Thursday 16 March 2023
Twice
Twice (Korean: 트와이스; RR: Teuwaiseu; Japanese: トゥワイス, Hepburn: To~uwaisu; commonly stylized as TWICE) is a South Korean girl group formed by JYP Entertainment. The group is composed of nine members: Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Momo, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, Chaeyoung, and Tzuyu. Twice was formed under the television program Sixteen (2015) and debuted on October 20, 2015, with the extended play (EP) The Story Begins.
Twice rose to domestic fame in 2016 with their single "Cheer Up", which charted at number one on the Gaon Digital Chart, became the best-performing single of the year, and won "Song of the Year" at the Melon Music Awards and Mnet Asian Music Awards. Their next single, "TT", from their third EP Twicecoaster: Lane 1, topped the Gaon charts for four consecutive weeks. The EP was the highest selling Korean girl group album of 2016. Within 19 months after debut, Twice had already sold over 1.2 million units of their four EPs and special album. As of December 2020, the group has sold over 15 million albums cumulatively in South Korea and Japan.[1][2]
The group debuted in Japan on June 28, 2017, under Warner Music Japan, with the release of a compilation album titled #Twice.[3] The album charted at number 2 on the Oricon Albums Chart with the highest first-week album sales by a K-pop artist in Japan in two years. It was followed by the release of Twice's first original Japanese maxi single titled "One More Time" in October. Twice became the first Korean girl group to earn a platinum certification from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) for both an album and CD single in the same year. Twice ranked third in the Top Artist category of Billboard Japan's 2017 Year-end Rankings, and in 2019, they became the first Korean girl group to embark on a Japanese dome tour.
Twice is the first female Korean act to simultaneously top both Billboard's World Albums and World Digital Song Sales charts with the release of their first studio album Twicetagram and its lead single "Likey" in 2017. With the release of their single "Feel Special" in 2019, Twice became the third female Korean act to chart into the Canadian Hot 100. After signing with Republic Records for American promotions as part of a partnership with JYP Entertainment, the group has charted into the US Billboard 200 with More & More and Eyes Wide Open in 2020, Taste of Love and Formula of Love: O+T=<3 in 2021, and Between 1&2 in 2022. Their first official English-language single, "The Feels", became their first song to enter the US Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, peaking at the 83rd and 80th positions of the charts, respectively. They have been dubbed the next "Nation's Girl Group", and their point choreography—including for "Cheer Up" (2016), "TT" (2016), "Signal" (2017), and "What Is Love?" (2018)—became dance crazes and viral memes imitated by many celebrities.
Career
2013–2015: Formation and debut
JYPE founder J. Y. Park is credited with creating the group's name
On December 19, 2013, JYP Entertainment (JYPE) announced that they would debut a new girl group in the first half of 2014, the first female group to come out of the company since the debut of Miss A in 2010.[4] On February 27, 2014, JYPE trainees Lena and Cecilia were confirmed as members of the group tentatively called as 6MIX, while other rumored members included JYPE trainees Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Jihyo (then known as Jisoo) and Minyoung.[5][6] The group's debut plan was eventually canceled when Lena and Cecilia left the company.[7]
Logo of TWICE.svg
On February 11, 2015, J. Y. Park, the founder of JYPE, announced that the lineup of the upcoming seven-member girl group would be decided through Sixteen, a competition survival show that would air on Mnet later that year.[8] The show began on May 5 and ended on July 7 with Nayeon, Jeongyeon, Sana, Jihyo, Mina, Dahyun, and Chaeyoung being selected as the seven Twice members. Park then announced that he would increase the size of the group from seven members to nine by adding Tzuyu, who was known as the "audience's pick" since she was the most popular contestant by the show's end, and Momo, who was added by Park himself since he felt the group needed someone with Momo's performance abilities. The decision was controversial at the time, with many people complaining about eliminated contestants being able to join the group.[9][10][11] The group's name, Twice, was chosen by Park, explaining that "the group will touch people's hearts twice: once through the ears, and once again through the eyes."[12] Fans of Twice are known as "Once", commonly stylized in all caps, illustrated by the members' statement "If you love us even once, we will repay your love with twice of our love" on social media in 2015.[13][14]
Twice made their official debut on October 20, 2015, with the release of their debut EP The Story Begins, simultaneously with its lead single "Like Ooh-Ahh" alongside a live showcase to promote it.[15][16] The group initially received a lukewarm reception; while their EP debuted at number 4 on the Gaon Album Chart for the week ending October 24 before peaking at number 3 two weeks later,[17][18] its lead single "Like Ooh-Ahh" met moderate success debuting at number 22 on the Gaon Digital Chart.[19] A week after its release, the single dropped to number 57 on South Korea's largest music site Melon, but through word of mouth from netizens regarding the group's subsequent promotions and performances, "Like Ooh-Ahh" reached within the top 10 of various Korean music charts including Melon, Genie, and Naver Music by November 15. Such a reverse run on music charts by a rookie girl group was deemed unusual by Korean media.[20][21] Eventually, "Like Ooh-Ahh" reached peak position of number 10 on the Gaon Digital Chart, three months after the song's original release.[22] The music video for the group's single hit 50 million views on YouTube within five months of their debut and became one of the most-viewed debut music videos for any K-pop group.[23][24] The group's early success earned them a "Best New Female Artist" award at the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards held on December 2.[25] On December 27, Twice performed a remix version of their single "Like Ooh-Ahh" at SBS Gayo Daejeon, which was the group's first-ever attendance on a year-end music program.[26][27]
2016: Career breakthrough
Twice performing at Seoul Arts College in February 2016
On its chart issue dated January 23, 2016, Billboard reported that Twice had entered its World Albums Chart, with their debut EP The Story Begins debuting and peaking at number 15, which marked the group's first entry on the chart.[28]
On April 25, 2016, Twice released their second EP, Page Two, which notably included the lead single "Cheer Up", a rearranged version of Park Ji-yoon's 1998 hit "Precious Love", and "I'm Gonna Be a Star", which served as the theme song for Sixteen.[29] The album became a commercial success for the group, debuting at number two on the Gaon Album Chart and number six on the Billboard World Albums chart, with 80,686 units sold during the month of April.[30][31][32] With the total first-week sales volume for Page Two reaching approximately 41,800 copies, Twice achieved the highest first-week sales volume by a Korean girl group for the year.[33] By August, Page Two had sold over 150,000 copies, making Twice the first girl group having a sales record of more than 100,000 units that year.[34] Meanwhile, the album's lead single "Cheer Up" became the group's first chart-topper in South Korea, debuting at number 1 on eight real-time music charts immediately after its release, before going on to debut atop both the Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard K-pop Hot 100 chart.[33][35][36] Notably, the song became a viral meme in South Korea due to the "shy shy shy" line sung by Sana.[37] Eventually, the song became the best-performing single in South Korea for the entirety of 2016.[38] "Cheer Up" also received international success, debuting and peaking at number three on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart.[39] Additionally, Twice became the only Korean act to place an entry on the U.S. YouTube Music Chart for the year when "Cheer Up" charted at number 25 in May.[40]
Twice won their first music program award with "Cheer Up" on May 5, on M Countdown, exactly one year after the initial airing of Sixteen. This was soon followed by wins on Music Bank and Inkigayo.[41][42] The group then made their debut performance in the United States with an appearance at the KCON music festival held in Los Angeles on July 31.[43]
In celebration of Twice's first anniversary since debut on October 20, the group unveiled their new song "One in a Million" from their upcoming third EP, Twicecoaster: Lane 1, through a live broadcast on V Live.[44] Twicecoaster: Lane 1 and the music video of pop dance song "TT" were released online on October 24.[45][46] In Korea, the album recorded more than 165,000 physical copies sold on the Gaon Chart within a week, exceeding the five-month sales of the group's previous release Page Two in only seven days. Eventually, Twicecoaster: Lane 1 became the bestselling K-pop girl group album for 2016, selling 350,852 copies at year-end.[47][48] Its lead single "TT" became one of the best-performing songs in 2016, claiming the top spot of the Gaon Digital Chart for four consecutive weeks and becoming the best-performing single in South Korea for the month of November.[49] Internationally, the group's third EP debuted at number 3 on Billboard's World Album chart, marking their first Top 5 entry, with the album's lead single "TT" debuting at number 2 on Billboard's World Digital Song Sales chart.[40] "TT" then became the first music video by a K-pop female act to surpass 200 million views on May 25, 2017.[50]
On November 11, the music video for their debut single "Like Ooh-Ahh" hit 100 million views on YouTube, making Twice the fourth K-pop girl group to reach 100 million views, as well as the first K-pop group to reach this milestone with a debut music video.[51] On November 19, Twice's "Cheer Up" won Song of the Year at the 8th Melon Music Awards. It was then followed by another Song of the Year award at the 18th Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 2.[52][53]
2017: First concert tour and debut in Japan
Twice performing at the 2017 Melon Music Awards
On January 10, JYPE announced Twice's first solo concert tour within just a year and four months after debuting in October 2015. The three-day sold-out concert titled "Twice 1st Tour: Twiceland – The Opening" was held on February 17–19 at the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium. A tour across Thailand and Singapore was also held after the first stop in Seoul.[54][55][56][57] After the Korean leg of the concert tour, Twice released a special album on February 20 titled Twicecoaster: Lane 2, along with its lead single, "Knock Knock". The album was a reissue of Twicecoaster: Lane 1.[58] The album debuted atop the Gaon Album Chart and charted at number four on the Billboard World Albums chart, selling 266,645 copies by the end of February.[59] Its lead single "Knock Knock" debuted atop the Gaon Digital Chart, and peaked at numbers 5 and 15 on the World Digital Song Sales and Japan Hot 100, respectively.[60]
Twice launched their Japanese website and social media channels in early February.[61][62] On February 24, they officially announced their Japanese debut with a compilation album titled #Twice which was set to be released on June 28.[63][64] On May 15, Twice released their fourth EP titled Signal with the lead track of the same name, produced by Park Jin-young. This marked the group's first collaboration with Park. The EP contains six tracks, including "Eye Eye Eyes" co-written by members Jihyo and Chaeyoung, and "Only You" written by former Wonder Girls member Ha:tfelt.[65][66][67] Signal debuted atop the Gaon Album Chart on the first week of its release, while also entering the Billboard World Albums chart at number three. The album also entered the Billboard Heatseekers Albums Chart, debuting at number 11. By the end of May, it was reported to be the second best-selling album in South Korea for the month, recording sales of 248,550 copies.[68] Meanwhile, the album's eponymous lead single debuted atop the Gaon Digital Chart and the Billboard K-pop Hot 100, and at number three on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart.[69] With the commercial success of Signal, it was reported that Twice had reached cumulative sales of over 1 million copies of their five albums, achieving the feat in just one year and seven months after debuting.[70]
