WhatsApp is currently known as one of the most widely used instant messaging apps in the world. The founder of WhatsApp was Jan Koum along with Brian Acton.
But do you know behind the success of WhatsApp tucked into an inspirational story that is full of struggles from one of its founders, Jan Koum? This time obviousstory.blogspot.com will be reviewing the biography of Jan Koum known as the founder or inventor of the WhatsApp app.
Jan Koum was born on February 24, 1976, in the area called the Fastiv section of Kyiv, Ukraine. Jan Koum's father worked as a construction manager and his mother was just a housewife.
Jan Koum belonged to a family of Jewish descent. The area where Jan Koum lived is very concerning because all facilities are very limited such as electricity. Even for a shower, they have to queue in the public bath.
Living in an often turbulent political country is not an easy thing for Jan Koum, moreover, they are Jewish citizens so they are often cautious.
Due to the increasing political turmoil and the rising anti-Jewish movement in Ukraine, to avoid this, the Jan Koum family decided to move to the United States in 1990. They moved when Jan Koum was 16 years old and lived in the Mountain View area of the United States.
In the biography of Jan Koum, It is known that he lived there with his mother and grandmother, his father is still in Ukraine, and will follow them. But unfortunately, Jan Koum's father died in 1997 while still in Ukraine.
Koum and her father seldom communicate over the phone because they avoided tapping by the Ukrainian government. Jan Koum with his mother then fought hard to survive in America.
Ibu Jan Koum then tried to work as a child nanny and Koum helped her mother by becoming a shop sweeper to meet their needs. Even so, they are still very lacking.
In his life, she eats by relying on the government's free food allowance for the homeless or bummer.
He also occasionally slept in public places only to land and darken the heavens. All sorts of work he tried to Makoni when he first moved to America just to connect his life. The bitter life he had felt when it was.
When Jan Koum moved to the United States, he was proficient in English, so he was easy to enter school in America.
In the biography of Jan Koum, he is known to be a naughty child because he is very difficult to adjust and join the fights, even though he is a savvy disciple and is very fond of computer programming which he self-learned from used books.
He learned about the computer network by self-taught and even joined the grub hacker known as w00w00 while at school.
Graduating from school, he then continued his education by entering at San Jose University. To meet the needs of his life and tuition, Jan Koum later worked as a computer security tester at Ernst & Young.
In 1997, he met Brian Acton, a Yahoo employee who later became his close friend. Armed with the knowledge of a well-taught computer, Jan Koum then tried to apply for a job at Yahoo on the advice of Brian Acton and he was later accepted.
However, in 2000, the trials of life were experienced by Jan Koum when his mother died of cancer. In his parents ' stay, Jan Koum then lived with his grandmother.
Along with Brian Acton, Jan Koum witnessed a fall in Yahoo, he worked there as a programmer and handled advertising projects at Yahoo.
While working at Yahoo, Jan Koum was also in college. However, he decides to Drop Out or quit his campus and focuses on working after having been revisited by Yahoo CEO David Filo.
Seven years working at Yahoo then made Jan Koum with Brian Acton deciding to withdraw in 2007 from Yahoo. Afterward, they spent their time on vacation and touring in South America for a year.
Afterward, Jan Koum, along with Brian Acton, tried to apply for a job on Facebook but they were both rejected by Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook.
The history created by WhatsApp began in 2009. At the time the iPhone was experiencing fame and Jan Koum bought it, he was then attracted to the collection of contacts on the iPhone and also on the App Store.
It sees the great potential of the App Store app on the iPhone which then gives it an idea that is creating an application that can display the status on the phone contacts on the iPhone.
That idea is what then encourages the creation of the WhatsApp app. Jan Koum had a friend named Alex Fishman and then he told him the idea.
Hearing the idea, Alex Fishman later introduced Jan Koum to Igor Solomennikov, an iPhone app developer.
From his introduction with Igor, Jan Koum then managed to realize the idea and then created an application that he named with WhatsApp.
From there he then founded the California-based WhatsApp INC Company in February 2009. Jan Koum spent much of his time developing his creation application.
Although the WhatsApp application Buatnnya still often crashes and can be said to be not perfect and still in the early versions. When it was launched, the application was downloaded only about 250 people and most of Jan Koum's friends themselves.
The slow development of WhatsApp makes Jan Koum almost give up. From there the intention arose Jan Koum to stop the development of the application and intend to work anything.
When he was almost surrendered, his good friend Brian Acton then told him to continue developing the WhatsApp application of Jan Koum and gave him several months to see the great potential of the application.
Accompanied by a sense of hesitation Jan Koum continues to develop his creation application. Apple then came with the help of push notifications in 2009.
