Revenue is vanity, profit is sanity

hodlmenot : Thats incorrect, based on the financial reports, they were profitable because they cut down on their marketing expenses - which did impact their revenue as well. Layoffs were not the reason they were profitable. Please stop spreading FUD

unfilteredtruths OP hodlmenot : Cutting down marketing expenses is one of the reasons. There are other reasons such as layoffs (SEA laying off more than 7000 employees in 2022, which is literally 10% of its workforce) and exiting markets (Shopee exiting India, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Poland in 2022 and 2023). There is also reduction of welfare in all its offices such as removing fridges, reducing free drinks in pantries etc.

Besides, "reducing marketing expenses" is just a nicer way of saying they retrenched some of their marketing teams. Educate yourself. Or are you in a state of panic because you bought too many shares

101877936 : Being profitable by reducing employee’s welfare huh, they event want to milk from their own employees too?

unfilteredtruths OP 101877936 : I guess you could say that. I remember Shopee's pantries used to be their pride and glory. They boast having ice cream in the fridges, a vending machine, an arcade section etc. Now it's simply reduced to a simple fridge with drinks.

Although it's still welfare nevertheless. Gotta be grateful yknow.

hodlmenot unfilteredtruths OP : Let me try to make you understand - yes they laid people off which many other companies did as well which sucks - but lowering operational cost was not a major contributor for profitability when comparing to the reduction in marketing expenses.

unfilteredtruths OP hodlmenot : This shouldn't even be the main reason why you should or shouldn't invest in SEA. Let's take a quick look at its 3 main businesses:

1. SeaMoney: new company into the FinTech industry. Received no funding compared to its competitors. Recorded its first profitable only in 2023, almost A DECADE since being established in 2014.

2. Shopee: $9b in revenue in 2023 with a 23.5% YoY increase, also highest e-commerce market share in southeast asia and you tell me this business can't even generate a damn profit?

3. Garena: SEA's literal cash cow. But hit a wall and is experiencing declining revenue since Free Fire was banned in India, arguably its biggest market.

Let's look at SEA Limited now. Net loss of $1.7b in 2022. Only profit $163m in 2023. $9b revenue with only $163m profit? Think about it.

hodlmenot unfilteredtruths OP : Thats pretty common for growth companies, i see your concerns but it has a strong base in south east asia and with the cash they have now which they can reinvest in the right direction this is a convincing buy.

unfilteredtruths OP hodlmenot : I'm not very much convinced as of now tbh. I'll have to stand at the spectator seat and observe how it goes this year. Maybe I'm wrong but I hope it goes well for you though.