFI license in Brazil during the quarter.
Forrest Li: We also obtained the SCFI license in Brazil during the quarter, allowing us to broaden the scope of financial services we can offer. We are still in the early stages of scaling this business in Brazil with a strong foundation in place to support future growth. Risk management remains our top priority. Our 90-day NPL ratio remains stable at 1.1% at the end of the quarter. This reflects the strength of our underwriting capabilities and the disciplined way we spend across users and markets. Our deep understanding of our markets and borrowers allows us to respond quickly to macro changes. Our loans typically have short tenure, and we can adapt our product mix, credit limits, and tenures in real time. These attributes enable us to adjust our risk appetite and optimize our asset quality as we scale. In summary, SeaMoney continues to grow healthily.
Forrest Li: We also obtained the SCFI license in Brazil during the quarter, allowing us to broaden the scope of financial services we can offer. We are still in the early stages of scaling this business in Brazil with a strong foundation in place to support future growth. Risk management remains our top priority. Our 90-day NPL ratio remains stable at 1.1% at the end of the quarter. This reflects the strength of our underwriting capabilities and the disciplined way we spend across users and markets. Our deep understanding of our markets and borrowers allows us to respond quickly to macro changes. Our loans typically have short tenure, and we can adapt our product mix, credit limits, and tenures in real time. These attributes enable us to adjust our risk appetite and optimize our asset quality as we scale. In summary, SeaMoney continues to grow healthily.
Speaker #3: Allowing us to broaden the scope of financial services we can offer. We are still in the early stages of scaling this business in Brazil.
Speaker #3: With a strong foundation in place to support future growth, risk management remains our top priority. Our 90-day MPL ratio remains stable at 1.1% at the end of the quarter.
Speaker #3: This reflects the strength of our underwriting capabilities and the disciplined way we expand across users and markets. Our deep understanding of our markets and borrowers allows us to respond quickly to macro changes.
Speaker #3: Our loans typically have short tenures, and we can adapt our product success, credit limits, and tenures in real time. These attributes enable us to adjust our risk appetite and optimize our asset quality as we scale.
Speaker #3: In summary, money continues to grow healthily. Expansion into more user segments, off-Shopee use cases, and early markets like Brazil are giving us a much larger addressable opportunity across our portfolio.
Forrest Li: Expansion into more user segments of Shopee use cases and early markets like Brazil are giving us a much larger addressable opportunity across our portfolio. We remain confident that SeaMoney will be a significant long-term profit contributor for Sea. Next, turning to Garena. Garena had a stellar start to 2026, delivering its best quarter since 2021. Bookings were up 20% and adjusted EBITDA grew 25% year on year. This performance was driven by the continued strength of Free Fire alongside a record contribution from Arena of Valor. In January, Free Fire launched a major collaboration with the popular anime, Jujutsu Kaisen. As with our previous collaborations, we invested significant effort in bringing core elements of the anime into gameplay.
Forrest Li: Expansion into more user segments of Shopee use cases and early markets like Brazil are giving us a much larger addressable opportunity across our portfolio. We remain confident that SeaMoney will be a significant long-term profit contributor for Sea. Next, turning to Garena. Garena had a stellar start to 2026, delivering its best quarter since 2021. Bookings were up 20% and adjusted EBITDA grew 25% year on year. This performance was driven by the continued strength of Free Fire alongside a record contribution from Arena of Valor. In January, Free Fire launched a major collaboration with the popular anime, Jujutsu Kaisen. As with our previous collaborations, we invested significant effort in bringing core elements of the anime into gameplay.
Speaker #3: We remain confident that money will be a significant long-term profit contributor for Sea. Next, turning to Garena. Garena had a stellar start to 2026, delivering its best quarter since 2021.
Speaker #3: Bookings were up 20%, and adjusted EBITDA grew 25% year-on-year. This performance was driven by the continued strength of Free Fire, alongside the record contribution from Arena of Valor.
Speaker #3: In January, Free Fire launched a major collaboration with the popular anime Jujitsu Kaisen. As with our previous collaborations, we invested significant effort in bringing core elements of the anime into gameplay.
Speaker #3: We transformed parts of the map into settings from the Jujitsu High School and introduced a cursed energy resource that players could collect to activate special character abilities.
Forrest Li: We transformed a part of the map into settings from the Tokyo Jujutsu High and introduced a cursed energy resource that players could collect to activate special character abilities. For instance, Gojo's Unlimited Void, one of the highest level techniques from the anime, allowed the players to draw their opponents into a separate domain for a one-on-one fight. Players resonate strongly with the campaign's attention to detail and authentic visual effects. This collaboration generated over 700 million official content views, making this one of our most successful IP partnerships to date. Taken together with the highly successful Naruto Shippuden collaboration last year, we have demonstrated our ability to consistently execute high-impact partnerships with global IP owners. We are also evolving how we scale our content globally. One of Free Fire's long-standing strengths is our ability to hyper localize the game for players.
Forrest Li: We transformed a part of the map into settings from the Tokyo Jujutsu High and introduced a cursed energy resource that players could collect to activate special character abilities. For instance, Gojo's Unlimited Void, one of the highest level techniques from the anime, allowed the players to draw their opponents into a separate domain for a one-on-one fight. Players resonate strongly with the campaign's attention to detail and authentic visual effects. This collaboration generated over 700 million official content views, making this one of our most successful IP partnerships to date. Taken together with the highly successful Naruto Shippuden collaboration last year, we have demonstrated our ability to consistently execute high-impact partnerships with global IP owners. We are also evolving how we scale our content globally. One of Free Fire's long-standing strengths is our ability to hyper localize the game for players.
Speaker #3: For instance, Gojo's Unlimited Void, one of the highest-level techniques from the anime, allowed players to draw their opponent into a separate domain for a one-on-one fight.
Speaker #3: Players resonate strongly with the campaign's attention to detail and authentic visual effects. This collaboration generated over 700 million official content views, making this one of our most successful IP partnerships to date.
Speaker #3: Taken together with the highly successful Naruto Shipton collaboration last year, we have demonstrated our ability to consistently execute high-impact partnerships with global IP owners.
Speaker #3: We are also evolving how we scale our content globally. One of Free Fire's long-standing strengths is our ability to hyper-localize the game for players.
Speaker #3: This year, we have challenged ourselves to both localize and globalize some of this content, making it highly resonant for target markets and also enjoyable for everyone else.
Forrest Li: This year, we have challenged ourselves to both localize and globalize some of this content, making it highly resonate for target markets and also enjoyable for everyone else. A good example from Q1 is our Ramadan campaign. In past years, this campaign was only launched in Ramadan observant markets. This year, we scaled it into a global event under a lost treasure theme. Players from markets celebrating Ramadan recognized this as a festive event catering to them, while players from other markets saw it as a festive-themed campaign that was new, interesting, and fun to play. During matches, players could find treasure maps triggering team-based missions, guiding them to hidden treasure locations. This highly interactive campaign resonated strongly across markets. Global social media platform impressions exceeded 120 billion, up around 70% compared to last year's Ramadan campaign.
Forrest Li: This year, we have challenged ourselves to both localize and globalize some of this content, making it highly resonate for target markets and also enjoyable for everyone else. A good example from Q1 is our Ramadan campaign. In past years, this campaign was only launched in Ramadan observant markets. This year, we scaled it into a global event under a lost treasure theme. Players from markets celebrating Ramadan recognized this as a festive event catering to them, while players from other markets saw it as a festive-themed campaign that was new, interesting, and fun to play. During matches, players could find treasure maps triggering team-based missions, guiding them to hidden treasure locations. This highly interactive campaign resonated strongly across markets. Global social media platform impressions exceeded 120 billion, up around 70% compared to last year's Ramadan campaign.
Speaker #3: A good example from the first quarter is our Ramadan campaign. In past years, this campaign was only launched in Ramadan-observance markets. This year, we scaled it into a global event under a lost-treasure theme.
Speaker #3: Players from markets celebrating Ramadan recognized this as a positive event catering to them, while players from other markets saw it as a desert-themed campaign that was new, interesting, and fun to play.
Speaker #3: During matches, players could find treasure maps, triggering team-based missions and guiding them through hidden treasure locations. This highly interactive campaign resonated strongly across markets. Global social media platform impressions exceeded 120 billion.
Speaker #3: Up around 70% compared to last year's Ramadan campaign. The strong response we got to this campaign shows our growing capability to take culturally rooted events from local markets and expand them into globally resonant content.
Forrest Li: The strong response we got to this campaign shows our growing capability to take culturally rooted events from local markets and expand them into globally resonate content. Globalizing campaigns let us pool resources, elevate content quality, and deliver more frequent and distinctive experiences to our players. Beyond Free Fire, Arena of Valor delivered record high quarterly bookings in Q1 in its 10th year of operation. The sustained success of both games demonstrates our unique ability to operate games well across genres in multiple markets and over long periods of time. Garena has started 2026 with great momentum. We will remain focused on delivering fresh experiences and building the long-term value of our game portfolio. In conclusion, we have started 2026 well, with each business expanding its addressable opportunity while strengthening its competitive position.
Forrest Li: The strong response we got to this campaign shows our growing capability to take culturally rooted events from local markets and expand them into globally resonate content. Globalizing campaigns let us pool resources, elevate content quality, and deliver more frequent and distinctive experiences to our players. Beyond Free Fire, Arena of Valor delivered record high quarterly bookings in Q1 in its 10th year of operation. The sustained success of both games demonstrates our unique ability to operate games well across genres in multiple markets and over long periods of time. Garena has started 2026 with great momentum. We will remain focused on delivering fresh experiences and building the long-term value of our game portfolio. In conclusion, we have started 2026 well, with each business expanding its addressable opportunity while strengthening its competitive position.
Speaker #3: Globalizing campaigns led us to resources, elevate content quality, and deliver more frequent and distinctive experiences to our players. Beyond Free Fire, Arena of Valor delivered record-high quarterly bookings in the first quarter in its 10th year of operation.
Speaker #3: The sustained success of both games demonstrates our unique ability to operate games well across genres, in multiple markets, and over long periods of time.
Speaker #3: Garena has started 2026 with great momentum. We will remain focused on delivering fresh experiences and building the long-term value of our game portfolio. In conclusion, we have started 2026 well, with each business expanding its addressable opportunity while strengthening its competitive position.
Speaker #3: Meanwhile, across our ecosystem, we see the AI era creating significant opportunities for a company like ours. With established scale, rich cross-vertical data, and deep local expertise, we are investing deliberately to capture the growth runway ahead.
Forrest Li: Meanwhile, across our ecosystem, we see the AI era creating significant opportunities for a company like ours. With established scale, rich cross-vertical data, and a deep local expertise. We are investing deliberately to capture the growth runway ahead, and we are confident of continuing to deliver robust top line growth while improving our adjusted EBITDA year on year. With that, I invite Tony to discuss our financials.
