Giphy ( ), styled as GIPHY, is an American online database and search engine that allows users to search for and share short looping videos with no sound that resemble animated

GIF The Graphics Interchange Format (GIF; or , see pronunciation) is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite and released on 15 June 1987. ...

files.

History

Beginnings and early history

Giphy was founded by Alex Chung and Jace Cooke in February 2013.Alfonso III, Fernando
Meet GIPHY, a GIF lovers new best friend
''Daily Dot''. Feb 5, 2013.Franzen, Carl
New GIF Search Engine 'Giphy' Sees 30K Visitors In First Weekend
''Talking Points Memo''. Feb 4, 2013.Webbys x Grey Goose: Alex Chung of Giphy-Final
''Vimeo'' May 2015. The idea for the business came when the pair was having breakfast, musing on the rising trend of purely visual communication. When Chung and Cooke first launched Giphy, the website functioned solely as a

search engine A search engine is a software system designed to carry out web searches. They search the World Wide Web in a systematic way for particular information specified in a textual web search query. The search results are generally presented in a ...

for GIFs. According to Chung, Giphy attracted around a million users during its first week and the figure leveled out to 300,000. Giphy features what its founders called as "conversational search" wherein contents are brought to users' conversations through a search box found in their messaging applications.

Growth

In August 2013, Giphy expanded beyond a search engine to allow users to post, embed and share GIFs on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

.Gordon, Whitson
GIPHY embeds gifs on facebook, is mankind’s greatest achievement
''Life Hacker''. August 29, 2014.Kastrenakes, Jacob
Giphy brings animated GIFs to facebook
''The Verge''. August 29, 2013.Dreyfuss, Emily.
Alert! GIF’s now “work” on facebook thanks to Giphy
''C Net''. August 29, 2013. Giphy was then recognized as a Top 100 Website of 2013, according to ''

PC Magazine ''PC Magazine'' (shortened as ''PCMag'') is an American computer magazine published by Ziff Davis. A print edition was published from 1982 to January 2009. Publication of online editions started in late 1994 and have continued to the present d ...

''. Three months later, Giphy integrated with

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

to enable users to share GIFs by simply sharing a GIF's URL.Yeung, Ken
This could get messy: giphy brings animated gifs to your twitter timeline.
''The Next Web''. November 14, 2013. In May 2014, Giphy raised $2.4 million in a Series A funding round from investors, including Quire, CAA Ventures,

RRE Ventures RRE Ventures is an American Venture capital, Venture Capital firm based in New York City. The firm primarily invests in Seed money, seed, Series A round, series A and series B rounds and focuses on companies operating in the software, internet, c ...

, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, and

Betaworks Betaworks is an American startup studio and seed stage venture capital company based in New York City that invests in network-focused, consumer-facing media businesses. Its hybrid investor/builder model has led to both investments in fast-growi ...

.Crook, Jordan
GIPHY, The Betaworks-backed GIF search engine, is raising $2.5 Million in Series A
''Tech Crunch''. May 15, 2014. In March 2015, Giphy acquired Nutmeg, a GIF messaging service, as one of the company's first major steps towards the mobile industry.Crook, Jordan
Giphy + Messenger, Giphys first mobile app, brings GIF search to facebook messenger
''Tech Crunch'' March 25, 2015. This coincided with the launch of Facebook Messenger's own development platform, in which Giphy joined a few exclusive apps in its debut. In August 2015, Giphy launched its second mobile app, GIPHY Cam, which allows users to create and share GIFs on a social network.Crook, Jordan
Giphy cam lets you create and share homemade GIFs
''Tech Crunch'' August 20, 2105. In February 2016, Giphy raised $55 million in funding at a $300 million valuation. In October 2016, Giphy announced several statistics, including the statement that it had 100 million daily active users, that it served over 1 billion GIFs per day, and that visitors watched more than 2 million hours of GIF content every day. In July 2017, Giphy announced that it had 200 million daily active users between both the API and website, with around 250 million

monthly active users Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...

on the website. Chung announced in a February 2019 New York event that Giphy was exploring an advertising scheme that is distinguished from the Google model, which shows ads according to users' search histories. The idea is to embed advertising in private messages. Giphy is seeking to take advantage of this landscape since the GIG database has been integrated into most messaging services.

Attempted acquisition by Meta Platforms

In May 2020, it was announced that Giphy had agreed to be acquired by Facebook Inc. (now Meta Platforms), with a reported purchase price of $400 million. Facebook services had accounted for roughly half of Giphy's overall traffic. Giphy was to be integrated with the staff of Facebook subsidiary

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

, although Facebook stated that there would be no immediate changes to the service. Facebook discontinued Giphy's display advertising program upon the purchase. The acquisition faced scrutiny due to recent privacy scandals surrounding Facebook. The United Kingdom's

Competition and Markets Authority The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the competition regulator in United Kingdom. It is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom, responsible for strengthening business competition and preventing and reducing anti-com ...

