Shares in the South Korean studio behind the popular "Baby Shark" clip – YouTube's most-viewed video – jumped as much as 60% on Tuesday as the company made its market debut in Seoul.
Beloved by young children, "Baby Shark Dance" has racked up more than 16 billion views on YouTube, roughly double the second-place clip "Despacito."
It was posted on the platform nearly a decade ago by The Pinkfong Company, which owns a portfolio of children's animation and educational franchises.
In morning trade, the company's shares were up around 17% from their offering price of 38,000 won ($26), having earlier soared by more than 60%.
"Baby Shark," in which a shark family is introduced one by one to a chirpy tune, is a global megahit and has appeared as a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon in New York.
The Pinkfong Company was founded in 2010 and most of its income comes from selling content online and for live shows.
Analysts said the surge in share price was normal for an initial public offering (IPO).
"In theory, newly listed stocks are supposed to rise by around 30% to 40% on their first day of trading," Choi Jong-kyung at Heungkuk Securities told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"The level of gain (for The Pinkfong Company) is, textbook-wise, a very natural phenomenon."
The Pinkfong Company posted revenue of 97.4 billion won last year, up 11%, and operating profit of 18.8 billion won, nearly quadruple the previous year.
Last month, CEO Kim Min-seok said the firm has "a structure that generates profit from the content itself."
"We recoup production costs through our own channels like YouTube and apps, which lowers our dependence on external distributors and reduces variable-cost burdens," Kim told South Korea's Edaily.
South Korea is a global popular culture powerhouse, home to K-pop band BTS and the origin of recent Netflix TV hits such as "Squid Game" and "KPop Demon Hunters."
