BrainPOP

BrainPOP was founded in 1999 by Avraham Kadar, an immunologist and pediatrician who wanted to explain medical concepts to his young patients and decided animation was the way to do it. His co-founder, Chanan Kadmon, left in 2003; Kadar led the company until 2019. From its base in New York City the site grew well past medicine into short animated movies on science, social studies, English, math, health, technology, and arts and music, each followed by a quiz. Schools paid for subscriptions, though some of it was always free, including a movie of the day.

The format never changed, which is why it is so easy to recall. Tim, a teenager, does all the talking, and the design on his shirt usually matches the topic. Moby, an orange robot, communicates only in beeps, the three lights on his chest flashing as he does, and Tim translates. Each movie opens with Tim reading a letter from a kid asking about the day's subject, and most end with Moby annoying Tim, or the other way around. In the classroom it came with its own rituals: the lights going off, the projector warming up, and a substitute teacher visibly relieved to press play.

It kept expanding. BrainPOP Jr., for kindergarten through third grade and hosted by Moby and a younger girl named Annie, launched on September 4, 2006; a version for English-language learners followed in 2009 and a games site, GameUp, in 2011, by which point the site was drawing more than 11 million unique visits a month. When COVID-19 closed schools, the company offered free access to affected families and schools, and traffic jumped. By 2022 the company said it had a presence in two-thirds of U.S. school districts — and that October, Kirkbi, the holding company that controls the Lego Group, bought it for $875 million. Not bad for a robot who has never said a word.