With 3.8 billion views on YouTube, the viral song Baby Shark is taking the world by storm.
During the World Series, the National used the song to help fuel the craze.
Tens of thousands of Washington National fans sang the song and clapped in unison as it was played during this year’s World Series.
A video of protestors in Lebanon singing Baby Shark to a frightened toddler went viral.
Late-night comedian Jimmy Kimmel said the creator should be jailed for life for creating such an infectious tune.
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The song about a family of sharks is so popular now that the Korean family that created it are earning millions.
Kim Min-seok is one of the co-founders of the closely held SmartStudy Co. which was formed in 2010.
Five years later, the children’s educational brand, Pinkfong released ‘Baby Shark’.
Thanks to the song, the family fortune, based on stakes held by Kim’s immediate relatives in those two companies are about $125 million.
The week the World Series began and with the local media reporting on the song’s surging popularity among U.S. baseball fans, the shares of Samsung Publishing soared 89 per cent.
Gerardo Parra, National’s outfielder used the song as his walk-up music, leading to crowd singalongs with shark-jaw gestures, scenes that echoed across TVs as the team broke out of an early season slump. They rode the wave all the way to the championship.
63-per cent of Samsung Publishing is owned by the Kim Family which in turn owns 21-per cent of SmartStudy.
Comparing it to four publicly traded peers, Kim directly owns a 23-per cent stake in the startup.
38-year-old Kim did not set out to write a hit song.
He co-founded SmartStudy to focus on the growing market for educational content for smartphones after working at gaming companies including Nexon and developing content for kids at Samsung Publishing.
The early days for the app-to-video maker’s day were tough but eventually grew faster as the Baby Shark video became a sensation, Seungkyu Lee, Chief Financial Officer said in a January interview.
The startup revenue jumped about 47-per cent to 40 billion won last year.
Baby Shark garnered 3.8 billion views on YouTube and it reached the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
There’s also a concert experience for children, Baby Shark Live!