(Bloomberg) -- Sea Ltd. soared after reporting its first-ever profit, a milestone in the Southeast Asian gaming and e-commerce giant’s effort to convince investors of its money-making potential.

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The stock gained 22% in US trading and added $8 billion to its market value after the Singapore-based company said net income was $426.8 million in the fourth quarter, helped by drastic cost reductions. Analysts expected a loss of $434 million on average. Sea’s revenue growth slowed dramatically but sales still exceeded estimates, rising 7.1% to $3.5 billion.

Sea, the largest of Southeast Asia’s internet firms and briefly the world’s best-performing stock, is emerging from a painful 2022. The company, which grew at triple-digit percentage rates just two years ago, has all but stopped expanding after rising interest rates and elevated inflation left online shoppers and gamers with less to spend.

The company took brutal measures last year to convince investors of its profit-making ability, including cutting thousands of jobs, freezing salaries and slashing more than $700 million from its quarterly sales and marketing expenses. Sea made a stark shift from its previous stance in spending for global expansion, shuttering operations in India and some European and Latin American markets in a bid to trim costs and reach positive cash flows.

“While most investors and analysts had expected overall loss could be narrowed by a large margin, we view the significant turn to net profit and EBITDA profitable in 4Q22 as a big surprise,” wrote Alicia Yap, an analyst with Citigroup Inc., in a research note.

Sea’s net income performance was clouded by a series of gains from adjustments in accounting for debt and expenses. Fourth-quarter revenue from Shopee, Sea’s e-commerce unit, gained 32% to about $2.1 billion. Sales at gaming arm Garena slumped, while revenue from SeaMoney, the digital financial services business, almost doubled.