Connect with us

Billionaires

Jan Koum Net Worth

Published

on

Jan Boris Koum's Net Worth as of 2024
$8.9 Billion

Jan Boris Koum was born on the 24th February 1976 in Kiev, Ukraine, then USSR. Jan is an entrepreneur, best known to the world as a co-founder of the mobile application WhatsApp, together with Brian Acton. He has been active in the business industry since 2009.

Have you ever wondered how rich Jan Koum is? According to sources, it has been estimated that Jan Koum`s overall net worth is $8.9 billion, an amount he owes mostly to the success of WhatsApp, which Facebook bought in 2014 for an amount of $19 billion.

Jan Koum Net Worth $8.9 Billion

Jan Koum was brought up in a Jewish family, and spent his childhood in Fastiv, a village outside Kiev. When he was 16, Jan moved to Mountain View in California, with his mother and grandmother while his father stayed in Ukraine. His family received social support, as they didn’t have a place to live. In order to pay the bills and Koum`s education, his mother began to work as a babysitter, and Koum also wanted to contribute to the family`s net worth and started to earn money as a cleaner at a grocery shop.

Jan never liked the principle on which the school works, and always was against it, but he eventually enrolled at San Jose State University to study computer programming. In addition to his education, he also worked at Ernst & Young as a security tester, which also gave him knowledge about computers, as well as helping his net worth.

Instead of college, as he soon dropped-out of studies, Jan dedicated himself to finding a suitable job, which would enable him to at least earn a decent living; this happened in 1997, when he was hired by Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer, working there for the next nine years. While working at the Ernst & Young he had met Brian Acton, and their friendship extended, as Brian also was hired by Yahoo.

In 2007, the two quit from their jobs at Yahoo, and spent a year travelling across South America, but in 2009, his life changed; as his friend Brian and he got the idea of creating a messaging service app, and they named it WhatsApp, Brian thought it would stick with the public, as it sounded like “what`s up”. The rest is history.

Jan launched WhatsApp firstly in California on the 24th February 2009. In no time WhatsApp has become extremely popular,with the number of people that use its services growing even today, reportedly, over 800 million people use the services that WhatsApp provides.

Jan`s net worth began dramatically to increase following the launch, and the popularity of his app attracted attention from the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, who started calling Jan for business meetings and friendly dinners. The two slowly built up a friendship, which resulted in a business deal in which Jan would sell the WhatsApp to Zuckerberg for cash and also shares in Facebook. The deal went through in 2014, and it was estimated to be worth around $19 billion in cash and stocks. This increased Jan`s net worth to a large degree, and made it the main source of his net worth.

Furthermore to his partnership with Zuckerberg, Jan has become a member of the Facebook Board of Directors.

Advertisement

Overall, Jan has come a long way from war-troubled Ukraine to become the 3rd richest American entrepreneur in less than 40 years, according to Forbes magazine, it is only certain that his kingdom will continue to grow.

Regarding his personal life, little is known about him in the media other than that he is still single; however, his mother died in 2000.

Started with Net Worth Post in September 2014. Before that, Senior Writer at Creative Horizons. Earned a Journalism degree from Northwestern University.

Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Billionaires

Mark Zuckerberg Net Worth

Published

on

Mark Elliot Zuckerberg was born on 14 May 1984, in White Plains, New York State USA into a Jewish family. He is known for making billions of dollars at a very young age. However, even if a lot of people are jealous and sceptical about Mark, they should admit that not only does he deserve all that he has, but also respect and admiration for being smart and inventive. He has created a virtual empire which we all acknowledge nowadays: is there anyone in the world who has not heard of Facebook!

So how rich is Mark Zuckerberg? According to Forbes Magazine and Bloomberg’s Billionaires list, Zuckerberg‘s net worth is estimated at $56 billion as of early-2017, making him the seventh richest person in the world, up from 15th just nine months earlier. What strikes as most comic is that Mark has a salary of only $1 dollar per year as CEO of Facebook, however, that doesn‘t stop him from being a self-made billionaire, now head of a company ranked in the 10 largest in the world, valued at $275 billion.

Mark Zuckerberg Net Worth $56 Billion

Mark was indeed an ‘A’ grade student, apparently excelling in many subjects when at Ardsley High School, ranging from physics to classics. However, above Mark‘s interest in computers stands his father. He introduced Mark to computers and wanted him to take an interest in them. Edward Zuckerberg taught his son Atari BASIC programming and later hired a software developer to train Mark privately once a week. According to David Newman, the above-mentioned tutor, the kid was unbelievably talented and soon left his teacher standing and breathless. When Zuckerberg joined the community of Harvard University, he already had a reputation as a programming genius, because “Facebook” wasn‘t actually the first convenient and useful program he had developed. His works, such as Synapse Media Player, CourseMatch and Facemash received a lot of attention and popularity. Still they cannot rate with Facebook.

