Sea’s broader success has been founded on its mobile game Free Fire, which has exceeded 1 billion downloads on Google Play. It’s also been driven by its e-commerce platform, Shopee, which has become the second-most downloaded shopping app on Android and iOS globally, Li said on the earnings call, citing App Annie data.
Sea’s three founders, Li, Gang Ye, and David Chen, started the company in 2009. Ye, chief operating officer, is worth $10.4 billion, while Chen, Shopee’s chief product officer, has a net worth of $3.5 billion.
Sea declined to comment on the executives’ wealth valuations. In late March, the company gave a gift of S$50 million ($37.1 million) to the National University of Singapore to advance research in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Naidu said he remains positive about Sea’s prospects, even after the stock surged more than 20-fold since listing in 2017. He said he expects demand for the company’s services to hold strong after being boosted by the pandemic, and pointed to Shopee’s expansion into Latin American markets including Brazil.
“After Covid, people have warmed up to digital services and online platforms,” he said. “I don’t think they will completely give up the convenience being offered.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.