Forrest Li: Meanwhile, across our ecosystem, we see the AI era creating significant opportunities for a company like ours. With established scale, rich cross-vertical data, and a deep local expertise. We are investing deliberately to capture the growth runway ahead, and we are confident of continuing to deliver robust top line growth while improving our adjusted EBITDA year on year. With that, I invite Tony to discuss our financials.
Speaker #3: And we are confident of continuing to deliver robust top-line growth while improving our adjusted EBITDA year-on-year. With that, I invite Tony to discuss our financials.
Speaker #3: Thank you for this, and thanks to everyone for joining the call. For Sea overall, total GAAP revenue increased 47% year-on-year to $7.1 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
Tony Hou: Thank you, Forrest, and thanks to everyone for joining the call. For Sea overall, total GAAP revenue increased 47% year on year to $7.1 billion in Q1 2026. This was primarily driven by growth in Shopee and SeaMoney. Our total adjusted EBITDA was up by 9% year on year to $1 billion in Q1 2026. On Shopee, gross orders increased 29% year on year to 4 billion in Q1 2026, and GMV increased by 30% year on year to $37.3 billion in Q1 2026.
Tony Hou: Thank you, Forrest, and thanks to everyone for joining the call. For Sea overall, total GAAP revenue increased 47% year on year to $7.1 billion in Q1 2026. This was primarily driven by growth in Shopee and SeaMoney. Our total adjusted EBITDA was up by 9% year on year to $1 billion in Q1 2026. On Shopee, gross orders increased 29% year on year to 4 billion in Q1 2026, and GMV increased by 30% year on year to $37.3 billion in Q1 2026.
Speaker #3: This was primarily driven by growth in Shopee and Money. Our total adjusted EBITDA was up by 9% year-on-year to $1 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
Speaker #3: On Shopee, gross orders increased 29% year-on-year to 4 billion in the first quarter of 2026, and GMV increased by 30% year-on-year to $37.3 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
Speaker #3: Our first quarter GAAP revenue of $5.1 billion included GAAP marketplace revenue of $4.5 billion, up 44% year-on-year, and GAAP product revenue of $0.6 billion.
Tony Hou: Our Q1 GAAP revenue of $5.1 billion included GAAP marketplace revenue of $4.5 billion, up 44% year on year, and GAAP product revenue of $0.6 billion. Within GAAP marketplace revenue, core marketplace revenue, mainly consisting of transaction-based fees and advertising revenues, was $3.8 billion, up 61% year on year. Value-added services revenue, mainly consisting of revenues related to logistic services, was $0.7 billion. Shopee adjusted EBITDA was $223 million in Q1 2026, compared to an adjusted EBITDA of $264 million in Q1 2025. This year on year change primarily reflects our increased investments in delivery fulfillment, our Shopee VIP membership program and user acquisition, partially offset by higher monetization.
Tony Hou: Our Q1 GAAP revenue of $5.1 billion included GAAP marketplace revenue of $4.5 billion, up 44% year on year, and GAAP product revenue of $0.6 billion. Within GAAP marketplace revenue, core marketplace revenue, mainly consisting of transaction-based fees and advertising revenues, was $3.8 billion, up 61% year on year. Value-added services revenue, mainly consisting of revenues related to logistic services, was $0.7 billion. Shopee adjusted EBITDA was $223 million in Q1 2026, compared to an adjusted EBITDA of $264 million in Q1 2025. This year on year change primarily reflects our increased investments in delivery fulfillment, our Shopee VIP membership program and user acquisition, partially offset by higher monetization.
Speaker #3: Within GAAP marketplace revenue, core marketplace revenue—mainly consisting of transaction-based fees and advertising revenues—was $3.8 billion, up 61% year-on-year. Value-added services revenue, mainly consisting of revenues related to logistics services, was $0.7 billion.
Speaker #3: Shopee adjusted EBITDA was $223 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to an adjusted EBITDA of $264 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Speaker #3: This year-on-year change primarily reflects our increased investments in delivery, fulfillment, our Shopee VIP membership program, and user acquisition, partially offset by higher monetization. Money GAAP revenue was up by 58% year-on-year to $1.2 billion in the first quarter of 2026.
Tony Hou: SeaMoney GAAP revenue was up by 58% year on year to $1.2 billion in Q1 2026. Adjusted EBITDA was up by 14% year on year to $275 million in Q1 2026. As of the end of March, our consumer and SME loans principal outstanding reached $9.9 billion, up 71% year on year. This consists of $8.8 billion on-book and $1.1 billion off-book loan principal outstanding. Non-performing loans past due by more than 90 days as a percentage of total consumer and SME loans was 1.1% at the end of the quarter. Garena bookings grew 20% year on year to $931 million.
Tony Hou: SeaMoney GAAP revenue was up by 58% year on year to $1.2 billion in Q1 2026. Adjusted EBITDA was up by 14% year on year to $275 million in Q1 2026. As of the end of March, our consumer and SME loans principal outstanding reached $9.9 billion, up 71% year on year. This consists of $8.8 billion on-book and $1.1 billion off-book loan principal outstanding. Non-performing loans past due by more than 90 days as a percentage of total consumer and SME loans was 1.1% at the end of the quarter. Garena bookings grew 20% year on year to $931 million.
Speaker #3: Adjusted EBITDA was up by 14% year-on-year to $275 million in the first quarter of 2026. As of the end of March, our consumer and SME loans principal outstanding reached $9.9 billion.
Speaker #3: Up 71% year-on-year. This consists of $8.8 billion unbooked and $1.1 billion offbooked loan principal outstanding. Non-performing loans past due by more than 90 days as a percentage of total consumer and SME loans was 1.1% at the end of the quarter.
Speaker #3: Garena bookings grew 20% year-on-year to $931 million. GAAP revenue was up by 41% year-on-year to $697 million. The growth was primarily due to the increase in our active user base and deeper paying user penetration.
Tony Hou: GAAP revenue was up by 41% year on year to $697 million. The growth was primarily due to the increase in our active user base and deeper paying user penetration. Garena adjusted EBITDA was up by 25% year on year to $574 million. Returning to our consolidated numbers, we recognized a net non-operating income of $62 million in Q1 2026, compared to a net non-operating income of $89 million in Q1 2025. We had a net income tax expense of $214 million in Q1 2026, compared to net income tax expense of $136 million in Q1 2025.
Tony Hou: GAAP revenue was up by 41% year on year to $697 million. The growth was primarily due to the increase in our active user base and deeper paying user penetration. Garena adjusted EBITDA was up by 25% year on year to $574 million. Returning to our consolidated numbers, we recognized a net non-operating income of $62 million in Q1 2026, compared to a net non-operating income of $89 million in Q1 2025. We had a net income tax expense of $214 million in Q1 2026, compared to net income tax expense of $136 million in Q1 2025.
Speaker #3: Garena adjusted EBITDA was up by 25% year-on-year to $574 million. Returning to our consolidated numbers, we recognize a net non-operating income of $62 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to a net non-operating income of $89 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Speaker #3: We had a net income tax expense of $214 million in the first quarter of 2026, compared to net income tax expense of $136 million in the first quarter of 2025.
Speaker #3: As a result, net income was up by 7% year-on-year to $438 million.
Tony Hou: As a result, net income was up by 7% year on year to $438 million.
Tony Hou: As a result, net income was up by 7% year on year to $438 million.
Speaker #1: Thank you for us and Tony. We are now ready to open the call to questions. Operator?
Rebecca Lee: Thank you, Forrest and Tony. We are now ready to open the call to questions. Operator?
Rebecca Lee: Thank you, Forrest and Tony. We are now ready to open the call to questions. Operator?
Speaker #3: We will now begin the question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star, followed by the number one on your telephone keypad.
Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. In the interest of time, we will take a maximum of 2 questions at a time from each caller. If you wish to ask more questions, please request to join the question queue again after your first questions have been answered. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Your first question comes from line of Alicia Yap of Citigroup. Your line is open.
Operator: We will now begin the question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press star 1 again. In the interest of time, we will take a maximum of 2 questions at a time from each caller. If you wish to ask more questions, please request to join the question queue again after your first questions have been answered. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster. Your first question comes from line of Alicia Yap of Citigroup. Your line is open.
Speaker #3: If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press *1 again. In the interest of time, we will take a maximum of two questions at a time from each caller.
Speaker #3: If you wish to ask more questions, please request to join the question queue again after your first questions have been answered. At this time, we will pause momentarily to assemble our roster.
Speaker #3: Your first question comes from Lena Velicia Yap of Seedy Group. Your line is open.
Alicia Yap: Hi, good evening, management. Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations on the strong results. I have two questions. First of all, on e-commerce. Looking at your 30% GMV growth, 29% order growth, seems to be suggesting it is a decent increase in the ASP. Could management share what you have observed during this past quarter? How much of the strength of the GMV is attributed to your deeper penetration in the higher end user and higher ASP product in Brazil, obviously follow your strategic expansion in your warehouse fulfillment? How much of that is could be attributed to the higher stickiness of your VIP members across the Southeast Asia regions and also Taiwan?
Alicia Yap: Hi, good evening, management. Thanks for taking my questions. Congratulations on the strong results. I have two questions. First of all, on e-commerce. Looking at your 30% GMV growth, 29% order growth, seems to be suggesting it is a decent increase in the ASP. Could management share what you have observed during this past quarter? How much of the strength of the GMV is attributed to your deeper penetration in the higher end user and higher ASP product in Brazil, obviously follow your strategic expansion in your warehouse fulfillment? How much of that is could be attributed to the higher stickiness of your VIP members across the Southeast Asia regions and also Taiwan?
Speaker #4: Hi, good evening, management. Thanks for taking my questions, and congratulations on the strong results. I have two questions. First of all, on e-commerce: looking at your 30% GMV growth and 29% order growth, it seems to be suggesting there's a decent increase in the ASP.
Speaker #4: So could management share what you have observed during this past quarter? How much of the strength of the GMV is attributed to your deeper penetration in the higher-end user and higher ASP product in Brazil, obviously following your strategic expansion in your warehouse fulfillment?
Speaker #4: And how much of that could be attributed to the highest stickiness of your VIP members across the Southeast Asia regions and also Taiwan?
Alicia Yap: Following up on that is that despite delivering the 30% GMV growth, management still maintained a full year GMV growth of 25%. Is that because of the higher base of the H2 2025, or is it management being conservative in light of the macro uncertainty? Any colors management could share or elaborate would be helpful. A second very quick one is on your gaming. A very strong booking growth. Do you expect this strong rebound of Arena of Valor could set a tone for the continued strength and rebound of the game for the rest of this year or is it just more a one-off due to the seasonality and promotion? Thank you.