Unsurprisingly, a person who begins a world-wide revolution of communication faces a lot of problems, difficulties, intrigues and scandals. Mark was accused by his former friends, the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, of stealing their ideas. The brothers actually dreamed of building a connection between all the students of Harvard University. As we all know now, Mark improved this idea by enlarging the range of people who were allowed to use this social network. So, the accusations were at least true in part and Zuckerberg was forced to give away 1.2m Facebook shares to them. Thus there‘s always a bright side of things – the company that Mark set up has made a lot of people wealthy, not just him alone.

Regardless, according to Vanity Fair magazine, Zuckerberg was the most influential person of the Information Age in 2010. That‘s surprising because a year before he ranked only at number 23 on the same list. What‘s more, not only does Vanity Fair consider Mark as the world‘s most influential in this relatively new industry, but also New Statesman. In 2010, they ranked him as number 16 in the top 50 of the world’s most important figures. “Facebook” is considered to be the biggest social networking website on the planet, used by people of all ages, sex or nationality. Zuckerberg is respected because all he had to create such a network were his ideas and fingers that instinctively knew what to press on a keyboard.

Even though Mark Elliot Zuckerberg lost all of his friends and it doesn‘t seem that he‘s ever going to regain them, he at least has a reliable source of income – Facebook, of course. All the other similar companies that Facebook has obtained recently such as Instagram, WhatsApp, and some more must also be taken into account.

In his personal life, Mark Zuckerberg married Priscilla Chan in 2012, having met her originally in 2002. Aside from his career, Mark is a noted philanthropist, particularly to educational projects. In 2010, he joined with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in promising to donate half of his wealth to charity over time. In 2013 he donated shares valued at $990 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, and the following year $25 million towards combating the ebola disease.

Continue Reading

Billionaires

Gautam Adani Net Worth

Published

on

Gautam Shantilal Adani was born on the 24th June 1962, in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India and is a businessman, widely known as a founder and the chairman of the multinational conglomerate Adani Group. Adani has been active in the business of coal mining and gas distribution since 1988.

How much is the net worth of Gautam Adani? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the overall size of his wealth is as much as $8.8 billion, as of the data presented in the middle of 2017. Adani Group is the main source of Adani’s fortune.

Gautam Adani Net Worth $8.8 Billion

To begin with, the boy with his seven siblings, was raised in Ahmedabad by his parents Shanta and Shantilal Adani. He was educated at the Sheth Chimanlal Nagindas Vidyalaya school, then entered Gujarat University to study commerce, yet he dropped out.

Currently, the billionaire Gautam Adani owns the largest brand of oil in India. The company was founded in 1988, with Gautam the founder and current president. He said he created his Group with a vision of Nation Building, that is to say by developing assets that he believes are important economic issues for the country. The Adani Group has grown rapidly by diversifying into import – export – it opened its own port in Mundra, to better control its trading operations. Construction began in 1995 and in 1998 it became one of the major sources of foreign exchange for India.

The following year, the company embarked on financial and energy speculation with coal trading, and soon created a joint venture (Adani Willmar) in the field of petroleum products trading in 2000. A second phase began for the group with the creation of large infrastructures. The company created a portfolio of ports, power stations, mines and a fleet of ships and railway lines in and out of India. In 2006, the company became the largest importer of coal in India – 11 million tons. Adani sought to be less dependent on the coal market, so he started to buy and control coal mines. Thus, he bought the Australian group Linc Energy, in order to supply the group’s coal-fired power stations. In 2008, he bought the Bunyu mine in Indonesia , with 180 million tons of coal reserves, and the following year, Adani Group became an energy company, producing 330 MW of thermal energy. In 2011, the group also decided to buy the exploitation rights of a large part of the Galilee coal basin in Australia. To prepare for the import of Australian coal, he ordered a large-capacity coal terminal at Mundra (the largest in the world) and in the same year he bought the Australian port of Abbot Point. This project is yet to come to fruition.

In 2012, the Group began a 3rd phase of development as integration infrastructure, renewing its logo and developing a new identity. The company focuses on three areas: resources, logistics and energy. Subsequently, under the direction of Gautam Adani, the Adani Group became a multinational conglomerate active in the production of electricity – especially through coal – and port terminals, logistics and agribusiness. It is India’s largest developer and port operator. The Group is the major source of Gautam Adani’s net worth.

