''Cocomelon'' (stylized as CoComelon) is an American

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel and streaming media show acquired by the British company

Moonbug Entertainment Moonbug Entertainment (also known as just Moonbug, stylised as all-lowercase moonbug) is a British children's media company and multi-channel network headquartered in London, with an overseas office in Los Angeles, United States which creates ...

and maintained by the American company Treasure Studio. Cocomelon specializes in

3D animation Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anima ...

videos of both traditional

nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

s and their own original

children's songs A children's song may be a nursery rhyme set to music, a song that children invent and share among themselves or a modern creation intended for entertainment, use in the home or education. Although children's songs have been recorded and studied ...

. , they are the most-viewed YouTube channel in the United States and most-subscribed children's channel, second most-viewed channel and second most-subscribed channel in the world, behind T-Series.

Content

Cocomelon's videos include children, adults, and

animals Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...

who interact with each other in daily life. The lyrics appear at the bottom of the screen in the same way on all displays. In 2020, Treasure Studio added Cocomelon content to

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of hardware digital media players manufactured by American company Roku, Inc. They offer access to streaming media content from online services. The first Roku model, developed in collaboration with Netflix, was introduce ...

, and

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

. The company also delivers music through popular

streaming Streaming media is multimedia that is delivered and consumed in a continuous manner from a source, with little or no intermediate storage in network elements. ''Streaming'' refers to the delivery method of content, rather than the content it ...

services. YouTube content consists of standalone music videos, compilations, and

livestream Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

History

Videos

checkgate aka ThatsMeOnTV.com (2006–2013)

On September 1, 2006, Cocomelon was created on YouTube to provide free education and entertainment for the founder of Cocomelon, Jay Jeon, his wife, and his children. Then known as "checkgate", the channel uploaded two versions of the

alphabet song The alphabet song is any of various songs used to teach children an alphabet. Alphabet songs typically recite the names of all letters of the alphabet of a given language in order. The ABC (Verse 1) "The ABC Song", otherwise referred to as ...

to YouTube on their first day. The channel uploaded their third video 9 months later, titled "Learning ABC Alphabet – Letter "K" — Kangaroo Game". Most videos on the channel taught the alphabet with a typical length of between one and two minutes.

ABC Kid TV (2013–2018)

In 2013, after several years of making content for Jay Jeon's children, Treasure Studio began the ABC Kid TV era which introduced a new intro and logo to start a fresh new look to expand their brand. The logo showed a TV with a ladybug on the upper left corner. The channel began remastering older videos followed by a transition from alphabet videos to

s and longer video lengths. Within a few years the channel introduced computer animation, with their first 3D character being used in ''

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" is a popular English lullaby. The lyrics are from an early-19th-century English poem written by Jane Taylor, "The Star". The poem, which is in couplet form, was first published in 1806 in '' Rhymes for the Nurser ...

'' on April 8, 2016. The video featured a 3D flying star guiding 2D characters through the sky. Towards the end of 2016, 3D animation video uploads became more frequent and longer, with some videos using

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

technology. Animation and music production continued to modernize, and a recurring cast of characters formed, with J. J., TomTom, YoYo and many others before the 2018 rebrand.

Cocomelon (2018–present)

In Summer 2018, the company rebranded again to Cocomelon, introducing a new

intro Introduction, The Introduction, Intro, or The Intro may refer to: General use * Introduction (music), an opening section of a piece of music * Introduction (writing), a beginning section to a book, article or essay which states its purpose and ...

and outro to all their videos. They also added the present-day logo of a watermelon stylized to resemble a traditional box TV, while retaining the ladybug as part of the opening and closing sequences. In April 2019, ''The Wall Street Journal'' estimated Cocomelon's yearly ad revenue at $120 million. In late 2020, Cocomelon added content in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

and

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

. Early in 2021, they also added

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

, and

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

Merchandise

In February 2020, the company's chief executive announced plans to introduce toys based on these characters, and has mentioned the possibility of a feature-length film. The toys are expected to include

plush doll A stuffed toy is a toy doll with an outer fabric sewn from a textile and stuffed with flexible material. They are known by many names, such as plush toys, plushies, stuffed animals, and stuffies; in Britain and Australia, they may also be cal ...

s and

toy vehicle A model car, or toy car, is a miniature representation of an automobile. Other miniature motor vehicles, such as trucks, buses, or even ATVs, etc. are often included in this general category. Because many miniature vehicles were originally aime ...

s, with an anticipated rollout date in the fall of 2020. Shipment of some toys was later announced for August. In December, the company began selling apparel through their website directly.

Rise in popularity

After nine years on YouTube, Cocomelon reached 1 million subscribers on May 16, 2016. Half a month later, the channel reached one billion total views. The following two years continued to grow with nearly 400,000 subscribers per month to ten million subscribers, and the channel reached seven billion total views. They started increasing rapidly with the release of "Yes Yes" Bedtime Song, a video in which TomTom has to use stuffed animals to get JJ to prepare for bed, which was released in July 2017 and became their most viewed video, currently over 1 billion views. Cocomelon had the second largest YouTube channel subscriptions gain in 2019 with an increase of over 36 million, ending the year on 67.4 million in channel subscriptions. In 2018, YouTube's algorithm recommended Cocomelon's video "Bath Song + More Nursery Rhymes & Kids Songs" 650 times "among the 696,468 suggestions that

Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan American think tank (referring to itself as a "fact tank") based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the w ...

tracked" making it the most recommended video on YouTube. As of September 2020, that video has received over 3.2 billion views on YouTube, making it the 19th-most viewed video on the site. In addition, their second most popular video, "Yes Yes Vegetables Song", has received over 2.5 billion views, making it the 36th-most viewed video on the site. Between May and June 2019, Cocomelon received 2.5 billion total views, averaging 83 million daily viewers. Comparatively, the "major four TV broadcast networks averaged just 13 million viewers daily during the TV season". In July 2019, YouTube changed its algorithm after the