On June 14, Twice digitally released "Signal (Japanese ver.)", along with the short version of its music video as a preview and countdown to their Japanese debut album release. One week later, they released the full music video of the Japanese version of "TT".[71][72] They officially debuted in Japan with the release of #Twice on June 28. It consists of ten songs, including both Korean and Japanese-language versions of their first five singles.[73] On July 2, Twice held their two-part debut showcase titled "Touchdown in Japan" at Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, attended by a total of 15,000 people.[74] #Twice debuted at number 2 on Oricon Albums Chart with 136,157 copies sold within seven days since its release.[75] The commercial success of Twice's debut Japanese album was reported to have the highest first-week album sales by a Korean artist in Japan in two years.[76] Less than two months after the album's release, it recorded sales of over 260,000 copies.[77] On October 6, the group released the music video for their first Japanese single, "One More Time", ahead of its official release on October 18.[78][79] Selling over 130,000 copies by the second day of its release, the single achieved the biggest first-day sales and became the fastest-selling release of any South Korean girl group in Japan.[80][81] Both #Twice and "One More Time" earned platinum certifications from the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ). The RIAJ certifications earned by the group for #Twice and "One More Time" made them the first Korean girl group to earn a platinum certification in Japan for both a single and an album in the same year.[82] "TT (Japanese ver.)", the digital single from #Twice, also earned an RIAJ gold certification for selling 100,000 downloads.[83] #Twice and "TT (Japanese ver.)" then won Album of the Year and Song of the Year by Download for the Asian Region at the 32nd Japan Gold Disc Awards.[84][85]
Twice released their first full-length Korean album, Twicetagram, on October 30 with its lead single titled "Likey". The music video for the song was filmed in Canada in early September.[86] "Likey" was composed by Black Eyed Pilseung and Jeon Gun, becoming the group's fourth collaboration with Black Eyed Pilseung. Several composers and songwriters participated in the making of this album, including the Korean members of Twice as lyricists and former Wonder Girls member Hyerim, who co-composed the eighth track titled "Look at Me".[87][88][89] The album and its lead single debuted atop both Billboard's World Albums and World Digital Song Sales respectively—the group's first number one on both charts, making Twice the first female K-pop act to simultaneously top both Billboard charts. They also rose on the Heatseekers Albums chart as the album debuted at number 10, one position higher than Signal's peak at number 11.[90]
The Christmas-inspired reissue of Twicetagram, titled Merry & Happy, along with its lead single "Heart Shaker" was released on December 11, 2017.[91][92] The album and its lead single "Heart Shaker" debuted at No. 1 on four charts of Gaon—Album Chart and Digital Chart, Download Chart and Social Chart respectively, while the holiday track "Merry & Happy" entered and peaked at No. 24 on the Gaon Digital Chart.[93][94]
Twice's successful debut in Japan led them to rank third in the Top Artist category of Billboard Japan's 2017 Year-End Rankings.[95] Twice then performed at 68th Kōhaku Uta Gassen, the top-rated annual year-end musical show in Japan produced by NHK, which marked the first time a Korean artist appeared on the show since 2011.[96]
2018: Continued success and touring
Twice in April 2018
Twice's second Japanese single titled "Candy Pop" was released on February 7, 2018. The single sold 303,746 copies in its first week and topped the Japan Hot 100 chart, while also becoming their second single to earn a platinum certification from the RIAJ. The group also embarked on their first concert tour in Japan titled Twice Showcase Live Tour 2018 "Candy Pop", starting on January 19, 2018, in the Aichi Prefecture.[97][98] On April 9, 2018, they released their fifth EP, What Is Love?, with the single of the same name produced by Park Jin-young.[99] The EP sold 335,235 copies in the first month and made Twice become the first female artist and the fifth act to earn a platinum certification by the Korea Music Content Association (KMCA), for selling over 250,000 copies.[100][101] Twice's third Japanese single, "Wake Me Up", was released on May 16, 2018, and was certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ).[102][103][104] The single became the first physical single by a foreign female artist to be certified double platinum by the RIAJ.[105][106] Their second headline tour titled "Twice 2nd Tour: Twiceland Zone 2 – Fantasy Park" began in Seoul on May 18–20, 2018.[107][108] By its conclusion, the group's concert tour had attracted over 90,000 fans in six cities across Asia.[109]
Twice performed a cover of The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back" as the theme song to the Japanese film adaptation of Sensei Kunshu. The song was released as a digital single on June 15, 2018, along with the music video.[110][111] A second version of the music video featuring the cast of the film was released on June 26, 2018.[112] On July 9, 2018, an expanded reissue of What Is Love? named Summer Nights, along with its lead single "Dance the Night Away", was released.[113] The single surpassed 100 million streams and sold 2,500,000 downloads on Gaon Music Chart, earning the group its very first platinum single certification for both streaming and download, and made Twice the second act to earn a platinum certification for streaming, download and album by the KMCA since certifications were introduced in April 2018.[114][115][101]
On September 12, 2018, Twice released their first Japanese studio album, BDZ. Its lead single of the same name was pre-released as a digital single on August 17, 2018.[116][117] BDZ debuted at number 1 on the daily ranking of Oricon Albums Chart with 89,721 units sold, setting a record for the highest first day sales of albums released by a Korean girl group in Japan.[118] It also topped the weekly ranking with 181,069 units sold, making Twice the fifth foreign female artist in Oricon history to top both the weekly singles and albums chart.[119] The release of the album was followed with their concert tour named Twice 1st Arena Tour 2018 "BDZ", beginning in Chiba on September 29, 2018.[120] The studio album was certified platinum by the RIAJ, making it the group's fifth consecutive platinum certification in Japan.[121] Twice released their sixth EP, Yes or Yes, on November 5, 2018, with the lead single of the same name.[122] The music video of "Yes or Yes" achieved 31.4 million views on YouTube within the first 24 hours, becoming the seventh-biggest 24-hour YouTube debut of all time.[123]
On December 12, 2018, Twice released a special album titled The Year of "Yes", along with its lead single "The Best Thing I Ever Did", as a reissue of Yes or Yes.[124] The group also released a repackage of BDZ with "Stay by My Side", the theme song of the Japanese television drama Shinya no Dame Koi Zukan, on December 26, 2018. "Stay by My Side" was released as a digital single on October 22, 2018, along with a behind-the-scenes video showing Twice recording the song.[125]
2019: Fancy You, Feel Special, and &Twice
Twice at the 2019 Golden Disk Awards
On March 6, 2019, the group released their second Japanese compilation album #Twice2. The album debuted at number 1 on the daily ranking of Oricon Albums Chart with 95,825 units sold, breaking the group's own record of the highest first day album sales for K-pop girl groups in Japan. It then became the first album by a foreign female artist to sell more than 200,000 albums in the first week since Kara's Super Girl in 2011.[126][127]
Twice then became the first female K-pop act to hold a Japanese dome tour. The tour Twice Dome Tour 2019 "#Dreamday" garnered a total audience of 220,000 during five shows in Osaka, Tokyo and Nagoya, and was held from March to April 2019. All tickets sold out within one minute. By the conclusion of the tour which spanned five concert dates, the group had attracted over 220,000 people in attendance.[128][129]
On April 22, 2019, they released their seventh EP Fancy You.[130] The music video for "Fancy", which garnered over 42.1 million views in a single day, also reached the seventh position in the list of YouTube's biggest debuts during the first 24 hours.[131] Recording 314,323 copies sold on April 25, the release of Fancy You saw Twice exceeding a total of over 3.75 million album copies sold from their twelve Korean releases.[132] Following the release of the album, the group embarked on their first world tour titled "Twicelights" which was first held at a sold-out KSPO Dome in Seoul on May 25–26. "Twicelights" marked the group's first solo concert tours held in the United States, with the North American leg of their tour recording over 41,000 people in attendance.[133][134]
On June 12, 2019, Twice released two Japanese digital singles, "Happy Happy" and "Breakthrough". On the release day of the digital singles, "Happy Happy" was also released physically, followed by "Breakthrough" a week later.[135][136] Both singles received platinum certificates from the RIAJ.[103] On July 17, 2019, JYP Entertainment announced that the group will hold an additional Japanese tour leg after reaching tens of thousands of fans on the Southeast Asia and North America legs of their Twicelights Tour.[137][138] They staged twelve concerts in seven Japanese cities from October 2019 to February 2020.[139]
Twice released their eighth EP, Feel Special, on September 23, 2019, along with the music video for the lead single of the same name produced by Park Jin-young.[140][141] The single scored the group's second number one entry on the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart. "Feel Special" also increased Twice's popularity across North America, as the single debuted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 82. The group's first entry made Twice the third K-pop girl group and ninth K-pop act to appear on this chart.[142] Recording sales of over 151,000 copies on September 30, 2019, Twice broke their own first-week album sales record with Feel Special.[143]
Twice released their second Japanese studio album &Twice on November 20, 2019, which included the group's earlier released digital singles "Happy Happy" and "Breakthrough". The album's lead single "Fake & True" was pre-released as a digital single on October 18, 2019.[144] &Twice debuted at number 1 on the daily ranking of Oricon Albums Chart with 80,563 copies sold, before going on to top the weekly Oricon Albums Chart with 124,197 copies sold.[145][146]
In 2019, Twice sold over one million albums on Gaon, achieving this feat for the third consecutive year.[147][148] In Japan, Twice surpassed 5 billion yen worth of record sales in 2019.[149] The group was the bestselling foreign artist and ranked fourth overall in the Artist Sales category of the 52nd Oricon Annual Ranking.[149] On Billboard Japan, Twice ranked fifth in the Top Artist category of the 2019 year-end rankings, becoming the group's third consecutive year of ranking within the top five.[150][151][95] The group also became the fifth most-streamed act on Spotify in the country.[152][153]
2020: US promotions, More and More, and Eyes Wide Open
In October 2019, JYP Entertainment announced that the group has added two stops to their world tour "Twicelights" at the Tokyo Dome.[154] The additional concerts were initially scheduled to be held on March 3–4, 2020, with tickets being sold out within three minutes.[155][156] However, due to concerns regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the Tokyo concerts were postponed and scheduled on April 15–16, but was eventually canceled altogether.[157][158] An encore of the tour called the "Twicelights World Tour Finale" was also initially set to be held in Seoul on March 7 and 8, 2020 at the KSPO Dome[159] but was eventually canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[160] On February 24, it was announced that the group had signed with Republic Records for promotion in the United States as part of JYP Entertainment's partnership with the label.[161][162] On April 20, it was reported that the group was preparing to release a new Korean album in June.[163] The group's ninth Korean EP, More & More, was released on June 1 with a lead single of the same name.[164] A month after its release, the EP recorded over 563,000 sales on Gaon, making it not only Twice's bestselling album to date but also setting a record for having the highest sales volume for a girl group in Gaon Chart history.[165] The EP debuted at number 200 on the Billboard 200, making Twice the fifth South Korean girl group to enter the chart, after Girls' Generation-TTS, Girls' Generation, 2NE1 and Blackpink.[166] Twice also entered the Billboard Artist 100 for the first time, debuting at number 96.[167] In the same month, the documentary series Twice: Seize the Light first premiered on April 29 through YouTube Originals, which features nine episodes that follow the group's members throughout their journey as trainees to their first world tour "Twicelights".[168]
On August 9, Twice held their first online concert titled "Twice: World in a Day" in response to their "Twicelights World Tour Finale" which had been canceled earlier in the year. The group worked with the Beyond Live platform launched by SM Entertainment and Naver for the concert, becoming the first artist outside of SM Entertainment to host an online concert using the platform.[169]
