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taromilktea

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2023-04-05

Join :)

@TigerEvents:【Game】Easter Egg Hunting with Tiger, Win Disney Shares and USD 120 Voucher

2022-08-02

Agree

ASML Stock: Unmatched Moat and Strong Momentum to Drive Returns

2022-08-02

Good

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2022-07-29

Thanks for sharing

Alibaba Vs. JD.Com: Let's Hear The Bears Out

2022-04-13

[666]

2022-04-10

16 yay thanks TigerEvents [love you]

@TigerEvents:【GAME】How Many Tigers Do You Have?

2022-04-09

[Claw]

2022-04-08

Because interest rates from bank saving account were so low back then [Spurting] Couldn't let myself go thru this opportunity cost. Dividend stocks is the way to go!! [Cool]

2022-03-29

Not a believer of crypto. Too speculative!

2022-03-26

[Sly]

2022-03-21

Volatile on short term but believe will be bullish long term

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2022-03-19

Great

Sea Limited: The Three-Headed Monster

2022-03-18

Great, support tiger[Cool]

Over 90% of UP Fintech’s Q4 Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China, Achieving 119% of the Annual Target

2022-03-11

A good company but still dropping down down down [sigh]

Hot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Morning Trading

Go to Tiger App to see more news

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:)&nbsp;","listText":"Join :)&nbsp;","text":"Join :)","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9948325429","repostId":"9943960936","repostType":1,"repost":{"id":9943960936,"gmtCreate":1679046534725,"gmtModify":1680580626622,"author":{"id":"3527667667103859","authorId":"3527667667103859","name":"TigerEvents","avatar":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/c266ef25181ace18bec1262357bbe1a8","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3527667667103859","authorIdStr":"3527667667103859"},"themes":[],"title":"【Game】Easter Egg Hunting with Tiger, Win Disney Shares and USD 120 Voucher","htmlText":"🐰🌷 Hop into the Easter spirit and join our \"Tiger's Egg Hunting\" game! 🎉Stand to win free Disney stocks and a USD 120 cash voucher!🎁🌟Our interactive Easter game is open to Tigers, and it's so easy to play! Simply jump and catch the egg, and you could be a lucky winner. 🐇That's not all. You can also invite your friends to join in the fun to earn more points. Plus, you can challenge your friends for a race up the leaderboard. Let's fly to the moon together!Don't miss out on this egg-citing opportunity to win BIG! Join the game now and hop on your way to victory. 🥳🐣<a href=\"https://www.tigerbrokers.com.sg/activity/market/2023/easter/?adcode=20230316162207#/\" target=\"_blank\">Join our Easter campaign now</a>","listText":"🐰🌷 Hop into the Easter spirit and join our \"Tiger's Egg Hunting\" game! 🎉Stand to win free Disney stocks and a USD 120 cash voucher!🎁🌟Our interactive Easter game is open to Tigers, and it's so easy to play! Simply jump and catch the egg, and you could be a lucky winner. 🐇That's not all. You can also invite your friends to join in the fun to earn more points. Plus, you can challenge your friends for a race up the leaderboard. 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The ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/asml-stock-unmatched-moat-and-strong-momentum-to-drive-returns/\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n","source":"lsy1606183248679","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>ASML Stock: Unmatched Moat and Strong Momentum to Drive Returns</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nASML Stock: Unmatched Moat and Strong Momentum to Drive Returns\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2022-08-02 17:30 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/asml-stock-unmatched-moat-and-strong-momentum-to-drive-returns/><strong>TipRanks</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>Story HighlightsASML boasts a unique competitive advantage when it comes to its patent-protected EUV faculty, which has enabled the company to effectively form a legal monopoly in the space. The ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/asml-stock-unmatched-moat-and-strong-momentum-to-drive-returns/\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"ASML":"阿斯麦"},"source_url":"https://www.tipranks.com/news/article/asml-stock-unmatched-moat-and-strong-momentum-to-drive-returns/","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1185195280","content_text":"Story HighlightsASML boasts a unique competitive advantage when it comes to its patent-protected EUV faculty, which has enabled the company to effectively form a legal monopoly in the space. The company’s latest results demonstrated robust sales and backlog growth momentum. ASML is a stock to consider for those that are bullish on the semiconductor industry.ASML Holding’s (ASML) unmatched competitive advantage, or “moat,” in the semiconductor industry continued to demonstrate its qualities and ability to drive robust results, even during the current, uncertain trading environment. The company’s latest results exhibited fantastic growth momentum, which, along with the company’s ever-growing backlog, should keep driving strong shareholder returns moving forward.I remain bullish on ASML stock.ASML’s Unmatched MoatASML puffs a distinctive moat when it comes to its patent-protected EUV faculty, which has enabled the company to effectively form a legal monopoly in the space.The reason ASML’s proprietary capabilities are incredibly noteworthy is due to solving the industry’s greatest problem. Basically, the long-term development of the semiconductor industry is based on the concept that the energy, cost, and time required for electronic calculations can be reduced by condensing transistors on microchips.This is precisely what ASML’s lithography systems can accomplish, which is largely determined by the wavelength of the light employed and the numerical aperture of the optics.Since ASML is the sole player globally that offers EUV lithography systems, virtually every semiconductor manufacturer out there is in critical need of the company’s solutions if they wish to stay ahead of the curve.From an investor’s point of view, ASML makes for a great investment since one does not need to speculate which semiconductor player will be the prevalent one over the next decade. Essentially ASML is positioned to profit from the ever-expanding demand for semiconductors anyhow.The global semiconductor industry is projected to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 12.2% through 2029, essentially securing an expanding backlog for ASML.What makes ASML’s moat and overall investment case quite unique, too, is that the company should remain the chief supplier of semiconductor solutions even in the subsequent generation of semiconductor manufacturing. This is due to lithography research being incremental and demanding progressive advancements.In other words, it’s practically impossible to surpass an industry leader with the scale of ASML since you can’t skip a generation of know-how and manufacturing prowess.Q2 Results Demonstrated Robust Momentum Despite Underlying Macro ChallengesThe semiconductor industry can be extremely cyclical since semiconductor sales are correlated with discretionary spending. If consumer spending declines, so will the sales of semiconductor manufacturers. Yet, ASML’s latest results demonstrated fantastic resiliency. ASML wrapped up the first half of Fiscal 2022 on a superb note. In Q2, net sales came in at $5.6 billion (€5.4 billion), suggesting year-over-year growth of 35%.ASML also posted net bookings of €8.5 billion, up 21.3% compared to Q2-2021. This suggests that the company’s performance in the coming quarters should remain robust and with no unpleasant surprises.This is due to the company’s moat, as mentioned earlier, that allows the company to develop a growing backlog. Thus, its performance is less sensitive to short-term market shocks.I am particularly excited about ASML’s ongoing margin evolution, which is achieved through extending economies of scale. Gross margins in Q2 came in at 49.1%, compared with 49% last year. That isn’t a huge expansion, but gross margins have gradually expanded from the low 40% range in 2015, which is of crucial importance to ASML’s future earnings growth.Accordingly, net income margins also expanded, with ASML posting €1.41 billion in net income for the year or €3.54 per share. This implies a year-over-year growth of 103%, obviously well-above revenue growth, exhibiting ASML’s scaling economics.For Q3, management expects net sales between €5.1 billion and €5.4 billion. At first glance, this implies an uninspiring performance in terms of growth versus the prior-year period’s €5.24 billion in net sales.However, the lack of growth is only due to a notable number of fast shipments, resulting in roughly €2.8 billion of expected revenue shifting from Q3 to Fiscal 2023. In fact, even taking into account this present “technical” issue, the company is still expected to deliver revenue growth to be close to 11.8% in Fiscal 2022.At the end of the day, demand for ASML’s one-of-a-kind technology remains very high. Due to ASML operating through its delivering on its backlog, its only limitation in terms of its revenue growth is its own mastership to advance its capacity to fulfill said backlog.Wall Street’s Take on ASML StockTurning to Wall Street, ASML Holding has a Strong Buy consensus rating based on three Buys assigned in the past three months. At $661.33, the average ASML stock projections suggest 14.4% upside potential.The Takeaway – Buy the Momentum?In the short term, ASML’s investment case is about buying the company’s growing backlog momentum. The underlying macro environment may remain shaky, but AMSL should be one of the few companies in the space whose sales could withstand short-term shocks in the end-consumer demand.In the long run, nothing has changed regarding ASML’s investment case. The company’s role in the semiconductor industry is virtually irreplaceable. If you are bullish on the semiconductor space, there doesn’t seem to be a reason not to be bullish on ASML.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":435,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9908486720,"gmtCreate":1659416259861,"gmtModify":1705980151908,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Good","listText":"Good","text":"Good","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9908486720","repostId":"2256615026","repostType":2,"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":489,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9901932898,"gmtCreate":1659109317914,"gmtModify":1676536259249,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Thanks for sharing&nbsp;","listText":"Thanks for sharing&nbsp;","text":"Thanks for sharing","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":5,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9901932898","repostId":"1114809450","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1114809450","pubTimestamp":1659108300,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1114809450?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-07-29 23:25","market":"hk","language":"en","title":"Alibaba Vs. JD.Com: Let's Hear The Bears Out","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1114809450","media":"Seeking Alpha","summary":"SummaryI am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.My favorite C","content":"<html><head></head><body><p><b>Summary</b></p><ul><li>I am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.</li><li>My favorite Charles Munger quote is not to comment on a topic until I can argue against myself better than the people on the other side.</li><li>Following this wisdom, the focus here is to address some potential risks for Alibaba that are not often discussed.</li><li>And these risks are best illustrated by comparison and contrast against JD.com.</li><li>The goal is not to dismiss these risks (they are 100% valid), but to provide a full view so both bears and bulls can all make informed decisions.</li></ul><p><b>Thesis</b></p><p>My last comparison article on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA,OTCPK:BABAF) and JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) was co-produced with Sensor Unlimited and published back in May 2022. That article focused on the similarities and differences in their business fundamentals and the megatrend in the Asian-Pacific regions.</p><p>In this article, I want to compare them again, but from a completely different angle and for a completely different purpose. This time, I want to compare them to address many of the risks facing BABA. Some of these risks have been often mentioned by BABA bears, while some of them are less mentioned (like BABA’s profitability sustainability and platform role). All these risks are 100% valid to me. So, the point of this article is not to prove the bears to be wrong. To the contrary, their concerns are 100% valid to me. I am here to hear them out and provide my thoughts so both bulls and bears can all make informed decisions.</p><p>After all, the hallmark of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold conflicting views at the same time without losing the ability to act.</p><p>And we will start with the elephant in the room first – the risk in China.</p><p><b>Risk in China</b></p><p>The implied argument here is that the BABA thesis does not depend much on its business fundamentals. Instead, the Chinese government (or the CCP, or the VIE structure, et al) is a central part (or even all) of the thesis.</p><p>As just mentioned, it is a 100% valid argument to me, and I am not here to dismiss it or prove it wrong. I am here to provide my perspective for a full view. And I invite BABA investors or potential BABA investors to consider the following aspects.</p><p>First, I feel the argument is border-lining a political or ideological discussion. Not say political or ideological considerations are not important in investment decisions – to the contrary, they are very important. However, they are difficult to quantify. To me, investing is pretty much all about PRICING risks. It is hard to put a price tag on risks that you cannot quantify. As such, I won’t dwell more on this issue here myself. I recommend Ray Dalio’s recent book entitled “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order” for readers who are interested in his view on politics and ideologies. I feel he has deeper insights about China than most Chinese themselves. And, of course, he understands the West deeper than most westerners too. A few quotes from his book are provided below:</p><blockquote><ul><li><i>“I urge those of you who have not spent considerable time in China to look past the caricatured pictures that are often painted by biased parties and rid yourself of any stereotypes you might have that are based on what you thought you knew about the old “communist China” - because they are wrong.</i></li><li><i>“As an aside, I think the widespread medium distortions and the blind and the near-violent loyalties that stand in the way of the thoughtful exploration of our different perspectives are a frightening sign of our times.”</i></li></ul></blockquote><p>Second, this is where JD enters the picture. If the risk is valid, then it should apply to all other major Chinese firms too, such as BABA’s close peer JD. After all, they all operate in the same country and are governed by the same laws (or lack of laws, as many have bears argued). If BABA’s business fundamentals don’t mean much to the investment thesis, then neither should JD’s.</p><p>However, reality does not seem to confirm. The following chart shows a simple counterexample in terms of stock price actions. As you can see from the below chart, over the past year, JD suffered a total loss of around 4%, totally within the range of random fluctuations. On the other hand, BABA&#39;s stock price suffered a total loss of more than 46% in the past years.</p><p>And as you already know, JD is still trading at a healthy (or even lofty) valuation with a P/E around 35x. This leads us to the next risk associated with BABA, its profitability. And we will discuss this next.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/32d445f99fbb8cf67372cf8ba8707ca8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"434\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>But BABA also has higher margins</b></p><p>The next bearish argument is that due to the regulatory changes, BABA’s good old days are gone and its profitability couldn&#39;t sustain in the future. Therefore, its valuation should be discounted correspondingly.</p><p>A very valid argument again. And moreover, this argument is indeed supported by data, as you can see from the top panel in the next chart. To net profit margin as an example, BABA’s margin has been quite stable and fluctuated in a narrow range between about 20% to 30% in the past before the tech crackdown started in 2020. Then it declined all the way to the current level of 6.4%.</p><p>But as advised by Charlie Munger, being smart is all about actively looking for disconfirming evidence, not confirming evidence. And JD’s margin, shown in the bottom panel of this chart, is an easy disconfirming evince to find. You can see JD’s net margin has declined (and in a more dramatic fashion) since 2021, it is currently in the negative (-1%), and its long-term average is nowhere near BABA’s. In terms of long-term averages, BABA’s margin of 23% is 13x higher than JD’s 1.7%. Even when we compared BABA’s current margin of 6.4% against JD’s long-term average (kind of unfair), BABA is still ahead by about 3.8x.</p><p>And this leads us yet to the next bears’ argument associated with BABA, which goes more or less like this: margins (or profitability in general) are not the whole story, and their business models are not entirely comparable. And we will address this next.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c68b1d15c317dd7a3a7c0e642dbbbda1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"448\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>Business model comparison</b></p><p>A few key differences here. First, even though BABA is better known and bigger than JD in market-cap (by almost 3x), JD’s revenues are actually larger than BABA. JD is China&#39;s largest direct retailer in terms of revenue. Second, JD relies almost exclusively on a single source of revenue while BABA is more diversified. JD&#39;s retail business represents 94% of its total sales and almost 100% of its total profits. BABA&#39;s core eCommerce operation “only” accounts for about 87% of its total sales, with the rest coming from other segments such as its cloud service.</p><p>Now, even within the e-commerce segment, they are very different. JD’s main operation is its first-party marketplace. It sells its own goods and keeps its own inventories. In contrast, BABA’s main role is to provide a platform and act as a third party. For reference, Amazon (AMZN) is more of a hybrid. Its Third-Party Sales and First-Party Sales are about an even split in recent years.</p><p>The focus of this article is not trying to argue which model (first-party, third-party, or a hybrid) is better, although that would be a fascinating topic for another article. The point is to acknowledge the bears’ point that net profit margin is not the entire picture because of the differences in business fundamentals</p><p>Or to put it differently, margins do not entirely determine profitability. Intuitively, the reasons are summarized by the following simple example used in one of our earlier articles:</p><blockquote><i>If you buy an orange today for $1 and sell it tomorrow for $1.01, your margin is a meager 1% but your ROIC (which is your true profitability) would be an astronomical 365%. There are three knobs that management can turn to drive up profitability: profit margin (“PM”), asset turnover ratio (“ATR”), and leverage. And PM is only one of the 3 knobs.</i></blockquote><p>And different business models lead to different ATR, as you can clearly see from the following chart. Because of its third-party dominant model, BABA’s ATR has been on average about 0.45x in the past five years (although note that the trend has been improving). In contrast, JD’s ATR is much higher. It has fluctuated in a range from 1.97x to about 2.46x in the past five years, with an average of 2.23x. So, because of its first-party dominant model, JD can operate its asset much more effectively than BABA, on average by about a factor of almost 5x.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/75deb5d294785307e58c8b1e54eb6bc0\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"449\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>True profitability comparison</b></p><p>The next chart compares their return on capital employed (“ROCE”), a comprehensive measure of profitability combining the effects of all three knobs as detailed in my free blog article here. As seen, their current ROCE is on the same order of magnitude – both are at terrific levels. They are not different by 3.8x as net margin would suggest or by 5x as asset utilization would. BABA’s ROCE currently stands at about 95%, and JD at about 85%. Both JD and BABA’s ROCEs have been in decline since 2020 while BABA’s decline is more dramatic.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1720d0a06becf9ad3bb5dfa46b2ff913\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"336\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Author</p><p><b>Yet BABA P/E is less than ½ of JD</b></p><p>The comparable ROCE now leads me to the following valuation comparison. As you can see, despite very comparable ROCE (BABA is actually higher), BABA&#39;s valuation is less than ½ of JD by most metrics. Let me cite a few examples. BABA’s FY1 P/E of 13.8x is almost only 1/3 of JD’s 35x. Its FY2 P/E of 11.5x is less than 1/2 of JD’s 23.8x.</p><p>And next, we will see that the valuation discount is a bit less than what&#39;s on the surface because of the differences in their balance sheets.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f8e55787bae44c98c1e22fd8103edec6\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"566\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>Balance sheet and adjusted P/E</b></p><p>Currently, BABA has about $72 billion of cash on its ledger and JD about $28 billion, translating into $26.8 per share for BABA and about $18.6 dollars per share for JD. Both of them also have some debt but the debt is both lower than the cash position. As a result, both carry a net cash position (a quite sizable one) on their ledger. The net cash position for BABA is about $44.5 billion and for JD about $8.3 billion.</p><p>In other words, at their current market cap ($274 billion for BABA and $96 billion for JD), about 16% of BABA’s market cap is just its cash and the percentage is about 20.8% for JD.</p><p>When we subtract the cash out of the stock price, their Pes would both become lower. For BABA, the FY1 P/E would become only 11.6x after adjusting for its cash position. And for JD, the FY1 P/E would become 27.7x, still more than 2x above BABA.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/bec38b2bfebedfcb0394b6a639e2b5b6\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"300\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>Final thoughts and risks</b></p><p>Even though I feel the market has gone too far in the fear direction for BABA (or not enough for JD), I think the bearish arguments are 100% valid. The common bearish concerns concerning BABA such as risk in China, profitability sustainability, and business model, are 100% valid. And I hope the comparison and contrast against its close peer JD better accentuate these concerns so we can all make better investment decisions.</p><p>Finally, besides the above risks mentioned. There are also unfolding macroscopic risks that could impact both BABA and JD. BABA has more exposure overseas and will be more sensitive to global geopolitics such as the Russian/Ukraine situation. The upside is that it’s better poised to tap into the global eCommerce movement, especially in the Asian-Pacific region. There are also macroeconomic headwinds specific to China, which would impact both BABA and JD. In the short term, China faces the challenge of balancing COVID control and economic growth. The World Bank projects its GDP growth to slow in 2022 to 4.3 percent (0.8% lower than China’s own economic update).</p><p>At the same time, China’s housing market is seeing weakening demand and dealing with sizable debt issues. A JPMorgan report estimated that the housing sector has been contributing up to 25% of its GDP when related sectors are considered in the past few years. But demand for housing is predicted to fall 47% by 2030. Such a large decline will create ripple effects throughout its entire economy.</p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Alibaba Vs. JD.Com: Let's Hear The Bears Out</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nAlibaba Vs. JD.Com: Let's Hear The Bears Out\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2022-07-29 23:25 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4526927-alibaba-vs-jdcom-lets-hear-the-bears-out?source=content_type%3Aall%7Cfirst_level_url%3Aportfolio%7Csection%3Aportfolio_content_unit%7Csection_asset%3Alatest%7Cline%3A41><strong>Seeking Alpha</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>SummaryI am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.My favorite Charles Munger quote is not to comment on a topic until I can argue against myself better than the ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4526927-alibaba-vs-jdcom-lets-hear-the-bears-out?source=content_type%3Aall%7Cfirst_level_url%3Aportfolio%7Csection%3Aportfolio_content_unit%7Csection_asset%3Alatest%7Cline%3A41\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"JD":"京东","BABA":"阿里巴巴","09618":"京东集团-SW","09988":"阿里巴巴-W"},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4526927-alibaba-vs-jdcom-lets-hear-the-bears-out?source=content_type%3Aall%7Cfirst_level_url%3Aportfolio%7Csection%3Aportfolio_content_unit%7Csection_asset%3Alatest%7Cline%3A41","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1114809450","content_text":"SummaryI am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.My favorite Charles Munger quote is not to comment on a topic until I can argue against myself better than the people on the other side.Following this wisdom, the focus here is to address some potential risks for Alibaba that are not often discussed.And these risks are best illustrated by comparison and contrast against JD.com.The goal is not to dismiss these risks (they are 100% valid), but to provide a full view so both bears and bulls can all make informed decisions.ThesisMy last comparison article on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA,OTCPK:BABAF) and JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) was co-produced with Sensor Unlimited and published back in May 2022. That article focused on the similarities and differences in their business fundamentals and the megatrend in the Asian-Pacific regions.In this article, I want to compare them again, but from a completely different angle and for a completely different purpose. This time, I want to compare them to address many of the risks facing BABA. Some of these risks have been often mentioned by BABA bears, while some of them are less mentioned (like BABA’s profitability sustainability and platform role). All these risks are 100% valid to me. So, the point of this article is not to prove the bears to be wrong. To the contrary, their concerns are 100% valid to me. I am here to hear them out and provide my thoughts so both bulls and bears can all make informed decisions.After all, the hallmark of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold conflicting views at the same time without losing the ability to act.And we will start with the elephant in the room first – the risk in China.Risk in ChinaThe implied argument here is that the BABA thesis does not depend much on its business fundamentals. Instead, the Chinese government (or the CCP, or the VIE structure, et al) is a central part (or even all) of the thesis.As just mentioned, it is a 100% valid argument to me, and I am not here to dismiss it or prove it wrong. I am here to provide my perspective for a full view. And I invite BABA investors or potential BABA investors to consider the following aspects.First, I feel the argument is border-lining a political or ideological discussion. Not say political or ideological considerations are not important in investment decisions – to the contrary, they are very important. However, they are difficult to quantify. To me, investing is pretty much all about PRICING risks. It is hard to put a price tag on risks that you cannot quantify. As such, I won’t dwell more on this issue here myself. I recommend Ray Dalio’s recent book entitled “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order” for readers who are interested in his view on politics and ideologies. I feel he has deeper insights about China than most Chinese themselves. And, of course, he understands the West deeper than most westerners too. A few quotes from his book are provided below:“I urge those of you who have not spent considerable time in China to look past the caricatured pictures that are often painted by biased parties and rid yourself of any stereotypes you might have that are based on what you thought you knew about the old “communist China” - because they are wrong.“As an aside, I think the widespread medium distortions and the blind and the near-violent loyalties that stand in the way of the thoughtful exploration of our different perspectives are a frightening sign of our times.”Second, this is where JD enters the picture. If the risk is valid, then it should apply to all other major Chinese firms too, such as BABA’s close peer JD. After all, they all operate in the same country and are governed by the same laws (or lack of laws, as many have bears argued). If BABA’s business fundamentals don’t mean much to the investment thesis, then neither should JD’s.However, reality does not seem to confirm. The following chart shows a simple counterexample in terms of stock price actions. As you can see from the below chart, over the past year, JD suffered a total loss of around 4%, totally within the range of random fluctuations. On the other hand, BABA's stock price suffered a total loss of more than 46% in the past years.And as you already know, JD is still trading at a healthy (or even lofty) valuation with a P/E around 35x. This leads us to the next risk associated with BABA, its profitability. And we will discuss this next.Seeking AlphaBut BABA also has higher marginsThe next bearish argument is that due to the regulatory changes, BABA’s good old days are gone and its profitability couldn't sustain in the future. Therefore, its valuation should be discounted correspondingly.A very valid argument again. And moreover, this argument is indeed supported by data, as you can see from the top panel in the next chart. To net profit margin as an example, BABA’s margin has been quite stable and fluctuated in a narrow range between about 20% to 30% in the past before the tech crackdown started in 2020. Then it declined all the way to the current level of 6.4%.But as advised by Charlie Munger, being smart is all about actively looking for disconfirming evidence, not confirming evidence. And JD’s margin, shown in the bottom panel of this chart, is an easy disconfirming evince to find. You can see JD’s net margin has declined (and in a more dramatic fashion) since 2021, it is currently in the negative (-1%), and its long-term average is nowhere near BABA’s. In terms of long-term averages, BABA’s margin of 23% is 13x higher than JD’s 1.7%. Even when we compared BABA’s current margin of 6.4% against JD’s long-term average (kind of unfair), BABA is still ahead by about 3.8x.And this leads us yet to the next bears’ argument associated with BABA, which goes more or less like this: margins (or profitability in general) are not the whole story, and their business models are not entirely comparable. And we will address this next.Seeking AlphaBusiness model comparisonA few key differences here. First, even though BABA is better known and bigger than JD in market-cap (by almost 3x), JD’s revenues are actually larger than BABA. JD is China's largest direct retailer in terms of revenue. Second, JD relies almost exclusively on a single source of revenue while BABA is more diversified. JD's retail business represents 94% of its total sales and almost 100% of its total profits. BABA's core eCommerce operation “only” accounts for about 87% of its total sales, with the rest coming from other segments such as its cloud service.Now, even within the e-commerce segment, they are very different. JD’s main operation is its first-party marketplace. It sells its own goods and keeps its own inventories. In contrast, BABA’s main role is to provide a platform and act as a third party. For reference, Amazon (AMZN) is more of a hybrid. Its Third-Party Sales and First-Party Sales are about an even split in recent years.The focus of this article is not trying to argue which model (first-party, third-party, or a hybrid) is better, although that would be a fascinating topic for another article. The point is to acknowledge the bears’ point that net profit margin is not the entire picture because of the differences in business fundamentalsOr to put it differently, margins do not entirely determine profitability. Intuitively, the reasons are summarized by the following simple example used in one of our earlier articles:If you buy an orange today for $1 and sell it tomorrow for $1.01, your margin is a meager 1% but your ROIC (which is your true profitability) would be an astronomical 365%. There are three knobs that management can turn to drive up profitability: profit margin (“PM”), asset turnover ratio (“ATR”), and leverage. And PM is only one of the 3 knobs.And different business models lead to different ATR, as you can clearly see from the following chart. Because of its third-party dominant model, BABA’s ATR has been on average about 0.45x in the past five years (although note that the trend has been improving). In contrast, JD’s ATR is much higher. It has fluctuated in a range from 1.97x to about 2.46x in the past five years, with an average of 2.23x. So, because of its first-party dominant model, JD can operate its asset much more effectively than BABA, on average by about a factor of almost 5x.Seeking AlphaTrue profitability comparisonThe next chart compares their return on capital employed (“ROCE”), a comprehensive measure of profitability combining the effects of all three knobs as detailed in my free blog article here. As seen, their current ROCE is on the same order of magnitude – both are at terrific levels. They are not different by 3.8x as net margin would suggest or by 5x as asset utilization would. BABA’s ROCE currently stands at about 95%, and JD at about 85%. Both JD and BABA’s ROCEs have been in decline since 2020 while BABA’s decline is more dramatic.AuthorYet BABA P/E is less than ½ of JDThe comparable ROCE now leads me to the following valuation comparison. As you can see, despite very comparable ROCE (BABA is actually higher), BABA's valuation is less than ½ of JD by most metrics. Let me cite a few examples. BABA’s FY1 P/E of 13.8x is almost only 1/3 of JD’s 35x. Its FY2 P/E of 11.5x is less than 1/2 of JD’s 23.8x.And next, we will see that the valuation discount is a bit less than what's on the surface because of the differences in their balance sheets.Seeking AlphaBalance sheet and adjusted P/ECurrently, BABA has about $72 billion of cash on its ledger and JD about $28 billion, translating into $26.8 per share for BABA and about $18.6 dollars per share for JD. Both of them also have some debt but the debt is both lower than the cash position. As a result, both carry a net cash position (a quite sizable one) on their ledger. The net cash position for BABA is about $44.5 billion and for JD about $8.3 billion.In other words, at their current market cap ($274 billion for BABA and $96 billion for JD), about 16% of BABA’s market cap is just its cash and the percentage is about 20.8% for JD.When we subtract the cash out of the stock price, their Pes would both become lower. For BABA, the FY1 P/E would become only 11.6x after adjusting for its cash position. And for JD, the FY1 P/E would become 27.7x, still more than 2x above BABA.Seeking AlphaFinal thoughts and risksEven though I feel the market has gone too far in the fear direction for BABA (or not enough for JD), I think the bearish arguments are 100% valid. The common bearish concerns concerning BABA such as risk in China, profitability sustainability, and business model, are 100% valid. And I hope the comparison and contrast against its close peer JD better accentuate these concerns so we can all make better investment decisions.Finally, besides the above risks mentioned. There are also unfolding macroscopic risks that could impact both BABA and JD. BABA has more exposure overseas and will be more sensitive to global geopolitics such as the Russian/Ukraine situation. The upside is that it’s better poised to tap into the global eCommerce movement, especially in the Asian-Pacific region. There are also macroeconomic headwinds specific to China, which would impact both BABA and JD. In the short term, China faces the challenge of balancing COVID control and economic growth. The World Bank projects its GDP growth to slow in 2022 to 4.3 percent (0.8% lower than China’s own economic update).At the same time, China’s housing market is seeing weakening demand and dealing with sizable debt issues. A JPMorgan report estimated that the housing sector has been contributing up to 25% of its GDP when related sectors are considered in the past few years. But demand for housing is predicted to fall 47% by 2030. Such a large decline will create ripple effects throughout its entire economy.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":382,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9080184229,"gmtCreate":1649858374249,"gmtModify":1676534591445,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"[666]&nbsp;","listText":"[666]&nbsp;","text":"[666]","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/3366484b4f1a25cc410267e3af0c8dcd","width":"1080","height":"2633"}],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9080184229","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":614,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":1,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9014028228,"gmtCreate":1649567523564,"gmtModify":1676534532172,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"16 yay thanks TigerEvents [love you]","listText":"16 yay thanks TigerEvents [love you]","text":"16 yay thanks TigerEvents [love you]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9014028228","repostId":"9012621551","repostType":1,"repost":{"id":9012621551,"gmtCreate":1649328611177,"gmtModify":1676534492157,"author":{"id":"3527667667103859","authorId":"3527667667103859","name":"TigerEvents","avatar":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/c266ef25181ace18bec1262357bbe1a8","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3527667667103859","authorIdStr":"3527667667103859"},"themes":[],"title":"【GAME】How Many Tigers Do You Have?","htmlText":"Hey, Tigers! We would like to invite you to share your holdings and to find Tigers. You will win Tiger Coins. In addition, you will obtain a chance to win a Tiger gift.🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯 How to find Tiger stickers？ From your account holdings interface, you can click \"Share\" of every stock in your portfolios, and then you will find different expressions of Tigers. Don't forget to take screenshots of your Tiger stickers and post them in the comments below. There are 33 Tiger stickers&nbsp;waiting for you. Let's see how many Tiger stickers you have. 🎁[Prizes] For All the Tigers participating in this activity: All Tigers will be given 50 Tiger coinsfor posting each different expressions of Tigers in the comment section! (Maximum limit 1000 Tiger Coins). One Tiger will be rewarded 1000 coins for the commen","listText":"Hey, Tigers! We would like to invite you to share your holdings and to find Tigers. You will win Tiger Coins. In addition, you will obtain a chance to win a Tiger gift.🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯 How to find Tiger stickers？ From your account holdings interface, you can click \"Share\" of every stock in your portfolios, and then you will find different expressions of Tigers. Don't forget to take screenshots of your Tiger stickers and post them in the comments below. There are 33 Tiger stickers&nbsp;waiting for you. Let's see how many Tiger stickers you have. 🎁[Prizes] For All the Tigers participating in this activity: All Tigers will be given 50 Tiger coinsfor posting each different expressions of Tigers in the comment section! (Maximum limit 1000 Tiger Coins). One Tiger will be rewarded 1000 coins for the commen","text":"Hey, Tigers! We would like to invite you to share your holdings and to find Tigers. You will win Tiger Coins. In addition, you will obtain a chance to win a Tiger gift.🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯 How to find Tiger stickers？ From your account holdings interface, you can click \"Share\" of every stock in your portfolios, and then you will find different expressions of Tigers. Don't forget to take screenshots of your Tiger stickers and post them in the comments below. There are 33 Tiger stickers waiting for you. Let's see how many Tiger stickers you have. 🎁[Prizes] For All the Tigers participating in this activity: All Tigers will be given 50 Tiger coinsfor posting each different expressions of Tigers in the comment section! (Maximum limit 1000 Tiger Coins). One Tiger will be rewarded 1000 coins for the commen","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/ecbf5d46cfeb85299825ad3d44b26db2","width":"-1","height":"-1"},{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/040f5bee2bf182e86d37fca8ce0d968a","width":"-1","height":"-1"},{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/794115e796129571d37e4ffd2883e156","width":"1694","height":"1128"}],"top":1,"highlighted":2,"essential":2,"paper":2,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9012621551","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":0,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":3,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":454,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9015610780,"gmtCreate":1649471123967,"gmtModify":1676534517842,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"[Claw]&nbsp;","listText":"[Claw]&nbsp;","text":"[Claw]","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/8dbe91a83a8d0480ecda0a35d048c360","width":"1080","height":"1650"}],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9015610780","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":464,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":1,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9015368664,"gmtCreate":1649428075032,"gmtModify":1676534510659,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Because interest rates from bank saving account were so low back then&nbsp;[Spurting]&nbsp; Couldn't let myself go thru&nbsp;this&nbsp;opportunity cost. Dividend stocks is the way to go!!&nbsp;[Cool]&nbsp;","listText":"Because interest rates from bank saving account were so low back then&nbsp;[Spurting]&nbsp; Couldn't let myself go thru&nbsp;this&nbsp;opportunity cost. Dividend stocks is the way to go!!