What is Cocomelon? What does Cocomelon mean? With all of the different streaming services and content on the internet, it can be hard to determine what your child should and shouldn’t watch. The territory can get even murkier when your child loves a show that you’re not sure is good for them.

This is exactly the problem with CoComelon, a popular YouTube channel with its own Netflix show. Some parents believe the show is too overstimulating, leading them to wonder if CoComelon is bad for kids.

So here, let’s find out what cocomelon is!

What is Cocomelon?

Cocomelon (stylized as CoComelon) is an American YouTube channel and streaming media show acquired 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 June 2023, they were the most-viewed YouTube channel in the United States and most-subscribed children’s channel, second-most-viewed channel and third-most-subscribed channel in the world.

• Origin: United States
• Websit: cocomelon.com
• Also known as checkgate aka:
  • ThatsMeOnTV.com (2006–2013)
  • ABC Kid TV (2013–2018)
• Channel:
  • Cocomelon – Nursery
  • Rhymes
• Subscribers 160 million
• Total views 158 billion
• Genre: Preschool, Education, nursery rhymes
• Original network: YouTube
• Audio format: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Original release: 2006 – present

What exactly is Cocomelon?

Kind of like karaoke for kids, Cocomelon is a sing-along series focused on JJ and his family. The episodes run for an hour, with three episodes per season. Each instalment features a mix of original songs and much-loved nursery rhymes, with the lyrics appearing on screen, meaning kids can join in. Great!

The 3D animation is rough and ready, so for those raised on a steady diet of Pixar productions, you’re in for a rude shock. But that doesn’t seem to matter to children, who inhale Cocomelon like it’s a finite resource.

Cocomelon began as YouTube channel; in fact, it’s the second most-watched YouTube channel in history, with more than 128 billion views. It’s also the second-most subscribed to channel, with 135 million subscribers.

Netflix began streaming the show in 2020, and it currently holds the record for the longest stint inside Netflix’s Top 10 charts with 148 days, beating out The Queen’s Gambit, Ozark, Tiger King and Bridgerton.

What is content of Cocomelon?

Cocomelon’s videos include 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. The company also delivers music through popular streaming services. YouTube content consists of standalone music videos, compilations, and livestreams.

History of Cocomelon

Videos

Checkgate aka ThatsMeOnTV.com (2006–2013)

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”, the channel uploaded 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 the alphabet with a typical length of between one and two minutes.

ABC Kid TV (2013–2018)

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 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 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, with J. J., TomTom, YoYo and many others before the 2018 rebrand.

Cocomelon (2018–present)

In Summer 2018, the company rebranded again to Cocomelon, introducing a new intro and outro to all their videos. They also added the present-day 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. In late 2020, Cocomelon added content in Spanish and Portuguese. Early in 2021, they also added Mandarin Chinese, German, and Arabic.

Merchandise

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 film. The toys are expected to include plush dolls and toy vehicles, with an anticipated rollout date in the fall of 2020. Shipment of some toys was later announced for August. In December, the company began selling apparel through their website directly.

Rise in popularity

After nine years on YouTube, Cocomelon reached 1 million subscribers on May 16, 2016. Half a month later, the channel reached one billion total views. The following two years continued to grow with nearly 400,000 subscribers per month to ten million subscribers, and the channel reached seven billion total views.

They started increasing rapidly with the release of “Yes Yes” Bedtime Song, a video in which TomTom has to use stuffed animals to get JJ to prepare for bed, which was released in July 2017 and became their most viewed video, currently over 1 billion views.

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 the most recommended video on YouTube.

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. In addition, their 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. 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.

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”.

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.

Cocomelon was ranked #1 on Reelgood’s list of Netflix shows for 2020, ahead of The Office and The Queen’s Gambit.

It was predicted Cocomelon would surpass PewDiePie at some point in April–May 2021, becoming the second-most subscribed YouTube channel. 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. Two months later, on April 25, 2021, Cocomelon surpassed PewDiePie as predicted. The song 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.

Characters of Cocomelon!

From the 3D animation to toe-tapping songs, Cocomelon tells tales of activities that young children all over the world will recognise and love.

With every series comes characters, and toddlers all over the world love following JJ, his brothers and nursery friends on their daily adventures.

JJ

JJ is the one with the big smile. He is always willing to lend a hand and ready to learn new things. JJ is not a quitter, for someone so small he is determined! He never stops and always tries and tries again.

YoYo

From her boundless creativity and fearless spirit to tackle problems, YoYo is always happy to help and is brimming with courage! She also LOVES to have fun alongside sharing the fun with her brothers JJ and TomTom.

