Bom Kim

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bom Kim
김범석
Born
김범석

(1978-10-07) October 7, 1978 (age 43)[1]
Seoul, South Korea
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University
Title
  • Founder and CEO of Coupang
Korean name
Hangul
김범석
Revised RomanizationKim Beom-seok

Kim Beom-seok (Korean: 김범석; born October 7, 1978), known professionally in the West as Bom Kim, is a Korean-American businessman and internet entrepreneur. He is known for founding Korea's largest e-commerce company Coupang, and serves as its chief executive officer, and controlling shareholder.[3][4] In 2018, SoftBank Vision Fund invested $2 billion on Coupang, valuating the company at $9 billion, and making Kim South Korea’s newest and second-youngest billionaire at the age of 40. As of June 2021, Kim's net worth is $6.79 billion.[2]

Education and career[]

He was born in Seoul but left Korea at the age of 7. At age 13, he went to boarding school in Massachusetts at Deerfield Academy,[5] where he lettered in varsity wrestling and track and later attended Harvard University;[6] He later attended Harvard Business School but dropped out after only six months.[7]

After interning at The New Republic and starting a student magazine called Current, Kim briefly worked at Boston Consulting Group before raising $4 million to start the magazine 02138, named after Harvard's ZIP Code, which soon folded. He then started Coupang.[6][8]

Coupang[]

Coupang delivery truck in Seoul, 2017.

Kim founded Coupang in 2010 and since then has gone on to raise more than $3.8 billion in venture capital from investors such as Sequoia Capital, Softbank, BlackRock, and others.[9][10]

It began as a Groupon-like website and now operates as an online retailer and operates a 24-hour logistics service called Rocket Delivery. It was reported in 2018 that Coupang would gross 2.7 trillion won in annual sales and lost 1.7 trillion won between 2015 and 2017 and maintains over 3.5 million daily active users as of 2019.[11]

The company currently employs over 40,000 people with offices in Seoul, Shanghai, Beijing, Los Angeles, Seattle and Silicon Valley.[12]

References[]

  1. ^ "김범석". www.businesspost.co.kr. Retrieved 14 December 2019.
  2. ^ a b "Bloomberg Billionaires Index: Bom Kim". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved June 8, 2021. Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  3. ^ Palmer, Annie (2020-06-16). "Coupang, a SoftBank-backed start-up, is crushing Amazon to become South Korea's biggest online retailer". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-07-05.
  4. ^ Chung, Gracs (2018-11-20). "Coupang, Korea's Answer to Amazon, Raises $2 Billion, Mints New Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  5. ^ "South Korea #6: An Exciting Visit with Bom Kim '96, CEO of Coupang". Deerfield Academy.
  6. ^ a b Mac, Ryan. "Coupang: The $5 Billion Startup Filling Amazon's Void In South Korea". Forbes.
  7. ^ "Bom Kim". Forbes.
  8. ^ Green, Dennis. "The CEO of 'the Amazon of South Korea' explains how canceling an IPO at the last minute and pivoting the company twice led it to become the country's top online retailer". Business Insider.
  9. ^ https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-22/harvard-dropout-s-startup-loses-billions-in-fight-with-chaebol
  10. ^ Merced, Michael J. de la (November 20, 2018). "Coupang, South Korean E-Commerce Start-up, Raises $2 Billion From SoftBank". The New York Times.
  11. ^ Jung-a, Song (January 2019). "Subscribe to read | Financial Times". Financial Times. Cite uses generic title (help)
  12. ^ Herald, The Korea (November 19, 2017). "Coupang highlights creativity, openness in its new office". www.koreaherald.com.
Retrieved from ""