Unexpectedly, emoji emoticon originated from Japan

Disclosure: emoji was developed by Docomo for mobile phones in Japan in 1998.

Emoji originally had 176 icons and was developed by the Japanese telecommunications giant " Docomo" . Currently, emoji are used all over the world, becoming an integral part of modern online conversations.

Emoticon.

Developed in 1998 for Japanese mobile phones, emoji symbols gradually become an essential part of the daily life of most people around the world. They are all used to express emotions, but, linguistically, emoji and emotions are not related to each other. This word starts with the words 絵 (e) or "image" and 文字 (moji) is "character ". In 2010, emoji is attached to Unicode 6.0 and is widely used on many technology device platforms. Now, people use emoji very much when talking online, like sending messages, email or status Facebook, Twitter and other social networks.

The first Emoji icons

The father of the emoji icon that is making rain now is Kurita Shigetaka, Docomo's employee. He designed 176 emoji icons of 12x12 pixels for i-mode service, a mobile service provided on the world's first mobile Internet platform, in 1998.

Kurita Shigetaka - the father of emoji.

Japanese generally includes a variety of polite words expressing polite social etiquette and Kurita thought of emoji as a more concise solution. Not only is he a designer himself, he also brainstormed many ideas to form emoji symbols based on childhood manga stories or inspired by Kanji.

The first emoji set for phones.

Also because the icons are so simple, Docomo cannot guarantee copyright. Other rival telecommunications companies have also begun to invest in the creation of emoji. Emoji is increasingly used in online conversations. Japanese phone users also quickly responded to the emoji movement because of its fancy design, ease of use, and most importantly, those symbols that express their feelings properly, in a humorous way, lovely.

When the iPhone, iOS 2.2 version, was released in Japan in 2008, Softback president Son Masayoshi initiated directly with Steve Jobs the idea of ​​using emoji on this device. But only if in 2011, with the advent of iOS 5 version, users will experience emoji emoticons.

Emoji creates a global phenomenon

In 2013, American singer Katy Perry released the music video for the song "Roar" marking the popularity of emoji beyond the borders of the land of Cherry blossoms. As you watch, you can see a lot of emoji icons that are substituted for words in the lyrics.

Katy Perry - Roar.

Emoji is becoming more and more evolving and more diversified to target users worldwide. In addition to the classic emoji like Akita dogs, love hotels, emotional faces, more and more emoji icons are interesting and interesting.

Kaomoji, Emoji and Sticker

Before the appearance of emoji, Get Ban had kaomoji , it was a "smileys" form (smiley face) and "emoticons" ( emoticons ). The emoticon expresses emotions through the main mouth and always leans sideways, like a smiley face :) and a sad face is :(. Meanwhile, kaomoji, does not tilt and focus on the eyes, (^_^) is a happy face, while (> _ <) is frowning in disappointment or wanting to apologize to someone, the emoji symbol later took the position of kaomoji but kaomoji is still used a lot.

Just see this sticker, people will think of Line.

And sticker (sticker) is used much in the application of text messaging, can be considered as a representative of the transition in the application of images when chatting online. Specifically, Line, a popular application in Japan and other Asian countries, also incorporates Cony rabbit sticker and Brown bear to help users express their feelings. Other stickers also allow users to download for free or if it only takes very little money.

With the current globalization, it is possible that emoji will become an international language in the near future.