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How Bill Gates Went From Childhood Nerd to Multi-Billionaire

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Today, we know Bill Gates for his philanthropy and a massive $84.9 billion fortune.

However, fewer people remember his younger days. From hacking early computers at the age of 13 to his love-hate relationship with Steve Jobs, here is how Gates went from childhood nerd to a multi-billionaire.

The Bill Gates Story

Today’s infographic is from Adioma, and it visualizes the career of Bill Gates from his earliest days until his latest philanthropy efforts.

How Bill Gates Went From Childhood Nerd to Multi-Billionaire

Image courtesy of: Adioma

The story of Bill Gates is loaded with examples of hard work, controversy, money, bravado, and even accusations of betrayal.

Key Moments

Here is the lowdown on some of the key moments of his life so far.

Love-Hate Relationships
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are a classic example of “frenemies”. At times they were friends, and at other times they were fierce rivals that said some pretty nasty things.

One of the most memorable moments? In 1997, Microsoft invested money in Apple to keep the struggling company afloat. Gates appeared on the screen during Jobs’ keynote talk at the MacWorld conference, and the audience booed.

See a great summary of the key moments of the complex Gates-Jobs relationship here.

The Microsoft Antitrust Case
Initiated in 1998, Microsoft was accused of becoming a monopoly and engaging in anti-competitive practices by the U.S. government and 20 states.

The ruling from 2000 called for a split of Microsoft, creating two separate companies. One half would house the Windows operating system, and the second half would produce other software. However, Microsoft appealed – and in the end, it didn’t really matter, as other companies like Apple started to eat away at Windows’ market share anyways.

Becomes Richest Man
At age 31, Gates took the title of the world’s youngest billionaire – and at 39, he became the world’s richest person with a fortune of $12.9 billion.

Today, of course, that fortune sits closer to $84.9 billion.

Launches “The Giving Pledge”
In 2010, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett announced “The Giving Pledge”, a campaign to get billionaires to contribute the majority of their wealth to philanthropic causes. Today, there are 158 signers to the pledge, with pledges totaling $365 billion.

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Visualizing Internet Usage by Global Region

In this infographic, we map out internet usage by global region based on the latest data from the World Bank.

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Map showing internet usage by region.

Visualizing Internet Usage by Global Region

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Digital technologies have become an integral part of our daily lives, transforming communications, business, health, education, and more. Yet, billions of people around the world are still offline, and digital advancement has been uneven.

Here, we map internet usage by region based on data from the World Bank’s Digital Progress and Trends Report 2023.

Digitalization Has Been Uneven

According to the World Bank, between 2018 and 2022, the world gained 1.5 billion new internet users.

In 2020 alone, the share of the global population using the internet increased by 6% (500 million people), marking the highest jump in history. India, in particular, has seen high rates of adoption. For example, in 2018, only 20% of Indians used the internet. By 2022, this percentage had grown to more than 50%.

RegionIndividuals using the internet (% of population)
East Asia & Pacific74
Europe & Central Asia87
Latin America & the Caribbean76
Middle East & North Africa77
North America92
South Asia42
Sub-Saharan Africa34

However, the progress of digitalization has been uneven both within and across countries.

In 2022, one-third of the global population remained offline, with parts of Asia and Africa still experiencing very low rates of internet usage. For instance, more than half of businesses in Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Senegal reportedly lack internet connection.

According to the World Bank’s report, when fast internet becomes available, the probability of an individual being employed increases by up to 13%, and total employment per firm increases by up to 22%. Moreover, firm exports nearly quadruple with the availability of fast internet. Across Africa, 3G coverage has been associated with a reduction in extreme poverty, with reductions of 10% seen in Senegal and 4.3% in Nigeria.

Curious to learn more about the internet? Check out this animated chart that shows the most popular web browsers since 1994.

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