Former Kakao CEO highest paid among Kakao, Naver execs

[Courtesy of each company]

Namkoong Whon, the former chief executive officer of Kakao Corp., was the highest-paid individual among the executives at South Korea‘s two largest online platform giants, Naver Corp. and Kakao, in 2023.

According to Kakao’s 2023 business report released on Thursday, Namkoong received a total of 9.9 billion won ($7.43 million) from Kakao in 2023. Most of the compensation, or 9.43 billion won, came from profits from stock option exercises, while his salary and other labor income were 417 million won and 50 million won respectively.

Namkoong became Kakao’s CEO in March 2022, but stepped down from the position in October of the same year after taking responsibility for a major incident where most of Kakao’s key services were disrupted due to a fire at a data center in Pangyo, south of Seoul. He worked as a full-time advisor to Kakao’s Future Initiative Center afterwards until he left the company in October 2023 and founded artificial intelligence (AI)-based content company AIZ Entertainment at the end of that year.

Kakao‘s other top earners in 2023 were Lee Jin-soo, CEO of Kakao Entertainment Corp., and Kim Dae-seong, former head of Service Development Department 1, who earned 2.77 billion won and 1.97 billion won respectively. The majority of their compensation also came from profits from stock option exercises.

Former Kakao Chief Investment Officer Bae Jae-hyun, who was recently released on bail after being arrested on charges of market manipulation during the acquisition of SM Entertainment Co., also received a total of 2.03 billion won in compensation, including a 1.6 billion won bonus, 400 million won in salary, and 30 million won in other income.

Kakao’s current CEO Hong Eun-taek earned a total of 1.3 billion won, including 1.2 billion won in salary and 96 million won in other income. This is a decrease of more than half from the 2.98 billion won he received in 2022, reflecting the company’s situation in 2023 as it faced its biggest crisis since its inception.

Meanwhile, the highest-paid executive at Naver in 2023 was its founder and Global Investment Officer (GIO) Lee Hae-jin who earned a total of 1.94 billion won, according to that company’s 2023 business report released on the same day.

Naver CEO Choi Soo-yeon earned 1.35 billion won, up about 250 million won compared to 1.1 billion won in 2022, as the tech giant’s revenue and operating profit both hit record highs during the cited period.

The average salary per employee at both Naver and Kakao declined. It was 119 million won at Naver, down 12 percent from the previous year, and 110 million won at Kakao, down 27 percent.