One year after debuting on the list of Singapore’s richest, Forrest Li has made his mark as this year’s only online gaming billionaire
Shares in Li’s U.S.-listed Sea, of which he owns 15.5%, took off in February after the group posted record sales of roughly $1 billion for 2018 and beat expectations for fourth-quarter earnings. The stock has continued to climb in 2019, up almost threefold since January, to about $34.50. Behind its stunning rise: Sea’s mobile battle royale game, Free Fire, ranked fourth last year on the list of most-downloaded games for Apple and Google’s stores combined, according to analytics firm App Annie.
Free Fire now boasts 350 million registered users. Meanwhile, Sea’s e-commerce business Shopee, which makes up more than 25% of group sales, saw active buyers more than double last year to nearly 50 million. Sea’s performance was strong enough to catapult Gang Ye, who cofounded Sea and holds just under 9% of the company, onto our list with an estimated net worth of $900 million. The duo started Sea—then called Garena—in 2009 and in less than a year scored their big breakthrough when they clinched a partnership with U.S.-based game developer Riot Games .
For all its successes, though, Sea has yet to turn a profit, and losses have climbed alongside sales: net losses in 2018 were up 70% from the year before, to $961 million. A company spokesperson said this was mainly due to investments in Shopee, which is still trying to expand since its launch three and a half years ago.
Based in Singapore, I cover Asia wealth for Forbes and oversee some of our 12 country rich list projects. As editor of our philanthropy list, I am interested in knowing ...
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