Shopee Posts Q2 GMV of $38.3B, VIP Membership Tops 15M, and Orders from Content Channels Surge 50%

Ebrun Exclusive | Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce platform Shopee's parent company Sea Limited released its financial results for the second quarter of 2026 recently.

During the reporting period, the company's total GAAP revenue rose 48.1% year-over-year to $7.8 billion; total gross profit jumped 47.3% year-over-year to $3.5 billion; net profit increased 10.6% year-over-year to $458 million; adjusted EBITDA reached $917 million, up 10.6% from the same period in 2025. The company's revenue beat consensus estimates by roughly 10%. On the day the earnings report was released, the company's intraday share price rose more than 15% at one point, closing at $131 for a single-day gain of around 14%.

"Shopee delivered a strong performance in the first half of 2026, and we hit new highs again in GMV, total orders and revenue in the second quarter," said Forrest Li, Founder and CEO of Sea, commenting on the group's performance. He noted that improved operational efficiency and expanded business scale have further lifted the company's unit economics. Based on the current growth momentum, Sea is maintaining its full-year target of approximately 25% year-over-year GMV growth for Shopee, while raising its full-year profit outlook and remaining optimistic about achieving its full-year adjusted EBITDA target of $1 billion.

01 Surge in Paying Ad Sellers, Further Commission Hikes Seen Likely

Looking specifically at the e-commerce business – i.e., Shopee – its GAAP marketplace revenue, which includes core marketplace revenue and value-added service revenue, rose 48.9% year-over-year to $4.9 billion. Of that total, core marketplace revenue, which mainly consists of transaction-based fees and advertising revenue, soared 65.6% year-over-year to $4.3 billion. Value-added service revenue, primarily comprising logistics-related income, fell 9.0% year-over-year to $700 million, staying flat for the fourth consecutive quarter.

According to the data, Shopee's total orders reached 4.2 billion in the quarter, up 27.5% year-over-year; gross merchandise value (GMV) came in at $38.3 billion, up 28.4% year-over-year, marking sequential growth for the eighth straight quarter; adjusted EBITDA was $255.4 million, rising 12.2% year-over-year.

The second quarter, the platform's monetization capability strengthened further: advertising revenue grew more than 70%, advertising monetization rate rose more than 90 basis points year-over-year, the number of paying ad sellers increased approximately 45%, and average ad spend per seller rose more than 15% year-over-year. Forrest Li pointed out that this is mainly driven by Shopee's continuous rollout of "smarter, more streamlined" ad placements. The platform has recently rolled out multiple innovations to its advertising products, such as combining ads with buyer-facing personalized coupons to boost purchase conversion rates while improving the efficiency of sellers' ad spending.

Meanwhile, Shopee's buyer user base continued to expand: average monthly net new active buyers rose more than 35% year-over-year, a marked acceleration from previous quarters; average monthly active buyers increased 18% year-over-year, overall buyer engagement continued to improve, and purchase frequency rose 8% year-over-year.

Another particularly notable highlight is Shopee's fast-growing instant retail business. Management revealed that both instant delivery and same-day delivery services posted strong growth in the second quarter. Currently, instant delivery can be completed in as fast as one hour in some urban areas. Shopee will also continue to expand high-frequency consumption categories such as fresh groceries and pharmacies to further meet consumers' instant consumption needs.

Taking Indonesia, its core market, as an example, instant delivery orders rose approximately 80% year-over-year, while average delivery cost per order fell around 20% – mainly due to expanded business scale and improved operational efficiency.

Regarding the issue of "continuing commission hikes" that sellers are most concerned about, Shopee stated that raising the take rate does not mean undermining the platform's ecosystem. Current conditions show that even as the platform raises its take rate, the overall ecosystem remains healthy. Forrest Li analyzed that the reason behind this is that Shopee reinvests a considerable portion of its commission revenue back into ecosystem growth, helping sellers operate their online businesses more efficiently and maintain strong price competitiveness – not only compared to other e-commerce channels, but also relative to offline retail channels.

"Looking ahead, we still see room for further increases in commission take rates; these increases will come not only from commissions themselves, but also from our rising paid advertising penetration," he said. "Of course, the pace of future fixed commission hikes may be slower than the levels observed previously."

02 Over 60% of SPX Orders Delivered Next Day, VIP Membership Tops 15M, Orders from Content Channels Surge 50%

At the platform strategy level, logistics capability building, VIP membership system promotion, and content ecosystem construction are Shopee's three current operational priorities.

