Family behind Baby Shark video has $193m fortune

With its catchy lyrics and effortless dance moves, the Baby Shark song has taken the internet by storm. Photo / YouTube, Pinkfong

It is one of the most-watched videos of all time, clocking up almost four billion views on YouTube since it surfaced three years ago.

With its catchy lyrics and effortless dance moves, the Baby Shark song has taken the internet by storm and become the (intrinsically repetitive) soundtrack to many parents' weekends.

Now it has been revealed that the Korean family behind the lucrative track is sitting on a multimillion-dollar fortune.

Kim Min-seok, 38, co-founded entertainment company SmartStudy Co. in 2010 and its educational offshoot, Pinkfong, released the video Baby Shark in 2016.

His father runs Samsung Publishing Co., and the family's stakes in these two companies puts their combined wealth at around $193 million, according to Bloomberg.

Pinkfong now has more than 25 million subscribers on its YouTube channel and regularly posts singalongs for children.

The Baby Shark video features a young boy and girl singing about a family of sharks while clapping their arms as if they are jaws.

It swept social media in 2017 as people began posting videos of themselves performing the routine under the hashtag #babysharkchallenge.

Last year it made it into the UK Top 40 charts at 37th place, alongside hits by modern music titans such as Ariana Grande, Calvin Harris and Cardi B.

It was even sung by Lebansese protesters to soothe a sleeping toddler during noisy clashes in Beirut last week.

A mother had unwittingly driven into a demonstration and asked the activists to shop shouting because her young son was asleep in the front passenger seat.

The throng obligingly complied, before spontaneously breaking into a rendition of the song. The mother filmed the encounter and the video went viral on the internet.

The song is currently on tour in America, with Baby Shark Live! offering "one of a kind live experience" with the Shark Family.