Seven years after posting “Baby Shark Dance” on YouTube, Kim Min-seok, CEO and cofounder of the Korean company behind the viral video, looks to expand and replicate its success in digital comics called webtoons, as well as offline shows and theme parks.
After almost a decade of toiling in obscurity, a 2-minute viral YouTube video about a family of cartoon sharks catapulted a little-known Korean entertainment company to stardom in 2018.
Seoul-based Pinkfong posted “Baby Shark Dance” on YouTube in 2016, which went viral two years later. The singalong became the most-watched video on YouTube in 2020 and has generated 13 billion views to date. Even Elon Musk tweeted about it in 2021, saying the video has “more views than humans.”
Now, as the “Baby Shark” video turned seven years old this month, Pinkfong’s CEO and cofounder, Kim Min-seok, says it’s time for the company to grow up and expand beyond kids’ entertainment and YouTube videos to find more growth.
“We’ve initiated a new growth plan to expand into a global content powerhouse that creates content and entertaining experiences for family members of all ages,” says Kim, the baby-faced 42-year-old CEO, in a video interview. “We are developing various formats and genres of content that can attract untapped audiences beyond kids.”
Hong Kong actor and singer Aaron Kwok at a “Baby Shark” event in Hong Kong in 2019.
TPG/Getty Images
Pinkfong’s first target is teenagers and young adults, an age group Kim knows well. Before cofounding Pinkfong in 2010, Kim worked at top online gaming companies Nexon and NHN. And he can ask his billionaire uncle, fashion tycoon Kim Chang-soo, for advice. Kim Chang-soo—who owns almost 1% of Pinkfong—runs F&F, a $4 billion market cap clothing giant that also targets the same age group.
Pinkfong’s Kim aims to reach new audiences through webtoons—bite-sized digital comic books that are designed to be read on a smartphone. The portmanteau of web and cartoon is like a TikTok version of digital comics, explains Jayden Kang, global business director for the story division at Kakao Entertainment, the entertainment unit of Korean billionaire Kim Beom-su’s internet giant Kakao.
Jayden Kang, global business director for the story division at Kakao Entertainment.
COURTESY OF KAKAO ENTERTAINMENT
“TikTok content is 30 seconds or 10 seconds—very short—generally with no context. Webtoons are similar in that you don’t need to remember the whole storyline,” says Kang, who previously worked at Korean internet giant Naver, which, together with Kakao Entertainment, are the world’s two largest webtoon platforms. “It’s snackable and enjoyable content. If you have just 10 minutes on the bus or subway, you can just turn on the app and read.”
Teenagers and young adults—the generations that grew up with a smartphone in their hands—are particularly drawn to the easily digestible format of webtoons, and that’s why Pinkfong is so determined to expand into the webtoons market. “Young adults are the largest consumer group of the webtoon genre,” says Kim. “It is an excellent format to reach untapped audiences, including teenagers and young adults.”
It’s also a fast-growing market. In Korea, where the webtoon format was created in the early 2000s, sales of digital comics reached 1.6 trillion won (about $1.4 billion) in 2021, up from 1.1 trillion won in 2020 and 380 billion won in 2017, according to an industry report by the state-run Korea Creative Content Agency.
The growing market for webtoons is being fueled by the diverse range of content available, says Kang. There are relatively few overhead costs and a low barrier of entry for making webtoons, he says, allowing cartoonists to easily make a variety of them.
Some of the most popular webtoons include Covertness (2010), an action-comedy about three North Korean spies on a secret mission in a poor neighborhood in South Korea, and The Kingdom of the Gods (2014), a zombie drama set in the Joseon dynasty in Korea.
“Webtoon is a gold mine of original stories.”
“The original content, which has proven its power on webtoon platforms, can be turned into other formats such as live-action movies, shows, animation and games,” says Kim. “We’ve already witnessed great webtoons successfully being adapted to TV.”
For example, Covertness was adapted into a blockbuster film in 2013, called Secretly Greatly, which became the fastest movie in Korea to reach a million admissions (in less than 36 hours). And The Kingdom of the Gods was the inspiration for the 2019 Netflix show Kingdom, which was the streaming giant’s first hit from Korea.
“Webtoon is a gold mine of original stories,” says Kakao Entertainment’s Kang. “Many producers look for original stories from webtoons.”
Kakao Entertainment says about 50 of its webtoons were sold for film or TV adaptation last year, double the number in 2020. Examples of Kakao Entertainment’s webtoons that were adapted into hit TV shows include Business Proposal (released on Netflix in 2022), which was Netflix’s third most-watched show globally, and Dr. Brain (released on Apple TV+ in 2021, the first Korean-language TV series produced for Apple’s streaming service). And Walt Disney’s flagship Disney+ streaming service is preparing to release Moving, based on Kakao Entertainment’s webtoon, later this year.
