YouTube's top star ‘Baby Shark' creator Pinkfong applies for IPO in South Korea
Pinkfong Co. submitted the paperwork to apply for an initial public offering on the small-cap Kosdaq index on Thursday, the company said in an email.
Though Pinkfong declined to comment on the size of the deal, Korea Economic Daily reported the company may fetch a valuation of about 700 billion won (US$507 million).
Watched almost 16 billion times, the Korean jingle is more than 7 billion views ahead of Luis Fonsi's "Despacito' on YouTube as kids worldwide keep watching the video endlessly nearly a decade after it was released.
Still, Pinkfong has struggled to replicate the success of that hit, with songs like "Penguin Dance' garnering a more modest 124 million views.
Pinkfong Co-founder Kim Min-seok owns more than 18% of the company, while Samsung Publishing Co. holds almost 17%. Shares of Samsung Publishing dropped 8.1% on Friday, extending losses for the second session.
Mirae Asset Securities Co. and Samsung Securities Co. are arranging the deal.
-- With assistance from Shinhye Kang. - ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
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