(CMA) argued that the deal was potentially

anti-competitive Anti-competitive practices are business or government practices that prevent or reduce competition in a market. Antitrust laws differ among state and federal laws to ensure businesses do not engage in competitive practices that harm other, usuall ...

and began a probe. In June 2020, the CMA issued an enforcement order prohibiting Giphy from being fully integrated into Facebook, pending a future ruling. In August 2021, the CMA issued preliminary findings, arguing that there was the risk that Facebook could pull Giphy's services from competitors, or require them to provide more user data as a condition of service. It also showed concerns over the market share of Facebook's advertising services. On November 30, 2021, the CMA ruled that Meta would be required to divest Giphy. On July 18, 2022, the

Competition Appeal Tribunal The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) of the United Kingdom was created by Section 12 and Schedule 2 to the Enterprise Act 2002 which came into force on 1 April 2003. The Competition Service is an executive non-departmental public body which ...

ordered the CMA to re-evaluate its decision on procedural grounds, as it "failed to properly consult" and "wrongly excised portions" of its decision. It otherwise upheld most of the CMA's original decision. On October 18, 2022, the CMA ruled for a second time that Meta be required to divest Giphy, stating that Meta already controls half of the advertising in the UK. Meta agreed to the sale, though it stated that it disagrees with the decision itself.

Partnerships

Giphy partners with brands to host GIFs that can be shared as marketing promotions via social media channels. The company also created artist profiles on the website, which allow GIFs to be attributed to the artist(s) who created them. In September 2014, Giphy partnered with

Line Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

to host the inaugural sticker design competition. LINE and GIPHY enlisted a team of digital partners, including

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

Fox ADHD Animation Domination High-Def (also called Animation Domination HD, Fox ADHD, and ADHD) was a late-night programming block broadcast by Fox. Originally premiering on July 21, 2013 as a spin-off of '' Animation Domination'', the block originally ...

Frederator Frederator Studios is an American animation television production studio which is a division of Frederator Networks, Inc. It was founded by Fred Seibert in 1997 with its first series launching in 1998. (Seibert resigned from Frederator in Augus ...

, Cut & Paste,

New Museum The New Museum of Contemporary Art, founded in 1977 by Marcia Tucker, is a museum in New York City at 235 Bowery, on Manhattan's Lower East Side. History The museum originally opened in a space in the Graduate Center of the then-named New Sc ...

, Eyebeam,

Rhizome In botany and dendrology, a rhizome (; , ) is a modified subterranean plant stem that sends out roots and shoots from its nodes. Rhizomes are also called creeping rootstalks or just rootstalks. Rhizomes develop from axillary buds and grow hori ...

The Webby Awards The Webby Awards are List of web awards, awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. ...

, Pratt,

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

and

Dribbble Dribbble is a self-promotion and social networking platform for digital designers and creatives. It serves as a design portfolio platform, jobs and recruiting site and is one of the largest platforms for designers to share their work online. Th ...

to support the event.LINE & GIPHY fuel creativity to build a true global language
''PR Newswire''. Sep 25, 2014. In August 2015,

Universal Studios Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...

partnered with Giphy to release six GIFs promoting the new

N.W.A N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip hop group whose members were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is widely considered ...

-based movie,

Straight Outta Compton ''Straight Outta Compton'' is the debut studio album by rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987. Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced b ...

.Holmes, Mannie
Universal teams with Giphy on “Straight Outta Compton”
''Variety'' August 13, 2105.Dove, Jackie
Giphy and LINE jointly launch a new sticker pack for more animated madness
''The Next Web'' April 2. Giphy has partnered with over 200 companies and brands to host all their existing content on their own branded channel. Giphy's partners include

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

Calvin Klein Calvin Richard Klein (born November 19, 1942) is an American fashion designer who launched the company that would later become Calvin Klein Inc., in 1968. In addition to clothing, he also has given his name to a range of perfumes, watches, and ...

, GE, and

Pepsi Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961. History Pepsi was ...

.Heine, Christopher
Subway unleashes 73 GIFs for #januANY campaign
''Ad Week'' Jan 14, 2014.Johnson, Lauren
Here’s why GIF’s are back in style and bigger than ever for Brands
''Ad Week'' June 24, 2014.Angio, Joe et al
Digital Maverick 2015
''Details'' May 7, 2015.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Facebook navbox 2013 establishments in New York City American companies established in 2013 American photography websites GIF hosting websites Internet properties established in 2013 Internet search engines Meta Platforms acquisitions Meta Platforms applications 2020 mergers and acquisitions