Skip to main content

Kika Tech teams up with Giphy to expand its GIF library

kika giphy partnership  1 resized
Image used with permission by copyright holder
GIFs (or Graphics Interchange Formats), those hilarious and often animated clips that pervade your Tumblr timeline, are perhaps the purest form of digital escapism. And with tools like Emoji Gif, an app for Facebook Messenger, and Emoji Keyboard, a GIF-endowed keyboard for Android, they’re simpler to make than ever — a video, photo, or selfie is enough to generate a social-ready image. And now, thanks to search engines like Giphy, the process is becoming easier still.

On Tuesday, June 27, Kika Tech, the firm behind Emoji Gif and Emoji Keyboard, announced a partnership with GIF search engine Giphy. Giphy will become Kika Tech’s primary supplier of GIFs, and in return, Kika will put Giphy’s search tools in front of an audience of more than 30 million monthly active users in 77 countries.

“We chose to partner with Giphy for its searchable library filled with millions of GIFs which continues to multiply daily,” Bill Hu, co-founder and CEO of Kika Tech, said. “Kika users are always looking for the most interactive and freshest content to express themselves. This partnership with Giphy will only make the Kika ecosystem even more engaging and entertaining for our users.”

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Kika has experienced impressive growth lately. Since establishing a new headquarters in Silicon Valley, California last year, it has raised millions of dollars, expanded its development team, and inked partnerships with Huawei, ZTE, 21st Century Fox, and Warner Brothers, among others.

“Kika has built an amazing platform that helps a global community communicate and share with one another,” David Rosenberg, Director of business development for Giphy, said in a statement. “Giphy is excited to partner with Kika to bring the best content in the world to these users and to become part of the way they talk to each other every day.”

But Kika isn’t the only one tapping into Giphy’s firehose of GIF data. In January 2016, Tinder announced a deal that put the search engine’s branding front and center. In October, Giphy launched a tool that let people convert “vines,” the six-second video format popularized by Twitter’s now-defunct Vine app, into GIFs. And in June, it teamed up with Vimeo to replace the platform’s video thumbnails with animated clips.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Giphy’s pursued solo projects, too. In October 2016, it rolled out an upgraded Giphy Cam app with augmented reality features: Using the app’s new tool, you can align a sticker or animation next to a photo’s real-life subject. Last year, the firm opened a production studio in Los Angeles to make its own GIFs as well as GIFs for outside partners. And in March 2017, Giphy launched Giphy Stickers, an app that generates GIF-based stickers you can share with friends.

Those efforts have paid off. The four-year-old Giphy, which serves more than two billion GIFs to more than 150 million users daily, has raised $150 million in funding and maintains a $600 million valuation.

Editors' Recommendations

Kyle Wiggers
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…
How to download watchOS 10 on your Apple Watch
An Apple Watch showing the watchOS 10 Developer Beta update.

It's that time of year again when Apple releases its major mobile operating system updates, and alongside iOS 17 for the iPhone, we're also getting a big new release for Apple's wearables in watchOS 10 — possibly the most significant software update we've ever seen for the Apple Watch.

For one, watchOS 10 brings with it a fresh new design to the user interface that's almost like owning an entirely new Apple Watch. However, there's a lot more here than just a fresh coat of paint, including new Smart Stack widgets, more powerful workout tracking for cyclists and hikers, new mental and vision health features, and more.

Read more
How to download iOS 17 on your iPhone right now
iOS 17 logo and renders on Apple's website.

Apple has officially released iOS 17, the latest major release of its mobile operating system for the iPhone. After three months of beta testing, iOS 17 is finally ready for public consumption, and it brings with it fun new features like interactive widgets, Contact Posters, a new StandBy smart display mode, multiple timers and improved notifiations, and much more.

Read more
How to download iPadOS 17 on your iPad
New widgets for iPadOS 17.

While we have yet to see any new iPads this year, Apple has just unleashed iPadOS 17, a major update for its tablet operating system that promises to breathe new life into any recent iPad model you already own.

Once you install iPadOS 17, you'll be able to enjoy the iPhone's lock screen features on the larger screen, plus the interactive widgets that also came to the iPhone in this year's iOS 17 update. In addition, iPadOS 17 boasts some nice improvements to Stage Manager, a new tablet-sized Health app, significantly improved PDF support in Notes, and even a throwback wallpaper from the original iPad era.

Read more