Marking the 5th Anniversary of our IPO

2022-10-20

Dear Sailors,

Today is a special day for our company. Five years ago, on Oct 20^th 2017, Sea publicly listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

I remember it was a beautiful, bright autumn day in New York City. I got up at 6am, had a quick breakfast, and carefully put on my new suit. It was the most expensive thing I had ever worn – tailored in Singapore and hand-carried by my wife to New York City, just for this special day.

The team and I caught the 8am bus from our hotel. We alighted and walked down the street, full of anticipation. Suddenly, we saw it: the iconic and historic facade of the NYSE building, with a huge, square banner draped over it – featuring Sea’s logo, rippling in the breeze. It was a thrilling sight!

At 9:25am, we stood on the famous podium in the NYSE trading hall where, for more than a hundred years, some of the greatest companies in the world had celebrated their IPOs. I stared at the clock, my hand on the bell, waiting to mark the opening of Sea’s very first trading day.

The moment drew near. The trading floor was packed with people looking up at us. As the final seconds ticked by, we chanted a countdown from 10 to 1… And, at 9:30am sharp, I rang the bell. It rang loud and clear across the huge trading hall, filling it with sound.

Everyone burst into a loud cheer, and I felt a surge of joy and pride. I cheered too, pumping my fist in the air in victory. This was the moment I had dreamed of for a decade.

Time flies, and we have come a long way. At our IPO, Garena had not even launched Free Fire yet; today, it has brought joy to millions of players, not just in Southeast Asia but all over the world. Shopee was a little-known e-commerce business in its infancy; today, it has served hundreds of millions of customers across Asia, Brazil, Poland, and more, playing an increasingly vital role in the digital economy of many countries. And SeaMoney was simply an e-wallet named AirPay; today, it has evolved into a fully-fledged financial services business.

While our businesses have steadily grown, our 5-year journey on the public market has been a rollercoaster ride. Soon after our IPO at $15, our share price dropped almost to $10, and stayed below our IPO price for almost a year. In early 2019, our share price started to rise – slowly at first, and then, in 2020 and 2021, it surged so steeply that it seemed unstoppable, going all the way to over $360 one year ago. Then, it dropped, to below $50 today.

Our share price is a globally visible, financially significant indicator that moves every day. It indicates how much our company is worth in the market, and each dollar of gain or loss affects every shareholder’s pocket. It has sometimes been easy to feel that our company’s success or failure – and, as the CEO of the company, my own success or failure – are constantly judged by our share price. When it was up, it brought me joy, and when it was down, it could make me feel upset. I know that seeing our share price tumble so much in one year has been painful for all of you. It has been for me, too.

I am very sure that our share price will rise again, and I am determined to make it happen. I believe that so long as we continue to serve more customers, serve them better, and serve them more efficiently, the value of our company will rise, together with our share price.

I have been in São Paolo, Brazil this week. On Monday, I visited a Shopee seller named Rodrigo, a muscular, bearded man in his 30s. He and his younger brother showed me around their warehouse, and then invited me into their kitchen to sit and chat. Rodrigo sells women’s dresses, all designed by his wife and made in a small factory 2 blocks away from them.

Before the pandemic, he sold through physical shops, but when everything closed, his sales plummeted. He talked about what an anxious and difficult time that was; he could barely make ends meet for his family.

It so happened that Shopee had just launched in Brazil, so he tried it out. His sales on Shopee took off well, and before long, he could even afford to buy ads on Shopee to increase his sales! He plans to find a new warehouse 4 times the size of his current one, and stop selling offline so he can focus on growing his business on Shopee.

As he shared this with me, he suddenly started to cry. To him, seeing his business succeed was a dream come true. I remembered how I felt that day on the podium in New York City, too. It made me so happy that Shopee had helped him turn his dream into a reality.

As we were leaving, he pulled out a photo of his 4-year-old daughter and showed it to me, a look of happy pride on his face. He said that the growth of his business had helped him provide for his family so much more than he could before. In the photo, his daughter was standing on a pink scooter, wearing a big smile. I jokingly asked if he had bought that scooter on Shopee – he laughed, and said yes, he had!

We serve millions of customers like Rodrigo. Every time I meet them, I can feel their joy and gratitude for what we offer – and that is the true value we create through our hard work.

In the past, we decorated our office and organised a buffet lunch to celebrate our IPO anniversaries, which we have not done this year. It has been a challenging time for all of us to adapt to the new, very different external environment, requiring us to focus all our attention and resources on serving our customers and achieving self-sufficiency. I know this has involved sacrifices from many of you, and caused anxiety and worry. I thank you for keeping your chins up and continuing to work hard through this difficult period. The way I have seen you respond – rallying together, supporting each other – is what tells me that we shall weather this storm.

Some companies return to the NYSE trading hall to celebrate their 10th IPO anniversaries. When ours comes, I hope to return to that podium, with our logo banner hanging again on the front of the building, and ring the opening bell once more. And I hope we will be cheered on not just by those in the trading hall, but also our customers all around the world.

Thank you again, Sailors, for your determination and support. Whatever our difficulties today, I hope you remain proud of the many things we have achieved these past 5 years. There is so much more we can do – and I am excited to walk that road with you.

Forrest