However, emojis tend to come in uniform sets distributed by phone manufacturers as part of their products’ operating systems, making them centralized, standardized, and limited in quantity. Much like emojis, sticker sets are groups of graphics used to express emotions. Recently, young Chinese have become infatuated with an even more complex form of emoji called biaoqingbao, or sticker sets. However, on Chinese social media, just understanding how to use emojis is not enough. One could say that, in the internet age, emojis are the world’s most widely understood language. Since Apple added emojis to an iPhone update in 2011, they have taken the world by storm. “Emoji” is a Japanese word meaning “pictograph,” composed of the Japanese characters e, meaning “picture,” and moji, meaning “written character.” In Japan, it originally referred to the ideograms and smileys used on mobile phones in the late 1990s. Today’s world is one in which the emoji reigns supreme. We should render their artistic value to help them live longer in the public eye and people's hearts," he said.It is probably no exaggeration to say that, these days, anyone who uses the internet on their phone understands the formidable power of a deftly deployed cat GIF, a knowingly dropped “crying with laughter” smiley, or a casually placed icon of a minuscule rose, watermelon, or cup of coffee. "The commercial value of stickers is beyond our imagination. To increase the popularity of his stickers, he has organized exhibitions of stickers in museum, and plans to cooperate with eminent artists to manufacture products combining stickers and the works of artists. "We have established a platform for sticker creators, through which they can authorize sticker IP to sellers." "Now we are promoting an intellectual property protection program," said Meng Xiangyuan, who is in charge of Taobao's sticker business. On Taobao, there are about 400,000 items related to stickers, covering categories such as toys, furniture, clothes and digital products. "A large population of social media users are potential consumers for our derivative products." Stickers have gained popularity because they help spice up user messages that are best expressed quickly, not in words but through interesting or funny images," said Hu Liwei, CEO of Manmao. "Almost everyone uses stickers when they communicate on chat apps. So far, 24 claw machine stores use such dolls in various cities, including Hangzhou, Quanzhou, Xiamen and Guangzhou. The company even turned the stickers into dolls and put them in claw machines. Their stickers are printed on pillows and table lamps. One month later, it allowed a dairy firm to use Starmoly's stickers on the milk packaging, earned more than 800,000 yuan via the deal.Īnother sticker company Manmao in the city of Fuzhou also took the same path as Starmoly. In April, Starmoly earned 1 million yuan by authorizing the sticker IP to furniture sellers on Taobao, a leading e-commerce platform. The company also yields profits from the intellectual property (IP) of its stickers. On December 12 last year, a shopping festival in China, we sold thousands of sticker dolls, and our online store received revenue of 300,000 yuan (around 44,000 U.S. "Many young people like to display dolls on their office desks or beds. Sticker dolls were one of his first products. He started developing sticker merchandise, such as cushions, toys and ornaments, decorated with favored stickers. Although some users gave tips to sticker creators, this was just a drop in the ocean for developers. Lin said there was not a clear profit model for stickers at the beginning as most of the stickers were free. Tencent has reported that there are over 1 billion monthly active accounts on WeChat. Thanks to the development of smart phones and the Internet, more Chinese are using instant message services. Lin said that users, mainly on China's leading messaging and social media app WeChat, have made over 1.4 billion downloads and sent 40 billion of Starmoly stickers to date. One could say that such stickers are one of the world's most widely understood languages in the Internet age. They generally comprise images, animated gifs, viral quotes, anime scenes, or TV and film stills. Stickers are groups of moving graphics used to communicate and express emotions by social media users. Rumi the panda, Moer the raccoon, and an egg named Waang are among the animated stickers created by Lin's company that have become online celebrities across China. Lin Dongdong, CEO of Xiamen-based sticker developer Starmoly, often dreams of creating animated characters as famous as those made by Walt Disney. 1 (Xinhua) - Online stickers are not only a quintessential part of everyday life in China, but a profitable business.
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