Logistics capabilities have now become a key competitive moat for Shopee. Its subsidiary SPX Express has become one of the largest e-commerce logistics solution providers in the Southeast Asian market. In the second quarter, Shopee's fulfilled orders grew approximately 20% sequentially, and in some markets, the fulfillment business accounts for a double-digit share of overall business. The core keyword driving the development of this business is "speed".

According to the company's disclosure, over 60% of official fulfillment parcels are delivered the next day in some markets, a ratio significantly higher than the platform's overall average. Improvements in logistics efficiency are even more pronounced in regions with complex geographical environments and high delivery difficulty. For example, in the mountainous Mindanao region of the Philippines, Shopee has cut buyer wait times by 1 to 3 days through its official fulfillment service, allowing consumers to feel a noticeable improvement in delivery efficiency. Currently, merchants using official fulfillment services in Southeast Asia see an average order volume increase of more than 20%.

At the same time, Shopee emphasized that while its logistics system continues to improve efficiency, it is also maintaining prudent investment.

Forrest Li explained that, Shopee's current logistics investment model is "generally not capital-intensive", but instead focuses on a CapEx-light model. The platform usually does not directly own fulfillment centers, but instead leases relevant sites to expand its logistics network with relatively low capital expenditure. Meanwhile, Shopee is also testing more automation technologies in its self-operated fulfillment centers to further reduce operating costs, though related work is still in the early stages. At this stage, the main task of Shopee's official fulfillment system is to further strengthen the integration between the fulfillment business and the SPX logistics system, reduce friction in the flow of in-warehouse goods across the entire supply chain, and lower collaboration costs.

In addition to logistics, Shopee is further boosting core user stickiness through its membership system. Shopee VIP is currently available in Asia and Brazil. As of the end of June, total membership exceeded 15 million, up 25% from the previous quarter.

In Asia, VIP members contributed approximately 24% of Shopee's GMV in the second quarter, with monthly retention remaining at around 80%. After joining the membership program, user engagement has further improved, and spending has also increased significantly. In Brazil, Shopee VIP has seen positive early adoption since its launch in April, with membership currently exceeding 1 million. In addition to consumers, a large number of Shopee sellers and external partners have also given active support to the VIP program. This quarter, Shopee further expanded membership benefits such as travel, dining and entertainment to enhance the overall value of the membership program. Meanwhile, a growing number of sellers and partners are joining in and co-bearing part of the cost of membership benefits. Forrest Li believes this indicates that partners increasingly recognize the commercial value of Shopee's VIP user base.

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

In the second quarter, orders driven by live streaming and short videos grew more than 50% year-over-year, now accounting for over 25% of physical goods orders in Southeast Asia.

Shopee's partnership with Meta is also progressing smoothly: Shopee affiliate orders driven by associated creators on Facebook rose more than 85% sequentially, with Facebook Reels emerging as a popular shopping conversion channel. Shopee has now expanded its Instagram partnership to 8 core markets, with positive initial results already emerging in Indonesia, the first market to launch the collaboration.

03 Brand Sellers Enter Brazil Marketplace Rapidly, AI Applications Roll Out for Both Sellers and Consumers

Finally, Forrest Li highlighted Shopee's new progress in the Brazilian market.

Brazil remained one of Shopee's fastest-growing markets in the second quarter, with local active buyer count, purchase frequency and average order value all improving. In Brazil, Shopee continues to invest in and optimize its end-to-end logistics capabilities. On one hand, the company is expanding its logistics network; on the other hand, it is continuously improving network utilization. Faster delivery has cut average buyer wait times by 15% year-over-year, and the penetration rate of official fulfillment orders has doubled compared to the same period last year. Improved logistics capabilities have also supported Shopee's expansion into higher-end market segments. During the reporting period, nearly 500 new official brands joined Shopee Brazil, and GMV of Shopee Mall sellers more than doubled year-over-year.

During the earnings call, Shopee also disclosed its latest progress in AI applications.

On the seller service side, Shopee has launched AI-powered smart assistants for sellers in multiple markets.

Previously, sellers typically needed to communicate with key account managers. Now, they can interact directly with digital AI account managers, which provide 24/7 data analysis and business responses for sellers.

On the consumer side, Shopee's current AI applications are mainly focused on improving the overall conversion rate of its search and recommendation systems.

For example, the company has begun rolling out a new Generative Recommendation (GR) algorithm for product recommendations and search. According to the company, the new underlying advertising algorithm can deliver significant conversion rate improvements. Meanwhile, more AI-powered ad placement tools have also been launched. For example, the Shop GMV Max intelligent diagnostic tool uses AI to analyze ad performance, helping sellers identify areas for further optimization to improve the return on ad spend. In addition, Shopee is also testing AIGC applications in the content field, aiming to deliver more personalized content matching for different consumers.

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