00:00Where is Baby Shark Boy today? Baby Shark has crossed 17 billion views, making it the most
00:07watched video in human history. But while billions know the iconic shark fin dance,
00:11almost nobody knew what happened to the six-year-old child at the center of it.
00:18Born Park Jianrung, he's now 17 and just announced a career pivot that no one saw coming.
00:26Baby Shark, doo-doo-doo. Reports State Park is now officially launching a K-pop idol career
00:32under the name Baby Shark Boy. But to understand how this six-year-old went from dancing to Baby
00:36Shark to launching a K-pop career, you have to look at the corporate juggernaut behind him.
00:41The story began in 2010, when CEO Kim Manseo co-founded a tiny tech startup called Smart
00:46Study in Seoul. Operating out of a small office with just three employees, Kim admitted to the BBC
00:52that during those early days, they didn't even expect to draw a salary. But everything changed
00:56when they rebranded to focus on toddlers, renamed the company after a cheerful cartoon fox named
01:01Pinkfong, and adapted an old 1970s American Campfire song. Understanding how catchy the track needed to
01:07be, Kim told the BBC, it's like a K-pop song. It's very fast-paced, rhythmical, and addictive.
01:14Adding that the tune's chanting effect made it nearly impossible for children to forget.
01:18That fast-paced K-pop-style rhythm, paired with six-year-old Park Ji-yeon Rung doing the dance
01:23routine, birthed a 90-second clip that would soon make history. And what they thought was a routine
01:28upload became an inescapable global phenomenon. The video generated roughly half of the company's
01:35revenue in its early years, though it wasn't without drama. Reports state Pinkfong had to defeat a
01:40high-stakes copyright lawsuit from an American composer, after South Korea's Supreme Court ruled that
01:45the track was derived from a public domain folk song. That legal win cleared the path for massive
01:50expansion. Late last year, Pinkfong went public on the South Korean stock market, raising nearly
01:55$52 million in its debut and pushing the company's valuation past $400 million. Now a global media
02:01company with hundreds of employees from Seoul to Los Angeles, Pinkfong faces a new challenge.
02:07CEO Kim Min-sook shared that those funds will expand their lineup of films and original IP.
02:12But as Pinkfong looks to prove to investors that they aren't a one-hit wonder, they're
02:16turning to their most ambitious experiment yet, taking the human face of their greatest
02:20hit and turning him into a real-life pop star. As first reported by Forbes, Pinkfong is officially
02:25launching a project rarely seen in children's entertainment. Most animated IP franchises like
02:31Cocomelon or Peppa Pig rely on cartoon characters that never age. But Pinkfong is attempting something
02:37entirely new. Now, 17-year-old Park Jianrong is formally debuting as a recording artist under the
02:43stage name Baby Shark. His debut single titled Way drops on August 20th. The track is said to
02:48underplay the classic Baby Shark hook with a trendy synth-pop beat. According to Pinkfong,
02:53the lyrics explore the surreal feeling of stepping back into the spotlight 10 years later. And Jianrong,
02:59who helped write the lyrics, told Forbes he's just grateful people still remember the video he made as a
03:04kid. But Pinkfong isn't launching him into the music industry alone. The single features a huge
03:09cosign from Juhani, the main rapper and producer of the major K-pop group Monsta X. And it's a full
03:15circle moment. Monsta X was one of the K-pop acts that took on the Baby Shark Viral Dance Challenge
03:20back in 2018 and did the choreography on Korean TV. Now Juhani will be featured on the track to launch
03:31the actual kid who danced in the original video. Reflecting on his journey, Jianrong stated to Forbes,
03:3710 years ago I danced next to Baby Shark. Now I want people to hear my own voice and the
03:41story I wrote
03:42myself. And this isn't coming out of nowhere. Pinkfong actually tested the waters for this last year,
03:47with a 10th anniversary short-form video that pulled in over 24 million views on Instagram alone,
03:53proving that public curiosity about the Baby Shark Boy was massive, well before any music was even
03:58attached to it. And while some are saying Baby Shark Boy is here to save the music industry,
04:03others are saying the name is cringe, and that debuting with Monsta X is the ultimate flop.
04:08And here at What's Trending, we see something even bigger, because they're not trying to force Park
04:12Jungrong into a grueling seven-year idol contract. According to reports from the Korean Herald,
04:18Pinkfong confirmed that this is a specialized one-off project, meaning Pinkfong is building an
04:23experimental bridge between corporate children's IP and mainstream pop music, all to answer one
04:28question. Can a 17 billion view viral meme actually generate real streamable music revenue?
Comments