&nbsp;[Cool]&nbsp;","text":"Because interest rates from bank saving account were so low back then [Spurting] Couldn't let myself go thru this opportunity cost. Dividend stocks is the way to go!! [Cool]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":2,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9015368664","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":501,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9019982305,"gmtCreate":1648514543266,"gmtModify":1676534347913,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Not a believer of crypto. Too speculative!&nbsp;","listText":"Not a believer of crypto. Too speculative!&nbsp;","text":"Not a believer of crypto. Too speculative!","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9019982305","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":675,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9010166719,"gmtCreate":1648293006681,"gmtModify":1676534325923,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"[Sly]&nbsp;","listText":"[Sly]&nbsp;","text":"[Sly]","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/a334a6d0597e1c7ba63b90fb5f284fcf","width":"1080","height":"1657"}],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9010166719","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":858,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":1,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9034814001,"gmtCreate":1647851253703,"gmtModify":1676534271765,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Volatile on short term&nbsp;but believe will be bullish&nbsp;long term","listText":"Volatile on short term&nbsp;but believe will be bullish&nbsp;long term","text":"Volatile on short term but believe will be bullish long term","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":6,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9034814001","repostId":"1149997871","repostType":2,"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":308,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9035730632,"gmtCreate":1647672675654,"gmtModify":1676534257912,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Great","listText":"Great","text":"Great","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":9,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9035730632","repostId":"2220777059","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"2220777059","pubTimestamp":1647653153,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2220777059?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-03-19 09:25","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Sea Limited: The Three-Headed Monster","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2220777059","media":"seekingalpha","summary":"SummaryGarena, Sea’s only profitable segment, serves as a lifeline for its other two segments, but B","content":"<html><head></head><body><p><b>Summary</b></p><ul><li>Garena, Sea’s only profitable segment, serves as a lifeline for its other two segments, but Bookings are expected to fall sharply in FY2022.</li><li>In addition, Shopee&#39;s losses are widening. However, the e-commerce segment is expected to be self-funded by 2025. This is achievable as take rates are trending in the right direction.</li><li>SeaMoney is also gaining traction at an unprecedented pace, a monster lurking in the shadows. Investors should pay attention as this segment could serve as Sea&#39;s second cash cow.</li><li>With a net cash position of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won&#39;t be long before Sea requires another cash infusion.</li><li>Despite unprofitability risks, Sea has a strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats. The stock is trading at the lowest multiple ever - it is worth a nibble at these prices.</li></ul><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/51b3290f2015840c5d8f754c01de8a85\" tg-width=\"750\" tg-height=\"422\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>undefined undefined/iStock via Getty Images</span></p><p>I&#39;ve been following Sea Limited ADR (NYSE:SE) for quite some time now and the stock got me interested again given the recent 75% selloff. Today, I&#39;m doing a deep dive on the three-headed monster (and each of its heads) to see if the company is a good investment opportunity at these levels. Let&#39;s get started!</p><p><b>Investment Thesis</b></p><p>Sea is at the forefront of the internet revolution in developing regions. This had many investors buying into the growth story of the company, sending shares soaring high into the sun for the better part of 2020 and 2021. However, the stock has cratered back to sea amid concerns about the company&#39;s slowing growth, especially for its only cash cow, Garena. To make matters worse, Shopee&#39;s losses are also getting worse.</p><p>The Group&#39;s cash burn rate is still high, estimated to be $(3.6) billion in FY2022. With a net cash position of $5.9 billion, future capital raises are very likely.</p><p>On the bright side, Sea still has a long growth runway ahead, solidified by its leadership positions in Southeast Asia and Latin America. SeaMoney, although still unprofitable, could also emerge as Sea&#39;s second cash cow.</p><p>Despite unprofitability and competitive risks, Sea has strong competitive moats and it is trading at the cheapest valuation multiples since its IPO.</p><p>The three-headed monster is a Buy at these levels.</p><p><b>Value Proposition</b></p><p>Founded in Singapore in 2009, Sea has grown to become the leading consumer internet company in the world, with a substantial presence in the Southeast Asian region.</p><blockquote><b>Mission</b>: To better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology.</blockquote><p>Sea is a holding company for three core businesses: Garena, Shopee, and SeaMoney. Sea&#39;s main value proposition is providing a vertically-integrated experience through its different core businesses.</p><p><b>Garena</b></p><p>Its digital entertainment division, Garena, was Sea&#39;s first business venture. In fact, Sea was originally named Garena Interactive Holding Limited before changing its name to Sea Limited in 2017.</p><p>Garena is one of the largest online games developers and publishers, releasing some of the most successful mobile and PC games over the last decade. For example, Garena&#39;s Free Fire, its self-developed mobile battle royale game, topped the global download charts for the last three years. According to data.ai, Free Fire also ranked second globally by average monthly active users on Google Play in 2021. In Southeast Asia and Latin America, Free Fire was the highest-grossing mobile game for ten consecutive quarters, and in the US for four consecutive quarters. Based on Sensor <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/TWR.AU\">Tower</a>&#39;s findings, Free Fire still holds the most downloads globally as of January 2022.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fa392753c19f14d60ee0d992e58c3d2f\" tg-width=\"1280\" tg-height=\"741\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SensorTower</span></p><p>Garena also exclusively licenses and publishes games from global partners and third-party developers. Some of these partners include Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY), Activision (ATVI), and Arumgames. Games like Speed Drifters, Arena of Valor, and Fantasy Town fall into this category as they are co-developed with partners or licensed from partners.</p><p>In addition, Garena organizes some of the largest e-sports events from local tournaments to professional competitions at a global level. Moreover, Garena offers other entertainment content such as live-streaming, user chat, and online forums.</p><p><b>Shopee</b></p><p>Perhaps the most exciting business segment is Sea&#39;s mobile-centric e-commerce platform, Shopee. Launched in 2015, Shopee is now one of the fastest-growing e-commerce marketplaces with a strong presence in Southeast Asia, as well as growing recognition in Latin America and some European countries.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/6649de846b2942b928a3f3e5d4035003\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"200\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Shopee</span></p><p>Through the Shopee platform, buyers can purchase items from sellers which are primarily small and medium businesses (or mom-and-pop stores). At the same time, larger, more established retailers like Xiaomi (OTCPK:XIACF), Microsoft (MSFT), or Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) can leverage Shopee&#39;s two premium shopping platforms, Shopee Mall and Shopee Premium.</p><p>Along with Shopee&#39;s e-commerce marketplace, Shopee also offers adjacent products and services for both buyers and sellers:</p><ul><li><b>Service by Shopee</b> - Value-added services for sellers such as integrated payment, logistics, fulfillment, seller support, inventory management, and online store operations.</li><li><b>BuyerProtection</b> - Consumer protection policies and procedures including seller verification, product listing screening, and dispute resolution. In addition, Shopee Guarantee reduces settlement risks by holding customers&#39; funds in a separate account until delivery is complete, where funds will be released to buyers.</li><li><b>Integrated Logistics Services</b>- Shopee partners with various local and regional third-party logistics service providers to provide a seamless last-mile delivery experience for both buyers and sellers. Shopee also has its own delivery service called Shopee Xpress.</li><li><b>Social Features</b> - Shopee also offers other social and gamification features, including Shopee Coins (virtual currency), Shopee Live (livestream), Shopee Games (in-app games), and Shopee Feed (similar to Instagram).</li><li><b>On-demand Services</b>- Shopee also recently launched on-demand services such as ShopeeFood, instant delivery, and groceries, competing directly with Grab (GRAB), Gojek, and Uber (UBER).</li></ul><p>Shopee&#39;s scale is unmatched and it is still growing at an unprecedented pace. According to data.ai, Shopee in Southeast Asia and Taiwan ranked first in average monthly active users and total time spent in the app in 2021. Shopee Indonesia, arguably Shopee&#39;s most important market, ranked first in the Shopping category. Shopee Brazil, which launched in October 2019, was also ranked first in the Shopping category. And globally, Shopee ranked first in the Shopping category, and is the #13 most downloaded app regardless of category, logging in 200+ million downloads in 2021.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/3f9c550b140720336e00cc78e954d184\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SensorTower</span></p><p><b>SeaMoney</b></p><p>SeaMoney was launched in 2014 and is now one of the leading digital financial services providers in Sea&#39;s operating countries. SeaMoney offers mobile wallet services, payment processing, credit, and other digital financial services. These services are offered under SeaMoney&#39;s various brands including AirPay, ShopeePay, SPayLater, and other local brands depending on the country. SeaMoney was initially launched in Vietnam and Thailand but has since expanded to other regions.</p><p>Through SeaMoney&#39;s mobile wallet offerings, consumers and merchants have added flexibility in terms of payment options, whether through online or offline means. The launch of SPayLater, which is basically a &#34;buy now pay later&#34; payment option, enables consumers to purchase items without accessing credit. For those who are interested, I&#39;ve written a deep dive on Affirm (AFRM) where I discuss the main value propositions that BNPL provides.</p><p>SeaMoney has obtained bank licenses and government approvals to provide financial services in various countries. For example, Sea acquired Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi in Indonesia back in early 2021 as a push towards offering a digital banking solution. The company is now rebranded to SeaBank, which currently offers a high-yield savings account and virtual account.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4c85c862195f86fe9d4f0f8c8beced6b\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SeaBank Website</span></p><p>SeaMoney&#39;s main value proposition lies in offering a mobile wallet and payment solutions that are integrated with Sea&#39;s other businesses, namely Garena and Shopee, enabling consumers and merchants to transact seamlessly in one vertically-integrated platform.</p><p><b>Market Opportunity</b></p><p>Sea&#39;s market opportunity is predicated around the industry outlook of each of its business segments: mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech. Let&#39;s take a look at each industry that Sea operates in.</p><p>First, we have the mobile gaming industry. According to data.ai, Mobile Game Consumer Spend grew from $74 billion in 2018 to $116 billion in 2021, while Mobile Game Downloads grew from 63 billion in 2018 to 83 billion in 2021. Among the Top Genres by Downloads were Hypercasual games such as Hair Challenge and Water Sort Puzzle. However, the Top Genres by Consumer Spend belong to the Strategy, RPG, and Shooting categories where Garena specializes in. For example, Free Fire was the top Shooting game by revenue in Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, and the US, in 2021. Globally, however, it is still behind PUBG Mobile, which generates the bulk of its revenue from China.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f72bda6df6bc2b7bdf8756d218f53185\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SensorTower</span></p><p>According to Adjust, the mobile gaming industry is expected to reach $272 billion by 2030, which is about 1.5x of 2021&#39;s total figure. Given Garena&#39;s successes in monetizing its games, Garena should continue to enjoy gaming tailwinds in the foreseeable future, provided that its games remain in trend. This is also supported by Unity&#39;s findings that the APAC region is the fastest-growing regional market, a market that Garena dominates in.</p><p>Moving on to e-commerce, we all know that e-commerce is growing rapidly and that its market share as a whole will continue to trend up from here. This is especially true for the Southeast Asian region where internet and smartphone adoption continues to increase by the day. Based on the e-Conomy SEA report, Southeast Asia now has 440 million internet users, up from 360 million in 2019. Its total population is about 589 million.</p><p>Internet Gross Merchandise Value, or GMV, for the region was $170 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $360 billion by 2025 with e-commerce leading the charge. The shift to e-commerce is not only happening on the consumer side but also on the merchant side. Digital marketing tools, analytical tools, and digital payment solutions have accelerated business for merchants. Shopee&#39;s vertically-integrated platform also makes it easy for merchants in these developing countries to set up shop, distribute goods, and accept payments in a single platform.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/2fcb903aed7c0ec901fc83c4f25f18b8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021</span></p><p>Furthermore, Sea has recently expanded its e-commerce operations to other regions such as Latin America and Europe, which further expands its market opportunity.</p><p>Lastly, we have the fintech industry pertaining to SeaMoney. In my <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/PYPL\">PayPal</a> (PYPL) deep dive, I discussed the growth of mobile wallets as a payment method in both online and offline transactions. The shift to a cashless and cardless society is inevitable and that is also true for Sea&#39;s markets.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/47ec896a6208b6023ae89f654704bbc7\" tg-width=\"1261\" tg-height=\"706\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Ark Invest Big Ideas 2022</span></p><p>As you can see below, mobile wallets continue to gain traction in Southeast Asia. In addition, 92% of digital merchants intend to maintain usage or increase usage of digital payments in the next 1 to 2 years. ShopeePay and SeaMoney&#39;s other brands will benefit from this trend. Also of important note, SeaMoney&#39;s expansion to buy now pay later with SPayLater will be a key GMV and revenue driver for the segment. These are the reasons why some investors are so bullish on SeaMoney and why SeaMoney is a monster lurking in the shadows.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0eb814b800c3121e3fb8cd0913f239d5\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021</span></p><p>As you can see, Sea is at the forefront of three megatrends which should propel the business forward from here. Also, combining the different verticals in the same platform would present a significant synergistic opportunity as Sea establishes itself as a SuperApp in the making.</p><p><b>Revenue Model</b></p><p>As mentioned previously, Sea operates three main business segments.</p><p><b>Digital Entertainment</b></p><p>Garena operates a freemium model whereby users can download and play games for free. The company generates revenue by selling in-game virtual items such as clothing, weaponry, or equipment.</p><p>Investors should take note of how revenue is recognized for this segment. According to Sea&#39;s 10-K:</p><blockquote>Proceeds from these sales are initially recognized as “Advances from customers” and subsequently reclassified to “Deferred revenue” when the users make in-game purchases of the virtual currencies or virtual items within the games operated by the Company and the in-game purchases are no longer refundable.</blockquote><p>Garena also licenses games from other game developers. Revenue is generated based on revenue-sharing/royalty agreements with these developers. Revenue is recognized over the performance obligation period.</p><blockquote>Such delivery obligation period is determined in accordance with the estimated average lifespan of the virtual goods sold or estimated average lifespan of the paying users of the said games or similar games.</blockquote><p><b>E-commerce</b></p><p>Shopee generates revenue through a marketplace model. Sellers on the platform pay Shopee based on paid advertisement services, transaction-based fees, logistics services, and other value-added services.</p><p>Shopee also generates revenue from goods sold directly by Shopee, which the company purchases in bulk from manufacturers or third-party suppliers.</p><p><b>Digital Financial Services</b></p><p>SeaMoney revenue consists of:</p><ul><li>Interest and fees from loans granted to commercial customers</li><li>Interest and fees from Sea&#39;s consumer credit business such as SPayLater</li><li>Commissions charged to merchants when a customer pays using SeaMoney&#39;s mobile wallet</li></ul><p><b>Income Statement</b></p><p>Let&#39;s analyze each of the business segments and then look at the entire Group as a whole.</p><p><b>Digital Entertainment</b></p><p>Garena Revenue saw a 104% increase YoY in Q4. For the full year, Garena Revenue was up 114% YoY.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/998dfbcf3f3dba11b8f8722710c36ba4\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The rapid increase in Revenue was primarily due to recognition of accumulated deferred revenue from previous quarters. Bookings—which is essentially GAAP Revenue plus the change in digital entertainment deferred revenue —actually dropped for the first time QoQ and it is now lower than Revenue. This means that gamers are spending less on in-virtual items which will lead to lower Revenue recognized in subsequent quarters. As you can see, Bookings is in a massive deceleration.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/e06de5e6066b66cd5596a445cd912c98\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The drop in Bookings was due to fewer gamers in the platform as the economy reopens and people spend more time outdoors, at school, or in the office. Quarterly Active Users, or QAUs, grew only 7% in Q4 to 652 million, compared to Q3&#39;s QAUs of 729 million.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c5bdd570a9eb859a9fef8569c9fad10a\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>As a result, Quarterly Paying Users, or QPUs, decelerated as well, which led to lower Bookings. Q4 QPUs was 77 million compared to Q3&#39;s 93 million.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/092c4a2f47b9336f2753b4548707b39f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The markets reacted negatively to this slowdown in Garena growth as the gaming business acts as the lifeline for Sea&#39;s two other segments. As you can see, Garena is a high-margin business, producing Adjusted EBITDA of $2.7 billion in FY2021. Operating Margin is very high at 61% in Q4. AEBITDA margin, on the other hand, is trending downwards as QoQ adds in Bookings wither.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f28c9f35ee55afb5c7d170a80d26ebf2\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>As such, the slowdown in growth for Garena is scaring investors away as it may not provide sufficient cash flow to fund the continued growth of Shopee and SeaMoney.</p><p><b>E-Commerce</b></p><p>Shopee GMV continues its upward march as e-commerce continues to gain traction in Shopee&#39;s existing and newer markets. However, we&#39;re also seeing a deceleration in growth due to tough YoY comps. GMV in FY2021 was $62.5 billion, an increase of 77%.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4f657f7cacc9e00bc57df0e913fdb9ae\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>GMV growth was also due to an increase in Orders in the Shopee platform, which totaled 6.1 billion in FY2021, an increase of 117%. Average Order Value, or AOV, however, is trending downwards. This may be perceived negatively as processing more lower-AOV orders meant higher logistical expenses and thus lower margins per order.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5fbc7f044de03ec379f262a5bfcdf331\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The increase in GMV translated to higher Shopee Revenue, which grew faster than GMV. Shopee Revenue grew 136% to $5.1 billion in FY2021, as compared to GMV growth of 77%.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/27710dc2140a6d139900819f51bd688a\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The faster growth in Revenue was due to Shopee&#39;s increasing take rate, which displays Shopee&#39;s ability to monetize its marketplace platform. This is one of the only few positive developments coming out of the most recent earnings update.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0e4267bc5d33a2153e8624f73ed71540\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Despite the improving Revenue and take rate, Shopee is still suffering huge losses and it is mounting with each subsequent quarter, primarily due to the company expanding into new markets. FY2021 Shopee AEBITDA was $(2.6) billion at a -50% margin. Recall that Garena AEBITDA was $2.7 billion.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/d9d27cef61bc9a9058233f7eccc5eaa1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>AEBITDA per Order has been improving, although it flat-lined in the last few quarters. Again, this is due to the company aggressively expanding into new markets. For example, in Q4, Shopee Brazil recorded 140+ million gross orders with a $70+ million Revenue, up 400% and 326%, respectively. However, AEBITDA per Order in Brazil is still negative at $(2) per Order, despite being a 40% improvement from last year. As such, it is still a far cry from the overall AEBITDA per Order of $(0.45).</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0c0d6aa930a81ea4fc153b7134dbf9d3\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"432\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>On the bright side, in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Q4 AEBITDA per Order before &#34;allocation of the headquarters’ common expenses&#34; was $(0.15), an improvement from last year&#39;s $(0.21). This shows that there is certainly hope for Shopee to be AEBITDA positive soon, which management has pointed out during the Q4 earnings call:</p><blockquote>We currently expect Shopee to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA before HQ cost allocation in Southeast Asia and Taiwan by this year. We also expect SeaMoney to achieve positive cash flow by next year. As a result, we currently expect that by 2025 cash generated by Shopee and SeaMoney proactively will enable these two businesses to substantially self-fund their own long-term growth.</blockquote><p><b>Digital Financial Services</b></p><p>SeaMoney&#39;s Mobile Wallet Total Payment Volume grew 120% YoY to $17.2 billion in FY2021 due to the increasing adoption of mobile wallets in the region.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4fa5ef6efa513d9040963fda42b4b9f2\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"432\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The growth in TPV was largely driven by the growth in QAUs. As shown below, the total ending QAUs in Q4 grew 90% YoY to 45.8 million users.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9397aec066366f40ec92c24187347a44\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"432\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The real exciting part is that Revenue grew much faster than TPV and QAUs. SeaMoney Revenue is growing at a blistering pace, locking in high triple-digit growth rates over the last few years. FY2021 SeaMoney Revenue was $470 million, which is an increase of 673% from the previous year. This is due to take rates increasing from less than 1% in FY2020 to almost 4% by the end of the latest quarter.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/dcaf6046cf3c27e00b233a8428eb2d75\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Furthermore, in Indonesia, over 20% of the QAUs have used more than one SeaMoney product or service, which includes credit services, digital banking, and insurance. As SeaMoney introduces more offerings, revenue should accelerate meaningfully as average revenue per user increases when people use additional products.</p><p>As SeaMoney continues to gain scale, the segment will enjoy better unit economics. As shown below, while SeaMoney&#39;s AEBITDA is still in deeply negative territories, AEBITDA Margins has continued to trend towards profitability. Management also expects SeaMoney to be cash flow positive by next year.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/51f0d5a1800fef748694417e8cb8fc9f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>This is the segment that investors should pay special attention to, given that it has the potential to be Sea&#39;s second cash cow. For example, PayPal has Operating Margins of 20%+, which could be SeaMoney&#39;s long-term margin profile.</p><p><b>Group</b></p><p>With that said, let&#39;s take a look at how the business is doing as a whole.</p><p>FY2021 Revenue was $10.0 billion, an increase of 128% YoY. Due to the law of large numbers and tough YoY comps, Revenue growth should decelerate from here.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/38de60bd773f3ef7afc4b2e28aa1c08f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Here, we can see how Revenue is distributed across the different segments.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a86e59478db8a3a4fdc85897f24410e9\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>What&#39;s encouraging is that Gross Profit Margins continue to trend upwards as the company gains economies of scale, even accounting for Shopee&#39;s aggressive expansion into new markets. FY2021 Gross Profit was $3.9 billion, up 189% YoY.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/dd978ba4047cc6e20ac6086ba8420a8f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Operating Expenses, however, remain elevated as management forgoes short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. FY2021 Total Operating Expenses were $5.5 billion. Below shows the different components of Operating Expenses as a percentage of Revenue.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fbdbde2c2ae744f36f8168ed32f94d62\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"419\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Most of the Operating Expenses were used for Sales &amp; Marketing purposes. Unsurprisingly, Shopee had the highest S&amp;M burn rate. Discounts, cashback, celebrity promotions... they&#39;re everywhere.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5253f186120da17c4cd901e5c442bd1e\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"419\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>As a result, Operating Profit Margins is still negative, although it is trending in the right direction.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a27b7833551107397c44acefc5ad2475\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>AEBITDA, on the other hand, is plunging. This is due to Garena&#39;s falling Bookings and Shoppe&#39;s widening losses. AEBITDA for FY2021 was $(594) million, compared to FY2020 positive AEBITDA of $107 million. This is probably the most concerning figure for investors as such a high cash burn rate is unsustainable, which may also lead to additional capital raises that are dilutive to shareholders.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/d89fb95f74e23e85f8932870c0190bee\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The guidance did not help either. Garena Bookings is expected to fall to just $3 billion, which is $1.3 billion lower than FY2021&#39;s number. Management blamed the reopening of the economy as well as the ban of Free Fire in India for the expected drop in Bookings. Assuming a modest 50% AEBITDA margin, Garena would bring in just $1.5 billion of AEBITDA for Sea in FY2022.</p><p>On the other side, the other two segments are expected to continue with their immense pace of growth — Shopee and SeaMoney are expected to grow by 76% and 155%, respectively. If we assume a (50)% AEBITDA margin for both segments, Shopee and SeaMoney is expected to burn a total of about $(5.1) billion of AEBITDA. Adding Garena&#39;s estimated AEBITDA of $1.5 billion, Sea, as a Group, is expected to burn $(3.6) billion in FY2021.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ae5e9399a838e5f841dcccaffbe673d8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"357\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor Presentation</span></p><p>Because Garena is such an important piece of Shopee&#39;s and SeaMoney&#39;s growth story, a deceleration in Garena&#39;s business had investors reacting so negatively to Sea&#39;s latest earnings release, as now, the gaming business is incapable of covering the massive losses incurred by the other two business segments.</p><p><b>Balance Sheet</b></p><p>Sea&#39;s balance sheet position as of year-end FY2021 is at about $10.2 billion of Cash and Short Term Investments. While this may show that Sea has a substantial cushion against its short-term cash burn rate, its net cash position paints a different picture.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/dc30ee494abc2eda3b75434b96e4a66b\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"357\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor Presentation</span></p><p>Adjusting for Sea&#39;s debt, Sea ended the year with a net cash position of around $5.9 billion. A substantial amount of its total debt comes from its recent issuance of 0.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2026. The notes were issued when the stock was trading at $318 per share back in September and the initial conversion price is set at $477 per share. So, yes... conversion in the next 2 to 3 years is very unlikely.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8d3d0030e6518cc4198245f624cc75e1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"437\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>With net cash of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won&#39;t be long before Sea requires another cash infusion. Therefore, if the high cash burn rate persists for the next 2 to 3 years, investors face a major risk of increasing financial leverage and/or dilution in the form of equity raises.</p><p><b>Cash Flow Statement</b></p><p>Here is what cash flow looks like over the last few quarters. Notice how Operating Cash Flow turned negative in the last quarter. Most of the cash also comes from Financing activities.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a0aba061277a1410bb9f3dc176ea0115\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"263\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Unlike other high-flying growth companies, Sea&#39;s Share-Based Compensation expenses are relatively low.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/81fa229682c8880d6edd35535ef6a747\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"419\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p><b>Competitive Moats</b></p><p>Based on my research and analysis, I identified three key competitive moats for Sea: brand, network effects, and barriers to entry. I used to think that Sea has cost advantages but as Garena becomes a smaller part of the overall business, and as losses continue to worsen, I have reason to believe that Sea no longer holds that moat.</p><p><b>Brand</b></p><p>As discussed in previous sections, Garena&#39;s games, particularly Free Fire, have consistently ranked as the most downloaded mobile game in the world. Additionally, the Shopee app has gained cross-border stardom and is now regarded as the most downloaded or fastest-trending shopping App in the countries it operates in. Lastly, SeaMoney is also gaining traction with banking licenses granted in various countries that should increase brand value and trust.</p><p><b>Network Effects</b></p><p>The sheer amount of app downloads leads to powerful network effects. Garena has 652 million QAUs, which is about 8% of the world&#39;s population. Shopee recorded 200+ million app downloads in FY2021 alone. SeaMoney QAUs topped 45.8 million in Q4 and it is still in the early stages of adoption.</p><p>With all these users in the Sea platform, cross-selling new products or services should be easier as Sea continues to scale. One such example is Shopee Brazil and Free Fire where each platform is encouraging consumers to use the other. As Sea continues to innovate and offer better experiences for its customers, the ecosystem gets bigger and tighter, leading to powerful network effects.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c641ac08707cc868b9e6004e2deaf950\" tg-width=\"1200\" tg-height=\"600\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Shopee Brazil</span></p><p><b>Barriers To Entry</b></p><p>I believe each of Sea&#39;s core businesses is operating in a winner-takes-most environment with high barriers to entry.</p><p>The mobile gaming environment requires the most talented developers to launch blockbuster games. Garena&#39;s Free Fire is certainly a blockbuster game and time in Free Fire&#39;s game means time away from other mobile games.</p><p>Just like how Amazon (AMZN) dominates in the US, the e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia and Latin America is dominated by a few players, such as Shopee, Tokopedia, and <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/MELI\">MercadoLibre</a> (MELI). The scale and unit economics that these players have achieved makes it unsustainable for new entrants to compete with them.</p><p>Banking and fintech is also a highly-regulated environment. Furthermore, consumers prefer to have just one mobile wallet, such as ShopeePay, as opposed to owning several different fintech applications.</p><p><b>Valuation</b></p><p>Based on my sum-of-the-parts and comparable company valuation analysis, Sea looks to be slightly undervalued with 19% upside potential. Of course, comparables are not perfect but based on this, we can gauge where Sea stands among peers.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f2400cd917e5f6ce8c47ef74a8062093\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"353\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>On the flip side, Sea looks extremely cheap on a historical basis. In terms of EV/Sales, Sea is trading at the lowest valuation since its IPO, trading at just 4.2x forward sales.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/bed1fd805a89523bbb8fa982bee40079\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"427\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Koyfin</span></p><p>In terms of EV/Gross Profit, Sea is trading even cheaper than its March 2020 lows.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fdf589a808c84131e9c36aa7b65a5129\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"427\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Koyfin</span></p><p>The valuation compression is warranted given that the company flew too close to the sun and now it is cratering back to the sea — not just for Sea, but almost all growth stocks took a beating. Growth is also slowing down and the macroeconomic environment looks gloomier than ever. However, this is not the end of the world; I think the markets are overreacting. Diversion from the mean goes both ways — perhaps, current prices present a good margin of safety for long-term investors.</p><p><b>Catalysts</b></p><ul><li><b>Successful International Expansion</b> — Shopee has been successful in replicating its playbook from Southeast Asia to Brazil. Recently, Shopee launched operations in India, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Poland, and Spain. If Shopee can take substantial market share in these new regions, Shopee&#39;s growth could turn exponential.</li><li><b>The Metaverse</b> — Sea&#39;s withering gaming division needs to be revitalized. New games and features could definitely provide the boost that it needs. For example, the metaverse is an exciting opportunity and Garena could introduce this concept to its 600+ million QAUs. Sea AI Lab (SAIL) and Sea Capital are two ventures that could accelerate the company into emerging industries, including the metaverse.</li></ul><blockquote>We will continue to encourage user-generated content by enhancing greater features and accessibility. We believe that a strong user reception to Craftland is a positive indicator of the initial success to encourage user participation in content creation and to build Free Fire into an increasingly open platform and is well aligned with major emerging industry trends such as metaverse.</blockquote><ul><li><b>Regional SuperApp</b> — Although this concept has yet to be discussed by management, launching a regional SuperApp could enhance user engagement to new levels. For example, imagine Shopee users being able to play games, shop, order food delivery, pay for services, transfer money, invest, all under one app. Imagine users being able to convert their deposited funds in ShopeePay, into ShopeeCoins, and use it to perform cross-border transactions.</li><li><b>Continued Growth In SeaMoney</b> — SeaMoney is still in its early stages and continued adoption of Sea&#39;s digital financial services offerings will be a strong addition to Sea&#39;s bull thesis. SPayLater has real potential to disrupt the consumer credit industry. SeaBank and ShopeePay have the opportunity to capture digital wallet, digital banking, and cashless society trends.</li><li><b>Free Fire India Ban Lift</b>— Garena&#39;s weak guidance factored in the headwinds coming from the ban in India. If the ban is lifted, the stock may react positively as much of Sea&#39;s cash burn problems may be eliminated.</li></ul><p><b>Risks</b></p><ul><li><b>The Pressure to Launch Blockbuster Games</b>— There will come a time when Free Fire will be dethroned as the most-played and most-downloaded game. That is just how the gaming business works. This puts a substantial risk on the cash flow generation potential of Garena. Launching blockbuster games is never easy and it requires many trials and errors along the way. For me, I would like to see Garena shift to a gaming franchise model where the company launches an updated version of an existing game every year or two, which presents a more stable and recurring revenue stream for the company. An example would be FIFA or Call of Duty.</li><li><b>Shopee India Ban</b> — With Free Fire banned in India, there&#39;s also the potential for Shoppe to be banned as well.</li><li><b>Failure to Gain Traction in International Markets</b>— Shopee pulled out of France in early March, an indication that Shoppe&#39;s business model is not replicable in other countries, especially in more developed regions. Shopee Poland and Spain may be next on the exit list as they hold a close resemblance to France.</li><li><b>Geopolitical Risks</b>— Tencent, a Chinese company, has an 18.7% equity stake in Sea. Sanctions, bans, and other restrictions on Chinese companies, given the current geopolitical environment, could spell trouble for Sea. Tencent may have to cut exposure on Sea or even dissolve its developing-publishing partnership with Garena.</li><li><b>Local Competition</b>— Local champions operating in their respective markets cannot be ignored. These include GoTo in Indonesia, MercadoLibre in Latin America, and Flipkart in India.</li></ul><p>In addition, there&#39;s a certain level of pride for consumers to see their native-born companies succeed. I&#39;m Indonesian, and it makes me really happy to see GoTo grow and grow.</p><p>GoTo, the holding company of both Indonesian tech darlings Gojek and Tokopedia, recently announced its plan to IPO in the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Here&#39;s a glance of GoTo&#39;s stats for the 12-months ended 30 September 2021:</p><ul><li>Valuation: $26.2 billion to $28.8 billion</li><li>GMV: $28.8 billion</li><li>Revenue: $1 billion</li><li>Gross Orders: 2 billion</li><li>Annual Transacting Users: 55 million</li><li>Driver Partners: 2.5 million</li><li>Merchants: 14 million</li></ul><p>The point is that there are big-time local players operating in Sea&#39;s markets that investors should never ignore. Here&#39;s a little snippet from my previous Shopee article:</p><blockquote>But with the GoTo merger, Indonesia could potentially extinguish the orange flame that charred its forest for many years. Now, GoTo could finally reclaim a good chunk of its territory that was lost to waves of competition, especially from Shopee. GoTo could finally gain more ground as the roots grew even stronger with the merger, fertilized with the synergies of value propositions, logistics, payments, and banking solutions.</blockquote><blockquote>Meanwhile, Sea Limited&#39;s stock continues to soar, ignoring the titan of an elephant in the room. And because of GoTo&#39;s integration, Shopee&#39;s vertically-integrated business model doesn&#39;t look like a strong competitive advantage anymore.</blockquote><p><b>Conclusion</b></p><p>Each of Sea&#39;s core businesses is in hypergrowth mode, propelled by megatrends in the mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech industry. Management understands these opportunities and therefore, is sacrificing short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. Despite being a larger business, Sea still has a massive growth runway ahead.</p><p>That is not to say that unprofitability and competition risks can and should be ignored. The biggest concern for investors is the company&#39;s unsustainable cash burn rate, which will likely lead to further capital raises in the near future.</p><p>Nonetheless, the long-term growth thesis for the three-headed monster remains intact. Strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats should support the business going forward. In addition, shares of Sea are trading at the lowest valuation multiples ever, which presents a good margin of safety for an entry at these prices.