(Reuters) – Sea Ltd topped Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday, helped by strong growth in its financial services segment and e-commerce platform Shopee.
U.S-listed shares of Sea were up 11% in premarket trading.
Indonesia’s e-commerce market leader, Shopee, has attracted a large user base and become a significant growth driver for its parent company.
Sea’s e-commerce segment, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the company’s total business, reported a 41.3% jump in revenue on higher consumer spending during the holiday quarter.
Shopee’s “savings” brand image might be something that emerging competitors find difficult to overcome, according to venture and insights firm Momentum Works.
The company said on Tuesday it expects Garena, its digital entertainment business that offers popular games such as Free Fire, to grow in the double-digit percentage range in terms of user base and bookings this year.
Diversifying into digital finance and entertainment businesses has benefited the Singapore-based company.
Revenue at its digital financial services business, which is home to digital payments and financial services provider SeaMoney, grew 55.2%, beating analysts’ estimates of a 35.3% increase, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Sea in September announced a partnership with Alphabet’s YouTube, which will allow users in Indonesia to purchase products featured on YouTube via direct links to Shopee.
The Southeast Asian technology conglomerate’s revenue rose 36.9% to $4.95 billion in the quarter, compared with analysts’ estimate of $4.62 billion.
(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
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