This then gives the way for Jan Koum to modify his application so that when WhatsApp users change their status in the app will automatically broadcast it on the network.
The initial version of WhatsApp is only a status update in phone contacts on iPhone. Then Jan Koum released WhatsApp v 2.0 which was equipped with an Instant messaging feature that then managed to increase the number of users of the application to 250 thousand users.
The app's rival is Blackberry Messenger (BBM) only, but it sees limited use of BBM only on Blackberry phones then Jan Koum continues to develop the application.
Brian Acton then helped Jan Koum by finding investors to fund the development of the WhatsApp application. The result is a raised fund of 250 thousand dollars that comes from former Yahoo employees.
And it is officially Acton then joined Jan Koum developing the WhatsApp app. WhatsApp was then continuously developed by Jan Koum by successfully launching the photo delivery feature in 2009 on iPhone in addition to that he also released WhatsApp for other devices such as Android and Blackberry.
Then WhatsApp was changed to a paid app in 2010 and they managed to earn 5000 dollars in the first month.
This then makes many other investors flock to invest in WhatsApp such as Sequoia Capital which injects a fund of 8 million dollars.
Entering the year 2011, WhatsApp by Jan Koum managed to get into the top 20 popular apps in the App Store and once again Sequoia Capital injected funds of 50 million dollars to WhatsApp and made the value of WhatsApp soar to 1.5 billion dollars.
This then made the company Facebook seduce Jan Koum to sell WhatsApp, however, it was rejected by Jan Koum. Continuing to grow later in 2013, WhatsApp successfully has an active user of about 200 million.
Google and Facebook then scrambling to acquire the very fastest-growing WhatsApp. Until then in 2013, Jan Koum with Brian Acton agreed to sell WhatsApp to Facebook with a value of 19 Millar dollars.
The acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook made Jan Koum and Brian Acton a newly rich man thanks the struggle they developed the WhatsApp app.
Jan Koum himself after his application was successfully purchased by Facebook, his wealth jumped by 6.8 billion dollars. And in 2015, his wealth rose by 7.9 billion dollars by Forbes Magazine
But do you know behind the success of WhatsApp tucked into an inspirational story that is full of struggles from one of its founders, Jan Koum? This time obviousstory.blogspot.com will be reviewing the biography of Jan Koum known as the founder or inventor of the WhatsApp app.
Jan Koum Biography
Jan Koum was born on February 24, 1976, in the area called the Fastiv section of Kyiv, Ukraine. Jan Koum's father worked as a construction manager and his mother was just a housewife.
Jan Koum belonged to a family of Jewish descent. The area where Jan Koum lived is very concerning because all facilities are very limited such as electricity. Even for a shower, they have to queue in the public bath.
Living in an often turbulent political country is not an easy thing for Jan Koum, moreover, they are Jewish citizens so they are often cautious.
Moving to America
Due to the increasing political turmoil and the rising anti-Jewish movement in Ukraine, to avoid this, the Jan Koum family decided to move to the United States in 1990. They moved when Jan Koum was 16 years old and lived in the Mountain View area of the United States.
Become a sweeping man
In the biography of Jan Koum, It is known that he lived there with his mother and grandmother, his father is still in Ukraine, and will follow them. But unfortunately, Jan Koum's father died in 1997 while still in Ukraine.
Koum and her father seldom communicate over the phone because they avoided tapping by the Ukrainian government. Jan Koum with his mother then fought hard to survive in America.
Ibu Jan Koum then tried to work as a child nanny and Koum helped her mother by becoming a shop sweeper to meet their needs. Even so, they are still very lacking.
Also Read: Isaac Newton Biography Inventions Newton's Law
Living like homeless
In his life, she eats by relying on the government's free food allowance for the homeless or bummer.
He also occasionally slept in public places only to land and darken the heavens. All sorts of work he tried to Makoni when he first moved to America just to connect his life. The bitter life he had felt when it was.
When Jan Koum moved to the United States, he was proficient in English, so he was easy to enter school in America.
In the biography of Jan Koum, he is known to be a naughty child because he is very difficult to adjust and join the fights, even though he is a savvy disciple and is very fond of computer programming which he self-learned from used books.
Learn self-taught computers
He learned about the computer network by self-taught and even joined the grub hacker known as w00w00 while at school.
Graduating from school, he then continued his education by entering at San Jose University. To meet the needs of his life and tuition, Jan Koum later worked as a computer security tester at Ernst & Young.
Acceptable work at Yahoo
In 1997, he met Brian Acton, a Yahoo employee who later became his close friend. Armed with the knowledge of a well-taught computer, Jan Koum then tried to apply for a job at Yahoo on the advice of Brian Acton and he was later accepted.
