If you haven’t heard about bitmojis, then know that they’ve just recently been acquired by popular messaging app, Snapchat. Bitmojis come from Bitstrips Inc.’s app and these are cartoon emojis that you can slap onto your messages or share them to your other social media profiles. You can customize your very own avatar, place them into comical sketches, before sharing them. The company that owns said app has now been acquired with a hefty sum of $100 million.
Snapchat is Now the Proud Owner of Bitmojis
News of the deal with Snapchat was first reported by Fortune and has been confirmed by a person familiar with the trade on the same day the transaction happened. The popular messaging service has declined to comment on the matter, therefore it is still unclear if the chat app has any plans to integrate Bitmojis, or any of Bitstrips’ technology, into its own. It is also unclear if they would still like to keep the Bitstrips app as a separate application.
Nevertheless, the Snapchat app, which relies on its advertisers for most of its revenue, will likely use Bitmojis with heads too big in a unique fashion to sell sponsorships. There are already known movies who have partnered with Bitstrips such as “Inside Out” and even the recently released “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.” The bitmojis of said films include the film’s characters.
Jacob Blackstock, Bitstrips Chief Executive Officer, recently told Forbes that, “All the movies, all the television shows, all the fashion houses, all the pop stars, they all want to be bitmojis because we somehow became the determinant of who has made it.” He continued that it’s an “incredibly lucrative business.”
A spokeswoman of Bitstrips declined to divulge any further information as to whether any firms have been charged for the special bitmoji packs. This is because bitmojis are essentially part of an advertisement, therefore it is very similar to what Snapchat already does. It covers features such as Snapchat Lenses to animate selfies, and even place movie characters and certain products in photos before they get sent out to friends and family.
Even though there are details that are still sketchy with regards to the deal between the Snapchat app and Bitstrips, bitmojis can fit into the chat app in a few ways. One such notable way is for the messaging app’s core features which are the photo-and-video messaging functionality. Users would be able to place bitmojis into photos and videos before they send it out.