It's official: Kylie Jenner is now officially the youngest self-made billionaire in history.
According to a report by business, industry and finance magazine Forbes, which has recently calculated Jenner's wealth and estate, and valued it at over a billion, Jenner has managed to accumulate extra capital over the last year, due to nine per cent revenue growth in her $900 million business, Kylie Cosmetics, in 2018, fueled by a partnership with Ulta that brought her products to its more than 1,000 US stores. This makes her a younger billionaire than even Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, who didn't reach billionaire status until the age of 23.
Forbes reporter Natalie Robehmed wrote: "The beauty of Kylie Cosmetics, which Jenner started in 2015, is its minuscule overhead—and the outsize profits that go straight into Jenner’s pocket. Her empire consists of just seven full-time and five part-time employees. Manufacturing and packaging is outsourced to Seed Beauty, a private-label producer in nearby Oxnard, California. Sales and fulfilment are handled by online merchant Shopify."
Robehmed added: "Her shrewd mother, Kris, takes care of finance and PR in exchange for the 10 per cent management fee she siphons from all of her kids. Marketing is done mostly through social media, where Jenner has a massive following. She announces product launches, previews new items and announces the Kylie Cosmetics shades she’s wearing directly to the 175 million-plus who follow her across Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter."
This announcement will be pleasing to many fans of Kylie Jenner, some of whom reportedly even went so far as to make charitable donations of their own to Jenner in an attempt to help her generate the extra cash. Despite that, there are many who have taken issue with the idea that Jenner is a 'self-made' billionaire, since it's arguable that she was born into extreme wealth and fame already.
Shannon Coyne, an equity research analyst at BMO Capital Markets, commented on the news by stating: "She did well online, but there’s only so far that that can take her. She probably realized: ‘If I want to get big, I’ve got to scale, and to do that, I need a partner.’ Ultimately, she wants to grow her brand, and she needs this store presence to do that."
Meanwhile, Kylie herself told Forbes: "I didn’t expect anything. I did not foresee the future. But [the recognition] feels really good. That’s a nice pat on the back."