Giphy
This spread through many posts rather than one canonical upload.
2013·The social era
A searchable library of animated GIFs, built into messaging and social apps.
At a glanceThe facts
- Spread in
- 2013
- Made by
- Alex Chung and Jace Cooke
- Origin
- No single original
- Available
- Not held by ViralWorld
What this wasThe story
A GIF search engine that became infrastructure: integrated into messaging apps and social platforms until picking a reaction from it was an ordinary part of typing. It made the GIF a shared vocabulary rather than a file people kept.
Why it matteredWhat changed
Facebook’s owner paid a reported 400 million dollars for it, was ordered by a British regulator to sell it, and sold it for 53 million.
TimelineIn order
- Made
The site is launched.1
- Picked up
GIFs from it can be posted on Facebook. Twitter follows about three months later.1
- Later
It reports 200 million users a day.1
- Later
Facebook announces that it is buying the company.1
- Later
The United Kingdom’s competition authority rules that it must be sold.1
- Later
Its sale to Shutterstock is completed.1
Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast
Where it came fromWhat we know
This spread through many posts rather than one identifiable original. No copy is held here — what it was, when it spread and what people called it is what this page can tell you.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this. It spread through many posts rather than from one identifiable original.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
What this was built on, each one a record of its own.
- Taken from The GIFGIF · 1996
A database and search engine for animated GIFs.
More from the social eraMore of the archive
SourcesWhat was read
Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things