The latest company to experience a surge in the stock market after an Elon Musk tweet? Samsung Publishing, a “major shareholder in the producer” of the hit children’s song “Baby Shark.”
“Shares of Samsung Publishing, a major shareholder in the producer of ‘Baby Shark,’ soared on Wednesday after a tweet by Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the viral children’s song,” reported CNBC.
CNBC added that shares of the South Korean company, Samsung Publishing, “soared more than 10% at one point during regular trading on Wednesday, before paring some gains to close 6.29% higher.”
This surge in stock price was triggered by Musk’s response to a South Park tweet, writing, “Baby Shark crushes all! More views than humans.”
Baby Shark crushes all! More views than humans. https://t.co/48Ol3ZzhjP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 1, 2021
The viral video became YouTube’s most-watched video of all time in November 2020, with Pinkfong — a South Korean recording company — making millions of dollars from YouTube streams alone. Samsung Publishing is a major shareholder in the song’s producer, SmartStudy.
“It took four years for Baby Shark to ascend to the top of YouTube’s most-played chart, but the song is actually much older than that,” noted the BBC. “It is thought to have originated in U.S. summer camps in the 1970s. One theory says it was invented in 1975, as Steven Spielberg’s Jaws became an box office smash around the world.”
Musk’s statements, on Twitter and in person, regularly have an impact on both the stock market and the cryptocurrency market. As CNN noted, Musk caused the price of Dogecoin to surge more than 100% in mid-April after Musk tweeted, “Doge Barking at the Moon.”
Doge Barking at the Moon pic.twitter.com/QFB81D7zOL
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2021
In early May, Musk, hosted “Saturday Night Live,” with many cryptocurrency investors watching closely to see whether the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would mention the meme-coin. Musk did indeed reference the cryptocurrency, first by joking about the coin with his mother, Maye.
“I’m excited for my Mother’s Day gift. I just hope it’s not Dogecoin,” Musk’s mother said. “It is,” Musk responded. “It sure is.”
Monologue! 💫 @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/xeH1EOU79A
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) May 9, 2021
However, after appearing on the show’s “Weekend Update” segment as financial expert “Lloyd Ostertag” and admitting that Dogecoin is a “hustle,” the price of the coin crashed.
Lloyd Ostertag stopped by the desk to talk cryptocurrency. pic.twitter.com/cuILxOBJlj
— Saturday Night Live – SNL (@nbcsnl) May 9, 2021
As CNN reported, “After pumping up the value of the cryptocurrency in the lead-up to Musk’s SNL appearance, investors sold off dogecoin sharply after the Musks talked about it on the show. Dogecoin was down 40%, trading as low as 44 cents early Sunday. The cryptocurrency started Saturday trading at around 70 cents and was selling for about 66 cents just before SNL went on the air at 11:30 pm ET.”
Bitcoin also fell in mid-May after Musk announced that Tesla would stop accepting the coin, wiping $365 billion from the cryptocurrency market.
“Tesla has suspended vehicle purchases using Bitcoin. We are concerned about rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining and transactions, especially coal, which has the worst emissions of any fuel,” wrote Musk in a statement.
Tesla & Bitcoin pic.twitter.com/YSswJmVZhP
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2021