Facebook has announced that it is buying the popular GIF sharing website Giphy for $400 million. The company will now integrate the massive GIF library of Giphy into Instagram and other Facebook apps in the coming months.
Giphy is one of the most popular websites to create and host GIFs. Several apps use Giphy API to integrate Giphy on their apps. Facebook also uses Giphy’s API to bring GPFs on its apps including Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram for a long time.
Facebook claims that half of Giphy’s traffic comes from Facebook’s apps. And from this huge traffic, Instagram accounts for half of the traffic.
After this deal, Giphy will become part of the Instagram team. Instagram will now get even easier ways to send GIFs in Instagram stories and direct messages.
Giphy will still be available as a GIF platform. So existing GIF users will not see any difference. People will still be able to create or upload GIFs and use Giphy’s APIs.
Several popular apps like Twitter, Pinterest, Slack, Reddit, and others use Giphy’s API to integrate GIFs. Even if Facebook claims there will be no change for existing users, it will be interesting to see if these companies continue to use Giphy or look for an alternate.