On September 16, Twice released their third Japanese compilation album #Twice3, which became their seventh number 1 album in the Oricon Albums Chart, making Twice the second foreign female artist to achieve the feat following South Korean singer BoA.[170] First reported later in September about preparations for a new studio album, the group released their second Korean studio album, Eyes Wide Open, on October 26 with the lead single titled "I Can't Stop Me".[171][172] Two months later after the release of Eyes Wide Open, the album debuted at number 72 on the US Billboard 200, marking the group's highest entry on the chart surpassing More & More, as well as making Twice only the third K-pop girl group to break within the top 100 of the chart, after 2NE1 and Blackpink.[173]
Twice then collaborated with the virtual girl group K/DA, with members Nayeon, Sana, Jihyo, and Chaeyoung being featured on the song "I'll Show You" as part of K/DA's first EP All Out released on November 6. The group's four members performed the song alongside American singer-songwriters Bekuh Boom and Annika Wells.[174][175] Following this, Twice released their seventh Japanese single titled "Better" on November 11 for digital download and streaming, featuring "Scorpion" as a B-side, and was then released physically on November 18.[176] The single debuted at number 3 on the Billboard Japan Hot 100 recording 93,548 unit sales on November 16–22.[177] The group then made their US television debut with their appearance on the "#PlayAtHome" series of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on November 30, performing their song "I Can't Stop Me".[178]
On December 1, it was reported that Twice had reached cumulative sales of over 5.81 million albums on Gaon. Taking into consideration the group's sales in Japan, Twice had exceeded 10 million album copies sold in both countries.[179] During their appearance at the 2020 Mnet Asian Music Awards on December 6, Twice gave a surprise performance of their unreleased track titled "Cry For Me" which was described by the group as a present for their fans, and after high demand, the song was officially released as a digital single on December 18.[180] The song debuted atop the Billboard World Digital Song Sales Chart on the chart dated January 2, 2021, and also became the group's third entry on the Billboard Global Excluding US Chart debuting at #122.[181][182]
2021–present: Current activities and international expansion
Twice during an interview with Wired in June 2021
On January 28, Twice made an appearance on the Time 100 Talks series held by Time magazine via livestream broadcast, with the group delivering a special performance of their track "Depend On You" from their Eyes Wide Open album.[183]
On March 6, the group held their second online concert titled "Twice in Wonderland", which was first announced on January 14. The concert was held in partnership with NTT Docomo and was broadcast using various technologies including AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality). At the end of their online concert, Twice announced the release of their upcoming Japanese single "Kura Kura" to be slated on May 12.[184][185] "Kura Kura" was pre-released on online streaming platforms on April 20. Its music video was also released on the same date.[186]
On April 19, JYP Entertainment announced the group's upcoming mini-album that is planned to be released in June 2021.[186] On April 28, Twice appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show with a performance of their single "Cry For Me".[187] The group's tenth Korean EP, Taste of Love, was released on June 11. "Alcohol-Free", the EP's lead single, was pre-released on June 9, along with its music video.[188] After the release of the music video, the number of YouTube views exceeded 20 million in just 24 hours.[189] In the week ending June 17, Taste of Love debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200, becoming Twice's first top 10 album in the United States with 46,000 album-equivalent units earned. Of that sum, the EP recorded 43,000 physical sales, making it the best selling album in the US for the week. With this, Twice became the first female Korean act to chart an EP within the top ten of the Billboard 200, and just the second female Korean act to have a top 10 album in the chart.[190]
The group's third Japanese studio album, Perfect World, was released on July 28. It features 10 tracks, including the title track "Perfect World" and three earlier singles, "Fanfare", "Better", and "Kura Kura".[191]
Twice performing at The Forum in Inglewood, California on February 15, 2022
The group released their first official all-English single, "The Feels", on October 1.[192] At the end of the single's music video, their third Korean studio album (sixth overall) and fourth world tour were teased.[193] On October 11, "The Feels" debuted at number 83 on the Billboard Hot 100, marking the group's first appearance on the chart.[194] The song also made its way to the UK Singles Chart, where it peaked at number 80.[195] The group's third Korean studio album, Formula of Love: O+T=<3, was released on November 12 with its title track, "Scientist".[196] The album peaked at number 3 on the Billboard 200, breaking Taste of Love's record.[197]
On November 15, the group announced five initial North American tour dates of their fourth world tour, "III".[198] They embarked on the tour with a two-day concert in Seoul on December 25–26.[199] On December 3, Twice pre-released their ninth Japanese single, "Doughnut", with an accompanying music video. It was physically released on December 15 in Japan.[200] With the successful completion of their seven-date U.S. leg of the “III” World Tour which concluded on February 27, 2022, Twice became the first female K-pop act to hold two separate arena tours in the world’s biggest music market, bringing out an audience of approximately 100,000 people. Originally, only one date for Los Angeles and New York were announced, but second shows were quickly added to both cities added due to high demand after the sellout.[201] Following the success of their US tour, Twice announced an encore concert at the Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles, making them the first female K-pop group to headline a stadium concert in the United States. Initially announcing only one date for May 14, the group decided to hold an additional performance on May 15 following high demand.[202][203] In addition, the group is scheduled to hold their Tokyo Dome concert in Japan for two days on April 23 and 24, but as the tickets were sold out at the same time as the opening sale, they added a performance on the 25th. With three sold out dates at the Tokyo Dome, Twice became the first Kpop girl group and the second girl group overall (following AKB48) to hold a three-day concert at the said venue.[204][205]
On July 12, all members of Twice renewed their contracts with JYP Entertainment.[206] The same day, it was announced that Twice would release their eleventh Korean EP, Between 1&2, on August 26.[207]
On December 21, it was announced that Twice would release a pre-release English single "Moonlight Sunrise" on January 20, 2023 and their twelfth Korean EP, Ready To Be on March 10, 2023.[208][209]
Artistry
Twice is most notable for their consistent employment of "cute" concepts which was further supported by the group's bubblegum pop sound, which was seen as a departure from the usual retro style of music that was seen in their predecessor labelmates and fellow girl groups Wonder Girls and Miss A. The group had come to develop a signature "color pop" sonic style described as a combination of rock, R&B, and hip hop coupled with notable hooks in their music.[213] Their "cheerful" musical base is employed alongside a colorful style in terms of the members' fashion, and while they have gained notability for emphasizing their youthful image, Twice has since adopted a more mature style which was first seen with the release of "Fancy" and "Breakthrough" which saw the group perform more sensual choreography for the former while employing a brassier electro-pop sound in the latter.[213][214] They have since experimented with EDM, synth-pop, and retro soul among others in their eighth EP Feel Special; tropical house, Latin pop, and new jack swing in their succeeding EP release More & More; and retro-synth, dance-pop, Japanese city-pop, and contemporary R&B for their second Korean studio album Eyes Wide Open.[215][216][217]
The group is also known for incorporating modern online culture into their musical releases and their corresponding music videos. For instance, their 2016 single "TT" is named after the crying emoticon which was imitated in the group's point choreography, while their 2017 track "Likey" lyrically alludes to Instagram culture and the struggles of maintaining a beautiful social media image.[214][218] In the music video for their 2018 single "What Is Love?", the group referenced several movies including The Princess Diaries, Ghost, La Boum, Pulp Fiction, Romeo and Juliet (1996), Love Letter, La La Land, and Leon: The Professional.[219]
Public image and reception
Twice performing in the Philippines in 2019 for their "Twicelights" tour
Twice have been well received in South Korea, ranking second in the top ten artists of the Gallup Korea survey for three consecutive years, making them the highest-ranking Korean group in 2016 and 2017,[220][221] and the highest-ranking girl group in 2018.[222] Since 2016, members regularly have placed in the top 20 of Gallup Korea's annual poll of the nation's favorite idols.[223] In 2017, Twice was included in Forbes Korea Power Celebrity at third overall and first among recording artists. They entered within the top ten of the list again ranking third in 2018, and ninth in 2020.[224][225][226] Twice has also been recognized for their brand recognition and marketing power, having topped the "Girl Group Brand Power Ranking" published by the Korean Corporate Reputation Research Institute several times.[227] The group's success and domestic popularity was key in the rise of JYP Entertainment's stock, which increased in value by a factor of seven in less than three years; since the group's debut in 2015, prices rose from ₩4,500 to ₩31,400 in 2018. The group is also credited as among the key reasons for a significant increase in JYP Entertainment's market cap, from 1.33 trillion KRW in 2021 to 2.24 trillion KRW in 2022.[228][229] During the 2017 South Korean presidential election, then-candidate Moon Jae-in from the Democratic party and candidate Yoo Seong-min from the Bareun party both used Twice's song "Cheer Up" with modified lyrics as their campaign jingles.[230][231]
Twice performing at KCON LA in July 2016
Following their consecutive commercial successes in 2016 and 2017, Twice has since been dubbed by Korean media as the "Nation's Girl Group", being cited as a follow-up to previously successful girl groups Girls' Generation and Kara. Music critic Kang Tae-gyu has described Twice as being "one step ahead of the current period" among other girl groups from the same period of their debut.[232][233] The group's commercial performance following their career breakthrough in 2016 was considered by the media to be 'remarkable' in an industry dominated by all-male music groups.[234] Twice's distinctive point choreography—including for "Cheer Up" (2016), "TT" (2016) and "Signal" (2017)— became dance crazes and viral memes imitated by many celebrities in South Korea.[235][236] In a survey conducted by media outlet Sports Chosun done in 2020 wherein representatives from several Korean entertainment agencies were surveyed on their choice for the top girl group, Twice was ranked at number 1 with 83 points, with agency officials citing the group's strong digital and physical sales alongside their pan-Asia success.[237] A similar survey was conducted by media outlet Sports Seoul in the same year, with Twice also ranking at number 1 as the best female idol group among Korean entertainment industry officials with 111 points, citing the group's role in leading the re-emergence of girl groups in the Korean wave.[238]
In Japan, the group's positive reputation and relatability amongst fans were attributed by local media to the presence of Japanese members Momo, Sana, and Mina and gained Twice fame in the country even before their debut. NHK News credited the group's commercial success with helping mend relations between Japan and South Korea.[239][240][241] An example of Twice's popularity in Japan was seen after the release of their song "TT", in which the track's signature pose was imitated by several Japanese celebrities and idols including AKB48 and Nogizaka46. When Twice officially debuted in Japan through the release of their compilation album #Twice, the Tokyo Tower Observatory commemorated the event by displaying "TT" on the landmark—it was the first time that the Tokyo Tower had collaborated with an artist for a display, and was regarded as an unusual development by local media.[242][243] Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun called Twice the "new protagonist in the dominance of Japan's Korean wave content market", while Korean press remarked that the group is "reigniting the heat of K-pop in Japan".[244][245][246] Twice is one of two Korean acts that have been credited with leading a third "Hallyu" wave in Japan.[247]
