Venture-backed tech unicorns are behaving like normal businesses, finally

IT’S probably good that the economic outlook remains challenging for loss-making technology players such as Grab, GoTo and Sea, as they are now finally feeling compelled to deliver a profit – for the benefit of their shareholders.

Gaming and e-commerce platform operator Sea on Tuesday (Mar 7) reported a net income of US$422.8 million – its first-ever earnings – for the fourth quarter of financial year 2022. This was a dramatic improvement from a net loss of US$616.3 million in the corresponding period in 2021. Its Q4 FY2022 topline was US$3.5 billion, a 7.1 per cent increase from the previous year.

For the full year, the New York-listed, Singapore-based Sea was still in the red with a net loss of US$1.7 billion. It was an 18.9 per cent improvement, though. Revenue was US$12.4 billion, up 25.1 per cent year on year.