</p><p>Thank you for reading my Sea Limited deep dive. If you enjoyed the article, please let me know in the comment section down below. If you have any suggestions or feedback, don&#39;t hesitate to share your thoughts as well.</p></body></html>","source":"seekingalpha","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Sea Limited: The Three-Headed Monster</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nSea Limited: The Three-Headed Monster\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2022-03-19 09:25 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4496480-sea-limited-the-three-headed-monster><strong>seekingalpha</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>SummaryGarena, Sea’s only profitable segment, serves as a lifeline for its other two segments, but Bookings are expected to fall sharply in FY2022.In addition, Shopee's losses are widening. However, ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4496480-sea-limited-the-three-headed-monster\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"SE":"Sea Ltd"},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4496480-sea-limited-the-three-headed-monster","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/5a36db9d73b4222bc376d24ccc48c8a4","article_id":"2220777059","content_text":"SummaryGarena, Sea’s only profitable segment, serves as a lifeline for its other two segments, but Bookings are expected to fall sharply in FY2022.In addition, Shopee's losses are widening. However, the e-commerce segment is expected to be self-funded by 2025. This is achievable as take rates are trending in the right direction.SeaMoney is also gaining traction at an unprecedented pace, a monster lurking in the shadows. Investors should pay attention as this segment could serve as Sea's second cash cow.With a net cash position of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won't be long before Sea requires another cash infusion.Despite unprofitability risks, Sea has a strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats. The stock is trading at the lowest multiple ever - it is worth a nibble at these prices.undefined undefined/iStock via Getty ImagesI've been following Sea Limited ADR (NYSE:SE) for quite some time now and the stock got me interested again given the recent 75% selloff. Today, I'm doing a deep dive on the three-headed monster (and each of its heads) to see if the company is a good investment opportunity at these levels. Let's get started!Investment ThesisSea is at the forefront of the internet revolution in developing regions. This had many investors buying into the growth story of the company, sending shares soaring high into the sun for the better part of 2020 and 2021. However, the stock has cratered back to sea amid concerns about the company's slowing growth, especially for its only cash cow, Garena. To make matters worse, Shopee's losses are also getting worse.The Group's cash burn rate is still high, estimated to be $(3.6) billion in FY2022. With a net cash position of $5.9 billion, future capital raises are very likely.On the bright side, Sea still has a long growth runway ahead, solidified by its leadership positions in Southeast Asia and Latin America. SeaMoney, although still unprofitable, could also emerge as Sea's second cash cow.Despite unprofitability and competitive risks, Sea has strong competitive moats and it is trading at the cheapest valuation multiples since its IPO.The three-headed monster is a Buy at these levels.Value PropositionFounded in Singapore in 2009, Sea has grown to become the leading consumer internet company in the world, with a substantial presence in the Southeast Asian region.Mission: To better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology.Sea is a holding company for three core businesses: Garena, Shopee, and SeaMoney. Sea's main value proposition is providing a vertically-integrated experience through its different core businesses.GarenaIts digital entertainment division, Garena, was Sea's first business venture. In fact, Sea was originally named Garena Interactive Holding Limited before changing its name to Sea Limited in 2017.Garena is one of the largest online games developers and publishers, releasing some of the most successful mobile and PC games over the last decade. For example, Garena's Free Fire, its self-developed mobile battle royale game, topped the global download charts for the last three years. According to data.ai, Free Fire also ranked second globally by average monthly active users on Google Play in 2021. In Southeast Asia and Latin America, Free Fire was the highest-grossing mobile game for ten consecutive quarters, and in the US for four consecutive quarters. Based on Sensor Tower's findings, Free Fire still holds the most downloads globally as of January 2022.Source: SensorTowerGarena also exclusively licenses and publishes games from global partners and third-party developers. Some of these partners include Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY), Activision (ATVI), and Arumgames. Games like Speed Drifters, Arena of Valor, and Fantasy Town fall into this category as they are co-developed with partners or licensed from partners.In addition, Garena organizes some of the largest e-sports events from local tournaments to professional competitions at a global level. Moreover, Garena offers other entertainment content such as live-streaming, user chat, and online forums.ShopeePerhaps the most exciting business segment is Sea's mobile-centric e-commerce platform, Shopee. Launched in 2015, Shopee is now one of the fastest-growing e-commerce marketplaces with a strong presence in Southeast Asia, as well as growing recognition in Latin America and some European countries.Source: ShopeeThrough the Shopee platform, buyers can purchase items from sellers which are primarily small and medium businesses (or mom-and-pop stores). At the same time, larger, more established retailers like Xiaomi (OTCPK:XIACF), Microsoft (MSFT), or Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) can leverage Shopee's two premium shopping platforms, Shopee Mall and Shopee Premium.Along with Shopee's e-commerce marketplace, Shopee also offers adjacent products and services for both buyers and sellers:Service by Shopee - Value-added services for sellers such as integrated payment, logistics, fulfillment, seller support, inventory management, and online store operations.BuyerProtection - Consumer protection policies and procedures including seller verification, product listing screening, and dispute resolution. In addition, Shopee Guarantee reduces settlement risks by holding customers' funds in a separate account until delivery is complete, where funds will be released to buyers.Integrated Logistics Services- Shopee partners with various local and regional third-party logistics service providers to provide a seamless last-mile delivery experience for both buyers and sellers. Shopee also has its own delivery service called Shopee Xpress.Social Features - Shopee also offers other social and gamification features, including Shopee Coins (virtual currency), Shopee Live (livestream), Shopee Games (in-app games), and Shopee Feed (similar to Instagram).On-demand Services- Shopee also recently launched on-demand services such as ShopeeFood, instant delivery, and groceries, competing directly with Grab (GRAB), Gojek, and Uber (UBER).Shopee's scale is unmatched and it is still growing at an unprecedented pace. According to data.ai, Shopee in Southeast Asia and Taiwan ranked first in average monthly active users and total time spent in the app in 2021. Shopee Indonesia, arguably Shopee's most important market, ranked first in the Shopping category. Shopee Brazil, which launched in October 2019, was also ranked first in the Shopping category. And globally, Shopee ranked first in the Shopping category, and is the #13 most downloaded app regardless of category, logging in 200+ million downloads in 2021.Source: SensorTowerSeaMoneySeaMoney was launched in 2014 and is now one of the leading digital financial services providers in Sea's operating countries. SeaMoney offers mobile wallet services, payment processing, credit, and other digital financial services. These services are offered under SeaMoney's various brands including AirPay, ShopeePay, SPayLater, and other local brands depending on the country. SeaMoney was initially launched in Vietnam and Thailand but has since expanded to other regions.Through SeaMoney's mobile wallet offerings, consumers and merchants have added flexibility in terms of payment options, whether through online or offline means. The launch of SPayLater, which is basically a \"buy now pay later\" payment option, enables consumers to purchase items without accessing credit. For those who are interested, I've written a deep dive on Affirm (AFRM) where I discuss the main value propositions that BNPL provides.SeaMoney has obtained bank licenses and government approvals to provide financial services in various countries. For example, Sea acquired Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi in Indonesia back in early 2021 as a push towards offering a digital banking solution. The company is now rebranded to SeaBank, which currently offers a high-yield savings account and virtual account.Source: SeaBank WebsiteSeaMoney's main value proposition lies in offering a mobile wallet and payment solutions that are integrated with Sea's other businesses, namely Garena and Shopee, enabling consumers and merchants to transact seamlessly in one vertically-integrated platform.Market OpportunitySea's market opportunity is predicated around the industry outlook of each of its business segments: mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech. Let's take a look at each industry that Sea operates in.First, we have the mobile gaming industry. According to data.ai, Mobile Game Consumer Spend grew from $74 billion in 2018 to $116 billion in 2021, while Mobile Game Downloads grew from 63 billion in 2018 to 83 billion in 2021. Among the Top Genres by Downloads were Hypercasual games such as Hair Challenge and Water Sort Puzzle. However, the Top Genres by Consumer Spend belong to the Strategy, RPG, and Shooting categories where Garena specializes in. For example, Free Fire was the top Shooting game by revenue in Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, and the US, in 2021. Globally, however, it is still behind PUBG Mobile, which generates the bulk of its revenue from China.Source: SensorTowerAccording to Adjust, the mobile gaming industry is expected to reach $272 billion by 2030, which is about 1.5x of 2021's total figure. Given Garena's successes in monetizing its games, Garena should continue to enjoy gaming tailwinds in the foreseeable future, provided that its games remain in trend. This is also supported by Unity's findings that the APAC region is the fastest-growing regional market, a market that Garena dominates in.Moving on to e-commerce, we all know that e-commerce is growing rapidly and that its market share as a whole will continue to trend up from here. This is especially true for the Southeast Asian region where internet and smartphone adoption continues to increase by the day. Based on the e-Conomy SEA report, Southeast Asia now has 440 million internet users, up from 360 million in 2019. Its total population is about 589 million.Internet Gross Merchandise Value, or GMV, for the region was $170 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $360 billion by 2025 with e-commerce leading the charge. The shift to e-commerce is not only happening on the consumer side but also on the merchant side. Digital marketing tools, analytical tools, and digital payment solutions have accelerated business for merchants. Shopee's vertically-integrated platform also makes it easy for merchants in these developing countries to set up shop, distribute goods, and accept payments in a single platform.Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021Furthermore, Sea has recently expanded its e-commerce operations to other regions such as Latin America and Europe, which further expands its market opportunity.Lastly, we have the fintech industry pertaining to SeaMoney. In my PayPal (PYPL) deep dive, I discussed the growth of mobile wallets as a payment method in both online and offline transactions. The shift to a cashless and cardless society is inevitable and that is also true for Sea's markets.Source: Ark Invest Big Ideas 2022As you can see below, mobile wallets continue to gain traction in Southeast Asia. In addition, 92% of digital merchants intend to maintain usage or increase usage of digital payments in the next 1 to 2 years. ShopeePay and SeaMoney's other brands will benefit from this trend. Also of important note, SeaMoney's expansion to buy now pay later with SPayLater will be a key GMV and revenue driver for the segment. These are the reasons why some investors are so bullish on SeaMoney and why SeaMoney is a monster lurking in the shadows.Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021As you can see, Sea is at the forefront of three megatrends which should propel the business forward from here. Also, combining the different verticals in the same platform would present a significant synergistic opportunity as Sea establishes itself as a SuperApp in the making.Revenue ModelAs mentioned previously, Sea operates three main business segments.Digital EntertainmentGarena operates a freemium model whereby users can download and play games for free. The company generates revenue by selling in-game virtual items such as clothing, weaponry, or equipment.Investors should take note of how revenue is recognized for this segment. According to Sea's 10-K:Proceeds from these sales are initially recognized as “Advances from customers” and subsequently reclassified to “Deferred revenue” when the users make in-game purchases of the virtual currencies or virtual items within the games operated by the Company and the in-game purchases are no longer refundable.Garena also licenses games from other game developers. Revenue is generated based on revenue-sharing/royalty agreements with these developers. Revenue is recognized over the performance obligation period.Such delivery obligation period is determined in accordance with the estimated average lifespan of the virtual goods sold or estimated average lifespan of the paying users of the said games or similar games.E-commerceShopee generates revenue through a marketplace model. Sellers on the platform pay Shopee based on paid advertisement services, transaction-based fees, logistics services, and other value-added services.Shopee also generates revenue from goods sold directly by Shopee, which the company purchases in bulk from manufacturers or third-party suppliers.Digital Financial ServicesSeaMoney revenue consists of:Interest and fees from loans granted to commercial customersInterest and fees from Sea's consumer credit business such as SPayLaterCommissions charged to merchants when a customer pays using SeaMoney's mobile walletIncome StatementLet's analyze each of the business segments and then look at the entire Group as a whole.Digital EntertainmentGarena Revenue saw a 104% increase YoY in Q4. For the full year, Garena Revenue was up 114% YoY.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe rapid increase in Revenue was primarily due to recognition of accumulated deferred revenue from previous quarters. Bookings—which is essentially GAAP Revenue plus the change in digital entertainment deferred revenue —actually dropped for the first time QoQ and it is now lower than Revenue. This means that gamers are spending less on in-virtual items which will lead to lower Revenue recognized in subsequent quarters. As you can see, Bookings is in a massive deceleration.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe drop in Bookings was due to fewer gamers in the platform as the economy reopens and people spend more time outdoors, at school, or in the office. Quarterly Active Users, or QAUs, grew only 7% in Q4 to 652 million, compared to Q3's QAUs of 729 million.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAs a result, Quarterly Paying Users, or QPUs, decelerated as well, which led to lower Bookings. Q4 QPUs was 77 million compared to Q3's 93 million.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe markets reacted negatively to this slowdown in Garena growth as the gaming business acts as the lifeline for Sea's two other segments. As you can see, Garena is a high-margin business, producing Adjusted EBITDA of $2.7 billion in FY2021. Operating Margin is very high at 61% in Q4. AEBITDA margin, on the other hand, is trending downwards as QoQ adds in Bookings wither.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAs such, the slowdown in growth for Garena is scaring investors away as it may not provide sufficient cash flow to fund the continued growth of Shopee and SeaMoney.E-CommerceShopee GMV continues its upward march as e-commerce continues to gain traction in Shopee's existing and newer markets. However, we're also seeing a deceleration in growth due to tough YoY comps. GMV in FY2021 was $62.5 billion, an increase of 77%.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisGMV growth was also due to an increase in Orders in the Shopee platform, which totaled 6.1 billion in FY2021, an increase of 117%. Average Order Value, or AOV, however, is trending downwards. This may be perceived negatively as processing more lower-AOV orders meant higher logistical expenses and thus lower margins per order.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe increase in GMV translated to higher Shopee Revenue, which grew faster than GMV. Shopee Revenue grew 136% to $5.1 billion in FY2021, as compared to GMV growth of 77%.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe faster growth in Revenue was due to Shopee's increasing take rate, which displays Shopee's ability to monetize its marketplace platform. This is one of the only few positive developments coming out of the most recent earnings update.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisDespite the improving Revenue and take rate, Shopee is still suffering huge losses and it is mounting with each subsequent quarter, primarily due to the company expanding into new markets. FY2021 Shopee AEBITDA was $(2.6) billion at a -50% margin. Recall that Garena AEBITDA was $2.7 billion.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAEBITDA per Order has been improving, although it flat-lined in the last few quarters. Again, this is due to the company aggressively expanding into new markets. For example, in Q4, Shopee Brazil recorded 140+ million gross orders with a $70+ million Revenue, up 400% and 326%, respectively. However, AEBITDA per Order in Brazil is still negative at $(2) per Order, despite being a 40% improvement from last year. As such, it is still a far cry from the overall AEBITDA per Order of $(0.45).Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisOn the bright side, in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Q4 AEBITDA per Order before \"allocation of the headquarters’ common expenses\" was $(0.15), an improvement from last year's $(0.21). This shows that there is certainly hope for Shopee to be AEBITDA positive soon, which management has pointed out during the Q4 earnings call:We currently expect Shopee to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA before HQ cost allocation in Southeast Asia and Taiwan by this year. We also expect SeaMoney to achieve positive cash flow by next year. As a result, we currently expect that by 2025 cash generated by Shopee and SeaMoney proactively will enable these two businesses to substantially self-fund their own long-term growth.Digital Financial ServicesSeaMoney's Mobile Wallet Total Payment Volume grew 120% YoY to $17.2 billion in FY2021 due to the increasing adoption of mobile wallets in the region.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe growth in TPV was largely driven by the growth in QAUs. As shown below, the total ending QAUs in Q4 grew 90% YoY to 45.8 million users.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe real exciting part is that Revenue grew much faster than TPV and QAUs. SeaMoney Revenue is growing at a blistering pace, locking in high triple-digit growth rates over the last few years. FY2021 SeaMoney Revenue was $470 million, which is an increase of 673% from the previous year. This is due to take rates increasing from less than 1% in FY2020 to almost 4% by the end of the latest quarter.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisFurthermore, in Indonesia, over 20% of the QAUs have used more than one SeaMoney product or service, which includes credit services, digital banking, and insurance. As SeaMoney introduces more offerings, revenue should accelerate meaningfully as average revenue per user increases when people use additional products.As SeaMoney continues to gain scale, the segment will enjoy better unit economics. As shown below, while SeaMoney's AEBITDA is still in deeply negative territories, AEBITDA Margins has continued to trend towards profitability. Management also expects SeaMoney to be cash flow positive by next year.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThis is the segment that investors should pay special attention to, given that it has the potential to be Sea's second cash cow. For example, PayPal has Operating Margins of 20%+, which could be SeaMoney's long-term margin profile.GroupWith that said, let's take a look at how the business is doing as a whole.FY2021 Revenue was $10.0 billion, an increase of 128% YoY. Due to the law of large numbers and tough YoY comps, Revenue growth should decelerate from here.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisHere, we can see how Revenue is distributed across the different segments.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisWhat's encouraging is that Gross Profit Margins continue to trend upwards as the company gains economies of scale, even accounting for Shopee's aggressive expansion into new markets. FY2021 Gross Profit was $3.9 billion, up 189% YoY.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisOperating Expenses, however, remain elevated as management forgoes short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. FY2021 Total Operating Expenses were $5.5 billion. Below shows the different components of Operating Expenses as a percentage of Revenue.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisMost of the Operating Expenses were used for Sales & Marketing purposes. Unsurprisingly, Shopee had the highest S&M burn rate. Discounts, cashback, celebrity promotions... they're everywhere.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAs a result, Operating Profit Margins is still negative, although it is trending in the right direction.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAEBITDA, on the other hand, is plunging. This is due to Garena's falling Bookings and Shoppe's widening losses. AEBITDA for FY2021 was $(594) million, compared to FY2020 positive AEBITDA of $107 million. This is probably the most concerning figure for investors as such a high cash burn rate is unsustainable, which may also lead to additional capital raises that are dilutive to shareholders.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe guidance did not help either. Garena Bookings is expected to fall to just $3 billion, which is $1.3 billion lower than FY2021's number. Management blamed the reopening of the economy as well as the ban of Free Fire in India for the expected drop in Bookings. Assuming a modest 50% AEBITDA margin, Garena would bring in just $1.5 billion of AEBITDA for Sea in FY2022.On the other side, the other two segments are expected to continue with their immense pace of growth — Shopee and SeaMoney are expected to grow by 76% and 155%, respectively. If we assume a (50)% AEBITDA margin for both segments, Shopee and SeaMoney is expected to burn a total of about $(5.1) billion of AEBITDA. Adding Garena's estimated AEBITDA of $1.5 billion, Sea, as a Group, is expected to burn $(3.6) billion in FY2021.Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor PresentationBecause Garena is such an important piece of Shopee's and SeaMoney's growth story, a deceleration in Garena's business had investors reacting so negatively to Sea's latest earnings release, as now, the gaming business is incapable of covering the massive losses incurred by the other two business segments.Balance SheetSea's balance sheet position as of year-end FY2021 is at about $10.2 billion of Cash and Short Term Investments. While this may show that Sea has a substantial cushion against its short-term cash burn rate, its net cash position paints a different picture.Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor PresentationAdjusting for Sea's debt, Sea ended the year with a net cash position of around $5.9 billion. A substantial amount of its total debt comes from its recent issuance of 0.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2026. The notes were issued when the stock was trading at $318 per share back in September and the initial conversion price is set at $477 per share. So, yes... conversion in the next 2 to 3 years is very unlikely.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisWith net cash of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won't be long before Sea requires another cash infusion. Therefore, if the high cash burn rate persists for the next 2 to 3 years, investors face a major risk of increasing financial leverage and/or dilution in the form of equity raises.Cash Flow StatementHere is what cash flow looks like over the last few quarters. Notice how Operating Cash Flow turned negative in the last quarter. Most of the cash also comes from Financing activities.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisUnlike other high-flying growth companies, Sea's Share-Based Compensation expenses are relatively low.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisCompetitive MoatsBased on my research and analysis, I identified three key competitive moats for Sea: brand, network effects, and barriers to entry. I used to think that Sea has cost advantages but as Garena becomes a smaller part of the overall business, and as losses continue to worsen, I have reason to believe that Sea no longer holds that moat.BrandAs discussed in previous sections, Garena's games, particularly Free Fire, have consistently ranked as the most downloaded mobile game in the world. Additionally, the Shopee app has gained cross-border stardom and is now regarded as the most downloaded or fastest-trending shopping App in the countries it operates in. Lastly, SeaMoney is also gaining traction with banking licenses granted in various countries that should increase brand value and trust.Network EffectsThe sheer amount of app downloads leads to powerful network effects. Garena has 652 million QAUs, which is about 8% of the world's population. Shopee recorded 200+ million app downloads in FY2021 alone. SeaMoney QAUs topped 45.8 million in Q4 and it is still in the early stages of adoption.With all these users in the Sea platform, cross-selling new products or services should be easier as Sea continues to scale. One such example is Shopee Brazil and Free Fire where each platform is encouraging consumers to use the other. As Sea continues to innovate and offer better experiences for its customers, the ecosystem gets bigger and tighter, leading to powerful network effects.Source: Shopee BrazilBarriers To EntryI believe each of Sea's core businesses is operating in a winner-takes-most environment with high barriers to entry.The mobile gaming environment requires the most talented developers to launch blockbuster games. Garena's Free Fire is certainly a blockbuster game and time in Free Fire's game means time away from other mobile games.Just like how Amazon (AMZN) dominates in the US, the e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia and Latin America is dominated by a few players, such as Shopee, Tokopedia, and MercadoLibre (MELI). The scale and unit economics that these players have achieved makes it unsustainable for new entrants to compete with them.Banking and fintech is also a highly-regulated environment. Furthermore, consumers prefer to have just one mobile wallet, such as ShopeePay, as opposed to owning several different fintech applications.ValuationBased on my sum-of-the-parts and comparable company valuation analysis, Sea looks to be slightly undervalued with 19% upside potential. Of course, comparables are not perfect but based on this, we can gauge where Sea stands among peers.Source: Author's AnalysisOn the flip side, Sea looks extremely cheap on a historical basis. In terms of EV/Sales, Sea is trading at the lowest valuation since its IPO, trading at just 4.2x forward sales.Source: KoyfinIn terms of EV/Gross Profit, Sea is trading even cheaper than its March 2020 lows.Source: KoyfinThe valuation compression is warranted given that the company flew too close to the sun and now it is cratering back to the sea — not just for Sea, but almost all growth stocks took a beating. Growth is also slowing down and the macroeconomic environment looks gloomier than ever. However, this is not the end of the world; I think the markets are overreacting. Diversion from the mean goes both ways — perhaps, current prices present a good margin of safety for long-term investors.CatalystsSuccessful International Expansion — Shopee has been successful in replicating its playbook from Southeast Asia to Brazil. Recently, Shopee launched operations in India, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Poland, and Spain. If Shopee can take substantial market share in these new regions, Shopee's growth could turn exponential.The Metaverse — Sea's withering gaming division needs to be revitalized. New games and features could definitely provide the boost that it needs. For example, the metaverse is an exciting opportunity and Garena could introduce this concept to its 600+ million QAUs. Sea AI Lab (SAIL) and Sea Capital are two ventures that could accelerate the company into emerging industries, including the metaverse.We will continue to encourage user-generated content by enhancing greater features and accessibility. We believe that a strong user reception to Craftland is a positive indicator of the initial success to encourage user participation in content creation and to build Free Fire into an increasingly open platform and is well aligned with major emerging industry trends such as metaverse.Regional SuperApp — Although this concept has yet to be discussed by management, launching a regional SuperApp could enhance user engagement to new levels. For example, imagine Shopee users being able to play games, shop, order food delivery, pay for services, transfer money, invest, all under one app. Imagine users being able to convert their deposited funds in ShopeePay, into ShopeeCoins, and use it to perform cross-border transactions.Continued Growth In SeaMoney — SeaMoney is still in its early stages and continued adoption of Sea's digital financial services offerings will be a strong addition to Sea's bull thesis. SPayLater has real potential to disrupt the consumer credit industry. SeaBank and ShopeePay have the opportunity to capture digital wallet, digital banking, and cashless society trends.Free Fire India Ban Lift— Garena's weak guidance factored in the headwinds coming from the ban in India. If the ban is lifted, the stock may react positively as much of Sea's cash burn problems may be eliminated.RisksThe Pressure to Launch Blockbuster Games— There will come a time when Free Fire will be dethroned as the most-played and most-downloaded game. That is just how the gaming business works. This puts a substantial risk on the cash flow generation potential of Garena. Launching blockbuster games is never easy and it requires many trials and errors along the way. For me, I would like to see Garena shift to a gaming franchise model where the company launches an updated version of an existing game every year or two, which presents a more stable and recurring revenue stream for the company. An example would be FIFA or Call of Duty.Shopee India Ban — With Free Fire banned in India, there's also the potential for Shoppe to be banned as well.Failure to Gain Traction in International Markets— Shopee pulled out of France in early March, an indication that Shoppe's business model is not replicable in other countries, especially in more developed regions. Shopee Poland and Spain may be next on the exit list as they hold a close resemblance to France.Geopolitical Risks— Tencent, a Chinese company, has an 18.7% equity stake in Sea. Sanctions, bans, and other restrictions on Chinese companies, given the current geopolitical environment, could spell trouble for Sea. Tencent may have to cut exposure on Sea or even dissolve its developing-publishing partnership with Garena.Local Competition— Local champions operating in their respective markets cannot be ignored. These include GoTo in Indonesia, MercadoLibre in Latin America, and Flipkart in India.In addition, there's a certain level of pride for consumers to see their native-born companies succeed. I'm Indonesian, and it makes me really happy to see GoTo grow and grow.GoTo, the holding company of both Indonesian tech darlings Gojek and Tokopedia, recently announced its plan to IPO in the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Here's a glance of GoTo's stats for the 12-months ended 30 September 2021:Valuation: $26.2 billion to $28.8 billionGMV: $28.8 billionRevenue: $1 billionGross Orders: 2 billionAnnual Transacting Users: 55 millionDriver Partners: 2.5 millionMerchants: 14 millionThe point is that there are big-time local players operating in Sea's markets that investors should never ignore. Here's a little snippet from my previous Shopee article:But with the GoTo merger, Indonesia could potentially extinguish the orange flame that charred its forest for many years. Now, GoTo could finally reclaim a good chunk of its territory that was lost to waves of competition, especially from Shopee. GoTo could finally gain more ground as the roots grew even stronger with the merger, fertilized with the synergies of value propositions, logistics, payments, and banking solutions.Meanwhile, Sea Limited's stock continues to soar, ignoring the titan of an elephant in the room. And because of GoTo's integration, Shopee's vertically-integrated business model doesn't look like a strong competitive advantage anymore.ConclusionEach of Sea's core businesses is in hypergrowth mode, propelled by megatrends in the mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech industry. Management understands these opportunities and therefore, is sacrificing short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. Despite being a larger business, Sea still has a massive growth runway ahead.That is not to say that unprofitability and competition risks can and should be ignored. The biggest concern for investors is the company's unsustainable cash burn rate, which will likely lead to further capital raises in the near future.Nonetheless, the long-term growth thesis for the three-headed monster remains intact. Strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats should support the business going forward. In addition, shares of Sea are trading at the lowest valuation multiples ever, which presents a good margin of safety for an entry at these prices.Thank you for reading my Sea Limited deep dive. If you enjoyed the article, please let me know in the comment section down below. If you have any suggestions or feedback, don't hesitate to share your thoughts as well.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":467,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9035220196,"gmtCreate":1647613116278,"gmtModify":1676534250825,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Great, support tiger[Cool]&nbsp;","listText":"Great, support tiger[Cool]&nbsp;","text":"Great, support tiger[Cool]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9035220196","repostId":"1130532398","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"1130532398","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Providing stock market headlines, business news, financials and earnings ","home_visible":1,"media_name":"Tiger Newspress","id":"1079075236","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba"},"pubTimestamp":1647590694,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1130532398?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-03-18 16:04","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Over 90% of UP Fintech’s Q4 Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China, Achieving 119% of the Annual Target","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1130532398","media":"Tiger Newspress","summary":"UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all ","content":"<html><head></head><body><p>UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all of its subsidiaries and consolidated entities), a leading online brokerage firm focusing on global investors, today reported its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. Total revenue in the fourth quarter was US$62.2 million, and total revenue for the year 2021 reached US$264.5 million, a year-over-year increase of 91%. Non-GAAP net income was US$24.5 million.</p><p>At the end of 2021, customer accounts totaled 1.8 million, and the number of customers with deposits increased to 673,400. Furthermore, the company added 414,700 new funded accounts in 2021, more than all of its past annual funded account growth combined. In total, the company achieved 119% of its annual funded account growth target in 2021. During the fourth quarter, the company’s trading volume increased to US$85.9 billion, with total client assets reaching US$17.1 billion. The company’s annual trading volume totaled US$404.3 billion, 1.8 times that of the previous year.</p><p>Mr. Wu Tianhua, CEO and founder of UP Fintech commented, “In 2021, despite fluctuations in global financial markets and significant uncertainties, our focus on our internationalization strategy drove steady growth. In thefourth quarter, over 90% of new funded accounts came from international markets, with a large portion of the new funded accounts coming from Singapore. UP Fintech maintains leading market share in Singapore and the company&#39;s Singapore headquarters contributed to making the market as one of key growth drivers, both in the number of total accounts and newly acquired accounts. The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% year-over-year growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20 and above. In the year since we began to ramp up our self-clearing capabilities, we have made substantial progress and now self-clear over 80% of customers’ U.S. cash equities trades. Our firm’s capability to deploy proprietary technologies on our fintech platform demonstrates the contributions that Chinese innovation is making to the global brokerage industry. Our B2B businesses reached new milestones this year: as of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess ofHK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service. Overall, our company’s comprehensive enterprise services are gaining increasing recognition within the industry. In coming years, the company looks forward to entering new international markets and enabling a greater range of investors to allocate their assets globally on our innovative fintech platform.”</p><p><b>Over 90% of Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China as the Company Executes on its Global Expansion Strategy</b></p><p>Driven by strong growth in international markets,UP Fintechfurther expanded its client base. The company added 61,400 new funded accounts during the fourth quarter of which over 90% came from outside China. Furthermore, in 2021, the company added a total of 414,700 new funded accounts, achieving 119% of its annual target. In the fourth quarter, the company&#39;s trading volume was US$85.9 billion, client assets reached US$17.1 billion, commission income was up to US$29.9 million, and interest-related income increased to US$22.5 million.</p><p>At a time of global macroeconomic uncertainty, UP Fintechcontinues focus on its long-term expansion plans with a focus on improving the customer experience. To increase customer choice on its platform, the company recently added new functions such as bracket orders and a new display for analyzing diluted cost positions. The company also recently added an option screener and option list to better meet the needs of investors who trade options. In Australia,UP Fintechbegan to meet the needs of local investors by adding multi-dimensional analysis tools and real-time level 2 market data. Investors on the firm’s platform may view a rich range of financial metrics such as capital flow analysis and lists of corporate actions.</p><p>In addition,the company&#39;s wealth management business continued to attract more clients as the number of available investment products continued to rise. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s Fund Mall enabled another 661 funds for investors to choose from. As the selection of funds has increased, the number of customers investing in the Fund Mall increased by 377.5% year-over-year, and the AUM of the Fund Mall increased by 290.1% year-over-year. ForCash Plus, the company’s idle cash management product,the number of customers and their cumulative transfer value during the fourth quarter was nearly double that of the same period last year. The company also added HKD and SGD currencies to the Fund Mall to further meet customers global asset allocation needs.</p><p>The company offered 26 IPO subscriptions in Hong Kong and The U.S. during the fourth quarter, including several high-profile listings such as those of NetEase Cloud Music and Sense Time. For the full year 2021, the company in total offered 123 IPO subscriptions.The company is becoming one of the top platforms for retail investors to participate in new listings in Hong Kong; retail orders for larger listings such as those of Kuaishou and JD Logistics exceeded HK$10 billion. The company also assisted issuers in connecting with its investor base and highlighting their business performance by helping them hold online roadshows and broadcasting their earnings conference calls. During the year, the company held more than 60% of courses about high-quality Asian assets to investors.</p><p>The company continued to invest in key brokerage technologies to enhance its capability to manage securities trading from the front end to execution and clearing. Self-clearing has long been the purview of traditional banks, but the company continues to ramp up its capability to conduct self-clearing and by the end of the fourth quarter, over 80% of clients were having their U.S. cash equities trades self-cleared. As a result of the company’s investment in clearing technology, clearing costsdeclined quarter over quarter by 27.8%.</p><p>As part of its international expansion, the company continued to obtain new licenses and qualifications in multiple international jurisdictions. The firm now holds 50 licenses and qualifications across 37 categories in Hong Kong, Singapore, The U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. The company looks forward to using these licenses to further support its international expansion.</p><p>UP Fintechis also receiving growing recognition in international capital markets and in 2021 was selected for inclusion in the MSCI China All Shares Index and the MSCI China Small Cap Index.