Internationally, Twice's notable bubblegum pop sound and distinctive choreography has led to the group receiving recognition by Time magazine as among the stand-out groups in K-pop.[248] With much of K-pop's success in the United States being attributed to most Korean acts employing either hip-hop or EDM as their sonic base, Billboard has noted the success of Twice in making their bubblegum sound attract Western appeal, following the group's release of their song "Dance The Night Away".[249] The South China Morning Post has named Twice as among three major female K-pop groups who are considered as "game-changers in a boy band-led industry", which was seen when Twice's eighth EP Feel Special became the bestselling girl group album in South Korea in 2019 and their feat of being the first Korean female group to hold a Japanese dome tour.[250] The group's domestic and international success has led to Forbes magazine to include them in their "30 Under 30" list in 2020.[251] Twice was also included in Forbes Asia's inaugural "100 Digital Stars" list, which highlights personalities from the Asia-Pacific region with an established influence in social and digital media.[252] The group was included in Bloomberg's Pop Star Power Rankings for the month of July 2020, ranking at number 12.[253]
Awards and achievements
Main article: List of awards and nominations received by Twice
Twice received its first award at the 2015 Mnet Asian Music Awards as Best New Female Artist, followed by another New Artist Award at the 2016 Golden Disc Awards.[254][255]
In 2016, Twice won its first music program award with "Cheer Up" on the May 5 episode of M Countdown.[256] The group also won several main and grand prize awards including Song of the Year with "Cheer Up" in two major music awards shows, Melon Music Awards and Mnet Asian Music Awards.[52][53] Their second EP, Twicecoaster: Lane 1, was the fifth-highest-selling K-pop album of 2016 and the highest among girl groups.[47][48] In 2017, "Signal" from their fourth extended play of the same name achieved Twice's second Song of the Year award at the 2017 Mnet Asian Music Awards, making them the first artist to consecutively win the grand prize.[257] With a total of 36 music program trophies in 2017, Twice recorded the most wins received in a single year.[258] Twice ranked second on Oricon's Breakout Artists of 2017 and became the first overseas female act to achieve a rookie triple crown on the 50th Oricon Annual Ranking. Twice also placed first in rookie artist total sales in 2017, with sales reaching 1.54 billion yen, as well as first-place among albums and singles for #Twice and "One More Time" respectively.[259][260]
By May of the following year, they became the first artist to win seven consecutive Triple Crowns on Inkigayo.[261] Twice received their third consecutive Song of the Year award at the 2018 Mnet Asian Music Awards with "What Is Love?" from their fifth extended play of the same name, making them the first group to win the award for three consecutive years.[262] Twice topped the list of Korea's most popular music video on YouTube for two consecutive years with "Cheer Up" (2016) and "Knock Knock" (2017).[263] In 2020, Twice became the K-pop girl group with the most music show wins totaling 106 wins as well as the fastest group to reach that number.[264]
Twice were included in Variety's Youth Impact Report 2016—an annual list of young entertainers who have made an impact in the industry over the past year—at number 54 as the only K-pop group on the list.[265] In 2017, Twice received the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Commendation at the Korean Popular Culture and Arts Awards.[266][267] They were then recognized as the only Asian act on Billboard's 21 Under 21 2017: Music's Next Generation, an annual ranking that highlights some of the world's most powerful young voices across various music genres.[268][269]
In 2021, Twice's tenth extended play, Taste of Love, peaked at number-one on the Billboard Top Album Sales chart, making it the first EP from a girl group to do so. It was also the first EP from a girl group to enter the top 10 of the Billboard 200.[270] On March 1, 2023 Twice was awarded the Breakthrough Artist at the 2023 Billboard Women in Music held in Los Angeles, Ca. This marks the first time a female K-Pop group has won this award.[271]
Other ventures
Endorsements
Twice at an event for Pocari Sweat in May 2017
Even before the official debut of Twice, the nine members had signed contracts as exclusive models for school uniform brand Skoolooks, alongside J. Y. Park. By December 2015, Twice had signed ten CF contracts, totaling earnings of KRW1.8 billion.[272][273] By February 2017, they had one of the fastest growths in the advertising industry as the group's rate charged for endorsement hit 200 million won for 6 months and 300 million won for a year.[274]
Twice is one of the celebrity endorsers of Lotte Duty Free. They also collaborated with shoe company Spris and created their own shoe brand called "Twice by Spris".[275][276] In early 2017, Twice was selected by beverage maker Donga Otsuka to promote the company's flagship sports drink Pocari Sweat on its 30th anniversary. They became the first idol group to model for the brand. Pocari Sweat recorded 100 billion won sales for the first half of the year, a 10% increase over 2016's sales.[277][278]
As of 2017, Twice has represented about 30 different brands including cosmetics, clothing, online and mobile games, food and beverages, credit cards, and more.[279] Twice's first TV commercial in Japan for Ymobile was aired nationwide starting February 2, 2018, incorporating a pop arrangement of "Y.M.C.A." and Twice's signature "TT pose".[280][281] In 2019, Twice was selected as South Korean ambassador of Estée Lauder.[282] The group also became "Global Benchsetters" for Philippine clothing brand Bench.[283][284] In March 2021, Kyungnam Pharmaceuticals announced that it had selected Twice as the representatives for its flagship vitamin brand Lemona.[285] Later that year, Nintendo Korea featured Twice playing the Nintendo Switch game Mitopia in a video.[286] In August 2021, the group was chosen to perform for Shopee Philippines's 9.9 Super Shopping Day TV special that was held on September 9.[287] On October 16, 2021, Scarlett Whitening, an Indonesian beauty brand known for its skin whitening products, introduced Twice as their brand ambassadors. The endorsement was, however, criticized by fans, calling JYP Entertainment to withdraw the deal as it would be "unethical" for Twice to endorse a brand with skin whitening products, "knowing that they have fans with darker skin complexions".[288][289]
Philanthropy
In February 2023, Twice donated 200 million won to help in the 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake through Save the Children.[290]
Members
Nayeon (나연) – vocalist, dancer[291][292]
Jeongyeon (정연) – vocalist[291][292]
Momo (모모) – dancer, vocalist, rapper[291][292]
Sana (사나) – vocalist[291][292]
Jihyo (지효) – leader, vocalist[291][292]
Mina (미나) – dancer, vocalist[291][292]
Dahyun (다현) – rapper, vocalist[291][292]
Chaeyoung (채영) – rapper, vocalist[291][292]
Tzuyu (쯔위) – dancer, vocalist[291][292]
Timeline
In July 2019, Mina took a break from activities due to her sudden extreme anxiety and insecurity problems in performing on stage. She resumed her activities in February 2020.[293][294][295]
In October 2020, Jeongyeon took a break from all activities due to her anxiety disorder.[296] She resumed her activities on January 31, 2021, at the 30th Seoul Music Awards.[297] In August–November 2021, Jeongyeon went on hiatus again due to panic and anxiety disorder.[298][299]
Sub-unit
Back in 2012, JYP was preparing to debut four Japanese girls, including Sana and Momo, in Japan. But due to the deterioration of the Korean-Japanese relationship, it was suspended indefinitely.[300] The project resurfaced again in February 2023, with Sana, Momo, and Mina forming a sub-unit named MiSaMo. It began with the trio releasing an original soundtrack titled “Bouquet” for TV Asahi’s drama series Liaison: Children’s Heart Clinic, before the release of their debut extended play of six tracks on July 26.[
Monday 13 March 2023
Sunday 5 March 2023
Bill Gates
William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and writer. He is a co-founder of Microsoft, along with his late childhood friend Paul Allen.[2][3] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.[4] He was a major entrepreneur of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s.
Gates was born and raised in Seattle. In 1975, he and Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It became the world's largest personal computer software company.[5][a] Gates led the company as chairman and CEO until stepping down as CEO in January 2000, succeeded by Steve Ballmer, but he remained chairman of the board of directors and became chief software architect.[8] During the late 1990s, he was criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive. This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings.[9] In June 2008, Gates transitioned to a part-time role at Microsoft and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the private charitable foundation he and his then-wife Melinda established in 2000.[10] He stepped down as chairman of the board of Microsoft in February 2014 and assumed a new post as technology adviser to support the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.[11] In March 2020, Gates left his board positions at Microsoft and Berkshire Hathaway to focus on his philanthropic efforts on climate change, global health and development, and education.[12]
Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people.[13][14] From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world every year except from 2010 to 2013.[15] In October 2017, he was surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion compared to Gates's net worth of US$89.9 billion at the time.[16] As of February 2023, Gates has an estimated net worth of US$113 billion, making him the fourth-richest person in the world.[17]
Later in his career and since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft in 2008, Gates has pursued many business and philanthropic endeavors. He is the founder and chairman of several companies, including BEN, Cascade Investment, TerraPower, bgC3, and Breakthrough Energy. He has given sizable amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reported to be the world's largest private charity.[18] Through the foundation, he led an early 21st century vaccination campaign that significantly contributed to the eradication of the wild poliovirus in Africa.[19][20] In 2010, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.[21]
Early life
Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington on October 28, 1955.[3] He is the son of William H. Gates Sr.[b] (1925–2020) and Mary Maxwell Gates (1929–1994).[22] His ancestry includes English, German, and Irish/Scots-Irish.[23] His father was a prominent lawyer, and his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate BancSystem and the United Way of America. Gates's maternal grandfather was J. W. Maxwell, a national bank president. Gates has an older sister Kristi (Kristianne) and a younger sister Libby. He is the fourth of his name in his family but is known as William Gates III or "Trey" (i.e., three) because his father had the "II" suffix.[24][25] The family lived in the Sand Point area of Seattle in a home that was damaged by a rare tornado when Gates was seven years old.[26]
Early in his life, Gates observed that his parents wanted him to pursue a law career.[27] When he was young, his family regularly attended a church of the Congregational Christian Churches, a Protestant Reformed denomination.[28][29][30] Gates was small for his age and was bullied as a child.[25] The family encouraged competition; one visitor reported that "it didn't matter whether it was hearts or pickleball or swimming to the dock; there was always a reward for winning and there was always a penalty for losing".[31]
Gates (right) with Paul Allen seated at Teletype Model 33 ASR terminals in Lakeside School, 1970
At 13, he enrolled in the private Lakeside prep school,[32][33] where he wrote his first software program.[34] When he was in the eighth grade, the Mothers' Club at the school used proceeds from Lakeside School's rummage sale to buy a Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric (GE) computer for the students.[35] Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC, and he was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. He wrote his first computer program on this machine, an implementation of tic-tac-toe that allowed users to play games against the computer. Gates was fascinated by the machine and how it would always execute software code perfectly.[36] After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted, Gates and other students sought time on systems including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation (CCC) which banned Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Gates's best friend and first business partner Kent Evans, for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.[37][25]
The four students formed the Lakeside Programmers Club to make money.[25] At the end of the ban, they offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for extra computer time. Rather than using the system remotely via Teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, including Fortran, Lisp, and machine language. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970 when the company went out of business.
