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Naver CEO takes home $2M in compensation for 2025

Published: 14 Mar. 2026, 10:31

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon speaks during the company’s DAN 25 conference at the Coex Grand Ballroom in southern Seoul on Nov. 6, 2025. [NAVER]

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon received total compensation of 3.03 billion won ($2.01 million) last year, according to the company’s annual business report released on Friday.

Her pay package consisted of a base salary of 900 million won, a bonus of 2.06 billion won and 67.5 million won in other earned income. Choi’s compensation increased by about 1.06 billion won from the previous year.

Naver said the bonus reflected key performance indicators including 10.73 trillion won in operating revenue and 2.65 trillion won in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization in 2024. The company added that it also considered factors such as advertising revenue growth driven by a shift toward AI-based hyper-personalized services and stronger competitiveness in its commerce business.

Former CEO Han Seong-sook — who led the company from 2017 to 2022 and currently serves as Korea’s minister of SMEs and startups — received the largest compensation among executives last year, totaling 10.34 billion won. The amount included 4.04 billion won in retirement pay and 5.12 billion won in gains from exercising stock options.

Other top earners included board chairman Lee Hae-jin with 2.44 billion won, head of strategic business Chae Sun-joo with 2.01 billion won and chief operating officer Kim Beom-jun with 1.86 billion won.

As of the end of last year, Naver had 5,047 employees. The average annual salary per employee was 146 million won, an increase of about 17 million won from the previous year.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SEO JI-WON [[email protected]]