‘Baby Shark Dance,’ World’s Most-Watched YouTube Video, Hasn’t Made Its Creator Rich

SEOUL—“Baby Shark Dance,” the aggravatingly addictive children’s tune, is YouTube’s most-watched video ever. It has been played, on average, more than 4.7 million times a day since its 2016 upload. The “doo-doo-doo” nursery rhyme has amassed 16.4 billion views—roughly equivalent to Taylor Swift’s 10 most-popular YouTube videos combined. 

But all that viral power hasn’t translated into a mega fortune for Pinkfong, the South Korean company behind the two-minute jingle about a family of sharks. Last year, the company generated the equivalent of about $67 million in revenue, including earnings from YouTube.