Speaker #4: And then, following up on that, is that despite delivering the 30% GMV growth, management still maintained the full-year GMV growth of 25%. So is that because of the higher base in the second half of 2025, or is it management being conservative in light of the macro uncertainty?
Alicia Yap: Following up on that is that despite delivering the 30% GMV growth, management still maintained a full year GMV growth of 25%. Is that because of the higher base of the H2 2025, or is it management being conservative in light of the macro uncertainty? Any colors management could share or elaborate would be helpful. A second very quick one is on your gaming. A very strong booking growth. Do you expect this strong rebound of Arena of Valor could set a tone for the continued strength and rebound of the game for the rest of this year or is it just more a one-off due to the seasonality and promotion? Thank you.
Speaker #4: So, any colors management could share or elaborate would be helpful. And then, second, a very quick one is on your gaming—a very strong bookings growth.
Speaker #4: So do you—do you expect this strong rebound of Arena of Valor could set the tone for the continued strength and rebound of the game for the rest of this year, or is it just more of a one-off due to seasonality and promotion?
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Chris Feng: On the growth for Shopee, we see a combination of growth from both Brazil and Southeast Asia. The overall Brazil does grow slightly faster than Southeast Asia, you know, I think it's probably not only driven by the growth of Brazil side. I think as you rightly point out, we try to have more fulfillment businesses in Brazil. We also have more sellers joining us in Brazil, which contributes to a high-end user segment attractiveness. The Shopee VIP has been driven quite a lot of growth in Asia as well, as Forrest Li mentioned in the opening. For the GMV guidance, Q1 has Ramadan and also both and also Chinese New Year fall into the quarter.
Chris Feng: On the growth for Shopee, we see a combination of growth from both Brazil and Southeast Asia. The overall Brazil does grow slightly faster than Southeast Asia, you know, I think it's probably not only driven by the growth of Brazil side. I think as you rightly point out, we try to have more fulfillment businesses in Brazil. We also have more sellers joining us in Brazil, which contributes to a high-end user segment attractiveness. The Shopee VIP has been driven quite a lot of growth in Asia as well, as Forrest Li mentioned in the opening. For the GMV guidance, Q1 has Ramadan and also both and also Chinese New Year fall into the quarter.
Speaker #2: On the growth for Shopee, we see a combination of growth from both Brazil and Southeast Asia. So the overall—Brazil does grow slightly faster than Southeast Asia, but, you know, I think it's probably not only driven by the growth of the Brazil side.
Speaker #2: I think, as you already pointed out, we try to have more fulfillment businesses in Brazil. We also have more sellers joining us in Brazil, which contributes to high-end user segment attractiveness.
Speaker #2: the, the Shopee VIP has been driven quite a lot of growth in Asia as well. as far as mentioned in the opening. for the, GMV guidance, Q1, has Ramadan and also both, and also January falls into to, to, to the quarter.
Chris Feng: We see very good seasonality, kind of attribute to part of the growth. We also see that many of the initiatives we implement from last year, including the VIPs, including the instant deliveries, including the AI-enabled better discovery that we roll out to our platform, all this contribute to kind of a better growth than we expected in Q1. As of the future guidance, I think we will observe how the market evolves. It's a bit early to sort of forecast the full year at this stage. We will communicate with the market as we see better indications from the growth trends in the market.
Speaker #2: we see very good seasonality. kind of, attribute to part of the growth. we also see that, the, the, many of the initiatives we implement from last year, including the VIPs, including the instant deliveries, including, the AI-enabled better discovery, that we're that we roll out to our platform.
Chris Feng: We see very good seasonality, kind of attribute to part of the growth. We also see that many of the initiatives we implement from last year, including the VIPs, including the instant deliveries, including the AI-enabled better discovery that we roll out to our platform, all this contribute to kind of a better growth than we expected in Q1. As of the future guidance, I think we will observe how the market evolves. It's a bit early to sort of forecast the full year at this stage. We will communicate with the market as we see better indications from the growth trends in the market.
Speaker #2: All this contributes to a kind of, better growth that then we, expected i-in Q1. as of the, future guidance, I think the, we will observe how the market evolves.
Speaker #2: the, the, it's a bit early to sort of forecast the full-year at this stage. We will, communicate with the market as we see, better indications from the growth trend, in the market.
Forrest Li: Regarding Arena, we are very encouraged by Arena of Valor's performance this quarter. It delivered record high bookings in Q1 in its 10th year of operation, which really speaks to the enduring appeal of the game and our team's ability to keep the experience fresh and engaging for players. This is not a one-off. We have been making deliberate investments in content updates and community engagement that are driving real results. With a content-packed year to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary, we expect 2026 to be a record year for Arena of Valor. That said, Q1 is indeed a seasonally stronger quarter for gaming, benefit from Lunar New Year, which is a key engagement period. We are mindful of that when looking at the sequential trend.
Speaker #5: regarding arena, we are very encouraged by arena of Valor's performance this quarter. It delivered record high bookings in Q1 in its 10th year of operation, which really speaks to the enduring appeal of the game and our team's ability to keep the experience fresh and engaging.
Forrest Li: Regarding Arena, we are very encouraged by Arena of Valor's performance this quarter. It delivered record high bookings in Q1 in its 10th year of operation, which really speaks to the enduring appeal of the game and our team's ability to keep the experience fresh and engaging for players. This is not a one-off. We have been making deliberate investments in content updates and community engagement that are driving real results. With a content-packed year to celebrate the game's 10th anniversary, we expect 2026 to be a record year for Arena of Valor. That said, Q1 is indeed a seasonally stronger quarter for gaming, benefit from Lunar New Year, which is a key engagement period. We are mindful of that when looking at the sequential trend.
Speaker #5: For players, this is not a one-off. We have been making deliberate investments in co in content updates, and the community engagement that are driving real results.
Speaker #5: With a content-packed year to celebrate the game's 10th and re an-anniversary, we expect 2026 to be a record year for arena of Valor. That said, Q1 is indeed a seasonally stronger quarter for gaming.
Speaker #5: Benefit from, Lunar New Year, which is a key engagement period. So we are mindful of the of that when looking at the sequential trend.
Forrest Li: As you know, gaming performance can also vary from quarter to quarter, depending on the timing of content release, active collaborations, and the seasonal events. The underlying health of the franchise in terms of user engagement and the paying user penetration give us confidence. We remain confident in delivering strong year-on-year bookings growth for Garena for the full year. Arena of Valor is reaching new heights in its 10th year give us even stronger conviction that we can do the same with Free Fire over the long run.
Speaker #5: as you know, gaming performance can also vary from quarter to quarter depending on the timing of content release, IP collaborations, and the seasonal events.
Forrest Li: As you know, gaming performance can also vary from quarter to quarter, depending on the timing of content release, active collaborations, and the seasonal events. The underlying health of the franchise in terms of user engagement and the paying user penetration give us confidence. We remain confident in delivering strong year-on-year bookings growth for Garena for the full year. Arena of Valor is reaching new heights in its 10th year give us even stronger conviction that we can do the same with Free Fire over the long run.
Speaker #5: But the underlying health of the franchise in terms of user engagement and paying user penetration give us confidence. we remain confident in delivering strong year-on-year bookings growth for Garena for the full year.
Speaker #5: And arena of Valor's reaching new high in its 10th year gives us give us even stronger conviction that we can do the same with Free Fire over the long run.
Speaker #3: Your next question, customer line of Divya Kothial of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Divya Kothiyal of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Divya Kothiyal of Morgan Stanley. Your line is open.
Divya Kothiyal: Thank you very much. My first question is on Brazil. The growth in Brazil has been clearly very strong for Shopee. How should we think about the margin cadence there for this year? Especially since we are seeing the market leader has dialed up their own investments in the market. Brazil has been profitable this quarter, but would love to hear your thoughts on how you're thinking about Brazil profitability when you give the full year guidance for e-commerce EBITDA targets. Also, are there any early learnings from the loan book ramp-up in Brazil, and how different are the returns versus ASEAN? That's my first question on Brazil. My second question is on e-commerce take rates. We're seeing e-commerce take rates have risen very consistently this quarter, especially in ASEAN.
Speaker #4: thank you very much. my first question is on Brazil. so the growth in Brazil has been clearly very strong for Shopee. but how should we think about the margin cadence there, for this year?
Divya Kothiyal: Thank you very much. My first question is on Brazil. The growth in Brazil has been clearly very strong for Shopee. How should we think about the margin cadence there for this year? Especially since we are seeing the market leader has dialed up their own investments in the market. Brazil has been profitable this quarter, but would love to hear your thoughts on how you're thinking about Brazil profitability when you give the full year guidance for e-commerce EBITDA targets. Also, are there any early learnings from the loan book ramp-up in Brazil, and how different are the returns versus ASEAN? That's my first question on Brazil. My second question is on e-commerce take rates. We're seeing e-commerce take rates have risen very consistently this quarter, especially in ASEAN.
Speaker #4: Especially since we are seeing the market leader has dialed up their own investments in, in, in the market. Brazil has been profitable this quarter but would love to hear your thoughts on, how you're thinking about Brazil profitability when you give the full-year guidance for e-commerce, EBITDA targets.
Speaker #4: Also, are there any early learnings from the loan book ramp-up in Brazil? And how different are the returns versus ASEAN? So that's my first question on Brazil.
Speaker #4: my second question is on, e-commerce take rates. we're seeing e-commerce take rates have, risen very consistently this quarter. especially in ASEAN. would like to hear your perspective on how much of these increases are being reinvested back into seller rebates or consumer incentives.
Divya Kothiyal: Would like to hear your perspective on how much of these increases are being reinvested back into seller base or consumer incentives. Are you seeing ASEAN e-commerce margins actually improve? Given the rise in cost inflation, there has been some pushback by sellers in markets like Thailand about these hikes, but are you broadly seeing these increases being well accepted by sellers? Are we kind of reaching a cap on commissions per se? Thank you.
Divya Kothiyal: Would like to hear your perspective on how much of these increases are being reinvested back into seller base or consumer incentives. Are you seeing ASEAN e-commerce margins actually improve? Given the rise in cost inflation, there has been some pushback by sellers in markets like Thailand about these hikes, but are you broadly seeing these increases being well accepted by sellers? Are we kind of reaching a cap on commissions per se? Thank you.
Speaker #4: And are you seeing ASEAN e-commerce margins actually improve? also given the rise, in cost inflation, there has been some pushback by sellers in markets like Thailand about these hikes.
Speaker #4: But are you broadly seeing these increases being well accepted by sellers? Or are we kind of reaching a cap on commissions per se? Thank you.
