Emoji versus Kaomoji - graphical icons versus text emoticons

By Ken Y-N ( June 26, 2008 at 01:42) · Filed under Mobile, Polls

I’ve previously translated surveys looking at Japanese text emoticons (kaomoji) and at graphical icons (emoji) but now let’s look at a recent survey from BlogCh on emoji and kaomoji.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 13th of June 2008 433 members of the BlogCh monitor panel who owned mobile phones. 53.1% of the sample were male, 15.5% in their twenties, 49.9% in their thirties, 27.0% in their forties, and 7.6% of other ages.

I use emoji almost exclusively, with one of the main reasons being that I cannot remember the meaning of most of the kaomoji! I also occasionally download, or more often save icons from other people’s mobile phone email.

Research results

Q1: Which do you use more on mobile phone email, emoji or kaomoji? (Sample size=433)

All Male
N=230 Female
N=203

44.3% 34.8% 55.2%

(^_^) 25.9% 26.5% 25.1%

Don’t use either 29.8% 38.7% 19.7%

Q2: Have you added your own kaomoji to your mobile phone user dictionary? (Sample size=433)

All Male
N=230 Female
N=203

Yes 18.0% 10.9% 26.1%

No 82.0% 89.1% 73.9%

Q3: Have you ever downloaded emoji? (Sample size=433)

All Male
N=230 Female
N=203

Yes 20.8% 14.3% 28.1%

No 79.2% 85.7% 71.9%