If you search for a GIF on the web then chances are that you're going to come across Giphy very early on in that search. Now the huge GIF library has been bought by Facebook for a cool $400 million (roughly £330m / AU$625m).
Facebook says the Giphy team will now work as part of Instagram, so you can expect GIF-finding in the social media app to become slicker than ever. It looks as though the Giphy site and apps will remain as they are, at least for now.
"Giphy, a leader in visual expression and creation, is joining the Facebook company today as part of the Instagram team," writes Facebook's Vishal Shah in a blog post.
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"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."
Just keep GIFing
It's not immediately clear what this means for various Giphy products, like the Giphy app. Facebook says users will still be able to upload GIFs to the site, and that other apps will still have access to the Giphy API.
Also mentioned in the blog post announcing the news is the fact that 50% of Giphy's traffic already comes from the "Facebook family of apps". Of course there's no better way to respond to something on Facebook or Instagram than with a GIF.
This is just the latest in a long line of app and website acquisitions from Facebook. You may remember the social networking giant bought Instagram for $1 billion back in 2012, just as it was getting popular enough to threaten Facebook.
Instagram co-founders Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom quit in 2018, apparently over tensions with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. WhatsApp was another big purchase, in 2014 – and now the WhatsApp co-founder is warning people to delete Facebook.