TomTom

TomTom is JJ’s big brother and loves to fix and build things! He is always there to help his siblings YoYo and JJ as they learn and try new things together. TomTom is super curious about the world and is always wanting to learn more.

Bingo

Meet the Cocomelon family pet, Bingo! Bingo is smarter than your average pup… he is curious, friendly and caring and absolutely adores his family.

Dad

From taking his family on adventures to doing his best to make his family smile, Dad is silly, sweet and would do anything for his family. He is always ready to lend a hand and puts his family before anything.

Mom

Despite having three kids, Mom always knows how to find the fun in every day. She never shies away form challenges so she’s basically a real life superhero!

Ms Appleberry

Everybody wants a teacher like Ms Appleberry! With an endless amount of patience and enthusiasm, Ms Appleberry always makes sure the class is happy and most importantly, learning! She also loves to sing too.

Cody

Meet JJ’s best friend Cody! Cody loves all things dinosaurs and science. His favourite animal AND dinosaur are the T-Rex! ROAR!

Cece

Cece loves to dance and will break out into a little spin when she is excited! She is bright, energetic and her favourite dance form is ballet.

Nina

From playing with her friends to moving around, Nina loves to play and share the fun with everyone! She’s fierce, fun and also loves the colour yellow.

Bella

Bella is a lover of rainbows, unicorns AND even rainbow unicorns! Bella is quite shy and artistic and is happiest when she is drawing and painting. Two hobbies that really bring out her creative side.

Nico

You always know when Nico is around! Nico is the loud one of the group and always wants to be in the centre of the action. He loves having fun and being goofy. Yes, he is loud but he is also full of heart and the most loyal friend.

Why is it so popular?

The music! The colours! The constant cheer! Cocomelon leans heavily into the power of repetition, and anyone with toddlers will tell you that repetition is the fastest way to capture their fascination.

Cocomelon also features rapid transitions. Scenes are constantly chopping and changing with the music, delivering tiny dopamine hits that leave you simultaneously feeling drained while wanting more. It’s like TikTok for toddlers. The “Cocomelon is addictive” line has become a popular conversation online among parents, but there are some real concerns that the show is negatively impacting children.

Last year, Jerrica Sannes, a child development specialist with a master’s degree in early childhood curriculum and instruction, made waves by claiming the show is ‘hyper-stimulating’ its young viewers.

“Cocomelon is so hyper-stimulating that it acts as a drug, a stimulant,” Sannes posted on social media.“The brain receives a hit of dopamine from screen time, and the more they watch the show, the more the brain begins to expect this intense level of stimulation.”

It also didn’t hurt that Netflix picked up Cocomelon in mid-2020, right after the pandemic sent the entire world scurrying inside. Suddenly, you’ve got millions of parents desperate for a way to entertain their children while trying to survive working from home. Enter JJ and co.

Who created it?

You can blame Jay Jeon for the Cocomelon craze, the California-based filmmaker teaming up with his illustrator wife to create the YouTube series in 2006 to educate their children.

It took 10 years for their channel to hit one million subscribers, but fast-forward to 2022 and that figure has jumped to 135 million. Jeon cashed out in 2020, selling Cocomelon to Moonbug Entertainment, a company that specialises in children’s entertainment content, for an undisclosed amount.

Last year Moonbug was acquired for a casual $3 billion by Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer, two Disney alums backed by the private-equity firm Blackstone.

Telecast

Cocomelon has aired on Universal Kids since June 21, 2021, and Cartoon Network’s Cartoonito block since January 31, 2022. Cocomelon premiered on SAB TV in Pakistan on March 29, 2021. Cocomelon also premiered on Cartoonito in the United Kingdom on April 4, 2021, BBC iPlayer in the United Kingdom on June 18, 2021, and Tiny Pop in the United Kingdom on November 15, 2021.

Cocomelon has been airing on TV5 as part of Moonbug Kids since September 2022.

Netflix Original series

Netflix has been airing CoComelon episodes as acquired programming, but starting with season 6 the show gained the Netflix Original billing.

Concerns

News media have expressed concern over the anonymous nature of the channel and its visually intense content.

Identity of original owners

Cocomelon’s website has described 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, California 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.In mid-2020, Cocomelon was purchased by the children’s new media conglomerate Moonbug. In 2022, Moonbug was itself acquired by Candle Media, owned by two former Disney executives.

Content

The New York Times has discussed Cocomelon’s focus on maintaining children’s attention. Jordy Kaufman, a media researcher who runs the Babylab research facility at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia was quoted as saying that the effect of screen time on child development is “a big question without clear answers.”

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