Vimeo acquires GIF-making app Echograph to challenge Vine & Cinemagram

Popular video-sharing service Vimeo has acquired iOS GIF-making application Echograph in a bid to counter the buzz of hot video-sharing apps Vine and Cinemagram.

Echograph is an app that creates a GIF by first taking five seconds of video and then using your finger to animate which parts of that video you want to move. Essentially, it creates a photograph with a little bit of video in it. The app used to cost $2.99, but now it will be free.

While Twitter-owned Vine was only launched a few weeks ago, it has rocked the video-sharing app sector. Vine lets you share six seconds of video, and you can cleverly piece together these videos to tell stories or do other creative things. Cinemagram is GIF-making application that is quite similar to Echograph. The mobile video sharing space has gotten so intense that Viddy canned its CEO for losing popularity to Vine and GIF apps.

Not only is buying Echograph a chance to get Vimeo more attention in the mobile video space, but it’s also a talent grab. Echograph creator Nick Alt will become Vimeo’s new VP of mobile, leading development across all platforms.

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

The companies did not disclose terms of the deal.

Check out the video below to see Echograph in action.