OMG! Giphy Is Breaking Into the Entertainment Business
On a mild Sunday evening in September, a handful of staffers from Giphy gathered in the reception area of the company’s Los Angeles studios to watch the Emmy Awards. Sitting opposite a wall of flat-screen TVs with laptops perched on knees and La Croix cans nearby, the staffers gave off a convivial collegiate vibe. But this was only incidentally a social event. The Giphy folks had been tasked by the Emmys producers to “live GIF” the show, creating shareable, seconds-long video loops that could be used to comment on the broadcast itself—and punctuate digital conversations long after the Emmys were over.
By the time host Stephen Colbert was high-kicking through the opening number with a group of white-hooded dancers—a nod to The Handmaid’s Tale—Giphy’s team had already filled its home page with red-carpet banter. Then came the night’s biggest, and most controversial, moment: Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer rolled a faux White House podium onto the stage to deliver a send-up of his infamous “largest audience” claim about
