WHY FACEBOOK BUYING GIPHY ISN’T LOL
In the same week the big blue misery machine dolled out $52 million in compensation for giving its moderators’ PTSD, Facebook also bought Giphy for $400m. The go-to source for the ultimate tweet retort went for a song or a lot of wrecked moderators if you want to look at it that way.
While you may say ‘so what’ about animated clips from shows, and memes, what about if they were baked into multiple tools, platforms and websites that you use. Do you want Facebook to have that data? The move gives Facebook exactly that insight into realms outside of its own. Expect platforms like TikTok, Snap, and others to remove Giphy support fast and build competitors. Oh, and MS Teams will also likely say bye-bye to Giphy. Why? The code to help integrate it into products requires disclosing individual user deviceIDs.
How this got through the antitrust check is still up for debate but we’re likely to call this the pandemic effect. While the move gives Giphy the much-needed lifeline the company needed, the move also gives Facebook a huge insight into what’s picking up buzz and gives them a serious advantage in reacting to that. The move has implications for apps, TV shows, and beyond. Twitter should have bought it.
__ DO __ Check if you want Giphy integrated into your system. // __ DON’T __ Forget to subscribe for £1 or you’ll just get the event/promo emails starting next week! Soz.
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