Facebook’s Giphy merger faces a potential hurdle in the UK. The country’s Competition and Markets Authority, or CMA, had launched an investigation into the merger in January. He shared his findings this week, expressing concern about Facebook’s increased control of digital advertising bookmarks, as well as the potential for greater dominance on social media.
Everybody uses gifs nowadays on social media. Whether you’re on Twitter, WhatsApp, or Snapchat, or even just using Gboard, the humble gif is just a few taps away. While Giphy is not the only gif platform, it is one of the most widely used. The CMA expressed concern that Giphy could prioritize Facebook when it comes to providing Gif and make competing apps have to share more user data to obtain the same terms as before.
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The CMA also noted that the Giphy acquisition took Giphy out of the race as one of Facebook’s competitors in the digital ad market.
Andrea Gomes da Silva, UK Chief Markets and Mergers, said:
Many people use GIFs when communicating online, so it is important that platforms are not restricted in what they can offer and that people have a variety of options to choose from.
As the UK competition authority, it is our responsibility to ensure that markets remain competitive. It is vital that we ensure that Facebook, as a large and powerful Big Tech firm, is not using its strong market position to stifle competition.
If businesses don’t address our concerns, we’ll launch a deeper review to make sure consumers and businesses don’t lose out.
Both Facebook and Giphy have 5 business days to respond to these two concerns with legally binding proposals. If their response is unsatisfactory or they do not respond, the CMA may refer the merger to a Phase 2 investigation.
A Facebook spokesperson told. that the company would cooperate with any investigation and added:
This merger is good for the competition and in the interest of everyone who uses Giphy and our services in the UK, from developers to service providers to content creators.
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