Toss CEO Lee Seunggun Promises Prizes on April Fools' Day
Gifts a 'Real' Overseas Trip to 100 Employees at His Own Expense
Three Years Ago, Also Gave Away Tesla Cars on April Fools' Day
Lee Seunggun, CEO of Toss, has made headlines with his April Fools' Day event. On April 1, Lee announced, "I will personally fund an overseas incentive trip." Because he posted this notice on April 1, which is April Fools' Day, employees assumed his promise of an overseas incentive trip was a joke and did not take it seriously. However, Lee's statement turned out to be genuine, not a joke. He decided to personally pay for about 100 employees to travel abroad.
According to industry sources on May 20, Toss will select about 100 employees from its affiliates through a random draw and send them on a group trip to Okinawa, Japan next month. All expenses, including a two-night, three-day travel program and accommodation at a luxury resort, will be covered by Lee with his personal funds. This event was reportedly planned to celebrate Toss achieving annual profitability for the first time in 11 years since its founding and to encourage interaction among affiliates.
This is not the first time Lee has kept an "April Fools' Day promise." In 2022, he announced that he would provide Tesla vehicles to employees and actually purchased 10 Teslas with his own money, offering them to randomly selected employees for one year free of charge. The "Okinawa trip" marks the return of Lee's April Fools' Day event after three years.
The background to this gift is Toss's remarkable turnaround in performance. Viva Republica recorded a consolidated net profit of 21.3 billion won last year, escaping losses in the hundreds of billions of won. Compared to losses of 353.2 billion won in 2022 and 216.6 billion won in 2023, this is a dramatic reversal. In the first quarter of this year, revenue also reached 567.9 billion won, up 29.1% from the same period last year.
As the company grows in size, the way its leader rewards employees is also evolving. The rewards are designed not just as simple performance bonuses but also to foster bonds and interaction among employees. In fact, Toss has shown a flexible and aggressive approach to employee welfare. The company provides all employees with personal corporate cards (fully covering meal expenses), a completely flexible work schedule, a free in-house cafe, and interest-free housing loans, among other benefits.
Meanwhile, Toss recently attracted attention by offering an "unprecedented condition" of a 1 million won interview fee to all first-round job interviewees. On May 8, Toss announced that, in order to secure top talent, it would provide a 1 million won interview fee to every first-round job interviewee. The hiring scale reached 1,000 people. At the time, Lee stated, "This is the last large-scale expansion Toss will undertake," and added, "This is essentially the last chance to board the Toss ship, which still has tenfold growth ahead."
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