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

raised concerns over child safety. Several children's channels were affected, including Cocomelon, which "dropped from 575 million total views the week before the change, to 436 million the week of, to 307 million the week after, and 282 million the week after that". On December 12, 2020, Cocomelon became the third YouTube channel in the world to get 100 million subscribers. Cocomelon's videos also achieved popularity outside YouTube; in September 2020 Netflix ranked ''Cocomelon'' as its third most popular show. Cocomelon was ranked #1 on Reelgood's list of Netflix shows for 2020, ahead of ''The Office'' and ''The Queen's Gambit''. It was predicted Cocomelon would surpass

PewDiePie Felix Arvid Ulf Kjellberg ( , ; born 24 October 1989), better known as PewDiePie ( ), is a Swedes, Swedish YouTuber known for his Let's Play videos and comedic formatted videos and shows. Kjellberg's popularity on YouTube and extensive media co ...

at some point in April–May 2021, becoming the second-most subscribed YouTube channel. In response to this, PewDiePie released " Coco," a

diss track A diss track, diss record or diss song (diss – abbr. from ''disrespect'') is a song whose primary purpose is to verbally attack someone else, usually another artist. Diss tracks are often the result of an existing, escalating feud between the ...

targeted at Cocomelon on February 14, 2021. The video was removed from YouTube shortly after its upload. YouTube cited its harassment and cyberbullying policy as the reason for the video being taken down. Two months later, on April 25, 2021, Cocomelon surpassed PewDiePie as predicted. The song remains on major streaming platforms. Cocomelon has been involved in the Riyadh Season 2021 show in

Riyadh Riyadh (, ar, الرياض, 'ar-Riyāḍ, lit.: 'The Gardens' Najdi pronunciation: ), formerly known as Hajr al-Yamamah, is the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. It is also the capital of the Riyadh Province and the centre of the R ...

, Saudi Arabia, where the companies

Spacetoon ( ar, سبيستون or ) is a pan-Arab free-to-air television channel that specializes in animation and children programs. It began broadcasting on 15 March 2000 and it is headquartered in Dubai, UAE with offices in Riyadh. The channel target ...

Event and

collaborated with the Saudi General Entertainment Authority to bring the Cocomelon Town show for 3 months.

Telecast

Cocomelon has aired on

Universal Kids Universal Kids is an American children's television Specialty channel, channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The channel launched on September 26, 2005, as PBS Kids Sprout, a preschool-oriented ...

since June 21, 2021, and

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

Cartoonito Cartoonito is a brand name used by Warner Bros. Discovery for a collection of television networks and programming blocks that target preschool-age children. The name combines the "cartoon" with the Spanish suffix "ito", meaning "small". As of 2 ...

block since January 31, 2022. Cocomelon premiered on

SAB TV Sony SAB (formerly SAB TV) is an Indian pay television channel owned by Culver Max Entertainment. History Sony SAB was launched as SAB TV by Gautam Adhikari and Markand Adhikari under their company Sri Adhikari Brothers (thus the acronym) on ...

in Pakistan on March 29, 2021. Cocomelon also premiered on

in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2021,

BBC iPlayer BBC iPlayer (stylised as iPLAYER or BBC iPLAYER) is a video on demand service from the BBC. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, personal computers and smart televisions. iPlayer services del ...

in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2021, and

Tiny Pop Tiny Pop (styled as tiny POP) is a British free-to-air children's television channel in the United Kingdom, owned by Narrative Entertainment UK Limited. Broadcast on many of the major digital television platforms in the UK, Tiny Pop, which was ...

in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2021. Cocomelon has been airing on TV5 as part of Moonbug Kids since September 2022.

Concerns

News media have expressed concern over the anonymous nature of the channel and its visually intense content.

Identity of original owners

Cocomelon's website has described the company as having 20 employees. When ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' attempted to find out who creates Cocomelon videos, they were unable to contact Treasure Studio, which owns the channel. ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'' magazine located a couple in Irvine who seemed to have some ties with Treasure Studio but was unable to confirm that they owned the channel. In February 2020, ''

Bloomberg Businessweek ''Bloomberg Businessweek'', previously known as ''BusinessWeek'', is an American weekly business magazine published fifty times a year. Since 2009, the magazine is owned by New York City-based Bloomberg L.P. The magazine debuted in New York City ...

'' identified a couple from

Orange County, California Orange County is located in the Los Angeles metropolitan area in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 3,186,989, making it the third-most-populous county in California, the sixth-most-populous in the United States, a ...

as the owners of Treasure Studio and Cocomelon. In mid-2020, Cocomelon was purchased by the children's new media conglomerate Moonbug. In 2022, Moonbug was itself acquired by Candle Media, owned by two former Disney executives.

Content

The ''New York Times'' has discussed Cocomelon's focus on maintaining children's attention. A media researcher was quoted as saying that the effect of

screen time Screen time is the amount of time spent using a device with a screen such as a smartphone, computer, television, or video game console. The concept is under significant research with related concepts in digital media use and mental health. Scr ...

on child development is "a big question without clear answers."

References

External links

* {{Moonbug Entertainment Children's mass media Education-related YouTube channels Moonbug Entertainment YouTube channels launched in 2006 Netflix children's programming Hulu children's programming Mass media companies established in 2006

Content

History

Videos

checkgate aka ThatsMeOnTV.com (2006–2013)

ABC Kid TV (2013–2018)

Cocomelon (2018–present)

Merchandise

Rise in popularity

Telecast

Concerns

Identity of original owners

Content

See also

References

External links