Facebook Inc is acquiring Giphy, a popular website for making and sharing animated images, or GIFs, and will integrate it with its rapidly growing Instagram photo-sharing app, Facebook said in a blog post.

Facebook said it’s planning to further integrate Giphy into the Instagram app “so that people can find just the right way to express themselves.” Giphy will continue to operate its library, Facebook said. 

Giphy is a library of GIFs that can integrate with other apps. Companies like Slack and Twitter have built Giphy into their apps. Apple also uses some Giphy images for its GIF feature in iMessage. It’s unclear if Facebook will end those relationships to keep Giphy only on Facebook’s apps. Instagram said in a tweet that third parties will still be allowed to use Giphy images.

The announcement comes at a time when the largest social media network is under scrutiny from regulators over antitrust concerns. In 2015 Giphy rebuffed a Facebook offer, choosing instead to continue integrating its products with multiple social media platforms, according to news site TechCrunch.

 “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,” said Vishal Shah, Instagram’s vice president of product, in the blog post.

“We will continue to make GIPHY openly available to the wider ecosystem,” Giphy said in a post on blogging website Medium.

A Facebook spokesman said Giphy’s current integrations with social platforms like Twitter, Snapchat and ByteDance’s TikTok would not change.

The spokesman also said GIFs have no online tracking mechanisms such as pixels or cookies, a concern for privacy advocates wary of Facebook’s aggressive collection of personal data for use in targeted advertising.

Facebook’s blog post said 50% of Giphy’s traffic already comes from Facebook’s apps, with half of that coming from Instagram. Facebook has long used Giphy’s application program interface throughout its main Facebook app, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Source- Reuters