However, in 2000, the trials of life were experienced by Jan Koum when his mother died of cancer. In his parents ' stay, Jan Koum then lived with his grandmother.
Along with Brian Acton, Jan Koum witnessed a fall in Yahoo, he worked there as a programmer and handled advertising projects at Yahoo.
While working at Yahoo, Jan Koum was also in college. However, he decides to Drop Out or quit his campus and focuses on working after having been revisited by Yahoo CEO David Filo.
Seven years working at Yahoo then made Jan Koum with Brian Acton deciding to withdraw in 2007 from Yahoo. Afterward, they spent their time on vacation and touring in South America for a year.
Also Read: Biography Albert Einstein Inventions Radio
Rejected work on Facebook
Afterward, Jan Koum, along with Brian Acton, tried to apply for a job on Facebook but they were both rejected by Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook.
The history created by WhatsApp began in 2009. At the time the iPhone was experiencing fame and Jan Koum bought it, he was then attracted to the collection of contacts on the iPhone and also on the App Store.
It sees the great potential of the App Store app on the iPhone which then gives it an idea that is creating an application that can display the status on the phone contacts on the iPhone.
Creating Whatsapp
That idea is what then encourages the creation of the WhatsApp app. Jan Koum had a friend named Alex Fishman and then he told him the idea.
Hearing the idea, Alex Fishman later introduced Jan Koum to Igor Solomennikov, an iPhone app developer.
From his introduction with Igor, Jan Koum then managed to realize the idea and then created an application that he named with WhatsApp.
From there he then founded the California-based WhatsApp INC Company in February 2009. Jan Koum spent much of his time developing his creation application.
Although the WhatsApp application Buatnnya still often crashes and can be said to be not perfect and still in the early versions. When it was launched, the application was downloaded only about 250 people and most of Jan Koum's friends themselves.
The slow development of WhatsApp makes Jan Koum almost give up. From there the intention arose Jan Koum to stop the development of the application and intend to work anything.
When he was almost surrendered, his good friend Brian Acton then told him to continue developing the WhatsApp application of Jan Koum and gave him several months to see the great potential of the application.
Accompanied by a sense of hesitation Jan Koum continues to develop his creation application. Apple then came with the help of push notifications in 2009.
This then gives the way for Jan Koum to modify his application so that when WhatsApp users change their status in the app will automatically broadcast it on the network.
Also Read: Biography Albert Einstein Invention Physical Scientists
Fast Development WhatsApp
The initial version of WhatsApp is only a status update in phone contacts on iPhone. Then Jan Koum released WhatsApp v 2.0 which was equipped with an Instant messaging feature that then managed to increase the number of users of the application to 250 thousand users.
The app's rival is Blackberry Messenger (BBM) only, but it sees limited use of BBM only on Blackberry phones then Jan Koum continues to develop the application.
Brian Acton then helped Jan Koum by finding investors to fund the development of the WhatsApp application. The result is a raised fund of 250 thousand dollars that comes from former Yahoo employees.
And it is officially Acton then joined Jan Koum developing the WhatsApp app. WhatsApp was then continuously developed by Jan Koum by successfully launching the photo delivery feature in 2009 on iPhone in addition to that he also released WhatsApp for other devices such as Android and Blackberry.
Then WhatsApp was changed to a paid app in 2010 and they managed to earn 5000 dollars in the first month.
This then makes many other investors flock to invest in WhatsApp such as Sequoia Capital which injects a fund of 8 million dollars.
Entering the year 2011, WhatsApp by Jan Koum managed to get into the top 20 popular apps in the App Store and once again Sequoia Capital injected funds of 50 million dollars to WhatsApp and made the value of WhatsApp soar to 1.5 billion dollars.
This then made the company Facebook seduce Jan Koum to sell WhatsApp, however, it was rejected by Jan Koum. Continuing to grow later in 2013, WhatsApp successfully has an active user of about 200 million.
Also Read: Alan Turing Biography The Making Enigma Code Breaker Machine
WhatsApp purchased by Facebook
Google and Facebook then scrambling to acquire the very fastest-growing WhatsApp. Until then in 2013, Jan Koum with Brian Acton agreed to sell WhatsApp to Facebook with a value of 19 Millar dollars.
The acquisition of Whatsapp by Facebook made Jan Koum and Brian Acton a newly rich man thanks the struggle they developed the WhatsApp app.
Jan Koum himself after his application was successfully purchased by Facebook, his wealth jumped by 6.8 billion dollars. And in 2015, his wealth rose by 7.9 billion dollars by Forbes Magazine