News about e-commerce

The author places Sea Limited (NYSE: SE) at the top of their watchlist and says they plan to buy on a dip if the broader market corrects. Sea operates Shopee, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, along with the Monee digital financial services business and the Garena game studio. In Q2 2026, Sea's revenue rose 48.1% to $7.8 billion and adjusted EBITDA reached $917.2 million, up 10.6%, while Monee's outstanding loans grew 62.5% to $11.1 billion. The stock is down 25% this year and trades at a price-to-sales ratio of 2.1, versus a three-year average of 3.3 and 6.4 for the Nasdaq-100, with $10.3 billion in cash against $1.2 billion of debt. The author cites rising interest rates and AI-sector jitters as risks that could push the stock lower.

Singapore-based Sea Limited (SE) operates the Shopee e-commerce platform, the Monee digital financial services business and the Garena game studio, and its stock is down 25% this year. In Q2 2026, Shopee processed 4.2 billion orders worth $38.3 billion, with both figures up about 28% year over year. Monee had over 40 million active borrowers, up 34%, and its outstanding loans rose 62.5% to $11.1 billion. Sea's Q2 revenue reached $7.8 billion, up 48.1%, with adjusted EBITDA of $917.2 million, up 10.6%. The author views the price-to-sales ratio of 2.1 as below the three-year average of 3.3, and plans to buy if the stock falls further.

The article compares Shopify with Amazon in 2007, noting that Shopify's trailing 12-month revenue of about $13.3 billion is close to Amazon's $14.8 billion that year, and its GMV rose 32% to about $116 billion in Q2 2026. Trailing free cash flow is about $2.4 billion, a margin of around 18%, versus about 8% for Amazon in 2007, because Shopify mainly earns software fees and payment processing rather than selling products directly. However, its market value of about $218 billion equals roughly 92 times trailing free cash flow, compared with about 33 times for Amazon in 2007. The author sees Shopify as a potential long-term compounder, but believes much of that growth may already be priced in at today's level, so the author would not buy shares at this price.