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Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

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Re: Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

#241

Congrats to Giphy, but honestly it baffles me they are worth this much money. Do they actually bring in decent revenue, or was this all about eyeballs? Is this content even decently monetizable? Disclaimer: I am the jaded creator of Twicsy, a Twitter picture engine with many millions of visitors over its lifetime, and I apparently missed the boat on this trends and had to shut it down.

they do embed Ads into your gif searches... however, who knows what is happening to ad spend in these Covid times.

Re: Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

#243

I feel so bitter right now. A recruiter asked me to join them back in 2016 and they were paying $200k+ for a senior backend role. I turned them down because I was on a visa and wanted a company with financial stability. A gif-search engine startup sounded ludicrous. Well, here we are...

Were you offered any stock/options? How much would that worth now? (If you don't mind sharing..)

I can't remember tbh this was 4 years ago.

Re: Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

#244
post #19

Damnit, I turned down a follow-up interview with Giphy years ago since I didn't think they were sustainable and I had been burned by startups in the past. Shows how much business sense I have!

I've got a few stories like this. One was with Peloton. People buying expensive stationary bikes to work out at home? Ridiculous! )))

Re: Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

#246
post #6

Congrats to giphy I guess? But I'll be honest, any time I've ever used them as an extension in slack or anywhere, and tried to get relevant gifs, I got back some really bad results. I'll never fully understand why they're so successful short of just dominating the market through sheer popularity. I remember switching our team over to rightgif and the difference was astounding given the fact that giphy has millions up…

> I'll never fully understand why they're so successful short of just dominating the market through sheer popularity.

Sounds like a perfect match for Facebook :)

Re: Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

#247
post #231

A few weeks ago I decided to completely stop using gifs and emojis in conversations, and goes what conversations got more meaningful and thoughtful.

Im working on a new conversation app and I'm explicitly never going to allow gifs or emojis as they degrade the conversation , distract, and prevent meaningful dialog.

Re: Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

#248
post #67

Congrats to Giphy, but honestly it baffles me they are worth this much money. Do they actually bring in decent revenue, or was this all about eyeballs? Is this content even decently monetizable? Disclaimer: I am the jaded creator of Twicsy, a Twitter picture engine with many millions of visitors over its lifetime, and I apparently missed the boat on this trends and had to shut it down.

The other interesting thing about this one, is that they dont even attempt to license content do they? They dont have any content costs? Theres been this fake (steal) it till you make it, wild west approach to growth. Youtube, Buzzfeed, Imgur. You just host anybodys content regardless of if the poster is the owner, and once you get to scale, then you handle copyright and creating your own content so you arent as depe…

I wonder if it's similar to music, where you can play a short piece without compensating the artist? Since most gifs are <5 seconds, it's not content stealing.

Re: Facebook to Buy Giphy for $400M

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Given that cynical viewpoint I wouldn't even call that cynical. It's just the state of things.

It absolutely is cynical. Just another "If you're not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold."

What you're describing with that quote isn't cynicism. Especially as far as FB is concerned. That is absolutely business as usual for them and has been for years.
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