Naver's Choi Su-yeon Earned 2 Billion KRW Last Year... 46% Increase from Previous Year

Lee Hae-jin Received 1.94 Billion KRW
Average Salary per Employee Reached 129 Million KRW

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon received a total compensation of 1.969 billion KRW last year. This amount represents a 45.96% increase compared to the previous year, 2023, when she received 1.349 billion KRW.

According to the business report disclosed by Naver on the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 18th, CEO Choi received 700 million KRW in salary, 1.228 billion KRW in bonuses, and 41.1 million KRW in other labor income last year. The other income consists of welfare benefits and similar items.

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon is unveiling the large language model "Hyper ClovaX" for the super-large artificial intelligence (AI) service at the "Team Naver Conference Dan23" held last August at the Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung

Salaries and incentives are determined by Naver’s Leadership & Compensation Committee under the board of directors. This committee is operated by Chairman Byun Dae-gyu of Humax Holdings, who is also the chair of the board, along with outside directors Samuel Lee and Do-jin Jung. Salaries are decided based on the individual’s role and the value of their performed duties, while incentives are judged based on non-quantitative indicators including EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization). The non-quantitative indicators considered included ▲diversification of artificial intelligence (AI) models ▲presentation of B2B business direction ▲revamping of the Naver application (app) ▲new services such as Clip and Chijijik. Additionally, 3,031 restricted stock units (RSUs) were granted, with a reference stock price of 187,400 KRW.

Founder and Global Investment Officer (GIO) Lee Hae-jin, who has announced his return, received a total compensation of 1.937 billion KRW last year. This included 1.24 billion KRW in salary, 560 million KRW in bonuses, and 136.6 million KRW in other income.

During the same period, the average salary per Naver employee was 129 million KRW (reflecting gains from stock option exercises), showing a slight increase from 119 million KRW in 2023. By gender, the average amounts received by male and female employees were 141 million KRW and 113 million KRW, respectively.