Published , by Brittany Vincent
Published , by Brittany Vincent
Facebook is officially acquiring Giphy, which means we can no longer have fun sharing the funny moving pictures we all love to send online.
The social media network announced the acquisition on Friday (May 15), a deal valued at around $400 million, a according to Axios. The purchase will further Facebook's goal of funneling everyone into Instagram by integrating Giphy into the app so that people can "find just the right way to express themselves."
Facebook has utilized Giphy in the past and continues to do so across its platform, including on WhatsApp and Messenger. This isn't the first attempt at acquiring the company, either, with Giphy declining the offer in 2015.
Twitter and Slack beat Facebook to the punch as far as further integration, however, by building Giphy straight into their applications, as well as Apple by way of iMessage. Facebook has not indicated whether or not these relationships will change going forward, nor any alterations it plans to make, though one has to wonder how long these APIs will live on.
"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," said Vishal Shah, vice president of product.
This is great news for Facebook, I guess. But Facebook doesn't exactly have the best track record when it comes to taking over. We all know what happened with Oculus. Hopefully Giphy can remain relatively similar to the way it is now.