If there’s one good thing 2019 has given us, besides Baby Yoda and the Avengers: End Game,Baby Shark, doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo, Baby Shark.
You’ve probably heard this catchy tune somewhere before and even seen young kids dancing to it on social media. The Baby Shark song was arguably the catchiest tune of the year, so much so that even the Kardashian kids couldn’t stop themselves from singing along.
2019 introduced us to many catchy songs, but none of them came quite close to the Baby Shark anthem that was such an iconic pop culture moment that it was even featured in last year’s world series.
The monumental event saw Washington Nationals fans singing and dancing in unison to the infectious tune while in Lebanon, protestors sang the song to soothe a frightened child during a rally in a footage that has now gone viral over the internet.
It has now been three years since the song first came out, and it currently has over 4 billion views on YouTube alone. The iconic dance has also been mimicked by many on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
But you’ll be even more surprised to find out how much the family behind the pop culture masterpiece has profited from it.
The song was first released by Pinkfong, the offshoot of SmartStudy Co. in 2016. The company has now gained over 27 million subscribers on YouTube and made its founding family $125 million.
The original music video shows a pair of young children clapping their hands to mimic a shark’s jaws, but there have been several renditions of the song on social media ever since which have helped make the catchy tune more viral.
The hashtag, #babysharkchallenge, was popularized in 2017 on Instagram and a year later, the song was featured on the UK Top Chart on the 37th spot, and there was even a nationwide tour dedicated to the song.
The founder of SmartStudy.co admits that he never intended on writing such a viral song but it eventually worked out in his favor, boosting his net worth to $125 million.