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The Growth of Emojis
  • 문소현 수습기자
  • 등록 2019-03-12 10:22:25
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These days, KakaoTalk and Line are often used, as they are two of the basic messenger applications installed on mobile phones. Using cell phone messenger apps as the main mode of communication has led to the frequent use of emojis. Therefore, there are a greater variety of emojis than before, and it isbecoming the trend to use emojis a lot. Emojis have gradually expanded, and people can see emojis in daily life and industrial markets. The Pharos wants to find out how emojis have expanded and affected our daily lives.

 

Before searching about the emojis in daily life, we conducted a survey to see how many Kyonggi University students actually use. When we asked if they had ever purchased emojis, 11 out of 14 said, “yes.” They also said that most of them have three to four emojis. This indicates that students purchase many emojis to supplement the basic emojis included in the apps. Then, why do students buy emojis? When we asked why they use emojis, they answered, “The emojis are so cute.” and “The emojis are appropriate for expressing emotions.” Furthermore, online communication is another reason why it is so important to accommodate information through sight. For example, if you look at emojis’ movements, you can understand the message more easily than reading the letters. This allows communication to be more effective, so people use many emojis when they communicate.

 

Emojis are suitable for expressions in the digital age because they consist of a combination of short phrases and images when communicating in the mobile space. Emojis’ characters are also actively entering offline markets based on their influence as daily communication tools online. For example, “Kakao Friends Shop,” which produces emojis for sale, is gaining popularity by combining emojis’ characters with household goods. With such popularity, the characters of Kakao’s emojis are coming closer to the lives of

consumers by collaborating in a variety of fields including food, cosmetics, and books. Another popular emoji is “Overaction Rabbit.” The overactive rabbit emojis were loved by many people for their cute looks and movements. As a result, pop-up stores selling emoji-related products have opened several times, and now an online store has also been opened. In addition, if you go to accessory shops and school supplies stores, you can often see many products engraved with emojis. The following is a picture of an accessory shop in Gangnam. Many cell phone cases have characters that became popular as emojis, not cartoon or movie characters. As you can see in these examples, emojis are not only a tool used for chatting but also a product that can be found in everyday life. The characters of emojis are getting popular nowadays because people have become familiar with and enjoy emojis. As a result, a larger emojis market is being explored.

 

Have you ever seen the purchase rankings of emojis in a messenger app? If you look at the purchase rankings, you can see that the new emojis quickly take the first ranking. You can also see that the more new emojis come out, the more frequently the purchase rankings change. People buy new emojis and are excited in the same way as people who are addicted to drugs. In that case, why do they keep buying emojis? The first reason is that emojis follow cultural trends. At one time, the unique language of “Geupsikche” was popular enough to be used in advertising. Accordingly, “Ankiwook” emojis were released, and the reaction was explosive. The second reason is that certain characters are famous. People buy emojis when famous characters appear in emojis. “Overaction Rabbit” and “Ompangi” are typical examples. In particular, “Ompangi” was popular for its pure image making hundreds of millions of won in profits. The third reason is that newer emojis are interesting because they have diversified in terms of motion, sound, and size compared to existing emojis. In the past, emojis only appeared in pictures with phrases and images. However, later moving emojis increasingly came out, and now new emojis with even more appeal are starting to appear and be developed. Emojis that have pictures three times larger than before or sounds are coming out, so they stimulate people’s possessiveness and they keep buying emojis.

 

This growth of emojis is due to the fact that the form of mobile communication is changing to prioritize nonverbal communication. As a result, emojis are becoming extremely popular in the offline world, and emerging as the mainstay of a new industry. Also, more and more forms and types of emojis are attracting people’s attention. Furthermore, emojis are sometimes used as marketing tools and are even becoming cultural icons. The Pharos is surprised that emojis have grown so much and look forward to what they will look like in the future.





71st Cub Reporter•KIM JIN•coo0714@naver.com

71st Cub Reporter•MOON SOHYUN•sohyun7709@daum.net

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