Elon Musk tweet sees value of company behind Baby Shark soar

It’s a song that has ruined the lives of parents for years now, but some of those who looked into Baby Shark’s origins are now making big cash.

If you have young kids, your life has probably already been ruined by Baby Shark — which has been irritating parents pretty much non-stop since it was foisted upon us in 2016.

But if you were financially-savvy enough to back the company behind it, the chances are you will not mind the annoying “educational” tune one bit this morning.

That’s because shares of Samsung Publishing, a major shareholder in the producer of the video, suddenly shot up overnight after a single tweet.

The South Korean company’s shares climbed more than 10 per cent, before closing around 6 per cent higher. It has no affiliation with the multinational conglomerate Samsung Group, even though they share the same name.

It was all sparked by the Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeting in response to a South Park clip about memes.

“Baby Shark crushes all! More views than humans,” along with a video of the song.

It was a reference to the fact that the video – a repetitive shark-themed jingle popular with small children – has been watched 8.3bn times. The population of the world was estimated at less than 8bn in 2020.

Baby Shark crushes all! More views than humans. https://t.co/48Ol3ZzhjP

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2021

The video was created by Samsung’s Pinkfong division, which SmartStudy says “develops creative, animated content to provide stimulating and fun learning experiences to children worldwide.”

Pinkfong distributes its content through mobile apps and platforms such as YouTube and Amazon Video.

Samsung’s shares are now up 97 per cent so far this year, according to data from Trading View.

It carries on a massive growth trajectory for the company which has quadrupled in value since the end of 2018 as the song grew in popularity.

“Baby Shark” became the most-viewed YouTube video ever in November 2020, outpacing the global smash hit “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee.

The video was created by its Pinkfong division, which SmartStudy says “develops creative, animated content to provide stimulating and fun learning experiences to children worldwide.” Pinkfong distributes its content through mobile apps and platforms such as YouTube and Amazon Video.

The stock surge was another example of Musk’s massive influence on markets.

Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and dogecoin previously saw sharp moves in their prices following comments by the tech billionaire. His tweets have previously also been linked to moves in the stock market in so-called meme stocks such as GameStop.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. Picture: Brendan Smialowski / AFP

In February, the value of the “joke” cryptocurrency dogecoin, which started out as a dog-based internet meme, soared by 50 per cent when Musk described it as “the people’s crypto”.

Last month, while hosting Saturday Night Life, Musk said dogecoin a “hustle”, causing its value to slump again.

The price of bitcoin climbed 14 per cent to a record high of $US43,500 earlier this year after Musk praised it on Twitter. He subsequently bought $1.5bn of the digital currency and said it would allow customers to pay with it.

Last month, bitcoin fell back 17 per cent after Tesla suspended bitcoin payments. Musk said he had concerns about the fossil fuel intensity of bitcoin “mining”.