Tenor, Inc.
Screenshot
Type of site
Search engine
GIF hosting website
Predecessor(s)Riffsy
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, United States
No. of locations3
Area servedWorldwide
OwnerGoogle
Founder(s)David McIntosh
Erick Hachenburg
Frank Nawabi
CEODavid McIntosh
ProductsGIF Keyboard
URLtenor.com
RegistrationOptional
Users300+ Million (Monthly)
LaunchedFeb 1, 2014[citation needed]
Current statusActive
[1][2][3][4]

Tenor, Inc.[5] is an online GIF search engine and database owned by Google. Its main product is the GIF Keyboard, which is available on Android, iOS, and macOS.[6]

History

The company was founded by entrepreneurs David Macintosh, Erick Hachenburg and Frank Nawabi in February 2014 as Riffsy.[3][2] Tenor was funded by Redpoint Ventures, Menlo Ventures, Cowboy Ventures and Tenaya Capital.[2][7]

On March 27, 2018, Tenor was acquired by Google. The company will continue to operate as a standalone brand.[8]

Partnerships

Tenor is available in numerous keyboards and messaging apps.[9]

On April 25, 2017, Tenor introduced an app that makes GIFs available in MacBook Pro's Touch Bar.[10][11] Users can scroll through GIFs and tap to copy it to the clipboard.[12]

On September 7, 2017, Tenor announced an SDK for Unity and Apple's ARKit. It allows developers to integrate GIFs into augmented reality apps and games.[13][14][15][7]

Censorship

On November 6, 2017, in response to users having utilized Tenor and similar services to distribute GIFs with content that is illegal under local laws, the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics threatened to block WhatsApp. The regulator acknowledged that despite being from third-party providers, WhatsApp was wholly responsible for allowing the content to be disseminated to users, because the feature was part of their platform. The next day, Tenor was blocked in the country.[16][17][18][19][20] The threats were later dropped.[21]

References

  1. ^ "Tenor - About us". Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  2. ^ a b c "How Tenor Aims To Get GIF-Sharing Onto Every Mobile Phone". Forbes. September 19, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  3. ^ a b "GIF Keyboard maker Riffsy gets a new name, Tenor, and opens up an SDK". TechCrunch. August 9, 2016. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  4. ^ "Trump Gifs Since The Election Show America's Feelings In The Last Year". Elite Daily. November 8, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  5. ^ "Tenor, Inc". OpenCorporates. August 3, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2023.
  6. ^ "People love GIFs — but turning GIFs into ad dollars is taking some time". Recode. February 19, 2017. Retrieved February 18, 2018.
  7. ^ a b "Tenor Lets Developers Put GIFs Into Augmented Reality Apps And Games". UploadVR. September 10, 2017. Archived from the original on February 9, 2018. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  8. ^ "Google is acquiring GIF platform Tenor". TechCrunch. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  9. ^ "The world's biggest search engine is upgrading its GIF game". Quartz. March 28, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
  10. ^ "Tenor for Mac App Introduces First Touch Bar Support for GIFs Amid Rebranding". MacRumors. April 25, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  11. ^ "Tenor Mac App Puts GIFs In The Touch Bar". Tenor Blog. April 25, 2017. Archived from the original on February 21, 2018. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  12. ^ "Tenor for Mac puts GIFs on your MacBook Pro Touch Bar". iMore. May 3, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  13. ^ "Tenor lets developers put GIFs into augmented reality apps and games". VentureBeat. September 7, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  14. ^ "Tenor launches SDK to help devs use GIFs in augmented reality". The Next Web. September 7, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  15. ^ "Bringing the Magic of GIFs to AR". Tenor Blog. September 7, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  16. ^ "Indonesian government warns it will block WhatsApp if 'pornographic gifs' are not blocked immediately". Coconuts Media. November 6, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  17. ^ "Fitur GIF di WhatsApp Sudah Tidak Bisa Diakses di Indonesia". Kompas. November 7, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  18. ^ "Ministry blocks porn gif content on WhatsApp". ANTARA. November 6, 2017. Retrieved February 21, 2018.
  19. ^ "GIFs no longer accessible on Whatsapp in Indonesia after government blocks Tenor due to 'pornographic' content". Coconuts Media. November 7, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  20. ^ "After WhatsApp threat, Indonesia steps up Internet obscenity purge". Reuters. November 6, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.
  21. ^ "Indonesia drops threat to block WhatsApp Messenger: official". Reuters. November 7, 2017. Retrieved February 9, 2018.

External links

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