After dictating the rise and fall of cryptocurrencies, Elon Musk's tweets have instigated massive market interest in something quite unexpected: the viral children's song, "Baby Shark."
Shares of Korea's Samsung Publishing, which has a large stake in the producer of the song SmartStudy, rose 10 percent in intraday trading to 49,000 won ($44) before closing 5.29 percent higher at 47,300 won ($42.42). It is its best showing in nearly a month, CNBC reported.
Samsung Publishing is in not affiliated with the electronics conglomerate Samsung Group despite having the same business name.
Elon Musk 'Baby Shark' Tweet: What is it All About?
This came after Musk tweeted, "Baby Shark crushes all! More views than humans." His tweet came as a response to post by the official South Park Twitter account sharing a video of popular meme stars clashing, CNN shared.
The meme stars battle it out. pic.twitter.com/gitvuvA0FU
— South Park (@SouthPark) June 1, 2021
The insanely catchy children's rhyme was said to have been around for ages. But when SmartStudy's Pinkfong division uploaded a version of the song recorded by Korean American singer Hope Seguine on YouTube in 2016, the song became a viral craze. Its video is currently the most watched YouTube video in history with 8.6 billion views.
Pinkfong produces and develops fun, stimulating children-focused learning content on mobile apps, and on video-sharing platforms, such as YouTube and Amazon Video.
Samsung Publishing Stock Soars
Samsung Publishing owns an 18 percent stake in SmartStudy. CNBC further reported that the Samsung Publishing stock had risen 97 percent since the start of the year. Shares of Samsung Publishing soared to around 78 percent in 2018 when "Baby Shark" first entered pop music charts around the world.
Musk's tweets are known to send markets in a wild frenzy.
His tweets about his favorite cryptocurrency Dogecoin has made it go on a wild rollercoaster ride. A tweet about a "Doge barking at the moon' lifted the meme-based coin to a massive price increase. Another surge came when Musk tweeted a parody of the movie poster of the classic film "Jaws," wherein a dog replaced the famous shark in devouring a dollar bill. "You'll never use the dollar again," Musk tweeted.
His tweets, however, also sent Dogecoin and the rest of the market spiraling down, especially after announcing that Tesla won't be accepting Bitcoin as a payment option. And who could forget his mentioning that Dogecoin was a "hustle" on national TV?
Musk would make up for the damage by tweeting that he was collaborating with Dogecoin developers to "improve transaction efficiency," and this made the digital token recover lost ground and zoom up as the seventh most traded cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of $43.68 billion.
Controversy Surrounding Elon Musk Tweets
Elon Musk's tweets likewise sparked controversy and legal action. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission previously accused Musk of fraud after tweeting he had "funding secured" to make Tesla private at $420 a share and ordered Tesla to check all of Musk's public communications about the company, the Daily Mail said.
The tweet sent the Tesla stock soaring, allowing Musk to earn a reported $851 million. Musk's tiff with the SEC, which continues up to this day, led him to resign as Tesla chairman in 2018 and pay a $20 million fine.
