GIPHY, the extremely popular online library for searching and creating animated images known as GIFs, has been acquired by Facebook.
Neither company disclosed the amount that GIPHY sold for, but the deal’s value is reportedly between $300 million and $400 million.
In a blog post Friday morning, Facebook announced that GIPHY would be integrated into the Instagram team. The database itself will continue to operate separately to keep the same functionality it has previously provided users.
“By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct,” wrote Facebook exec Vishal Shah. “A lot of people in our community already know and love GIPHY. In fact, 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps, half of that from Instagram alone.”
GIPHY already enjoys a number of integrations into third-party apps such as Slack, Snapchat, Tinder and Twitter. Likewise, Facebook and Instagram have been allowing users to access the GIPHY library for Instagram Stories, Direct Messages and Facebook Messenger for months.
Related: Facebook to Pay $52 Million to Content Mods Who View Disturbing Images
Created in 2013, GIPHY quickly became one of the most popular platforms to find animated GIFs. Business Insider reported that the company was valued at $600 million in 2017.
In a Friday morning post on Medium, GIPHY wrote: “Based on the success of those collaborations (and many others) we know that there are exciting times ahead of us. GIPHY’s GIFs, Stickers, Emojis, etc. aren’t going anywhere. We will continue to make GIPHY openly available to the wider ecosystem.”
Related: ‘Plandemic’ Removed From Facebook, Pushed ‘Unsubstantiated’ Claims
Facebook has been aggressive in its acquisition of large and small business software alike.
The purchase of GIPHY at up to $400 million is no small amount. But remember, Facebook spent approximately $1 billion to acquire Instagram in 2012. Like GIPHY, Instagram remained an independent brand. They operated as a standalone app rather than integrating with the Facebook app itself.
Even more astoundingly, Facebook reportedly spent more than $20 billion to acquire WhatsApp in 2014. At the time, WhatsApp was the defacto heavyweight messaging app for smartphones with a user count of over 450 million.
Stepping outside of their social media realm, Facebook also acquired Oculus, a virtual reality company which creates VR headsets, in 2014 for a total of $2.3 billion in cash and stock.
There have been over 80 acquisitions in Facebook’s history since it’s founding in 2005. To see a full list, follow this link.
