‘Baby Shark’ Producer’s Uncle Joins Ranks Of Korea’s 50 Richest

This story is part of Forbes’ coverage of Korea’s Richest 2020. See the full list here.

After devoting half his life to introducing Western fashion brands to Asia’s markets, Kim Chang-soo, 59, makes his debut on the Korea Rich List with a net worth of $680 million.

Kim’s fortune comes from his stake in clothing company F&F, where he is chief executive. F&F’s shares have more than doubled since January 2019 when the company secured the license to sell Major League Baseball-branded apparel in China, a key market for the U.S. organization. F&F launched MLB clothing in Korea in 1997 and then in 2010 expanded the label into children’s clothing; the brand remains a perennial bestseller in the baseball-loving nation.

Sales in the first quarter rose roughly 2% year on year, better than the overall South Korean retail industry’s roughly 3% decline. Sales last year jumped 36% to $781 million, while net income held steady at $100 million.

It was a busy year: in addition to expanding MLB into China, F&F in September launched IMM Style Venture, an investment fund focused on Korean fashion startups; then in October launched F&F Hochiminh in Vietnam as a base for distribution and quality control. All in all, F&F now has five brands, including Discovery Expedition, an outdoor label it launched in Korea in 2012.

The MLB China deal is part of Kim’s plan to go global. In 2017, F&F began selling MLB apparel in Hong Kong and Macau, before launching in Taiwan in 2018. The same year, the company spent $8.5 million to buy Duvetica, an Italian high-end down jacket label sold across Europe and Japan.

More on Forbes: Korea Faces An Economic Fork In The Road As It Recovers From The Pandemic

Kim’s keen eye for trends is shared by his nephew Kim Min-seok, producer of the “Baby Shark Dance” video, which has 5.5 billion views, making it the second most-viewed video on YouTube after Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s “Despacito.’’ The two-minute earworm about a family of sharks, released in 2016, went viral in 2018. In 2010, Min-seok, along with two former colleagues from Korean gaming firms Nexon and NHN, cofounded online education provider SmartStudy, which released “Baby Shark Dance.”