</p><p><b>The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% YoY growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20+</b></p><p>Since entering Singapore in February 2020,UP Fintechhas continued to consolidate its position in the local market. More than half of new funded accounts in the fourth quarter came from Singapore. According to App Annie, as of the end of 2021, as measured by the total number of accounts and downloads,UP Fintech’s flagship mobile trading App, Tiger Trade, led the online brokerage market in Singapore.The fourth quarter wasthe third consecutive quarter of over 100%year-over-yeargrowth in funded accounts in Singapore,and the numberof registered accounts now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20or above. In addition, approximately 30% of the new funded accountsin Singaporein the fourth quarter came from users over the age of 40, which demonstrates the firm’s trading platform appeals to a wide range of investors.</p><p>UP Fintech’s leading position in the Singapore market is due to its relentless focus on localization. In the fourth quarter, to better meet the needs of local clients, the company added a new module to allow easy display of Singapore companies listed in The U.S. market. The company also added new features such as industry classifications and sponsor data to assist customers learn more about local investment opportunities.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company offered customers in Singapore the opportunity to subscribe shares from two local issuers. The company also enabled institutional clients in Singapore the ability to participate in the global offerings of new issuers in Hong Kong, further increasing the ability of local investors to participate in China’s capital markets.</p><p>The AUM ofUP Fintech’swealth management business in Singapore increased by 186.5% while the number of customers increased by 223.9% quarter-over-quarter respectively. To increase the value proposition of Cash Plus in international markets, the company introduced lower thresholds for customers to invest their capital in Cash Plus. Local customers may now invest in Cash Plus with just 1 USD, 1 SGD, or 5 HKD and may transfer their funds in and out at any time. During the year, the company joined the Securities Association of Singapore and was honored that its subsidiary, Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., was officially admitted as a trading member of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited, and clearing member and depository agent of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited. The company is the first fintech enabled brokerage in the world to obtain such qualifications in Singapore. In November 2021, UP Fintech’s Singapore subsidiary was Named as &#34;Asia&#39;s Most Innovative Company&#34; by Fortune Times, a Singapore based business magazine, demonstrating the company’s innovative platform is gaining increasing recognition from local media.</p><p><b>The Cumulative Number of ESOP Clients at the End of 2021 was 2.5X Higher than the Year Before and Annual Enterprise Services Revenue Increased by 67%</b></p><p>Corporate services such as investment banking and ESOP have become a new driver of the company’s long-term growth. According to the company’s Q4 financial results, other revenues, which includes revenue from investment banking and ESOP, reached US$9.8 million in Q4, and annual revenue from this segment reached US$37.7 million, an increase of 67% from the prior year.</p><p>As of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess of HK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service.</p><p></p><p>During the fourth quarter, the company leveraged the strength of its innovative platform and comprehensive range of services to participate in the underwriting and distribution of 22 listings in The U.S. and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the company acted as an underwriter in the global offerings of NetEase Cloud Music, Sense Time, and Airdoc. For the listing of NetEase Cloud Music, the company was the sole online broker to participate in the global offering. In The U.S., the company leveraged its rich investment banking experience, licenses, and technical capabilities to serve as an underwriter for 15 U.S. IPOs. The 2021 IPO of Kuke Music was another notable milestone for the company; the company was the first online broker to serve as the lead underwriter in a U.S. IPO.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company’s investment bank continued to provide a rich range of services to next generation technology companies at multiple stages of their growth, from pre-IPO financial advisory to post listing capital markets services. In 2021, the company provided financial advisory services to over 30 companies. Finally, the company also assisted Canadian Solar conduct an ATM (At The Market) offering to raise additional capital to support the expansion of its green energy business.</p><p>With regards to the company’s ESOP business,UP Fintechadded 51 new clients during the quarter. Despite launching the business just over three years ago, the total number of clients served by the company’s ESOP system reached 313, an increase of 152.4% year-over-year. The company’s ESOP system has extensive capabilities that allow it serve clients listed in Hong Kong, The U.S., and China; the company’s ESOP system also serves a diverse range of pre-IPO clients.</p><p>As a global ESOP provider, the company offers comprehensive services for corporate ESOP management across multiple capital markets. In the fourth quarter, Tiger ESOP provided the pharmaceutical R&amp;D company, Pharmaron, with equity incentive management solutions for both A+H share capital markets. At the same time,UP Fintechalso provided ESOP-related tax, foreign exchange, and other specialized services for Pharmaron’&#39;s multinational employee base that includes British, American, and Chinese nationals. UP Fintech’s capability to provide ESOP and other ancillary services across multiple capital markets and nationalities is a testament to the sophistication of its ESOP system and ability to meet clients’ complex needs.</p><p>On the company’s vibrant social media community, The Tiger Community, 35 new corporations opened enterprise accounts in the fourth quarter, including seven internationally renowned fund companies, such as Fidelity International and Lion Global Investors. As more and more corporations open enterprise accounts in the Tiger Community, the company’s 9+ million user base is able to increase its interaction and understanding of the vast range of issuers and fund companies present in the community.</p><p>UP Fintech’s online community continues to build its position as a preferred investor relations &amp; PR platform for next generation technology companies. The company recently assisted Xiaomi hold an online product launch, helped organize an online conference for Kuaishou, and held a listing anniversary for Dada Nexus. Corporates are drawn to enterprise accounts as they may employ innovative marketing materials, such as interactive graphics and livestreams, to directly connect with investors and customers.Many enterprise accounts have already received over one million views and the company looks forward to inviting more investors and corporates to participate in its online community.</p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Over 90% of UP Fintech’s Q4 Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China, Achieving 119% of the Annual Target</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nOver 90% of UP Fintech’s Q4 Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China, Achieving 119% of the Annual Target\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<a class=\"head\" href=\"https://laohu8.com/wemedia/1079075236\">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Tiger Newspress </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2022-03-18 16:04</p>\n</div>\n\n</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body><p>UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all of its subsidiaries and consolidated entities), a leading online brokerage firm focusing on global investors, today reported its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. Total revenue in the fourth quarter was US$62.2 million, and total revenue for the year 2021 reached US$264.5 million, a year-over-year increase of 91%. Non-GAAP net income was US$24.5 million.</p><p>At the end of 2021, customer accounts totaled 1.8 million, and the number of customers with deposits increased to 673,400. Furthermore, the company added 414,700 new funded accounts in 2021, more than all of its past annual funded account growth combined. In total, the company achieved 119% of its annual funded account growth target in 2021. During the fourth quarter, the company’s trading volume increased to US$85.9 billion, with total client assets reaching US$17.1 billion. The company’s annual trading volume totaled US$404.3 billion, 1.8 times that of the previous year.</p><p>Mr. Wu Tianhua, CEO and founder of UP Fintech commented, “In 2021, despite fluctuations in global financial markets and significant uncertainties, our focus on our internationalization strategy drove steady growth. In thefourth quarter, over 90% of new funded accounts came from international markets, with a large portion of the new funded accounts coming from Singapore. UP Fintech maintains leading market share in Singapore and the company&#39;s Singapore headquarters contributed to making the market as one of key growth drivers, both in the number of total accounts and newly acquired accounts. The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% year-over-year growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20 and above. In the year since we began to ramp up our self-clearing capabilities, we have made substantial progress and now self-clear over 80% of customers’ U.S. cash equities trades. Our firm’s capability to deploy proprietary technologies on our fintech platform demonstrates the contributions that Chinese innovation is making to the global brokerage industry. Our B2B businesses reached new milestones this year: as of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess ofHK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service. Overall, our company’s comprehensive enterprise services are gaining increasing recognition within the industry. In coming years, the company looks forward to entering new international markets and enabling a greater range of investors to allocate their assets globally on our innovative fintech platform.”</p><p><b>Over 90% of Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China as the Company Executes on its Global Expansion Strategy</b></p><p>Driven by strong growth in international markets,UP Fintechfurther expanded its client base. The company added 61,400 new funded accounts during the fourth quarter of which over 90% came from outside China. Furthermore, in 2021, the company added a total of 414,700 new funded accounts, achieving 119% of its annual target. In the fourth quarter, the company&#39;s trading volume was US$85.9 billion, client assets reached US$17.1 billion, commission income was up to US$29.9 million, and interest-related income increased to US$22.5 million.</p><p>At a time of global macroeconomic uncertainty, UP Fintechcontinues focus on its long-term expansion plans with a focus on improving the customer experience. To increase customer choice on its platform, the company recently added new functions such as bracket orders and a new display for analyzing diluted cost positions. The company also recently added an option screener and option list to better meet the needs of investors who trade options. In Australia,UP Fintechbegan to meet the needs of local investors by adding multi-dimensional analysis tools and real-time level 2 market data. Investors on the firm’s platform may view a rich range of financial metrics such as capital flow analysis and lists of corporate actions.</p><p>In addition,the company&#39;s wealth management business continued to attract more clients as the number of available investment products continued to rise. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s Fund Mall enabled another 661 funds for investors to choose from. As the selection of funds has increased, the number of customers investing in the Fund Mall increased by 377.5% year-over-year, and the AUM of the Fund Mall increased by 290.1% year-over-year. ForCash Plus, the company’s idle cash management product,the number of customers and their cumulative transfer value during the fourth quarter was nearly double that of the same period last year. The company also added HKD and SGD currencies to the Fund Mall to further meet customers global asset allocation needs.</p><p>The company offered 26 IPO subscriptions in Hong Kong and The U.S. during the fourth quarter, including several high-profile listings such as those of NetEase Cloud Music and Sense Time. For the full year 2021, the company in total offered 123 IPO subscriptions.The company is becoming one of the top platforms for retail investors to participate in new listings in Hong Kong; retail orders for larger listings such as those of Kuaishou and JD Logistics exceeded HK$10 billion. The company also assisted issuers in connecting with its investor base and highlighting their business performance by helping them hold online roadshows and broadcasting their earnings conference calls. During the year, the company held more than 60% of courses about high-quality Asian assets to investors.</p><p>The company continued to invest in key brokerage technologies to enhance its capability to manage securities trading from the front end to execution and clearing. Self-clearing has long been the purview of traditional banks, but the company continues to ramp up its capability to conduct self-clearing and by the end of the fourth quarter, over 80% of clients were having their U.S. cash equities trades self-cleared. As a result of the company’s investment in clearing technology, clearing costsdeclined quarter over quarter by 27.8%.</p><p>As part of its international expansion, the company continued to obtain new licenses and qualifications in multiple international jurisdictions. The firm now holds 50 licenses and qualifications across 37 categories in Hong Kong, Singapore, The U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. The company looks forward to using these licenses to further support its international expansion.</p><p>UP Fintechis also receiving growing recognition in international capital markets and in 2021 was selected for inclusion in the MSCI China All Shares Index and the MSCI China Small Cap Index.</p><p><b>The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% YoY growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20+</b></p><p>Since entering Singapore in February 2020,UP Fintechhas continued to consolidate its position in the local market. More than half of new funded accounts in the fourth quarter came from Singapore. According to App Annie, as of the end of 2021, as measured by the total number of accounts and downloads,UP Fintech’s flagship mobile trading App, Tiger Trade, led the online brokerage market in Singapore.The fourth quarter wasthe third consecutive quarter of over 100%year-over-yeargrowth in funded accounts in Singapore,and the numberof registered accounts now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20or above. In addition, approximately 30% of the new funded accountsin Singaporein the fourth quarter came from users over the age of 40, which demonstrates the firm’s trading platform appeals to a wide range of investors.</p><p>UP Fintech’s leading position in the Singapore market is due to its relentless focus on localization. In the fourth quarter, to better meet the needs of local clients, the company added a new module to allow easy display of Singapore companies listed in The U.S. market. The company also added new features such as industry classifications and sponsor data to assist customers learn more about local investment opportunities.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company offered customers in Singapore the opportunity to subscribe shares from two local issuers. The company also enabled institutional clients in Singapore the ability to participate in the global offerings of new issuers in Hong Kong, further increasing the ability of local investors to participate in China’s capital markets.</p><p>The AUM ofUP Fintech’swealth management business in Singapore increased by 186.5% while the number of customers increased by 223.9% quarter-over-quarter respectively. To increase the value proposition of Cash Plus in international markets, the company introduced lower thresholds for customers to invest their capital in Cash Plus. Local customers may now invest in Cash Plus with just 1 USD, 1 SGD, or 5 HKD and may transfer their funds in and out at any time. During the year, the company joined the Securities Association of Singapore and was honored that its subsidiary, Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., was officially admitted as a trading member of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited, and clearing member and depository agent of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited. The company is the first fintech enabled brokerage in the world to obtain such qualifications in Singapore. In November 2021, UP Fintech’s Singapore subsidiary was Named as &#34;Asia&#39;s Most Innovative Company&#34; by Fortune Times, a Singapore based business magazine, demonstrating the company’s innovative platform is gaining increasing recognition from local media.</p><p><b>The Cumulative Number of ESOP Clients at the End of 2021 was 2.5X Higher than the Year Before and Annual Enterprise Services Revenue Increased by 67%</b></p><p>Corporate services such as investment banking and ESOP have become a new driver of the company’s long-term growth. According to the company’s Q4 financial results, other revenues, which includes revenue from investment banking and ESOP, reached US$9.8 million in Q4, and annual revenue from this segment reached US$37.7 million, an increase of 67% from the prior year.</p><p>As of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess of HK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service.</p><p></p><p>During the fourth quarter, the company leveraged the strength of its innovative platform and comprehensive range of services to participate in the underwriting and distribution of 22 listings in The U.S. and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the company acted as an underwriter in the global offerings of NetEase Cloud Music, Sense Time, and Airdoc. For the listing of NetEase Cloud Music, the company was the sole online broker to participate in the global offering. In The U.S., the company leveraged its rich investment banking experience, licenses, and technical capabilities to serve as an underwriter for 15 U.S. IPOs. The 2021 IPO of Kuke Music was another notable milestone for the company; the company was the first online broker to serve as the lead underwriter in a U.S. IPO.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company’s investment bank continued to provide a rich range of services to next generation technology companies at multiple stages of their growth, from pre-IPO financial advisory to post listing capital markets services. In 2021, the company provided financial advisory services to over 30 companies. Finally, the company also assisted Canadian Solar conduct an ATM (At The Market) offering to raise additional capital to support the expansion of its green energy business.</p><p>With regards to the company’s ESOP business,UP Fintechadded 51 new clients during the quarter. Despite launching the business just over three years ago, the total number of clients served by the company’s ESOP system reached 313, an increase of 152.4% year-over-year. The company’s ESOP system has extensive capabilities that allow it serve clients listed in Hong Kong, The U.S., and China; the company’s ESOP system also serves a diverse range of pre-IPO clients.</p><p>As a global ESOP provider, the company offers comprehensive services for corporate ESOP management across multiple capital markets. In the fourth quarter, Tiger ESOP provided the pharmaceutical R&amp;D company, Pharmaron, with equity incentive management solutions for both A+H share capital markets. At the same time,UP Fintechalso provided ESOP-related tax, foreign exchange, and other specialized services for Pharmaron’&#39;s multinational employee base that includes British, American, and Chinese nationals. UP Fintech’s capability to provide ESOP and other ancillary services across multiple capital markets and nationalities is a testament to the sophistication of its ESOP system and ability to meet clients’ complex needs.</p><p>On the company’s vibrant social media community, The Tiger Community, 35 new corporations opened enterprise accounts in the fourth quarter, including seven internationally renowned fund companies, such as Fidelity International and Lion Global Investors. As more and more corporations open enterprise accounts in the Tiger Community, the company’s 9+ million user base is able to increase its interaction and understanding of the vast range of issuers and fund companies present in the community.</p><p>UP Fintech’s online community continues to build its position as a preferred investor relations &amp; PR platform for next generation technology companies. The company recently assisted Xiaomi hold an online product launch, helped organize an online conference for Kuaishou, and held a listing anniversary for Dada Nexus. Corporates are drawn to enterprise accounts as they may employ innovative marketing materials, such as interactive graphics and livestreams, to directly connect with investors and customers.Many enterprise accounts have already received over one million views and the company looks forward to inviting more investors and corporates to participate in its online community.</p></body></html>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"TIGR":"老虎证券"},"source_url":"","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1130532398","content_text":"UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all of its subsidiaries and consolidated entities), a leading online brokerage firm focusing on global investors, today reported its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. Total revenue in the fourth quarter was US$62.2 million, and total revenue for the year 2021 reached US$264.5 million, a year-over-year increase of 91%. Non-GAAP net income was US$24.5 million.At the end of 2021, customer accounts totaled 1.8 million, and the number of customers with deposits increased to 673,400. Furthermore, the company added 414,700 new funded accounts in 2021, more than all of its past annual funded account growth combined. In total, the company achieved 119% of its annual funded account growth target in 2021. During the fourth quarter, the company’s trading volume increased to US$85.9 billion, with total client assets reaching US$17.1 billion. The company’s annual trading volume totaled US$404.3 billion, 1.8 times that of the previous year.Mr. Wu Tianhua, CEO and founder of UP Fintech commented, “In 2021, despite fluctuations in global financial markets and significant uncertainties, our focus on our internationalization strategy drove steady growth. In thefourth quarter, over 90% of new funded accounts came from international markets, with a large portion of the new funded accounts coming from Singapore. UP Fintech maintains leading market share in Singapore and the company's Singapore headquarters contributed to making the market as one of key growth drivers, both in the number of total accounts and newly acquired accounts. The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% year-over-year growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore's population aged 20 and above. In the year since we began to ramp up our self-clearing capabilities, we have made substantial progress and now self-clear over 80% of customers’ U.S. cash equities trades. Our firm’s capability to deploy proprietary technologies on our fintech platform demonstrates the contributions that Chinese innovation is making to the global brokerage industry. Our B2B businesses reached new milestones this year: as of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess ofHK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service. Overall, our company’s comprehensive enterprise services are gaining increasing recognition within the industry. In coming years, the company looks forward to entering new international markets and enabling a greater range of investors to allocate their assets globally on our innovative fintech platform.”Over 90% of Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China as the Company Executes on its Global Expansion StrategyDriven by strong growth in international markets,UP Fintechfurther expanded its client base. The company added 61,400 new funded accounts during the fourth quarter of which over 90% came from outside China. Furthermore, in 2021, the company added a total of 414,700 new funded accounts, achieving 119% of its annual target. In the fourth quarter, the company's trading volume was US$85.9 billion, client assets reached US$17.1 billion, commission income was up to US$29.9 million, and interest-related income increased to US$22.5 million.At a time of global macroeconomic uncertainty, UP Fintechcontinues focus on its long-term expansion plans with a focus on improving the customer experience. To increase customer choice on its platform, the company recently added new functions such as bracket orders and a new display for analyzing diluted cost positions. The company also recently added an option screener and option list to better meet the needs of investors who trade options. In Australia,UP Fintechbegan to meet the needs of local investors by adding multi-dimensional analysis tools and real-time level 2 market data. Investors on the firm’s platform may view a rich range of financial metrics such as capital flow analysis and lists of corporate actions.In addition,the company's wealth management business continued to attract more clients as the number of available investment products continued to rise. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s Fund Mall enabled another 661 funds for investors to choose from. As the selection of funds has increased, the number of customers investing in the Fund Mall increased by 377.5% year-over-year, and the AUM of the Fund Mall increased by 290.1% year-over-year. ForCash Plus, the company’s idle cash management product,the number of customers and their cumulative transfer value during the fourth quarter was nearly double that of the same period last year. The company also added HKD and SGD currencies to the Fund Mall to further meet customers global asset allocation needs.The company offered 26 IPO subscriptions in Hong Kong and The U.S. during the fourth quarter, including several high-profile listings such as those of NetEase Cloud Music and Sense Time. For the full year 2021, the company in total offered 123 IPO subscriptions.The company is becoming one of the top platforms for retail investors to participate in new listings in Hong Kong; retail orders for larger listings such as those of Kuaishou and JD Logistics exceeded HK$10 billion. The company also assisted issuers in connecting with its investor base and highlighting their business performance by helping them hold online roadshows and broadcasting their earnings conference calls. During the year, the company held more than 60% of courses about high-quality Asian assets to investors.The company continued to invest in key brokerage technologies to enhance its capability to manage securities trading from the front end to execution and clearing. Self-clearing has long been the purview of traditional banks, but the company continues to ramp up its capability to conduct self-clearing and by the end of the fourth quarter, over 80% of clients were having their U.S. cash equities trades self-cleared. As a result of the company’s investment in clearing technology, clearing costsdeclined quarter over quarter by 27.8%.As part of its international expansion, the company continued to obtain new licenses and qualifications in multiple international jurisdictions. The firm now holds 50 licenses and qualifications across 37 categories in Hong Kong, Singapore, The U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. The company looks forward to using these licenses to further support its international expansion.UP Fintechis also receiving growing recognition in international capital markets and in 2021 was selected for inclusion in the MSCI China All Shares Index and the MSCI China Small Cap Index.The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% YoY growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore's population aged 20+Since entering Singapore in February 2020,UP Fintechhas continued to consolidate its position in the local market. More than half of new funded accounts in the fourth quarter came from Singapore. According to App Annie, as of the end of 2021, as measured by the total number of accounts and downloads,UP Fintech’s flagship mobile trading App, Tiger Trade, led the online brokerage market in Singapore.The fourth quarter wasthe third consecutive quarter of over 100%year-over-yeargrowth in funded accounts in Singapore,and the numberof registered accounts now represents 15% of Singapore's population aged 20or above. In addition, approximately 30% of the new funded accountsin Singaporein the fourth quarter came from users over the age of 40, which demonstrates the firm’s trading platform appeals to a wide range of investors.UP Fintech’s leading position in the Singapore market is due to its relentless focus on localization. In the fourth quarter, to better meet the needs of local clients, the company added a new module to allow easy display of Singapore companies listed in The U.S. market. The company also added new features such as industry classifications and sponsor data to assist customers learn more about local investment opportunities.In the fourth quarter, the company offered customers in Singapore the opportunity to subscribe shares from two local issuers. The company also enabled institutional clients in Singapore the ability to participate in the global offerings of new issuers in Hong Kong, further increasing the ability of local investors to participate in China’s capital markets.The AUM ofUP Fintech’swealth management business in Singapore increased by 186.5% while the number of customers increased by 223.9% quarter-over-quarter respectively. To increase the value proposition of Cash Plus in international markets, the company introduced lower thresholds for customers to invest their capital in Cash Plus. Local customers may now invest in Cash Plus with just 1 USD, 1 SGD, or 5 HKD and may transfer their funds in and out at any time. During the year, the company joined the Securities Association of Singapore and was honored that its subsidiary, Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., was officially admitted as a trading member of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited, and clearing member and depository agent of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited. The company is the first fintech enabled brokerage in the world to obtain such qualifications in Singapore. In November 2021, UP Fintech’s Singapore subsidiary was Named as \"Asia's Most Innovative Company\" by Fortune Times, a Singapore based business magazine, demonstrating the company’s innovative platform is gaining increasing recognition from local media.The Cumulative Number of ESOP Clients at the End of 2021 was 2.5X Higher than the Year Before and Annual Enterprise Services Revenue Increased by 67%Corporate services such as investment banking and ESOP have become a new driver of the company’s long-term growth. According to the company’s Q4 financial results, other revenues, which includes revenue from investment banking and ESOP, reached US$9.8 million in Q4, and annual revenue from this segment reached US$37.7 million, an increase of 67% from the prior year.As of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess of HK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service.During the fourth quarter, the company leveraged the strength of its innovative platform and comprehensive range of services to participate in the underwriting and distribution of 22 listings in The U.S. and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the company acted as an underwriter in the global offerings of NetEase Cloud Music, Sense Time, and Airdoc. For the listing of NetEase Cloud Music, the company was the sole online broker to participate in the global offering. In The U.S., the company leveraged its rich investment banking experience, licenses, and technical capabilities to serve as an underwriter for 15 U.S. IPOs. The 2021 IPO of Kuke Music was another notable milestone for the company; the company was the first online broker to serve as the lead underwriter in a U.S. IPO.In the fourth quarter, the company’s investment bank continued to provide a rich range of services to next generation technology companies at multiple stages of their growth, from pre-IPO financial advisory to post listing capital markets services. In 2021, the company provided financial advisory services to over 30 companies. Finally, the company also assisted Canadian Solar conduct an ATM (At The Market) offering to raise additional capital to support the expansion of its green energy business.With regards to the company’s ESOP business,UP Fintechadded 51 new clients during the quarter. Despite launching the business just over three years ago, the total number of clients served by the company’s ESOP system reached 313, an increase of 152.4% year-over-year. The company’s ESOP system has extensive capabilities that allow it serve clients listed in Hong Kong, The U.S., and China; the company’s ESOP system also serves a diverse range of pre-IPO clients.As a global ESOP provider, the company offers comprehensive services for corporate ESOP management across multiple capital markets. In the fourth quarter, Tiger ESOP provided the pharmaceutical R&D company, Pharmaron, with equity incentive management solutions for both A+H share capital markets. At the same time,UP Fintechalso provided ESOP-related tax, foreign exchange, and other specialized services for Pharmaron’'s multinational employee base that includes British, American, and Chinese nationals. UP Fintech’s capability to provide ESOP and other ancillary services across multiple capital markets and nationalities is a testament to the sophistication of its ESOP system and ability to meet clients’ complex needs.On the company’s vibrant social media community, The Tiger Community, 35 new corporations opened enterprise accounts in the fourth quarter, including seven internationally renowned fund companies, such as Fidelity International and Lion Global Investors. As more and more corporations open enterprise accounts in the Tiger Community, the company’s 9+ million user base is able to increase its interaction and understanding of the vast range of issuers and fund companies present in the community.UP Fintech’s online community continues to build its position as a preferred investor relations & PR platform for next generation technology companies. The company recently assisted Xiaomi hold an online product launch, helped organize an online conference for Kuaishou, and held a listing anniversary for Dada Nexus. Corporates are drawn to enterprise accounts as they may employ innovative marketing materials, such as interactive graphics and livestreams, to directly connect with investors and customers.Many enterprise accounts have already received over one million views and the company looks forward to inviting more investors and corporates to participate in its online community.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":285,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9036111803,"gmtCreate":1647010771144,"gmtModify":1676534187285,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"idStr":"3564300482886093","authorIdStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"A good company but still dropping down down down&nbsp;[sigh]&nbsp;","listText":"A good company but still dropping down down down&nbsp;[sigh]&nbsp;","text":"A good company but still dropping down down down [sigh]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":2,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9036111803","repostId":"1150634534","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"1150634534","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Providing stock market headlines, business news, financials and earnings ","home_visible":1,"media_name":"Tiger Newspress","id":"1079075236","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba"},"pubTimestamp":1646922923,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1150634534?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-03-10 22:35","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Hot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Morning Trading","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1150634534","media":"Tiger Newspress","summary":"Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in morning trading, with Alibaba falling 7%, JD falling 14% and Pinduoduo f","content":"<html><head></head><body><p>Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in morning trading, with Alibaba falling 7%, JD falling 14% and Pinduoduo falling 13%.<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c836705c4f01061d8f1b41820eebb291\" tg-width=\"506\" tg-height=\"573\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4caba3fca451b7e5ac4deef085ae8ebf\" tg-width=\"507\" tg-height=\"482\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/e380e3841fd29efea119d205f766acb3\" tg-width=\"483\" tg-height=\"123\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; 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However, the e-commerce segment is expected to be self-funded by 2025. This is achievable as take rates are trending in the right direction.</li><li>SeaMoney is also gaining traction at an unprecedented pace, a monster lurking in the shadows. Investors should pay attention as this segment could serve as Sea&#39;s second cash cow.</li><li>With a net cash position of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won&#39;t be long before Sea requires another cash infusion.</li><li>Despite unprofitability risks, Sea has a strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats. The stock is trading at the lowest multiple ever - it is worth a nibble at these prices.</li></ul><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/51b3290f2015840c5d8f754c01de8a85\" tg-width=\"750\" tg-height=\"422\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>undefined undefined/iStock via Getty Images</span></p><p>I&#39;ve been following Sea Limited ADR (NYSE:SE) for quite some time now and the stock got me interested again given the recent 75% selloff. Today, I&#39;m doing a deep dive on the three-headed monster (and each of its heads) to see if the company is a good investment opportunity at these levels. Let&#39;s get started!</p><p><b>Investment Thesis</b></p><p>Sea is at the forefront of the internet revolution in developing regions. This had many investors buying into the growth story of the company, sending shares soaring high into the sun for the better part of 2020 and 2021. However, the stock has cratered back to sea amid concerns about the company&#39;s slowing growth, especially for its only cash cow, Garena. To make matters worse, Shopee&#39;s losses are also getting worse.</p><p>The Group&#39;s cash burn rate is still high, estimated to be $(3.6) billion in FY2022. With a net cash position of $5.9 billion, future capital raises are very likely.</p><p>On the bright side, Sea still has a long growth runway ahead, solidified by its leadership positions in Southeast Asia and Latin America. SeaMoney, although still unprofitable, could also emerge as Sea&#39;s second cash cow.</p><p>Despite unprofitability and competitive risks, Sea has strong competitive moats and it is trading at the cheapest valuation multiples since its IPO.</p><p>The three-headed monster is a Buy at these levels.</p><p><b>Value Proposition</b></p><p>Founded in Singapore in 2009, Sea has grown to become the leading consumer internet company in the world, with a substantial presence in the Southeast Asian region.</p><blockquote><b>Mission</b>: To better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology.</blockquote><p>Sea is a holding company for three core businesses: Garena, Shopee, and SeaMoney. Sea&#39;s main value proposition is providing a vertically-integrated experience through its different core businesses.</p><p><b>Garena</b></p><p>Its digital entertainment division, Garena, was Sea&#39;s first business venture. In fact, Sea was originally named Garena Interactive Holding Limited before changing its name to Sea Limited in 2017.</p><p>Garena is one of the largest online games developers and publishers, releasing some of the most successful mobile and PC games over the last decade. For example, Garena&#39;s Free Fire, its self-developed mobile battle royale game, topped the global download charts for the last three years. According to data.ai, Free Fire also ranked second globally by average monthly active users on Google Play in 2021. In Southeast Asia and Latin America, Free Fire was the highest-grossing mobile game for ten consecutive quarters, and in the US for four consecutive quarters. Based on Sensor <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/TWR.AU\">Tower</a>&#39;s findings, Free Fire still holds the most downloads globally as of January 2022.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fa392753c19f14d60ee0d992e58c3d2f\" tg-width=\"1280\" tg-height=\"741\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SensorTower</span></p><p>Garena also exclusively licenses and publishes games from global partners and third-party developers. Some of these partners include Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY), Activision (ATVI), and Arumgames. Games like Speed Drifters, Arena of Valor, and Fantasy Town fall into this category as they are co-developed with partners or licensed from partners.</p><p>In addition, Garena organizes some of the largest e-sports events from local tournaments to professional competitions at a global level. Moreover, Garena offers other entertainment content such as live-streaming, user chat, and online forums.</p><p><b>Shopee</b></p><p>Perhaps the most exciting business segment is Sea&#39;s mobile-centric e-commerce platform, Shopee. Launched in 2015, Shopee is now one of the fastest-growing e-commerce marketplaces with a strong presence in Southeast Asia, as well as growing recognition in Latin America and some European countries.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/6649de846b2942b928a3f3e5d4035003\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"200\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Shopee</span></p><p>Through the Shopee platform, buyers can purchase items from sellers which are primarily small and medium businesses (or mom-and-pop stores). At the same time, larger, more established retailers like Xiaomi (OTCPK:XIACF), Microsoft (MSFT), or Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) can leverage Shopee&#39;s two premium shopping platforms, Shopee Mall and Shopee Premium.