GIPHY, an online database and search engine that allows users to create and share short looping videos with no sound, has been acquired by Facebook.
Both platforms haven’t disclosed terms of the deal or the cost of the acquisition, but according to Axios, the deal is reportedly worth $400 million.
In a blog post by GIPHY, the company will now work as part of the Instagram team. Its GIF library will be integrated with the photo-sharing application as well as with Facebook’s other apps.
GIPHY’s animated response GIFs are available across Facebook’s platforms, as well as via other social apps and services on the web.
According to Facebook, “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.”
GIPHY was founded by Alex Chung and Jace Coke in February 2013 as a website meant to simply serve as a search engine for GIFs. During its first week of operation, the website attracted about a million users.
By August 2013, the platform had started allowing users to post embed and share GIFs on Facebook. In the same year, it quickly included Twitter as a second integration.
