Twitch’s gaming streamers will now be able let their viewers pop animated GIFs into their live broadcasts, under a deal with Giphy.
Terms of the pact are not being disclosed. The new Giphy extension on Twitch allows viewers to post GIFs to a section of the screen (as predetermined by the broadcaster).
“With Giphy tapping into their extensive library of animated GIFs for their new extension, it adds a fun and compelling new element to the social video experience that is sure to resonate with the current meme generation,” said Amir Shevat, Twitch’s VP of developer experience.
The ability to add an animated GIF to a Twitch live-stream may sound like a sort-of-fun but marginal feature. But Amazon-owned Twitch has built a huge community of broadcasters and video-game viewers based on the interactive nature of the service. Users can subscribe to individual channels (starting at $4.99 per month) to get perks like being able to send “emotes” in chats on their favorite game broadcasters’ channels.
To access the GIFs, Twitch viewers click on the Giphy icon and enter a keyword into the message bar. According to Twitch, the GIFs available to post in live-streams are limited to a “PG rating and below,” excluding any content with violence, sexual references, or “lewd terms.”
Twitch says it has an average of more than 15 million active daily viewers and over 2 million unique monthly broadcasters.
Giphy serves more than 5 billion GIFs per day to more than 300 million daily active users. The New York-based company has raised $151 million from investors including Draper Fisher Jurvetson, IVP, Lightspeed Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, RRE Ventures and CAA Ventures.
