Smart Study starts anew as Pinkfong to broaden entertaining target to teens and adults

Smart Study, behind the global Baby Shark sensation, has been rechristened to The Pinkfong Company to heighten multinational family entertainment focus as it pushes business spectrum beyond children and education.

The company on Thursday revealed its new corporate identity (CI) and name for more global appeal and business broadening from children education to family entertainment.

The company this year will release digital fictions from the joint venture Moonshark it set up with M Story Hub, a content producer famous for popular webtoons "The Man of the Harem" and "The Remarried Empress." Its new work due out this year includes a teen romance with K-pop, electronic dance music (EDM), and fantasy elements. The company also plans to release the sound source as part of a transmedia strategy to expand the original intellectual property to multiple media.

It also will be launching sports software. It has established "Rhythm & Jenny," a joint venture with Son Yeon-jae, a former national rhythmic gymnast representing Riff Studio. Rhythm and Jenny will present gymnastics curriculums, home training videos and merchandises.

It is also enhancing contents for children. In the first half of this year, the company plans to release a 3D content series featuring humanoid characters and 2D dinosaur animations and build up its core strength on Baby Shark, which was a worldwide box office success. Last year, it started to make the sequel to the animation "Pinkfong Cinema Concert," which ranked fifth on Netflix in the U.S. last year. It also plans to release a new season for Baby Shark Big Show that scored highest rating for children on the first day of broadcasting in the U.S.

It will open the fourth base in Singapore, after Los Angeles, Shanghai, and Hongkong. Its new subsidiary in Singapore is expected to be its hub for Southeast Asia.

The company is expanding on metaverse and non-fungible token (NFT) collaboration targeting the global market. Last October, it launched a collaboration item with Zepeto, Asia's No.1 metaverse platform, and unveiled a music video. Last December, the company released an NFT series, "Baby Shark Collection: Number One," through collaboration with the US-based MakersPlace that sold out.

¡°We have made records, coming first in YouTube viewership and earning RIAA diamond and 11 multi-platinum certifications. We are moving beyond education to film music, concerts and games. We are adding digital fiction and sports to become truly multi-entertaining and global,¡± said CEO Kim Min-seok.

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