Chris Feng: In term of the Brazil growth, we see, as you rightly point out, we see very strong growth in Brazil. If you look at Q1, we grow well ahead of the market growth in the market, which enable us to gain better market shares, which in turn give us better scale to drive down our cost to serve in the market. The we have been profitable in Brazil for the last few consecutive quarters. I don't foresee any change towards that at this point in time. We will still continue to grow healthily in Brazil, likely with the profitable set of margins as we see right now.
Speaker #2: in terms of the Brazil growth, we see, as you already pointed out, we see very strong growth in Brazil. i-i-if you look at Q1, we grow w-well, ahead of the market growth in the market.
Chris Feng: In term of the Brazil growth, we see, as you rightly point out, we see very strong growth in Brazil. If you look at Q1, we grow well ahead of the market growth in the market, which enable us to gain better market shares, which in turn give us better scale to drive down our cost to serve in the market. The we have been profitable in Brazil for the last few consecutive quarters. I don't foresee any change towards that at this point in time. We will still continue to grow healthily in Brazil, likely with the profitable set of margins as we see right now.
Speaker #2: Which enables us to gain better market shares, which in, in, i-i-in turn gives us better scale to drive down our cost to serve. in the market.
Speaker #2: the, the, the, we have been, profitable in Brazil for the, for the last, few, consecutive quarters. I, I, I don't I don't foresee, any change towards that.
Speaker #2: at this point in time. we will still continue to grow healthily in Brazil. likely, with, the profitable kind of, margins as we see, right now.
Chris Feng: Again, while saying that, we do commit to invest into Brazil, especially for the few areas we mentioned, like the fulfillment network that we are building. We are further expanding our same-day delivery in Brazil. We're also launching the VIP program in Brazil as well. I think all those will be roll out in Brazil over time to drive further growth. In term of the loan book in Brazil, we've been growing very well in Brazil on the loan side. We actually have more than $1 billion outstanding in Brazil already, which is kind of very high growth year-to-year if you look at last year Q1.
Speaker #2: b-but, again, while saying that, we do, commit to invest into Brazil, especially for the few areas we mentioned, like the fulfillment network that we are building.
Chris Feng: Again, while saying that, we do commit to invest into Brazil, especially for the few areas we mentioned, like the fulfillment network that we are building. We are further expanding our same-day delivery in Brazil. We're also launching the VIP program in Brazil as well. I think all those will be roll out in Brazil over time to drive further growth. In term of the loan book in Brazil, we've been growing very well in Brazil on the loan side. We actually have more than $1 billion outstanding in Brazil already, which is kind of very high growth year-to-year if you look at last year Q1.
Speaker #2: we are further expanding our, same-day deliveries, in Brazil. we also, launching the, the, we also have the VIP program in Brazil as well. I think all those will be, rolled out in Brazil over time to drive further growth.
Speaker #2: The, the, in terms of the loan book in Brazil, we've been doing very well in Brazil. On the loan side, we actually have more than $1 billion outstanding in Brazil.
Speaker #2: already, which is, kind of, very high, growth year to year if you look at, last, year Q1. I think the key driver for us is to localize the products.
Chris Feng: I think the key driver for us is to localize the product. We didn't take the Asia products, you know, just take to Brazil. We localize the product. For example, we have a single flexible limit the user can draw on across the accelerator and the personal cash loans, based on what they need. We also spend our effort on localizing the data sources, Not only from the shopping data, but we also draw data from the open banking networks in Brazil, which give us a pretty good impact in term of the risk profiles. I think that's part of the reason that we see better risk in Brazil, which enable us to expand more user pools while maintaining the profit profile in the market.
Chris Feng: I think the key driver for us is to localize the product. We didn't take the Asia products, you know, just take to Brazil. We localize the product. For example, we have a single flexible limit the user can draw on across the accelerator and the personal cash loans, based on what they need. We also spend our effort on localizing the data sources, Not only from the shopping data, but we also draw data from the open banking networks in Brazil, which give us a pretty good impact in term of the risk profiles. I think that's part of the reason that we see better risk in Brazil, which enable us to expand more user pools while maintaining the profit profile in the market.
Speaker #2: w-we didn't take the Asia products, you know, just take to Brazil. we localize the products, for example, we have a, a, a single flexible limit, the user can draw on, on, on across the affiliates and, the personal cash loans.
Speaker #2: based on what they need. we also span up effort on, localizing the data sources. the not only from the Shopee data but, but we also draw data from the open banking, networks in Brazil.
Speaker #2: w-which give us, pretty good, impact in terms of the, risk profiles. I think that's part of reason that we see better risks in Brazil, which enable us to expand more user pools, while maintaining the profit profile in the market.
Chris Feng: Overall, we are still the very early days of the market penetration in Brazil for the lending businesses. If you compare our sizes versus some of our peers in the market for financial services, there's a huge room ahead of us in terms of growing the businesses in Brazil. In terms of the e-commerce take rate, I think the simpler way to look at this was, we does increase part of the take rate. We also have our EBITDA margin relatively similar to previous quarters. A big part of that will be reinvested into the market to drive the growth.
Speaker #2: overall, we are doing the very early days of the market penetration in Brazil for the, lending businesses. If you compare our sizes versus some of our peers in, i-i-in the market for financial services, th-there's a huge room ahead of us, in terms of growing, the, the, the, the businesses, i-uh, in Brazil.
Chris Feng: Overall, we are still the very early days of the market penetration in Brazil for the lending businesses. If you compare our sizes versus some of our peers in the market for financial services, there's a huge room ahead of us in terms of growing the businesses in Brazil. In terms of the e-commerce take rate, I think the simpler way to look at this was, we does increase part of the take rate. We also have our EBITDA margin relatively similar to previous quarters. A big part of that will be reinvested into the market to drive the growth.
Speaker #2: th-th-the in terms of the e-commerce take rate, I, I think the, the simpler way to look at this was, w-w-we does increase part of the take rate.
Speaker #2: we also, have our EBITDA margin relatively similar to purpose, quarters. so, so, a big part of that will be reinvested into, the market to drive the growth.
Chris Feng: Again, the area we invest in, the few area mentioned, the fulfillment networks, we're building the VIP program, et cetera. Generally, we see that in most of the markets, we see a good margins quarter over quarter for our Asian markets. On the seller commission, reactions from the market, the most important thing for us is to look at how the seller commissions impact the pricing. We look at the impact of commission increase on pricing compared to the peers in the online market, and we also compare with the pricing compared with the offline market.
Speaker #2: again, the area we invest in, the few areas mentioned, the, the, the, the fulfillment networks, we're building the VIP programs, etc. th-th-th-th but, but generally, i-i-i the, the w-we see that, in most of the markets, we see, a good, margins, quarter o-quarter over quarter for our, for our ASEAN markets.
Chris Feng: Again, the area we invest in, the few area mentioned, the fulfillment networks, we're building the VIP program, et cetera. Generally, we see that in most of the markets, we see a good margins quarter over quarter for our Asian markets. On the seller commission, reactions from the market, the most important thing for us is to look at how the seller commissions impact the pricing. We look at the impact of commission increase on pricing compared to the peers in the online market, and we also compare with the pricing compared with the offline market.
Speaker #2: th-the, the on the seller commission, reactions from the, market, th-the most important thing for us is to look at, how the seller commissions impact the pricing.
Speaker #2: we look at the, impact of commission increase on pricing compared to the peers in the, online market. And we also compare with the pricing compared with the offline market.
Chris Feng: Pricing is one of the most important things for us, as we mentioned over time. We still see a very price competitiveness in our platform. Going forward, we will still look at the dynamics and decide what's the best way to manage the commission part. The most important thing is we are able to deliver profit to the sellers. The profit is depending on, number one is how much commission we're taking. Number two is how much cost they are running our platform. Number three, what's the volume we're driving for them, our platforms. With slightly higher commissions, we spend a lot of effort on reducing the cost of running businesses on our platform.
Speaker #2: A-A pricing is one of the most important things for us, as we mentioned over time. We still see very price competitiveness in our platforms.
Chris Feng: Pricing is one of the most important things for us, as we mentioned over time. We still see a very price competitiveness in our platform. Going forward, we will still look at the dynamics and decide what's the best way to manage the commission part. The most important thing is we are able to deliver profit to the sellers. The profit is depending on, number one is how much commission we're taking. Number two is how much cost they are running our platform. Number three, what's the volume we're driving for them, our platforms. With slightly higher commissions, we spend a lot of effort on reducing the cost of running businesses on our platform.
Speaker #2: We, I think going forward, I think we will still kind of look at the dynamics and decide what's the best way to manage the commission part.
Speaker #2: but again, I think the most important thing is, we are able to deliver profit to the sellers. The profit is, depending on, number one is how much commission we're taking.
Speaker #2: H number two is how much cost they're running our platform. Number three, what's the volume we're driving for them, on our platforms. with slightly higher commissions, we, we, we spend less effort on reducing the cost of running businesses on our platform.
Chris Feng: For example, we offer AI-powered chatbot for the sellers so they can do customer service with the buyers automatically without sort of hiring more customer service agents. For example, we help them technologize their businesses a lot easier with our AI-powered agents in our seller centers, et cetera. At same time, as we always share that, with still fast growth in our markets, you know, seller has a bigger pie to pie to draw from. All this contributes to sort of a healthy ecosystem when we look at the seller commission part.
Speaker #2: for example, we, offer, AI-powered chatbot for the sellers so they can, so they can custom serve do customer service with the, buyers automatically without sort of, hiring more, customer service agent, for example, we help them diagnosis their businesses a lot easier with our AI-powered agents in our seller centers, etc.
Chris Feng: For example, we offer AI-powered chatbot for the sellers so they can do customer service with the buyers automatically without sort of hiring more customer service agents. For example, we help them technologize their businesses a lot easier with our AI-powered agents in our seller centers, et cetera. At same time, as we always share that, with still fast growth in our markets, you know, seller has a bigger pie to pie to draw from. All this contributes to sort of a healthy ecosystem when we look at the seller commission part.
Speaker #2: A-and at the same time, as we always, share that, with, still fast growth in our markets, you know, seller has a bigger power to j power to draw from.
Speaker #2: So all this contribute to sort of a healthy ecosystem, when we look at the, seller commission part.
Speaker #1: Your next question comes from line of Nevin Killa of UBS, your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Navin Killa of UBS. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from the line of Navin Killa of UBS. Your line is open.
Navin Killa: Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on the strong results. I had a couple of questions. If I look at your e-commerce, I guess, absolute EBITDA in Q1 this year compared to Q1 last year, you know, there's obviously a moderate decline. I just wanted to understand if you could help us kind of, you know, get a better sense of where this decline is coming from geographically, if it's split between, let's say, Brazil, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Also, as things, you know, hopefully improve over the next couple of years, how will the split of that be in terms of the magnitude of growth in EBITDA coming from each of the regions? Secondly, on Fintech, again, the margins have obviously been inching down.
