Vimeo Acquires GIF App Echograph

The popular video-sharing site Vimeo today announced it has acquired the iOS GIF-making app Echograph from owner Clear-Media. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

Echograph, available for the iPhone and iPad, lets users turn videos into short GIF-like animations. As part of the deal, Vimeo will offer the $2.99 Ecograph app for free in the iTunes App Store, the company said. 

The app's creator, Nick Alt, will transition from Clear-Media's CEO to Vimeo's vice president of mobile, and lead development across all platforms. The Echograph team will report to Vimeo president Dae Mellencamp. 

"We chose Echograph because it helps people easily create beautiful high quality video content," Kerry Trainor, Vimeo CEO, said in a statement. "That, with Nick's proven track record of building innovative video apps made it a perfect fit for Vimeo."

For his part, Echograph's Alt said "Vimeo to me is the most innovative video platform that empowers its users to share quality content. I'm very excited for our teams to come together to take Echograph to the next level and develop a new fleet of amazing mobile video apps."

Vimeo isn't the only company looking to capitalize on the Internet's recent obsession with GIF's. Twitter last month released Vine, a standalone iOS app that lets users create six-second clips that loop over and over unless you tap on them, creating a very GIF-like experience.

The Vine app has already created a considerable amount of buzz. Just a day after its release, the app made an appearance on the App Store's list of top free apps. It also caught some heat for the adult content showing up on the app, landing it a 17+ rating.

For more from Angela, follow her on Twitter @amoscaritolo.