Facebook’s VP of Product Vishal Shah announces the purchase in Blog post from Friday with the words “Facebook welcomes GIPHY as part of the Instagram team.” The news hits like a bomb. Because Giphy is to a certain extent the Wikipedia of the extremely popular ultra-short video form. Now Giphy belongs to the Facebook group. Shah writes in the blog post that they plan to further integrate the gif library into Inastagram and the other Facebook apps. Already today, 50 percent of GIPHY data traffic comes from the Facebook app family. Half of it from Instagram alone. Bringing Instagram and GIPHY together could make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in stories.
GIPHY would continue to operate the library and would be happy to further develop the technologies. Users could still upload GIFs. Developers and API partners would still have access to GIPHY’s APIs. Does this also apply to “competing” apps such as those from Apple, TikTok or Twitter? The blog post does not give a clear answer. Who is meant by “API partner” in the future? If so, the same content and functions are available to them. Because there is no question that GIPHY has potential for further development. So far, library operators have only been able to integrate their own GIFs as stickers in stories on Instagram, TikTok and Co. after an arduous and opaque verification process.
Does the deal call on the US antitrust authorities?
Facebook is already under scrutiny by Federal Trade Commission, as the Axios news portal writes in a post. Federal and state authorities examined Facebook for possible anti-competitive measures. The Federal Trade Commission is also reviewing minor acquisitions from Facebook and other technology giants. The Facebook Giphy transaction is not subject to a mandatory merger control review, a source familiar with the deal told Axios. Such reviews would trigger business that would reach certain financial thresholds. However, the supervisory authority could take a closer look at the deal. Maureen Ohlhausen, former chair of the Federal Trade Commission, told Axios that even a deal that would not undergo a mandatory review was not “immune to antitrust laws”. “The deal here is not one that flies under the radar screen,” said Ohlhausen to Axios.
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