Facebook is purchasing popular GIF-creation platform Giphy for $400 million. The giant plans to integrate the GIF sharing tools and huge library of GIFs into the Instagram app, with expansion to other Facebook apps planned.
Giphy is already used in Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Messenger – Facebook uses the API to allow users to share GIFs from the site. Facebook also claims 50 per cent of traffic on Giphy comes from their services, so it’s a move that will be very beneficial for them.
Whilst there are no plans for major changes just yet, Giphy will be further incorporated into the Instagram app, making it easier for users to share GIFs in their stories, posts and messages.
Reddit, Twitter, Slack and hundreds of apps rely on Giphy’s API for their GIF-sharing capabilities, so this major acquisition by Facebook could (but is unlikely to) lead to disagreements between Facebook and other platforms. Apple also uses Giphy alongside other platforms so it’s possible they could remove it from iMessage.
