Facebook Acquires GIF Search Engine Giphy For $400 Million

One of the most popular social media apps and tech giants, Facebook, has acquired the GIF search engine Giphy. As reported by Axios, Facebook paid $400 million to buy Giphy. The company has said that in the future, it plans to integrate Giphy with Instagram.

Since a lot of Instagram users use GIFs in their stories and chats, Facebook said that integrating Giphy with Instagram will help those users find the best way to express their emotions.

Recently, the company also invested an amount of $5.7 billion in Indian telecom service Jio to boost the digital revolution in India.

What Is Giphy?

For those who aren’t aware, Giphy is a search engine that allows the users to search and share GIFs. Moreover, Giphy also comes integrated with famous apps like Twitter and Slack. Apple’s iMessage also features a lot of Gifs from Giphy.

What Giphy Acquisition Means For Facebook?

Facebook officials clearly said that users would still be able to upload GIFs on Giphy despite the acquisition. The same goes for API partners of the app who will also get the same privileges. In fact, Facebook looks forward to enhancing the technicals aspects of Giphy.

Another advantage of Giphy acquisition is that now Facebook can have a sneak a peek over its messaging app competitors in the market who use Giphy. Facebook can extract data like how often people are using Giphy in other apps like TikTok, Twitter, iMessage, and Slack, and how they use it.

Such insights are valuable to Facebook which focuses on boosting its massaging apps and social media platforms. However, it is not clear as of now whether Giphy will be removed from other platforms and become an Instagram exclusive.

But it makes sense for Facebook to not remove Giphy integration from other apps as it is going to help Facebook in the long run.