Promotional poster for the webtoon “Dr. Brain” (left) and its TV show adaptation (right).
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Pinkfong joins a growing number of companies that are expanding into the increasingly popular entertainment form. Amazon in March launched a webtoons section on its Kindle e-readers for Japanese users, while Apple last December signed an exclusive deal with Korean startup Kenaz to supply webtoons to its Books app.
Investors are also diving in. In February last year, Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC led a $99 million funding round in Ridi, valuing the Korean webtoon startup at $1.3 billion. And Kakao Entertainment received about $950 million in investment from GIC and Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund in January this year.
Kakao Entertainment itself has been investing heavily in webtoons in the past several years. In 2021 alone, Kakao Entertainment spent almost $1 billion to buy three major digital content companies: Tapas Media (operator of the first online comic portal in North America) for $510 million, Radish (a serialized fiction app backed by SoftBank Ventures Asia and early Twitter investor Chris Sacca’s Lowercase Capital) for $440 million and Wuxiaworld (an English-language fantasy fiction website and app based in Hong Kong) for $37.5 million.
The creator of “Baby Shark” also wants to go viral offline, especially in live shows and theme parks. “Offline businesses resumed after the pandemic and are one of the opportunities that we are most excited about,” says Kim. “Interactive content, such as live shows and theme parks, makes you want to consume content in other ways in real life, such as buying related toys and products after watching and experiencing the content.”
Kim is especially excited about “Baby Shark Live!”—Pinkfong’s live show based on its viral YouTube video—which toured hundreds of cities across North America after pandemic restrictions were eased. Its live show performed in Singapore earlier this month, and is preparing to perform in over 20 cities across China starting from next month.
“Pinkfong Baby Shark Live!” at Kings Theatre in November 2019 in New York.
Taylor Hill/Getty Images for Baby Shark
“Live shows are one of the most engaging ways to foster fans’ loyalty,” says Kim. “Providing a space where kids and families can sing and dance together, live shows offer unique entertainment experiences with different levels of engagement compared to the experiences from TV shows and videos.”
Theme parks—a lucrative business for Walt Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company—are also a top priority for Pinkfong. “Theme parks not only feature highly engaging attractions and experiences such as rides, games and merchandise, but also provide kids and their parents with opportunities to spend quality time together,” explains Kim. “Thus, theme parks, like live shows, play important roles in building a strong fan base and creating evergreen brands.”
Building a theme park populated with characters from its library of content is a well-worn playbook. Studio Ghibli, for example, the beloved Japanese animation house behind the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, opened a theme park in central Japan’s Aichi prefecture in November. When the theme park fully opens next year, the Aichi government estimates it will create an economic ripple effect of nearly 50 billion yen ($380 million) for the prefecture, home to industrial heavyweights like Toyota Motor.
In October, Pinkfong opened a 14,000-square-foot pop-up indoor theme park, a first for the company, in Singapore. Pinkfong launched another pop-up indoor theme park in neighboring Malaysia in January and plans to open one in Hong Kong next month.
And just last month, Pinkfong partnered with Chinese theme park operator Haichang Ocean Park, which is backed by Korean billionaire Michael Kim’s (no relation) private equity giant MBK Partners, to bring its Baby Shark-themed live shows and merchandise, among others, to more than 30 cities across China.
Backpacks featuring characters from Pinkfong’s brands.
SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg
To create more content for its webtoons, live shows and theme parks, Pinkfong is looking to tap its corporate venture arm for ideas. “Because the business industry has a relatively short trend cycle than other businesses, it is essential to experiment to find what audiences actually like in a timely manner,” Pinkfong’s Kim says.
“Founded as a small startup with three members, we have been able to experiment and make decisions promptly in a fast-paced environment,” he adds. “But as the company grew, it became harder to experiment and act quickly compared to the past. We sought a solution and found that M&A and investments were one of the best ways to bring the advantages of the small-scale company even when the organization is not small anymore.”
Pinkfong launched its venture capital arm, SmartStudy Ventures, in 2019 and manages three funds: a $30 million tourism-focused fund, a $35 million intellectual property fund (which will acquire IP rights to a variety of content) and a sector-agnostic fund.
Its portfolio companies include webtoon-production studio Endorphins, animation studio Red Dog Culture House and game developer Marcoville.
“One of our ultimate goals would be to create joyful content that can bring people from different generations and backgrounds together,” says Kim. “It would be truly meaningful if we see toddlers who grew up watching Pinkfong and Baby Shark become grownups, and enjoy Pinkfong and Baby Shark with their own children in the future.”