Dentsu launches ;DeCotter, providing emoticons for Twitter

Launched last year, Dentsu's cloud-based emoticon service ;DCloud was designed to introduce its popular emoticon platform, Emoji, to an international market. Add-ons rolled out on 19 June now allow users to add emoticons to SMS texts (via ;DecoMessage) and emails (;Decora) using their smartphones. 

And now, Android 2.2 users can download a free app, ;DeCotter, to incorporate emoticons into their Tweets.  

According to Dentsu, the Emoji market in Japan alone exceeds US$300 million, and services equipped with it, such as Deco-mail (an email service with emoticons, owned by NTT Docomo), are used by more than 70 per cent of young women in Japan. Meanwhile ;DecoMarket, a smartphone application that allows users to buy emoticons has had more than 1.2 million Android Market downloads in Japan since its launch in November 2010. 

Twitter has around 30 million users in Japan, where it has been steadily gaining popularity over the past year. 

So far, ;DCloud and its offerings have yet to contribute to Dentsu's bottom line, said a spokesperson for the agency. However, thanks to interest shown at the Mobile World Congress, Dentsu has hopes that it will gain international popularity. The three companies will also be showcasing the service at Japan Expo in Paris this week (5-8 July).