Navin Killa: Hi. Thank you for the opportunity, and congrats on the strong results. I had a couple of questions. If I look at your e-commerce, I guess, absolute EBITDA in Q1 this year compared to Q1 last year, you know, there's obviously a moderate decline. I just wanted to understand if you could help us kind of, you know, get a better sense of where this decline is coming from geographically, if it's split between, let's say, Brazil, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia. Also, as things, you know, hopefully improve over the next couple of years, how will the split of that be in terms of the magnitude of growth in EBITDA coming from each of the regions? Secondly, on Fintech, again, the margins have obviously been inching down.
Speaker #5: Hi. thank you for the opportunity and congrats on the strong results. I had a couple of questions. So if I look at your e-commerce I guess absolute EBITDA in Q1 this year compared to Q1 last year, you know, there's obviously a, a moderate decline.
Speaker #5: I just wanted to understand if you could help us kind of, you know, get a better sense of where this decline is coming from geographically—if it's split between, let's say, Brazil, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia.
Speaker #5: And also, as things, you know, hopefully improve over the next couple of years, how will the split of that be in terms of the magnitude of growth in EBITDA coming from each of the regions?
Speaker #5: And secondly, on, on, on fintech, again, the margins have obviously been inching down. Is there a steady state, number that we should be looking at, and, and a timeframe over which you can you can get there?
Chris Feng: Is there a steady-state number that we should be looking at, and a timeframe over which you can get there? First of all, let's start with the e-commerce side. I think you are absolutely right on that slightly lower EBITDA year to year. I think the other way to look at this was that if you look at last quarter in Q4 2025, we do see a slight increase on the EBITDA from Q4 last year to Q1 this year. I think there are many reasons driving the dynamics here. Last year was the first year that Ramadan falling to Q1, which is, you know, a different analogy that we had for many, many years.
Navin Killa: Is there a steady-state number that we should be looking at, and a timeframe over which you can get there?
Speaker #2: first of all, let's start with the, e-commerce side. I, I think you are absolutely right, on, that slightly lower, EBITDA year to year. I think, the other way to look at this was that if you look at last quarter in Q2 in Q4, 2025, we do see a inc slightly increase on the, EBITDA from Q4 last year to Q1 this year.
Chris Feng: First of all, let's start with the e-commerce side. I think you are absolutely right on that slightly lower EBITDA year to year. I think the other way to look at this was that if you look at last quarter in Q4 2025, we do see a slight increase on the EBITDA from Q4 last year to Q1 this year. I think there are many reasons driving the dynamics here. Last year was the first year that Ramadan falling to Q1, which is, you know, a different analogy that we had for many, many years.
Speaker #2: th I think there are many reasons driving the dynamics here. last year was the, first year that, Ramadan falling to Q1, which is, you know, different analogy that we had for many, many years.
Chris Feng: I think there were some adjustments that we have to learn from how does this analogy impact the businesses. I think we have better spent this year compared to last year. I think part of reason also because we launched a bunch of initiatives to further drive the growth this year, as we shared across the calls. Some of that started from later part of last year, which kind of continued from Q1, continued to Q1 this year. For this near term in 2026, I think we share with our guidance. We expect a pretty good growth on 25% with the bottom line EBITDA at least not worse than last year.
Speaker #2: I think there, there was some adjustments, that we have to learn from how does this analogy impact, the businesses, I think we have better sense this year compared to, to last year.
Chris Feng: I think there were some adjustments that we have to learn from how does this analogy impact the businesses. I think we have better spent this year compared to last year. I think part of reason also because we launched a bunch of initiatives to further drive the growth this year, as we shared across the calls. Some of that started from later part of last year, which kind of continued from Q1, continued to Q1 this year. For this near term in 2026, I think we share with our guidance. We expect a pretty good growth on 25% with the bottom line EBITDA at least not worse than last year.
Speaker #2: I think part of the reason also because, we, launched a bunch of initiatives to further drive the growth this year, as we shared, across the course.
Speaker #2: and some of that started from later part of last year, which kind of, continued, from Q1, continued to Q1 this year. the, the, the, for the for this, near-term in 2026, I think we share with our guidance, we, we expect, pretty good growth on 25% with, the bottom line, EBITDA at least not worse than last year.
Chris Feng: I think we will see how this evolves over the quarters. In term of the medium to long term, we still maintain our judgment that I would believe that 2% to 3% EBITDA margin is something we target to achieve. In term of the FinTech, the FinTech margin, one thing we look at very closely is our absolute return. When we grow our loan outstanding, we would like to make sure that additional loan will bring a positive EBITDA in absolute terms. We do recognize that the EBITDA, if you compare with the outstanding as a ratio, it might fluctuate. That eventually might go down a bit over time.
Speaker #2: I think we will see how this evolves over, over the quarters. the, the, the i-in term of the medium to long-term, we still maintain our judgment that, we believe that 2 to 3 percent, EBITDA margin is something we, target to, to, to achieve.
Chris Feng: I think we will see how this evolves over the quarters. In term of the medium to long term, we still maintain our judgment that I would believe that 2% to 3% EBITDA margin is something we target to achieve. In term of the FinTech, the FinTech margin, one thing we look at very closely is our absolute return. When we grow our loan outstanding, we would like to make sure that additional loan will bring a positive EBITDA in absolute terms. We do recognize that the EBITDA, if you compare with the outstanding as a ratio, it might fluctuate. That eventually might go down a bit over time.
Speaker #2: i-in term of the, fintech, the, the, the, the fintech margin, one thing we look at very closely, is our absolute returns. When we grow our, loan outstandings, we would like to, make sure that additional loan will bring a positive, EBITDA in absolute terms.
Speaker #2: we do recognize that the, EBITDA, if you compare with the outstanding as a ratio, it might fluctuate that eventually it might go down, a bit over time.
Chris Feng: If you look at over the quarters, I think largely driven by the mix of different countries and different products. Our earliest market, for example, like Indonesia, Philippines, does have a higher ROA compared to the market that coming a bit later to the portfolio. If you look at, let's say, Thailand or Malaysia, Vietnam, et cetera. This drives, if you look at the ratios, slightly lower ROA as time goes. I think at this point in time, the business is really early. We see a huge potential in front of us, especially if you look at some of the new market growth. Even you look at Thailand, Malaysia or the Brazil we talked about, there is a big potential ahead of us.
Speaker #2: i-if you look at over the quarters, I think largely driven, by the, mix of different, countries and different products, i-i-i-i I would earliest the markets, for example, like Indonesia, Philippines, does have a higher ROA compared to the, market that, coming a bit later to the portfolio if you look at, let's say, Thailand or Malaysia, Vietnam, etc.
Chris Feng: If you look at over the quarters, I think largely driven by the mix of different countries and different products. Our earliest market, for example, like Indonesia, Philippines, does have a higher ROA compared to the market that coming a bit later to the portfolio. If you look at, let's say, Thailand or Malaysia, Vietnam, et cetera. This drives, if you look at the ratios, slightly lower ROA as time goes. I think at this point in time, the business is really early. We see a huge potential in front of us, especially if you look at some of the new market growth. Even you look at Thailand, Malaysia or the Brazil we talked about, there is a big potential ahead of us.
Speaker #2: so this drives, if you look at the ratios, slightly lower ROA, as time goes, I think, at this point in time, the business really early, we see a huge potential in front of us.
Speaker #2: especially if you look at some of the new market growth, e-even you look at Thailand, Malaysia, or the Brazil we talked about, th-there is a big potential ahead of us.
Speaker #2: A-and i-i-if you i-i just now we talked about Brazil if you compare, our outstanding compared to the PS outstanding that's a huge room for.
Chris Feng: If you just now we talk about Brazil, if you compare our outstanding compared to the peers outstanding, there's a huge room for us. We also try to develop the non-Shopee ecosystems. For example, I think Forrest mentioned the cell phone stores, the two-wheel stores. I think all this are pretty dynamic. I think a bit too early to guide a steady state number at this stage. It's a, you know, pretty much impacted by the country and product mix.
Chris Feng: If you just now we talk about Brazil, if you compare our outstanding compared to the peers outstanding, there's a huge room for us. We also try to develop the non-Shopee ecosystems. For example, I think Forrest mentioned the cell phone stores, the two-wheel stores. I think all this are pretty dynamic. I think a bit too early to guide a steady state number at this stage. It's a, you know, pretty much impacted by the country and product mix.
Speaker #2: th-th-that we also try to develop the non-shopping ecosystems, for example, the, I think Boris mentioned the cell phone stores, the, the, the two-wheel stores, I think, th-th all this, are pretty dynamic.
Speaker #2: I think pretty a bit too early to, to, to, to, to guide a steady state number at this stage, as it's, you know, pretty, much impacted by the country and product mix.
Speaker #1: Your next question comes from line of Yong Xiao of Barclays, you long your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Yong Zhao of Barclays. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Yong Zhao of Barclays. Your line is open.
Speaker #3: S-thank you very much for taking my questions. I have two as well if I may. I'm, I'm gonna just ask one at a time.
Yong Zhao: Thank you very much for taking my questions. I have two as well. If I may, I'm gonna just ask one at a time. Firstly, would you be able to just talk about the potential impact from a higher fuel prices? I know the conflict in Middle East started in March. You probably did not see too much of the impact in Q1. If the oil price stay at current level for longer, how would that affect your cost? Would you be able to pass on some of the costs to either the sellers or consumers? Any comments would be helpful. I have a second question.
Jiong Shao: Thank you very much for taking my questions. I have two as well. If I may, I'm gonna just ask one at a time. Firstly, would you be able to just talk about the potential impact from a higher fuel prices? I know the conflict in Middle East started in March. You probably did not see too much of the impact in Q1. If the oil price stay at current level for longer, how would that affect your cost? Would you be able to pass on some of the costs to either the sellers or consumers? Any comments would be helpful. I have a second question.
Speaker #3: firstly, would you be able to just talk about, the potential impact from a higher, fewer prices? I, I know the, the, the conflict in the Middle East started in March.
Speaker #3: You probably did not see too much of an impact in Q1, but if the oil price stayed at current levels for longer, how will that affect your cost?
Speaker #3: would you be able to pass on some of the costs to either the sellers or consumers? any, any, any, comments would be helpful. Then I have a second question.
Speaker #2: Ye-yeah. the, the, i-is, is, is clearly something we, look at very closely in term of, the, oil price impact to our businesses. I, I think there are a few degree of impact, w-when we look at this.
Chris Feng: Yeah. It's clearly something we look at very closely in terms of the oil price impact to our businesses. I think there are a few degrees of impact when we look at this. The first degree of impact is just absolute oil price. It does impact our operating costs. I think the good thing is that we leverage quite a lot of the subsidies from the government in our countries, where it helps us to absorb the cost increase in many countries. Especially the last mile delivery, which is the largest part of our delivery costs.