</p><p>Along with Shopee&#39;s e-commerce marketplace, Shopee also offers adjacent products and services for both buyers and sellers:</p><ul><li><b>Service by Shopee</b> - Value-added services for sellers such as integrated payment, logistics, fulfillment, seller support, inventory management, and online store operations.</li><li><b>BuyerProtection</b> - Consumer protection policies and procedures including seller verification, product listing screening, and dispute resolution. In addition, Shopee Guarantee reduces settlement risks by holding customers&#39; funds in a separate account until delivery is complete, where funds will be released to buyers.</li><li><b>Integrated Logistics Services</b>- Shopee partners with various local and regional third-party logistics service providers to provide a seamless last-mile delivery experience for both buyers and sellers. Shopee also has its own delivery service called Shopee Xpress.</li><li><b>Social Features</b> - Shopee also offers other social and gamification features, including Shopee Coins (virtual currency), Shopee Live (livestream), Shopee Games (in-app games), and Shopee Feed (similar to Instagram).</li><li><b>On-demand Services</b>- Shopee also recently launched on-demand services such as ShopeeFood, instant delivery, and groceries, competing directly with Grab (GRAB), Gojek, and Uber (UBER).</li></ul><p>Shopee&#39;s scale is unmatched and it is still growing at an unprecedented pace. According to data.ai, Shopee in Southeast Asia and Taiwan ranked first in average monthly active users and total time spent in the app in 2021. Shopee Indonesia, arguably Shopee&#39;s most important market, ranked first in the Shopping category. Shopee Brazil, which launched in October 2019, was also ranked first in the Shopping category. And globally, Shopee ranked first in the Shopping category, and is the #13 most downloaded app regardless of category, logging in 200+ million downloads in 2021.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/3f9c550b140720336e00cc78e954d184\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SensorTower</span></p><p><b>SeaMoney</b></p><p>SeaMoney was launched in 2014 and is now one of the leading digital financial services providers in Sea&#39;s operating countries. SeaMoney offers mobile wallet services, payment processing, credit, and other digital financial services. These services are offered under SeaMoney&#39;s various brands including AirPay, ShopeePay, SPayLater, and other local brands depending on the country. SeaMoney was initially launched in Vietnam and Thailand but has since expanded to other regions.</p><p>Through SeaMoney&#39;s mobile wallet offerings, consumers and merchants have added flexibility in terms of payment options, whether through online or offline means. The launch of SPayLater, which is basically a &#34;buy now pay later&#34; payment option, enables consumers to purchase items without accessing credit. For those who are interested, I&#39;ve written a deep dive on Affirm (AFRM) where I discuss the main value propositions that BNPL provides.</p><p>SeaMoney has obtained bank licenses and government approvals to provide financial services in various countries. For example, Sea acquired Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi in Indonesia back in early 2021 as a push towards offering a digital banking solution. The company is now rebranded to SeaBank, which currently offers a high-yield savings account and virtual account.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4c85c862195f86fe9d4f0f8c8beced6b\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SeaBank Website</span></p><p>SeaMoney&#39;s main value proposition lies in offering a mobile wallet and payment solutions that are integrated with Sea&#39;s other businesses, namely Garena and Shopee, enabling consumers and merchants to transact seamlessly in one vertically-integrated platform.</p><p><b>Market Opportunity</b></p><p>Sea&#39;s market opportunity is predicated around the industry outlook of each of its business segments: mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech. Let&#39;s take a look at each industry that Sea operates in.</p><p>First, we have the mobile gaming industry. According to data.ai, Mobile Game Consumer Spend grew from $74 billion in 2018 to $116 billion in 2021, while Mobile Game Downloads grew from 63 billion in 2018 to 83 billion in 2021. Among the Top Genres by Downloads were Hypercasual games such as Hair Challenge and Water Sort Puzzle. However, the Top Genres by Consumer Spend belong to the Strategy, RPG, and Shooting categories where Garena specializes in. For example, Free Fire was the top Shooting game by revenue in Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, and the US, in 2021. Globally, however, it is still behind PUBG Mobile, which generates the bulk of its revenue from China.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f72bda6df6bc2b7bdf8756d218f53185\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: SensorTower</span></p><p>According to Adjust, the mobile gaming industry is expected to reach $272 billion by 2030, which is about 1.5x of 2021&#39;s total figure. Given Garena&#39;s successes in monetizing its games, Garena should continue to enjoy gaming tailwinds in the foreseeable future, provided that its games remain in trend. This is also supported by Unity&#39;s findings that the APAC region is the fastest-growing regional market, a market that Garena dominates in.</p><p>Moving on to e-commerce, we all know that e-commerce is growing rapidly and that its market share as a whole will continue to trend up from here. This is especially true for the Southeast Asian region where internet and smartphone adoption continues to increase by the day. Based on the e-Conomy SEA report, Southeast Asia now has 440 million internet users, up from 360 million in 2019. Its total population is about 589 million.</p><p>Internet Gross Merchandise Value, or GMV, for the region was $170 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $360 billion by 2025 with e-commerce leading the charge. The shift to e-commerce is not only happening on the consumer side but also on the merchant side. Digital marketing tools, analytical tools, and digital payment solutions have accelerated business for merchants. Shopee&#39;s vertically-integrated platform also makes it easy for merchants in these developing countries to set up shop, distribute goods, and accept payments in a single platform.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/2fcb903aed7c0ec901fc83c4f25f18b8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021</span></p><p>Furthermore, Sea has recently expanded its e-commerce operations to other regions such as Latin America and Europe, which further expands its market opportunity.</p><p>Lastly, we have the fintech industry pertaining to SeaMoney. In my <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/PYPL\">PayPal</a> (PYPL) deep dive, I discussed the growth of mobile wallets as a payment method in both online and offline transactions. The shift to a cashless and cardless society is inevitable and that is also true for Sea&#39;s markets.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/47ec896a6208b6023ae89f654704bbc7\" tg-width=\"1261\" tg-height=\"706\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Ark Invest Big Ideas 2022</span></p><p>As you can see below, mobile wallets continue to gain traction in Southeast Asia. In addition, 92% of digital merchants intend to maintain usage or increase usage of digital payments in the next 1 to 2 years. ShopeePay and SeaMoney&#39;s other brands will benefit from this trend. Also of important note, SeaMoney&#39;s expansion to buy now pay later with SPayLater will be a key GMV and revenue driver for the segment. These are the reasons why some investors are so bullish on SeaMoney and why SeaMoney is a monster lurking in the shadows.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0eb814b800c3121e3fb8cd0913f239d5\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"361\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021</span></p><p>As you can see, Sea is at the forefront of three megatrends which should propel the business forward from here. Also, combining the different verticals in the same platform would present a significant synergistic opportunity as Sea establishes itself as a SuperApp in the making.</p><p><b>Revenue Model</b></p><p>As mentioned previously, Sea operates three main business segments.</p><p><b>Digital Entertainment</b></p><p>Garena operates a freemium model whereby users can download and play games for free. The company generates revenue by selling in-game virtual items such as clothing, weaponry, or equipment.</p><p>Investors should take note of how revenue is recognized for this segment. According to Sea&#39;s 10-K:</p><blockquote>Proceeds from these sales are initially recognized as “Advances from customers” and subsequently reclassified to “Deferred revenue” when the users make in-game purchases of the virtual currencies or virtual items within the games operated by the Company and the in-game purchases are no longer refundable.</blockquote><p>Garena also licenses games from other game developers. Revenue is generated based on revenue-sharing/royalty agreements with these developers. Revenue is recognized over the performance obligation period.</p><blockquote>Such delivery obligation period is determined in accordance with the estimated average lifespan of the virtual goods sold or estimated average lifespan of the paying users of the said games or similar games.</blockquote><p><b>E-commerce</b></p><p>Shopee generates revenue through a marketplace model. Sellers on the platform pay Shopee based on paid advertisement services, transaction-based fees, logistics services, and other value-added services.</p><p>Shopee also generates revenue from goods sold directly by Shopee, which the company purchases in bulk from manufacturers or third-party suppliers.</p><p><b>Digital Financial Services</b></p><p>SeaMoney revenue consists of:</p><ul><li>Interest and fees from loans granted to commercial customers</li><li>Interest and fees from Sea&#39;s consumer credit business such as SPayLater</li><li>Commissions charged to merchants when a customer pays using SeaMoney&#39;s mobile wallet</li></ul><p><b>Income Statement</b></p><p>Let&#39;s analyze each of the business segments and then look at the entire Group as a whole.</p><p><b>Digital Entertainment</b></p><p>Garena Revenue saw a 104% increase YoY in Q4. For the full year, Garena Revenue was up 114% YoY.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/998dfbcf3f3dba11b8f8722710c36ba4\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The rapid increase in Revenue was primarily due to recognition of accumulated deferred revenue from previous quarters. Bookings—which is essentially GAAP Revenue plus the change in digital entertainment deferred revenue —actually dropped for the first time QoQ and it is now lower than Revenue. This means that gamers are spending less on in-virtual items which will lead to lower Revenue recognized in subsequent quarters. As you can see, Bookings is in a massive deceleration.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/e06de5e6066b66cd5596a445cd912c98\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The drop in Bookings was due to fewer gamers in the platform as the economy reopens and people spend more time outdoors, at school, or in the office. Quarterly Active Users, or QAUs, grew only 7% in Q4 to 652 million, compared to Q3&#39;s QAUs of 729 million.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c5bdd570a9eb859a9fef8569c9fad10a\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>As a result, Quarterly Paying Users, or QPUs, decelerated as well, which led to lower Bookings. Q4 QPUs was 77 million compared to Q3&#39;s 93 million.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/092c4a2f47b9336f2753b4548707b39f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The markets reacted negatively to this slowdown in Garena growth as the gaming business acts as the lifeline for Sea&#39;s two other segments. As you can see, Garena is a high-margin business, producing Adjusted EBITDA of $2.7 billion in FY2021. Operating Margin is very high at 61% in Q4. AEBITDA margin, on the other hand, is trending downwards as QoQ adds in Bookings wither.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f28c9f35ee55afb5c7d170a80d26ebf2\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>As such, the slowdown in growth for Garena is scaring investors away as it may not provide sufficient cash flow to fund the continued growth of Shopee and SeaMoney.</p><p><b>E-Commerce</b></p><p>Shopee GMV continues its upward march as e-commerce continues to gain traction in Shopee&#39;s existing and newer markets. However, we&#39;re also seeing a deceleration in growth due to tough YoY comps. GMV in FY2021 was $62.5 billion, an increase of 77%.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4f657f7cacc9e00bc57df0e913fdb9ae\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>GMV growth was also due to an increase in Orders in the Shopee platform, which totaled 6.1 billion in FY2021, an increase of 117%. Average Order Value, or AOV, however, is trending downwards. This may be perceived negatively as processing more lower-AOV orders meant higher logistical expenses and thus lower margins per order.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5fbc7f044de03ec379f262a5bfcdf331\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The increase in GMV translated to higher Shopee Revenue, which grew faster than GMV. Shopee Revenue grew 136% to $5.1 billion in FY2021, as compared to GMV growth of 77%.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/27710dc2140a6d139900819f51bd688a\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The faster growth in Revenue was due to Shopee&#39;s increasing take rate, which displays Shopee&#39;s ability to monetize its marketplace platform. This is one of the only few positive developments coming out of the most recent earnings update.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0e4267bc5d33a2153e8624f73ed71540\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"431\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Despite the improving Revenue and take rate, Shopee is still suffering huge losses and it is mounting with each subsequent quarter, primarily due to the company expanding into new markets. FY2021 Shopee AEBITDA was $(2.6) billion at a -50% margin. Recall that Garena AEBITDA was $2.7 billion.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/d9d27cef61bc9a9058233f7eccc5eaa1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>AEBITDA per Order has been improving, although it flat-lined in the last few quarters. Again, this is due to the company aggressively expanding into new markets. For example, in Q4, Shopee Brazil recorded 140+ million gross orders with a $70+ million Revenue, up 400% and 326%, respectively. However, AEBITDA per Order in Brazil is still negative at $(2) per Order, despite being a 40% improvement from last year. As such, it is still a far cry from the overall AEBITDA per Order of $(0.45).</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/0c0d6aa930a81ea4fc153b7134dbf9d3\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"432\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>On the bright side, in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Q4 AEBITDA per Order before &#34;allocation of the headquarters’ common expenses&#34; was $(0.15), an improvement from last year&#39;s $(0.21). This shows that there is certainly hope for Shopee to be AEBITDA positive soon, which management has pointed out during the Q4 earnings call:</p><blockquote>We currently expect Shopee to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA before HQ cost allocation in Southeast Asia and Taiwan by this year. We also expect SeaMoney to achieve positive cash flow by next year. As a result, we currently expect that by 2025 cash generated by Shopee and SeaMoney proactively will enable these two businesses to substantially self-fund their own long-term growth.</blockquote><p><b>Digital Financial Services</b></p><p>SeaMoney&#39;s Mobile Wallet Total Payment Volume grew 120% YoY to $17.2 billion in FY2021 due to the increasing adoption of mobile wallets in the region.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4fa5ef6efa513d9040963fda42b4b9f2\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"432\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The growth in TPV was largely driven by the growth in QAUs. As shown below, the total ending QAUs in Q4 grew 90% YoY to 45.8 million users.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/9397aec066366f40ec92c24187347a44\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"432\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The real exciting part is that Revenue grew much faster than TPV and QAUs. SeaMoney Revenue is growing at a blistering pace, locking in high triple-digit growth rates over the last few years. FY2021 SeaMoney Revenue was $470 million, which is an increase of 673% from the previous year. This is due to take rates increasing from less than 1% in FY2020 to almost 4% by the end of the latest quarter.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/dcaf6046cf3c27e00b233a8428eb2d75\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Furthermore, in Indonesia, over 20% of the QAUs have used more than one SeaMoney product or service, which includes credit services, digital banking, and insurance. As SeaMoney introduces more offerings, revenue should accelerate meaningfully as average revenue per user increases when people use additional products.</p><p>As SeaMoney continues to gain scale, the segment will enjoy better unit economics. As shown below, while SeaMoney&#39;s AEBITDA is still in deeply negative territories, AEBITDA Margins has continued to trend towards profitability. Management also expects SeaMoney to be cash flow positive by next year.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/51f0d5a1800fef748694417e8cb8fc9f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>This is the segment that investors should pay special attention to, given that it has the potential to be Sea&#39;s second cash cow. For example, PayPal has Operating Margins of 20%+, which could be SeaMoney&#39;s long-term margin profile.</p><p><b>Group</b></p><p>With that said, let&#39;s take a look at how the business is doing as a whole.</p><p>FY2021 Revenue was $10.0 billion, an increase of 128% YoY. Due to the law of large numbers and tough YoY comps, Revenue growth should decelerate from here.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/38de60bd773f3ef7afc4b2e28aa1c08f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Here, we can see how Revenue is distributed across the different segments.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a86e59478db8a3a4fdc85897f24410e9\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"428\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>What&#39;s encouraging is that Gross Profit Margins continue to trend upwards as the company gains economies of scale, even accounting for Shopee&#39;s aggressive expansion into new markets. FY2021 Gross Profit was $3.9 billion, up 189% YoY.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/dd978ba4047cc6e20ac6086ba8420a8f\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Operating Expenses, however, remain elevated as management forgoes short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. FY2021 Total Operating Expenses were $5.5 billion. Below shows the different components of Operating Expenses as a percentage of Revenue.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fbdbde2c2ae744f36f8168ed32f94d62\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"419\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Most of the Operating Expenses were used for Sales &amp; Marketing purposes. Unsurprisingly, Shopee had the highest S&amp;M burn rate. Discounts, cashback, celebrity promotions... they&#39;re everywhere.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/5253f186120da17c4cd901e5c442bd1e\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"419\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>As a result, Operating Profit Margins is still negative, although it is trending in the right direction.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a27b7833551107397c44acefc5ad2475\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>AEBITDA, on the other hand, is plunging. This is due to Garena&#39;s falling Bookings and Shoppe&#39;s widening losses. AEBITDA for FY2021 was $(594) million, compared to FY2020 positive AEBITDA of $107 million. This is probably the most concerning figure for investors as such a high cash burn rate is unsustainable, which may also lead to additional capital raises that are dilutive to shareholders.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/d89fb95f74e23e85f8932870c0190bee\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"430\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>The guidance did not help either. Garena Bookings is expected to fall to just $3 billion, which is $1.3 billion lower than FY2021&#39;s number. Management blamed the reopening of the economy as well as the ban of Free Fire in India for the expected drop in Bookings. Assuming a modest 50% AEBITDA margin, Garena would bring in just $1.5 billion of AEBITDA for Sea in FY2022.</p><p>On the other side, the other two segments are expected to continue with their immense pace of growth — Shopee and SeaMoney are expected to grow by 76% and 155%, respectively. If we assume a (50)% AEBITDA margin for both segments, Shopee and SeaMoney is expected to burn a total of about $(5.1) billion of AEBITDA. Adding Garena&#39;s estimated AEBITDA of $1.5 billion, Sea, as a Group, is expected to burn $(3.6) billion in FY2021.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/ae5e9399a838e5f841dcccaffbe673d8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"357\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor Presentation</span></p><p>Because Garena is such an important piece of Shopee&#39;s and SeaMoney&#39;s growth story, a deceleration in Garena&#39;s business had investors reacting so negatively to Sea&#39;s latest earnings release, as now, the gaming business is incapable of covering the massive losses incurred by the other two business segments.</p><p><b>Balance Sheet</b></p><p>Sea&#39;s balance sheet position as of year-end FY2021 is at about $10.2 billion of Cash and Short Term Investments. While this may show that Sea has a substantial cushion against its short-term cash burn rate, its net cash position paints a different picture.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/dc30ee494abc2eda3b75434b96e4a66b\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"357\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor Presentation</span></p><p>Adjusting for Sea&#39;s debt, Sea ended the year with a net cash position of around $5.9 billion. A substantial amount of its total debt comes from its recent issuance of 0.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2026. The notes were issued when the stock was trading at $318 per share back in September and the initial conversion price is set at $477 per share. So, yes... conversion in the next 2 to 3 years is very unlikely.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8d3d0030e6518cc4198245f624cc75e1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"437\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>With net cash of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won&#39;t be long before Sea requires another cash infusion. Therefore, if the high cash burn rate persists for the next 2 to 3 years, investors face a major risk of increasing financial leverage and/or dilution in the form of equity raises.</p><p><b>Cash Flow Statement</b></p><p>Here is what cash flow looks like over the last few quarters. Notice how Operating Cash Flow turned negative in the last quarter. Most of the cash also comes from Financing activities.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/a0aba061277a1410bb9f3dc176ea0115\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"263\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>Unlike other high-flying growth companies, Sea&#39;s Share-Based Compensation expenses are relatively low.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/81fa229682c8880d6edd35535ef6a747\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"419\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p><b>Competitive Moats</b></p><p>Based on my research and analysis, I identified three key competitive moats for Sea: brand, network effects, and barriers to entry. I used to think that Sea has cost advantages but as Garena becomes a smaller part of the overall business, and as losses continue to worsen, I have reason to believe that Sea no longer holds that moat.</p><p><b>Brand</b></p><p>As discussed in previous sections, Garena&#39;s games, particularly Free Fire, have consistently ranked as the most downloaded mobile game in the world. Additionally, the Shopee app has gained cross-border stardom and is now regarded as the most downloaded or fastest-trending shopping App in the countries it operates in. Lastly, SeaMoney is also gaining traction with banking licenses granted in various countries that should increase brand value and trust.</p><p><b>Network Effects</b></p><p>The sheer amount of app downloads leads to powerful network effects. Garena has 652 million QAUs, which is about 8% of the world&#39;s population. Shopee recorded 200+ million app downloads in FY2021 alone. SeaMoney QAUs topped 45.8 million in Q4 and it is still in the early stages of adoption.</p><p>With all these users in the Sea platform, cross-selling new products or services should be easier as Sea continues to scale. One such example is Shopee Brazil and Free Fire where each platform is encouraging consumers to use the other. As Sea continues to innovate and offer better experiences for its customers, the ecosystem gets bigger and tighter, leading to powerful network effects.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c641ac08707cc868b9e6004e2deaf950\" tg-width=\"1200\" tg-height=\"600\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Shopee Brazil</span></p><p><b>Barriers To Entry</b></p><p>I believe each of Sea&#39;s core businesses is operating in a winner-takes-most environment with high barriers to entry.</p><p>The mobile gaming environment requires the most talented developers to launch blockbuster games. Garena&#39;s Free Fire is certainly a blockbuster game and time in Free Fire&#39;s game means time away from other mobile games.</p><p>Just like how Amazon (AMZN) dominates in the US, the e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia and Latin America is dominated by a few players, such as Shopee, Tokopedia, and <a href=\"https://laohu8.com/S/MELI\">MercadoLibre</a> (MELI). The scale and unit economics that these players have achieved makes it unsustainable for new entrants to compete with them.</p><p>Banking and fintech is also a highly-regulated environment. Furthermore, consumers prefer to have just one mobile wallet, such as ShopeePay, as opposed to owning several different fintech applications.</p><p><b>Valuation</b></p><p>Based on my sum-of-the-parts and comparable company valuation analysis, Sea looks to be slightly undervalued with 19% upside potential. Of course, comparables are not perfect but based on this, we can gauge where Sea stands among peers.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f2400cd917e5f6ce8c47ef74a8062093\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"353\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Author&#39;s Analysis</span></p><p>On the flip side, Sea looks extremely cheap on a historical basis. In terms of EV/Sales, Sea is trading at the lowest valuation since its IPO, trading at just 4.2x forward sales.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/bed1fd805a89523bbb8fa982bee40079\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"427\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Koyfin</span></p><p>In terms of EV/Gross Profit, Sea is trading even cheaper than its March 2020 lows.</p><p class=\"t-img-caption\"><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/fdf589a808c84131e9c36aa7b65a5129\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"427\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><span>Source: Koyfin</span></p><p>The valuation compression is warranted given that the company flew too close to the sun and now it is cratering back to the sea — not just for Sea, but almost all growth stocks took a beating. Growth is also slowing down and the macroeconomic environment looks gloomier than ever. However, this is not the end of the world; I think the markets are overreacting. Diversion from the mean goes both ways — perhaps, current prices present a good margin of safety for long-term investors.</p><p><b>Catalysts</b></p><ul><li><b>Successful International Expansion</b> — Shopee has been successful in replicating its playbook from Southeast Asia to Brazil. Recently, Shopee launched operations in India, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Poland, and Spain. If Shopee can take substantial market share in these new regions, Shopee&#39;s growth could turn exponential.</li><li><b>The Metaverse</b> — Sea&#39;s withering gaming division needs to be revitalized. New games and features could definitely provide the boost that it needs. For example, the metaverse is an exciting opportunity and Garena could introduce this concept to its 600+ million QAUs. Sea AI Lab (SAIL) and Sea Capital are two ventures that could accelerate the company into emerging industries, including the metaverse.</li></ul><blockquote>We will continue to encourage user-generated content by enhancing greater features and accessibility. We believe that a strong user reception to Craftland is a positive indicator of the initial success to encourage user participation in content creation and to build Free Fire into an increasingly open platform and is well aligned with major emerging industry trends such as metaverse.</blockquote><ul><li><b>Regional SuperApp</b> — Although this concept has yet to be discussed by management, launching a regional SuperApp could enhance user engagement to new levels. For example, imagine Shopee users being able to play games, shop, order food delivery, pay for services, transfer money, invest, all under one app. Imagine users being able to convert their deposited funds in ShopeePay, into ShopeeCoins, and use it to perform cross-border transactions.</li><li><b>Continued Growth In SeaMoney</b> — SeaMoney is still in its early stages and continued adoption of Sea&#39;s digital financial services offerings will be a strong addition to Sea&#39;s bull thesis. SPayLater has real potential to disrupt the consumer credit industry. SeaBank and ShopeePay have the opportunity to capture digital wallet, digital banking, and cashless society trends.</li><li><b>Free Fire India Ban Lift</b>— Garena&#39;s weak guidance factored in the headwinds coming from the ban in India. If the ban is lifted, the stock may react positively as much of Sea&#39;s cash burn problems may be eliminated.</li></ul><p><b>Risks</b></p><ul><li><b>The Pressure to Launch Blockbuster Games</b>— There will come a time when Free Fire will be dethroned as the most-played and most-downloaded game. That is just how the gaming business works. This puts a substantial risk on the cash flow generation potential of Garena. Launching blockbuster games is never easy and it requires many trials and errors along the way. For me, I would like to see Garena shift to a gaming franchise model where the company launches an updated version of an existing game every year or two, which presents a more stable and recurring revenue stream for the company. An example would be FIFA or Call of Duty.</li><li><b>Shopee India Ban</b> — With Free Fire banned in India, there&#39;s also the potential for Shoppe to be banned as well.</li><li><b>Failure to Gain Traction in International Markets</b>— Shopee pulled out of France in early March, an indication that Shoppe&#39;s business model is not replicable in other countries, especially in more developed regions. Shopee Poland and Spain may be next on the exit list as they hold a close resemblance to France.</li><li><b>Geopolitical Risks</b>— Tencent, a Chinese company, has an 18.7% equity stake in Sea. Sanctions, bans, and other restrictions on Chinese companies, given the current geopolitical environment, could spell trouble for Sea. Tencent may have to cut exposure on Sea or even dissolve its developing-publishing partnership with Garena.</li><li><b>Local Competition</b>— Local champions operating in their respective markets cannot be ignored. These include GoTo in Indonesia, MercadoLibre in Latin America, and Flipkart in India.</li></ul><p>In addition, there&#39;s a certain level of pride for consumers to see their native-born companies succeed. I&#39;m Indonesian, and it makes me really happy to see GoTo grow and grow.</p><p>GoTo, the holding company of both Indonesian tech darlings Gojek and Tokopedia, recently announced its plan to IPO in the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Here&#39;s a glance of GoTo&#39;s stats for the 12-months ended 30 September 2021:</p><ul><li>Valuation: $26.2 billion to $28.8 billion</li><li>GMV: $28.8 billion</li><li>Revenue: $1 billion</li><li>Gross Orders: 2 billion</li><li>Annual Transacting Users: 55 million</li><li>Driver Partners: 2.5 million</li><li>Merchants: 14 million</li></ul><p>The point is that there are big-time local players operating in Sea&#39;s markets that investors should never ignore. Here&#39;s a little snippet from my previous Shopee article:</p><blockquote>But with the GoTo merger, Indonesia could potentially extinguish the orange flame that charred its forest for many years. Now, GoTo could finally reclaim a good chunk of its territory that was lost to waves of competition, especially from Shopee. GoTo could finally gain more ground as the roots grew even stronger with the merger, fertilized with the synergies of value propositions, logistics, payments, and banking solutions.</blockquote><blockquote>Meanwhile, Sea Limited&#39;s stock continues to soar, ignoring the titan of an elephant in the room. And because of GoTo&#39;s integration, Shopee&#39;s vertically-integrated business model doesn&#39;t look like a strong competitive advantage anymore.</blockquote><p><b>Conclusion</b></p><p>Each of Sea&#39;s core businesses is in hypergrowth mode, propelled by megatrends in the mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech industry. Management understands these opportunities and therefore, is sacrificing short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. Despite being a larger business, Sea still has a massive growth runway ahead.</p><p>That is not to say that unprofitability and competition risks can and should be ignored. The biggest concern for investors is the company&#39;s unsustainable cash burn rate, which will likely lead to further capital raises in the near future.</p><p>Nonetheless, the long-term growth thesis for the three-headed monster remains intact. Strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats should support the business going forward. In addition, shares of Sea are trading at the lowest valuation multiples ever, which presents a good margin of safety for an entry at these prices.</p><p>Thank you for reading my Sea Limited deep dive. If you enjoyed the article, please let me know in the comment section down below. If you have any suggestions or feedback, don&#39;t hesitate to share your thoughts as well.</p></body></html>","source":"seekingalpha","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Sea Limited: The Three-Headed Monster</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nSea Limited: The Three-Headed Monster\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2022-03-19 09:25 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4496480-sea-limited-the-three-headed-monster><strong>seekingalpha</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>SummaryGarena, Sea’s only profitable segment, serves as a lifeline for its other two segments, but Bookings are expected to fall sharply in FY2022.In addition, Shopee's losses are widening. However, ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4496480-sea-limited-the-three-headed-monster\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"SE":"Sea Ltd"},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4496480-sea-limited-the-three-headed-monster","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/5a36db9d73b4222bc376d24ccc48c8a4","article_id":"2220777059","content_text":"SummaryGarena, Sea’s only profitable segment, serves as a lifeline for its other two segments, but Bookings are expected to fall sharply in FY2022.In addition, Shopee's losses are widening. However, the e-commerce segment is expected to be self-funded by 2025. This is achievable as take rates are trending in the right direction.SeaMoney is also gaining traction at an unprecedented pace, a monster lurking in the shadows. Investors should pay attention as this segment could serve as Sea's second cash cow.With a net cash position of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won't be long before Sea requires another cash infusion.Despite unprofitability risks, Sea has a strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats. The stock is trading at the lowest multiple ever - it is worth a nibble at these prices.undefined undefined/iStock via Getty ImagesI've been following Sea Limited ADR (NYSE:SE) for quite some time now and the stock got me interested again given the recent 75% selloff. Today, I'm doing a deep dive on the three-headed monster (and each of its heads) to see if the company is a good investment opportunity at these levels. Let's get started!Investment ThesisSea is at the forefront of the internet revolution in developing regions. This had many investors buying into the growth story of the company, sending shares soaring high into the sun for the better part of 2020 and 2021. However, the stock has cratered back to sea amid concerns about the company's slowing growth, especially for its only cash cow, Garena. To make matters worse, Shopee's losses are also getting worse.The Group's cash burn rate is still high, estimated to be $(3.6) billion in FY2022. With a net cash position of $5.9 billion, future capital raises are very likely.On the bright side, Sea still has a long growth runway ahead, solidified by its leadership positions in Southeast Asia and Latin America. SeaMoney, although still unprofitable, could also emerge as Sea's second cash cow.Despite unprofitability and competitive risks, Sea has strong competitive moats and it is trading at the cheapest valuation multiples since its IPO.The three-headed monster is a Buy at these levels.Value PropositionFounded in Singapore in 2009, Sea has grown to become the leading consumer internet company in the world, with a substantial presence in the Southeast Asian region.Mission: To better the lives of consumers and small businesses with technology.Sea is a holding company for three core businesses: Garena, Shopee, and SeaMoney. Sea's main value proposition is providing a vertically-integrated experience through its different core businesses.GarenaIts digital entertainment division, Garena, was Sea's first business venture. In fact, Sea was originally named Garena Interactive Holding Limited before changing its name to Sea Limited in 2017.Garena is one of the largest online games developers and publishers, releasing some of the most successful mobile and PC games over the last decade. For example, Garena's Free Fire, its self-developed mobile battle royale game, topped the global download charts for the last three years. According to data.ai, Free Fire also ranked second globally by average monthly active users on Google Play in 2021. In Southeast Asia and Latin America, Free Fire was the highest-grossing mobile game for ten consecutive quarters, and in the US for four consecutive quarters. Based on Sensor Tower's findings, Free Fire still holds the most downloads globally as of January 2022.Source: SensorTowerGarena also exclusively licenses and publishes games from global partners and third-party developers. Some of these partners include Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY), Activision (ATVI), and Arumgames. Games like Speed Drifters, Arena of Valor, and Fantasy Town fall into this category as they are co-developed with partners or licensed from partners.In addition, Garena organizes some of the largest e-sports events from local tournaments to professional competitions at a global level. Moreover, Garena offers other entertainment content such as live-streaming, user chat, and online forums.ShopeePerhaps the most exciting business segment is Sea's mobile-centric e-commerce platform, Shopee. Launched in 2015, Shopee is now one of the fastest-growing e-commerce marketplaces with a strong presence in Southeast Asia, as well as growing recognition in Latin America and some European countries.Source: ShopeeThrough the Shopee platform, buyers can purchase items from sellers which are primarily small and medium businesses (or mom-and-pop stores). At the same time, larger, more established retailers like Xiaomi (OTCPK:XIACF), Microsoft (MSFT), or Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) can leverage Shopee's two premium shopping platforms, Shopee Mall and Shopee Premium.Along with Shopee's e-commerce marketplace, Shopee also offers adjacent products and services for both buyers and sellers:Service by Shopee - Value-added services for sellers such as integrated payment, logistics, fulfillment, seller support, inventory management, and online store operations.BuyerProtection - Consumer protection policies and procedures including seller verification, product listing screening, and dispute resolution. In addition, Shopee Guarantee reduces settlement risks by holding customers' funds in a separate account until delivery is complete, where funds will be released to buyers.Integrated Logistics Services- Shopee partners with various local and regional third-party logistics service providers to provide a seamless last-mile delivery experience for both buyers and sellers. Shopee also has its own delivery service called Shopee Xpress.Social Features - Shopee also offers other social and gamification features, including Shopee Coins (virtual currency), Shopee Live (livestream), Shopee Games (in-app games), and Shopee Feed (similar to Instagram).On-demand Services- Shopee also recently launched on-demand services such as ShopeeFood, instant delivery, and groceries, competing directly with Grab (GRAB), Gojek, and Uber (UBER).Shopee's scale is unmatched and it is still growing at an unprecedented pace. According to data.ai, Shopee in Southeast Asia and Taiwan ranked first in average monthly active users and total time spent in the app in 2021. Shopee Indonesia, arguably Shopee's most important market, ranked first in the Shopping category. Shopee Brazil, which launched in October 2019, was also ranked first in the Shopping category. And globally, Shopee ranked first in the Shopping category, and is the #13 most downloaded app regardless of category, logging in 200+ million downloads in 2021.Source: SensorTowerSeaMoneySeaMoney was launched in 2014 and is now one of the leading digital financial services providers in Sea's operating countries. SeaMoney offers mobile wallet services, payment processing, credit, and other digital financial services. These services are offered under SeaMoney's various brands including AirPay, ShopeePay, SPayLater, and other local brands depending on the country. SeaMoney was initially launched in Vietnam and Thailand but has since expanded to other regions.Through SeaMoney's mobile wallet offerings, consumers and merchants have added flexibility in terms of payment options, whether through online or offline means. The launch of SPayLater, which is basically a \"buy now pay later\" payment option, enables consumers to purchase items without accessing credit. For those who are interested, I've written a deep dive on Affirm (AFRM) where I discuss the main value propositions that BNPL provides.SeaMoney has obtained bank licenses and government approvals to provide financial services in various countries. For example, Sea acquired Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi in Indonesia back in early 2021 as a push towards offering a digital banking solution. The company is now rebranded to SeaBank, which currently offers a high-yield savings account and virtual account.Source: SeaBank WebsiteSeaMoney's main value proposition lies in offering a mobile wallet and payment solutions that are integrated with Sea's other businesses, namely Garena and Shopee, enabling consumers and merchants to transact seamlessly in one vertically-integrated platform.Market OpportunitySea's market opportunity is predicated around the industry outlook of each of its business segments: mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech. Let's take a look at each industry that Sea operates in.First, we have the mobile gaming industry. According to data.ai, Mobile Game Consumer Spend grew from $74 billion in 2018 to $116 billion in 2021, while Mobile Game Downloads grew from 63 billion in 2018 to 83 billion in 2021. Among the Top Genres by Downloads were Hypercasual games such as Hair Challenge and Water Sort Puzzle. However, the Top Genres by Consumer Spend belong to the Strategy, RPG, and Shooting categories where Garena specializes in. For example, Free Fire was the top Shooting game by revenue in Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, and the US, in 2021. Globally, however, it is still behind PUBG Mobile, which generates the bulk of its revenue from China.Source: SensorTowerAccording to Adjust, the mobile gaming industry is expected to reach $272 billion by 2030, which is about 1.5x of 2021's total figure. Given Garena's successes in monetizing its games, Garena should continue to enjoy gaming tailwinds in the foreseeable future, provided that its games remain in trend. This is also supported by Unity's findings that the APAC region is the fastest-growing regional market, a market that Garena dominates in.Moving on to e-commerce, we all know that e-commerce is growing rapidly and that its market share as a whole will continue to trend up from here. This is especially true for the Southeast Asian region where internet and smartphone adoption continues to increase by the day. Based on the e-Conomy SEA report, Southeast Asia now has 440 million internet users, up from 360 million in 2019. Its total population is about 589 million.Internet Gross Merchandise Value, or GMV, for the region was $170 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach $360 billion by 2025 with e-commerce leading the charge. The shift to e-commerce is not only happening on the consumer side but also on the merchant side. Digital marketing tools, analytical tools, and digital payment solutions have accelerated business for merchants. Shopee's vertically-integrated platform also makes it easy for merchants in these developing countries to set up shop, distribute goods, and accept payments in a single platform.Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021Furthermore, Sea has recently expanded its e-commerce operations to other regions such as Latin America and Europe, which further expands its market opportunity.Lastly, we have the fintech industry pertaining to SeaMoney. In my PayPal (PYPL) deep dive, I discussed the growth of mobile wallets as a payment method in both online and offline transactions. The shift to a cashless and cardless society is inevitable and that is also true for Sea's markets.Source: Ark Invest Big Ideas 2022As you can see below, mobile wallets continue to gain traction in Southeast Asia. In addition, 92% of digital merchants intend to maintain usage or increase usage of digital payments in the next 1 to 2 years. ShopeePay and SeaMoney's other brands will benefit from this trend. Also of important note, SeaMoney's expansion to buy now pay later with SPayLater will be a key GMV and revenue driver for the segment. These are the reasons why some investors are so bullish on SeaMoney and why SeaMoney is a monster lurking in the shadows.Source: e-Conomy SEA 2021As you can see, Sea is at the forefront of three megatrends which should propel the business forward from here. Also, combining the different verticals in the same platform would present a significant synergistic opportunity as Sea establishes itself as a SuperApp in the making.Revenue ModelAs mentioned previously, Sea operates three main business segments.Digital EntertainmentGarena operates a freemium model whereby users can download and play games for free. The company generates revenue by selling in-game virtual items such as clothing, weaponry, or equipment.Investors should take note of how revenue is recognized for this segment. According to Sea's 10-K:Proceeds from these sales are initially recognized as “Advances from customers” and subsequently reclassified to “Deferred revenue” when the users make in-game purchases of the virtual currencies or virtual items within the games operated by the Company and the in-game purchases are no longer refundable.Garena also licenses games from other game developers. Revenue is generated based on revenue-sharing/royalty agreements with these developers. Revenue is recognized over the performance obligation period.Such delivery obligation period is determined in accordance with the estimated average lifespan of the virtual goods sold or estimated average lifespan of the paying users of the said games or similar games.E-commerceShopee generates revenue through a marketplace model. Sellers on the platform pay Shopee based on paid advertisement services, transaction-based fees, logistics services, and other value-added services.Shopee also generates revenue from goods sold directly by Shopee, which the company purchases in bulk from manufacturers or third-party suppliers.Digital Financial ServicesSeaMoney revenue consists of:Interest and fees from loans granted to commercial customersInterest and fees from Sea's consumer credit business such as SPayLaterCommissions charged to merchants when a customer pays using SeaMoney's mobile walletIncome StatementLet's analyze each of the business segments and then look at the entire Group as a whole.Digital EntertainmentGarena Revenue saw a 104% increase YoY in Q4. For the full year, Garena Revenue was up 114% YoY.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe rapid increase in Revenue was primarily due to recognition of accumulated deferred revenue from previous quarters. Bookings—which is essentially GAAP Revenue plus the change in digital entertainment deferred revenue —actually dropped for the first time QoQ and it is now lower than Revenue. This means that gamers are spending less on in-virtual items which will lead to lower Revenue recognized in subsequent quarters. As you can see, Bookings is in a massive deceleration.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe drop in Bookings was due to fewer gamers in the platform as the economy reopens and people spend more time outdoors, at school, or in the office. Quarterly Active Users, or QAUs, grew only 7% in Q4 to 652 million, compared to Q3's QAUs of 729 million.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAs a result, Quarterly Paying Users, or QPUs, decelerated as well, which led to lower Bookings. Q4 QPUs was 77 million compared to Q3's 93 million.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe markets reacted negatively to this slowdown in Garena growth as the gaming business acts as the lifeline for Sea's two other segments. As you can see, Garena is a high-margin business, producing Adjusted EBITDA of $2.7 billion in FY2021. Operating Margin is very high at 61% in Q4. AEBITDA margin, on the other hand, is trending downwards as QoQ adds in Bookings wither.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAs such, the slowdown in growth for Garena is scaring investors away as it may not provide sufficient cash flow to fund the continued growth of Shopee and SeaMoney.E-CommerceShopee GMV continues its upward march as e-commerce continues to gain traction in Shopee's existing and newer markets. However, we're also seeing a deceleration in growth due to tough YoY comps. GMV in FY2021 was $62.5 billion, an increase of 77%.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisGMV growth was also due to an increase in Orders in the Shopee platform, which totaled 6.1 billion in FY2021, an increase of 117%. Average Order Value, or AOV, however, is trending downwards. This may be perceived negatively as processing more lower-AOV orders meant higher logistical expenses and thus lower margins per order.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe increase in GMV translated to higher Shopee Revenue, which grew faster than GMV. Shopee Revenue grew 136% to $5.1 billion in FY2021, as compared to GMV growth of 77%.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe faster growth in Revenue was due to Shopee's increasing take rate, which displays Shopee's ability to monetize its marketplace platform. This is one of the only few positive developments coming out of the most recent earnings update.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisDespite the improving Revenue and take rate, Shopee is still suffering huge losses and it is mounting with each subsequent quarter, primarily due to the company expanding into new markets. FY2021 Shopee AEBITDA was $(2.6) billion at a -50% margin. Recall that Garena AEBITDA was $2.7 billion.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAEBITDA per Order has been improving, although it flat-lined in the last few quarters. Again, this is due to the company aggressively expanding into new markets. For example, in Q4, Shopee Brazil recorded 140+ million gross orders with a $70+ million Revenue, up 400% and 326%, respectively. However, AEBITDA per Order in Brazil is still negative at $(2) per Order, despite being a 40% improvement from last year. As such, it is still a far cry from the overall AEBITDA per Order of $(0.45).Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisOn the bright side, in Southeast Asia and Taiwan, Q4 AEBITDA per Order before \"allocation of the headquarters’ common expenses\" was $(0.15), an improvement from last year's $(0.21). This shows that there is certainly hope for Shopee to be AEBITDA positive soon, which management has pointed out during the Q4 earnings call:We currently expect Shopee to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA before HQ cost allocation in Southeast Asia and Taiwan by this year. We also expect SeaMoney to achieve positive cash flow by next year. As a result, we currently expect that by 2025 cash generated by Shopee and SeaMoney proactively will enable these two businesses to substantially self-fund their own long-term growth.Digital Financial ServicesSeaMoney's Mobile Wallet Total Payment Volume grew 120% YoY to $17.2 billion in FY2021 due to the increasing adoption of mobile wallets in the region.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe growth in TPV was largely driven by the growth in QAUs. As shown below, the total ending QAUs in Q4 grew 90% YoY to 45.8 million users.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe real exciting part is that Revenue grew much faster than TPV and QAUs. SeaMoney Revenue is growing at a blistering pace, locking in high triple-digit growth rates over the last few years. FY2021 SeaMoney Revenue was $470 million, which is an increase of 673% from the previous year. This is due to take rates increasing from less than 1% in FY2020 to almost 4% by the end of the latest quarter.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisFurthermore, in Indonesia, over 20% of the QAUs have used more than one SeaMoney product or service, which includes credit services, digital banking, and insurance. As SeaMoney introduces more offerings, revenue should accelerate meaningfully as average revenue per user increases when people use additional products.As SeaMoney continues to gain scale, the segment will enjoy better unit economics. As shown below, while SeaMoney's AEBITDA is still in deeply negative territories, AEBITDA Margins has continued to trend towards profitability. Management also expects SeaMoney to be cash flow positive by next year.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThis is the segment that investors should pay special attention to, given that it has the potential to be Sea's second cash cow. For example, PayPal has Operating Margins of 20%+, which could be SeaMoney's long-term margin profile.GroupWith that said, let's take a look at how the business is doing as a whole.FY2021 Revenue was $10.0 billion, an increase of 128% YoY. Due to the law of large numbers and tough YoY comps, Revenue growth should decelerate from here.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisHere, we can see how Revenue is distributed across the different segments.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisWhat's encouraging is that Gross Profit Margins continue to trend upwards as the company gains economies of scale, even accounting for Shopee's aggressive expansion into new markets. FY2021 Gross Profit was $3.9 billion, up 189% YoY.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisOperating Expenses, however, remain elevated as management forgoes short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. FY2021 Total Operating Expenses were $5.5 billion. Below shows the different components of Operating Expenses as a percentage of Revenue.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisMost of the Operating Expenses were used for Sales & Marketing purposes. Unsurprisingly, Shopee had the highest S&M burn rate. Discounts, cashback, celebrity promotions... they're everywhere.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAs a result, Operating Profit Margins is still negative, although it is trending in the right direction.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisAEBITDA, on the other hand, is plunging. This is due to Garena's falling Bookings and Shoppe's widening losses. AEBITDA for FY2021 was $(594) million, compared to FY2020 positive AEBITDA of $107 million. This is probably the most concerning figure for investors as such a high cash burn rate is unsustainable, which may also lead to additional capital raises that are dilutive to shareholders.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisThe guidance did not help either. Garena Bookings is expected to fall to just $3 billion, which is $1.3 billion lower than FY2021's number. Management blamed the reopening of the economy as well as the ban of Free Fire in India for the expected drop in Bookings. Assuming a modest 50% AEBITDA margin, Garena would bring in just $1.5 billion of AEBITDA for Sea in FY2022.On the other side, the other two segments are expected to continue with their immense pace of growth — Shopee and SeaMoney are expected to grow by 76% and 155%, respectively. If we assume a (50)% AEBITDA margin for both segments, Shopee and SeaMoney is expected to burn a total of about $(5.1) billion of AEBITDA. Adding Garena's estimated AEBITDA of $1.5 billion, Sea, as a Group, is expected to burn $(3.6) billion in FY2021.Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor PresentationBecause Garena is such an important piece of Shopee's and SeaMoney's growth story, a deceleration in Garena's business had investors reacting so negatively to Sea's latest earnings release, as now, the gaming business is incapable of covering the massive losses incurred by the other two business segments.Balance SheetSea's balance sheet position as of year-end FY2021 is at about $10.2 billion of Cash and Short Term Investments. While this may show that Sea has a substantial cushion against its short-term cash burn rate, its net cash position paints a different picture.Source: Sea Limited FY2021 Q4 Investor PresentationAdjusting for Sea's debt, Sea ended the year with a net cash position of around $5.9 billion. A substantial amount of its total debt comes from its recent issuance of 0.25% Convertible Senior Notes due 2026. The notes were issued when the stock was trading at $318 per share back in September and the initial conversion price is set at $477 per share. So, yes... conversion in the next 2 to 3 years is very unlikely.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisWith net cash of $5.9 billion and $(3.6) billion of estimated AEBITDA in FY2022, it won't be long before Sea requires another cash infusion. Therefore, if the high cash burn rate persists for the next 2 to 3 years, investors face a major risk of increasing financial leverage and/or dilution in the form of equity raises.Cash Flow StatementHere is what cash flow looks like over the last few quarters. Notice how Operating Cash Flow turned negative in the last quarter. Most of the cash also comes from Financing activities.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisUnlike other high-flying growth companies, Sea's Share-Based Compensation expenses are relatively low.Source: Sea Limited Investor Relations and Author's AnalysisCompetitive MoatsBased on my research and analysis, I identified three key competitive moats for Sea: brand, network effects, and barriers to entry. I used to think that Sea has cost advantages but as Garena becomes a smaller part of the overall business, and as losses continue to worsen, I have reason to believe that Sea no longer holds that moat.BrandAs discussed in previous sections, Garena's games, particularly Free Fire, have consistently ranked as the most downloaded mobile game in the world. Additionally, the Shopee app has gained cross-border stardom and is now regarded as the most downloaded or fastest-trending shopping App in the countries it operates in. Lastly, SeaMoney is also gaining traction with banking licenses granted in various countries that should increase brand value and trust.Network EffectsThe sheer amount of app downloads leads to powerful network effects. Garena has 652 million QAUs, which is about 8% of the world's population. Shopee recorded 200+ million app downloads in FY2021 alone. SeaMoney QAUs topped 45.8 million in Q4 and it is still in the early stages of adoption.With all these users in the Sea platform, cross-selling new products or services should be easier as Sea continues to scale. One such example is Shopee Brazil and Free Fire where each platform is encouraging consumers to use the other. As Sea continues to innovate and offer better experiences for its customers, the ecosystem gets bigger and tighter, leading to powerful network effects.Source: Shopee BrazilBarriers To EntryI believe each of Sea's core businesses is operating in a winner-takes-most environment with high barriers to entry.The mobile gaming environment requires the most talented developers to launch blockbuster games. Garena's Free Fire is certainly a blockbuster game and time in Free Fire's game means time away from other mobile games.Just like how Amazon (AMZN) dominates in the US, the e-commerce landscape in Southeast Asia and Latin America is dominated by a few players, such as Shopee, Tokopedia, and MercadoLibre (MELI). The scale and unit economics that these players have achieved makes it unsustainable for new entrants to compete with them.Banking and fintech is also a highly-regulated environment. Furthermore, consumers prefer to have just one mobile wallet, such as ShopeePay, as opposed to owning several different fintech applications.ValuationBased on my sum-of-the-parts and comparable company valuation analysis, Sea looks to be slightly undervalued with 19% upside potential. Of course, comparables are not perfect but based on this, we can gauge where Sea stands among peers.Source: Author's AnalysisOn the flip side, Sea looks extremely cheap on a historical basis. In terms of EV/Sales, Sea is trading at the lowest valuation since its IPO, trading at just 4.2x forward sales.Source: KoyfinIn terms of EV/Gross Profit, Sea is trading even cheaper than its March 2020 lows.Source: KoyfinThe valuation compression is warranted given that the company flew too close to the sun and now it is cratering back to the sea — not just for Sea, but almost all growth stocks took a beating. Growth is also slowing down and the macroeconomic environment looks gloomier than ever. However, this is not the end of the world; I think the markets are overreacting. Diversion from the mean goes both ways — perhaps, current prices present a good margin of safety for long-term investors.CatalystsSuccessful International Expansion — Shopee has been successful in replicating its playbook from Southeast Asia to Brazil. Recently, Shopee launched operations in India, Mexico, Chile, Colombia, Argentina, Poland, and Spain. If Shopee can take substantial market share in these new regions, Shopee's growth could turn exponential.The Metaverse — Sea's withering gaming division needs to be revitalized. New games and features could definitely provide the boost that it needs. For example, the metaverse is an exciting opportunity and Garena could introduce this concept to its 600+ million QAUs. Sea AI Lab (SAIL) and Sea Capital are two ventures that could accelerate the company into emerging industries, including the metaverse.We will continue to encourage user-generated content by enhancing greater features and accessibility. We believe that a strong user reception to Craftland is a positive indicator of the initial success to encourage user participation in content creation and to build Free Fire into an increasingly open platform and is well aligned with major emerging industry trends such as metaverse.Regional SuperApp — Although this concept has yet to be discussed by management, launching a regional SuperApp could enhance user engagement to new levels. For example, imagine Shopee users being able to play games, shop, order food delivery, pay for services, transfer money, invest, all under one app. Imagine users being able to convert their deposited funds in ShopeePay, into ShopeeCoins, and use it to perform cross-border transactions.Continued Growth In SeaMoney — SeaMoney is still in its early stages and continued adoption of Sea's digital financial services offerings will be a strong addition to Sea's bull thesis. SPayLater has real potential to disrupt the consumer credit industry. SeaBank and ShopeePay have the opportunity to capture digital wallet, digital banking, and cashless society trends.Free Fire India Ban Lift— Garena's weak guidance factored in the headwinds coming from the ban in India. If the ban is lifted, the stock may react positively as much of Sea's cash burn problems may be eliminated.RisksThe Pressure to Launch Blockbuster Games— There will come a time when Free Fire will be dethroned as the most-played and most-downloaded game. That is just how the gaming business works. This puts a substantial risk on the cash flow generation potential of Garena. Launching blockbuster games is never easy and it requires many trials and errors along the way. For me, I would like to see Garena shift to a gaming franchise model where the company launches an updated version of an existing game every year or two, which presents a more stable and recurring revenue stream for the company. An example would be FIFA or Call of Duty.Shopee India Ban — With Free Fire banned in India, there's also the potential for Shoppe to be banned as well.Failure to Gain Traction in International Markets— Shopee pulled out of France in early March, an indication that Shoppe's business model is not replicable in other countries, especially in more developed regions. Shopee Poland and Spain may be next on the exit list as they hold a close resemblance to France.Geopolitical Risks— Tencent, a Chinese company, has an 18.7% equity stake in Sea. Sanctions, bans, and other restrictions on Chinese companies, given the current geopolitical environment, could spell trouble for Sea. Tencent may have to cut exposure on Sea or even dissolve its developing-publishing partnership with Garena.Local Competition— Local champions operating in their respective markets cannot be ignored. These include GoTo in Indonesia, MercadoLibre in Latin America, and Flipkart in India.In addition, there's a certain level of pride for consumers to see their native-born companies succeed. I'm Indonesian, and it makes me really happy to see GoTo grow and grow.GoTo, the holding company of both Indonesian tech darlings Gojek and Tokopedia, recently announced its plan to IPO in the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Here's a glance of GoTo's stats for the 12-months ended 30 September 2021:Valuation: $26.2 billion to $28.8 billionGMV: $28.8 billionRevenue: $1 billionGross Orders: 2 billionAnnual Transacting Users: 55 millionDriver Partners: 2.5 millionMerchants: 14 millionThe point is that there are big-time local players operating in Sea's markets that investors should never ignore. Here's a little snippet from my previous Shopee article:But with the GoTo merger, Indonesia could potentially extinguish the orange flame that charred its forest for many years. Now, GoTo could finally reclaim a good chunk of its territory that was lost to waves of competition, especially from Shopee. GoTo could finally gain more ground as the roots grew even stronger with the merger, fertilized with the synergies of value propositions, logistics, payments, and banking solutions.Meanwhile, Sea Limited's stock continues to soar, ignoring the titan of an elephant in the room. And because of GoTo's integration, Shopee's vertically-integrated business model doesn't look like a strong competitive advantage anymore.ConclusionEach of Sea's core businesses is in hypergrowth mode, propelled by megatrends in the mobile gaming, e-commerce, and fintech industry. Management understands these opportunities and therefore, is sacrificing short-term profitability for long-term market dominance. Despite being a larger business, Sea still has a massive growth runway ahead.That is not to say that unprofitability and competition risks can and should be ignored. The biggest concern for investors is the company's unsustainable cash burn rate, which will likely lead to further capital raises in the near future.Nonetheless, the long-term growth thesis for the three-headed monster remains intact. Strong brand, network effects, and barriers to entry moats should support the business going forward. In addition, shares of Sea are trading at the lowest valuation multiples ever, which presents a good margin of safety for an entry at these prices.Thank you for reading my Sea Limited deep dive. If you enjoyed the article, please let me know in the comment section down below. If you have any suggestions or feedback, don't hesitate to share your thoughts as well.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":467,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9036111803,"gmtCreate":1647010771144,"gmtModify":1676534187285,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"A good company but still dropping down down down&nbsp;[sigh]&nbsp;","listText":"A good company but still dropping down down down&nbsp;[sigh]&nbsp;","text":"A good company but still dropping down down down [sigh]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":2,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9036111803","repostId":"1150634534","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"1150634534","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Providing stock market headlines, business news, financials and earnings ","home_visible":1,"media_name":"Tiger Newspress","id":"1079075236","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba"},"pubTimestamp":1646922923,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1150634534?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-03-10 22:35","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Hot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Morning Trading","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1150634534","media":"Tiger Newspress","summary":"Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in morning trading, with Alibaba falling 7%, JD falling 14% and Pinduoduo f","content":"<html><head></head><body><p>Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in morning trading, with Alibaba falling 7%, JD falling 14% and Pinduoduo falling 13%.<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c836705c4f01061d8f1b41820eebb291\" tg-width=\"506\" tg-height=\"573\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4caba3fca451b7e5ac4deef085ae8ebf\" tg-width=\"507\" tg-height=\"482\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/e380e3841fd29efea119d205f766acb3\" tg-width=\"483\" tg-height=\"123\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Hot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Morning Trading</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nHot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Morning Trading\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<a class=\"head\" href=\"https://laohu8.com/wemedia/1079075236\">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Tiger Newspress </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2022-03-10 22:35</p>\n</div>\n\n</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body><p>Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in morning trading, with Alibaba falling 7%, JD falling 14% and Pinduoduo falling 13%.<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c836705c4f01061d8f1b41820eebb291\" tg-width=\"506\" tg-height=\"573\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/4caba3fca451b7e5ac4deef085ae8ebf\" tg-width=\"507\" tg-height=\"482\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/e380e3841fd29efea119d205f766acb3\" tg-width=\"483\" tg-height=\"123\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p></body></html>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"PDD":"拼多多","BABA":"阿里巴巴"},"source_url":"","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1150634534","content_text":"Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in morning trading, with Alibaba falling 7%, JD falling 14% and Pinduoduo falling 13%.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":356,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[{"author":{"id":"9000000000000466","authorId":"9000000000000466","name":"MR_Wu","avatar":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/67592890bebcf079461acc4e4e6ba6f6","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"authorIdStr":"9000000000000466","idStr":"9000000000000466"},"content":"The Fed's move next week will put further pressure on stocks.","text":"The Fed's move next week will put further pressure on stocks.","html":"The Fed's move next week will put further pressure on stocks."}],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9034814001,"gmtCreate":1647851253703,"gmtModify":1676534271765,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Volatile on short term&nbsp;but believe will be bullish&nbsp;long term","listText":"Volatile on short term&nbsp;but believe will be bullish&nbsp;long term","text":"Volatile on short term but believe will be bullish long term","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":6,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9034814001","repostId":"1149997871","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"1149997871","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Providing stock market headlines, business news, financials and earnings ","home_visible":1,"media_name":"Tiger Newspress","id":"1079075236","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba"},"pubTimestamp":1647850036,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1149997871?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-03-21 16:07","market":"hk","language":"en","title":"Hot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Premarket Trading, with Pinduoduo Falling Nearly 9% and Alibaba Falling Over 6%","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1149997871","media":"Tiger Newspress","summary":"Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in premarket trading, with Pinduoduo falling nearly 9% and Alibaba falling ","content":"<html><head></head><body><p>Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in premarket trading, with Pinduoduo falling nearly 9% and Alibaba falling over 6%.<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c16fb1c6940b77e5a56b7e88faebc1d8\" tg-width=\"313\" tg-height=\"356\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"/></p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Hot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Premarket Trading, with Pinduoduo Falling Nearly 9% and Alibaba Falling Over 6%</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; 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color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nHot Chinese ADRs Tumbled in Premarket Trading, with Pinduoduo Falling Nearly 9% and Alibaba Falling Over 6%\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<a class=\"head\" href=\"https://laohu8.com/wemedia/1079075236\">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Tiger Newspress </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2022-03-21 16:07</p>\n</div>\n\n</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body><p>Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in premarket trading, with Pinduoduo falling nearly 9% and Alibaba falling over 6%.<img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c16fb1c6940b77e5a56b7e88faebc1d8\" tg-width=\"313\" tg-height=\"356\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\"/></p></body></html>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"BABA":"阿里巴巴","PDD":"拼多多"},"source_url":"","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1149997871","content_text":"Hot Chinese ADRs tumbled in premarket trading, with Pinduoduo falling nearly 9% and Alibaba falling over 6%.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":308,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9901932898,"gmtCreate":1659109317914,"gmtModify":1676536259249,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Thanks for sharing&nbsp;","listText":"Thanks for sharing&nbsp;","text":"Thanks for sharing","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":5,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9901932898","repostId":"1114809450","repostType":4,"repost":{"id":"1114809450","pubTimestamp":1659108300,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1114809450?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-07-29 23:25","market":"hk","language":"en","title":"Alibaba Vs. JD.Com: Let's Hear The Bears Out","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1114809450","media":"Seeking Alpha","summary":"SummaryI am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.My favorite C","content":"<html><head></head><body><p><b>Summary</b></p><ul><li>I am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.</li><li>My favorite Charles Munger quote is not to comment on a topic until I can argue against myself better than the people on the other side.</li><li>Following this wisdom, the focus here is to address some potential risks for Alibaba that are not often discussed.</li><li>And these risks are best illustrated by comparison and contrast against JD.com.</li><li>The goal is not to dismiss these risks (they are 100% valid), but to provide a full view so both bears and bulls can all make informed decisions.</li></ul><p><b>Thesis</b></p><p>My last comparison article on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA,OTCPK:BABAF) and JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) was co-produced with Sensor Unlimited and published back in May 2022. That article focused on the similarities and differences in their business fundamentals and the megatrend in the Asian-Pacific regions.</p><p>In this article, I want to compare them again, but from a completely different angle and for a completely different purpose. This time, I want to compare them to address many of the risks facing BABA. Some of these risks have been often mentioned by BABA bears, while some of them are less mentioned (like BABA’s profitability sustainability and platform role). All these risks are 100% valid to me. So, the point of this article is not to prove the bears to be wrong. To the contrary, their concerns are 100% valid to me. I am here to hear them out and provide my thoughts so both bulls and bears can all make informed decisions.</p><p>After all, the hallmark of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold conflicting views at the same time without losing the ability to act.</p><p>And we will start with the elephant in the room first – the risk in China.</p><p><b>Risk in China</b></p><p>The implied argument here is that the BABA thesis does not depend much on its business fundamentals. Instead, the Chinese government (or the CCP, or the VIE structure, et al) is a central part (or even all) of the thesis.</p><p>As just mentioned, it is a 100% valid argument to me, and I am not here to dismiss it or prove it wrong. I am here to provide my perspective for a full view. And I invite BABA investors or potential BABA investors to consider the following aspects.</p><p>First, I feel the argument is border-lining a political or ideological discussion. Not say political or ideological considerations are not important in investment decisions – to the contrary, they are very important. However, they are difficult to quantify. To me, investing is pretty much all about PRICING risks. It is hard to put a price tag on risks that you cannot quantify. As such, I won’t dwell more on this issue here myself. I recommend Ray Dalio’s recent book entitled “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order” for readers who are interested in his view on politics and ideologies. I feel he has deeper insights about China than most Chinese themselves. And, of course, he understands the West deeper than most westerners too. A few quotes from his book are provided below:</p><blockquote><ul><li><i>“I urge those of you who have not spent considerable time in China to look past the caricatured pictures that are often painted by biased parties and rid yourself of any stereotypes you might have that are based on what you thought you knew about the old “communist China” - because they are wrong.</i></li><li><i>“As an aside, I think the widespread medium distortions and the blind and the near-violent loyalties that stand in the way of the thoughtful exploration of our different perspectives are a frightening sign of our times.”</i></li></ul></blockquote><p>Second, this is where JD enters the picture. If the risk is valid, then it should apply to all other major Chinese firms too, such as BABA’s close peer JD. After all, they all operate in the same country and are governed by the same laws (or lack of laws, as many have bears argued). If BABA’s business fundamentals don’t mean much to the investment thesis, then neither should JD’s.</p><p>However, reality does not seem to confirm. The following chart shows a simple counterexample in terms of stock price actions. As you can see from the below chart, over the past year, JD suffered a total loss of around 4%, totally within the range of random fluctuations. On the other hand, BABA&#39;s stock price suffered a total loss of more than 46% in the past years.</p><p>And as you already know, JD is still trading at a healthy (or even lofty) valuation with a P/E around 35x. This leads us to the next risk associated with BABA, its profitability. And we will discuss this next.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/32d445f99fbb8cf67372cf8ba8707ca8\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"434\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>But BABA also has higher margins</b></p><p>The next bearish argument is that due to the regulatory changes, BABA’s good old days are gone and its profitability couldn&#39;t sustain in the future. Therefore, its valuation should be discounted correspondingly.</p><p>A very valid argument again. And moreover, this argument is indeed supported by data, as you can see from the top panel in the next chart. To net profit margin as an example, BABA’s margin has been quite stable and fluctuated in a narrow range between about 20% to 30% in the past before the tech crackdown started in 2020. Then it declined all the way to the current level of 6.4%.</p><p>But as advised by Charlie Munger, being smart is all about actively looking for disconfirming evidence, not confirming evidence. And JD’s margin, shown in the bottom panel of this chart, is an easy disconfirming evince to find. You can see JD’s net margin has declined (and in a more dramatic fashion) since 2021, it is currently in the negative (-1%), and its long-term average is nowhere near BABA’s. In terms of long-term averages, BABA’s margin of 23% is 13x higher than JD’s 1.7%. Even when we compared BABA’s current margin of 6.4% against JD’s long-term average (kind of unfair), BABA is still ahead by about 3.8x.</p><p>And this leads us yet to the next bears’ argument associated with BABA, which goes more or less like this: margins (or profitability in general) are not the whole story, and their business models are not entirely comparable. And we will address this next.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/c68b1d15c317dd7a3a7c0e642dbbbda1\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"448\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>Business model comparison</b></p><p>A few key differences here. First, even though BABA is better known and bigger than JD in market-cap (by almost 3x), JD’s revenues are actually larger than BABA. JD is China&#39;s largest direct retailer in terms of revenue. Second, JD relies almost exclusively on a single source of revenue while BABA is more diversified. JD&#39;s retail business represents 94% of its total sales and almost 100% of its total profits. BABA&#39;s core eCommerce operation “only” accounts for about 87% of its total sales, with the rest coming from other segments such as its cloud service.</p><p>Now, even within the e-commerce segment, they are very different. JD’s main operation is its first-party marketplace. It sells its own goods and keeps its own inventories. In contrast, BABA’s main role is to provide a platform and act as a third party. For reference, Amazon (AMZN) is more of a hybrid. Its Third-Party Sales and First-Party Sales are about an even split in recent years.</p><p>The focus of this article is not trying to argue which model (first-party, third-party, or a hybrid) is better, although that would be a fascinating topic for another article. The point is to acknowledge the bears’ point that net profit margin is not the entire picture because of the differences in business fundamentals</p><p>Or to put it differently, margins do not entirely determine profitability. Intuitively, the reasons are summarized by the following simple example used in one of our earlier articles:</p><blockquote><i>If you buy an orange today for $1 and sell it tomorrow for $1.01, your margin is a meager 1% but your ROIC (which is your true profitability) would be an astronomical 365%. There are three knobs that management can turn to drive up profitability: profit margin (“PM”), asset turnover ratio (“ATR”), and leverage. And PM is only one of the 3 knobs.