What Made Kim Kardashian So Rich and Popular

Published on: April 17, 2021 (Updated on: April 22, 2024)

What made Kim Kardashian So Rich and Popular - image of hand holding note with a dollar sign
What made Kim Kardashian so rich and popular

Many people wonder what made Kim Kardashian so rich and popular. Kim Kardashian West is an American media personality who rose to fame with her family on their Reality TV show “Keeping up with the Kardashians”. She is the daughter of popular American Lawyer Robert Kardashian. Robert Kardashian became popular for representing infamous American football celebrity O.J Simpson in his widely televised murder trial in 1995.

So what made Kim Kardashian so rich and popular?

Kim first gained media attention as friend and stylist of socialite Paris Hilton, but her rise to fame did not begin until a sex tape made by her and her then-boyfriend Ray J was leaked in 2007 by Vivid entertainment. Kim Kardashian went on to file a lawsuit against the entertainment outfit but later settled out of court for 5 million dollars.

The settlement enabled the entertainment outfit to be able to legally distribute the sex tape. This was clearly a publicity stunt done to promote her and her family’s upcoming reality show.

Keeping up with the Kardashians

In 2007, Kim Kardashian and her family debuted their reality TV show “Keeping up with the Kardashians” on the entertainment channel “E!”. It was an immediate success upon its release, she also posed nude for Playboy magazine in the same year.

Since the launch of the show, she has gone on to feature in several TV shows and movies. She has also signed many endorsement deals worth millions of dollars. She pivoted into the fashion and fragrance industry, launching different clothing lines and perfume brands with her sister. By the end of 2010, she was rated amongst Hollywood’s highest-earning reality TV stars, earning 6 million dollars that year.

Keeping up with the Kardashians was renewed by E! for two more years in a deal worth 50 million dollars

In 2011, her wedding to American basketball star Kris Humphries was broadcasted on TV as “Kim’s Fairy tale wedding: A Kardashian Event.” The event raked in 18 million dollars in broadcast deals, endorsement, and licensing deals. However, the couple filed for divorce 72 days later.

The entire event was regarded as another publicity stunt staged by the family in order to make money and get more popular. In 2014, she ventured into the mobile game industry, releasing her iPhone and android game “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood.”.

The game grossed over a million dollars in a few days. She launched her version of emojis called Kimojis on iOS in 2015. Upon the launch, it was reported that Apple’s app store crashed. This is another testament to how famous and in-demand her brand was.

In 2015, she was paid five hundred thousand dollars for one Instagram post. She launched her cosmetics brand “KKW beauty” in 2017 with a product that sold out minutes after its release. It made 13 million dollars in sales. Another product made 10 million dollars in a day. She sold a 20% stake of her cosmetic company in a deal valued at one billion dollars. This increased her net worth to 780 million dollars.

Her marriage to American rapper and producer Kanye West enabled her to pull a huge amount of fans from the Hip-Hop community and black American community. Her shapewear brand SKIMS saw her net worth shoot up to one billion dollars. She was listed on the Forbes billionaire list in 2020.

Beyond the business, Kim Kardashian has headlined conferences and spoken at various events. She announced on social media that she would be studying to become a lawyer. She has also shown a socially conscious side of her by fighting for the release of Alice Marie Johnson who was serving a life sentence for a non-violent drug offense. Kim has continued to use her resources to fight for prison reform and helping those who can’t afford legal representation pay for them.

Over the past decade, of some sorts, Kim Kardashian has grown from just a pretty face to a business mogul, capturing the entertainment, fashion, beauty, and tech industry. Kim has been engaged in businesses valued at billions of dollars and has signed endorsement deals that have helped promote others.

She has used her fame and popularity to champion different causes for social justice, gun violence, prison reform, and tolerance in the LGBT community. She has been able to achieve all these while also being a mother to four children. These tremendous feats are what make Kim Kardashian so famous and rich.

Author: Olaniyan