Adam Torres and Ryan Seungkyu Lee discuss the Korea Conference.
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Show Notes:
Listen to coverage of The Korea Conference in Marina Del Rey, California. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Ryan Seungkyu Lee, Co-founder & EVP at The Pinkfong Company. Explore Baby Shark and the Korea Conference.
Watch Full Interview:
About Ryan Seungkyu Lee
Ryan is the Co-founder and Executive Vice President of The Pinkfong Company, the global entertainment company that delivers content and entertaining experiences around the world.
With extensive knowledge and experience in the content industry, Ryan specializes in developing business strategies, monetizing business plans, and building strong business relations. After co-founding The Pinkfong Company, he has been leading global business strategies and market development of the company, successfully adapting to new market trends and realities for the business.
About The Pinkfong Company
The Pinkfong Company has produced more than 5,000 songs and stories including its well-known ‘Baby Shark’ video, the No.1 most watched YouTube video with over 10 billion views and distributed a range of content across various genres and formats including original animated series, world live tours, interactive games, and more.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to apply. All right, so today I’m in Marina del Rey, and I am at the Korea Conference 2024, and we just got done listening to some pitches.
We had some great fun. We’ve been networking with the companies and I was able to snag Ryan Lee for an interview. First off, Ryan, welcome to the show. Hi, it’s my pleasure. Thanks for having me. And so you were here last year. Did I get that right? It’s my first time to be in here. First time. Yeah, but so fascinating.
How do you like it so far? It’s wonderful. Actually, not bad. Flight wonderful flooring actually, but it’s really good. We could see the wonderful seaside. Yeah, LA South california. Yeah, there’s a lot of palm tree and houses and great wonderful light outside. So, of the conference we saw a bunch of we saw companies we had dinner.
What was your favorite part? What was your favorite part so far? Actually food was really good, but in my mind I love the Speech. Yes. The fashion of the each company is showing who I am and what we are good at and what my future is really great. Tell me more about the company, about the company that you work for.
Yeah, my company called Ping Pong Company. Actually, we are the company behind the Baby Shark. Yeah. I think you should have heard that song. Everybody knows Baby Shark. Yeah, we created Baby Shark in 2015.
Really popular it starts on south korea then moved to indonesia And philippine and uk us and everywhere So really, thank you for everyone who loves baby. Yes sometimes In terms of father and mom, it may be something crazy to hear one song maybe 100 times a day, but Thanks for your love. Yes, I think many I hope I think many, I hope many kids love Baby Shark.
I hope it’s gonna be a wonderful experience. Yeah. I hope it’s gonna be their first song. Really. Yes. Love. Yeah. I always wonder, and I never thought I’d get to talk to the creators of Baby Shark, but I always wonder, how do you come up with an idea like that and how does it spread? Like, how does that spread?
It’s like magic to me. Yeah, actually. 0 to 1 and 1 to 100 is a little different story, right? But in terms of creation of Baby Shark, at that time our team thinking about something like that, we should make some animal album. Album usually means it contains 10 to 13, usually like the CD case in the case.
But at that time we actually done something in digital, but we are in living in some old format, but anyway. At that time we would like something different. Mm. Because, because differentiation is just a yes. Key start of marketing, right? Mm-Hmm. . So we think what would be the differentiator? Mm. So we are thinking about what kids really like.
Mm. So we have found that the many kids, they understand the pyramid. Mm-Hmm. who is strong. Yeah. They really know. So they prefer something. Strong and fierce animal in terms of dinosaur. They love T rex. Yeah in terms of birds They definitely love eagle and hawk. Yes In that case, what if the animal live in savannah definitely lion then?
Yeah, what if the sea animal lives in the ocean? Shark, yeah, how about you make something? Telling about something the truth about the jungle or like that So many song kids actually Talking about some, what’s that, very cute animal, like a butterfly, caterpillar, rabbit, like that. So how about we make something different?
Talking about something serious, like talking about the lion, shark, or T Rex. That’s actually the beginning of the baby shark. Wow. Did you, were there earlier, like, versions before getting to this version, or was this kind of like the original model of the character, would you say? Or is it close? Is it close?
Close, but actually we started to create content. Content means animated kids songs. We started in 2012. So we have some experience in more than three years. Yes. But after that, we know what the real indie user like. Yeah. That we found they kid. Quite similar. Yeah. To adult. So we found that they are like small adult.
Yeah. So they know, they understand the truth of the real world. Mm-Hmm. . So we proposed something, story or song of the. Fierce and strong. Yes. Animal. Yes. Was there a certain point when you were like, Okay, this is, we all, entrepreneurs, a lot of entrepreneurs watch this show, and when we’re thinking about, you know, launching as we’re growing an idea, was there a point when you were like, Oh, we have something that’s going to be like the Beatles.
Yeah, okay, okay. Then I’m going to have some three things. Please. The first thing is that, You should observe what the real user likes or don’t like. Because sometimes users don’t know. Sometimes users don’t tell what they really like. We just observe what real kids like. Because kids are not, they can’t tell properly, right?
So everything starts from the user. That’s the first thing. You Second thing, sometimes revolution, or evolution, it would be held outside, outskirts, not the heart of the darkness or emperor, just outside. Because we could do that because we have no legacy. We are out of the legitimacy of some key song business, so we could do that.
