Facebook will buy Giphy for $400 million to add it to Instagram

In a recent blog post, Facebook posted that they welcome GIPHY to the family. Giphy is one of the leading apps in GIFs. With this acquisition, Facebook plans to integrate Giphy's library into Instagram and other Facebook family apps.

A spokesperson in a blog said:

In fact, 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps, half of that 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. 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.

Currently, Giphy will live on as part of the Instagram team. It will make texting more fun,  and GIFs easier to send in Instagram stories and direct messages. Previously, there was no provision to send GIFs on Instagram. The company assures that things will remain the same for now for Giphy users.

Vishal Shah, VP of product, said:

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.

The investment part, though, was announced by Axios. From their sources, they have reported that the total deal of buying GIPHy will be around $400 million.

Facebook has been involved in a lot of acquisitions lately; the biggest being with Reliance Jio. Even in these testing times, the SNS company is on an investing spree. Further, Facebook is also renewing a lot of its family apps' features. From WhatsApp adding Messenger Rooms to removing Instagram Lite, Facebook is going through a lot of technological changes.

Adding GIPHY to the family will bring more interaction to the platforms.