Jan Koum
Ukrainian-born co-founder of WhatsApp
- Age
- 50 yrs
- Birthday in 110 days
- Works listed
- 1
- Messaging app
- Honours
- 0
- Awards & distinctions
- Profile views
- 3
- 0 followers
Jan Koum is a Ukrainian-born American programmer who co-founded the messaging app WhatsApp with Brian Acton in 2009. Facebook bought it in 2014 for about $19 billion. Koum left in 2018 over disagreements about privacy and advertising.
Biography
Immigrant childhood
Koum grew up near Kyiv and moved to Mountain View, California, with his mother at 16. They lived on food stamps, and he taught himself networking from second-hand manuals.
Yahoo
He studied at San José State University and worked at Yahoo for nine years, where he met Brian Acton.
In 2009, after buying an iPhone, he created WhatsApp as a status app, then turned it into a messaging service. It was ad-free and charged a small fee. Using Erlang servers, a small team supported hundreds of millions of users.
Facebook bought WhatsApp in 2014; Koum signed the deal on the door of the welfare office where he had once collected food stamps. He left Facebook’s board in 2018.
Timeline
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1976
Born in Kyiv, Soviet Union (now Ukraine)
-
1992
Emigrates to the US
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1997
Joins Yahoo
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2009
Co-founds WhatsApp
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2014
Facebook buys WhatsApp
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2016
End-to-end encryption
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2018
Leaves Facebook
Notable works
-
2009
WhatsApp Messaging app
With Brian Acton.
Did you know?
-
1
WhatsApp’s motto was “No ads! No games! No gimmicks!”
-
2
He collects air-cooled Porsches.
-
3
Only about 55 people worked at WhatsApp when it was sold.
Connections
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Frequently asked
Who is Jan Koum?
Jan Koum is a Ukrainian-born American programmer who co-founded the messaging app WhatsApp with Brian Acton in 2009. Facebook bought it in 2014 for about $19 billion. Koum left in 2018 over disagreements about privacy and advertising.
How old is Jan Koum?
Jan Koum is 50 years old, born on 24 February 1976 in Kyiv, Soviet Union (now Ukraine).
Where is Jan Koum from?
Jan Koum was born in Kyiv, Soviet Union (now Ukraine).
What is Jan Koum known for?
Jan Koum is best known for Co-founding WhatsApp (2009); its $19 billion sale to Facebook (2014).
References
- Jan Koum — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Jan Koum — Hindi Wikipedia. Wikipedia (Hindi). Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Jan Koum (Q15737800) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Jan Koum”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Jan Koum.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/jan-koum
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