Very properly. Maybe, maybe the company who actually based in U. S. They never think of something like Baby Shark. That’s true. S. many people, in terms of shark, they think of another very famous movie, right? Jaws, that’s what I woke up, I grew up with that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so it’s something like Fierce, or something like Alien, or like that.
You’re right, yeah. So we’d be, we are not living in U. S., so we could do that. Yeah, I never thought about that. You’re right. Prior to that. So now, and what I think is really beautiful about that, I didn’t even think about it till you just said it, is that my generation, we were kind of taught through those movies, The Fear Sharks, that now the kids, you just humanize them for a whole another generation.
So now, or not humanize them, but made them accessible and made them accessible. It’s quite similar to Teddy Bear. Wow. Yeah. Teddy, the bear is actually fierce animal in stage, right? But after Luzbel, the teddy bear turn into the cute animal, like the rabbit. Actually apply to baby shark. Wow. So this next generation maybe won’t even fear the water the same way.
Cause I, I always tell, I tell this, I tell this story. We are endorsed by shark. No, no, no, no. It’s true. I tell this story all the time. Like I’m from Michigan and in Michigan, there’s a bunch of lakes. There’s no sharks. There’s nothing, but I still get scared. Cause I grew up with that. You. And. Cause I grew up with that, that other movie though, that I’m not even going to bring up anymore because now I’m about the baby shark.
I don’t want to let you down. People are going to think doo doo doo doo doo. Not bite you. That’s exactly right. Oh, so what’s your, I mean, obviously now it’s a phenomenon, everybody knows what it is, how do you, I’m always just curious about this, when I think about like some of the iconic characters, like whether it’s like a Gudetama or a Hello Kitty or like these really like like iconic characters that there’s a lot of individuals that have spent many years Decades protecting, protecting and understanding the significance of that IP for a people and the pride in that, like, what is it like being at the helm of like a it’s a, it’s this has that type of legs.
One, tons of million dollar question, I think. Yeah. So in my thinking, actually. The number one thing in IP business is actually the. Volume of exposure. I think that’s very important. And number two, Sometime, platform is changed. Think about that. Early 20s, Everyone download apps. Maybe 5 or 6 in a day. At that time, the famous character was actually Angry Bird.
Oh yeah, that’s true. But after that, everyone watching YouTube. It’s a baby shark. Yep. Everyone watching TV, the BBC, Teletubbies. Mm hmm. So, there are some changing. Yeah. The technical. Platform. Yeah. So number one is a very keen to the change of technology. Yeah. And so for you, and I’m not putting words in your mouth, it’s more of a question.
So for you to continue to evolve, not necessarily the character, but the, to meet different parts of technology, that’s going to be key, huh? Yeah, I think it’s just something. Actually, the power influence from outside, right? I think it’s very important. But there are actually definitely some war battles.
Because there’s a lot of characters actually on YouTube. Or maybe on Netflix. Or maybe the app or some mobile game. But in that case, I think Second is actually cuteness. In Japanese, we call it kawaii. Very important, like Gudetama you mentioned. Yeah, Gudetama, that resonates forever. Sure, absolutely. And that’s where I think like the design, like some of the ones that you mentioned, like a Teletubby or like some of these other ones, I don’t want to, I might be oversimplifying to say the complication in the design and all the movie, like where, Where when I see, like, Baby Shark, I see it like I see these other iconic characters.
I can picture that, like, being timeless. They’re quite simplified. Yeah, that’s And also big head, and big mouth, and big eye. Yeah. It also remind us some kid, baby face. Yep. That’s also hidden, not hidden, everyone knows it nowadays, something. Because kids love what they see. They don’t like. Yup, yup. And then the parents do too.
That’s the interesting part about it. Everyone regards it as very cute. Actually something like some behavior, something in our DNA. We should take care of our kids like that. Yup, yup. And you, I don’t know if you know this, you probably do, but I swear that’s probably like one of the number one wedding songs.
In the United States. No, really? Yeah, I know, I know. I’ve seen, I’ve seen some videos. The small kids putting something in. And, maybe government, government need baby. So this is 2024. We’re recording this. I’m sorry. No, no, no. It’s great. It’s great. Well, Ryan, I really appreciate you coming on the show today and sharing more of the story and all of the work that you’re my great pleasure to speaking with you.
Thank you for coming to the Korea conference, by the way. It’s amazing. It’s my great pleasure. I’m from South Korea, so I’m so happy to share it. Not only Korean, but also everyone on the globe. Yeah. Final question for you. As part of the Korea conference is trying to make this bridge between Korea and South Korea and the United States and entrepreneurship, exchange of ideas, exchange of content, exchange of, you know, values any comments, just last comments you want to say about that.
And in your experience, I mean, heading a really a global phenomenon. So I think maybe I go to. Costco, yeah, or maybe it’s a joke. I’ve seen lots of some Korean food in there like kimbap or something like that. It’s true. Not tofu, actually, but anyway, tofu or kimchi or something. So I’m so happy. So I won.
Actually, we are the people on the globe. We are the same. We are the world, actually. Yeah. So actually, I hope Korean culture or Korean consumer goods. Yes. Would like. Road. Hmm. The horizon of experience. Yeah. I think it make us more, our life more rich. Yeah. And more happy. Yes. Yeah. Wonderful. Well, again, thank you so much for coming on the show, and to the audience, as always, I appreciate you tuning in.
If you haven’t hit the subscribe or follow button, do it. This is a daily show. Each and every day we’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey. Ryan, again, thank you so much for coming. Appreciate all you do.