Kakao Talk’s 10th anniversary, Kakao Chairman Kim Beom-soo faces Kakao’s representative character,’Ryan’. Cacao offer
“We expect to become a catalyst for opening advanced corporate management and donation culture in our society.”
Kakao Co-CEO Yeo Min-soo said at a conference call (telephone conference) after Kakao’s performance announcement on the 9th, the day before, Kakao founder Kim Beom-soo said that he would donate more than half of his fortune. He expressed the expectation that Chairman Kim’s good will to give back astronomical money to society to solve the’social problem’ will bring about few changes to our society.
Above all, attention is paid to the impact on domestic companies. Until now, in Korea, it was accepted as the’entrepreneurship’ that predecessor entrepreneurs handed over the wealth that they had achieved by raising companies, and the later generations inherit this well. Chairman Kim broke this framework. In the United States alone, the Kim method is more common. Instead of handing over the company to their children, there are many cases where they promise to donate during their lifetime and live a second life as a philanthropist after retirement. Can this corporate culture spread in Korea with Chairman Kim as an opportunity?
Famous American businessmen “I will donate more than half of my fortune”
The day before, Chairman Kim said, “I will donate more than half of my assets,” and “I will push forward the donation pledge so that it can be an official promise. The donation amount (estimated 5 trillion won) itself is a huge amount, but above all, attention was focused on the fact that it was compared to the rich Koreans who are devoted to inheritance. In the same industry, there were praises that “I made a difficult but sublime decision.”
At least in Korea, Chairman Kim’s unconventional declaration of donation is a strange landscape. But in the United States, this is common. Microsoft (MS) founder Bill Gates, investment firm Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, billionaire investor George Soros, oil king John Rockefeller. They are the representative billionaires of the United States and are also famous as the king of donations.
The Giving Playge homepage capture. As of February of this year, more than 200 wealthy people have pledged to donate half their property.
Bill Gates said that he would hand over only $10 million (about 10.8 billion won) to each of his three children before retirement and donate the remaining 95% of his fortune, but he has been keeping his promise by donating more than 40 trillion won so far. Zuckerberg announced that he would donate 99% of his share in Facebook after his daughter was born in December 2015. At that time, the equity value alone was over 50 trillion won.
The Giving Pledge list, which publicly declares that at least 50% of his fortune will be returned to society (only net worth of KRW 1 trillion or more), includes Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Ted Turner, founder of CNN, and entertainment tycoon Barry. As of February this year, 218 people including dealers were listed. There are no Koreans on this list.
Will the’donation promise movement’ spread in Korea?
Of course, this unconventional donation culture was not common in the United States from the beginning. Many analyzes say that the successive large donations of first-generation billionaires, such as Rockefeller and George Soros, have become a model for other businessmen. It is said that the current competitive donation culture has been settled while having a good influence on each other.
Bill Gates also cited three people who influenced his transformation into an asset class, his father and wife, and the other was Rockefeller. Each donation method is different, but they all have a similar perception that “the more wealth you have, the greater your social responsibility.”
On the other hand, it is not common to hand over enormous wealth to children like us. This is because we believe that enormous wealth can be an obstacle to growth by removing the motivation for children to achieve new things. Although they donate large sums of money, there are many opinions that they are rather helpful for corporate value. This is because it is easier to build consumer trust when you become a company that is respected in society. It is in the same vein that CEO Yeo said on this day, “The increase in corporate value of Kakao will be the foundation for creating a better society and environment.”
Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft. Photo = Yonhap News
In the industry, with Chairman Kim’s declaration of donation, interest is focused on whether the’donation promise movement’ will spread like the United States in Korea. Furthermore, it is a point to watch whether changes will follow in the corporate governance practices of domestic companies that are focused on’succession’.
Kakao’s performance also went well. Kakao recorded 4 trillion won in sales last year, opening ‘4 trillion in sales’ for the first time. Operating profit was 458 billion won, up 121% from a year ago. This is because the demand for using KakaoTalk gifts, etc. has surged in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19).
Kim Dong-wook reporter [email protected]
News directly edited by Hankook Ilbo can also be viewed on Naver
