Inspiration
WhatsApp Story - Bought by Facebook for $19 Billion
In this modern world now, pretty much everyone will own a messaging app on their phone and especially WhatsApp. The existence of this app has changed our lives in terms of how we communicate with other people. Not just that, but this app lets us interact with anyone across the globe apart from it being totally free to use.
But do you also know that the founder himself has gotten into many challenges in his life before he manages to succeed?
Story of Jan Koum
Jan Koum is one of the important founders of the application, WhatsApp aside from Brian Acton. He was born on the 24th of February 1976 in a small town in Kyiv, Ukraine.
He is one of the only sons of a Jewish couple. His dad works as a construction manager that builds hospitals and government schools. His mom, on the other hand, is a full-time housewife.
Koum grew up in an environment where a lot of people are anti-semitic. With rather unstable politics and with no end, his family decided to move to the United States of America.
When his age reaches 16, Koum together with his mom and grandmother moved to Mountain View, California, and rented a small apartment there.
According to the original plan, his father is supposed to follow them but unfortunately, luck was not on his side when he fell really ill and passed away 5 years later in Ukraine. It can be said that at this moment Jan Koum is at the lowest point of his life.
As a teenage immigrant, his life becomes even harder and more challenging. He is forced to adapt to the new place and new friends that he had.
With not a lot of money, he also had to work as a cleaner to help his mother who was at that time working as a nanny.
To make matter worse, his mother was later diagnosed with cancer and he then received support from the government.
He is one of the only sons of a Jewish couple. His dad works as a construction manager that builds hospitals and government schools. His mom, on the other hand, is a full-time housewife.
Koum grew up in an environment where a lot of people are anti-semitic. With rather unstable politics and with no end, his family decided to move to the United States of America.
When his age reaches 16, Koum together with his mom and grandmother moved to Mountain View, California, and rented a small apartment there.
According to the original plan, his father is supposed to follow them but unfortunately, luck was not on his side when he fell really ill and passed away 5 years later in Ukraine. It can be said that at this moment Jan Koum is at the lowest point of his life.
As a teenage immigrant, his life becomes even harder and more challenging. He is forced to adapt to the new place and new friends that he had.
With not a lot of money, he also had to work as a cleaner to help his mother who was at that time working as a nanny.
To make matter worse, his mother was later diagnosed with cancer and he then received support from the government.
The Point of Life Changed
Koum decided that he will change his own life in which he started to learn to program on his own. He borrowed many used books from shops and when he finished reading them, he will return it back.
At the age of 18, Koum managed to get a skill as a computer network engineer. He then pursued further studies at San Jose State University and do a part-time job as a safety tester at Ernst and Young. In the year 1997, he was given the task to work for Yahoo!
At that particular time, Koum managed to get in contact with Brian Acton who seems to be the earliest worker at Yahoo. Not long after that, he made a decision to quit his studies.
He started becoming friends with Acton and worked for Yahoo for 9 years before he resigned from his job to explore technologies related to social media which seems to be growing at the time.
After his resignation, both Koum and Acton started traveling for a year in South America and as they got back to the US, they applied for a job at Facebook and Twitter but their application was rejected.
The Birth of WhatsApp
In the year 2009, Koum bought an iPhone and he realized the potential apps that would go well with the iPhone. He instantly contacted Acton and presented his ideas of creating a cost-effective app that would facilitate communications.
On Koum's birthday which was 24 February 2009, WhatsApp Inc was successfully established. To make his dream a reality he managed to get help from Igor Solomennikov who was a software engineer.
In the early phase, things didn't turn out too well for WhatsApp due to the constant crash that it has been facing. This caused problems to the extent that Koum felt like giving up and wanted to find a new job. Acton was one of Koum's inspirations since he persuades Koum to not give up and just waited for a few more months.
At that time, there were a lot of instant messaging apps. This makes things easier for WhatsApp to be the top messaging app regardless of no marketing being done. It can be said that the popularity of WhatsApp grew so big that this manages to attract outside investors including interest from Facebook.
Not long after, Facebook bought WhatsApp for the price of $19 Billion in the year 2014. The takeover of WhatsApp has skyrocketed the net worth of Koum to $6.8 Billion.
Koum also became one of the managing directors of Facebook with a wage of $1 but with stock options worth Billions of $US!
What This Story Tells Us
Even though Koum did sell WhatsApp, he is still leading that company today. Thanks to a friend's help Koum managed to not give up and WhatsApp still exists today. Or else Koum will not be where he currently is today.
Therefore, we must find someone willing to go through thick and thin so that we will manage to succeed in our life.
Never Give Up and Keep Trying Harder!
What is your struggle in life?
What is your struggle in life?
Source:
.webp)
.webp)
Post a Comment
0 Comments