Refugee to Founder of WhatsApp
Jan Koum was born in the rural areas of Kiev on the 24th of Feb 1976, Ukraine, the life in soviet era for Jewish koum was difficult, he spent his childhood without electricity, his parents also denied the usage of phones because Jewish people were usually tapped by Govt. Jan Koum Net worth today is $9.5B
Jan Koum and his mother had to leave Ukraine and migrated to California for better life. They initially received subsidy from Govt as per the immigration policy, Jam’s mother started to work as babysat where koum also worked as Janitor(caretaker).
Jan used to purchase books on computer and learn about computer networking on his own, he also worked as a cleaner at a grocery store. Soon Jan Koum became well versed in networking and joined San Jose State University to learn programming and joined Ernst & Young (E&Y) as a Security Tester.
Jan Koum Net worth
The life changed when his mother became victim of cancer, he had to take complete responsibility of house, after working for six months in E&Y he got better opportunity in Yahoo during then it was still a start-up as an Infrastructure Engineer.
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Jan Koum and Brian Acton
Jam Koum’s mother died in 2000 due to cancer, the life of Koum took a sharp change as he started to feel alone, his life changed when he and Brian Acton (his yahoo colleague) used to invite him for playing soccer, ultimate Frisbee, etc.
Jan Koum and Brian Acton
Jam and Brian Acton together spent 9 years in yahoo, after giving nine years of his life, Jam and Brian left their jobs in September 2007, Jam had $400,000 savings his next life was completely depended on it, they applied for Job in Facebook and twitter but both rejected them.
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whatsApp founder-Jan Koum
Jam’s dream run started on 24th of Feb 2009 in California Jan quickly got the name “WhatsApp” incorporated on his birthday. The initial stage of WhatsApp was not good, WhatsApp used to get crashed frequently.
Jam Koum worked on updates for long time, he launched push notifications which used to allow developers to ping their users even when they weren’t using it.
Jan Koum Net worth
Jan updated WhatsApp with the same and each time someone changed their status. He released second version called WhatsApp 2.0, This was turned WhatsApp into Instant Messenger because it also had a messaging component, within few days WhatsApp had 250,000 active users.
WhatsApp funding & Jan Koum Net Worth
WhatsApp got first round of funding of $250,000, after a little persuasion, from five of their ex-Yahoo friends. WhatsApp later received $8 million from Sequoia Capital in April 2011. WhatsApp in second round of funding and raised $50 million at a valuation $1.5 billion from Sequoia by then WhatsApp bank balance read $8.257 million. within a span of two years WhatsApp had reached to a user base of more than 200 million and a staffing of 50 employees.
Jan Koum Net Worth
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WhatsApp revenue model & Jan Koum Net Worth
WhatsApp revenue model is simple
1.They charged iPhone users on first time installation.
- Android users every year pay for renewal.
Jan Koum Net worth
Jan Koum Net worth
The success of jam has earned him fame and money too, today Jan Koum net worth is $9.5 Billion.
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Jan Koum Net worth after WhatsApp acquired by Facebook
Mark Zuckerberg contacted Jan in 2012 after several meetings for months, Mark formally proposed a deal and asked Jan to join the Facebook board. In February 2014, Facebook announced it was acquiring WhatsApp for $19 Billion. They were paid $4 billion in cash, $12 billion in Facebook shares, and an additional $3 billion in restricted stock units.
Jan Koum Net worth after Acquired by FB
Jan Koum had owned about 43 percent of whatsapp share during the time of deal. Jan received around 76 million shares of Facebook and $2 billion in cash during the deal which increased Jan Koum Net worth.
Whatsapp today has 1.2 billion monthly users and 50 billion messages are being sent on a daily basis. In 2016 Jan Koum has sold around $4 billion worth of shares ,today Jan Owns about .8 percent of Facebook shares, Jan Koum net worth is increased from zero to $9.5 Billion . The journey of Jan Koum is an inspiration, from poor refugee to billionaire is inspiration for each and every one of us.
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Richest Man in the world 2017- Top 10
- Bill Gates — $89.3bn — Microsoft
- Jeff Bezos net worth– $85.2bn — Amazon
- Amancio Ortega — $84.5bn — Inditex
- Warren Buffett — $74.7bn — Berkshire Hathaway
- Mark Zuckerberg — $64.8bn — Facebook
- Carlos Slim — $60.2bn — Grupo Carso
- Bernard Arnault — $52.4bn — LVMH
- Larry Page — $48.8bn — Google
- Larry Ellison — $48.2bn — Oracle
- Sergey Brin — $47.7bn — Google
Jan Koum Philanthropy
Jan Koum donates part of his earnings to bottom of Pyramid, he donated 7.5 million shares of Facebook to Silicon Valley Community Foundation in in 2014 and also donated 5.1 million shares in 2016.