The creator of the children’s song Baby Shark, which has become a global phenomenon, said that his company is eyeing the Chinese market, where the tune did not quite catch on, with a new production featuring dinosaurs.
The popular song about a family of sharks has been a rallying cry at Lebanese anti-government protests, played at the White House and become the unofficial anthem of the baseball World Series champions Washington Nationals. It has also prompted parodies and a dance craze.
The cofounder and chief financial officer of the South Korean publisher behind the viral song and video, the fifth-most viewed all time on YouTube, said it is targeting China next to make sure that it does not end a one-hit wonder.
Photo: Reuters
“Who would have thought sharks could become this popular?” Ryan Lee of SmartStudy said in an interview. “Children who like dinosaurs definitely exist around the world, but there’s no brand name attached to them.”
The Baby Shark song, which has had 3.9 billion views on YouTube, is a under copyright to SmartStudy, a South Korean company that is planning an initial public offering.
The company sees the song to Baby Shark as “evergreen content,” SmartStudy said.
It is planning a Baby Shark-themed animated TV series with the Nickelodeon television network.
SmartStudy sees the limitation of the domestic market and is eyeing China, where the absence of YouTube and the clunky local word for shark, shayu (鯊魚), did little for Baby Shark’s appeal.
Dinosaurs, on the other hand, will be a different story, Lee said, citing China’s active research into the reptiles as a sign of great interest.
“China is not an easy market, but there’s no market more attractive other than China. More than a billion people speaking a single language and this is a country that evolved into a market from a factory,” he said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
A Croatian town has come up with a novel solution to solve the issue of working parents when there are no public childcare spaces available: pay grandparents to do it. Samobor, near the capital, Zagreb, has become the first in the country to run a “Grandmother-Grandfather Service,” which pays 360 euros (US$400) a month per child. The scheme allows grandparents to top up their pension, but the authorities also hope it will boost family ties and tackle social isolation as the population ages. “The benefits are multiple,” Samobor Mayor Petra Skrobot told reporters. “Pensions are rather low and for parents it is sometimes
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
A documentary whose main subject, 25-year-old photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza weeks before it premiered at Cannes stunned viewers into silence at the festival on Thursday. As the cinema lights came back on, filmmaker Sepideh Farsi held up an image of the young Palestinian woman killed with younger siblings on April 16, and encouraged the audience to stand up and clap to pay tribute. “To kill a child, to kill a photographer is unacceptable,” Farsi said. “There are still children to save. It must be done fast,” the exiled Iranian filmmaker added. With Israel