'Corona Tycoon' Rose Fast and Fell Fast... Kakao Kim Beom-su Down 15 Trillion Won

Bloomberg Compares Wealth Changes of COVID-19 Beneficiary Billionaires
Seo Jeong-jin Also Down 15 Trillion Won... Most Asian COVID-19 Billionaires

Kim Beom-su, Chairman of Kakao, is giving a greeting at the Youth Hope ON meeting held on the morning of the 9th at Kakao Pangyo Office in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Noh Kyung-jo] The fortunes of global billionaires emerging from companies that benefited from the COVID-19 pandemic surged rapidly but have also declined just as quickly.

On the 18th, Bloomberg reported a comparison of the asset changes of 58 billionaires from beneficiary companies during the COVID-19 period with those of 131 other billionaires.

Bloomberg first selected 189 individuals whose wealth more than doubled during the COVID-19 period from the 'Bloomberg Billionaires Index,' which ranks the world's top 500 billionaires. Among them, 58 billionaires who directly benefited were compared with the remaining billionaires.

The COVID-19 beneficiary sectors include seven fields: ▲self-quarantine ▲remote work ▲online shopping ▲vaccines ▲medical devices ▲payment services ▲semiconductors. Companies in these sectors saw a surge in market capitalization.

Billionaires from these companies dramatically increased their wealth during the first two years of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, as market conditions worsened, their wealth as of the end of September had decreased by an average of 58% from the peak.

For example, Kim Beom-su, Chairman of the Board of Kakao, saw his fortune drop from $15 billion (about 21.4 trillion KRW) to $4 billion (about 5.7 trillion KRW), and Seo Jung-jin, Honorary Chairman of Celltrion, saw his wealth fall from $16 billion (about 22.9 trillion KRW) to $5 billion (about 7.1 trillion KRW), both experiencing declines of about 60-70%. Coupang founder Kim Beom-seok's net worth reached a peak of $8.9 billion (about 12.7 trillion KRW) after its U.S. stock market listing last year but recently dropped to $3 billion (about 4.3 trillion KRW), a decrease of approximately 67%.

Stefan Bancel, CEO of U.S. pharmaceutical company Moderna, saw his wealth decrease by 75%, and Eric Yuan, CEO of video communication service provider Zoom, also experienced an 84% drop from his peak.

By country, the largest number of COVID-19 billionaires were Asians with 26, followed by Americans and Canadians with 18, and Europeans with 10. Koreans included Chairman Kim Beom-su and Honorary Chairman Seo Jung-jin.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.