Tencent has paid more than $200 million to two of its executives in 2021. The Chinese tech giant, which saw its stock decline in the wake of Beijing’s crackdown on the games industry, didn’t disclose these employees’ names.
One of the unidentified employees earned HK$1.59 billion ($204 million), while another made HK$1.58 billion ($203 million), Bloomberg reported.
Although these payouts made them the two highest-paid individuals at Tencent, the company noted that neither of them were among the directors or most senior executives.
When looking at the list of the highest-paid gaming executives for 2021, these two Tencent employees would sit in second place, right behind Playtika CEO Robert Antokol, who earned $372 million last year. Other notable names on the list include Activision’s Bobby Kotick ($154 million), EA’s Andrew Wilson ($34 million), and Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick ($18 million).
Bloomberg assumed that these two executives at the Chinese tech giant might be WeChat founder Allen Zhang and gaming business boss Mark Ren.
As for Tencent CEO and founder Pony Ma, he made $6.9 million last year, down 25% year-over-year. His pay was cut in the wake of China’s ongoing crackdown on the games industry, which made the company’s stock fall 19% in 2021. However, Ma still owns 7% of Tencent shares, which brings his net worth to around $39 billion.