Kakao chairman to donate half his wealth

By Kim Hyun-bin

Kim Beom-su, the founder of the country's leading messaging application Kakao, announced Monday that he will donate half of his wealth to help tackle societal issues.

Kim has over 10 trillion won in assets including 12.5 million shares of Kakao worth 5.7 trillion won.

Figure 1Kakao Chairman Kim Beom-su

In a New Year's message to employees the chairman wrote “I pledge to donate over half of my wealth to resolve societal issues. In this tumultuous period these issues have worsened in a number of ways and I cannot delay my decision any further. To formalize my stance I am in the process of making an official donation pledge.”

Kim said he was working on the specifics of where to donate his money but added that he wants to help people in need in areas Kakao has not already offered support.

“With the strengthening of contactless business and rapid technological advancement, the world is entering a new phase which it has never been experienced before,” the chairman said. “This is only the beginning and we don't know how the world's tides will turn. There are currently mixed feelings with half fearful while the other half is looking forward to the changes.”

The chairman said there were more problems at hand that cannot be resolved using old approaches and emphasized the need to enhance communication to better tackle the problem.

Last year, marking Kakao Talk's 10th anniversary Kim emphasized the need to become more attentive to society's issues. “Once a corporation has good will it can use it to make the world a better place,” he said. “There needs to be more attention to societal issues and I want to find more means to engage and resolve pending issues.”

Chairman Kim established Han Game in 1998 and merged the company with Naver in 2000, before working as a joint representative of NHN through 2007 and then leaving for the United States.

He returned to Korea in 2010 and launched Kakao Talk before acquiring Daum Communications in 2014.