The following year, a Lakeside teacher enlisted Gates and Evans to automate the school's class-scheduling system, providing them computer time and royalties in return. The duo worked diligently in order to have the program ready for their senior year. Towards the end of their junior year, Evans was killed in a mountain climbing accident, which Gates has described as one of the saddest days of his life. Gates then turned to Allen who helped him finish the system for Lakeside.[25]
At 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen called Traf-O-Data to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor.[38] In 1972, he served as a congressional page in the House of Representatives.[39][40] He was a National Merit Scholar when he graduated from Lakeside School in 1973.[41] He scored 1590 out of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SAT) and enrolled at Harvard College in the autumn of 1973.[42][43] He chose a pre-law major but took mathematics (including Math 55) and graduate level computer science courses.[44] While at Harvard, he met fellow student Steve Ballmer. Gates left Harvard after two years while Ballmer stayed and graduated magna cum laude. Years later, Ballmer succeeded Gates as Microsoft's CEO and maintained that position from 2000 until his resignation in 2014.[45][46]
Gates devised an algorithm for pancake sorting as a solution to one of a series of unsolved problems[47] presented in a combinatorics class by professor Harry Lewis. His solution held the record as the fastest version for over 30 years, and its successor is faster by only 2%.[47][48] His solution was formalized and published in collaboration with Harvard computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou.[49]
Gates remained in contact with Paul Allen and joined him at Honeywell during the summer of 1974.[50] In 1975, the MITS Altair 8800 was released based on the Intel 8080 CPU, and Gates and Allen saw the opportunity to start their own computer software company.[51] Gates dropped out of Harvard that same year. His parents were supportive of him after seeing how much he wanted to start his own company.[52] He explained his decision to leave Harvard: "if things hadn't worked out, I could always go back to school. I was officially on leave."[53]
Microsoft
Main articles: History of Microsoft and Microsoft § History
BASIC
MITS Altair 8800 Computer with 8-inch (200 mm) floppy disk system whose first programming language was Microsoft's founding product, Altair BASIC
Gates read the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics which demonstrated the Altair 8800, and he contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) to inform them that he and others were working on a BASIC interpreter for the platform.[54] In reality, Gates and Allen did not have an Altair and had not written code for it; they merely wanted to gauge MITS's interest. MITS president Ed Roberts agreed to meet them for a demonstration, and over the course of a few weeks they developed an Altair emulator that ran on a minicomputer, and then the BASIC interpreter. The demonstration was held at MITS's offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico; it was a success and resulted in a deal with MITS to distribute the interpreter as Altair BASIC. MITS hired Allen,[55] and Gates took a leave of absence from Harvard to work with him at MITS in November 1975. Allen named their partnership "Micro-Soft", a combination of "microcomputer" and "software", and their first office was in Albuquerque. The first employee Gates and Allen hired was their high school collaborator Ric Weiland.[55] They dropped the hyphen within a year and officially registered the trade name "Microsoft" with the Secretary of the State of New Mexico on November 26, 1976.[55] Gates never returned to Harvard to complete his studies.
Microsoft's Altair BASIC was popular with computer hobbyists, but Gates discovered that a pre-market copy had leaked out and was being widely copied and distributed. In February 1976, he wrote an Open Letter to Hobbyists in the MITS newsletter in which he asserted that more than 90% of the users of Microsoft Altair BASIC had not paid Microsoft for it and the Altair "hobby market" was in danger of eliminating the incentive for any professional developers to produce, distribute, and maintain high-quality software.[56] This letter was unpopular with many computer hobbyists, but Gates persisted in his belief that software developers should be able to demand payment. Microsoft became independent of MITS in late 1976, and it continued to develop programming language software for various systems.[55] The company moved from Albuquerque to Bellevue, Washington on January 1, 1979.[54]
Gates said he personally reviewed and often rewrote every line of code that the company produced in its first five years. As the company grew, he transitioned into a manager role, then an executive.[57]
DONKEY.BAS, is a computer game written in 1981 and included with early versions of the PC DOS operating system distributed with the original IBM PC. It is a driving game in which the player must avoid hitting donkeys. The game was written by Gates and Neil Konzen.[58][59]
IBM partnership
IBM, the leading supplier of computer equipment to commercial enterprises at the time, approached Microsoft in July 1980 concerning software for its upcoming personal computer, the IBM PC,[60] after Bill Gates's mother, Mary Maxwell Gates, mentioned Microsoft to John Opel, IBM's CEO.[61] IBM first proposed that Microsoft write the BASIC interpreter. IBM's representatives also mentioned that they needed an operating system, and Gates referred them to Digital Research (DRI), makers of the widely used CP/M operating system.[62] IBM's discussions with Digital Research went poorly, however, and they did not reach a licensing agreement. IBM representative Jack Sams mentioned the licensing difficulties during a subsequent meeting with Gates and asked if Microsoft could provide an operating system. A few weeks later, Gates and Allen proposed using 86-DOS, an operating system similar to CP/M, that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products (SCP) had made for hardware similar to the PC.[63] Microsoft made a deal with SCP to be the exclusive licensing agent of 86-DOS, and later the full owner. Microsoft employed Paterson to adapt the operating system for the PC[64] and delivered it to IBM as PC DOS for a one-time fee of $50,000.[65]
The contract itself only earned Microsoft a relatively small fee. It was the prestige brought to Microsoft by IBM's adoption of their operating system that would be the origin of Microsoft's transformation from a small business to the leading software company in the world. Gates had not offered to transfer the copyright on the operating system to IBM because he believed that other personal computer makers would clone IBM's PC hardware.[65] They did, making the IBM-compatible PC, running DOS, a de facto standard. The sales of MS-DOS (the version of DOS sold to customers other than IBM) made Microsoft a major player in the industry.[66] The press quickly identified Microsoft as being very influential on the IBM PC. PC Magazine asked if Gates was "the man behind the machine?".[60]
Gates oversaw Microsoft's company restructuring on June 25, 1981, which re-incorporated the company in Washington state and made Gates the president and chairman of the board, with Paul Allen as vice president and vice chairman. In early 1983, Allen left the company after receiving a Hodgkin lymphoma diagnosis, effectively ending the formal business partnership between Gates and Allen, which had been strained months prior due to a contentious dispute over Microsoft equity.[54][67] Later in the decade, Gates repaired his relationship with Allen and together the two donated millions to their childhood school Lakeside.[25] They remained friends until Allen's death in October 2018.[68]
Windows
Microsoft and Gates launched their first retail version of Microsoft Windows on November 20, 1985, in an attempt to fend off competition from Apple's Macintosh GUI, which had captivated consumers with its simplicity and ease of use.[69] In August of the following year, the company struck a deal with IBM to develop a separate operating system called OS/2. Although the two companies successfully developed the first version of the new system, the partnership deteriorated due to mounting creative differences.[70] The operating system grew out of DOS in an organic fashion over a decade until Windows 95, which hid the DOS prompt by default. Windows XP, released one year after Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO, was the first to not be based on DOS.[71] Windows 8.1 was the last version of the OS released before Gates left the chair of the firm to John W. Thompson on February 5, 2014.[72]
Management style
Gates delivers a speech at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, January 2008
During Microsoft's early years, Gates was an active software developer, particularly in the company's programming language products, but his primary role in most of the company's history was as a manager and executive. He has not officially been on a development team since working on the TRS-80 Model 100,[73] but he wrote code that shipped with the company's products as late as 1989.[74] Jerry Pournelle wrote in 1985 when Gates announced Microsoft Excel: "Bill Gates likes the program, not because it's going to make him a lot of money (although I'm sure it will do that), but because it's a neat hack."[75]
On June 15, 2006, Gates announced that he would transition out of his role at Microsoft to dedicate more time to philanthropy. He gradually divided his responsibilities between two successors when he placed Ray Ozzie in charge of management and Craig Mundie in charge of long-term product strategy.[76] The process took two years to fully transfer his duties to Ozzie and Mundie, and was completed on June 27, 2008.[77]
Post-Microsoft
Since leaving day-to-day operations at Microsoft, Gates has continued his philanthropy and works on other projects.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Gates was the world's highest-earning billionaire in 2013, as his net worth increased by US$15.8 billion to US$78.5 billion. As of January 2014, most of Gates's assets are held in Cascade Investment LLC, an entity through which he owns stakes in numerous businesses, including Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, and Corbis Corp.[78] On February 4, 2014, Gates stepped down as chairman of Microsoft to become "technology advisor" at the firm, alongside CEO Satya Nadella.[11][79]
Gates provided his perspective on a range of issues in a substantial interview that was published in the March 27, 2014, issue of Rolling Stone magazine. In the interview, Gates provided his perspective on climate change, his charitable activities, various tech companies and people involved in them, and the state of America. In response to a question about his greatest fear when he looks 50 years into the future, Gates stated: "there'll be some really bad things that'll happen in the next 50 or 100 years, but hopefully none of them on the scale of, say, a million people that you didn't expect to die from a pandemic, or nuclear or bioterrorism." Gates also identified innovation as the "real driver of progress" and pronounced that "America's way better today than it's ever been."[80]
Gates has expressed concern about the potential harms of superintelligence; in a Reddit "ask me anything", he stated that:
First the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don't understand why some people are not concerned.[81][82][83][84]
In an interview that was held at the TED conference in March 2015, with Baidu's CEO, Robin Li, Gates said he would "highly recommend" Nick Bostrom's recent work, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies.[85] During the conference, Gates warned that the world was not prepared for the next pandemic, a situation that would come to pass in late 2019 when the COVID-19 pandemic began.[86] In March 2018, Gates met at his home in Seattle with Mohammed bin Salman, the reformist crown prince and de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia to discuss investment opportunities for Saudi Vision 2030.[87][88] In June 2019, Gates admitted that losing the mobile operating system race to Android was his biggest mistake. He stated that it was within their skill set of being the dominant player, but partially blames the antitrust litigation during the time.[89] That same year, Gates became an advisory board member of the Bloomberg New Economy Forum.[90]
On March 13, 2020, Microsoft announced Gates would be leaving his board positions at Berkshire Hathaway and Microsoft to dedicate his efforts in philanthropic endeavors such as climate change, global health and development, and education.[12]
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates has widely been looked at by media outlets as an expert on the issue, despite him not being a public official or having any prior medical training.[91] His foundation did, however, establish the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator in 2020 to hasten the development and evaluation of new and repurposed drugs and biologics to treat patients for COVID-19,[92] and, as of February 2021, Gates expressed that he and Anthony Fauci frequently talk and collaborate on matters including vaccines and other medical innovations to fight the pandemic.[93]
Business ventures and investments (partial list)
Gates has a multi-billion dollar investment portfolio with stake in various sectors[94] and has participated in several entrepreneurial ventures beyond Microsoft, including:
AutoNation, automotive retailer that Gates has a 16% stake in trading on the NYSE.[95]
bgC3 LLC, a think-tank and research company founded by Gates.[96]
Canadian National Railway (CN), a Canadian Class I freight railway. As of 2019, Gates is the largest single shareholder of CN stock.[97]
Cascade Investment LLC, a private investment and holding company incorporated in the United States, founded and controlled by Gates and headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.[98]
Gates is the top private owner of farmland in the United States with landholdings owned via Cascade Investment totalling 242,000 acres across 19 states.[99][100] He is the 49th largest private owner of land in the US.[101]
Carbon Engineering, a for-profit venture founded by David Keith, which Gates helped fund.[102][103][104] It is also supported by Chevron Corporation and Occidental Petroleum.[105]
SCoPEx, Keith's academic venture in "sun-dimming" geoengineering, which Gates provided most of the $12 million for.[106]
Corbis (originally named Interactive Home Systems and now known as Branded Entertainment Network), a digital image licensing and rights services company founded and chaired by Gates.[107]
EarthNow, Seattle-based startup company aiming to blanket the Earth with live satellite video coverage. Gates is a large financial backer.[108]
Eclipse Aviation, a defunct manufacturer of very light jets. Gates was a major stake-holder early on in the project.[109]
Impossible Foods, a company that develops plant-based substitutes for meat products. Some of the $396 million Patrick O. Brown collected for his business came from Gates around 2014 to 2017.[110][111][112]
Ecolab, global provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies and services to the food, energy, healthcare, industrial and hospitality markets. Combined with the shares owned by the Foundation, Gates owns 11.6% of the company. A shareholder agreement in 2012 allowed him to own up to 25% of the company, but this agreement was removed.[113]
ResearchGate, a social networking site for scientists. Gates participated in a $35 million round of financing along with other investors.[114]
TerraPower, a nuclear reactor design company co-founded and chaired by Gates, which is developing next generation traveling-wave reactor nuclear power plants in an effort to tackle climate change.[115][116][117][118][119]
Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a closed fund for wealthy individuals who seek ROI on a 20-year horizon (see next section), which "is funding green start-ups and a host of other low-carbon entrepreneurial projects, including everything from advanced nuclear technology to synthetic breast milk." It was founded by Gates in 2015.[120]
Ginkgo Bioworks, a biotech startup that received $350 million in venture funding in 2019, in part from Gates's investment firm Cascade Investment.[121]
Luminous Computing, a company that develops neuromorphic photonic integrated circuits for AI acceleration.
