Giphy Hanukkah pic
Meta, the new parent company of Facebook’s, has been ordered to sell off its recent acquisition, Giphy, a website for making and sharing animated images, or GIFs. The order came from the U.K.’s competition and antitrust regulator.
The Competition and Markets Authority said the deal harms social media users and U.K. advertisers. Meta, of course, is planning on appealing the decision.
In a statement the Authority said, “By requiring Facebook to sell Giphy, we are protecting millions of social media users and promoting competition and innovation in digital advertising.”
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The Authority also said that Meta’s acquisition of Giphy would harm competitors and allow Facebook to “increase its already significant market power”
“We disagree with this decision,” a Meta spokesperson said in response. “We are reviewing the decision and considering all options, including appeal.”
“Both consumers and Giphy are better off with the support of our infrastructure, talent, and resources,” said Meta. “Together, Meta and Giphy would enhance Giphy’s product for the millions of people, businesses, developers and API partners in the UK and around the world who use Giphy every day, providing more choices for everyone.”
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— GIPHY Sports (@GIPHYSports) December 1, 2021
Founded in 2013 by Alex Chung and Jace Cooke, Giphy is the first and largest GIF search engine where thousands of artists, brands, and pop culture moments make today’s expression, entertainment, and info a little more moving. GIPHY allows users to not only search for their favorite GIFs but post, embed, share, create their own, and more.
At the time of the acquisition, Facebook executive Vishal Shah wrote in a blog post, “By bringing Instagram and GIPHY together, we can make it easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers in Stories and Direct. A lot of people in our community already know and love GIPHY. In fact, 50% of GIPHY’s traffic comes from the Facebook family of apps, half of that from Instagram alone.”
