THE KOREA ECONOMIC DAILY, GLOBAL EDITION

Brian Kim (Kim Bum-soo), founder and chairman of South Korea’s biggest mobile messaging app operator Kakao Corp., has become the country’s second-richest person in terms of stock wealth, pushing Samsung Group heir Jay Y. Lee to third place. Kakao shares have soared in recent months, benefiting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kim, who currently holds a 14.51% stake in Kakao, saw the value of his stock assets top 9.84 trillion won ($8.3 billion) based on the share’s Aug. 14 closing price, more than double from 3.85 trillion won at the end of last year. This puts him ahead of Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee, whose ranking dropped one spot to third place after his stock gained a mere 5.4% or 393 billion won in value, to 7.74 trillion won during the same period.

Samsung Group Chairman Lee Kun-hee remained on top with stock wealth worth 17.84 trillion won.

Kim’s riches have ballooned in line with the jump on Kakao shares, which surged 2.36 times to 362,500 won during the cited period, amid the coronavirus pandemic, which provided upward momentum for stocks related to non-face-to-face businesses as well as biotechnology, battery and internet sectors. With the infectious virus showing no signs of easing, prolonged social distancing has boosted "untact" platforms such as e-commerce, messaging, banking, content, shopping, and gaming.

Kakao, Korea’s biggest messaging app, is installed in 90% of the country's smartphones, and tens of millions of its users also use the app for other purposes such as gaming, shopping and even mobile payments.