Sea to Boost E-Commerce Investments; X Kills $100m Promoted Accounts Ad Business

by Hannah Dillon on 17th Aug 2023 in News

In today's ExchangeWire news digest: Sea plans to boost investments in its e-commerce business; X pulls the plug on its promoted accounts ad business; and Tencent to "drive innovation" after reporting growth throughout Q2 2023.

Sea to invest as e-commerce business grows

Southeast Asian tech giant Sea has indicated it will bolster investments in its core e-commerce business, which may result in some losses. Shopee, which contributes around two-thirds of Sea’s top-line growth, had seen some growth in Q2 2023. The almost 21% increase to USD$2.1bn (~£1.6bn), however, fell short of predictions.

X winds down promoted accounts business

Advertisers on X (FKA Twitter) will no longer have the option to promote their accounts within the site’s timeline to gain new followers. Promoted accounts – also referred to as “Follower Objective” ads – are one of the oldest ad formats offered on the platform and are reported to generate revenue of over USD$100m (~£78.6m). According to an email from X to advertisers, the move “comes as part of a larger effort to optimise the X experience by prioritising content formats.”

Tencent eyes more growth following Q2 results

Tencent has reported revenue growth of 11% for Q2 2023, falling shy of expectations. The conglomerate also reported a 41% increase in profit, although the reported ¥26.6bn (~£2.8bn) fell short of Bloomberg’s consensus estimate of ¥32.2bn (~£3.4bn). Pony Ma Huateng, co-founder and chief executive of Tencent, indicated the tech giant would use its growth to “drive innovation” , placing emphasis on its planned use of generative AI.