Alex Chung, founder and CEO of Giphy, feels that GIFs will be the future of digital expression. The internet is becoming all about entertainment as people have moved beyond just information. Giphy, being an entertainment search site, strives to provide more expressions into conventional forms of web search and messaging.
Some of our key takeaways from the conversation:
- GIFs Will Be the Ultimate Expression
With the mobile messaging boom, GIFs provide more meaning to a conversation and add a narrative that conventional texts fail to offer. Since Google was built around just providing information, Giphy attempts to bring entertainment into web search. - Advertising in Messaging
After invading the web, advertisers are now looking at mobile messaging to offer self-expressive advertising. GIF ads are now being created to offer a more personalized approach—that is more can be made more commercial and marketable.
Below are some of the key points and moments from the conversation:
- 0:30 – Alex introduced himself and his company Giphy, which has 60 million unique visits every month
- 1:13 – A GIF provides a narrative expression that a still image fails to convey; a video would be too long
- 1:50 – Messaging exceeds the average number of Google searches, and most Google searches are for entertainment
- 3:50 – Mobile messaging has evolved over time and has become more expressive. Giphy offers more expression than a static web page
- 6:03 – The messaging platform is booming and advertisers have a goal to use it
- 6:38 – Conversational advertising is not welcomed by people as it is invasive and looks misleading
- 9:30 – Giphy is attempting to turn the internet into mostly GIFs. They have a preview function for web pages and weather GIFs too
- 12:44 – People should be able to laugh at a search result and Giphy strives to be a revolutionary search platform
- 14:00 – Q&A: Will GIFs take over emojis?
- 15:53 – Q&A: Does Siri have to have humor in order to be successful?