Mologic, British diagnostic technology company that Gates purchased, along with the Soros Economic Development Fund, "which has developed 10-minute Covid lateral flow tests that it aims to make for as little as $1."[122]
Climate change and energy
Gates and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November 2021
Gates considers climate change and global access to energy to be critical, interrelated issues. He has urged governments and the private sector to invest in research and development to make clean, reliable energy cheaper. Gates envisions that a breakthrough innovation in sustainable energy technology could drive down both greenhouse gas emissions and poverty, and bring economic benefits by stabilizing energy prices.[123] In 2011, he said: "If you gave me the choice between picking the next 10 presidents or ensuring that energy is environmentally friendly and a quarter as costly, I'd pick the energy thing."[124]
In 2015, he wrote about the challenge of transitioning the world's energy system from one based primarily on fossil fuels to one based on sustainable energy sources. Global energy transitions have historically taken decades. He wrote, "I believe we can make this transition faster, both because the pace of innovation is accelerating, and because we have never had such an urgent reason to move from one source of energy to another."[125] This rapid transition, according to Gates, would depend on increased government funding for basic research and financially risky private-sector investment, to enable innovation in diverse areas such as nuclear energy, grid energy storage to facilitate greater use of solar and wind energy, and solar fuels.[126]
The European Commission, European Investment Bank and Gates' Breakthrough Energy Catalyst agreed at the 2021 UN Climate Change conference to work together to bring green technologies to market.
Gates spearheaded two initiatives that he announced at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. One was Mission Innovation, in which 20 national governments pledged to double their spending on research and development for carbon-free energy in over five years' time.[123] Another initiative was Breakthrough Energy, a group of investors who agreed to fund high-risk startups in clean energy technologies. Gates, who had already invested $1 billion of his own money in innovative energy startups, committed a further $1 billion to Breakthrough Energy.[126] In December 2020, he called for the U.S. federal government to create institutes for clean energy research, analogous to the National Institutes of Health.[127] Gates has also urged rich nations to shift to 100% synthetic beef industries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from food production.[128]
Gates has been criticised for holding a large stake in Signature Aviation, a company that services emissions-intensive private jets.[129] In 2019, he began to divest from fossil fuels. He does not expect divestment itself to have much practical impact, but says that if his efforts to provide alternatives were to fail, he would not want to personally benefit from an increase in fossil fuel stock prices.[130] After he published his book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster, parts of the climate activist community criticized Gate's approach as technological solutionism.[131]
In June 2021, Gates's company TerraPower and Warren Buffett's PacifiCorp announced the first sodium nuclear reactor in Wyoming. Wyoming Governor Mike Gordon hailed the project as a step toward carbon-negative nuclear power. Wyoming Senator John Barrasso also said that it could boost the state's once-active uranium mining industry.[132]
Gates spent many efforts to make pass the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 because of his importance to climate. He tried to convince Joe Manchin to support a climate bill from the year 2019 and especially in the months before the adoption of the bill. The bill should cut the global greenhouse gas emissions in a level similar to "eliminating the annual planet-warming pollution of France and Germany combined" and may help to limit the warming of the planet to 1.5 degrees - the target of the Paris Agreement.[133] He thanked both Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer for their efforts in a guest essay in The New York Times, where he said "Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 may be the single most important piece of climate legislation in American history" given its potential to spur development of new technologies.[134]
Political positions
Regulation of the software industry
See also: Bill Gates § Antitrust litigation, and United States v. Microsoft Corp.
In 1998, Gates rejected the need for regulation of the software industry in testimony before the United States Senate.[135] During the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) investigation of Microsoft in the 1990s, Gates was reportedly upset at Commissioner Dennis Yao for "float[ing] a line of hypothetical questions suggesting possible curbs on Microsoft's growing monopoly power". According to one source:
Gates was vexed. "He started by calling Yao's ideas socialistic," recalls a source familiar with the July 15 meeting, "and as he got angrier and angrier and louder and louder, he got into calling them Communistic.[136]
Donald Trump Facebook ban
On February 18, 2021, after Facebook and Twitter had banned Donald Trump from their platforms as a result of the 2020 United States presidential election which led to the January 6 United States Capitol attack, Gates said a permanent ban of Trump "would be a shame" and would be an "extreme measure". He warned that it would cause "polarization" if users with different political views divide up among various social networks, and said: "I don't think banning somebody who actually did get a fair number of votes (in the presidential election) – well less than a majority – but I don't think having him off forever would be that good."[135]
Patents for COVID-19 vaccines
Main article: Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement for the Prevention, Containment and Treatment of COVID-19
In April 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gates was criticized for suggesting that pharmaceutical companies should hold onto patents for COVID-19 vaccines. The criticism came due to the possibility of this preventing poorer nations from obtaining adequate vaccines. Tara Van Ho of the University of Essex stated, "Gates speaks as if all the lives being lost in India are inevitable but eventually the West will help when in reality the US & UK are holding their feet on the neck of developing states by refusing to break [intellectual property rights] protections. It's disgusting."[137]
Gates is opposed to the TRIPS waiver.[138][139][140] Bloomberg News reported him as saying he argued that Oxford University should not give away the rights to its COVID-19 information, as it had announced, but instead sell it to a single industry partner, as it did.[141] His views on the value of legal monopolies in medicine have been linked to his views on legal monopolies in software.[139][140]
Cryptocurrencies
Gates is critical of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. According to Gates, cryptocurrencies provide no "valuable output", contribute nothing to society, and pose a danger especially for smaller investors who couldn't survive the potentially high losses. Gates also doesn't own any cryptocurrencies himself.[142]
Philanthropy
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Main article: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Gates with Bono, Queen Rania of Jordan, former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, President Umaru Yar'Adua of Nigeria and others during the Annual Meeting 2008 of the World Economic Forum
Gates studied the work of Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller, and donated some of his Microsoft stock in 1994 to create the "William H. Gates Foundation". In 2000, Gates and his wife combined three family foundations and Gates donated stock valued at $5 billion to create the charitable Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was identified by the Funds for NGOs company in 2013, as the world's wealthiest charitable foundation, with assets reportedly valued at more than $34.6 billion.[143][144] The foundation allows benefactors to access information that shows how its money is being spent, unlike other major charitable organizations such as the Wellcome Trust.[145][146] Gates, through his foundation, also donated $20 million to Carnegie Mellon University for a new building to be named Gates Center for Computer Science which opened in 2009.[147][148]
Gates has credited the generosity and extensive philanthropy of David Rockefeller as a major influence. Gates and his father met with Rockefeller several times, and their charity work is partly modeled on the Rockefeller family's philanthropic focus, whereby they are interested in tackling the global problems that are ignored by governments and other organizations.[149] As of 2007, Bill and Melinda Gates were the second-most generous philanthropists in America, having given over $28 billion to charity;[150] the couple plan to eventually donate 95% of their wealth to charity.[151]
The foundation is organized into five program areas: Global Development Division, Global Health Division, United States Division, and Global Policy & Advocacy Division. Among others, it supports a wide range of public health projects, granting aid to fight transmissible diseases such AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, as well as widespread vaccine programs to eradicate polio. It grants funds to learning institutes and libraries and supports scholarships at universities. The foundation established a water, sanitation and hygiene program to provide sustainable sanitation services in poor countries.[152] Its agriculture division supports the International Rice Research Institute in developing Golden Rice, a genetically modified rice variant used to combat vitamin A deficiency.[153] The goal of the foundation is to provide 120 million women and girls, in the poorest countries, with high-quality contraceptive information and services, with the longer-term goal of universal access to voluntary family planning.[154] In 2007, the Los Angeles Times criticized the foundation for investing its assets in companies that have been accused of worsening poverty, pollution and pharmaceutical firms that do not sell to developing countries.[155] Although the foundation announced a review of its investments to assess social responsibility,[156] it was subsequently canceled and upheld its policy of investing for maximum return, while using voting rights to influence company practices.[157]
Gates in a fireside chat moderated by Shereen Bhan virtually at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2020
Gates delivered his thoughts in a fireside chat moderated by journalist and news anchor Shereen Bhan virtually at the Singapore FinTech Festival on December 8, 2020, on the topic, "Building Infrastructure for Resilience: What the COVID-19 Response Can Teach Us About How to Scale Financial Inclusion".[158]
Governments are there to think ahead to bad things that might happen. In the case of (the Covid-19) pandemic, not enough was done. We can't forget that another pandemic will come and we'll need to invest in being ready in that, ... while not forgetting that we were not prepared and we're going to have to invest – just like having a fire department – some money in an intelligent way and actually simulate what might happen and make sure that we're ready for it.[158]
Gates favours the normalization of COVID-19 masks. In a November 2020 interview, he said: "What are these, like, nudists? I mean, you know, we ask you to wear pants, and no American says, or very few Americans say, that that's, like, some terrible thing."[159]
Personal donations
Melinda Gates suggested that people should emulate the philanthropic efforts of the Salwen family, who sold their home and gave away half of its value, as detailed in their book, The Power of Half.[160] Gates and his wife invited Joan Salwen to Seattle to speak about what the family had done, and on December 9, 2010, Bill and Melinda Gates and investor Warren Buffett each signed a commitment they called the "Giving Pledge", which is a commitment by all three to donate at least half of their wealth, over the course of time, to charity.[161][162][163]
