Stock price plunges over 30% this year! Sea (SE.US) plans to enter cloud services, considers spinning off fintech business for IPO.

Title context: Stock price plunges over 30% this year! Sea (SE.US) plans to enter cloud services, considers spinning off fintech business for IPO. Text: Singapore internet giant Sea (SE.US) is launching a new cloud business and considering spinning off and listing its fintech unit as it seeks to boost growth and reverse a steep stock price decline. According to a memo from CEO Forrest Li to employees, the company plans to offer cloud services to enterprises worldwide through a new unit called Sea Cloud. The memo shows that this shift means direct competition with Amazon.com, Inc. Web Services and the cloud business of Alibaba Group Holding Limited Sponsored ADR (BABA.US), while the company is also considering spinning off and listing its financial services unit Monee. "Monee is approaching the stage where it can stand on its own and start running its own race. A listing can give it the resources and space to go further and faster than it can now," Li wrote, marking the ninth anniversary of Sea's listing. The e-commerce and entertainment group is locked in fierce competition with well-funded challengers including ByteDance's TikTok Shop and Alibaba Group Holding Limited Sponsored ADR's Lazada. Meanwhile, Shein and PDD Holdings Inc. Sponsored ADR Class A's Temu are also seeking to break into Southeast Asia, an emerging region with 675 million people where more and more consumers are starting to shop online. The competitive landscape is weighing on Sea's stock price, which has fallen more than 30% this year. Sea's stock price plunges as competition intensifies The new battleground for Sea's next phase of growth is also taking shape in Brazil, far from its home base, as the Singapore company seeks to expand its Shopee online empire. Li pledged last year to double down on artificial intelligence, betting it will help the company reach a trillion-dollar market value. To date, Sea has integrated AI into its daily operations, launched new AI applications, and established partnerships with frontier labs such as OpenAI in the e-commerce space. Li said the company spent two years rebuilding its internal cloud platform to host a set of AI applications that can be offered to other enterprises. "When we built Shopee at the beginning of the mobile internet era, we took a mobile-first approach while many competitors were still thinking in terms of websites," Li said. "We believe AI is the next moment like that."