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Dumpling Emoji Delivery After Online Campaign

Dumpling Emoji Delivery After Online Campaign

A group which raised thousands of dollars to try to secure a place on the 11-strong board which approves smartphone emojis has secured its first victory.

Their demand for a dumpling emoji has been successful, with it being added to the list of likely emojis for release in mid-2017.

It is set to be joined by three other Oriental-food themed emojis: a fortune cookie, takeaway box, and chopsticks - plus a face with one eyebrow raised.

But the Dumpling Emoji Project has a bigger goal: to have a seat at the table when future emoji decisions are made.

There are just 11 full voting Unicode consortium members who each pay $18,000 a year for the privilege of approving new emoji ideas.

Eight are major US tech firms - Oracle, IBM, Microsoft, Adobe, Apple, Google, Facebook, and Yahoo.

The three other members are German software firm SAP, Chinese tech firm Hawei, and the government of Oman.

A second tier of members with half a vote also exists, and the group used crowdfunding site Kickstarter to fund the $7,500 annual fee.

They say they will use the $11,000 raised to apply for membership, then set up a grassroots organisation called Emojination to help people suggest new emoji ideas.

The group said: "This isn't just about dumplings. We want to bring giraffes, the Nazar (an eye-shaped amulet), and other in-demand emojis into the world in a diverse, inclusive way."

There are some restrictions on which emoji can be added to the official list. Brands and logos are not allowed, or anything that looks too much like an existing emoji.