GoAnimate

GoAnimate was founded in 2007 by Alvin Hung, and the first version of GoAnimate went live in mid 2008.In May 2009, DomoAnimate was launched. This program allowed users to create GoAnimations based on the Domo shorts. The site closed down on September 15, 2014, and later redirected to the GoAnimate for Schools website. In early 2011, GoAnimate became a founding partner of YouTube Create – a suite of apps available to content creators within YouTube.

A U.S. office in San Francisco opened in June 2011.In late August 2011, GoAnimate for Schools was publicly launched. GoAnimate for Schools is a school-safe version of GoAnimate featuring dedicated privacy, security, content moderation and group management features. In late 2011, a custom set of “Election 2012” characters became popular.

On March 1, 2012, GoAnimate launched the Business Friendly Theme, the first of the four Business Themes on the site. In April 2012, the first business-oriented subscription plans were publicly launched. These included 1080p download, logo removal & replacement, and new business-oriented visual themes. These plans led to increased popularity and exposure for GoAnimate.

By July 2013, over ten million videos had been created using the GoAnimate platform. On September 16, 2013, GoAnimate changed its logo, removing the exclamation mark. That same day, the site relaunched with a new user interface, plus the removal of GoBucks.


Logo for GoAnimate used from 2013 to 2018
At the end of 2013, the “paper cutout” assets of explainer video pioneer Common Craft were integrated into GoAnimate as a new visual theme. In April 2014, multi-seat business subscription plans were launched, including full-featured administrative tools along with group collaboration and review. Around the same time, GoAnimate also released their next Business theme, that being Whiteboard Animation, and a publishing integration with elearning courseware authoring platform Lectora.

By the end of 2014, GoAnimate’s library contained over 10,000 assets, including a new set of Supreme Court justices and settings. In 2015, the Taiwan office was opened, making it GoAnimate’s third location (after Hong Kong and San Francisco).

As of May 2015, GoAnimate announced future expansion plans included going public, but there had been no decision on the listing venue. During the summer of 2015, social network features such as favorites, comments and messages were removed so that GoAnimate could focus more on businesses and marketing.