Slinky -> Giphy -> Tenor -> KlipySohu.com Limited Sponsored ADRBATS:SOHUvictorkochRecently, I’ve found myself thinking that the tech industry moves in cycles, with trends coming back just like fashion. You can see this in so many things. It’s not only because Gen Z (those aged 16 to 25 today) are choosing retro button phones, buying wired headphones, and rediscovering cassettes and Walkman players, but also because they are looking back at early-era internet products and services. As someone who has been around since the 90s internet era, it’s deeply rewarding to get recognition from those who remember the things I worked on back then. But what’s even more fulfilling is seeing a new generation follow in those footsteps, carrying on in one way or another the work I poured years into when I was much younger. Slinky.Me (2009–2013, Acquired by SOHU Inc.) One of the defining milestones of my life is, without a doubt, creating the very first search engine for GIFs. It has truly become a part of the global internet’s history, paving the way for successors in the space, including well-known US platforms like Giphy and Tenor. While Slinky became a major hit across Asian region (China, South Korea, Japan and other countries), and the story outside the US has already been widely covered — including that scandal which ultimately derailed the company’s future — there’s a big upside to look back on. If Slinky hadn’t been knocked off course, we probably would have taken over a piece of the US market, capturing the exact audience that later fueled Giphy, a company founded in 2013 that instantly secured massive venture capital backing. The story around Slinky and Giphy was certainly dramatic. Giphy’s founders leaned into a marketing narrative, casting themselves as the medium’s pioneers — which wasn’t accurate. That claim is easily fact-checked now and has been debunked by multiple sources, but I don’t hold any bitterness or regret. In the bigger picture, our collective work changed the industry, and everyone contributed in their own way. After all this time, those old battles carry little weight. Today, a new generation of creators is trying to build something original on top of the infrastructure we established. And that brings us to Klipy. Founded in 2022, Klipy managed to secure a dozen integrations by 2026, winning over the exact same clients that had used Slinky, Giphy, and Stickeroid years before. That is an excellent result. It’s also impossible not to notice that the company utilizes a very similar interface to the one developed by myself and our team back in 2009 — featuring a dark background, transparent cells, and other distinct UI elements. The second thing that stands out is the replication of the monetization model I originally designed to generate revenue: leveraging an API for image delivery and charging for sessions based on each image access request. However, I am skeptical about whether the company can sustain itself and grow rapidly solely on this monetization model. Historically, it was never the primary revenue driver for Slinky, Giphy, Stickeroid, or Tenor. Klipy has already raised $5.1M for development. While this isn’t a massive sum for this specific space, these funds are certainly enough to take a step forward and build something new. At the very least, as the creator of the world’s first GIF search engine and service, I would like to see genuine invention and innovation rather than just a duplication of the past. As you’ve already noted, I still closely follow this space and view its evolution with a sense of nostalgia. Therefore, I truly hope Klipy will surprise those of us who dedicated many years of our lives to this industry. * Slinky’s algorithms and tech stack are still used in Sohu projects, and some of them made their way into Sogou, where they are now used by millions of people.