| Origin: | USA |
| Views: | 186 billion |
| Subscribers: | 180 million |
| Years Active: | September 1, 2006–present |
| Pseudonym: | checkgate aka ThatsMeOnTV.com (2006–2013) ABC Kid TV (2013–2018) |
| Channel Direct Url: | channel/UCbCmjCuTUZos6Inko4u57UQ |
| Channel Display Name: | Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes |
| Genre: | Education, nursery rhymes |
| Silver Button: | yes |
| Silver Year: | 2014 |
| Gold Button: | yes |
| Gold Year: | 2016 |
| Diamond Button: | yes |
| Diamond Year: | 2018 |
| Ruby Button: | yes |
| Ruby Year: | 2019 |
| Red Diamond Button: | yes |
| Red Diamond Year: | 2020 |
| Stats Update: | August 16, 2024 |
Cocomelon (stylized as CoComelon) is an American YouTube channel owned by the British company Moonbug Entertainment and maintained by the American company Treasure Studio. Cocomelon specializes in 3D animation videos of both traditional nursery rhymes and their own original children's songs. As of May 2024, Cocomelon is the 3rd most-subscribed and 2nd most-viewed channel on YouTube.
Cocomelon's videos feature children, adults, and animals 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, Roku, and Hulu.[1] [2] The company also delivers music through popular streaming services.[3] YouTube's content consists of standalone music videos, compilations, and livestreams.
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",[4] the channel uploaded two versions of the alphabet song to YouTube on their first day.[5] The channel uploaded its third video nine 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.
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 in the upper left corner. The channel began remastering older videos, followed by a transition from alphabet videos to nursery rhymes and longer video lengths.[6] Within a few years, the channel introduced computer animation, with their first 3D character being used in Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 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 technology. Animation and music production continued to modernize, and a recurring cast of characters formed before the 2018 rebrand.[7]
In the summer of 2018, the channel rebranded again to Cocomelon, introducing a new intro and outro to all their videos. They also added the 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.[8] In late 2020, Cocomelon added content in Spanish and Portuguese.[9] [10] Early in 2021, they also added Mandarin Chinese, German, and Arabic.[11] [12] [13]
Nina Reyes, who first appeared on the show in 2019, got her own show, Nina's Familia, a bilingual series following the format of the original, with educational songs and nursery rhymes. The spinoff, to start on September 29, 2023, was intended both for children who knew Spanish and for those who did not, and care was taken to make sure Latino culture was well represented.[14]
In July 2020, Jeon sold his company, Treasure Studio, to Moonbug, which had been founded just two years earlier.[15] Moonbug expanded the show to more audiences, inking deals with platforms in South Korea, China, and Europe.
A range of toys, including plush dolls and toy vehicles, were announced in February 2020.[16] Expected for shipment during August 2020,[17] [18] the company began selling apparel directly through their website during December 2020.[19]
After nine years on YouTube, Cocomelon reached 1 million subscribers on May 16, 2016; it reached one billion total views later in the same month. The channel grew rapidly following the July 2017 release of "Yes Yes" Bedtime Song, a video in which TomTom has to use stuffed animals to get JJ to prepare for bed; "Yes Yes" became Cocomelon's most-viewed video, with over 1 billion views.
Cocomelon had the second-largest YouTube channel subscription gain in 2019, according to Business Insider, with an increase of over 36 million, ending the year on 67.4 million in channel subscriptions.[20] 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 tracked" making it the most recommended video in the research project.[21] [22] 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.[23] In addition, Cocomelon's 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 worldwide. Comparatively, the "major four [American] TV broadcast networks averaged just 13 million viewers daily during the TV season".[24] In July 2019, YouTube changed its algorithm after the Federal Trade Commission 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".[25]
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.[26] Cocomelon was ranked #1 on Reelgood's list of Netflix shows for 2020, ahead of The Office and The Queen's Gambit.[27]
It was predicted Cocomelon would surpass PewDiePie at some point in April or May 2021, becoming the second-most subscribed YouTube channel.[28] [29] [30] In response to this, PewDiePie released "Coco," a diss track 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.[31] [32] Two months later, on April 25, 2021, Cocomelon surpassed PewDiePie as predicted. The song "Coco" remains on major streaming platforms.
Cocomelon has been involved in the Riyadh Season 2021 show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where the companies Spacetoon Event and Moonbug Entertainment collaborated with the Saudi General Entertainment Authority to bring the Cocomelon Town show for 3 months.[33] [34]
A film adaptation of Cocomelon was reported as being developed on April 20, 2023, in association with DreamWorks Animation.[35]
A new original series, Cocomelon Lane, was released on Netflix on November 17, 2023. The series was based on the Cocomelon franchise.
Cocomelon programming has aired on Universal Kids since June 21, 2021, and Cartoon Network's Cartoonito block from January 31, 2022, to February 16, 2024.[36] Cocomelon shows have also aired on SAB TV in Pakistan since March 29, 2021, Cartoonito in the United Kingdom from April 4, 2021, GMTV Kids in the United Kingdom since June 18, 2021, Tiny Pop in the United Kingdom from November 15, 2021, TV5 in the Philippines as part of Moonbug Kids since September 2022, and Gulli in France since November 7, 2022.[37] Cocomelon also airs programming on RTÉ Jr Radio.
Netflix had been airing Cocomelon episodes as acquired programming but starting with season 6 the show was billed as a "Netflix Original".
Although Cocomelon's website in 2019 described the company as having 20 employees, the identity of the founders is unknown. When The Wall Street Journal attempted to find out who creates Cocomelon videos, they were unable to contact Treasure Studio, which owns the channel.[38] Wired magazine located a couple in Irvine, California who seemed to have some ties with Treasure Studio, but was unable to confirm that they owned the channel.[39] During February 2020, Bloomberg Businessweek identified a couple from Orange County, California as the owners of Treasure Studio and Cocomelon.[40] The question of original ownership is of historical interest; Cocomelon was purchased during 2020 by the children's new media conglomerate Moonbug,[18] which was itself acquired by Candle Media during 2022.[41]
On August 1, 2023, Moonbug Entertainment was awarded US$23.4 million in a copyright violation case against Fuzhou-based company BabyBus, accused of imitating Cocomelon videos.[42]