Employees of high-tech companies, especially in the Internet sector, have received enviable annual bonuses in 2012 despite a slowdown of the country's macroeconomy.
A total of 65 percent of high-tech companies raised annual bonuses for their employees, according to the Career International survey.
Huawei Technologies Co, the world's second largest telecommunications equipment maker by market share, planned to distribute a total of 12.5 billion yuan($2 billion) in annual rewards, 38 percent higher than in 2011, Meng Wanzhou, CFO of Huawei, was quoted by the Beijing News as saying.
Approximating based on Huawei's 2011 total of 146,000 employees, the average annual bonus per capita would be 85,000 yuan, which has fueled a lively and envious discussion on the Internet.
Huawei also saw its net profits increase by 33 percent to reach 15.4 billion yuan last year, making it possible for the company to allocate the huge amount of money as staff welfare.
Tencent Holdings, a leading Internet and mobile phone service provider, was also a leader in distributing generous bonuses. Employees working for its LOL online game development team were reported to get a bonus as high as 60 months worth of salary.
Employees of e-commerce companies, which waged a fierce price war last August, also got big annual bonuses, although many are reportedly still not making profits.
An insider was quoted by the National Business Daily as saying that Alibaba will not only distribute two to six months' salary as employee bonuses, but also give a "special extra bonus."
360buy.com, another leading online shopping platform, will reward high-achieving employees with overseas travel.
But 360buy.com hasn't made a profit since being launched in 2007, when it gained its first investment of $10 million from venture capital firm Capital Today, Caixin magazine reported.
Due to a sluggish performance of its traditional PC services, the employees of Baidu Inc, operator of the nation's most popular Web search engine, saw their bonus squeezed by 30 percent compared with the previous year, the China Business News reported.
Outside of search engine services, Baidu has tried unsuccessfully to expand its business in e-commerce, and analysts said the Web search engine operator needs to innovate in its business model.
Global Times