Cocomelon's videos include animated 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 and Roku. The company also delivers music through popular streaming services.
History
On September 1, 2006, Cocomelon was created on YouTube to provide viewers with free education. Then known as ThatsMEonTV, the channel uploaded the first two videos, two versions of the alphabet song, to YouTube on their first day. The channel uploaded their third video 9 months later, titled "Learning ABC Alphabet – Letter "K" — Kangaroo Game". Most videos on the channel taught a single alphabet with a typical length of between 1-2 minutes. In 2013, the ABCkidTV era introduced a new intro and logo. The logo showed a TV with a ladybug on the upper left corner. The channel began remastering older videos followed by a transition from alphabet videos to nursery rhymes and longer video lengths. Within a few years the channel introduced 3D 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 began to form. In 2018, the company rebranded again to Cocomelon. In summer of 2020, Moonbug announced its purchase of the Cocomelon media franchise. In February 2020, the company's chief executive announced plans to introduce toys based on these characters, and has mentioned the possibility of a feature-length movie. The toys are expected to include plush dolls, bath toys, and toy vehicles, with an anticipated rollout date in the fall of 2020. Shipment of some toys was later announced for August.
Rise in popularity
After 9 years on YouTube, Cocomelon reached 1 million subscribers on May 16, 2016. Half a month later, the channel reached 1 billion views. The following two years continued to see growth with nearly 400,000 subscribers per month to 10 million subscribers and gaining 7 billion views. On August 18, 2018, the company was re-branded again. Cocomelon had the second largest YouTube channel subscriptions gain in 2019 with an increase of over 36 million, ending the year on 67.4 million in channel subscriptions. 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 most recommended video on YouTube. As of August 2020, that video has received over 2.8 billion views on YouTube, making it the 21st-most viewed video on the site. In addition, their second most popular video, "Yes Yes Vegetables Song", has received over 2.3 billion views, making it the 36th-most viewed video on the site. In May and June 2019, Cocomelon received 2.5 billion video views, averaging 83 million daily viewers. Comparatively, the "major four TV broadcast networks averaged just 13 million viewers daily during the TV season". In July 2019, YouTube changed its algorithm after the Federal Trade Commission raised concerns over child safety. Multiple children's channels were affected, including Cocomelon, which "dropped from 575 million 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".
Identity
Cocomelon's website describes the company as having 20 employees. When The Wall Street Journal attempted to find out who creates Cocomelon videos, they were unable to contact Treasure Studio, which owns the channel. Wired magazine located a couple in Irvine who seemed to have some ties with Treasure Studio but was unable to confirm that they owned the channel. In February 2020, Bloomberg Businessweek identified a couple from Orange County, California as the owners of Treasure Studio and Cocomelon.
