‘Baby Shark' creator Pinkfong applies for IPO in South Korea
SEOUL : 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 yesterday, 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% today, extending losses for the second session.
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