Sources say "Southeast Asia Little Tencent" Sea will lay off staff and close some projects: improve profitability

According to news in the morning of September 2, Beijing time, Singapore Internet giant Sea is shutting down its game live streaming platform and shutting down projects in its development department after reporting a quarterly loss of nearly $1 billion, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The company's employees were told that the number of employees in its game live broadcast business and development department would be cut, according to people familiar with the matter.

Employees of Booyah, a live game and community app owned by Sea's game division Garena, were told they would be fired and that the app would not be updated, the person familiar with the matter said. That means cutting 30 to 40 jobs, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Sea Labs, the tech giant's development arm, is shutting down some of its biggest experimental projects and laying off staff, including blockchain and public cloud projects, the person familiar with the matter said.

A third person familiar with the situation confirmed that Sea had closed some major projects and laid off "dozens of people", saying it was related to Sea's plans to improve profitability.

A spokesman for Sea said the company had "made some changes to improve our operational efficiency, which affects a number of positions" and said it would focus on "the long-term strengths of our ecosystem".

The spokesman declined to say how many jobs were affected.

During the outbreak, Sea went well, but then suffered a setback, with its shares down more than 72 per cent so far this year. In March, Sea warned that Garena was being affected by the Indian government's ban.

In June, Sea reportedly laid off its e-commerce division, Shopee, not only in Southeast Asia, but also in Mexico and Latin America.

The New York-listed technology company reported a bigger-than-expected second-quarter loss last month and withdrew its ecommerce forecast for this year, sending its shares down 14 per cent. The number of quarterly paying subscribers to Garena also fell 39 per cent in the quarter.