It appears that Chief Executive Choi Soo-yeon of Naver received about 3 billion won in compensation last year. Lee Hae-jin, chair of the board and Naver founder, received about 2.4 billion won.
According to Naver's 2025 business report disclosed on the 13th, Choi's aggregates compensation last year totaled 3.029 billion won. It included 900 million won in salary, 2.061 billion won in bonuses, and 67.5 million won in earned income categorized as other. This was about 1.06 billion won more than the previous year.
Choi's bonus reflected restricted stock units (RSUs) tied to the share price appreciation rate. RSUs are a compensation program that grants company stock when performance targets are met over a set period. With the RSU payout ratio set at 100% last year, 5,370 shares of company stock were included in the bonus.
Naver said that, in calculating compensation, it comprehensively considered financial performance along with the transition to AI-based hyper-personalized services, achieving the No. 1 position in the market for the streaming platform "CHZZK," and ESG performance.
Lee Hae-jin, chair of the board and Naver founder, received 2.437 billion won in compensation last year. Salary was 1.54 billion won and bonuses were 760 million won, and Lee was excluded from stock compensation in light of being the largest shareholder. Naver said the evaluation reflected contributions to identifying future growth drivers through global investment activities.
In addition, Strategy Business Head Chae Seon-ju received 2.011 billion won, and Chief Operating Officer (COO) Kim Beom-jun received 1.857 billion won in compensation.
The aggregates compensation last year for Minister Han Seong-sook, who served as Naver CEO from 2017 to 2022 and is now with the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, totaled 10.343 billion won. Including retirement income, gains from exercising stock options accounted for 5.12 billion won.
Minister Han stepped down from the position of head of Europe business development in Mar. last year and received 4.038 billion won in retirement income. Salary and other earned income were 375 million won and 469 million won, respectively.
Meanwhile, as of the end of last year, Naver had 5,047 employees, and the average salary per employee was 146 million won, up about 17 million won from the previous year.