Sea (Thailand) celebrates 10 years of growing alongside Thai digital economy and society
Unveiling strategic directions of 3 core businesses
and Launching “Sea Academy” to empower Thais with digital skills
Bangkok – Sea (Thailand), a leading consumer internet platform company which offers a diverse range of services, including Garena (Digital Entertainment), Shopee (E-commerce), and SeaMoney (Digital Finance), hosted “Sea Story 2022: Digital Technology for All” to celebrate its journey through the decade of operation in Thai Market and reveal strategic directions for its three core businesses which have always been focusing on meeting everyday digital needs and bettering lives of consumers and SMEs with technology. Sea (Thailand) has also launched Sea Academy, a digital education platform which helps Thais develop essential digital skills while adapting to the digital age.
Ms. Maneerut Anulomsombut, Chief Executive Officer, Sea (Thailand), stated: “Over the past 10 years, Sea (Thailand) has been determined to uplift the life quality of Thai consumers and empower Thai SMEs with our digital services. As we grow, we also intend to help strengthen the industries in which Sea (Thailand) operates. Today, our digital services have reached millions of Thai users across the country and become a part of the digital lifestyle.”
Garena: Continued Experience Enhancement, Esports and Digital Career Development
Delivering diverse and engaging gaming experiences, while developing an esports ecosystem has been a major part of Garena’s outstanding growth, Garena has over 654 million quarterly active users from 130 markets across the globe, growing at a 65% CAGR from 2017 to 2021.
Thailand’s gaming and esports industry grew continually, in line with increasing interest in online gaming among Thais. In 2021, Thailand had over 32 million gamers while the country’s gaming and esports market worth 33 billion baht, increased by 14% from the previous year.
“As a game publisher and developer, Garena is determined to grow our business and empower the country’s gaming and esports industry. We will continue to offer Thai consumers a variety of game genres such as Blockman GO (Sandbox), Moonlight Blade (MMORPG), and Garena Free Fire (Tactical-TPS Survival Open World) - our self-developed game which can be agilely localized to fit each market. We are also committed to push the boundaries of the industry, creating spaces for esports and emerging digital careers. In addition, we also use games as a bridge to connect Thai youth to new digital skills through the Garena Academy program and extensive collaborations with universities, government sectors, and social enterprises. said Ms. Maneerut.
Shopee: Complete Solutions for Sellers & Buyers, Data-Driven Enhancement, and Thai SMEs Empowerment in Local and International Markets
Shopee, the e-commerce business, entered the Thai market as a ‘Mobile-first E-commerce Platform’ providing complete service in one app, and enabling a user-friendly, convenient, and secure experience for both buyers and sellers. The company then focused on growing business while enabling Thai SMEs to grow online using the Shopee platform. For sellers, Shopee offers entrepreneurship development programs e.g. Shopee University, along with extensive supportive services, such as Shopee Seller Centre - a gateway to store's insights and store management tools, Warehouse Management System (WMS), Fulfillment by Shopee, and quality logistics from both Shopee Xpress and a strong logistics partners. For buyers, Shopee also enhances online shopping experience and engages users with in-app entertainment.
Shopee has immensely grown during the past few years. It had over two billion gross orders from all around the world in Q4/2021. Shopee’s Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) has continually increased, growing at an 83% CAGR from 2017 to 2021. Also, the platform has successfully obtained a significant number of new sellers and partnered brands during the past few years.
Thailand’s e-commerce market continues to grow. The industry’s GMV was over 21 billion USD in 2021, and was projected to rise to 35 billion USD in 2025, growing at a CAGR of 14% over the forecast period. Nowadays, e-commerce has the capacity to support diverse lifestyles and provide services to more people in different locations across Thailand. In 2021, Shopee (Thailand) saw a 70% and 40% increase in non-metropolitan sellers and non-metropolitan users, respectively. Moreover, Shopee has supported SMEs to sell more effectively. During Shopee 11.11 Big Sale Campaign in 2021, new sellers on Shopee (Thailand)’s platform enjoyed an 18 times increase in sales.
