Early Life
Bom Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, on October 7, 1978. He moved to the United States with his family at age 7 and attended Deerfield Academy, a boarding school in Massachusetts. He graduated from Harvard College with a bachelor's degree in political science and attended Harvard Business School before dropping out after six months to pursue entrepreneurial ventures.
Rise to Success
Kim's career began with a brief stint at the Boston Consulting Group. He then founded several ventures, including Current Communications, a youth-oriented magazine that he sold to Newsweek in 2001. In 2010, he founded Coupang in Seoul, South Korea, with an initial investment of approximately $2.7 million. Coupang started as a daily deals platform before transitioning into a comprehensive e-commerce operation, with its Rocket Delivery service revolutionizing customer expectations for speed and reliability in the South Korean market. In 2018, SoftBank Vision Fund invested $2 billion in Coupang, valuing the company at $9 billion, which made Kim the second-youngest billionaire in South Korea at age 40. Coupang went public on the New York Stock Exchange in March 2021.
Key Business Strategies
Kim's key business strategy involves a focus on technology and logistics innovation, particularly with the Rocket Delivery service, which offers same-day or next-day shipping. Coupang controls its supply chain end-to-end, differentiating itself from competitors. The company has expanded into sectors such as food delivery and online video streaming. Kim has also expanded Coupang's operations in Taiwan.
Philanthropy
In November 2024, Kim sold 2 million Class A shares to donate to an unspecified charity.