Twitter launched #Stickers few weeks ago and this new mania is becoming a new western mobile phenomenon.
Twitter #Stickers allow you to search for content based on stickers that you added to your photos. After you Tweet a photo with stickers on it, your photo becomes searchable by clicking on any stickers as a visual hashtag. Tapping on a sticker in a tweet takes you to a new timeline, where you can see how people all over the world use that particular sticker. Source: Twitter blog
Following Twitter’s lead, Snapchat has just join the race and introduced Geostickers. Geostickers are basically like Geofilters, but in sticker format. They are themed to your current location, and you can move and resize them just like any other stickers or emoji, sending them either in Chat or sticking them directly on Snaps.
Be patient — for now, Geostickers are only available in Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, Washington DC, Honolulu, London, Sydney, São Paulo, Paris, and Riyadh. Do not forget that you will need to have your location services enabled to see them. Source: Snapchat blog
From the Land of the Rising Sun
Literally anchored in their digital culture, Asian messaging apps like WeChat (China), LINE (Japan), Kakao Talk (South Korea) and Hike (India) have been ‘pimping’ text and pictures with stickers for a while. Indeed, most of the Asian messaging apps have focused their revenue generation on the cute little add-ons. Revenue generation from stickers is also becoming more of a Western trend; Facebook Messenger is offering branded stickers in its large Sticker Store. Surprisingly, it seems Instagram is a bit far behind, though should have been the first in line… We might see stickers entering the app sooner than later.
Today, stickers are no longer just a silly way to express yourself but have become a real source of revenue. In 2014, Line revealed that it sold more than $30 million (¥3.59 billion) in stickers from independent ‘creators’ during the market’s first six months of business. Almost all the major players now have a business model that offers users a set of free stickers and then pay for the rest of the stickers’ library. Addiction? Well let’s face it, it is not only for users to just freely test the waters — we are just becoming addicted to this new communication wave.
Are you going to ‘catch ém all’?
