Facebook is snapping up Giphy in a deal reported to be worth $400 million, and the social giant plans to combine the GIF and sticker-sharing company’s services primarily with Instagram.
“Giphy makes everyday conversations more entertaining, and so we plan to further integrate their GIF library into Instagram and our other apps so that people can find just the right way to express themselves,” Facebook VP of product Vishal Shah said in announcing the acquisition Friday.
The deal is worth $400 million, according to a report by Axios, citing anonymous sources. A source familiar with the deal said the companies do not expect it to be subject to antitrust review by regulators.
As of the end of 2019, Giphy claimed its “visual expression and creation” service reached around 700 million people daily and that users sent some 10 billion pieces of content per day.
According to Facebook, 50% of Giphy’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps — and of that, half is from Instagram alone.
“By bringing Instagram and Giphy together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct,” Facebook’s Shah said. “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.”
In a separate blog post, Giphy praised its new owner. “Instagram has revolutionized self-expression,” the company wrote in a blog post. “More than 1 billion people use Instagram to communicate how they’re feeling and what they’re passionate about — we can’t wait to help those people become even more animated!”
Investors in Giphy, founded in 2013, included Betaworks, Lerer Hippeau, CAA Ventures, IVP, DFJ Growth, GGV Capital, CMC Capital Growth and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The New York-based company had raised $150.9 million to date, according to Crunchbase.
Late last year, Giphy expanded to add video with sound to its array of millions of shareable animated GIFs and stickers.
Naturally, Giphy celebrated its exit sale to Facebook with a custom animated GIF: