A new elite of uber-rich entrepreneurs is shooting up the wealth rankings in South Korea, overtaking the families behind the country’s decades-old sprawling conglomerates known as “chaebol.”
Samsung group heir Jay Y. Lee as the nation’s richest person. But other self-made billionaires abound.There’s Chang Byung-gyu who completed a listing of game developer Krafton Inc. just this week, and Bom Kim, a South Korea-born U.S. national who took e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. public in the U.S. earlier this year. Seo Jung-jin, the founder of biotech firm Celltrion Inc., is worth about $10 billion.
Chang Byung-gyu, founder and chairman of Bluehole Inc., poses for a photograph in Pangyo, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, on Monday, Sept. 25, 2017. South Korean game developer Bluehole is now worth 5.2 trillion won , up five-fold in just three months, according to 38 Communications, which keeps track of unlisted Korean stocks.
The changing of the guard is a sign that South Korea’s $1.6 trillion economy is entering a new era of growth, becoming less reliant on the family-controlled corporations that wield immense power in all aspects of life. Some experts say the new wealthy are more aware of rising inequality and are more willing to give back to society. Others question whether they’ll be any different from those who built their old empires using cozy links to politicians and bureaucrats.
For decades, the chaebol have served as pillars of the Asian “miracle economy” that arose from the ashes of the Korean war. Political leaders have relied on conglomerates including Hyundai, Samsung, LG and Hanjin to rebuild the nation, giving them outsized influence. Over the years, some of them shot into the spotlight for scandals and cases of corruption that made international headlines, sparking backlash from the public.
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