GoFish was a San Francisco-based online video sharing website founded in 2003 by Michael Downing. It was founded as a search engine for digital music, audio books, ringtones and other media online, and operated as GoFish until 2009 then the service became the advertising network BetaWave in 2009 after a failed attempt at changing their niche into children's media. In 2010, BetaWave had also shutdown after "running out of money". GoFish was an important step in content distribution, as it was one of the first mainstream video sharing websites. In 2005,

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

and

Google Video Google Video was a free video hosting service, originally launched by Google on January 25, 2005. Initially focused on searching TV program transcripts, it soon evolved to allow hosting video clips on Google servers and embedding onto other ...

launched, which may have taken some of GoFish's audience. Towards the end of its service, the site had close to 20 million users. GoFish used

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

with the

Apache Tomcat Apache Tomcat (called "Tomcat" for short) is a free and open-source implementation of the Jakarta Servlet, Jakarta Expression Language, and WebSocket technologies. It provides a "pure Java" HTTP web server environment in which Java code can also ...

web server to drive their website, and used either

PostgreSQL PostgreSQL ( ) also known as Postgres, is a free and open-source software, free and open-source relational database management system (RDBMS) emphasizing extensibility and SQL compliance. PostgreSQL features transaction processing, transactions ...

Oracle An oracle is a person or thing considered to provide insight, wise counsel or prophetic predictions, most notably including precognition of the future, inspired by deities. If done through occultic means, it is a form of divination. Descript ...

as their backend database.

History

In 2003, GoFish was founded, and went public on the

OTC Bulletin Board The OTC (Over-The-Counter) Bulletin Board or OTCBB was a United States Financial quote, quotation medium operated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) for its subscribing members. FINRA closed the OTCBB on November 8, 2021. The ...

In February 2007, GoFish Corporation attempted a merger with Bolt.com, but later dropped the deal as their stock plummeted. At one point in mid 2007, GoFish was the home to

web television Streaming television is the digital distribution of television content, such as films and television series, streamed over the Internet. Standing in contrast to dedicated terrestrial television delivered by over-the-air aerial systems, cable te ...

such as MMA Today (), which offered highlights from various

Mixed Martial Arts Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full-contact fighting combat sport, sport based on strike (attack), striking and grappling; incorporating techniques from various combat sports from around the world. In the early 20th century, various inter-s ...

events s well as Hidden Celebrity Cams. The shows were known as "Made For Internet". In January 2008, the service received funding (US$22.5 million) to begin transitioning towards family/children's media, with its site now showing "Delivering Kids, Teens, and Moms" on the front page of their website. The site had begun a publishing partnership with the children's game website Miniclip, and WeeWorld. The service had also expanded its offices into

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, and

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. GoFish had begun to phase out its video service, re-fashioning into an

advertising network An online advertising network or ad network is a company that connects advertisers to websites that want to host advertisements. The key function of an ad network is an aggregation of ad supply from publishers and matching it with the advertiser' ...

targeting children. In early 2009, GoFish.com began redirecting to a page on GoFishCorp stating that it had become Betawave Since the end of 2014, it displays a big fish like symbol: "<><".

References

{{reflist Video hosting American entertainment websites Internet properties established in 2003 Former video hosting services