[xienze]

What makes this indicative of a bubble is the combination of:

a. Business centered around an utterly frivolous endeavor

b. Seemingly far more employees than necessary to support (a)

c. Many millions of dollars raised in the pursuit of (a) and (b)

You're absolutely correct that people want to use it. But they sure as hell aren't gonna pay directly for it or put up with ads. This is not a business made to last. I know it, you know it, we all know it. Yet there are people out there willing to toss $55M into this folly.

[Tenhundfeld]

Yeah, I guess I put less weight on your point a. Frivolity doesn't necessarily mean an inability to generate revenue. Things that seem frivolous at first or frivolous to certain people can turn into a Real Business™.

However, I agree that people wouldn't pay for it or put up with ads. As a casual Giphy user, I certainly wouldn't pay for it, and to your point, I wouldn't invest my own money in Giphy.

Anyway, thanks for spelling out your reasoning. Cheers.

[makeee]

Actually Giphy has a pretty sound business model. They are already integrated into most of the large communication services used in the US (facebook messenger, twitter, slack, kik). When a movie studio wants to promote their next film they are going to pay Giphy a lot of money to make sure their gifs are featured. It's not inconceivable that that Giphy and it's like (Riffsy, PopKey) become a massive advertising channel for movies and tv. $300m seems like a lot, but I don't think it's ridiculous.

[dfischer]

Valid points but I think you're underestimating pop culture and how things like gifs are being used by the masses.

Users always end up having value because of ads. People always pay for that.

[api]

Your (b) is a big one in my mind. The core of giphy could be run by one person. There's probably enough monetization potential here for a good healthy lifestyle business for 1-3 people.

[cbhl]

What about sponsored GIFs from your favorite top brands? Something like Purina Beggin, or Tide, or American Airlines.