The social media giant Facebook today announced the acquisition of popular GIF platform GIPHY in a deal worth $400 million. Known for its visual expression and creation, GIPHY will be a part of the Instagram team from now on. However, Facebook said that it isn’t disclosing terms of the deal.
According to Facebook, bringing Instagram and GIPHY together can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct. “Both our services are big supporters of the creator and artist community, and that will continue. Together, we can make it easier for anyone to create and share their work with the world.”
Post-acquisition, GIPHY will continue to operate its library (including its global content collection), and Facebook will invest further in its technology and relationships with content and API partners.
Also, people will still be able to upload GIFs; developers and API partners will continue to have the same access to GIPHY’s APIs
Vishal Shah, VP of Product for Instagram said:
GIFs and stickers give people meaningful and creative ways to express themselves. We see the positivity in how people use GIPHY in our products today, and we know that bringing the GIPHY team’s creativity and talent together with ours will only accelerate how people use visual communication to connect with each other.