Jan Koum facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jan Koum
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| Ян Кум | |
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Koum in April 2013
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| Born | February 24, 1976 |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 1994–present |
Jan Borysovych Koum (born February 24, 1976) is a very successful Ukrainian-American businessman. He is also a skilled computer programmer. Jan Koum is best known for co-founding WhatsApp. This popular mobile messaging app was bought by Facebook in 2014. The deal was for a huge amount of money, US$19.3 billion! As of October 2023, he is one of the richest people in the world. Forbes magazine estimates his wealth at about US$15.2 billion.
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Early Life Journey
Jan Borysovych Koum was born in Kyiv, Ukraine, on February 24, 1976. His family was Jewish. He grew up in a town called Fastiv. In 1992, when he was 16, Jan moved to Mountain View, California, with his mother and grandmother. A special program helped his family find a small apartment. His father stayed in Ukraine and passed away in 1997. Jan and his mother kept in touch with him. When they first arrived, his mother worked as a babysitter. Jan himself worked as a cleaner at a grocery store. Sadly, his mother passed away in 2000 after fighting cancer for a long time.
Building a Tech Career
By the time he was 18, Jan Koum was very interested in computer programming. He started studying at San Jose State University. At the same time, he worked at a company called Ernst & Young. There, he tested computer security. He also joined a computer security group called w00w00. This is where he met Shawn Fanning, who later created Napster.
In 1997, Jan met Brian Acton while working at Ernst & Young. Later that year, Jan got a job at Yahoo! as an engineer. He soon left college to focus on his work. Jan and Brian Acton worked together at Yahoo! for nine years. In 2007, they both left the company. They took a year off to travel in South America and play ultimate frisbee. Both of them tried to get jobs at Facebook, but they were not hired.
Creating WhatsApp
In January 2009, Jan Koum bought an iPhone. He realized that the App Store, which was only seven months old, would soon be full of new apps. He visited his friend Alex Fishman to talk about his idea for an app. Jan quickly chose the name WhatsApp because it sounded like "what's up." Just a week later, on his 33rd birthday, he officially started WhatsApp Inc. in California.
WhatsApp was not popular at first. But things changed when Apple added push notifications to apps in June 2009. Jan changed WhatsApp so it would "ping" users when they got a message. Soon, his and Alex's Russian-speaking friends started using WhatsApp instead of regular text messages (SMS). The app quickly gained many users. Jan then convinced Brian Acton, who was unemployed, to join the company. Jan made Brian a co-founder after Brian helped raise $250,000 to start the company.
WhatsApp and Facebook
On February 9, 2014, Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook, invited Jan Koum to dinner. He offered Jan a deal to join the Facebook board. Ten days later, Facebook announced it was buying WhatsApp for US$19 billion. This was a massive deal! In 2016, Jan sold more than $2.4 billion worth of his Facebook stock. This was about half of all the shares he owned.
In April 2018, Jan Koum announced he was leaving WhatsApp. He also stepped down from Facebook's board of directors. This happened because of disagreements he had with Facebook.
Giving Back: Philanthropy
Jan Koum has given a lot of money to different causes. In 2014, he donated $1 million to The FreeBSD Foundation. He also gave almost $556 million to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. The FreeBSD Foundation received more donations from him later, including $500,000 in 2016, $750,000 in 2018, and $500,000 in 2019.
When the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine happened, Jan helped with relief efforts. He donated $17 million to the European Jewish Association. He also gave $10.6 million to the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS.
Jan Koum has also supported many causes in Israel. He gave $600,000 to the Maccabee Task Force. He donated $6 million to Friends of Ir David. He also gave $175,000 to the Central Fund of Israel. In 2022, he donated $2 million to AIPAC. He has also given money to universities. He donated $1 million to Fordham and $41 million to Stanford.
Personal Life
Jan Koum is Jewish. He doesn't like being called an "entrepreneur." He once wrote on Twitter: "Next person to call me an entrepreneur is getting punched in the face by my bodyguard." He feels he is not an entrepreneur because he believes entrepreneurs are mainly focused on making money. He says he just wants to build useful products.
In November 2023, Jan Koum bought a large estate called Château de la Garoupe in France. It cost about 65 million euros.
See also
In Spanish: Jan Koum para niños