Chris Feng: Yeah. It's clearly something we look at very closely in terms of the oil price impact to our businesses. I think there are a few degrees of impact when we look at this. The first degree of impact is just absolute oil price. It does impact our operating costs. I think the good thing is that we leverage quite a lot of the subsidies from the government in our countries, where it helps us to absorb the cost increase in many countries. Especially the last mile delivery, which is the largest part of our delivery costs.
Speaker #2: The first degree of impact is just absolute oil price. It does impact our operation costs. the, I think the good thing is that, we leverage, quite a lot of the, the, the subsidies from the government in our countries, where, i-it help us to, to absorb, the cost increase in, in, in, in many countries, especially the last mile delivery, which is the largest part of our, the, the delivery cost.
Chris Feng: We also work closely with our partners, like for example, our line haul partners, our airline partners to manage the costs together. All in all, if you look at actual cost, it does have impact in our cost. We believe we can manage it within the guidance that we're giving out. Also in terms of timing, you're absolutely right that the Q2 will probably see more impact than Q1 in terms of cost. I think that's the first degree of impact. I think second degree impact is potentially this might impact essentially the spending powers in some of the countries if they have to spend more money on the gas, the gas stations.
Speaker #2: we also work closely with our partners, like, for example, our line haul partners, our, airline partners to, to, to match the costs together. so, all in all, if you look at actual costs, it does have impact in our costs.
Chris Feng: We also work closely with our partners, like for example, our line haul partners, our airline partners to manage the costs together. All in all, if you look at actual cost, it does have impact in our cost. We believe we can manage it within the guidance that we're giving out. Also in terms of timing, you're absolutely right that the Q2 will probably see more impact than Q1 in terms of cost. I think that's the first degree of impact. I think second degree impact is potentially this might impact essentially the spending powers in some of the countries if they have to spend more money on the gas, the gas stations.
Speaker #2: But we believe we can manage it within the guidance that we're giving out. And also, in terms of timing, you're absolutely right that in Q2 we will probably see more impact than in Q1.
Speaker #2: i-in term of costs. I think that the first degree of impact, I think second degree of impact is, potentially this might impact the, the, the, the, the, the, essentially the, spending powers in some of the countries i-if they have to spend more, money on the, the, the gas, the gas stations.
Chris Feng: I think generally we are seeing moderate impact in our platform. I think the most important reason for that is our platform is actually the cheapest platform you can find the products that people essentially needed. When people are looking for a saving, actually they look at us more. Our platform is also a more essential product platform rather than something that people buy a luxury product from or discretionary spending, less spending in our platform compared to, let's say, offline spending, et cetera. All this help us to show the impact from the second degree impact that we are seeing.
Chris Feng: I think generally we are seeing moderate impact in our platform. I think the most important reason for that is our platform is actually the cheapest platform you can find the products that people essentially needed. When people are looking for a saving, actually they look at us more. Our platform is also a more essential product platform rather than something that people buy a luxury product from or discretionary spending, less spending in our platform compared to, let's say, offline spending, et cetera. All this help us to show the impact from the second degree impact that we are seeing.
Speaker #2: I think generally we're re saying, moderate impact in our platforms. I think the most important, the, the, the i reason for that is, our platform is actually ha i-is the cheapest platform you can find the products that people are essentially needed.
Speaker #2: so when people are looking for, a savings, actually they look at, us more. our platform is also, more, essential product platform rather than, something that people, buy a luxury, product from for.
Speaker #2: Or the, the all discretionary spending is less spent on our platform compared to, let's say, offline spending, etc. So all this helps us to show the impact from the second degree impact that we see.
Speaker #3: Okay. Great. Th-that are helpful. Thank you for that. my second question is about your fulfillment build-out. You talked about adding three, fulfillment centers, I think in Q1.
Yong Zhao: Okay, great. Very helpful. Thank you for that. My second question is about your fulfillment build-out. You talked about adding 3 fulfillment centers, I think in Q1, in Brazil. Could you talk about some of your perhaps, like, near-term targets and long-term targets? For example, as you know, one of your peers in Brazil is adding, I think, over a dozen FCs this year, in Brazil. If you can share with some of your thoughts, both near term and the long term. And on top of that, the pace of the investment, and is that you adding, let's say, some fulfillment centers this year, and then next year take a pause to absorb some of the capacity, then perhaps add more after that.
Jiong Shao: Okay, great. Very helpful. Thank you for that. My second question is about your fulfillment build-out. You talked about adding 3 fulfillment centers, I think in Q1, in Brazil. Could you talk about some of your perhaps, like, near-term targets and long-term targets? For example, as you know, one of your peers in Brazil is adding, I think, over a dozen FCs this year, in Brazil. If you can share with some of your thoughts, both near term and the long term. And on top of that, the pace of the investment, and is that you adding, let's say, some fulfillment centers this year, and then next year take a pause to absorb some of the capacity, then perhaps add more after that.
Speaker #3: in Brazil, could you could you talk about some of your perhaps, like, near-term targets and long-term targets? For example, as you know, one of your peers in Brazil is adding, I think, over a dozen, FCs, this year, in Brazil.
Speaker #3: So if you can, share with some of your thoughts, both near-term and the long-term long-term and, on top of that, the pace of the investment, a-and i-i-is that you're adding, let's say, some fulfillment centers this year and then next year take a pause to absorb some of the capacity then perhaps add more, after that.
Speaker #3: So just help us understand the, the, the, the, the, the, the pace, ho when you build out, your, you know, fulfillment infrastructure from relatively, a low base from a timing-wise compared, to, low base compared to a competitors, obviously.
Yong Zhao: Just help us understand the pace when you build out your, you know, fulfillment infrastructure from relatively a low base from timing-wise compared to low base compared to your competitors, obviously. Any sort of a timetable for getting returns of this investment? Thank you so much.
Jiong Shao: Just help us understand the pace when you build out your, you know, fulfillment infrastructure from relatively a low base from timing-wise compared to low base compared to your competitors, obviously. Any sort of a timetable for getting returns of this investment? Thank you so much.
Speaker #3: And any sort of a timetable for getting returns or, or, or, or this investment? Thank you so much.
Chris Feng: On the fulfillment businesses, I think especially for Brazil that you referred to, we do have our expectations on growing more percent of businesses from fulfillment as we build out. I think we started relatively not too long time ago. We are still in the early stage of building out the fulfillment businesses. I think typically we actually don't overbuild too much. Our capacity realization in our fulfillment center is relatively high. I think the core reason for that is we're able to project predict how much of the volume for fulfillment well ahead of the time. We build our fulfillment center according to the timetables.
Chris Feng: On the fulfillment businesses, I think especially for Brazil that you referred to, we do have our expectations on growing more percent of businesses from fulfillment as we build out. I think we started relatively not too long time ago. We are still in the early stage of building out the fulfillment businesses. I think typically we actually don't overbuild too much. Our capacity realization in our fulfillment center is relatively high. I think the core reason for that is we're able to project predict how much of the volume for fulfillment well ahead of the time. We build our fulfillment center according to the timetables.
Speaker #2: s-so on the fulfillment businesses, I think especially for Brazil, I, I think, that you referred to, w-w-we do have our, expectations on, growing, more percent of businesses from fulfillment, as we build out.
Speaker #2: Since we started, recently, not too long ago, we are still in the early stage of building up the fulfillment businesses. I think, typically, we actually don't overbuild too much.
Speaker #2: So, the, the, our, capacity realization our in our fulfillment center is relatively high. and, I, I think the core reason for that is we're able to project, predict, how much of the volume from fulfillment, well ahead of the time, then we build our fulfillment center according to the timetables, s-so-so it's so it's probably unlikely that we're gonna build a lot this year and we stop n-next year.
Chris Feng: It's probably unlikely that we're going to do a lot this year and we stop next year, then we'll do, you know, while waiting for fulfillment center to be filled, then we'll do it again. I think it's more going to be a continuous process while we are building the fulfillment center. And ultimately, we would like to, you know, have our fulfillment center at the overall size bigger than our close competitors in the market in term of absolute volumes. I think it will take a few years to get there, given, you know, we just started later.
Chris Feng: It's probably unlikely that we're going to do a lot this year and we stop next year, then we'll do, you know, while waiting for fulfillment center to be filled, then we'll do it again. I think it's more going to be a continuous process while we are building the fulfillment center. And ultimately, we would like to, you know, have our fulfillment center at the overall size bigger than our close competitors in the market in term of absolute volumes. I think it will take a few years to get there, given, you know, we just started later.
Speaker #2: Then we build, you know, while waiting for the fulfillment center to be f-filled, then we build again. It's, it's—I think it's more going to be a continuous process, while we are building the fulfillment center.
Speaker #2: a-and, and ultimately, we would like to, you know, have our fulfillment center, at the overall size bigger than our close competitors, in the market, in term of the absolute volumes.
Speaker #2: But I think it would take, a few years to, to, to get there given, you know, we just started, later. in term of the retail investment, th-th-the, the, i-if you look at in-individual fulfillment centers, t-typically the fulfill the infrastructure, the CapEx, is actually not that high as we don't own the, fulfillment center, itself.
Chris Feng: In term of the return investment, the, if you look at individual fulfillment centers, typically the infrastructure, the CapEx, is actually not that high as we don't own the fulfillment center itself. We typically rent a fulfillment center. The CapEx essentially is to make sure the fulfillment center is well equipped. If you look at that particular part of investment, the return investment is pretty fast. It's not that long ahead of the time. The other part of investment we're doing for the fulfillment businesses, is more move the seller to be part of fulfillment center and advocate the buyer to understand the fulfillment businesses that we have.
Chris Feng: In term of the return investment, the, if you look at individual fulfillment centers, typically the infrastructure, the CapEx, is actually not that high as we don't own the fulfillment center itself. We typically rent a fulfillment center. The CapEx essentially is to make sure the fulfillment center is well equipped. If you look at that particular part of investment, the return investment is pretty fast. It's not that long ahead of the time. The other part of investment we're doing for the fulfillment businesses, is more move the seller to be part of fulfillment center and advocate the buyer to understand the fulfillment businesses that we have.
Speaker #2: We, we typically rent a fulfillment center. The, the CapEx essentially is to, to, to make sure, the, the, the, the fulfillment center is well equipped, so if you look at that particular part of investment, the retail investment is pretty, fast.
Speaker #2: I-i-it's not that long ahead of the time. I, the, the other part of investment we're doing for the fulfillment businesses, is more move the seller to be part of fulfillment center.
Speaker #2: And move the buy and advocate the buyer to understand the fulfillment, businesses that we have. So that's part of the ongoing investment we, we drive.