Gates has also provided personal donations to educational institutions. In 1999, Gates donated $20 million to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for the construction of a computer laboratory named the "William H. Gates Building" that was designed by architect Frank Gehry. While Microsoft had previously given financial support to the institution, this was the first personal donation received from Gates.[164]
The Maxwell Dworkin Laboratory of the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences is named after the mothers of both Gates and Microsoft President Steven A. Ballmer, both of whom were students (Ballmer was a member of the school's graduating class of 1977, while Gates left his studies for Microsoft), and donated funds for the laboratory's construction.[165] Gates also donated $6 million to the construction of the Gates Computer Science Building, completed in January 1996, on the campus of Stanford University. The building contains the Computer Science Department and the Computer Systems Laboratory (CSL) of Stanford's Engineering department.[166]
Since 2005, Gates and his foundation have taken an interest in solving global sanitation problems. For example, they announced the "Reinvent the Toilet Challenge", which has received considerable media interest.[167] To raise awareness for the topic of sanitation and possible solutions, Gates drank water that was "produced from human feces" in 2014 – it was produced from a sewage sludge treatment process called the Omni Processor.[168][169] In early 2015, he also appeared with Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show and challenged him to see if he could taste the difference between this reclaimed water or bottled water.[170]
In November 2017, Gates said he would give $50 million to the Dementia Discovery Fund, a venture capital fund that seeks treatment for Alzheimer's disease. He also pledged an additional $50 million to start-up ventures working in Alzheimer's research.[171] Bill and Melinda Gates have said that they intend to leave their three children $10 million each as their inheritance. With only $30 million kept in the family, they are expected to give away about 99.96% of their wealth.[172] On August 25, 2018, Gates distributed $600,000 through his foundation via UNICEF which is helping flood affected victims in Kerala, India.[173]
In June 2018, Bill Gates offered free ebooks, to all new graduates of U.S. colleges and universities,[174] and in 2021, offered free ebooks, to all college and university students around the world.[175][176] The Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation partially funds OpenStax, which creates and provides free digital textbooks.[177]
Charity sports events
On April 29, 2017, Gates partnered with Swiss tennis legend Roger Federer in playing in the Match for Africa 4, a noncompetitive tennis match at a sold-out Key Arena in Seattle. The event was in support of the Roger Federer Foundation's charity efforts in Africa.[178] Federer and Gates played against John Isner, the top-ranked American player for much of this decade, and Mike McCready, the lead guitarist for Pearl Jam. The pair won the match 6 games to 4. Overall, they raised $2 million for children in Africa.[179] The following year, Gates and Federer returned to play in the Match for Africa 5 on March 5, 2018, at San Jose's SAP Center. Their opponents were Jack Sock, one of the top American players and a grand slam winner in doubles, and Savannah Guthrie, a co-anchor for NBC's Today show. Gates and Federer recorded their second match victory together by a score of 6–3 and the event raised over $2.5 million.[180]
Books
Gates has written four books:
The Road Ahead, written with Microsoft executive Nathan Myhrvold and journalist Peter Rinearson, was published in November 1995. It summarized the implications of the personal computing revolution and described a future profoundly changed by the arrival of a global information superhighway.
Business @ the Speed of Thought was published in 1999, and discusses how business and technology are integrated, and shows how digital infrastructures and information networks can help to get an edge on the competition.
How to Avoid a Climate Disaster (February 2021) presents what Gates learned in over a decade of studying climate change and investing in innovations to address climate problems.[181]
How to Prevent the Next Pandemic (April 2022) details the COVID-19 pandemic and proposes a "Global Epidemic Response and Mobilization" (GERM) team with annual funding of $1 billion,[182] under the auspices of the WHO.[183]
Personal life
Gates is an avid reader,[184] and the ceiling of his large home library is engraved with a quotation from The Great Gatsby.[185] He also enjoys bridge, tennis and golf.[186][187] His days are planned for him on a minute-by-minute basis, similarly to the U.S. president's schedule.[188] Despite his wealth and extensive business travel, Gates flew coach (economy class) in commercial aircraft until 1997, when he bought a private jet.[189]
Gates purchased the Codex Leicester, a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci, for US$30.8 million at an auction in 1994.[190] In 1998, he reportedly paid $30 million for the original 1885 maritime painting Lost on the Grand Banks, at the time a record price for an American painting.[191]
In 2016, he revealed that he was color-blind.[192]
On May 10, 2022, Gates said that he tested positive for COVID-19 and was experiencing mild symptoms.[193] Gates has received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.[193]
Marriage and divorce
Gates and Melinda, 2009
Gates married Melinda French on the Hawaiian Island of Lanai on January 1, 1994.[194] They met in 1987 after Melinda began working at Microsoft.[195] At the time of their marriage, Gates was given permission by Melinda to spend limited time with his ex-girlfriend, businesswoman Ann Winblad.[196] Bill and Melinda have three children: Jennifer, Rory and Phoebe.[197] The family's residence is an earth-sheltered mansion in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. In 2009, property taxes on the mansion were reported to be US$1.063 million, on a total assessed value of US$147.5 million.[198] The 66,000-square-foot (6,100 m2) estate has a 60-foot (18 m) swimming pool with an underwater music system, as well as a 2,500-square-foot (230 m2) gym and a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) dining room.[199] On May 3, 2021, the Gateses announced they had decided to divorce after 27 years of marriage and 34 years as a couple.[200] They said they would keep working together on charitable efforts.[200][201] The Wall Street Journal reported that Melinda had been meeting with divorce attorneys since 2019, citing interviews that suggested Bill's ties with Jeffrey Epstein was at least one of her concerns.[202] The divorce was finalized on August 2, 2021.[203]
Public image
Gates meets with U.S. Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, February 2017
Gates's public image has changed over the years. At first he was perceived as a brilliant but ruthless "robber baron", a "nerd-turned-tycoon".[204] Starting in 2000 with the foundation of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and particularly after he stepped down as head of Microsoft, he turned his attention to philanthropy, spending more than $50 billion on causes like health, poverty, and education. His image morphed from "tyrannical technocrat to saintly savior" to a "huggable billionaire techno-philanthropist", celebrated on magazine covers and sought after for his opinions on major issues like global health and climate change.[204] Still another shift in public opinion came in 2021 with the announcement that he and Melinda were divorcing. Coverage of that proceeding brought out information about romantic pursuits of women who worked for him, a long-term extra-marital affair, and a friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.[205] This information and his response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in some deterioration of his public image, going from "a lovable nerd who was out to save the world" to "a tech supervillain who wants to protect profits over public health."[206]
Investigative journalist Tim Schwab has accused Gates of using his contributions to the media to shape their coverage of him in order to protect his public image.[91][207] In September 2022, Politico published an expose' critical of NGO leadership at the helm of the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic response, written in cooperation with the German newspaper Welt. Criticisms included the interconnectivity of the non-profits with Gates, as well as his personal lack of formal credentials in medicine.[208]
Gates and the projects of his foundation have been the subject of many conspiracy theories that proliferate on Facebook and elsewhere. He has been implausibly accused of attempting to depopulate the world, distributing harmful or unethical vaccines, and implanting people with privacy-violating microchips. These largely unfounded theories reached a new level of influence during the COVID-19 pandemic when, according to New York Times journalist Rory Smith, the uncertainties of pandemic life drove people to seek explanations from the internet.[209][210] When asked about the theories, Gates has remarked that some people are tempted by the "simple explanation" that an evil person rather than biological factors are to blame, and that he does not know for what purpose anyone believes he would want to track them with microchips.[211][212]
Religion
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Gates said in regard to his faith: "The moral systems of religion, I think, are super important. We've raised our kids in a religious way; they've gone to the Catholic church that Melinda goes to and I participate in. I've been very lucky, and therefore I owe it to try and reduce the inequity in the world. And that's kind of a religious belief. I mean, it's at least a moral belief."[213] In the same 2014 interview he also said: "I agree with people like Richard Dawkins that mankind felt the need for creation myths. Before we really began to understand disease and the weather and things like that, we sought false explanations for them. Now science has filled in some of the realm – not all – that religion used to fill. But the mystery and the beauty of the world is overwhelmingly amazing, and there's no scientific explanation of how it came about. To say that it was generated by random numbers, that does seem, you know, sort of an uncharitable view [laughs]. I think it makes sense to believe in God, but exactly what decision in your life you make differently because of it, I don't know."[213]
Wealth tallies
In 1999, his wealth briefly surpassed US$101 billion.[214][189] Since 2000, the nominal value of his Microsoft holdings has declined due to a fall in Microsoft's stock price after the dot-com bubble burst and the multi-billion dollar donations he has made to his charitable foundations. In May 2006, Gates remarked that he wished that he were not the richest man in the world because he disliked the attention it brought.[215] In March 2010, Gates was the second wealthiest person after Carlos Slim, but regained the top position in 2013, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires List.[216][217] Slim retook the position again in June 2014[218][219] (but then lost the top position back to Gates). Between 2009 and 2014, his wealth doubled from US$40 billion to more than US$82 billion.[220] In October 2017, Gates was surpassed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as the richest person in the world.[16] On November 15, 2019, he once again became the richest person in the world after a 48% increase in Microsoft shares, surpassing Bezos.[221] Gates told the BBC, "I've paid more tax than any individual ever, and gladly so ... I've paid over $6 billion in taxes."[222] He is a proponent of higher taxes, particularly for the rich.[223]
By 2017, Gates had held the top spot on the list of The World's Billionaires for 18 out of the previous 23 years.[224] Gates has several investments outside Microsoft, which in 2006 paid him a salary of US$616,667 and US$350,000 bonus totalling US$966,667.[225] In 1989, he founded Corbis, a digital imaging company. In 2004, he became a director of Berkshire Hathaway, the investment company headed by long-time friend Warren Buffett.[226]