</i></blockquote><p>And different business models lead to different ATR, as you can clearly see from the following chart. Because of its third-party dominant model, BABA’s ATR has been on average about 0.45x in the past five years (although note that the trend has been improving). In contrast, JD’s ATR is much higher. It has fluctuated in a range from 1.97x to about 2.46x in the past five years, with an average of 2.23x. So, because of its first-party dominant model, JD can operate its asset much more effectively than BABA, on average by about a factor of almost 5x.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/75deb5d294785307e58c8b1e54eb6bc0\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"449\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>True profitability comparison</b></p><p>The next chart compares their return on capital employed (“ROCE”), a comprehensive measure of profitability combining the effects of all three knobs as detailed in my free blog article here. As seen, their current ROCE is on the same order of magnitude – both are at terrific levels. They are not different by 3.8x as net margin would suggest or by 5x as asset utilization would. BABA’s ROCE currently stands at about 95%, and JD at about 85%. Both JD and BABA’s ROCEs have been in decline since 2020 while BABA’s decline is more dramatic.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/1720d0a06becf9ad3bb5dfa46b2ff913\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"336\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Author</p><p><b>Yet BABA P/E is less than ½ of JD</b></p><p>The comparable ROCE now leads me to the following valuation comparison. As you can see, despite very comparable ROCE (BABA is actually higher), BABA&#39;s valuation is less than ½ of JD by most metrics. Let me cite a few examples. BABA’s FY1 P/E of 13.8x is almost only 1/3 of JD’s 35x. Its FY2 P/E of 11.5x is less than 1/2 of JD’s 23.8x.</p><p>And next, we will see that the valuation discount is a bit less than what&#39;s on the surface because of the differences in their balance sheets.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/f8e55787bae44c98c1e22fd8103edec6\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"566\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>Balance sheet and adjusted P/E</b></p><p>Currently, BABA has about $72 billion of cash on its ledger and JD about $28 billion, translating into $26.8 per share for BABA and about $18.6 dollars per share for JD. Both of them also have some debt but the debt is both lower than the cash position. As a result, both carry a net cash position (a quite sizable one) on their ledger. The net cash position for BABA is about $44.5 billion and for JD about $8.3 billion.</p><p>In other words, at their current market cap ($274 billion for BABA and $96 billion for JD), about 16% of BABA’s market cap is just its cash and the percentage is about 20.8% for JD.</p><p>When we subtract the cash out of the stock price, their Pes would both become lower. For BABA, the FY1 P/E would become only 11.6x after adjusting for its cash position. And for JD, the FY1 P/E would become 27.7x, still more than 2x above BABA.</p><p><img src=\"https://static.tigerbbs.com/bec38b2bfebedfcb0394b6a639e2b5b6\" tg-width=\"640\" tg-height=\"300\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer\"/></p><p>Seeking Alpha</p><p><b>Final thoughts and risks</b></p><p>Even though I feel the market has gone too far in the fear direction for BABA (or not enough for JD), I think the bearish arguments are 100% valid. The common bearish concerns concerning BABA such as risk in China, profitability sustainability, and business model, are 100% valid. And I hope the comparison and contrast against its close peer JD better accentuate these concerns so we can all make better investment decisions.</p><p>Finally, besides the above risks mentioned. There are also unfolding macroscopic risks that could impact both BABA and JD. BABA has more exposure overseas and will be more sensitive to global geopolitics such as the Russian/Ukraine situation. The upside is that it’s better poised to tap into the global eCommerce movement, especially in the Asian-Pacific region. There are also macroeconomic headwinds specific to China, which would impact both BABA and JD. In the short term, China faces the challenge of balancing COVID control and economic growth. The World Bank projects its GDP growth to slow in 2022 to 4.3 percent (0.8% lower than China’s own economic update).</p><p>At the same time, China’s housing market is seeing weakening demand and dealing with sizable debt issues. A JPMorgan report estimated that the housing sector has been contributing up to 25% of its GDP when related sectors are considered in the past few years. But demand for housing is predicted to fall 47% by 2030. Such a large decline will create ripple effects throughout its entire economy.</p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Alibaba Vs. JD.Com: Let's Hear The Bears Out</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nAlibaba Vs. JD.Com: Let's Hear The Bears Out\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2022-07-29 23:25 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://seekingalpha.com/article/4526927-alibaba-vs-jdcom-lets-hear-the-bears-out?source=content_type%3Aall%7Cfirst_level_url%3Aportfolio%7Csection%3Aportfolio_content_unit%7Csection_asset%3Alatest%7Cline%3A41><strong>Seeking Alpha</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>SummaryI am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.My favorite Charles Munger quote is not to comment on a topic until I can argue against myself better than the ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4526927-alibaba-vs-jdcom-lets-hear-the-bears-out?source=content_type%3Aall%7Cfirst_level_url%3Aportfolio%7Csection%3Aportfolio_content_unit%7Csection_asset%3Alatest%7Cline%3A41\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"JD":"京东","BABA":"阿里巴巴","09618":"京东集团-SW","09988":"阿里巴巴-W"},"source_url":"https://seekingalpha.com/article/4526927-alibaba-vs-jdcom-lets-hear-the-bears-out?source=content_type%3Aall%7Cfirst_level_url%3Aportfolio%7Csection%3Aportfolio_content_unit%7Csection_asset%3Alatest%7Cline%3A41","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1114809450","content_text":"SummaryI am a long-term Alibaba Bull, but here I will argue against my own bull thesis.My favorite Charles Munger quote is not to comment on a topic until I can argue against myself better than the people on the other side.Following this wisdom, the focus here is to address some potential risks for Alibaba that are not often discussed.And these risks are best illustrated by comparison and contrast against JD.com.The goal is not to dismiss these risks (they are 100% valid), but to provide a full view so both bears and bulls can all make informed decisions.ThesisMy last comparison article on Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE:BABA,OTCPK:BABAF) and JD.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:JD) was co-produced with Sensor Unlimited and published back in May 2022. That article focused on the similarities and differences in their business fundamentals and the megatrend in the Asian-Pacific regions.In this article, I want to compare them again, but from a completely different angle and for a completely different purpose. This time, I want to compare them to address many of the risks facing BABA. Some of these risks have been often mentioned by BABA bears, while some of them are less mentioned (like BABA’s profitability sustainability and platform role). All these risks are 100% valid to me. So, the point of this article is not to prove the bears to be wrong. To the contrary, their concerns are 100% valid to me. I am here to hear them out and provide my thoughts so both bulls and bears can all make informed decisions.After all, the hallmark of a first-rate mind is the ability to hold conflicting views at the same time without losing the ability to act.And we will start with the elephant in the room first – the risk in China.Risk in ChinaThe implied argument here is that the BABA thesis does not depend much on its business fundamentals. Instead, the Chinese government (or the CCP, or the VIE structure, et al) is a central part (or even all) of the thesis.As just mentioned, it is a 100% valid argument to me, and I am not here to dismiss it or prove it wrong. I am here to provide my perspective for a full view. And I invite BABA investors or potential BABA investors to consider the following aspects.First, I feel the argument is border-lining a political or ideological discussion. Not say political or ideological considerations are not important in investment decisions – to the contrary, they are very important. However, they are difficult to quantify. To me, investing is pretty much all about PRICING risks. It is hard to put a price tag on risks that you cannot quantify. As such, I won’t dwell more on this issue here myself. I recommend Ray Dalio’s recent book entitled “Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order” for readers who are interested in his view on politics and ideologies. I feel he has deeper insights about China than most Chinese themselves. And, of course, he understands the West deeper than most westerners too. A few quotes from his book are provided below:“I urge those of you who have not spent considerable time in China to look past the caricatured pictures that are often painted by biased parties and rid yourself of any stereotypes you might have that are based on what you thought you knew about the old “communist China” - because they are wrong.“As an aside, I think the widespread medium distortions and the blind and the near-violent loyalties that stand in the way of the thoughtful exploration of our different perspectives are a frightening sign of our times.”Second, this is where JD enters the picture. If the risk is valid, then it should apply to all other major Chinese firms too, such as BABA’s close peer JD. After all, they all operate in the same country and are governed by the same laws (or lack of laws, as many have bears argued). If BABA’s business fundamentals don’t mean much to the investment thesis, then neither should JD’s.However, reality does not seem to confirm. The following chart shows a simple counterexample in terms of stock price actions. As you can see from the below chart, over the past year, JD suffered a total loss of around 4%, totally within the range of random fluctuations. On the other hand, BABA's stock price suffered a total loss of more than 46% in the past years.And as you already know, JD is still trading at a healthy (or even lofty) valuation with a P/E around 35x. This leads us to the next risk associated with BABA, its profitability. And we will discuss this next.Seeking AlphaBut BABA also has higher marginsThe next bearish argument is that due to the regulatory changes, BABA’s good old days are gone and its profitability couldn't sustain in the future. Therefore, its valuation should be discounted correspondingly.A very valid argument again. And moreover, this argument is indeed supported by data, as you can see from the top panel in the next chart. To net profit margin as an example, BABA’s margin has been quite stable and fluctuated in a narrow range between about 20% to 30% in the past before the tech crackdown started in 2020. Then it declined all the way to the current level of 6.4%.But as advised by Charlie Munger, being smart is all about actively looking for disconfirming evidence, not confirming evidence. And JD’s margin, shown in the bottom panel of this chart, is an easy disconfirming evince to find. You can see JD’s net margin has declined (and in a more dramatic fashion) since 2021, it is currently in the negative (-1%), and its long-term average is nowhere near BABA’s. In terms of long-term averages, BABA’s margin of 23% is 13x higher than JD’s 1.7%. Even when we compared BABA’s current margin of 6.4% against JD’s long-term average (kind of unfair), BABA is still ahead by about 3.8x.And this leads us yet to the next bears’ argument associated with BABA, which goes more or less like this: margins (or profitability in general) are not the whole story, and their business models are not entirely comparable. And we will address this next.Seeking AlphaBusiness model comparisonA few key differences here. First, even though BABA is better known and bigger than JD in market-cap (by almost 3x), JD’s revenues are actually larger than BABA. JD is China's largest direct retailer in terms of revenue. Second, JD relies almost exclusively on a single source of revenue while BABA is more diversified. JD's retail business represents 94% of its total sales and almost 100% of its total profits. BABA's core eCommerce operation “only” accounts for about 87% of its total sales, with the rest coming from other segments such as its cloud service.Now, even within the e-commerce segment, they are very different. JD’s main operation is its first-party marketplace. It sells its own goods and keeps its own inventories. In contrast, BABA’s main role is to provide a platform and act as a third party. For reference, Amazon (AMZN) is more of a hybrid. Its Third-Party Sales and First-Party Sales are about an even split in recent years.The focus of this article is not trying to argue which model (first-party, third-party, or a hybrid) is better, although that would be a fascinating topic for another article. The point is to acknowledge the bears’ point that net profit margin is not the entire picture because of the differences in business fundamentalsOr to put it differently, margins do not entirely determine profitability. Intuitively, the reasons are summarized by the following simple example used in one of our earlier articles:If you buy an orange today for $1 and sell it tomorrow for $1.01, your margin is a meager 1% but your ROIC (which is your true profitability) would be an astronomical 365%. There are three knobs that management can turn to drive up profitability: profit margin (“PM”), asset turnover ratio (“ATR”), and leverage. And PM is only one of the 3 knobs.And different business models lead to different ATR, as you can clearly see from the following chart. Because of its third-party dominant model, BABA’s ATR has been on average about 0.45x in the past five years (although note that the trend has been improving). In contrast, JD’s ATR is much higher. It has fluctuated in a range from 1.97x to about 2.46x in the past five years, with an average of 2.23x. So, because of its first-party dominant model, JD can operate its asset much more effectively than BABA, on average by about a factor of almost 5x.Seeking AlphaTrue profitability comparisonThe next chart compares their return on capital employed (“ROCE”), a comprehensive measure of profitability combining the effects of all three knobs as detailed in my free blog article here. As seen, their current ROCE is on the same order of magnitude – both are at terrific levels. They are not different by 3.8x as net margin would suggest or by 5x as asset utilization would. BABA’s ROCE currently stands at about 95%, and JD at about 85%. Both JD and BABA’s ROCEs have been in decline since 2020 while BABA’s decline is more dramatic.AuthorYet BABA P/E is less than ½ of JDThe comparable ROCE now leads me to the following valuation comparison. As you can see, despite very comparable ROCE (BABA is actually higher), BABA's valuation is less than ½ of JD by most metrics. Let me cite a few examples. BABA’s FY1 P/E of 13.8x is almost only 1/3 of JD’s 35x. Its FY2 P/E of 11.5x is less than 1/2 of JD’s 23.8x.And next, we will see that the valuation discount is a bit less than what's on the surface because of the differences in their balance sheets.Seeking AlphaBalance sheet and adjusted P/ECurrently, BABA has about $72 billion of cash on its ledger and JD about $28 billion, translating into $26.8 per share for BABA and about $18.6 dollars per share for JD. Both of them also have some debt but the debt is both lower than the cash position. As a result, both carry a net cash position (a quite sizable one) on their ledger. The net cash position for BABA is about $44.5 billion and for JD about $8.3 billion.In other words, at their current market cap ($274 billion for BABA and $96 billion for JD), about 16% of BABA’s market cap is just its cash and the percentage is about 20.8% for JD.When we subtract the cash out of the stock price, their Pes would both become lower. For BABA, the FY1 P/E would become only 11.6x after adjusting for its cash position. And for JD, the FY1 P/E would become 27.7x, still more than 2x above BABA.Seeking AlphaFinal thoughts and risksEven though I feel the market has gone too far in the fear direction for BABA (or not enough for JD), I think the bearish arguments are 100% valid. The common bearish concerns concerning BABA such as risk in China, profitability sustainability, and business model, are 100% valid. And I hope the comparison and contrast against its close peer JD better accentuate these concerns so we can all make better investment decisions.Finally, besides the above risks mentioned. There are also unfolding macroscopic risks that could impact both BABA and JD. BABA has more exposure overseas and will be more sensitive to global geopolitics such as the Russian/Ukraine situation. The upside is that it’s better poised to tap into the global eCommerce movement, especially in the Asian-Pacific region. There are also macroeconomic headwinds specific to China, which would impact both BABA and JD. In the short term, China faces the challenge of balancing COVID control and economic growth. The World Bank projects its GDP growth to slow in 2022 to 4.3 percent (0.8% lower than China’s own economic update).At the same time, China’s housing market is seeing weakening demand and dealing with sizable debt issues. A JPMorgan report estimated that the housing sector has been contributing up to 25% of its GDP when related sectors are considered in the past few years. But demand for housing is predicted to fall 47% by 2030. Such a large decline will create ripple effects throughout its entire economy.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":382,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9908712128,"gmtCreate":1659437225967,"gmtModify":1705980348089,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Agree","listText":"Agree","text":"Agree","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9908712128","repostId":"1185195280","repostType":2,"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":435,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9908486720,"gmtCreate":1659416259861,"gmtModify":1705980151908,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Good","listText":"Good","text":"Good","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9908486720","repostId":"2256615026","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"2256615026","pubTimestamp":1659409951,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/2256615026?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-08-02 11:12","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Warren Buffett Has 10% of Berkshire Hathaway's Portfolio in This Recession-Resistant Sector","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=2256615026","media":"Motley Fool","summary":"The Oracle of Omaha might be investing in stuff you can't live without.","content":"<html><head></head><body><p>To repurpose an old television commercial: When Warren Buffett talks, people listen. Buffett is one of the world&#39;s richest billionaires and most successful investors. Much of the investment community follows his every move, looking to bring some of the Buffett magic into their own portfolios.</p><p>Buffett&#39;s moves are particularly interesting as the U.S. faces inflation plus fears of recession. Investors generally want safety in uncertain times. And Buffett, who&#39;s seen many flavors of recession, could shed light on where to find that safety.</p><p>But Buffett doesn&#39;t buy and sell stocks based on what&#39;s happening with the economy. He&#39;s an all-weather investor -- choosing stocks that can survive all economic climates. That may be why he has 10% of <b>Berkshire Hathaway</b>&#39;s portfolio invested in consumer staples, a sector that&#39;s known for being recession-resistant.</p><h2>Consumer staples defined</h2><p>Consumer staples are essential food, beverage, household, and personal products. Examples are soda, eggs, milk, toothpaste, and detergents.</p><p>Consumer staples companies include retailers and manufacturers of these products. On the retail side, you have <b>Dollar General </b>(NYSE: DG), <b>Walmart </b>(NYSE: WMT), <b>Costco </b>(NASDAQ: COST), and their competitors. Consumer staples manufacturers include <b>Procter &amp; Gamble</b> (PG 1.70%), <b>Coca-Cola</b> (KO 1.01%), and <b>Kimberly Clark</b> (NYSE: KMB).</p><h2>Why consumer staples stocks are recession-resistant</h2><p>A look at your own buying habits can demonstrate why consumer staples stocks don&#39;t tank in recessions. With inflation running hot, where have you cut back to make ends meet? You&#39;re probably spending less on things like electronics and designer clothes. You may have even canceled a streaming service or two.</p><p>But you are still buying toilet paper, deodorant, and bread, even as the prices on these goods rise. On top of that, you may have shifted some shopping to discount retailers like Walmart, in lieu of your more expensive local market.</p><p>Here&#39;s what it comes down to. People keep buying their staples. Demand for these essential goods doesn&#39;t drop off when the economy goes sideways.</p><h2>Buffett&#39;s consumer staples stocks</h2><p>Berkshire Hathaway owns five consumer staples stocks:</p><ol><li>Coca-Cola</li><li><b>Kraft Heinz</b> (KHC 1.21%)</li><li><b>Kroger</b> (KR 1.39%)</li><li><b>Mondelez International</b> (MDLZ 1.56%)</li><li>Procter &amp; Gamble</li></ol><h2>Where to find consumer staples stocks for your portfolio</h2><p>Buffett&#39;s consumer staples portfolio is interesting, but you don&#39;t want to run out and copy it. Even Buffett himself would tell you: A better approach is to invest in what you know -- specifically, the products, brands, and retailers that are essential to you.</p><p>This is easy to figure out, too. Look at your last grocery receipt. Cross off everything that&#39;s nonessential and see what&#39;s left. Or peek into your pantry and bathroom cabinets. Note the brands you buy repeatedly. It could be Colgate or Charmin, for example. If you see mostly generic goods, then where are you buying them?</p><p>You could also think back to the products that kept selling out during the Great Lockdown of 2020. (In my community, it was toilet paper, disinfectants, and chicken.) People stockpile the stuff they can&#39;t live without. And many of these staples are made or sold by public companies.</p><p>Spend a few minutes on this exercise, and it could reveal six or more recession-resistant stocks to consider for your own portfolio.</p><h2>Recession defense, the Buffett way</h2><p>Many investors use consumer staples stocks as a defensive strategy against recession. To follow Buffett&#39;s approach, though, you&#39;d invest in defensive stocks you&#39;re willing to hold for decades. That&#39;s different from owning shares of Coke or Walmart temporarily because financial pundits are predicting recession.</p><p>In other words, play defense consistently. Manage to a risk level you can handle in all investing climates. Buffett has 10% exposure to consumer staples, for example, but you might prefer 5% or 15%. Whatever your number is, stick with it. That way, you won&#39;t be scrambling to adjust to every market shift.</p></body></html>","source":"fool_stock","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Warren Buffett Has 10% of Berkshire Hathaway's Portfolio in This Recession-Resistant Sector</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nWarren Buffett Has 10% of Berkshire Hathaway's Portfolio in This Recession-Resistant Sector\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n2022-08-02 11:12 GMT+8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href=https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/08/01/warren-buffett-berkshire-recession-resistant/><strong>Motley Fool</strong></a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<div>\n<p>To repurpose an old television commercial: When Warren Buffett talks, people listen. Buffett is one of the world's richest billionaires and most successful investors. Much of the investment community ...</p>\n\n<a href=\"https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/08/01/warren-buffett-berkshire-recession-resistant/\">Web Link</a>\n\n</div>\n\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"BK4532":"文艺复兴科技持仓","BK4177":"软饮料","BK4567":"ESG概念","BK4018":"居家用品","KO":"可口可乐","BK4534":"瑞士信贷持仓","BK4533":"AQR资本管理(全球第二大对冲基金)","BK4558":"双十一","BK4114":"综合货品商店","BK4559":"巴菲特持仓","BK4550":"红杉资本持仓","DG":"美国达乐公司","BK4155":"大卖场与超市","BRK.B":"伯克希尔B","BK4581":"高盛持仓","BK4504":"桥水持仓","PG":"宝洁","COST":"好市多","KMB":"金佰利","WMT":"沃尔玛","BK4176":"多领域控股"},"source_url":"https://www.fool.com/investing/2022/08/01/warren-buffett-berkshire-recession-resistant/","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"2256615026","content_text":"To repurpose an old television commercial: When Warren Buffett talks, people listen. Buffett is one of the world's richest billionaires and most successful investors. Much of the investment community follows his every move, looking to bring some of the Buffett magic into their own portfolios.Buffett's moves are particularly interesting as the U.S. faces inflation plus fears of recession. Investors generally want safety in uncertain times. And Buffett, who's seen many flavors of recession, could shed light on where to find that safety.But Buffett doesn't buy and sell stocks based on what's happening with the economy. He's an all-weather investor -- choosing stocks that can survive all economic climates. That may be why he has 10% of Berkshire Hathaway's portfolio invested in consumer staples, a sector that's known for being recession-resistant.Consumer staples definedConsumer staples are essential food, beverage, household, and personal products. Examples are soda, eggs, milk, toothpaste, and detergents.Consumer staples companies include retailers and manufacturers of these products. On the retail side, you have Dollar General (NYSE: DG), Walmart (NYSE: WMT), Costco (NASDAQ: COST), and their competitors. Consumer staples manufacturers include Procter & Gamble (PG 1.70%), Coca-Cola (KO 1.01%), and Kimberly Clark (NYSE: KMB).Why consumer staples stocks are recession-resistantA look at your own buying habits can demonstrate why consumer staples stocks don't tank in recessions. With inflation running hot, where have you cut back to make ends meet? You're probably spending less on things like electronics and designer clothes. You may have even canceled a streaming service or two.But you are still buying toilet paper, deodorant, and bread, even as the prices on these goods rise. On top of that, you may have shifted some shopping to discount retailers like Walmart, in lieu of your more expensive local market.Here's what it comes down to. People keep buying their staples. Demand for these essential goods doesn't drop off when the economy goes sideways.Buffett's consumer staples stocksBerkshire Hathaway owns five consumer staples stocks:Coca-ColaKraft Heinz (KHC 1.21%)Kroger (KR 1.39%)Mondelez International (MDLZ 1.56%)Procter & GambleWhere to find consumer staples stocks for your portfolioBuffett's consumer staples portfolio is interesting, but you don't want to run out and copy it. Even Buffett himself would tell you: A better approach is to invest in what you know -- specifically, the products, brands, and retailers that are essential to you.This is easy to figure out, too. Look at your last grocery receipt. Cross off everything that's nonessential and see what's left. Or peek into your pantry and bathroom cabinets. Note the brands you buy repeatedly. It could be Colgate or Charmin, for example. If you see mostly generic goods, then where are you buying them?You could also think back to the products that kept selling out during the Great Lockdown of 2020. (In my community, it was toilet paper, disinfectants, and chicken.) People stockpile the stuff they can't live without. And many of these staples are made or sold by public companies.Spend a few minutes on this exercise, and it could reveal six or more recession-resistant stocks to consider for your own portfolio.Recession defense, the Buffett wayMany investors use consumer staples stocks as a defensive strategy against recession. To follow Buffett's approach, though, you'd invest in defensive stocks you're willing to hold for decades. That's different from owning shares of Coke or Walmart temporarily because financial pundits are predicting recession.In other words, play defense consistently. Manage to a risk level you can handle in all investing climates. Buffett has 10% exposure to consumer staples, for example, but you might prefer 5% or 15%. Whatever your number is, stick with it. That way, you won't be scrambling to adjust to every market shift.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":489,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9080184229,"gmtCreate":1649858374249,"gmtModify":1676534591445,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"[666]&nbsp;","listText":"[666]&nbsp;","text":"[666]","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/3366484b4f1a25cc410267e3af0c8dcd","width":"1080","height":"2633"}],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9080184229","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":614,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":1,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9019982305,"gmtCreate":1648514543266,"gmtModify":1676534347913,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Not a believer of crypto. Too speculative!&nbsp;","listText":"Not a believer of crypto. Too speculative!&nbsp;","text":"Not a believer of crypto. Too speculative!","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":3,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9019982305","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":675,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9010166719,"gmtCreate":1648293006681,"gmtModify":1676534325923,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"[Sly]&nbsp;","listText":"[Sly]&nbsp;","text":"[Sly]","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/a334a6d0597e1c7ba63b90fb5f284fcf","width":"1080","height":"1657"}],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9010166719","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":858,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":1,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9015368664,"gmtCreate":1649428075032,"gmtModify":1676534510659,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Because interest rates from bank saving account were so low back then&nbsp;[Spurting]&nbsp; Couldn't let myself go thru&nbsp;this&nbsp;opportunity cost. Dividend stocks is the way to go!!&nbsp;[Cool]&nbsp;","listText":"Because interest rates from bank saving account were so low back then&nbsp;[Spurting]&nbsp; Couldn't let myself go thru&nbsp;this&nbsp;opportunity cost. Dividend stocks is the way to go!!&nbsp;[Cool]&nbsp;","text":"Because interest rates from bank saving account were so low back then [Spurting] Couldn't let myself go thru this opportunity cost. Dividend stocks is the way to go!! [Cool]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":2,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9015368664","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":501,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9014028228,"gmtCreate":1649567523564,"gmtModify":1676534532172,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"16 yay thanks TigerEvents [love you]","listText":"16 yay thanks TigerEvents [love you]","text":"16 yay thanks TigerEvents [love you]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9014028228","repostId":"9012621551","repostType":1,"repost":{"id":9012621551,"gmtCreate":1649328611177,"gmtModify":1676534492157,"author":{"id":"3527667667103859","authorId":"3527667667103859","name":"TigerEvents","avatar":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/c266ef25181ace18bec1262357bbe1a8","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3527667667103859","idStr":"3527667667103859"},"themes":[],"title":"【GAME】How Many Tigers Do You Have?","htmlText":"Hey, Tigers! We would like to invite you to share your holdings and to find Tigers. You will win Tiger Coins. In addition, you will obtain a chance to win a Tiger gift.🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯 How to find Tiger stickers？ From your account holdings interface, you can click \"Share\" of every stock in your portfolios, and then you will find different expressions of Tigers. Don't forget to take screenshots of your Tiger stickers and post them in the comments below. There are 33 Tiger stickers&nbsp;waiting for you. Let's see how many Tiger stickers you have. 🎁[Prizes] For All the Tigers participating in this activity: All Tigers will be given 50 Tiger coinsfor posting each different expressions of Tigers in the comment section! (Maximum limit 1000 Tiger Coins). One Tiger will be rewarded 1000 coins for the commen","listText":"Hey, Tigers! We would like to invite you to share your holdings and to find Tigers. You will win Tiger Coins. In addition, you will obtain a chance to win a Tiger gift.🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯 How to find Tiger stickers？ From your account holdings interface, you can click \"Share\" of every stock in your portfolios, and then you will find different expressions of Tigers. Don't forget to take screenshots of your Tiger stickers and post them in the comments below. There are 33 Tiger stickers&nbsp;waiting for you. Let's see how many Tiger stickers you have. 🎁[Prizes] For All the Tigers participating in this activity: All Tigers will be given 50 Tiger coinsfor posting each different expressions of Tigers in the comment section! (Maximum limit 1000 Tiger Coins). One Tiger will be rewarded 1000 coins for the commen","text":"Hey, Tigers! We would like to invite you to share your holdings and to find Tigers. You will win Tiger Coins. In addition, you will obtain a chance to win a Tiger gift.🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯🐯 How to find Tiger stickers？ From your account holdings interface, you can click \"Share\" of every stock in your portfolios, and then you will find different expressions of Tigers. Don't forget to take screenshots of your Tiger stickers and post them in the comments below. There are 33 Tiger stickers waiting for you. Let's see how many Tiger stickers you have. 🎁[Prizes] For All the Tigers participating in this activity: All Tigers will be given 50 Tiger coinsfor posting each different expressions of Tigers in the comment section! (Maximum limit 1000 Tiger Coins). One Tiger will be rewarded 1000 coins for the commen","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/ecbf5d46cfeb85299825ad3d44b26db2","width":"-1","height":"-1"},{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/040f5bee2bf182e86d37fca8ce0d968a","width":"-1","height":"-1"},{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/794115e796129571d37e4ffd2883e156","width":"1694","height":"1128"}],"top":1,"highlighted":2,"essential":2,"paper":2,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9012621551","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":0,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":3,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":454,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9015610780,"gmtCreate":1649471123967,"gmtModify":1676534517842,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"[Claw]&nbsp;","listText":"[Claw]&nbsp;","text":"[Claw]","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/8dbe91a83a8d0480ecda0a35d048c360","width":"1080","height":"1650"}],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9015610780","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":464,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":1,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9035220196,"gmtCreate":1647613116278,"gmtModify":1676534250825,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Great, support tiger[Cool]&nbsp;","listText":"Great, support tiger[Cool]&nbsp;","text":"Great, support tiger[Cool]","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":1,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9035220196","repostId":"1130532398","repostType":2,"repost":{"id":"1130532398","weMediaInfo":{"introduction":"Providing stock market headlines, business news, financials and earnings ","home_visible":1,"media_name":"Tiger Newspress","id":"1079075236","head_image":"https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba"},"pubTimestamp":1647590694,"share":"https://ttm.financial/m/news/1130532398?lang=&edition=fundamental","pubTime":"2022-03-18 16:04","market":"us","language":"en","title":"Over 90% of UP Fintech’s Q4 Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China, Achieving 119% of the Annual Target","url":"https://stock-news.laohu8.com/highlight/detail?id=1130532398","media":"Tiger Newspress","summary":"UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all ","content":"<html><head></head><body><p>UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all of its subsidiaries and consolidated entities), a leading online brokerage firm focusing on global investors, today reported its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. Total revenue in the fourth quarter was US$62.2 million, and total revenue for the year 2021 reached US$264.5 million, a year-over-year increase of 91%. Non-GAAP net income was US$24.5 million.</p><p>At the end of 2021, customer accounts totaled 1.8 million, and the number of customers with deposits increased to 673,400. Furthermore, the company added 414,700 new funded accounts in 2021, more than all of its past annual funded account growth combined. In total, the company achieved 119% of its annual funded account growth target in 2021. During the fourth quarter, the company’s trading volume increased to US$85.9 billion, with total client assets reaching US$17.1 billion. The company’s annual trading volume totaled US$404.3 billion, 1.8 times that of the previous year.</p><p>Mr. Wu Tianhua, CEO and founder of UP Fintech commented, “In 2021, despite fluctuations in global financial markets and significant uncertainties, our focus on our internationalization strategy drove steady growth. In thefourth quarter, over 90% of new funded accounts came from international markets, with a large portion of the new funded accounts coming from Singapore. UP Fintech maintains leading market share in Singapore and the company&#39;s Singapore headquarters contributed to making the market as one of key growth drivers, both in the number of total accounts and newly acquired accounts. The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% year-over-year growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20 and above. In the year since we began to ramp up our self-clearing capabilities, we have made substantial progress and now self-clear over 80% of customers’ U.S. cash equities trades. Our firm’s capability to deploy proprietary technologies on our fintech platform demonstrates the contributions that Chinese innovation is making to the global brokerage industry. Our B2B businesses reached new milestones this year: as of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess ofHK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service. Overall, our company’s comprehensive enterprise services are gaining increasing recognition within the industry. In coming years, the company looks forward to entering new international markets and enabling a greater range of investors to allocate their assets globally on our innovative fintech platform.”</p><p><b>Over 90% of Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China as the Company Executes on its Global Expansion Strategy</b></p><p>Driven by strong growth in international markets,UP Fintechfurther expanded its client base. The company added 61,400 new funded accounts during the fourth quarter of which over 90% came from outside China. Furthermore, in 2021, the company added a total of 414,700 new funded accounts, achieving 119% of its annual target. In the fourth quarter, the company&#39;s trading volume was US$85.9 billion, client assets reached US$17.1 billion, commission income was up to US$29.9 million, and interest-related income increased to US$22.5 million.</p><p>At a time of global macroeconomic uncertainty, UP Fintechcontinues focus on its long-term expansion plans with a focus on improving the customer experience. To increase customer choice on its platform, the company recently added new functions such as bracket orders and a new display for analyzing diluted cost positions. The company also recently added an option screener and option list to better meet the needs of investors who trade options. In Australia,UP Fintechbegan to meet the needs of local investors by adding multi-dimensional analysis tools and real-time level 2 market data. Investors on the firm’s platform may view a rich range of financial metrics such as capital flow analysis and lists of corporate actions.</p><p>In addition,the company&#39;s wealth management business continued to attract more clients as the number of available investment products continued to rise. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s Fund Mall enabled another 661 funds for investors to choose from. As the selection of funds has increased, the number of customers investing in the Fund Mall increased by 377.5% year-over-year, and the AUM of the Fund Mall increased by 290.1% year-over-year. ForCash Plus, the company’s idle cash management product,the number of customers and their cumulative transfer value during the fourth quarter was nearly double that of the same period last year. The company also added HKD and SGD currencies to the Fund Mall to further meet customers global asset allocation needs.</p><p>The company offered 26 IPO subscriptions in Hong Kong and The U.S. during the fourth quarter, including several high-profile listings such as those of NetEase Cloud Music and Sense Time. For the full year 2021, the company in total offered 123 IPO subscriptions.The company is becoming one of the top platforms for retail investors to participate in new listings in Hong Kong; retail orders for larger listings such as those of Kuaishou and JD Logistics exceeded HK$10 billion. The company also assisted issuers in connecting with its investor base and highlighting their business performance by helping them hold online roadshows and broadcasting their earnings conference calls. During the year, the company held more than 60% of courses about high-quality Asian assets to investors.</p><p>The company continued to invest in key brokerage technologies to enhance its capability to manage securities trading from the front end to execution and clearing. Self-clearing has long been the purview of traditional banks, but the company continues to ramp up its capability to conduct self-clearing and by the end of the fourth quarter, over 80% of clients were having their U.S. cash equities trades self-cleared. As a result of the company’s investment in clearing technology, clearing costsdeclined quarter over quarter by 27.8%.