The Pinkfong Company IPO Preview
The Pinkfong company (creator of the Baby Shark brand) is getting ready to complete its IPO in KOSDAQ in 4Q 2025.
The company plans to issue 2 million shares in this listing. The IPO price range is from 32,000 won to 38,000 won per share.
At this price range, the expected expected market cap of the Pinkfong company ranges from 463 billion won (US$331 million) to 550 billion won ($393 million).
The Pinkfong company (creator of the Baby Shark brand) is getting ready to complete its IPO in KOSDAQ in 4Q 2025. The company plans to issue 2 million shares in this listing. The IPO price range is from 32,000 won to 38,000 won per share.
The total offering value ranges from 64 billion won to 76 billion won. At this price range, the expected market cap of the Pinkfong company ranges from 463 billion won (US$331 million) to 550 billion won ($393 million). The book building for the institutional investors is from 28 October to 3 November. Mirae Asset Securities and Samsung Securities are the joint lead managers of this IPO.
Source: Pinkfong, Korea Herald
Major Shareholders - Kim Min-Seok (CEO and founder) is the largest shareholder with an 18.44% stake in The Pinkfong Company. Samsung Publishing (068290 KS) (not related to the Samsung Group) is the second largest shareholder with a16.77% stake. Other related parties own additional 8.3% stake in The Pinkfong Company.
The Pinkfong Company Background
The Pinkfong Company was established in 2010. Capitalizing on its global hit "Baby Shark," the company has evolved from a startup to a global brand with expansion into children related education and entertainment contents. The Pinkfong Company began as SmartStudy, focusing on digital educational content for children.
The company's main business involves creating and distributing children's content across multiple platforms, including YouTube, mobile applications, and streaming services for education and entertainment purposes. Revenue streams include advertising, merchandise sales, licensing deals, and partnerships with global brands. Capitalizing on the wildly popular "Baby Shark" song, the company has expanded into merchandise, including toys, books, foods, and apparel.
In the past several years, the company has strengthened its licensing business using IP such as Pinkfong, Baby Shark, and Wonder Star in the US, by signing contracts with global companies such as Hasbro, Crocs, and Kellogg to produce toys and food. The company's character brands include "Pinkfong," "Baby Shark and the Shark Family," "Hogi," "Ninimo," "Bebefin," and "Sealook and the Family."
As the popularity of these character IPs grows, the company has expanded into various business models such as character licensing and merchandise. ITs business is divided into three areas: the content area, which utilizes character-based content IPs to create videos, music, apps, and performances; the licensing area, which connects and expands content with various business areas; the merchandise area; and other areas, such as game development.
The United States is the major country with the largest proportion of mobile app users, and the company has recorded approximately 496 million cumulative downloads worldwide. We have approximately 20 major apps, and in-app content is provided in up to 7 languages: English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, Indonesian, and Portuguese.
The Pinkfong company is an Attractive Acquisition Candidate - The Pinkfong company has built an enormously successful brands (especially Pinkfong and Baby Shark). Although the company's financials are reasonable but not especially strong, we believe there could be several global media giants (such as Disney) that may try to acquire the Pinkfong company, driven by the company's globally well-known children content brands.
Major IP Lineup of The Pinkfong Company
Pinkfong - Pinkfong is the company's representatitve character and its brand recognition is very high. Pinkfong has a total of 15 YouTube channels in different languages, and the representative channel, Pinkfong Baby Shark - Kid's Songs & Stories, recorded approximately 80.5 million subscribers as of December 2024.
The Baby Shark Dance video uploaded to the representative channel achieved the number 1 cumulative view on YouTube in November 2020, and exceeded 10 billion views for the first time in the world in January 2022, and recorded approximately 16.2 billion views as of August 2025.
Other representative contents include the TV animation Pinkfong Wonder Star, Pinkfong Dinosaur Nursery Rhymes and Pinkfong Car Nursery Rhymes for videos and audio, and Pinkfong Korean Bus for products and merchandise, and Pinkfong ABC Phonics and Pinkfong Phone Play for mobile apps.
Baby Shark - Baby Shark was launched as an animal nursery rhyme episode of Pinkfong Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales, but it gained popularity as an individual song, and a separate character business was launched, and it is now a core IP of the company along with Pinkfong.
The Shark Family consists of a total of five sharks: the baby, dad, mom, grandpa and grandma, and the Shark Family's first content is Baby Shark Dance, which is currently ranked first in cumulative views on YouTube.
Buoyed by the success of Baby Shark Dance, Baby Shark launched a separate YouTube channel in 2019 and achieved 100,000 subscribers in just 10 days, the shortest period of time ever, winning the Silver Play Button.
It also achieved 1 million subscribers in just 71 days, the shortest period of time since the channel was launched, winning the Gold Play Button. In addition, there is the Baby Shark Kids World APP for mobile apps, and the Baby Shark Coding Computer for products and merchandise.
