Introduced in the late 1990s by Macromedia, Flash was initially used for creating simple animations and vector graphics. However, with the release of Flash 4 in 2000, the technology began to gain traction for web development. The introduction of ActionScript, a programming language for Flash, allowed developers to create more complex animations and interactive web content. This marked the beginning of Flash's ascension to a de facto standard for web animations, games, and interactive advertisements.