--- title: Who invented the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji? - The Hustle description: Emojis were popularized in Japan in the late 1990s. The precursor to 😂 was created by Japanese telecom SoftBank. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1522595330-News-Brief_2021-12-06T010757.766Z.webp --- # Who invented the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji? ![Trung T. Phan](https://thehustle.co/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Image-from-iOS-300x300.jpg?width=48&height=48&name=Image-from-iOS-300x300.jpg) [Trung T. Phan](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/trung-t-phan) [Trung T. Phan Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/TrungTPhan) Published: December 06, 2021 Updated: October 11, 2023 *The most used emojis in 2019 (Source: Unicode)* ![Who invented the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1522595330-News-Brief_2021-12-06T010757.766Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=1522595330-News-Brief_2021-12-06T010757.766Z.webp) In the world of digital communication, one emoji reigns supreme: 😂. Per the [*Unicode Consortium*](https://home.unicode.org/emoji/emoji-frequency/) — a non-profit that sets standards for emojis — the “face with tears of joy” is the most-used emoji of 2021 (5%+ of all usage). The emoji also topped the only previous list (2019). The ❤️ emoji was 2nd in both years. #### **Emojis were invented…** … in the late 1990s in Japan by NTT DoCoMo, one of the country’s leading telecoms. Per [*The Guardian*](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/nov/17/crying-with-laughter-how-we-learned-how-to-speak-emoji), NTT wanted to woo young consumers to its pager product and an employee — Shigetaka Kurita — suggested the use of simple images to accompany text. Kurita created a 1st batch of 176 emojis “inspired by manga, Chinese characters and street signs” that laid the groundwork for future emojis. #### **The ‘face with tears of joy’…** … first came out as part of an emoji set from a competing Japanese telecom, [SoftBank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_with_Tears_of_Joy_emoji?wprov=sfti1). The Unicode Consortium officially blessed the emoji with its name in 2010. At the time, emojis were still very much a Japanese thing. Apple didn’t make emoji keyboards an international standard for iOS until 2011. Emojis exploded in the following years. By [2015](https://www.bustle.com/articles/128092-the-10-most-popular-emoji-on-twitter-for-2015-what-they-mean), 😂 was already the most popular emoji on Twitter and it’s been pure dominance since. **Interesting:** Among health-related emojis, “only 🥵 and 🥴 managed to enter the Top 100 in 2021. 😷 moved up from 186 to 156 while 🦠 only just made it into the Top 500.” Topics: [Media & Publishing](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/media-publishing) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Getty Images’ AI play](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1235356694-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-woman-taking-photo_20230925214039.webp) ### Getty Images’ AI play - ![AI-generated foraging books seem dangerous, right?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1714231094-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-mushrooms_20230830223519.webp) ### AI-generated foraging books seem dangerous, right? - ![Vice Media goes broke as the news continues to break](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/208209770-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMay2016202023vice.webp) ### Vice Media goes broke as the news continues to break - ![Media winter is coming](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1979947059-HS-News-Brief_2022-12-06T002909.976Z.webp) ### Media winter is coming - ![Book publishers vs. the Internet Archive](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1048705450-httpsthe-hustle.hubspot.comhubfsDaily20Newsletter20ImagesMarch2028202023books.webp) ### Book publishers vs. the Internet Archive - ![Wikipedia’s donation request drama](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1004897826-HS-News-Brief_2022-12-20T014840.064Z.webp) ### Wikipedia’s donation request drama - ![TikTok’s queen of the bestseller list](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1186698351-final_size-colleen20bestsellers_20221013230440.webp) ### TikTok’s queen of the bestseller list - ![Publishers and Hollywood are a perfect match](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1568911507-HS-News-Brief_2022-09-20T222929.925Z.webp) ### Publishers and Hollywood are a perfect match - ![The ‘Wordle’ glow up, explained](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1442361062-HS-News-Brief_2022-08-31T230330.635Z.webp) ### The ‘Wordle’ glow up, explained - ![The NYT’s next era isn’t about news](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/1134526894-HS-News-Brief_2022-06-14T234323.812Z.webp) ### The NYT’s next era isn’t about news Pop up for Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop. 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