Shopee Q4 GMV Hits $36.7 Billion, Brazil Emerges as New Growth Engine

Ebrun Exclusive: Recently, Sea Limited (SEA), the parent company of Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce platform Shopee, released its fourth-quarter 2025 financial results.

During the reporting period, the company's GAAP total revenue increased by 38.4% year-over-year to $6.9 billion; gross profit surged 36.0% YoY to $3.0 billion; net profit grew significantly by 72.9% to $410.9 million; and adjusted EBITDA reached $787.1 million, up 33.2% compared to the same period in 2024.

The company's revenue exceeded expectations by approximately 6%, but earnings per share (EPS) was about $0.63, falling short of the market's expectation of around $0.80.

Commenting on the group's performance, Sea Founder Forrest Li stated, "2025 was an outstanding year for Sea; all business units achieved strong scale growth, exceeding initial growth expectations. Moreover, this comprehensive and robust growth is healthy and sustainable."

Profit Sacrifice in Logistics to Drive Core Revenue, Monetization Strengthens

Looking specifically at the e-commerce business – Shopee – its GAAP marketplace revenue, which includes core marketplace revenue and value-added service revenue, grew 35.8% YoY to $4.3 billion.

Core marketplace revenue, primarily consisting of transaction-based fees and advertising revenue, increased sharply by 50.60% YoY to $3.6 billion. Value-added service revenue, mainly comprising logistics-related service revenue, decreased by 7.5% YoY to $700 million, remaining flat for the second consecutive quarter.

Analysts pointed out that Shopee is trading profitability in its logistics segment for higher transaction volume and richer core marketplace revenue.

In fact, to counter aggressive competition from TikTok Shop and Temu, Shopee distributed a large number of "free shipping vouchers" or shipping subsidies during the year-end sales events (11.11, 12.12). As a "key lever" for user acquisition and retention, the logistics unit essentially directly subsidized buyers and sellers, successfully boosting order volume and user stickiness.

Data shows that Shopee's total orders for the quarter reached 4 billion, a 30.5% YoY increase; Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) was $36.7 billion, up 28.6% YoY; and adjusted EBITDA was $202.5 million, growing 33.0% YoY.

Forrest Li noted that in 2025, Shopee once again broke revenue records, primarily due to continued investment in two "core directions": first, increasing the share of spending from core users, and second, continuing to expand the buyer base.

These two strategies are already showing initial results in the data: in 2025, monthly active buyers and the average monthly purchase frequency increased by 15% and 10% respectively compared to the previous year.

Furthermore, Shopee made significant strides in monetization this quarter.

Its unit economics improved noticeably, with the number of sellers using paid ads growing over 20% YoY, and the average ad spend per seller increasing over 45% YoY. Advertising revenue grew over 70%, and the advertising take rate improved by more than 80 basis points YoY.

Regarding this, Forrest Li stated, "In the short term, (Shopee) will still prioritize growth while maintaining financial discipline."

Focusing on Three Key Growth Drivers: Logistics, Membership, Content Ecosystem

At the platform strategy level, logistics capability building, VIP membership program promotion, and content ecosystem development are Shopee's current three main operational focuses.

Logistics capability has now become a key differentiator for Shopee. Its official logistics arm, SPX Express, currently handles over 30 million parcels per day on average, making it one of the largest e-commerce logistics solution providers in Southeast Asia.

In 2025, Shopee launched more customized delivery options across various markets.

In high-density urban areas, it expanded its instant and same-day delivery services. For example, in Thailand, Shopee partnered with local supermarkets to deliver fresh goods in as fast as one hour. Instant and same-day delivery orders now account for a double-digit percentage of orders in major metropolitan areas like Bangkok and Jakarta. Users utilizing these services see an average spending increase of about 15%.

Simultaneously, Shopee also expanded its economy logistics services to cater to more price-sensitive users.

In Indonesia, orders using economy logistics more than doubled YoY in Q4. Additionally, as delivery capacity scaled, Shopee began rolling out local fulfillment services in multiple markets in 2025. In some markets, order penetration for this service has already reached double digits. By the end of 2026, order penetration for this service is expected to double.

