One of the
most popular YouTube channels in the world, which features animated nursery
rhymes, has been sold.
Little Baby
Bum was founded by a London-based couple in 2011 and has racked up 17.5 billion
views in its time.
It was
bought by a firm called Moonbug for an undisclosed sum, as first reported by
Bloomberg.
Informed
industry-watchers think the agency may well have paid several million pounds
for the YouTube channel.
Co-founder
Derek Holder confirmed to the BBC that the sale had taken place but he declined
to comment on the sum offered by the buyer.
"We
were looking to take the brand to the next level," he said. "We saw
who the team were behind Moonbug and what their plans would be, which would be
to keep the core the same, but... make episodes for TV around the world."
He added
that it felt like the right time to hand the brand over, after a "fantastic
run".
Little Baby
Bum usually publishes long videos, often up to an hour, featuring 3D animated
characters and performances of nursery rhymes.
In 2015, Mr
Holder told the Guardian newspaper that his wife Cannis came up with many of
the design concepts for the videos.
He also
explained that the videos were intentionally long, so that parents could leave
toddlers in front of them for extended periods, without having to repeatedly
press "play" on lots of shorter videos.
The YouTube
channel has since grown into a children's entertainment empire - with weekly
video uploads, a magazine available to buy online and merchandise.
"It's
mind-blowing, it's very surreal to be honest," said Mr Holder, referring
to the billions of views his channel has clocked up. "It makes us feel
proud."
There are
also multiple language versions of the content - in German, Spanish, French,
Portuguese, Russian and Japanese.
The name
"Little Baby Bum" came from the Holders' nickname for their youngest
child.
Moonbug is
reported to have out-bid four other would-be buyers of the Little Baby Bum
company.
"This
is an example of just one of many brands and channels online that have been
very smart in the content they've created for their audience," said Alex
Brinnand, co-editor of the news site TenEighty.
"For
mainstream media it's been almost a mystery, even laughed about for a while -
but the billions of views that they have can't be scoffed at."
Mr Brinnand
said he was confident that Little Baby Bum would have been sold for
"several million" pounds.
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