Photo by Focal Project JP on Flickr.com
Social media giant Facebook announced last year that it had acquired the GIF production and sharing tool Giphy. However, the UK blocked the purchase in question.
In recent years, the interest in the GIF format, which allows you to send animated pictures, especially on social media, has increased considerably.
Aware of this, Facebook’s parent company Meta took a huge step forward and bought GIF production and sharing tool Giphy for $400 million last year.
Later, the UK blocked the acquisition of the gif-sharing platform Giphy by Facebook’s parent company Meta, and Meta objected to this decision.
Meta was forced to accept UK ban decision
The final decision on Meta’s acquisition of Giphy has been announced. In a report by the UK Competition Appeals Court, the decision went against Meta. As a result, Meta will be forced to sell Giphy, which it bought for $400 million.
A Meta spokesperson has officially confirmed that they have accepted the UK’s decision. Now it is a matter of curiosity who will be the new owner of Giphy.
The transaction, according to the UK Competition and Markets Authority, may harm social media users and advertisers in the country while also stifling competition across social media platforms.
Thanks to Giphy’s API, users of the Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp programs have had access to GIF alternatives for the past few years (application programming interface).
In fact, according to Facebook, 50% of Giphy’s traffic comes from applications in the Facebook group.
After acquiring Giphy, Facebook could have restricted access to gifs on other platforms. However, the UK claims that this is anti-competitive.
