Two South Korean billionaires have recently signed the Giving Pledge, becoming the first two to sign the initiative.
45-year-old Kim Bong-Jin, founder and CEO of Woowa Brothers, which started the country’s largest food delivery app, Baedal Minjok, has pledged to give away more than half of his wealth. The app is used by more than 10 million users each month, which comes up to around 20 percent of the population of South Korea.
His wife, Bomi Sul also signed the pledge with him.
The Giving Pledge was an initiative started by Bill and Melinda Gates, and Warren Buffett, a commitment made by some of the most wealthy in the world to give away a major portion of their wealth to charitable causes.
“My wife Sul Bo-mi and I hereby pledge that we will return more than half of our wealth to society during our lifetime. Our lovely children, Hanna and Jua have agreed with our decision,” the statement read. “We are certain that this pledge is the greatest inheritance that we could provide for our children.”
“Ten years ago, when I was running a small company of less than 20 employees, I read an article about Bill Gates and Warren Buffett making the pledge and had a wild dream of one day making the pledge myself,” Kim wrote in his pledge letter. “It is very overwhelming that I am making such a pledge, today.”
Born in 1976 in Wando, South Jeolla, Kim was born in an impoverished family and could barely afford the tuition fee for his college. However, he started the food delivery platform Baedal Minjok in 2011, and, according to data from Nielsen Korea, it controlled 59.7 percent of the food delivery market by number of users by 2019.
His announcement came just a few days after Kim Beom-su, founder of Kakao – a top messaging operator in Korea, pledged to give away half of his wealth to charitable causes, which included solving social issues.
We need more such people to come forth to donate more resources, including their time and effort, to solve the problems that mankind faces today.
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