Chris Feng: That's part of the ongoing investment we use to drive business growth.
Chris Feng: That's part of the ongoing investment we use to drive business growth.
Speaker #2: we used to drive business growth.
Speaker #1: Your next question comes from the line of Ranjan Sharma of JPMorgan. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Ranjan Sharma of JP Morgan. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Ranjan Sharma of JP Morgan. Your line is open.
Speaker #4: Hi. Good evening. and thank you for the presentation. and congratulations on the results. three quick questions from my side. firstly, how do you see the economics of the VIP program?
Ranjan Sharma: Hi, good evening. Thank you for the presentation and congratulations on the results. Three quick questions from my side. Firstly, how do you see the economics of the VIP program? Will you consider optimizing the value offered to consumers or the subscription price charged to the customer? The second question is, given the momentum on Free Fire and Arena of Valor and the content coming in the coming periods, how should we think about the growth of the gross bookings this year? Last question is, can you help us understand how you evaluate the intrinsic value of Sea? We know you have a billion-dollar buyback, but you have only executed $170 million or so, despite the stock price reaching $78 at some point.
Ranjan Sharma: Hi, good evening. Thank you for the presentation and congratulations on the results. Three quick questions from my side. Firstly, how do you see the economics of the VIP program? Will you consider optimizing the value offered to consumers or the subscription price charged to the customer? The second question is, given the momentum on Free Fire and Arena of Valor and the content coming in the coming periods, how should we think about the growth of the gross bookings this year? Last question is, can you help us understand how you evaluate the intrinsic value of Sea? We know you have a billion-dollar buyback, but you have only executed $170 million or so, despite the stock price reaching $78 at some point.
Speaker #4: Will you consider optimizing the value offered to consumers or the subscription price, charged to the customer? the second question is, given the momentum on Free Fire and Arena of Valor, and the content coming in the coming periods, how should we think about the growth of the gross bookings, this year?
Speaker #4: Last question is, can you help us understand how you evaluate the intrinsic value of Sea? we know you have a billion-dollar buyback, but you have only executed 170 million dollars or so.
Speaker #4: despite the stock price reaching $78 at some point. So what ha will help to understand, like, how you're thinking about the buyback going forward?
Ranjan Sharma: What I will help to understand, like, how you're thinking about the buyback going forward? Thank you.
Ranjan Sharma: What I will help to understand, like, how you're thinking about the buyback going forward? Thank you.
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Chris Feng: On the VIP program, I think there are two part of the offering that we are providing to the market. Part of offering is the Shopee offering. For example, in some markets, if you join the VIP, you can get a free shipping, et cetera. Part of that is with our partner offer to our users. One of the key thing we are working on is to expand our partner pool, so we can strongly offer the benefits to our users. For example, the ChatGPT program that we offer to our users, which is very well accepted and liked. There are quite a few other partners we are going to announce, actually not too far away. We're working on the system integration, et cetera.
Speaker #2: on the VIP program, the, the I think there are two part of the offering that we are providing to the market. Part of the offering is, the Shopee offering, for example, the in some markets, if you join the VIP, you can get a free shipping.
Chris Feng: On the VIP program, I think there are two part of the offering that we are providing to the market. Part of offering is the Shopee offering. For example, in some markets, if you join the VIP, you can get a free shipping, et cetera. Part of that is with our partner offer to our users. One of the key thing we are working on is to expand our partner pool, so we can strongly offer the benefits to our users. For example, the ChatGPT program that we offer to our users, which is very well accepted and liked. There are quite a few other partners we are going to announce, actually not too far away. We're working on the system integration, et cetera.
Speaker #2: etc. Part of that is with our partner offer to the to our users. one of the key thing we are working on is to, e-expand our partner pools, so we can jointly offer the benefits to the, to our users.
Speaker #2: For example, the ChatGPT, p-program that we offer to our users, which is very well accepted, and liked, there are quite a few other, partners we are going to announce, actually n-n-n-not too far away.
Speaker #2: We're working on the system integration, etc. so all this will all this, partners, offerings we will help us in term of, the unit economics over time.
Chris Feng: All this work, all these partners' offerings will help us in term of the unit economics over time. Also for the pricing, we clearly look at the pricing. There's a potential to have a different tiering as well for the pricing, depends on how the market reactions and how the unit economics look at for different segment of users. Also depends on who we have partner with, et cetera. At this point in time, you know, we will still going to invest a bit more on the VIP program, giving that the retention we see on the user base and also the uplift of the activities from the VIP users.
Chris Feng: All this work, all these partners' offerings will help us in term of the unit economics over time. Also for the pricing, we clearly look at the pricing. There's a potential to have a different tiering as well for the pricing, depends on how the market reactions and how the unit economics look at for different segment of users. Also depends on who we have partner with, et cetera. At this point in time, you know, we will still going to invest a bit more on the VIP program, giving that the retention we see on the user base and also the uplift of the activities from the VIP users.
Speaker #2: but i-i the, the, the, and also for the pricing, we clearly look at the pricing, there's a potential to have a different tiering as well for the pricing.
Speaker #2: depends on how the, market reactions, and how the economic look as for different segment of users. and also depends on, will we have, partner with.
Speaker #2: Etc. B-but, but, but I—at this point in time, you know—we will still go to invest a bit more on the VIP program, given the retention we see on the user base, and also the uplift of the activities from the VIP users.
Speaker #2: but eventually, we do we do see VIP program can be a even more profitable program, compared to the non-VIP program, given the thickness of the users, given the ability for us to bring the benefits to our partners.
Chris Feng: Eventually, we do see VIP program can be a even more profitable program, compared to the non-VIP program, given the strengths of the users, given the ability for us to bring the benefits of our partners.
Chris Feng: Eventually, we do see VIP program can be a even more profitable program, compared to the non-VIP program, given the strengths of the users, given the ability for us to bring the benefits of our partners.
Speaker #1: Your next question comes from the line of, Eli Jiang of Macquarie. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Ellie Jiang of Macquarie. Your line is open.
Operator: Your next question comes from line of Ellie Jiang of Macquarie. Your line is open.
Speaker #2: Sure. sorry. Joe, please go on.
Rebecca Lee: Sorry. Sorry, Gerald, please hold.
Operator: Sorry. Sorry, Gerald, please hold.
Operator: Thanks.
Operator: Thanks.
Speaker #3: Great.
Speaker #2: Yeah. There is a yeah. So, for the for the, the gross booking for Arena for the rest of the year, at this moment, we, we remain, very, very confident.
Chris Feng: Yeah. There is a Yeah. So, for the forward booking for Garena for the rest of the year, at this moment, we remain very confident. We think this year we have a very strong growth. We remain the guidance we gave during the last time, earnings call. For the in terms of your question of the buyback considerations, as we shared in our earnings release, and we have actively bought back our shares since last November, and we're going to continually do so.
Chris Feng: Yeah. There is a Yeah. So, for the forward booking for Garena for the rest of the year, at this moment, we remain very confident. We think this year we have a very strong growth. We remain the guidance we gave during the last time, earnings call. For the in terms of your question of the buyback considerations, as we shared in our earnings release, and we have actively bought back our shares since last November, and we're going to continually do so.
Speaker #2: And, we think this year we have a very strong growth. And, we remain the, the guidance we gave, during the last time, earning call.
Speaker #2: And for the, for the in terms of your question of the, buyback considerations, as we shared in our, earning release and, we have, actively, bought back our shares, since, last of like, se-since last November.
Speaker #2: And we're going to continually, doing so. And, as we shared, we, we remain very confident about, our, our three, vertical businesses, and also the strong growth potential of our market.
Chris Feng: As we shared, we remain very confident about our three vertical businesses and also the strong growth potential of our market. That's the key underlying considerations when we buy back our shares.
Chris Feng: As we shared, we remain very confident about our three vertical businesses and also the strong growth potential of our market. That's the key underlying considerations when we buy back our shares.
Speaker #2: So, that's the key, underlying considerations when we, buy back our shares.
Speaker #1: My apologies, Eli Jiang. Your line is now open.
Operator: My apologies. Ellie Jiang, your line is now open.
Operator: My apologies. Ellie Jiang, your line is now open.
Speaker #3: Great. D thank you so much, management, for taking my questions. I've, got two. one is a follow-up on the, the prior question on Shopee VIP.
Ellie Jiang: Great. Thank you so much, management, for taking my questions. I've got two. One is a follow-up on the prior question on Shopee VIP. Just wanted to have a better understanding of the current progress of the VIP members, 'cause clearly you guys have been making pretty good progress on penetrating into many of the core operating markets, and it seems like it has reflected positively on both user frequency as well as for the ticket size. Going forward, what would be the key KPIs? Would it be the percentage of penetrations in several key markets, be it over certain percentage of the total MAUs? Would it be certain GMV thresholds that you guys will be monitoring?
Ellie Jiang: Great. Thank you so much, management, for taking my questions. I've got two. One is a follow-up on the prior question on Shopee VIP. Just wanted to have a better understanding of the current progress of the VIP members, 'cause clearly you guys have been making pretty good progress on penetrating into many of the core operating markets, and it seems like it has reflected positively on both user frequency as well as for the ticket size. Going forward, what would be the key KPIs? Would it be the percentage of penetrations in several key markets, be it over certain percentage of the total MAUs? Would it be certain GMV thresholds that you guys will be monitoring?
Speaker #3: just wanted to have a better understanding of the, the current progress of the VIP members 'cause clearly, you guys have been ma-ma-making pretty good progress on kind ind of penetrating into, many of the core operating markets.
Speaker #3: And it seems like it has reflected positively on both, user frequency as well as for, the, the ticket size. So going forward, what would be the key, key KPIs?
Speaker #3: Would it be, you know, the percentage of penetration in several key markets, be it over a certain percentage of the total MAUs?
Speaker #3: Or, would it be, certain GMV threshold, thresholds that you, you guys will be monitoring, just wanted to get an understanding of kind of that investment, kind of reflection sort of in the next several quarters.
Ellie Jiang: I just wanted to get an understanding of kind of that investment, kind of reflection sort of in the next several quarters. That's the first part of the question. The second would be on SeaMoney. Can management shed some light on the actual breakdown of the business, including, for example, the country mix, also on Shopee and off Shopee percentage point? Ultimately, the latest quarter of 71% year-over-year increase in consumer and SME loan principal outstanding was very impressive, especially given that you guys control the asset, the loan quality at very high level. Can you talk about kind of the key factors in the upcoming years?
Ellie Jiang: I just wanted to get an understanding of kind of that investment, kind of reflection sort of in the next several quarters. That's the first part of the question. The second would be on SeaMoney. Can management shed some light on the actual breakdown of the business, including, for example, the country mix, also on Shopee and off Shopee percentage point? Ultimately, the latest quarter of 71% year-over-year increase in consumer and SME loan principal outstanding was very impressive, especially given that you guys control the asset, the loan quality at very high level. Can you talk about kind of the key factors in the upcoming years?
