Is Sea Limited profitable in 2026?

Yes. Sea Limited posted Q1 2026 (quarter ended March 31, 2026) net income of $438 million, up 7% YoY, on revenue of $7.1 billion, marking its first quarter with adjusted EBITDA above $1 billion (source: investing.com, 2026-06-09).

Who owns Sea Limited, the parent of Shopee?

Sea Limited is publicly traded on the NYSE (ticker SE). Founder, Chairman and CEO Forrest Li retained 59.1% of voting power via Class B shares as of March 2025; Tencent remains a large minority shareholder but with minimal voting power (source: finance.yahoo.com, 2026-06-25).

Is TikTok Shop beating Shopee in Southeast Asia?

Not yet regionally, but closing fast. TikTok Shop's 2025 GMV hit $45.6 billion versus Shopee's $83.2 billion, and in Vietnam TikTok Shop reached 41-44% share versus Shopee's 53-56%, forming a duopoly as of June 2026 (source: theinvestor.vn).

Could AI replace Shopee's business model?

Unlikely to replace it outright. Shopee's moats are physical and regulatory: owned logistics (a record 220,000 sqm Guarulhos, Brazil warehouse leased March 2026), banking licenses, and proprietary transaction/credit data, though Sea is deploying its own 245-billion-parameter Compass Max v3.5 LLM as of April 2026.

What is Sea Limited's biggest competitor?

TikTok Shop (ByteDance) is the fastest-rising threat, more than doubling GMV to $45.6 billion in 2025 from $22.6 billion in 2024, while Shopee's e-commerce EBITDA margin on GMV fell from 0.9% to 0.6% YoY defending share (source: investing.com, 2026-05-12).

What is Monee and how big is it?

Monee (rebranded from SeaMoney on May 8, 2025) is Sea's fintech arm covering digital wallets, lending, and banking (SeaBank, MariBank). It generated $1.2 billion in Q1 2026 revenue, up 58% YoY, with a loan book exceeding $5 billion and 26 million active credit users around the 2025 rebrand.

E-commerce and marketplaces · Singapore

Sea Limited (Shopee)

sea.com ↗

Sea Limited runs Shopee e-commerce, Garena gaming, and Monee digital finance across Southeast Asia and Brazil.

Protection under test

Assessed 22 July 2026 · Evidence as of 22 July 2026

Something worth protecting exists and is being tested right now.

On the recordSince 22 July 2026 · Checkable from August 2026 · Every call on the record Checkpoint: Sea Limited Q2 2026 earnings call, watch Shopee EBITDA-on-GMV margin and country-level share data

The call

Sea is growing fast and staying profitable, but every point of Shopee's margin now goes toward fending off TikTok Shop rather than into the bottom line.

Sea Limited owns Shopee, the largest e-commerce platform across Southeast Asia, plus a digital bank and logistics network that competitors cannot easily build from scratch. TikTok Shop is now shipping orders in the same countries and taking customers away, which is squeezing Shopee's profits even though Sea will likely survive. The key thing to watch is whether TikTok Shop keeps growing in countries like Indonesia and Thailand, or whether Shopee's profits stabilize once the initial shock wears off.

Why

AI pressure: None apparent. No AI lab or agent product currently threatens Shopee's order flow, logistics, or lending book directly. Could AI do the core job? Unlikely.

Bigger players: TikTok Shop (ByteDance). TikTok Shop is pulling GMV in Vietnam and pushing into Indonesia and Thailand, and Shopee's EBITDA-on-GMV margin fell from 0.9% to 0.6% chasing it back. Could a giant copy it? Probably.

What protects it. Shopee owns its logistics network, holds banking and lending licenses in multiple countries, and sits on first-party credit data TikTok Shop lacks.

What would change this call

Shopee's adjusted EBITDA-on-GMV margin trend in Q2 and Q3 2026 earnings reports. Further compression would show TikTok Shop pressure spreading beyond Vietnam.
Whether Vietnam's Shopee-TikTok Shop duopoly pattern appears in Indonesia, Thailand, or Philippines market data. Spread would confirm regionwide share loss rather than one isolated market.
Shopee GMV growth rate versus TikTok Shop's reported GMV growth in SEA through 2026. A narrowing gap or reversal would show TikTok Shop overtaking Shopee's lead.