In 1987, Gates was listed as a billionaire in Forbes magazine's 400 Richest People in America issue, worth $1.25 billion at the time, and was the world's youngest self-made billionaire.[14] Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes The World's Billionaires list and was the wealthiest person from 1995 to 1996,[227] 1998 to 2007, 2009, and held the spot until 2018 before being overtaken by Jeff Bezos.[15] Gates was number one on the Forbes 400 list from 1993 through to 2007, 2009, and 2014 through 2017.[228][229]
Controversies
Antitrust litigation
Further information: United States Microsoft antitrust case and European Union Microsoft competition case
Gates giving his deposition at Microsoft on August 27, 1998
Gates approved of many decisions that led to antitrust litigation over Microsoft's business practices. In the 1998 United States v. Microsoft case, Gates gave deposition testimony that several journalists characterized as evasive. He argued with examiner David Boies over the contextual meaning of words such as "compete", "concerned", and "we". Later in the year, when portions of the videotaped deposition were played back in court, the judge was seen laughing and shaking his head.[230] BusinessWeek reported:
Early rounds of his deposition show him offering obfuscatory answers and saying "I don't recall" so many times that even the presiding judge had to chuckle. Worse, many of the technology chief's denials and pleas of ignorance were directly refuted by prosecutors with snippets of e-mail that Gates both sent and received.[231]
Gates later said that he had simply resisted attempts by Boies to mischaracterize his words and actions. "Did I fence with Boies? ... I plead guilty ... rudeness to Boies in the first degree."[232] Despite Gates's denials, the judge ruled that Microsoft had committed monopolization, tying and blocking competition, each in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.[232]
Treatment of colleagues and employees
Gates had primary responsibility for Microsoft's product strategy from the company's founding from 1975 until 2006. He gained a reputation for being distant from others; an industry executive complained in 1981 that "Gates is notorious for not being reachable by phone and for not returning phone calls."[233] An Atari executive recalled that he showed Gates a game and defeated him 35 of 37 times. When they met again a month later, Gates "won or tied every game. He had studied the game until he solved it. That is a competitor".[234]
In the early 1980s, while business partner Paul Allen was undergoing treatments for cancer, Gates — according to Allen — conspired to reduce Allen's share in Microsoft by issuing himself stock options.[235][236][237] In his autobiography, Allen would later recall that Gates was "scheming to rip me off. It was mercenary opportunism plain and simple".[235] Gates says he remembers the episode differently.[236] Allen would also recall that Gates was prone to shouting episodes.[237]
Gates met regularly with Microsoft's senior managers and program managers, and the managers described him as being verbally combative. He also berated them for perceived holes in their business strategies or proposals that placed the company's long-term interests at risk.[238][239] Gates saw competition in personal terms; when Borland's Turbo Pascal performed better than Microsoft's own tools, he yelled at programming director Greg Whitten "for half an hour" because, Gates believed, Borland's Philippe Kahn had surpassed Gates.[240] Gates interrupted presentations with such comments as "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard"[241] and "why don't you just give up your options and join the Peace Corps?"[242] The target of his outburst would then have to defend the proposal in detail until Gates was fully convinced.[241] Not all harsh language was criticism; a manager recalled that "You’re full of shit. That’s the stupidest fucking thing I’ve ever heard" meant that Gates was amazed. "In the lore of Microsoft, if Bill says that to you, you’re made".[243] When subordinates appeared to be procrastinating, he was known to remark sarcastically, "I'll do it over the weekend".[244][74][245] Gates has been accused of bullying Microsoft employees.[246]
Relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
A 2019 New York Times article reported that Gates's relationship with financier Jeffrey Epstein started in 2011, just a few years after Epstein's conviction for procuring a child for prostitution, and continued for some years, including a visit to Epstein's house with Melinda in the fall of 2013, despite her declared discomfort.[247] Gates said in 2011 about Epstein: "His lifestyle is very different and kind of intriguing although it would not work for me".[205]
The depth of the friendship between Gates and Epstein is unclear. Gates generally commented about his relationship with Epstein that "I met him. I didn't have any business relationship or friendship with him".[248] However, Gates visited Epstein "many times, despite [Epstein's] past".[247]
It was reported that Epstein and Gates "discussed the Gates Foundation and philanthropy".[247] However, in an interview in 2019 Gates completely denied any connection between Epstein and the Gates Foundation or his philanthropy generally.[248] In August 2021, Gates said the reason he had meetings with Epstein was because Gates hoped Epstein could provide money for philanthropic work, though nothing came of the idea. Gates added, "It was a huge mistake to spend time with him, to give him the credibility of being there."[246]
It has also been reported that Epstein and Gates met with Nobel Committee chair Thorbjørn Jagland at his residence in Strasbourg, France in March 2013 to discuss the Nobel Prize.[249] Also in attendance were representatives of the International Peace Institute which has received millions in grants from the Gates Foundation, including a $2.5 million "community engagement" grant in October 2013.[250]
Recognition
Bill and Melinda Gates being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016
Time magazine named Gates one of the 100 people who most influenced the 20th century, as well as one of the 100 most influential people of 2004, 2005, and 2006.[251]
Time also collectively named Gates, his wife Melinda and U2's lead singer Bono as the 2005 Persons of the Year for their humanitarian efforts.[252] In 2006, he was voted eighth in the list of "Heroes of our time".[253]
Gates was listed in the London Sunday Times power list in 1999, named CEO of the year by Chief Executive Officers magazine in 1994, ranked number one in the "Top 50 Cyber Elite" by Time in 1998, ranked number two in the Upside Elite 100 in 1999, and was included in The Guardian as one of the "Top 100 influential people in media" in 2001.[254]
Gates was elected Member of the US National Academy of Engineering in 1996 "for contributions to the founding and development of personal computing".[255]
He was named Honorary Member of the American Library Association in 1998.[256]
He was elected a foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 2017.[257]
According to Forbes, Gates was ranked as the fourth most powerful person in the world in 2012,[258] up from fifth in 2011.[259]
In 1994, he was honored as the 20th Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (DFBCS). In 1999, Gates received New York Institute of Technology's President's Medal.[260]
Gates has received honorary doctorates from Nyenrode Business Universiteit (1996),[261] KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2002),[262] Waseda University (2005),[263] Tsinghua University (2007),[264] Harvard University (2007),[265] the Karolinska Institute (2007),[266] and Cambridge University (2009).[267]
He was also made an honorary trustee of Peking University in 2007.[268]
Gates was made an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2005.[269]
In January 2006, he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry by the President of Portugal Jorge Sampaio
In November 2006, he was awarded the Placard of the Order of the Aztec Eagle, together with his wife Melinda who was awarded the Insignia of the same order, both for their philanthropic work around the world in the areas of health and education, particularly in Mexico, and specifically in the program "Un país de lectores".[270]
Gates received the 2010 Bower Award for Business Leadership from The Franklin Institute for his achievements at Microsoft and his philanthropic work.[271]
Also in 2010, he was honored with the Silver Buffalo Award by the Boy Scouts of America, its highest award for adults, for his service to youth.[272]
In 2002, Bill and Melinda Gates received the Jefferson Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged.[273]
He was given the 2006 James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award from the Tech Awards.[274]
In 2015, Gates and his wife Melinda received the Padma Bhushan, India's third-highest civilian award for their social work in the country.[275][276]
In 2016, Barack Obama honored Bill and Melinda Gates with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for their philanthropic efforts.[277]
In 2017, François Hollande awarded Bill and Melinda Gates with France's highest national order, as Commanders in the Legion of Honour, for their charity efforts.[278]
Entomologists named Bill Gates' flower fly, Eristalis gatesi, in his honor in 1997.[279]
In 2020, Gates received the Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun for his contributions to Japan and the world in regards to worldwide technological transformation and advancement of global health.[280]
In 2021, Gates was nominated at the 11th annual Streamy Awards for the crossover for his personal YouTube channel.[281]
In 2022, Gates received the Hilal-e-Pakistan Second-highest civilian award for their social work in the country.
Depiction in media
Documentary films about Gates
External video
video icon The Machine That Changed The World; Interview with Bill Gates, 1990 (raw video), 44:03, Open Vault WGBH[282]
The Machine That Changed the World (1990)
Triumph of the Nerds (1996)
Nerds 2.0.1 (1998)
Waiting for "Superman" (2010)[283]
The Virtual Revolution (2010)
Inside Bill's Brain: Decoding Bill Gates (2019)
Feature films
1999: Pirates of Silicon Valley, a film that chronicles the rise of Apple and Microsoft from the early 1970s to 1997. Gates is portrayed by Anthony Michael Hall.
2002: Nothing So Strange, a mockumentary featuring Gates as the subject of a modern assassination. Gates briefly appears at the start, played by Steve Sires.
2010: The Social Network, a film that chronicles the development of Facebook. Gates is portrayed by Steve Sires.[284]
2015: Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates: The Competition to Control the Personal Computer, 1974–1999: Original film from the National Geographic Channel for the American Genius series.[285]
Video and film clips
Steve Jobs and Gates at D: All Things Digital in 2007
1983: Steve Jobs hosts Gates and others in the "Macintosh dating game" at the Macintosh pre-launch event (a parody of the television game show The Dating Game)[286]
1991: Gates spoke to the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group lively weekly Thursday night meeting with questions and answers in PSL Hall (renamed Pimentel Hall in 1994)[287] at University of California, Berkeley[288][289][290]
2007: Steve Jobs and Bill Gates Together at the D5 Conference on YouTube, All Things Digital
2009− : Gates has given numerous TED talks on current concerns such as innovation, education and fighting global diseases[291]
Radio
Gates was the guest on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on January 31, 2016, in which he talked about his relationships with his father and Steve Jobs, meeting Melinda Ann French, the start of Microsoft and some of his habits (for example reading The Economist "from cover to cover every week"). His choice of things to take on a desert island were, for music: "Blue Skies" by Willie Nelson; a book: The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker; and luxury item: a DVD Collection of Lectures from The Teaching Company.[292]
Television
Gates made a guest appearance as himself on the TV show The Big Bang Theory. The episode on which he appeared was appropriately titled "The Gates Excitation".[293] He also appeared in a cameo role in 2019 on the series finale of Silicon Valley.[294] Gates was parodied in The Simpsons episode "Das Bus".
In 2023, Gates was the interviewee in an episode of the Amol Rajan Interviews series on BBC Two,[295] and was the subject of an episode of the The Billionaires Who Made Our World UK Channel 4 series.[296]
See also
Big History Project
List of richest Americans in history
List of wealthiest historical figures
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