Moonbug acquires Cocomelon and Blippi to create a YouTube with 235 million subscribers.
Moonbug acquires Cocomelon and Blippi to create a YouTube with 235 million subscribers.
Moonbug Entertainment Ltd. is building a children’s media empire for the YouTube generation.
The London-based company has acquired two of the most popular children’s brands on YouTube: Cocomelon, an animated screen that is the most watched channel on the site, and Blippi, a screen presented through artist Stevin John. Moonbug revealed the terms of the agreements. According to Rene Rechtman, co-founder and CEO of Moonbug, the acquisitions were financed through the collection of $120 million from an investor organization, which included Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Felix Capital Partners LLP., Fertitta Capital Inc. and Raine Group. LLC. Moonbug plans to use some of the cash to make further acquisitions.
Moonbug will now function as the largest network of children’s channels on YouTube, with 235 million subscribers and more than 7 billion according to the outlook for the month. In addition to Cocomelon and Blippi, Moonbug owns Little Baby Bum, which creates videos about children’s songs.
Cocomelon, Little Bathrough Bum and Blippi are the surnames of young people around the world, but they are billions of dollar franchises like “SpongeBob SquarePants” or “Dora the Explorer”. Moonbug aims to expand brands by adapting songs, videos and characters from YouTube channels to toys, TV screens and albums.
“I have the dream of creating the largest company in the children’s sector,” Rechtman said in an interview.
In 2018, Rechtman founded Moonbug, along with Alfred Chubb and John Robson, encouraged by the confidence that YouTube, a Google member of Alphabet Inc., had replaced television networks such as Nickelodeon and Disney Channel as a selection destination for millions of young people. . Array Approximately 80% of parents say their children watch YouTube, according to a recent Pew Research Center study. In a given month, the most viewed channel component on YouTube is aimed at young people.
Owners of major YouTube channels have begun to leverage their giant audience in the video to create other business opportunities. Toy brands have discovered the ability of YouTube channels to generate sales, and various streaming services, such as Netflix, Hulu and Amazon, have begun to gain rights to systems based on popular YouTube channels for children.
Rechtman said he planned for Blippi to introduce more characters and expand his production from 12 episodes a year in English and Spanish to weekly videos in several more languages.
Moonbug plans to translate Cocomelon’s programming, which generates about 3.5 billion according to the outlook for the month on YouTube, into various other languages, licensing it to expand videos and create products based on its characters. “Cocomelon has the prospect of being the world’s greatest asset for children,” he said. “In terms of audience, this is already the case.”