Founder of WhatsApp Jan Kum. Biography and family of Yana Borisovich

A few years ago the name of Jan Kum (photo below) was unknown to anyone.

He was an ordinary employee of a computer company, one of several thousand. I tried to get out of the poverty in which I was born. And in his spare time he read scientific literature and developed a completely new product in the world of Internet technologies. Thanks to persistent long-term work and purposefulness today it is a person with a huge fortune, a developer of the popular worldwide WhatsApp communication program.

Biography

Jan Borisovich Kum was born in a small Ukrainian provincial town in the late 70s. His family was the most usual and unremarkable: father - a builder, mother - a housewife. Childhood was not easy, because the family lived more than modestly. To earn at least a little money, the mother moonlighted as a nanny, and Ian undertook any work feasible for the student. Then came the collapse of the Soviet Union and the difficult years of perestroika. Jan's father died after a long illness. Sub-work did not bring the young man a stable income, the mother by virtue of her age could not get a job. Then it was decided, selling everything that is possible and collecting all the savings, move to America. To prepare for the move, it took two years, during which the boy studied English and took private lessons to "pull up" knowledge. The family moved to a town called Mountain View.

Jan Kum, whose biography was very difficult, had the opportunity to study and do his favorite thing - studying programming books. In his student years, the young man was entertained with the creation of hacker programs, independently studied the literature on writing software codes.

Career setbacks

At this time, the family was still going badly. Yang's mother discovered a malignant tumor, and for several years they lived in a modest rented apartment for sickness benefit. After a while, my mother died, and Ian was left alone.

A great influence on the life of the young man was provided by Brian Acton, whose acquaintance took place in Yahoo. In this corporation, Yang settled and hoped to start a career and get good money. It was there that two friends spent several years developing advertising and network engineering, but both did not get any pleasure from this routine work.

There were attempts to invest, as well as projects to open their own businesses. But all of them ended in failure and instead of profit they brought in another waste. But Jan Kum, whose fortune was still a small amount, did not lose his perseverance and moved on. It was not possible to finish the university, because study interfered with fruitful work. Jan preferred self-education and never regretted it. Books he read greedily, bought them in small shops and on street sales. And he continued to work for Yahoo.

Interesting fact

Once in the offices of Yahoo there was a failure in the operation of all computers. Began urgently to call employees to troubleshoot. They called Yana, but at that time he was at the university and answered that he could not come. Perhaps it was at this moment that the young man conceived the idea of creating a smart program for the phone that will inform everyone in the contact list, the subscriber is busy or can answer whether he is in the classroom or at the cinema, out of reach or free for communication.

New life stage

Work at Yahoo took a long seven years of life for the young Internet genius and his friend Brian. Finally one day they agreed that the monotonous work on creating advertising projects is not what they dream about. Having accumulated a certain amount of money on their accounts over the years, the young people terminated the contract with the company and embarked on a journey around the world. They visited South America, where they could properly rest and gain strength for new achievements.

One day, Jan Kum picked up Apple's phone. According to the programmer, this moment was the turning point in his life. The idea that had been spinning in my head for several years suddenly became clear and understandable, and the unique possibilities of the mobile device prompted how it was possible to translate this idea into reality.

Way to the top

In the same period, the future creator of "Voss Ap" Jan Kum Comes close to the no less purposeful young man Alex Fishman. Together they spend days discussing the idea, working on its improvement and incarnation. Alex helped Ian find a qualified developer of mobile applications (it was Igor Solomennikov).

And a long period of studying literature, writing codes, developing programs began. Jan spent several months studying telephone codes of all countries and cities so that millions of subscribers around the world could receive news about the novelty. As a result of painstaking work, a mobile application was obtained, which in an instant informed about the new status of the user to the entire list of his contacts, automatically recognized the subscribers of any telephone systems and was very convenient for text messages. It was the possibility of a quick dispatch of messages and made the new program popular in a short time, because it had no analogues.

The name WhatsApp did not come by chance: Cum beat the slang American expression, which stands for "How are you" and is the most popular and often sent message.

Again, difficulties

No one yet known application brought profits that could cover costs. After all, it was necessary to maintain the office and staff, albeit small. A lot of money was spent on communication. We can say that for several years the developers have only invested in the business, not getting anything in return. Although no, something still was - the growing popularity of mobile news.

After the program has a function to send not only text applications, but also images, music and video, the number of users has increased to several hundred thousand, and the developers realized that they have created a more functional replacement for SMS and MMS. The first investors were found, which means that the application became profitable. There was a new office, employees began to receive a decent payment. A long-standing idea has finally come true! And Jan Kum realized that now he was firmly on his feet.

The deal of $ 19 billion

Founder WhatsApp Jan Kum admits in an interview that he never considered himself an entrepreneur, and even seriously offended if he is called this word. He claims that he developed the application not for the sake of money, but for the sake of the embodiment of his idea. If something useful is created, it will necessarily become known and appreciated - this is the opinion of computer genius. That's why Jan Kum did not spend major advertising campaigns of his brainchild, did not try to attract the attention of the press, and even the logo was not developed immediately.

Nevertheless, popularity came with an enviable speed. The application firmly held the top positions in the ratings of mobile gadgets as the most popular and popular. This rise could not fail to notice such giant corporations as Yahoo, Google, Facebook and many others. There were many profitable offers for the sale of the brand. Finally, in 2014, a transaction took place that instantly made the world famous not only WhatsApp, but also its creator. The application was sold to Mark Zuckerberg for a record nineteen billion dollars! Its developers Jan Kum and Brian Ecton became owners of stakes and remained in the company. A guy from a poor Ukrainian family became a billionaire and one of the most enviable bachelors.

Personal life

It is not surprising that with this attitude to work on personal life is not enough time. The company WhatsApp for Jan Kuma - this is the meaning of his life, his idol, his offspring. He does not part with the mobile phone, afraid to miss important messages from business partners. He is ready to work both day and night if there is any problem in the application.

If Jan Kum married, his wife, alas, would not occupy the first place in his life. Perhaps that's why a talented programmer prefers to stay in bachelors. According to press reports, Yang is now meeting with the model of Ukrainian origin Evelina Mambetova. The girl is young, but already known to the whole world as very beautiful and promising, she has already managed to cooperate with such brands as L.Oreal, Mulberry and Aveda. Perhaps, energetic and ambitious young people will be able to create a strong alliance.

Hobby

Jan Kum devoted almost all his time to work. He follows the rating of his invention, studies consumer feedback, constantly works on improving and adding new useful functions. He has little interest in political events and does not participate in them. He does not like popularity and does not very willingly communicate with the press. Everything that is connected with PR and advertising, even from the time of work in Yahoo, brings to Yana yearning and boredom.

Despite the tight work schedule, there is a place for a young man in the life of a hobby. His favorite occupation was boxing. Probably, it is not accidental that this kind of sport was chosen, because it is simple and understandable, obeys strict rules and requires complete dedication during training. And are not these qualities most appreciated by Jan Kum?

Speaking about plans for the future, Ian thinks only about his project. According to him, success can be considered achieved if the application in twenty years will be as popular as it is now.