Bom Kim

Kim Beomseok (Korean: 김범석; born October 7, 1978), known professionally in the West as Bom Kim, is a Korean-American businessman and entrepreneur who is the founder and chief executive officer of Coupang, the largest e-commerce company in South Korea.[2][3] In 2018, when SoftBank Vision Fund invested US$2 billion in Coupang, valuating the company at US$9 billion, Kim became the newest and second-youngest billionaire in South Korea at the age of 40. As of March 2023, Kim has a net worth of US$2.7 billion.[4]

Bom Kim
김범석
Born
김범석

(1978-10-07) October 7, 1978[1]
Seoul, South Korea
NationalityAmerican
Alma materHarvard University (BA)
Harvard Business School (dropped out)
TitleFounder & CEO of Coupang
Korean name
Hangul
Revised RomanizationKim Beomseok
McCune–ReischauerKim Pŏmsŏk

Early life and education

Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea on October 7, 1978, but left at the age of 7. At the age of 13, Kim went to Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts, United States,[5] where he lettered in varsity wrestling and track. He subsequently graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts degree.[6] He also 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. 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.
  3. Chung, Gracs (2018-11-20). "Coupang, Korea's Answer to Amazon, Raises $2 Billion, Mints New Billionaire". Forbes. Retrieved 2021-06-08.
  4. "Forbes Billionaires: Bom Kim". Forbes. Retrieved March 24, 2023. {{cite magazine}}: Cite magazine requires |magazine= (help)
  5. "South Korea #6: An Exciting Visit with Bom Kim '96, CEO of Coupang". Deerfield Academy.
  6. 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. "Harvard Dropout's Startup Loses Billions in South Korea Battle". Bloomberg.com. 22 May 2018.
  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 news}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  12. Herald, The Korea (November 19, 2017). "Coupang highlights creativity, openness in its new office". www.koreaherald.com.
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