Presidents Capital Management has reiterated its rating on Sea Limited (NYSE: SE), citing strong growth at the company's Shopee e-commerce platform. The move follows Sea's second-quarter 2026 results, which showed revenue surging 48.1% year-over-year to $7.8 billion while net income rose just 10.6% to $458.1 million.
The divergence between top-line expansion and bottom-line conversion has become the central tension in Sea's story. Shopee revenue jumped 48.2% to $5.6 billion, accounting for 72% of group revenue, and gross merchandise value climbed 28.4% to $38.3 billion. Yet Shopee's own segment operating income grew only 3.5% to $160.3 million, barely arresting a year-over-year decline from the prior quarter.
Advertising is driving the monetization inflection. Core marketplace revenue โ transaction fees plus advertising โ surged 65.6% to $4.3 billion, outpacing GMV growth by 37 percentage points. Ad revenue alone rose roughly 70% year-over-year, and the ad take rate increased by about 90 basis points. Shopee's overall GAAP take rate reached 14.6%, up from 13.7% in the first quarter.
Fulfillment and loyalty programs are scaling alongside the ad engine. Fulfilled order volumes grew more than 20% quarter-over-quarter, with over 60% of fulfilled parcels arriving next-day in some markets. Shopee VIP membership crossed 15 million, up 45% quarter-over-quarter, with members contributing 24% of Shopee Asia GMV at roughly 80% monthly retention.