SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Baby Shark Dance, a YouTube video featuring the titular song and playful choreography, surpassed 10 billion views on Thursday (Jan 13).

Beloved by both children and adults, the two-minute video tells the story of a shark family going on an underwater hunt.

Masterminded by South Korean educational company Pinkfong and performed by Korean-American singer Hope Segoine, it was a viral hit in Asia after it was released in 2015. The English-language version of the video came out in June 2016.

The English version far exceeds the 2.3 billion views of the Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee's mega-hit pop, Despacito, which now ranks as the second most viewed in YouTube history.

"The current figures show more hits than the United Nations' world population figure of 7.8 billion," a Pinkfong official said.

The official added that based on the number of views, it comes down to everyone in the world having seen the video at least once.

The Baby Shark song has also been a huge hit on global music charts, ranking 32nd on the main singles chart of Billboard's The Hot 100 and No. 6 on the British Singles Chart.

Pinkfong chief executive Kim Min-seok said the music's success lies in "unfamiliarity in the familiar".

The rhythm is cute and bouncy, but the animals are sharks. Picking out a passage from classical music, or rearranging traditional children's songs incorporating some K-pop elements, were ideas that Mr Kim tried to realise in the song.

Baby Shark's Big Show!, an animated preschool series co-produced by Pinkfong Company and Nickelodeon Animation Studio, was released in spring 2021.

The Baby Shark video recorded 7 million more views by Friday afternoon, after breaking the 10 billion record.