When a humble Seoul startup uploaded a 90-second nursery rhyme to YouTube in June 2016, nobody, not even its co-founder and CEO Kim Min-seok, imagined it would become the most recognisable jingle on the modern internet. But ‘Baby Shark’, with its perky animation, K-pop-adjacent tempo and hypnotic “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo” hook, is the single most-watched YouTube video in history. It has 16 billion views and counting.
It also turned Pinkfong, formerly SmartStudy, from a three-man children’s content shop into a US$400 million entertainment company that is now listed on South Korea’s KOSDAQ. The firm raised 76 billion won ($53 million) at the top of its IPO range, saw its shares jump more than 9% on debut, and has now formally joined Korea’s growing list of cultural exporters powered by data, design and digital-native IP.
“The speed of Korea’s creative industry resembles that of a startup. It is fast, ambitious, and sometimes exhausting,” remarks Mika Noh, former administrative director at the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism.
The ascent was neither inevitable nor straightforward. It’s the product of algorithmic instinct, unplanned virality, years of steady IP building and a determination to prove that its fate rests on more than one very catchy fish.
As Alex Shin, founder and VP of Comma Entertainment, puts it: “Korea has always had a strong desire to be global… K-entertainment’s success may seem sudden, but it’s the result of decades of effort and investment.”
A tiny office, toddler audience and a shark that changed everything
Pinkfong (formerly SmartStudy) was born in 2010 with three employees, a cramped office, and not much in the way of guaranteed salaries. The founding duo, Kim Min-seok and CTO Son Dongwoo, both from Korea’s gaming and IT world, saw an opportunity in preschool-focused digital content at a time when YouTube Kids didn’t yet exist and children’s app ecosystems were nascent.
The company cycled through several iterations before narrowing its sweet spot: toddlers, and content built atop simple repetition, early-learning cues and snackable storytelling.
The current version of Baby Shark was born in June 2016. The company uploaded a two-minute reimagined version of an old folk song of the 1970s, thought to have been popularised at summer camps in America. But Pinkfong’s hyper-bright animation, catchy beat, simple English lyrics and the unmistakable K-pop DNA were magic to toddlers everywhere. Parents couldn’t get enough of the “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo” either. Videos of kids in Southeast Asia dancing spread like wildfire. Schools and offices across Asia were suddenly hosting Baby Shark routines. The #BabySharkChallenge took over social media. Celebrities joined in. The virality was instant and feral. The internet was in love.
The tiny startup grew to employ 100 staffers.
At the height of the pandemic, in November 2020, Baby Shark knocked ‘Despacito’ off its throne to become YouTube’s most-watched clip ever. Just over a year later, it became the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views. For several years, it delivered nearly half of Pinkfong’s revenue—an extraordinary feat for a song originally meant to be just another upload.
With momentum on its side, the firm rebranded as Pinkfong in 2022, borrowing the name of its cheerful fox mascot, and scaled up again.
Today, it’s a 340-person operation with hubs in Tokyo, Shanghai and Los Angeles.
Pinkfong’s growth since the doo-doo-doo
The growth curve is both aggressive and deliberate. Pinkfong now produces content in 25 languages and commands more than 280 million YouTube subscribers across its network. Its universe has expanded from the flagship shark and fox to a suite of increasingly important franchises.
Bebefinn, the pink-haired toddler character, whose show landed in Netflix’s top 10 kids’ charts across nine countries, is a standout. According to CEO Kim Min-seok in a BBC interview, Bebefinn has now officially overtaken Baby Shark in content revenue and now accounts for roughly 40% of earnings, while Baby Shark sits at around 25%.
Sealook (a troupe of round, absurdist seals) is another popular franchise.
The company has spun its characters into TV shows, including a Nickelodeon-produced Baby Shark series, musicals, educational apps, games, live shows and mountains of merchandise.
Even today, the fundamentals of its model are unmistakably digital-first. Think short-form content engineered for endless replay by the toddler demographic—one of media’s most reliable repeat-viewing engines.
Plagiarism claims and investor green light
In 2019, American children’s songwriter Jonathan Wright claimed Pinkfong had copied his work. He took his claim all the way to South Korea’s Supreme Court, and accused Pinkfong of plagiarising his earlier version of ‘Baby Shark’, recorded in 2011. Pinkfong's version was released in 2016.
Wright said he owned the copyright to the interpretation, but Pinkfong argued that its version was an arrangement of the same folk song, which is in the public domain. In August 2025, Korea’s highest court ruled in favour of Pinkfong, noting that Wright's version "had not reached a level of substantial alteration" from the original folk song for it to be considered a separate work, which means it is not protected as a separate piece of work under copyright law.
The ruling cleared a distraction ahead of the listing and underscored just how high the stakes of a runaway hit can be.
Investors remain bullish. Analysts expect the stock to climb roughly 20% within a year, with Douglas Research Advisory saying Pinkfong is “one of the most sought-after acquisition candidates in the global animation industry.”
The company posted 45.2 billion won in revenue in the first half of 2025, and more than 75% of sales come from overseas.
The family, Kim Min-seok, his father and his uncle, fashion tycoon Kim Chang-soo, have also seen their combined fortune swell to an estimated 246 billion won.
Pinkfong has said it plans to use its IPO proceeds to develop new, patentable characters and expand in key markets, including Japan, Southeast Asia, North America and Europe.