3 days ago
YouTube's top star ‘Baby Shark' creator Pinkfong applies for IPO in South Korea
SEOUL (Bloomberg): The company behind "Baby Shark,' the most watched YouTube video of all time, will go public 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.
