Interview
a16z Podcast | The Meaning of Emoji
- Network effects, brand, scale, and embedding are identified as the primary software defensibilities, with network effects deemed most powerful due to their native alignment with technology and silicon-based connections.
- Mobile technology is expected to facilitate easier network construction than the previous web era by reducing hardware adoption friction, while messaging is predicted to outlast specific platforms like Facebook as a long-term network component.
- Market networks involving monetary transactions are forecast to offer stronger user retention incentives than purely personal utility networks, though new marketplaces face significant liquidity challenges and intense competition in their initial weeks or months.
- Platforms such as Airbnb are anticipated to experience sluggish growth for the first three years while securing supply and demand liquidity, and investors are expected to distinguish between viral growth for acquisition and network effects for retention.
- Without strong network effects, companies risk facing defensibility issues akin to "TV shows" that fade once utility dissipates, and bandwagon effects are predicted to create initial adoption barriers through social pressure before true network effects materialize.
- The Unicode Consortium is projected to submit new emoji proposals constantly and continue adding approximately 60 new emojis annually through Unicode 10, with four recently approved additions appearing on phones several months after their June 2017 announcement.
- The annual rate of emoji additions is expected to become unsustainable, driving a long-term shift toward inline images or stickers and leading companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook to maintain proprietary sets for brand differentiation and liability avoidance.
- A "mood graph" layer of machine-readable emotional data is expected to emerge to track human sentiment beyond binary analysis, alongside a cultural shift toward customized avatars following Bitmoji's acquisition by Snapchat.
- Users are anticipated to increasingly rely on filters and masks for uninhibited self-expression, paralleling theatrical performance, while an "EmojiCon" conference featuring panels and a film festival is scheduled for November in San Francisco.
- Unicode subcommittee members, including co-chairs, are expected to attend the upcoming conference to discuss policy, and the Library of Congress is projected to maintain its listing of "Emoji Dick" as a recognized cultural translation of Moby Dick.