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Founder of WhatsApp, billionaire from Fastiv
Yan Borisovych Kum (born February 24, 1976, Kyiv, raised in Fastiv, Kyiv region) is an American programmer and entrepreneur of Ukrainian-Jewish descent, co-founder and former CEO of the WhatsApp messenger. His net worth at the time of WhatsApp's sale (2014) was about $9.8 billion.
Emigration and hardship
In 1992, he emigrated to the USA with his mother and grandmother. His father stayed in Ukraine. The family settled in Mountain View, California. His mother worked as a nanny, and Yan worked part-time as a cleaner in a grocery store. When his mother was diagnosed with cancer, the family survived on disability benefits.
Yahoo!, WhatsApp, and rejecting $400 million
From 1998 to 2007, he worked at Yahoo!. In 2009, together with Brian Acton, he founded WhatsApp. In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $19 billion. In May 2018, Kum left the company due to disagreements with Zuckerberg over monetizing the messenger, refusing a $400 million payout.
He publicly supports Ukraine after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
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WhatsApp, PayPal, Grammarly, GitLab, or Revolut have long been parts of daily life for millions of people. Yet few know that Ukrainians or p...
Channel 24
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WhatsApp, PayPal, Grammarly, GitLab, or Revolut have long been part of the daily lives of millions of people. Yet few know that Ukrainians o...
Channel 24
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