On another front, to deepen engagement with core, high-frequency users, Shopee is actively building its subscription membership program.

This paid plan offers subscribers benefits like free shipping, daily coupons, and exclusive discounts.

By the end of the reporting period, Shopee had launched the Shopee VIP program across all its Asian markets, with total membership exceeding 7 million, more than doubling compared to the previous quarter. In all markets where the program was launched, member spending increased by double digits after joining.

For instance, in Indonesia, VIP members typically increased their spending by about 30% to 40% after joining, demonstrated significantly higher purchase frequency than average consumers, and subscription retention rates improved from 40% to 70%.

In some regional markets, VIP members contributed over 15% of the quarter's GMV. After successful validation in Southeast Asia, Shopee plans to roll out this program to Brazil in the coming months.

Regarding the content ecosystem, Shopee remains committed to strengthening partnerships with long-form video and social media platforms.

Its collaboration with YouTube is strong: during the reporting period, orders driven by YouTube content grew more than threefold YoY.

Its partnership with Meta, launched in October, also made good progress: by year-end, over 3 million affiliate creators had chosen to link their Shopee accounts with their Facebook accounts, expanding Shopee's ecosystem reach across more channels.

Currently, content-driven e-commerce business accounts for over 20% of Shopee's GMV and continues to grow sequentially.

Latin America Emerges as New Growth Engine, AI Investments Yield "Clear Returns"

Finally, Forrest Li highlighted Shopee's new progress in Taiwan, China, and Brazil.

In 2025, GMV growth in Taiwan, China recovered to double digits.

A large-scale self-pickup network with over 2,800 points became a key competitive advantage. This network not only meets local consumers' demand for convenience but also reduces service costs, allowing the platform to offer free shipping benefits at lower spending thresholds.

In Brazil, another closely watched new market, Shopee also achieved strong results. In 2025, Brazil was the platform's fastest-growing market. Similar to its strategy in Taiwan, China, the core approach remains "offering free shipping benefits based on the market's lowest logistics cost structure."

In fact, regarding fulfillment system development for Brazil, Shopee is prepared for scaled expansion. Over the past few months, the platform has completed system setup, warehouse site selection, and process optimization – the "logistics flywheel" is about to spin up.

Moreover, Shopee's penetration among premium users is rising rapidly: faster, more reliable delivery services make it more attractive for high-value categories.

During the quarter, the average delivery time for Brazilian consumers shortened by about 1.5 days YoY. Forrest Li stated that to continuously improve local fulfillment efficiency, local warehouse delivery services will also be launched in Brazil in 2026.

Concurrently, Shopee is working to expand the selection of quality products on its Brazil site. During the same period, Shopee Mall introduced over 300 new brands – particularly in high-average-order-value categories like automotive electronics – leading to GMV from the brand mall more than doubling YoY.

Additionally, Shopee disclosed for the first time concrete progress in its AI applications.

Shopee is currently making significant investments in AI technology. For example, its search recommendation system and advertising system have been systematically enhanced by AI.

Forrest Li revealed that the improvement in the advertising take rate this quarter actually stemmed from AI: "The new system can better understand product descriptions and user search intent," thereby increasing the attractiveness of paid advertising products.

Recently, the platform also launched multimodal search. Users can upload images or input long text descriptions, and the system understands and returns results, similar to Gemini or ChatGPT.

For seller services, Shopee recently launched an AI customer service bot – sellers can now "customize" their own customer service agents, and access new tools like automatic product image/video generation.

"These AI investments have clear returns," Forrest Li remarked.

Looking ahead to 2026, he said, "We succeeded in 2025 because we chose the right strategies and executed them well. 2026 will continue this approach. Our strategy will remain consistent, and execution will still be key." Discussing Shopee's development plans, he pointed out: "In 2026, our goal is for Shopee's annual GMV to grow approximately 25% year-over-year, and for the full-year adjusted EBITDA absolute amount to be no less than that of 2025 – ideally resulting in a 2–3% EBITDA margin."

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