Reinvention
The New Rich Are Overtaking Old Money in Korea's Billionaire Rankings
- Technology entrepreneurs rise to top of wealth ranking
- Some startup founders are pledging to give away their fortunes
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A new elite of uber-rich entrepreneurs is shooting up the wealth rankings in South Korea, overtaking the families behind the country’s decades-old sprawling conglomerates known as “chaebol.”
Brian Kim, the founder of mobile-messaging app Kakao Corp., is the most prominent example with a fortune of $13.2 billion, recently replacing Samsung group heir Jay Y. Lee as the nation’s richest person. But other self-made billionaires abound.
There’s Chang Byung-gyu who completed a listing of game developer Krafton Inc. just this week, and Bom Kim, a South Korea-born U.S. national who took e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. public in the U.S. earlier this year. Seo Jung-jin, the founder of biotech firm Celltrion Inc., is worth about $10 billion.