Key numbers

Shopee Q1 2026 GMV $37.3B, up 30% YoY (2026-03-31)
EBITDA-on-GMV margin fell 0.9% to 0.6% YoY (2026-03-31)
Monee revenue $1.2B, up 58% YoY (2026-03-31)

Named risks

TikTok Shop erosion of Shopee's Vietnam and SEA market share compressing margins. Severity: high
Vietnam's duopoly pattern spreading to Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines. Severity: medium
Ongoing US securities class action litigation with a $46 million settlement and appeals into 2026. Severity: medium
FX and tax-driven earnings volatility causing stock swings, as seen after Q4 2025 EPS miss. Severity: medium
Conflicting headcount data between filings (102,700) and third-party estimates (96,509) as of end-2025. Severity: low

Rivals, as read in July 2026

Rival	Direction	Evidence
TikTok Shop (ByteDance)	gaining on	TikTok Shop GMV doubled to $45.6B in 2025, Vietnam share hit 41-44% vs Shopee's 53-56% by 2026-06
Lazada (Alibaba)	losing to	Lazada's GMV roughly flat at $18 billion in 2025 while Shopee grew to $83.2 billion
MercadoLibre	contesting	Shopee expanding Brazil logistics (220,000 sqm Guarulhos lease, 2026-03) but still trails MELI's coverage
Grab	contesting	Both companies launched AI Centres of Excellence around April 2026, competing in adjacent super-app services

Questions people ask

Is Sea Limited profitable in 2026?: Yes. Sea Limited posted Q1 2026 (quarter ended March 31, 2026) net income of $438 million, up 7% YoY, on revenue of $7.1 billion, marking its first quarter with adjusted EBITDA above $1 billion (source: investing.com, 2026-06-09).
Who owns Sea Limited, the parent of Shopee?: Sea Limited is publicly traded on the NYSE (ticker SE). Founder, Chairman and CEO Forrest Li retained 59.1% of voting power via Class B shares as of March 2025; Tencent remains a large minority shareholder but with minimal voting power (source: finance.yahoo.com, 2026-06-25).
Is TikTok Shop beating Shopee in Southeast Asia?: Not yet regionally, but closing fast. TikTok Shop's 2025 GMV hit $45.6 billion versus Shopee's $83.2 billion, and in Vietnam TikTok Shop reached 41-44% share versus Shopee's 53-56%, forming a duopoly as of June 2026 (source: theinvestor.vn).
Could AI replace Shopee's business model?: Unlikely to replace it outright. Shopee's moats are physical and regulatory: owned logistics (a record 220,000 sqm Guarulhos, Brazil warehouse leased March 2026), banking licenses, and proprietary transaction/credit data, though Sea is deploying its own 245-billion-parameter Compass Max v3.5 LLM as of April 2026.
What is Sea Limited's biggest competitor?: TikTok Shop (ByteDance) is the fastest-rising threat, more than doubling GMV to $45.6 billion in 2025 from $22.6 billion in 2024, while Shopee's e-commerce EBITDA margin on GMV fell from 0.9% to 0.6% YoY defending share (source: investing.com, 2026-05-12).
What is Monee and how big is it?: Monee (rebranded from SeaMoney on May 8, 2025) is Sea's fintech arm covering digital wallets, lending, and banking (SeaBank, MariBank). It generated $1.2 billion in Q1 2026 revenue, up 58% YoY, with a loan book exceeding $5 billion and 26 million active credit users around the 2025 rebrand.

Timeline

2026-06-02TikTok Shop narrows gap with Shopee, Vietnam e-commerce becomes a duopoly
2026-05-14Sea reports Q1 2026 revenue up 46.6% YoY, net income $438 million
2026-04-20Sea launches AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore with proprietary LLM Compass Max v3.5
2026-03-05Shopee signs record 220,000 sqm logistics warehouse lease in Guarulhos, Brazil
2025-11-01Sea authorizes $1 billion share buyback program
2025-05-08SeaMoney rebrands to Monee, opens new fintech HQ in Singapore
2025-03-31Forrest Li holds 59.1% of Sea's voting power via Class B shares
2022-01-04Tencent sells roughly $3 billion of its Sea Limited stake

Revision history

22 July 2026

First assessed. Protection under test. The text above is fixed as of this date and is not edited afterwards.

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