Finally, in the personal life of Gautam, he is married to Priti and they have two children.

Continue Reading

Billionaires

Frank Lowy Net Worth

Published

on

Frank Lowy was born on the 22nd October 1930 in Fiľakovo, now Slovakia, of Jewish origin and is an Australian entrepreneur. Lowy founded and led the Australian retail company the Westfield Group. According to US Forbes Magazine, Lowy is one of the richest Australians, having been active in business since 1952. Lowy was also the president of the Football (soccer) Federation of Australia from 2003until 2015.

How much is the net worth of Frank Lowy? It has been estimated by authoritative sources that the overall size of his wealth is as much as $5.1 billion, as of the data presented in the middle of 2017 Westfield Corporation is the major source of Lowy net worth. It should be noted that Frank has been listed in Financial Review Rich List every year since 1983. In 2010, he became the richest person in Australia with the estimated net worth of A$5.04 billion at the time.

Frank Lowy Net Worth $5.1 Billion

To begin with, the boy was born in Slovakia, but lived in a ghetto in Hungary in the time of World War II. In 1946, he managed to escape and reached France, where he boarded a ship and wanted to reach Palestine, but was caught and detained by the British in a camp in Cyprus. However, he managed to serve in the Jewish paramilitary organization Golani Brigade, and participated in the Israeli – Arab War in 1948.

His family was based in Hungary and had a small business, and in 1952, Lowy joined them and they all migrated to Australia. In 1960, he founded the company which is currently entitled Westfield Corporation Limited, in Sydney, Australia, developing shopping centers which even operated in the US from 1977. The company continued to specialize in shopping centres, and the Westfield Group now owns and operates shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US. All the shopping centres are advertised with the brand Westfield or Westfield Shoppingtown. Those have added significant sums to the overall size of Frank Lowy net worth.

From the beginning of the company until 2010, Lowy held the position of executive chairman of the Westfield Group; currently, he serves as the non – executive chairman. From 2008 to 2010, he and his company became the focus of a US tax investigation, after Swiss and Liechtenstein accounts were discovered – no wrong-doing was discovered.

Additionally, he served as the director of the Reserve Bank of Australia from 1995 to 2005. Significantly involved in the development of soccer in Australia, Lowy was the president of the Football Federation Australia from 2003 to 2015, succeeded by his son.

He was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2000, and in 2005, Lowy received the Woodrow Wilson Award for Corporate Citizenship. Several years later, the businessman was honoured with the Henni Friedlander Award, among a number of other awards and honours.

Finally, in the personal life of Frank Lowy, he is married to Shirley Lowy, who he met in 1951. They have three sons: Peter, Steven, and David who took over the lead of Westfield. Currently, Frank resides in Point Piper, Sydney, Australia. Since 2003, he is also owner of the mega-yacht Ilona. It is Lowy’s fourth yacht, and he has travelled around the world four times. However, the family is involved in philanthropy too, with a particular interest in cancer research and treatment.

Continue Reading

Recommended

Lists24 hours ago

The Untold Truth About ‘Bath Crashers’

Home renovation-shows are certainly more than a TV trend at this point. Although this specific brand of reality series has...

Lists24 hours ago

What happened to Tony from “Garage Gold”?

While we’re used to seeing reality shows featuring celebrities displaying their luxury life, or doing extreme things for a living,...

Lists24 hours ago

Who pays for Yard Crashers?

Reality TV is constantly changing as years pass. However, the audiences’ general fascination with home-improvement shows seems unlikely to end...

Lists24 hours ago

What happened to Rust Valley Restorers?

Some TV shows are so meticulously planned, that there’s no way they can’t become successful. However, there are other series...

Lists24 hours ago

How did Joel Taylor from Storm Chasers die?

It’s known that reality series are, in fact, not always as real as they make it seem. Despite that, some...

Lists24 hours ago

What happened to Ray on Trailer Park Boys?

TV shows come and go all the time, but “Trailer Park Boys” definitely isn’t easy to forget. Ever since its...

Lists24 hours ago

How real is History Channel survival show Alone?

Out of all the reality TV shows you might find, survival competitions are truly the most extreme ones you would...

Lists24 hours ago

The Untold Truth About Expedition Unknown

Although stories about previously unknown, ancient treasures and unveiled mysteries are usually seen as fictional fantasies, those same topics are...

Lists24 hours ago

What happened to Tiny House Nation?

Tiny houses have been a trend in the US for quite some time now. While some people see them as...

Lists24 hours ago

Why did Jordan Butler leave Misfit Garage?

With so many shows out there, it’s not easy to keep up with what reality TV has to offer nowadays....

Trending