Jan Koum is the co-founder and former CEO of WhatsApp, the world’s largest mobile messaging service. WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014, and Koum left the company in 2018 amidst arguments over the business model and concerns about Facebook’s data privacy policies.
Koum was born in Kiev, Ukraine in 1976, and he immigrated to California at age 16 with his mother. Koum developed an interest in computer programming around age 18, and he enrolled at San Jose State University.
While still in school, he worked for Ernst & Young as a security tester. It was there that he met his future WhatsApp co-founder, Brian Acton. In 1997, he quit school after being hired by Yahoo as an infrastructure engineer. He stayed with the company for nine years, as did Acton. In 2007, the two left Yahoo and spent a year traveling.
After purchasing an iPhone in January 2009, Koum quickly realized the potential of the app industry and developed the idea for WhatsApp, incorporating the company just a month later on February 24. Initially, it served as a digital address book that allowed users to display and update a status, such as “At work,” “Battery low,” or “Can’t talk, in a meeting.”
After a quiet first few months, the app started to take off when Apple introduced push notifications, allowing WhatsApp to “ping” its users with status updates.
As people began changing their statuses regularly to communicate with one another, Koum realized he had created an instant messaging platform. At the time, the only other free text messaging service was BlackBerry’s BBM, which only worked between BlackBerries, and the value of connecting people internationally for free was unmatched.
After releasing WhatsApp 2.0 with a messaging component, active users soared to 250,000. Koum brought Acton onto the team, granting him co-founder status after he secured $250,000 in seed funding. By February 2013, the company had 200 million users and had accepted $8 million in venture capital from Sequoia. That year, they took another $50 million in funding and doubled their staff from 50 to 100.
In 2014, Mark Zuckerberg courted Koum over dinner, proposing that he join Facebook’s board. 10 days later, Facebook’s $19.3 billion acquisition of WhatsApp was announced. The acquisition put Koum on Forbes’ list of the 400 Richest Americans with an estimated $7.5 billion net worth at the time.
In 2016, he sold over $2.4 billion of his Facebook stock, nearly half his total holdings. In 2018, he announced his departure from WhatsApp and Facebook.
What is Jan Koum's net worth?
The estimated net worth of Jan Koum is at least $1.46 billion as of November 16th, 2015. Mr. Koum owns 2,576,396 shares of Meta Platforms stock worth more than $1,457,003,466 as of November 21st. This net worth evaluation does not reflect any other assets that Mr. Koum may own. Learn More about Jan Koum's net worth.
How do I contact Jan Koum?
Has Jan Koum been buying or selling shares of Meta Platforms?
Jan Koum has not been actively trading shares of Meta Platforms within the last three months. Most recently, Jan Koum sold 1,263,806 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $183.45, for a transaction totalling $231,845,210.70. Learn More on Jan Koum's trading history.
Who are Meta Platforms' active insiders?
Meta Platforms' insider roster includes Peggy Alford (Director), Jas Athwal (Insider), Andrew Bosworth (CTO), Nicholas Clegg (Insider), Christopher Cox (Insider), David Fischer (CRO), David Fischer (CRO), Jan Koum (Director), Marne Levine (Insider), Susan Li (CFO), Jennifer Newstead (VP), Javier Olivan (COO), Sheryl Sandberg (COO & Director ), Sheryl Sandberg (COO), Michael Schroepfer (CTO), Colin Stretch (VP and General Counsel), Susan Taylor (CAO), David Wehner (CFO), David Wehner (CFO), Mark Zuckerberg (CEO), Mark Zuckerberg (CEO), and Mark Zuckerberg (CEO). Learn More on Meta Platforms' active insiders.
Are insiders buying or selling shares of Meta Platforms?
During the last twelve months, insiders at the social networking company sold shares 186 times. They sold a total of 2,627,847 shares worth more than $1,201,331,052.16. The most recent insider tranaction occured on November, 18th when CTO Andrew Bosworth sold 14,746 shares worth more than $8,162,353.38. Insiders at Meta Platforms own 13.7% of the company.
Learn More about insider trades at Meta Platforms. Information on this page was last updated on 11/18/2024.