The annual salary of 100 million won in the 5th year… Pangyo is a different world now

A view of the IT Valley in Pangyo, Seongnam, Gyeonggi-do, called the’Silicon Valley of Korea’ Based near Pangyo Station, leading IT companies, including Naver and Kakao, are concentrated. Photo = Hankyung DB

A developer working at a Pangyo information technology (IT) company with a sales volume of 1 trillion won a job offer from an IT conglomerate last month. The company’s sales were more than 10 times larger. Mr. A declined this. He said, “The company’s name value (recognition) is low, but I decided to stay with this company where I can get a chance to learn and get a good salary of two rabbits,” he said.

The company where Mr. A is attending recently raised the annual salary for experienced developers to 60 million won. Mr. A said, “The annual salary offered by the IT conglomerate that offered to move was higher than this, but since the developer salary is rising recently and the actual salary increase rate is increasing, we decided to stay at the company where we are working,” he said.

Small and medium-sized game companies are also uploading… ‘The era of 60 million won’

On the 16th, the IT industry in Pangyo, which is called Korea’s Silicon Valley, is excited. Last month, Korea’s No. 1 game company Nexon raised the starting salary for new employees in the development group to 50 million won and 8 million won for all employees.

Netmarble, Com2uS, Gameville, Smilegate, and Neowiz joined the ranks of the salary increase following Nexon, which opened the fire of a salary increase. Krafton, a mid-sized game company, raised an annual salary of 20 million won and set a starting salary of 60 million won, quickly surpassing’Big 3’such as Nexon, NC, and Netmarble, and was the best among game companies.

On the 11th, NCsoft also decided to increase the annual salaries of developers and non-developers by 13 million won and 10 million won, respectively. In particular, if it was judged that the company needed talent, it was decided not to put an upper limit on the annual salary, even if it was a new employee.

The competition for recruiting developers is spreading to platform companies such as Jikbang and Yogiyo. Delivery Hero Korea, which serves Yogiyo, the second largest delivery platform, announced on the 15th that it plans to set an average annual salary increase of R&D centers more than two to three times higher than the previous year. The maximum increase amount is 20 million won.

Yogiyo plans to expand the R&D organization to a maximum of 1,000 over three years. The real estate information platform Jikbang also raised the developer’s starting salary to 60 million won, and the used trading platform Carrot Market also decided to guarantee the minimum developer salary of 50 million won (stock option added).

“An annual salary of 100 million won in the 5th year”… Developers precious to Corona 19

The reason why the Pangyo IT industry is offering such unprecedented salary treatment is the effect of increasing demand for developers due to the recent spread of a novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). This is because the difficulty of hiring developers in the IT industry is getting worse as non-face-to-face demand surges even in non-IT industries such as finance, distribution, and entertainment.

As it becomes difficult to find capable developers across the industry, from large IT companies to start-ups, there are a number of small and mid-sized IT companies that have offered unprecedented treatment comparable to those of large companies. As the unprecedented salary increase of small and mid-sized IT companies continued, the word “Enkkujikbae” (Nec Krafton Coupang Baemin) instead of “Nekarakubae” (Naver Kakao Line Coupang Baemin) appeared among job seekers in recent years. .

Naver and Kakao, the existing’Big 2′, are in a somewhat difficult situation in the process of raising the salary of the game industry. This is because there is little difference in salary from those who are showing the best treatment in the industry.