Portrait of the billionaire who was once the richest man in Korea: Grew up in the slums, started as a lowly employee at Samsung

Kakao founder Kim Beom-su topped Forbes' 2022 list of South Korea's richest people for the first time with a net worth of $9.6 billion. He is one of the rare billionaires in the land of kimchi who is not a chaebol, meaning he comes from a long-standing wealthy family.

Billionaire grew up poor

In an article in The Financial Times, Kim Beom-su, 57, also known as Brian Kim, recalled that as a child, his family of eight slept in one bedroom in a poor neighborhood in Seoul. His parents struggled to support his siblings. Kim himself was the first in his family to attend university and to pay for it, he tutored.

Kim Beom-su is a rare person on the list of Korea's richest people who does not have a chaebol background.

“We had to make our own way because my parents didn’t have time to take care of us. We were given a high level of autonomy, which also taught me a sense of responsibility,” the entrepreneur said in the interview.

Kim Beom-su started out as a software engineer at Samsung SDS, the company's IT services unit. But he left after five years to open an internet cafe and launch the online gaming portal Hangame, which later merged with search engine Naver to become Korea's current dominant web portal, NHN.

After leading NHN for five years, he moved to Silicon Valley in 2005 to expand the company's presence in the US. However, things proved more difficult than expected and he left NHN again to start another business.

Then, in 2007, the iPhone came out. Kim, who was in California at the time, was fascinated by smartphones. He and members of Iwilab, now Kakao, the company Kim founded in 2006, developed a messaging app for the new mobile product because they believed that smartphones would be used as an essential “means of communication” in the near future. Kim Beom-su eventually developed KakaoTalk, which later merged with the web portal Daum to become Kakao. Today, Kakao Talk has become the “national” messaging platform in Korea, with over 140 million users and a presence in many other countries around the world.

Kim Beom-su with Ryan, one of the KakaoTalk characters

Pledge not to let children inherit property

The Korea Times reported that Kim hired his son Kim Sang-bin and daughter Kim Ye-bin to work for K Cube Holdings, Kakao's parent company, in 2020. Insiders saw the move as a sign that the billionaire was preparing for Kakao's succession early. He is also said to have given his wife and two children 60,000 Kakao shares each, worth a total of more than $20 million.

That doesn't mean the Kakao founder will leave his vast fortune to his children, though. Unlike other Korean chaebols, Kim Beom-su wants his children to take over the business rather than leave him a billion-dollar fortune. In March 2021, Kim Beom-su signed the Giving Pledge, a promise by the world's wealthiest individuals - including the likes of Melinda Gates and Elon Musk - to donate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes.

Kakao founder pledges to give away most of his fortune after death

According to Korea JooAng Daily, he has publicly said that his future donations will be aimed at solving social problems, especially educational issues.

Kim will step down as president at Kakao in March 2022 to explore bigger opportunities overseas in its mobile-focused platform business.

According to Women Numbers