Facebook is buying Giphy for USD400 million

It’s official. Facebook is buying Giphy, one of the largest GIF-making and sharing sites on the Internet, for a reported sum of USD400 million. The deal shouldn’t be a huge surprise, seeing that Facebook has used Giphy’s API in the Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp apps for years.

In fact, Facebook revealed that 50 per cent of Giphy’s traffic comes from Facebook’s family of apps, with half coming from Instagram alone.

Giphy will now be part of the Instagram team and the new team will integrate the GIF library into Instagram and other Facebook apps.

via GIPHY

Vishal Shah, Instagram’s VP of product assured that things will remain the same for now for Giphy users, as he welcomed Giphy to the Facebook family.

Giphy will continue to operate its library (including its global content collection), and they will be investing further into its technology and relationships with its content and API partners.

via GIPHY

“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.”

For other services that rely on Giphy’s API for GIFs such as Twitter, Telegram, Slack, and more, things must be a little tense and precarious despite Facebook’s assurance.

Source: Facebook