Speaker #3: so that's, first part of the question. the second would be on, money. so can management shed some light on the actual breakdown of the business, including, for example, the country mix, also on Shopee, and off Shopee percentage point?
Speaker #3: ultimately, the, the, the, the latest quarter of 71% year-over-year increase in consumer and SME loan principal outstanding was very impressive, especially given that you guys con-controlled the, the, the asset the loan quality, at very high level.
Speaker #3: So can you talk about, kind of the key factors, in the com upcoming years? you know, what would be the key triggers to continue, continuously contribute to such strong growth momentum, for, for, for the loan book as well as for the revenue growth?
Ellie Jiang: You know, what will be the key triggers to continuously contribute to such strong growth momentum for the loan book as well as for the revenue as well? Thank you.
Ellie Jiang: You know, what will be the key triggers to continuously contribute to such strong growth momentum for the loan book as well as for the revenue as well? Thank you.
Speaker #3: Thank you.
Chris Feng: Shopee VIP, I think there are a few key numbers we look at. For example, the penetration of our GMV, the retention of our users, and also the unit economics for this part of the program. I think there are a few things essentially quite important for us to look at. I think the other key thing we look at is how many partners that we have in the VIP program, as I shared just now. It's important for us to make sure that we bring benefits to our users, not only from Shopee but also from our partners as well.
Speaker #2: on Shopee VIP, I think there are key, there are, there, there are, there are a few key numbers we look at. For example, the penetration of our GMVs, the retention of our users, the, and, and also the, the unit economics, for the, this part of the program.
Chris Feng: Shopee VIP, I think there are a few key numbers we look at. For example, the penetration of our GMV, the retention of our users, and also the unit economics for this part of the program. I think there are a few things essentially quite important for us to look at. I think the other key thing we look at is how many partners that we have in the VIP program, as I shared just now. It's important for us to make sure that we bring benefits to our users, not only from Shopee but also from our partners as well.
Speaker #2: I think there are a few things, essentially quite important for us to, to, to, to, to look at. I, I, I think the, the other, key thing we look at is how many partners that we have in the VIP program.
Speaker #2: As I shared just now, it's important for us to make sure that we bring benefits to our users, not only from Shopee but also as well.
Chris Feng: We started Shopee VIP in some in Malaysia first. I think we see very good progress there. I think, as we roll out to more countries, we see, you know, essentially we learn more from the early countries and roll out similar learnings to other countries. For the money businesses, as I shared earlier, we started first in the early countries like Indonesia, et cetera. The newer countries like, you know, Thailand, Malaysia or Brazil, have kind of especially because they are later countries, they grow faster compared to the older countries in a way. The share between the countries will dynamically adjust because of the timing of the rollout of our products.
Speaker #2: th-the, the, the we started, Shopee VIP in, some in Indonesia first. I, I, I think we see very good progress there. As I think, as we roll out to more countries, we see, you know, essentially we learn more, from the early countries and roll out similar, learnings to, to other countries.
Chris Feng: We started Shopee VIP in some in Malaysia first. I think we see very good progress there. I think, as we roll out to more countries, we see, you know, essentially we learn more from the early countries and roll out similar learnings to other countries. For the money businesses, as I shared earlier, we started first in the early countries like Indonesia, et cetera. The newer countries like, you know, Thailand, Malaysia or Brazil, have kind of especially because they are later countries, they grow faster compared to the older countries in a way. The share between the countries will dynamically adjust because of the timing of the rollout of our products.
Speaker #2: For the money businesses, th-the, the, as I shared earlier, we started first in the early countries like Indonesia, etc. But the, the, the, the newer countries like, you know, Thailand, Malaysia, or Brazil, have, kind of especially because they are later countries, they grow faster, compared to the, the, the older countries, in a way.
Speaker #2: So, the share between the countries was dynamically adjusted because of the timing of the rollout of our products. I don't think we give a precise country mix to the market.
Chris Feng: I don't think we give a precise country mix to the market. In terms of the on Shopee and off Shopee, the on Shopee, essentially the SPayLater on Shopee, has was the majority when we started with, and now it's less than half of the business already. Even you compare with the SPayLater on Shopee and versus off Shopee, as the percentage of SPayLater off Shopee is about 20% already as a total SPayLater on Shopee and off Shopee. Which is a significant milestone for us.
Chris Feng: I don't think we give a precise country mix to the market. In terms of the on Shopee and off Shopee, the on Shopee, essentially the SPayLater on Shopee, has was the majority when we started with, and now it's less than half of the business already. Even you compare with the SPayLater on Shopee and versus off Shopee, as the percentage of SPayLater off Shopee is about 20% already as a total SPayLater on Shopee and off Shopee. Which is a significant milestone for us.
Speaker #2: in terms of the on Shopee and off Shopee, the, the on Shopee, essentially the escalator on Shopee, has, was the majority when we started with.
Speaker #2: now it's less than half of the business already. and even you compare with the, escalator on Shopee and versus off Shopee, es th-the, the, the percentage, of escalator, off Shopee is about 20% already as a total escalator, on Shopee and, and off Shopee, whi-which is, significant milestone for us.
Chris Feng: This proves that we're not only be able to drive our SPayLater or in general lending in the Shopee ecosystem, but also we successfully drive this in the off Shopee ecosystem. In fact, we see higher growth in the off Shopee ecosystem versus the on Shopee part of the businesses. The key factor on driving the growth are again the three elements. One is, within our current user base, we still see a possibility to drive more credit adoption. This will come with the more product rollouts to this group of users and better credit assessment as we accumulated more data over time. Also deeper integration with Shopee and expanding of our non-Shopee scenarios for this group of users.
Chris Feng: This proves that we're not only be able to drive our SPayLater or in general lending in the Shopee ecosystem, but also we successfully drive this in the off Shopee ecosystem. In fact, we see higher growth in the off Shopee ecosystem versus the on Shopee part of the businesses. The key factor on driving the growth are again the three elements. One is, within our current user base, we still see a possibility to drive more credit adoption. This will come with the more product rollouts to this group of users and better credit assessment as we accumulated more data over time. Also deeper integration with Shopee and expanding of our non-Shopee scenarios for this group of users.
Speaker #2: this proves that we're not only be able to drive our escalator, or in general, our lendings in the Shopee ecosystem, but also, we successfully drive this in the off Shopee ecosystem and, in fact, we see, higher growth in the off Shopee ecosystem, versus the on Shopee, part of the businesses.
Speaker #2: th-the key factor on driving the growth, a-again, the three elements. one is, within our current user base, we still see a possibility to drive more, credit adoption, and this will come with the, more products, rollouts to this group of users, and better credit assessment as we accumulate more data over time.
Speaker #2: and, and, also, deeper integration w-with, Shopee and expanding of our, n non-Shopee, scenarios for this group of users. I, I think, e-essentially, we even within the same, user base, we see a huge room for us to deepen the credit penetrations.
Chris Feng: I think essentially, we even within the same user base, we see a future room for us to deepen the credit penetrations. The second one is essentially expanding the new scenarios beyond what we have right now, where the user can spend their credit limit on. This including, you know, for example, we partner with more online merchants who can accept SPayLater, partner with more merchants offline so they can accept SPayLater as well. Even for our in some of our market where credit card is big, slightly bigger, we roll out a debit card system leveraging on SPayLater credit limit, so they can use our SPayLater credit through a card network as well.
Chris Feng: I think essentially, we even within the same user base, we see a future room for us to deepen the credit penetrations. The second one is essentially expanding the new scenarios beyond what we have right now, where the user can spend their credit limit on. This including, you know, for example, we partner with more online merchants who can accept SPayLater, partner with more merchants offline so they can accept SPayLater as well. Even for our in some of our market where credit card is big, slightly bigger, we roll out a debit card system leveraging on SPayLater credit limit, so they can use our SPayLater credit through a card network as well.
Speaker #2: th-the, the, the second one is, essentially expanding the, the new scenarios beyond what we have right now. where the user can, spend their, credit limit on.
Speaker #2: this including, you know, for example, we partner with more online merchants who, can accept escalator, partner with one more, merchants offline so they can accept payload escalator as well.
Speaker #2: i-i-i-even for our, in, in some of our markets where credit card is a big, slightly bigger, we roll out a, a debit card system, leveraging on, escalator credit limit so they can use our escalator credit, through a card network as well.
Speaker #2: So all this will expand, the, the, the pool addressed for market pool for, for our user base. I, I, I think, th-the third thing is for us to continue to expand to new user segments.
Chris Feng: All this will expand the pool, addressable market pool for our user base. I think the third thing is for us to continue to expand to new user segment. I think that's very important for us as well. I believe Forrest mentioned in the opening too, that as we started more from a sub-prime market segment, when we accumulated more risk datas and also better our risk models, and we are able to expand to a more prime user segment with slightly different products in various markets. This user might have a slightly lower ROA, but this gives us a bigger outstanding pool for us.
Chris Feng: All this will expand the pool, addressable market pool for our user base. I think the third thing is for us to continue to expand to new user segment. I think that's very important for us as well. I believe Forrest mentioned in the opening too, that as we started more from a sub-prime market segment, when we accumulated more risk datas and also better our risk models, and we are able to expand to a more prime user segment with slightly different products in various markets. This user might have a slightly lower ROA, but this gives us a bigger outstanding pool for us.
Speaker #2: I think that's very important for us as well, I believe, sorry, as mentioned in the opening two. that, as we started more from a subprime market segment, when we, w-when we, e-accumulate more, risk data and also better our risk models, a-and, we are be we are able to expand to a more prime user segment with slightly different products, in various markets.
Speaker #2: this user might have a slightly lower, ROA, but this gives us, a bigger, outstanding pools for us. I think all this will drive, the growth of our lending businesses, in the coming years, across our markets.
Chris Feng: I think all this will drive the growth of our lending businesses in the coming years across our markets.
Chris Feng: I think all this will drive the growth of our lending businesses in the coming years across our markets.
Operator: This concludes our Q&A session. I'll now turn the conference back over to Ms. Rebecca Lee for any closing remarks.
Operator: This concludes our Q&A session. I'll now turn the conference back over to Ms. Rebecca Lee for any closing remarks.
Speaker #1: This concludes our Q&A session. I would now like to turn the conference back over to Ms. Rebecca Lee for any closing remarks.
Speaker #3: Thank you all for joining today's call. We look forward to speaking to all of you again next quarter.
Rebecca Lee: Thank you all for joining today's call. We look forward to speaking to all of you again next Q.
Rebecca Lee: Thank you all for joining today's call. We look forward to speaking to all of you again next Q.
Operator: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Operator: The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
