But did you know anyone can make an emoji? You don't need funding. You don't need to know someone on the inside. You just need a really good 10-page paper. Emoji is actually a Japanese word that ...

Emoji first emerged in the mid-1990s, when a Japanese pager company sought to gain an edge over its competitors by providing a way to add a dash of emotion and color to online communiqués.

Before the spread of cellphones, most people relied on pagers, with many young people using heart symbols on them. Docomo once omitted a heart-shaped emoji on its new pager model only to find many ...