Facebook just bought Giphy
Facebook has bought the GIF-sharing service Giphy, which will now be a part of Instagram. It plans to integrate Giphy’s library more deeply into Instagram (where GIFs are especially prevalent in Stories) and other Facebook services. Although Facebook didn’t reveal how much it paid for the seven-year-old company, Axios reports that the price was $400 million.
“By bringing Instagram and Giphy together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct,” Facebook’s vice president of product Vishal Shah wrote in a blog post. Facebook has used Giphy APIs for years to bring GIFs to its various services. Instagram alone is already responsible for about 25 percent of Giphy’s daily traffic, according to Facebook, and the company’s other apps account for another 25 percent.
At least for the forseeable future, Facebook isn’t going to wall off the service, which makes money from branded content, for its exclusive use. “We will continue to make Giphy openly available to the wider ecosystem,” the Giphy team wrote.
You’ll still be able to upload and remix your own GIFs. Developers and Giphy’s API partners will also still have access to the massive GIF library, as well as Giphy’s stickers and emoji. Those partners include the likes of Twitter, Slack, Skype, TikTok, Tinder and Samsung.
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