EL CREADOR DE WHATS APP

Jan Koum: the man who created WhatsApp

At just 38, Jan Koum is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world.

Born in Fastiv, a small village on the outskirts of Kiev - Ukraine (in turn, one of the poorest countries in Europe) and emigrated to the United Jan Koum WhatsAppUnidos in 1992 at age 16, lived with his mother in a small apartment thanks to the welfare state. As she worked as a nanny, he was engaged in cleaning work of floors. His father never managed to go along with them to California and died in Ukraine in 1997. 

Later, her mother was diagnosed with cancer (which eventually led to his death in 2000), following which they did get better assistance from the State for treatment. In this way, Jan managed to get a computer and started studying programming on their own, through manuals borrowed. Later, he joined the group of hackers w00w00 where he met great personalities that influenced him.

Finally, he decided to study systems engineering and, while finishing his training, got a job as an engineer at Yahoo security and infrastructure; there remain nine years. After becoming familiar with the business, he retired from the company in 2007 on the grounds that his work found it "depressing". In fact, in an article about his life published by Forbes magazine, it draws attention to how the LinkedIn profile of Jan Koum described unenthusiastically his last three years at Yahoo with the words: "I did some work." After taking a year off to travel around Latin America, it was rejected by Facebook, company that was presented seeking a new job.

That was how in January 2009, looking for work and thinking what to do, bought his first iPhone and realized large possibilities opened by offering applications through the App Store. In addition, Jan was tired of the problems that generated Skype, as used frequently forget their password; So the idea of ​​an application that worked on mobile with own phone number, which would start its mobile messaging service.

After getting Brian Acton join him, they managed a loan for $ 250,000 to continue the project. For 2010, WhatsApp and generated about $ 5,000 in monthly income. For 2011, the application was already one of the most popular App Store.

In February 2014, Facebook decided to buy the application for a total of USD 19 billion. Currently, the service WhatsApp has more than 600 million users worldwide.

Forbes magazine estimated then that Jan was the owner of at least 45% of WhatsApp, which estimated his fortune from the sale amounts to about 6.8 million tax free dollars.

1. This brief summary of the history of Jan shows us another excellent example of the results that tenacity, work and a winning mentality can make in the life of an Personaje más relevante del relato. R= Jan Koum

1. ¿Cómo fue su pasado estudiantil? R= Primero estudio programación desde su casa después de conseguir una computadora y años después estudió ingeniería de sistemas.

1. ¿Cuál fue su más duradero empleo y porque circunstancias lo dejó? R= Consiguió un empleo en Yahoo donde duró 9 años de actividad y después lo dejó porque le parecía deprimente.

1. ¿Cómo se dio cuenta de que tenía posibilidades programando su propia aplicación? R= Se compró su primer iPhone y se dio cuenta de las grandes posibilidades que abría la oferta de aplicaciones a través del App Store.

1. ¿Cuáles fueron sus motivos para hacer su propia aplicación? R= Estaba harto de los problemas que le generaba Skype porque se le olvidaba la contraseña entonces le surgió la idea de una aplicación que funcionara en el móvil con el propio número de teléfono.

1. ¿Cuáles fueron sus aportaciones en el ramo de la programación? R= Le dio inicio a un servicio de mensajería instantánea muy práctica y con disponibilidad para todo el público en general con tan solo conocimientos básicos de tecnología.

1. ¿De cuánto fue su producción más reciente? R= La revista Forbes estimó entonces que su fortuna tras la venta del 55% de la aplicación asciende a unos 6.8 millones de dólares libres de impuestos.

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