The largest social media platform Facebook has acquired Giphy; a popular search engine that allows users to share animated images or short looping videos with no sound, known as GIF.
The actual acquisition cost has not been disclosed yet by any of the two, but many sources reveal that the deal was finalized at nearly 400 million USD.
Facebook has planned to integrate Giphy with its owned photo-sharing social media platform Instagram, which they acquired, back in 2012, for $1 Billion. The company made an official announcement by saying-
“GIPHY, a leader in visual expression and creation, is joining the Facebook company today as part of the Instagram team.”
They further went on to say-
“GIPHY makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people can find just the right way to express themselves.”
Two years later, in 2014, Facebook also bought the popular messaging platform WhatsApp for $19 billion.
The acquisition does not mean that Giphy will no longer hold any part since it is sold to Facebook. Giphy will continue to operate its library. Facebook cleared it by saying that-
“People will still be able to upload GIFs; developers and API partners will continue to have the same access to GIPHY’s APIs, and GIPHY’s creative community will still be able to create great content.”
Giphy confirmed the same through their announcement-
“And for our API/SDK partners and developers: GIPHY’s GIFs, Stickers, Emojis, etc. aren’t going anywhere. We will continue to make GIPHY openly available to the wider ecosystem.”
A blog post by Facebook said that 50% of the Giphy traffic comes from Facebook’s owned apps, with nearly half of it coming from Instagram.
A few things you need to know about Giphy
1. Giphy was founded by Alex Chung and Jace Cooke in February 2013.
2. In August 2013, Giphy got integrated with Facebook, hence allowing the users of the network to post, embed, and share GIFs on Facebook. Three months later, Giphy integrated with Twitter as well.
3. Giphy was recognized among the Top 100 websites of 2013, as per PC Magazine.
4. In March 2015, Giphy acquired Nutmeg; a GIF messaging service. The acquisition had coincided with the Facebook Messenger’s own development platform, in which Giphy joined a few exclusive apps in its debut.
5. Giphy launched its second mobile app “GIPHY Mobile Cam” in August 2015 that allowed users to create and share GIFs on various social networks.
6. In July 2017, Giphy announced that it had 200 million daily active users between both the API and website, with nearly 250 million monthly active users on the website.
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