Southeast Asian e-commerce giantShopee has just delivered an impressive quarterly report.

The parent companySea (Winter Sea Group) released its Q4 2025 financial report, showing Shopee’s GMV for the quarter reached $36.7 billion, up 28.6% year-on-year. Total orders hit 4 billion, up 30.5% year-on-year. E-commerce revenue was $4.3 billion, up 35.8% year-on-year.

Simply put, this platform, which once relied on“burning money” to gain market share, is not only still growing, but its growth is becoming more stable.

 

Core market revenue up 50%, logistics subsidizing order volume

A closer look at the financial report reveals an interesting phenomenon:Shopee’s core market revenue (mainly from transaction fees and advertising) surged 50.6% year-on-year to $3.6 billion; but value-added service revenue (mainly logistics) actually dropped by 7.5%.

Why did logistics revenue decrease?

The answer is proactive discounts. During last year’s big sales,Shopee aggressively issued free shipping vouchers and subsidized shipping costs, directly boosting order volume by 30.5%. The logistics department lost some money, but gained larger transaction scale and more sellers willing to invest in ads.

The effect was immediate: ad revenue grew over70% year-on-year, the number of sellers advertising increased by 20%, and average ad spend rose by 45%. Simply put, Shopee’s ad commission rate was 80 basis points higher than last year.

This move is called“logistics discounts, ad revenue boost.”

 

Three levers: logistics, membership, content, none left behind

In logistics, official logisticsSPX Express now handles over 30 million parcels daily. In big cities like Bangkok and Jakarta, instant delivery and same-day orders already account for double-digit percentages, and users of these services spend more—average spending increases by about 15%.

Interestingly, they’re focusing on both ends: speed and savings. In Indonesia, orders using economical logistics more than doubled. Local warehouse fulfillment services have also launched in several markets, and bythe end of 2026, orders fulfilled through local warehouses are expected to double.

The membership system is also booming.Shopee VIP program now covers all Asian markets, with total membership exceeding 7 million, doubling in three months. Indonesia’s numbers are the most impressive: after joining, members’ spending increased by 30%-40%, renewal rates jumped from 40% to 70%. In some regions, VIP members already contribute over 15% of GMV.

With such good results,Shopee plans to bring it to Brazil.

Content e-commerce now accounts for over20%. Partnering with YouTube, content-driven order volume tripled; with Meta, over 3 million affiliate creators linked Shopee to Facebook. Now, you might buy something while watching a video or reading a post.

 

Brazil: the fastest-growing market, bar none

Li Xiaodong especially praised Brazil during the conference call.

In 2025, Brazil is Shopee’s fastest-growing market. How did they do it? The old method—cut logistics costs, then offer users free shipping.

In the past few months,Shopee completed system setup, warehouse selection, and process optimization in Brazil. Local consumers now receive goods 1.5 days faster than last year. Local warehouse delivery service will launch in 2026.

Brand merchants are also following suit.Shopee Mall introduced over 300 new brands in Brazil, especially high-ticket items like automotive electronics, and brand mall GMV more than doubled.

The Taiwan market is also warming up.GMV growth returned to double digits, and over 2,800 pick-up points are key—users pick up conveniently, platform service costs are low, a win-win.

 

AI is making money now, not just a concept

This quarter,Shopee detailed AI’s uses for the first time.

Search recommendation system and ad system both adoptedAI, resulting in ad commission rates rising by 80 basis points. Li Xiaodong explained frankly: the new system better understands product descriptions and user search intent, so ads are more valuable.

Recently, multimodal search was launched—you can take a photo or enter a long text, and the system responds likeChatGPT. For sellers, AI customer service bots and tools for auto-generating product images are also in place.

Li Xiaodong’s original words:“All these AI investments have clear returns.”

 

2026 target: another 25% growth

Looking ahead to next year,Shopee’s goal is to increase annual GMV by about 25%. In terms of profitability, EBITDA absolute value will not be lower than 2025, and ideally, profit margin can reach 2%-3%.

Not aggressive, but definitely not lying flat either.