Taylor Swift, Kim Kardashian built billion-dollar business empires
Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian shined a spotlight on female celebrities in the business world in 2023.
Swift, 33, became a billionaire as she completed the first year of “The Eras Tour” and released two more re-recorded albums in order to own all of her music. Meanwhile, Kardashian was named one of GQ’s men of the year, despite being a female.
FOX Business takes a look at some business empires run by females:
Taylor Swift
Swift’s net worth surpᴀssed $1 billion in October, with the “Eras Tour” and her recently rerecorded albums pushing the pop star to a net worth of $1.1 billion, according to Bloomberg. In the last few years, Swift has re-released four of her first six albums for complete ownership, and also gave fans a new album.
The “1989” singer-songwriter is one of the few musicians to achieve billionaire status with just music releases and performances, the outlet reported.
“Taylor is in a unique position, in terms of monetizing her talent. In an era where artists have lost millions – as album sales gave way to digital downloads – she’s actually riding the tech wave, instead of going out with the digital tide,” branding expert Doug Eldridge told FOX Business.
Kim Kardashian
Kim Kardashian was named one of GQ’s men of the year for 2023 as she delved into men’s clothing with her SKIMS shapewear business. Kardashian isn’t a stranger to founding businesses – she first founded the boutique store Dash in 2006 alongside her sisters.
Since then, she’s run a handful of successful businesses, including SKIMS and SKKN. At one point, Kardashian also had KKW Beauty and KKW Fragrance before both were shuttered in 2021 and 2022.
“The Kardashians” star didn’t stick to beauty and fashion only. She launched the app, “Kim Kardashian: Hollywood,” in 2014. Users could create their own celebrity persona and work to become famous in the Kardashian world. The following year, the business mogul launched “Kimoji,” which featured an emoji keyboard using Kardashian’s image. Both apps were shut down in 2018.
Rihanna
Rihanna hit billionaire status in 2021. The “Work” singer, who has a catalog of hits dating back to the early 2000s, is worth $1.7 billion, Forbes reported at the time.
However, Rihanna’s fortune didn’t all come from her career in music. The superstar’s company, Fenty Beauty, is to thank for the majority of her wealth. The makeup brand was launched in 2017.
The “Umbrella” singer later launched Fenty Skin in 2020.
