(Bloomberg) -- Sea Ltd. said it is giving most employees a 5% pay increase after turning profitable, a milestone for the Singapore e-commerce and gaming company that slashed costs drastically during the technology industry’s downturn.

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Workers who joined on or before March 31 will get the salary bump effective this July, billionaire founder Forrest Li said in a memo to staff on Monday, seen by Bloomberg News. He said the company has reached “self-sufficiency” as its cash balance is now increasing rather than shrinking every quarter, a goal it achieved ahead of a target set last year.

The Asian internet giant reported its first-ever quarterly net profit in March, about 14 years after its founding. In recent months, the company cut thousands of jobs, froze salaries and slashed more than $700 million from quarterly sales and marketing expenses to convince investors of its profit-making ability.

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