Skyrocketing Value of Expressions in Digital Communications

Expressiveness in communications is desired by the millions of people on smart phones and digital devices today. The need is to express oneself beyond traditional text. The rise in popularity of #emojis, #emoticons and personalized #avatars by individual users, influencers, and brands is proving the point.

Recently, Snapchat snapped up Bitstrip (March 25, 2016) for an estimated $100 Million. Bitstrip slaps bitmojis, or customized avatars, onto comical sketches, that are subsequently shared on social media. Bitmojis enable personalized expression by the user, in the form of images often combined with text, resulting in a heightened state of overall communication between the user and receiver.

Snapchat, which relies on advertisers for most of its revenue, likely sees bitmojis as another unique way to sell sponsorships, This is a big business opportunity for marketers trying to be part of conversations occurring on smart phone screens “All the movies, all the television shows, all the fashion houses, all the pop stars, they all want to be bitmojis because we somehow became the determinant of who has made it,” Bitstrips Chief Executive Jacob Blackstock recently told Forbes, saying there’s an “incredibly lucrative business model” in there.

Another product, Qugo by Mobigraph, takes an evolutionary leap, by creating 3D avatar based emojis. These full frame animated expressions go beyond static emojis, smileys, and stickers. Mobigraph’s ability to render 50 frames per second personalized animations with optimized compute and power consumption allows a highly expressive personal communication which could become the lingua franca of future communications.  Qugo is used in 100+ countries today. Qugo is also a social boon to the deaf community as it is an enabler of vibrant personal expression, beyond words.

Facebook’s released six “Reaction” buttons with emojis in February 2016. The company implemented the findings of their research, i.e., a strong user desire to express greater emotions and feelings, other than just ‘liking’ a post.

National Public Radio (NPR) recently dedicated a segment on “Emojis are becoming a bigger part of conversation” withTyler Schnoebelen, a linguist and expert on human communications.

Emojis are being touted as the “fastest growing language in history” and marketers are exploiting it. From Apple with its increasing release of image based icons to PepsiCola with a global emoji marketing campaign on bottles and cans. Increasingly consumers are using emojis when communicating with retailers, making it a two-way street.