“Shopee is data-driven, using technology to create great user experiences such as personalized product recommendations based on data and an effective in-app search engine powered by AI. Recently, Shopee launched the Shopee International Platform (SIP), which aims to enable local businesses to capture more opportunities in the international markets while Shopee supports participating stores with several services such as international store management, warehouse and stock management, buyers’ inquiries handling, and shipping. In the beginning stage, the SIP program will market goods from the participating stores in three countries - Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines,” Ms. Maneerut added.
SeaMoney: Lifestyle Fulfillment for Users and Expansion of Access to Digital Financial Services
The digital payments and financial services provider ‘SeaMoney’ started its business as ‘AirPay.’ At the initial stage, the financial service was developed to meet the needs of gamers’ payment for online games. After that, its services were expanded to cover wider range of users’ lifestyles, such as movie ticket booking, transportation and hotel booking, bill payments and mobile phone topping up. After being integrated as a payment channel of Shopee in 2019 to support the exponential growth of e-commerce, it was rebranded to ShopeePay in 2021.
Nowadays, digital payment has truly become a part of daily life, and Thai consumers have increased their use of digital wallets. The user base was also expected to grow from 18.6 million in 2020 to 41.9 million people in 2025. In 2021, the number of ShopeePay users outside of Thailand's major cities also increased by over 50% from 2020, indicating more expansive access to digital financial services.
About the future direction of SeaMoney’s businesses, Ms. Maneerut also added: “Offering convenient and secure payment experiences which cover all lifestyles with ShopeePay, now supporting PromptPay’s QR code payment, SeaMoney also focuses on expanding digital financial services in other areas. SeaMoney was Thailand’s first firm to obtain a digital personal loan service provider license from the Bank of Thailand. Currently, SeaMoney provides digital personal loan services, such as SEasyCash which is a digital personal loan service for individual customers who can use for several purposes, SEasyCash for Sellers which aims to help enhance liquidity for online sellers’ businesses, and SpayLater which is a financial solution to improve liquidity for users to purchase their desired products on Shopee. This allows users to access the products they need with fewer restrictions.”
As for the growth of SeaMoney in Q4/2021, its digital financial services reached over 45.8 million active users.
Leveraging Business Expertise to Social Impact Program Development
While improving people’s quality of life through its various services, Sea (Thailand) aspires to further expand the value it has contributed to society through a variety of social impact programs and cooperation between Sea (Thailand) and partners across many sectors, including the public and private sectors, non-profit organizations, and social enterprises. With the projects, we determine to support communities in rural areas and reduce inequality (Inclusive Society), alleviate effects from natural disasters (Disaster Relief), and transfer knowledge and digital skills (Digital Education). Under the 10 in 10 Initiative that aims to create 10 million 'Digital Talents' in 10 years, Sea (Thailand) has currently enhanced digital skills in various fields for approximately 4.18 million Thais.
Recently, the Sea Academy website has been launched. The platform gathers a wide range of learning resources from various social impact projects of Sea (Thailand). The content covers three main areas: 1. E-commerce usage and online business management, 2. Digital finance and data security, and 3. Occupational skills for game and esports careers. In the future, there will be more newly added contents for everybody to freely access.
“On the occasion of Sea (Thailand)’s 10th anniversary, we would like to express our appreciation to all customers, partners, and our employees who have been driving forward the Thai society with technology together. Also, we would like to thank our users for giving us the opportunities to become a part of their everyday life. In the future, Sea (Thailand) will continue to develop our services, while supporting consumers, entrepreneurs and all partners to grow together with Thailand’s digital economy and society in the digital age,” Ms. Maneerut concluded.
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About Sea Limited
Sea Limited (NYSE: SE) is a leading global consumer internet company founded in Singapore in 2009. Our mission is to better the lives of consumers and enhance small businesses with technology. We operate three core businesses across digital entertainment, e-commerce, as well as digital payments and financial services, known as Garena, Shopee, and SeaMoney, respectively. Garena is a leading global online games developer and publisher. Shopee is the largest pan-regional e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia and Taiwan. SeaMoney is a leading digital payments and financial services provider in Southeast Asia.
For information about Sea Limited in Thailand, please visit https://www.seathailand.com/
Additional about Sea (Thailand)’s social impact projects can be found from Social Impact Report 2021: https://cdngarenanow-a.akamaihd.net/webth/corporate/report/social-impact-2021-en.pdf
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