Facebook acquires GIF sharing service, GIPHY as Part of Instagram Team.

Social media giant, Facebook Inc has acquired GIPHY to join Instagram’s team.

GIPHY is a leader in visual expression and creation. It contains a searchable library of animated GIFS that have integrated with a variety of apps.

According to Facebook, 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps with half coming from Instagram alone.

GIPHY makes everyday conversations more entertaining while helping people to express themselves better.

Facebook in a statement said, “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.

“We’ve used GIPHY’s API for years, not just on Instagram, but in the Facebook app, Messenger and WhatsApp. GIPHY will continue to operate its library (including its global content collection), and we’re looking forward to investing further in its technology and relationships with content and API partners”, the statement further added.

“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.”

According to reports from GIPHY, the company and its employees will join Instagram’s team.

The aim of the move is to simplify the deployment of GIFs and stickers in Instagram stories and DMs.

A blog from Facebook revealed that it paid $400 million to acquire GIPHY.

However, Facebook has been hoping to acquire GIPHY for a while now. Its first attempt was in the year 2015.

GIPHY was founded in 2013 by Alex Chung and Jace Cooke. The founders built a search engine, compiled a database of about 15,000 GIFs, and developed the GIPHY website. Today, GIPHY’s number of users has increased significantly, with 65 million users accessing more than 3 billion GIFs per month.