Last year, Bloomberg Billionaires Index listed Mr Forest Li, Shopee founder, as the richest person in Singapore. However, the co-founder of Sea Ltd., a holding company for Shopee, has since lost over 80 percent of his fortune due to a market crash that caused the world’s 500 richest people to lose over $US1 trillion (SGD1.4 trillion) this year.
At one point, Sea Ltd, SeaMonkey, and Garena were widely perceived to be the most valuable technology company in Southeast Asia, with e-commerce, online gaming, and digital payment businesses. The global consumer internet company has 33,000 employees. Mr. Forest Li, Shopee founder, is also the owner of Lion City Sailors FC. Despite these substantial Shopee losses, his wealth still amounts to a significant figure. Bloomberg Wealth reported his net worth at US$4.7 billion (SGD6.5 billion), although he’s no longer listed among the world’s top 500 wealthiest.
And Sea’s problems may be far from over. The managing director at Blue Lotus Capital, an independent equity research firm in Hong Kong, Shawn Yang, is quoted as saying that the company “is going to see increasing challenges in 2022.”
Like other tech companies that soared when the Covid-19 pandemic began, Sea is now facing difficulties due to an increase in interest rates as well as the tensions due to the war in Ukraine.
Mr Yang also said that Sea is facing renewed competition from rival businesses, including Alibaba, and that more and more people are shifting from online to in-person purchases as pandemic restrictions are eased.
Aside from Sea, other tech leaders who have experienced losses this year are Zoom’s Eric Yuan, who lost US$4.4 billion (SGD6.1 billion), and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, who lost nearly US$58 billion (SGD81 billion).
Unperturbed by the Shopee losses, Mr. Forest Li told his employees in March that Sea’s valuation collapse “is short-term pain that we have to endure to truly maximize our long-term potential,” reports Bloomberg Wealth.
The report also says that despite the losses, analysts are still optimistic about Sea’s future.
Mr. Forest Li, 43, was born in Tianjin, China, but later became a Singaporean citizen.
Last December, Sea obtained a digital-banking licence in Singapore, as well as acquired Indonesia’s PT Bank Kesejahteraan Ekonomi, which should “allow the group to grow its SeaMoney business beyond payments to include lending, insurance, wealth management and other financial services,” according to Bloomberg analyst Nathan Naidu.
Free Fire, Sea’s mobile game, has been downloaded over 1 billion times on Google play, and Shopee has become the second-most downloaded shopping app on iOS and Android all over the world.
The company was founded in 2009 by Mr. Forest Li, Gang Ye, and David Chen. Sea’s two other founders have also seen a rise in fortunes, with the net worth of Mr Ye, the company’s chief operating officer, now at S$14.5 billion, and that of Mr. Chen at S$4.8 billion. Mr. Chen is the chief product officer at Shopee.
Mr. Ye, however, has lost US$4.3 billion this year (almost SGD6 billion), and Mr Chen’s fortune is no longer over US1 billion.
The journey of Sea Ltd. and its co-founder, Mr.Forest Li, underscores the volatile nature of the tech industry. Despite recent setbacks, including significant Shopee losses, the determination and resilience of its leaders illuminate the path forward. As the tides shift, there’s an undercurrent of optimism for Sea’s potential in expanding digital services, gaming, and e-commerce. While the landscape may be fraught with challenges, there’s always room for new strategies and solutions. Only time will tell how the Shopee founder and his team will weather the current storm, forge ahead, and redefine their success story. /TISG
With S$26.6 billion net worth, Shopee’s Forrest Li is now Singapore’s wealthiest man
Read also:
With S$26.6 billion net worth, Shopee’s Forrest Li is now Singapore’s wealthiest man