While about two billion emoticons are sent every month on average, more people receive them than send. Heavy users are estimated to have purchased 20 sets on average, the company said.īack in December 2011, when Kakao first started the emoticon shop, nobody expected the emoticon market to become this significant. According to developers at the time, the company started its emoticon shop with six emoticons modeled on characters from famous webtoons with no end goal in mind - just a desire to make things a little more fun. “The texting service was fine, but some users pointed out the service lacked fun elements, and from there, a designer on the team suggested we add cartoon characters,” said Ji Ju-hyun, a content planner for Kakao who was on that first team of developers. The first emoticons uploaded for sale on the store were created by Kang Full, a well-known webtoon artist on Daum’s portal, and Emalyun and Norangumi of Naver. People were initially doubtful that the emoticon store could ever become a cash cow for either the company or artists. But these days, some artists make their entire living by creating characters for the store, which can then become licensed into tangible products and bring in tens of millions of won in profits. Some creators have even become minor celebrities based on their characters. More than 1,000 artists, including individuals and teams, are actively adding to Kakao’s emoticon shop. That number excludes the providers of Kakao’s basic emoticons, the ubiquitous Kakao Friends, which are managed by the company’s own brand experience team. The most popular emoticon sets on the store are Cat’s Melody, Perytail, Nicejin and Narm, in order of sales. “I have released about seven to eight sets during the last four years, including special items for the season, and it has earned me profits at the level of my monthly salary,” said Cheon Gyeong-hwa, the 35-year-old artist behind Cat’s Melody, which are based on drawings of a cute white cat.Ĭheon has taken some time off from designing to have a baby, but she says she still enjoys a devoted following. “I receive tons of emails asking questions like how I created such a popular emoticon or what is required to enter the Kakao store,” she said. “There are also frequent calls from companies asking me to create a character for them.”Ĭompetition to enter Kakao’s emoticon shop is fierce. Every week, 30 to 50 new emoticons are uploaded to Kakao’s website in hopes of being accepted.
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