'Face with Tears of Joy' emoji engulfs social media in 2015

The "face with tears of joy" emoji. [Photo from Internet]

The laughing crying emoji, or the 'face with tears of joy' emoji, has become one of 2015's most frequently used "word" on social media with a reach of 6.5 billion on Twitter, according to German communication agency Faktor3.

This emoji is laughing so much that it is crying tears of joy.

The laughing crying emoji was also 2015's word of the year by the Oxford English Dictionary. In a statement, Oxford Dictionaries President Casper Grathwohl said that emoji are becoming an increasingly rich form of communication, one that transcends linguistic borders.

In a blog post, Oxford Dictionaries wrote that the "face with tears of joy" was 2015's most popular emoji based on SwiftKey's research. Their research shows this one comprised 20 percent of emoji used in the UK in 2015, and 17 percent of all emoji used in the US.

Emoji are ideograms originally used in electronic messages and web pages in Japan, which have become increasing popular since their adaption into Apple's iPhone. Currently, most operating system supports emoji.

Related:

Chinese characters and words of 2015 released

Top 10 shortlist of Chinese character of the year announced