</p><p>As part of its international expansion, the company continued to obtain new licenses and qualifications in multiple international jurisdictions. The firm now holds 50 licenses and qualifications across 37 categories in Hong Kong, Singapore, The U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. The company looks forward to using these licenses to further support its international expansion.</p><p>UP Fintechis also receiving growing recognition in international capital markets and in 2021 was selected for inclusion in the MSCI China All Shares Index and the MSCI China Small Cap Index.</p><p><b>The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% YoY growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20+</b></p><p>Since entering Singapore in February 2020,UP Fintechhas continued to consolidate its position in the local market. More than half of new funded accounts in the fourth quarter came from Singapore. According to App Annie, as of the end of 2021, as measured by the total number of accounts and downloads,UP Fintech’s flagship mobile trading App, Tiger Trade, led the online brokerage market in Singapore.The fourth quarter wasthe third consecutive quarter of over 100%year-over-yeargrowth in funded accounts in Singapore,and the numberof registered accounts now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20or above. In addition, approximately 30% of the new funded accountsin Singaporein the fourth quarter came from users over the age of 40, which demonstrates the firm’s trading platform appeals to a wide range of investors.</p><p>UP Fintech’s leading position in the Singapore market is due to its relentless focus on localization. In the fourth quarter, to better meet the needs of local clients, the company added a new module to allow easy display of Singapore companies listed in The U.S. market. The company also added new features such as industry classifications and sponsor data to assist customers learn more about local investment opportunities.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company offered customers in Singapore the opportunity to subscribe shares from two local issuers. The company also enabled institutional clients in Singapore the ability to participate in the global offerings of new issuers in Hong Kong, further increasing the ability of local investors to participate in China’s capital markets.</p><p>The AUM ofUP Fintech’swealth management business in Singapore increased by 186.5% while the number of customers increased by 223.9% quarter-over-quarter respectively. To increase the value proposition of Cash Plus in international markets, the company introduced lower thresholds for customers to invest their capital in Cash Plus. Local customers may now invest in Cash Plus with just 1 USD, 1 SGD, or 5 HKD and may transfer their funds in and out at any time. During the year, the company joined the Securities Association of Singapore and was honored that its subsidiary, Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., was officially admitted as a trading member of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited, and clearing member and depository agent of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited. The company is the first fintech enabled brokerage in the world to obtain such qualifications in Singapore. In November 2021, UP Fintech’s Singapore subsidiary was Named as &#34;Asia&#39;s Most Innovative Company&#34; by Fortune Times, a Singapore based business magazine, demonstrating the company’s innovative platform is gaining increasing recognition from local media.</p><p><b>The Cumulative Number of ESOP Clients at the End of 2021 was 2.5X Higher than the Year Before and Annual Enterprise Services Revenue Increased by 67%</b></p><p>Corporate services such as investment banking and ESOP have become a new driver of the company’s long-term growth. According to the company’s Q4 financial results, other revenues, which includes revenue from investment banking and ESOP, reached US$9.8 million in Q4, and annual revenue from this segment reached US$37.7 million, an increase of 67% from the prior year.</p><p>As of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess of HK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service.</p><p></p><p>During the fourth quarter, the company leveraged the strength of its innovative platform and comprehensive range of services to participate in the underwriting and distribution of 22 listings in The U.S. and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the company acted as an underwriter in the global offerings of NetEase Cloud Music, Sense Time, and Airdoc. For the listing of NetEase Cloud Music, the company was the sole online broker to participate in the global offering. In The U.S., the company leveraged its rich investment banking experience, licenses, and technical capabilities to serve as an underwriter for 15 U.S. IPOs. The 2021 IPO of Kuke Music was another notable milestone for the company; the company was the first online broker to serve as the lead underwriter in a U.S. IPO.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company’s investment bank continued to provide a rich range of services to next generation technology companies at multiple stages of their growth, from pre-IPO financial advisory to post listing capital markets services. In 2021, the company provided financial advisory services to over 30 companies. Finally, the company also assisted Canadian Solar conduct an ATM (At The Market) offering to raise additional capital to support the expansion of its green energy business.</p><p>With regards to the company’s ESOP business,UP Fintechadded 51 new clients during the quarter. Despite launching the business just over three years ago, the total number of clients served by the company’s ESOP system reached 313, an increase of 152.4% year-over-year. The company’s ESOP system has extensive capabilities that allow it serve clients listed in Hong Kong, The U.S., and China; the company’s ESOP system also serves a diverse range of pre-IPO clients.</p><p>As a global ESOP provider, the company offers comprehensive services for corporate ESOP management across multiple capital markets. In the fourth quarter, Tiger ESOP provided the pharmaceutical R&amp;D company, Pharmaron, with equity incentive management solutions for both A+H share capital markets. At the same time,UP Fintechalso provided ESOP-related tax, foreign exchange, and other specialized services for Pharmaron’&#39;s multinational employee base that includes British, American, and Chinese nationals. UP Fintech’s capability to provide ESOP and other ancillary services across multiple capital markets and nationalities is a testament to the sophistication of its ESOP system and ability to meet clients’ complex needs.</p><p>On the company’s vibrant social media community, The Tiger Community, 35 new corporations opened enterprise accounts in the fourth quarter, including seven internationally renowned fund companies, such as Fidelity International and Lion Global Investors. As more and more corporations open enterprise accounts in the Tiger Community, the company’s 9+ million user base is able to increase its interaction and understanding of the vast range of issuers and fund companies present in the community.</p><p>UP Fintech’s online community continues to build its position as a preferred investor relations &amp; PR platform for next generation technology companies. The company recently assisted Xiaomi hold an online product launch, helped organize an online conference for Kuaishou, and held a listing anniversary for Dada Nexus. Corporates are drawn to enterprise accounts as they may employ innovative marketing materials, such as interactive graphics and livestreams, to directly connect with investors and customers.Many enterprise accounts have already received over one million views and the company looks forward to inviting more investors and corporates to participate in its online community.</p></body></html>","collect":0,"html":"<!DOCTYPE html>\n<html>\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=utf-8\" />\n<meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width,initial-scale=1.0,minimum-scale=1.0,maximum-scale=1.0,user-scalable=no\"/>\n<meta name=\"format-detection\" content=\"telephone=no,email=no,address=no\" />\n<title>Over 90% of UP Fintech’s Q4 Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China, Achieving 119% of the Annual Target</title>\n<style type=\"text/css\">\na,abbr,acronym,address,applet,article,aside,audio,b,big,blockquote,body,canvas,caption,center,cite,code,dd,del,details,dfn,div,dl,dt,\nem,embed,fieldset,figcaption,figure,footer,form,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6,header,hgroup,html,i,iframe,img,ins,kbd,label,legend,li,mark,menu,nav,\nobject,ol,output,p,pre,q,ruby,s,samp,section,small,span,strike,strong,sub,summary,sup,table,tbody,td,tfoot,th,thead,time,tr,tt,u,ul,var,video{ font:inherit;margin:0;padding:0;vertical-align:baseline;border:0 }\nbody{ font-size:16px; line-height:1.5; color:#999; background:transparent; }\n.wrapper{ overflow:hidden;word-break:break-all;padding:10px; }\nh1,h2{ font-weight:normal; line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:.6em; }\nh3,h4,h5,h6{ line-height:1.35; margin-bottom:1em; }\nh1{ font-size:24px; }\nh2{ font-size:20px; }\nh3{ font-size:18px; }\nh4{ font-size:16px; }\nh5{ font-size:14px; }\nh6{ font-size:12px; }\np,ul,ol,blockquote,dl,table{ margin:1.2em 0; }\nul,ol{ margin-left:2em; }\nul{ list-style:disc; }\nol{ list-style:decimal; }\nli,li p{ margin:10px 0;}\nimg{ max-width:100%;display:block;margin:0 auto 1em; }\nblockquote{ color:#B5B2B1; border-left:3px solid #aaa; padding:1em; }\nstrong,b{font-weight:bold;}\nem,i{font-style:italic;}\ntable{ width:100%;border-collapse:collapse;border-spacing:1px;margin:1em 0;font-size:.9em; }\nth,td{ padding:5px;text-align:left;border:1px solid #aaa; }\nth{ font-weight:bold;background:#5d5d5d; }\n.symbol-link{font-weight:bold;}\n/* header{ border-bottom:1px solid #494756; } */\n.title{ margin:0 0 8px;line-height:1.3;color:#ddd; }\n.meta {color:#5e5c6d;font-size:13px;margin:0 0 .5em; }\na{text-decoration:none; color:#2a4b87;}\n.meta .head { display: inline-block; overflow: hidden}\n.head .h-thumb { width: 30px; height: 30px; margin: 0; padding: 0; border-radius: 50%; float: left;}\n.head .h-content { margin: 0; padding: 0 0 0 9px; float: left;}\n.head .h-name {font-size: 13px; color: #eee; margin: 0;}\n.head .h-time {font-size: 11px; color: #7E829C; margin: 0;line-height: 11px;}\n.small {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.9); -webkit-transform: scale(0.9); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.smaller {font-size: 12.5px; display: inline-block; transform: scale(0.8); -webkit-transform: scale(0.8); transform-origin: left; -webkit-transform-origin: left;}\n.bt-text {font-size: 12px;margin: 1.5em 0 0 0}\n.bt-text p {margin: 0}\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n<div class=\"wrapper\">\n<header>\n<h2 class=\"title\">\nOver 90% of UP Fintech’s Q4 Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China, Achieving 119% of the Annual Target\n</h2>\n\n<h4 class=\"meta\">\n\n\n<a class=\"head\" href=\"https://laohu8.com/wemedia/1079075236\">\n\n\n<div class=\"h-thumb\" style=\"background-image:url(https://static.tigerbbs.com/8274c5b9d4c2852bfb1c4d6ce16c68ba);background-size:cover;\"></div>\n\n<div class=\"h-content\">\n<p class=\"h-name\">Tiger Newspress </p>\n<p class=\"h-time\">2022-03-18 16:04</p>\n</div>\n\n</a>\n\n\n</h4>\n\n</header>\n<article>\n<html><head></head><body><p>UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all of its subsidiaries and consolidated entities), a leading online brokerage firm focusing on global investors, today reported its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. Total revenue in the fourth quarter was US$62.2 million, and total revenue for the year 2021 reached US$264.5 million, a year-over-year increase of 91%. Non-GAAP net income was US$24.5 million.</p><p>At the end of 2021, customer accounts totaled 1.8 million, and the number of customers with deposits increased to 673,400. Furthermore, the company added 414,700 new funded accounts in 2021, more than all of its past annual funded account growth combined. In total, the company achieved 119% of its annual funded account growth target in 2021. During the fourth quarter, the company’s trading volume increased to US$85.9 billion, with total client assets reaching US$17.1 billion. The company’s annual trading volume totaled US$404.3 billion, 1.8 times that of the previous year.</p><p>Mr. Wu Tianhua, CEO and founder of UP Fintech commented, “In 2021, despite fluctuations in global financial markets and significant uncertainties, our focus on our internationalization strategy drove steady growth. In thefourth quarter, over 90% of new funded accounts came from international markets, with a large portion of the new funded accounts coming from Singapore. UP Fintech maintains leading market share in Singapore and the company&#39;s Singapore headquarters contributed to making the market as one of key growth drivers, both in the number of total accounts and newly acquired accounts. The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% year-over-year growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20 and above. In the year since we began to ramp up our self-clearing capabilities, we have made substantial progress and now self-clear over 80% of customers’ U.S. cash equities trades. Our firm’s capability to deploy proprietary technologies on our fintech platform demonstrates the contributions that Chinese innovation is making to the global brokerage industry. Our B2B businesses reached new milestones this year: as of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess ofHK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service. Overall, our company’s comprehensive enterprise services are gaining increasing recognition within the industry. In coming years, the company looks forward to entering new international markets and enabling a greater range of investors to allocate their assets globally on our innovative fintech platform.”</p><p><b>Over 90% of Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China as the Company Executes on its Global Expansion Strategy</b></p><p>Driven by strong growth in international markets,UP Fintechfurther expanded its client base. The company added 61,400 new funded accounts during the fourth quarter of which over 90% came from outside China. Furthermore, in 2021, the company added a total of 414,700 new funded accounts, achieving 119% of its annual target. In the fourth quarter, the company&#39;s trading volume was US$85.9 billion, client assets reached US$17.1 billion, commission income was up to US$29.9 million, and interest-related income increased to US$22.5 million.</p><p>At a time of global macroeconomic uncertainty, UP Fintechcontinues focus on its long-term expansion plans with a focus on improving the customer experience. To increase customer choice on its platform, the company recently added new functions such as bracket orders and a new display for analyzing diluted cost positions. The company also recently added an option screener and option list to better meet the needs of investors who trade options. In Australia,UP Fintechbegan to meet the needs of local investors by adding multi-dimensional analysis tools and real-time level 2 market data. Investors on the firm’s platform may view a rich range of financial metrics such as capital flow analysis and lists of corporate actions.</p><p>In addition,the company&#39;s wealth management business continued to attract more clients as the number of available investment products continued to rise. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s Fund Mall enabled another 661 funds for investors to choose from. As the selection of funds has increased, the number of customers investing in the Fund Mall increased by 377.5% year-over-year, and the AUM of the Fund Mall increased by 290.1% year-over-year. ForCash Plus, the company’s idle cash management product,the number of customers and their cumulative transfer value during the fourth quarter was nearly double that of the same period last year. The company also added HKD and SGD currencies to the Fund Mall to further meet customers global asset allocation needs.</p><p>The company offered 26 IPO subscriptions in Hong Kong and The U.S. during the fourth quarter, including several high-profile listings such as those of NetEase Cloud Music and Sense Time. For the full year 2021, the company in total offered 123 IPO subscriptions.The company is becoming one of the top platforms for retail investors to participate in new listings in Hong Kong; retail orders for larger listings such as those of Kuaishou and JD Logistics exceeded HK$10 billion. The company also assisted issuers in connecting with its investor base and highlighting their business performance by helping them hold online roadshows and broadcasting their earnings conference calls. During the year, the company held more than 60% of courses about high-quality Asian assets to investors.</p><p>The company continued to invest in key brokerage technologies to enhance its capability to manage securities trading from the front end to execution and clearing. Self-clearing has long been the purview of traditional banks, but the company continues to ramp up its capability to conduct self-clearing and by the end of the fourth quarter, over 80% of clients were having their U.S. cash equities trades self-cleared. As a result of the company’s investment in clearing technology, clearing costsdeclined quarter over quarter by 27.8%.</p><p>As part of its international expansion, the company continued to obtain new licenses and qualifications in multiple international jurisdictions. The firm now holds 50 licenses and qualifications across 37 categories in Hong Kong, Singapore, The U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. The company looks forward to using these licenses to further support its international expansion.</p><p>UP Fintechis also receiving growing recognition in international capital markets and in 2021 was selected for inclusion in the MSCI China All Shares Index and the MSCI China Small Cap Index.</p><p><b>The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% YoY growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20+</b></p><p>Since entering Singapore in February 2020,UP Fintechhas continued to consolidate its position in the local market. More than half of new funded accounts in the fourth quarter came from Singapore. According to App Annie, as of the end of 2021, as measured by the total number of accounts and downloads,UP Fintech’s flagship mobile trading App, Tiger Trade, led the online brokerage market in Singapore.The fourth quarter wasthe third consecutive quarter of over 100%year-over-yeargrowth in funded accounts in Singapore,and the numberof registered accounts now represents 15% of Singapore&#39;s population aged 20or above. In addition, approximately 30% of the new funded accountsin Singaporein the fourth quarter came from users over the age of 40, which demonstrates the firm’s trading platform appeals to a wide range of investors.</p><p>UP Fintech’s leading position in the Singapore market is due to its relentless focus on localization. In the fourth quarter, to better meet the needs of local clients, the company added a new module to allow easy display of Singapore companies listed in The U.S. market. The company also added new features such as industry classifications and sponsor data to assist customers learn more about local investment opportunities.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company offered customers in Singapore the opportunity to subscribe shares from two local issuers. The company also enabled institutional clients in Singapore the ability to participate in the global offerings of new issuers in Hong Kong, further increasing the ability of local investors to participate in China’s capital markets.</p><p>The AUM ofUP Fintech’swealth management business in Singapore increased by 186.5% while the number of customers increased by 223.9% quarter-over-quarter respectively. To increase the value proposition of Cash Plus in international markets, the company introduced lower thresholds for customers to invest their capital in Cash Plus. Local customers may now invest in Cash Plus with just 1 USD, 1 SGD, or 5 HKD and may transfer their funds in and out at any time. During the year, the company joined the Securities Association of Singapore and was honored that its subsidiary, Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., was officially admitted as a trading member of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited, and clearing member and depository agent of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited. The company is the first fintech enabled brokerage in the world to obtain such qualifications in Singapore. In November 2021, UP Fintech’s Singapore subsidiary was Named as &#34;Asia&#39;s Most Innovative Company&#34; by Fortune Times, a Singapore based business magazine, demonstrating the company’s innovative platform is gaining increasing recognition from local media.</p><p><b>The Cumulative Number of ESOP Clients at the End of 2021 was 2.5X Higher than the Year Before and Annual Enterprise Services Revenue Increased by 67%</b></p><p>Corporate services such as investment banking and ESOP have become a new driver of the company’s long-term growth. According to the company’s Q4 financial results, other revenues, which includes revenue from investment banking and ESOP, reached US$9.8 million in Q4, and annual revenue from this segment reached US$37.7 million, an increase of 67% from the prior year.</p><p>As of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess of HK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service.</p><p></p><p>During the fourth quarter, the company leveraged the strength of its innovative platform and comprehensive range of services to participate in the underwriting and distribution of 22 listings in The U.S. and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the company acted as an underwriter in the global offerings of NetEase Cloud Music, Sense Time, and Airdoc. For the listing of NetEase Cloud Music, the company was the sole online broker to participate in the global offering. In The U.S., the company leveraged its rich investment banking experience, licenses, and technical capabilities to serve as an underwriter for 15 U.S. IPOs. The 2021 IPO of Kuke Music was another notable milestone for the company; the company was the first online broker to serve as the lead underwriter in a U.S. IPO.</p><p>In the fourth quarter, the company’s investment bank continued to provide a rich range of services to next generation technology companies at multiple stages of their growth, from pre-IPO financial advisory to post listing capital markets services. In 2021, the company provided financial advisory services to over 30 companies. Finally, the company also assisted Canadian Solar conduct an ATM (At The Market) offering to raise additional capital to support the expansion of its green energy business.</p><p>With regards to the company’s ESOP business,UP Fintechadded 51 new clients during the quarter. Despite launching the business just over three years ago, the total number of clients served by the company’s ESOP system reached 313, an increase of 152.4% year-over-year. The company’s ESOP system has extensive capabilities that allow it serve clients listed in Hong Kong, The U.S., and China; the company’s ESOP system also serves a diverse range of pre-IPO clients.</p><p>As a global ESOP provider, the company offers comprehensive services for corporate ESOP management across multiple capital markets. In the fourth quarter, Tiger ESOP provided the pharmaceutical R&amp;D company, Pharmaron, with equity incentive management solutions for both A+H share capital markets. At the same time,UP Fintechalso provided ESOP-related tax, foreign exchange, and other specialized services for Pharmaron’&#39;s multinational employee base that includes British, American, and Chinese nationals. UP Fintech’s capability to provide ESOP and other ancillary services across multiple capital markets and nationalities is a testament to the sophistication of its ESOP system and ability to meet clients’ complex needs.</p><p>On the company’s vibrant social media community, The Tiger Community, 35 new corporations opened enterprise accounts in the fourth quarter, including seven internationally renowned fund companies, such as Fidelity International and Lion Global Investors. As more and more corporations open enterprise accounts in the Tiger Community, the company’s 9+ million user base is able to increase its interaction and understanding of the vast range of issuers and fund companies present in the community.</p><p>UP Fintech’s online community continues to build its position as a preferred investor relations &amp; PR platform for next generation technology companies. The company recently assisted Xiaomi hold an online product launch, helped organize an online conference for Kuaishou, and held a listing anniversary for Dada Nexus. Corporates are drawn to enterprise accounts as they may employ innovative marketing materials, such as interactive graphics and livestreams, to directly connect with investors and customers.Many enterprise accounts have already received over one million views and the company looks forward to inviting more investors and corporates to participate in its online community.</p></body></html>\n\n</article>\n</div>\n</body>\n</html>\n","type":0,"thumbnail":"","relate_stocks":{"TIGR":"老虎证券"},"source_url":"","is_english":true,"share_image_url":"https://static.laohu8.com/e9f99090a1c2ed51c021029395664489","article_id":"1130532398","content_text":"UP Fintech Holding Limited (the “Company”, a NASDAQ-listed company under the ticker “TIGR”, and all of its subsidiaries and consolidated entities), a leading online brokerage firm focusing on global investors, today reported its unaudited financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021. Total revenue in the fourth quarter was US$62.2 million, and total revenue for the year 2021 reached US$264.5 million, a year-over-year increase of 91%. Non-GAAP net income was US$24.5 million.At the end of 2021, customer accounts totaled 1.8 million, and the number of customers with deposits increased to 673,400. Furthermore, the company added 414,700 new funded accounts in 2021, more than all of its past annual funded account growth combined. In total, the company achieved 119% of its annual funded account growth target in 2021. During the fourth quarter, the company’s trading volume increased to US$85.9 billion, with total client assets reaching US$17.1 billion. The company’s annual trading volume totaled US$404.3 billion, 1.8 times that of the previous year.Mr. Wu Tianhua, CEO and founder of UP Fintech commented, “In 2021, despite fluctuations in global financial markets and significant uncertainties, our focus on our internationalization strategy drove steady growth. In thefourth quarter, over 90% of new funded accounts came from international markets, with a large portion of the new funded accounts coming from Singapore. UP Fintech maintains leading market share in Singapore and the company's Singapore headquarters contributed to making the market as one of key growth drivers, both in the number of total accounts and newly acquired accounts. The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% year-over-year growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore's population aged 20 and above. In the year since we began to ramp up our self-clearing capabilities, we have made substantial progress and now self-clear over 80% of customers’ U.S. cash equities trades. Our firm’s capability to deploy proprietary technologies on our fintech platform demonstrates the contributions that Chinese innovation is making to the global brokerage industry. Our B2B businesses reached new milestones this year: as of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess ofHK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service. Overall, our company’s comprehensive enterprise services are gaining increasing recognition within the industry. In coming years, the company looks forward to entering new international markets and enabling a greater range of investors to allocate their assets globally on our innovative fintech platform.”Over 90% of Newly Funded Accounts Came from Outside China as the Company Executes on its Global Expansion StrategyDriven by strong growth in international markets,UP Fintechfurther expanded its client base. The company added 61,400 new funded accounts during the fourth quarter of which over 90% came from outside China. Furthermore, in 2021, the company added a total of 414,700 new funded accounts, achieving 119% of its annual target. In the fourth quarter, the company's trading volume was US$85.9 billion, client assets reached US$17.1 billion, commission income was up to US$29.9 million, and interest-related income increased to US$22.5 million.At a time of global macroeconomic uncertainty, UP Fintechcontinues focus on its long-term expansion plans with a focus on improving the customer experience. To increase customer choice on its platform, the company recently added new functions such as bracket orders and a new display for analyzing diluted cost positions. The company also recently added an option screener and option list to better meet the needs of investors who trade options. In Australia,UP Fintechbegan to meet the needs of local investors by adding multi-dimensional analysis tools and real-time level 2 market data. Investors on the firm’s platform may view a rich range of financial metrics such as capital flow analysis and lists of corporate actions.In addition,the company's wealth management business continued to attract more clients as the number of available investment products continued to rise. At the end of the fourth quarter, the company’s Fund Mall enabled another 661 funds for investors to choose from. As the selection of funds has increased, the number of customers investing in the Fund Mall increased by 377.5% year-over-year, and the AUM of the Fund Mall increased by 290.1% year-over-year. ForCash Plus, the company’s idle cash management product,the number of customers and their cumulative transfer value during the fourth quarter was nearly double that of the same period last year. The company also added HKD and SGD currencies to the Fund Mall to further meet customers global asset allocation needs.The company offered 26 IPO subscriptions in Hong Kong and The U.S. during the fourth quarter, including several high-profile listings such as those of NetEase Cloud Music and Sense Time. For the full year 2021, the company in total offered 123 IPO subscriptions.The company is becoming one of the top platforms for retail investors to participate in new listings in Hong Kong; retail orders for larger listings such as those of Kuaishou and JD Logistics exceeded HK$10 billion. The company also assisted issuers in connecting with its investor base and highlighting their business performance by helping them hold online roadshows and broadcasting their earnings conference calls. During the year, the company held more than 60% of courses about high-quality Asian assets to investors.The company continued to invest in key brokerage technologies to enhance its capability to manage securities trading from the front end to execution and clearing. Self-clearing has long been the purview of traditional banks, but the company continues to ramp up its capability to conduct self-clearing and by the end of the fourth quarter, over 80% of clients were having their U.S. cash equities trades self-cleared. As a result of the company’s investment in clearing technology, clearing costsdeclined quarter over quarter by 27.8%.As part of its international expansion, the company continued to obtain new licenses and qualifications in multiple international jurisdictions. The firm now holds 50 licenses and qualifications across 37 categories in Hong Kong, Singapore, The U.S., New Zealand, and Australia. The company looks forward to using these licenses to further support its international expansion.UP Fintechis also receiving growing recognition in international capital markets and in 2021 was selected for inclusion in the MSCI China All Shares Index and the MSCI China Small Cap Index.The fourth quarter was the third consecutive quarter of more than 100% YoY growth in funded accounts in Singapore. The total number of registered accounts in Singapore now represents 15% of Singapore's population aged 20+Since entering Singapore in February 2020,UP Fintechhas continued to consolidate its position in the local market. More than half of new funded accounts in the fourth quarter came from Singapore. According to App Annie, as of the end of 2021, as measured by the total number of accounts and downloads,UP Fintech’s flagship mobile trading App, Tiger Trade, led the online brokerage market in Singapore.The fourth quarter wasthe third consecutive quarter of over 100%year-over-yeargrowth in funded accounts in Singapore,and the numberof registered accounts now represents 15% of Singapore's population aged 20or above. In addition, approximately 30% of the new funded accountsin Singaporein the fourth quarter came from users over the age of 40, which demonstrates the firm’s trading platform appeals to a wide range of investors.UP Fintech’s leading position in the Singapore market is due to its relentless focus on localization. In the fourth quarter, to better meet the needs of local clients, the company added a new module to allow easy display of Singapore companies listed in The U.S. market. The company also added new features such as industry classifications and sponsor data to assist customers learn more about local investment opportunities.In the fourth quarter, the company offered customers in Singapore the opportunity to subscribe shares from two local issuers. The company also enabled institutional clients in Singapore the ability to participate in the global offerings of new issuers in Hong Kong, further increasing the ability of local investors to participate in China’s capital markets.The AUM ofUP Fintech’swealth management business in Singapore increased by 186.5% while the number of customers increased by 223.9% quarter-over-quarter respectively. To increase the value proposition of Cash Plus in international markets, the company introduced lower thresholds for customers to invest their capital in Cash Plus. Local customers may now invest in Cash Plus with just 1 USD, 1 SGD, or 5 HKD and may transfer their funds in and out at any time. During the year, the company joined the Securities Association of Singapore and was honored that its subsidiary, Tiger Brokers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., was officially admitted as a trading member of Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited and Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited, and clearing member and depository agent of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited. The company is the first fintech enabled brokerage in the world to obtain such qualifications in Singapore. In November 2021, UP Fintech’s Singapore subsidiary was Named as \"Asia's Most Innovative Company\" by Fortune Times, a Singapore based business magazine, demonstrating the company’s innovative platform is gaining increasing recognition from local media.The Cumulative Number of ESOP Clients at the End of 2021 was 2.5X Higher than the Year Before and Annual Enterprise Services Revenue Increased by 67%Corporate services such as investment banking and ESOP have become a new driver of the company’s long-term growth. According to the company’s Q4 financial results, other revenues, which includes revenue from investment banking and ESOP, reached US$9.8 million in Q4, and annual revenue from this segment reached US$37.7 million, an increase of 67% from the prior year.As of December 31st, 2021, 90% of new issuers with market capitalization in excess of HK$100 billion in Hong Kong and 100% of new U.S. ADR issuers with market capitalization over US$1 billion cooperated with UP Fintech’s investment bank or chose to use the company’s ESOP service.During the fourth quarter, the company leveraged the strength of its innovative platform and comprehensive range of services to participate in the underwriting and distribution of 22 listings in The U.S. and Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, the company acted as an underwriter in the global offerings of NetEase Cloud Music, Sense Time, and Airdoc. For the listing of NetEase Cloud Music, the company was the sole online broker to participate in the global offering. In The U.S., the company leveraged its rich investment banking experience, licenses, and technical capabilities to serve as an underwriter for 15 U.S. IPOs. The 2021 IPO of Kuke Music was another notable milestone for the company; the company was the first online broker to serve as the lead underwriter in a U.S. IPO.In the fourth quarter, the company’s investment bank continued to provide a rich range of services to next generation technology companies at multiple stages of their growth, from pre-IPO financial advisory to post listing capital markets services. In 2021, the company provided financial advisory services to over 30 companies. Finally, the company also assisted Canadian Solar conduct an ATM (At The Market) offering to raise additional capital to support the expansion of its green energy business.With regards to the company’s ESOP business,UP Fintechadded 51 new clients during the quarter. Despite launching the business just over three years ago, the total number of clients served by the company’s ESOP system reached 313, an increase of 152.4% year-over-year. The company’s ESOP system has extensive capabilities that allow it serve clients listed in Hong Kong, The U.S., and China; the company’s ESOP system also serves a diverse range of pre-IPO clients.As a global ESOP provider, the company offers comprehensive services for corporate ESOP management across multiple capital markets. In the fourth quarter, Tiger ESOP provided the pharmaceutical R&D company, Pharmaron, with equity incentive management solutions for both A+H share capital markets. At the same time,UP Fintechalso provided ESOP-related tax, foreign exchange, and other specialized services for Pharmaron’'s multinational employee base that includes British, American, and Chinese nationals. UP Fintech’s capability to provide ESOP and other ancillary services across multiple capital markets and nationalities is a testament to the sophistication of its ESOP system and ability to meet clients’ complex needs.On the company’s vibrant social media community, The Tiger Community, 35 new corporations opened enterprise accounts in the fourth quarter, including seven internationally renowned fund companies, such as Fidelity International and Lion Global Investors. As more and more corporations open enterprise accounts in the Tiger Community, the company’s 9+ million user base is able to increase its interaction and understanding of the vast range of issuers and fund companies present in the community.UP Fintech’s online community continues to build its position as a preferred investor relations & PR platform for next generation technology companies. The company recently assisted Xiaomi hold an online product launch, helped organize an online conference for Kuaishou, and held a listing anniversary for Dada Nexus. Corporates are drawn to enterprise accounts as they may employ innovative marketing materials, such as interactive graphics and livestreams, to directly connect with investors and customers.Many enterprise accounts have already received over one million views and the company looks forward to inviting more investors and corporates to participate in its online community.","news_type":1},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":285,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},{"id":9948325429,"gmtCreate":1680627172362,"gmtModify":1680627176449,"author":{"id":"3564300482886093","authorId":"3564300482886093","name":"taromilktea","avatar":"https://static.itradeup.com/news/6508e8633487d35bbb33391d3fc4a58e","crmLevel":6,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3564300482886093","idStr":"3564300482886093"},"themes":[],"htmlText":"Join :)&nbsp;","listText":"Join :)&nbsp;","text":"Join :)","images":[],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":1,"paper":1,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9948325429","repostId":"9943960936","repostType":1,"repost":{"id":9943960936,"gmtCreate":1679046534725,"gmtModify":1680580626622,"author":{"id":"3527667667103859","authorId":"3527667667103859","name":"TigerEvents","avatar":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/c266ef25181ace18bec1262357bbe1a8","crmLevel":1,"crmLevelSwitch":0,"followedFlag":false,"authorIdStr":"3527667667103859","idStr":"3527667667103859"},"themes":[],"title":"【Game】Easter Egg Hunting with Tiger, Win Disney Shares and USD 120 Voucher","htmlText":"🐰🌷 Hop into the Easter spirit and join our \"Tiger's Egg Hunting\" game! 🎉Stand to win free Disney stocks and a USD 120 cash voucher!🎁🌟Our interactive Easter game is open to Tigers, and it's so easy to play! Simply jump and catch the egg, and you could be a lucky winner. 🐇That's not all. You can also invite your friends to join in the fun to earn more points. Plus, you can challenge your friends for a race up the leaderboard. Let's fly to the moon together!Don't miss out on this egg-citing opportunity to win BIG! Join the game now and hop on your way to victory. 🥳🐣<a href=\"https://www.tigerbrokers.com.sg/activity/market/2023/easter/?adcode=20230316162207#/\" target=\"_blank\">Join our Easter campaign now</a>","listText":"🐰🌷 Hop into the Easter spirit and join our \"Tiger's Egg Hunting\" game! 🎉Stand to win free Disney stocks and a USD 120 cash voucher!🎁🌟Our interactive Easter game is open to Tigers, and it's so easy to play! Simply jump and catch the egg, and you could be a lucky winner. 🐇That's not all. You can also invite your friends to join in the fun to earn more points. Plus, you can challenge your friends for a race up the leaderboard. Let's fly to the moon together!Don't miss out on this egg-citing opportunity to win BIG! Join the game now and hop on your way to victory. 🥳🐣<a href=\"https://www.tigerbrokers.com.sg/activity/market/2023/easter/?adcode=20230316162207#/\" target=\"_blank\">Join our Easter campaign now</a>","text":"🐰🌷 Hop into the Easter spirit and join our \"Tiger's Egg Hunting\" game! 🎉Stand to win free Disney stocks and a USD 120 cash voucher!🎁🌟Our interactive Easter game is open to Tigers, and it's so easy to play! Simply jump and catch the egg, and you could be a lucky winner. 🐇That's not all. You can also invite your friends to join in the fun to earn more points. Plus, you can challenge your friends for a race up the leaderboard. Let's fly to the moon together!Don't miss out on this egg-citing opportunity to win BIG! Join the game now and hop on your way to victory. 🥳🐣Join our Easter campaign now","images":[{"img":"https://community-static.tradeup.com/news/c90a7371a3bcd1e6c552d2aa23f72c33","width":"1200","height":"630"}],"top":1,"highlighted":1,"essential":2,"paper":2,"likeSize":0,"commentSize":0,"repostSize":0,"link":"https://ttm.financial/post/9943960936","isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":0,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":1,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0},"isVote":1,"tweetType":1,"viewCount":299,"authorTweetTopStatus":1,"verified":2,"comments":[],"imageCount":0,"langContent":"EN","totalScore":0}],"lives":[]}