Founder of Emojipedia
Jeremy Burge
Born (1984-07-14 ) 14 July 1984 (age 40) Australia
Occupation Founder of Emojipedia Known for Entrepreneur, blogger
Jeremy Burge (born 14 July 1984)[ 1] is an Australian emoji historian, founder of Emojipedia , creator of World Emoji Day and widely regarded as an expert on emoji.[ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [ 5]
Business Insider listed Burge in the UK Tech 100 in 2016,[ 6] 2017[ 7] and 2018[ 8] referring to him as "The Emoji Maestro"[ 9] while other publications have used terms such as "Emoji King"[ 10] [ 11] or "Lord of Emojis".[ 12] [ 13] The New Yorker dubbed Burge "The Samuel Johnson of Emoji" in 2020.[ 14]
Emojipedia
In July 2013, Burge started the emoji reference site Emojipedia , after wondering how long the doughnut emoji had been in existence, and not being able to find an answer on Google or Wikipedia .[ 14] The Sydney Morning Herald reported the site had 23 million page views per month in 2017.[ 15]
Burge was Chief Emoji Officer at Emojipedia[ 16] between 2016 and 2022,[ 17] [ 18] [ 19] overseeing all editorial content on the site.[ 20] This title was described by The Telegraph in 2019 as "one of the most absurd job titles in tech".[ 21]
During his time at Emojipedia, Burge worked with professional sportspeople Tony Hawk and Sasha DiGiulian to improve the accuracy of Emojipedia's sample images for the skateboard[ 22] [ 23] [ 24] and rock climber[ 25] respectively. Jenken Magazine reported: "While they were on the phone one day, Hawk sent Burge a picture of his own board"[ 26] which was used as the basis of Emojipedia's revised skateboard design.[ 27]
In 2021, Emojipedia served over 500 million annual page views. Emojipedia was acquired by Zedge in August 2021 for an undisclosed amount.[ 28]
Unicode
Currently representing Emojipedia on the Unicode Technical Committee ,[ 29] Burge previously held a position as vice-chair of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee from 2017 to 2019.[ 30]
Described as a leading authority on emoji use,[ 31] Burge urged Apple to rethink its plan to convert the handgun emoji symbol into a water pistol icon in 2016, citing cross-platform confusion.[ 32] Emoji flags for England, Scotland, and Wales were added to the Unicode Standard in 2017 after a formal proposal[ 33] co-authored by Burge was approved.[ 34] Rather than individual code points, they are represented by tag sequences .
Speaking to Crikey in 2022, Burge spoke against superfluous emoji additions: "representation is important but I'm not sure we need another abacus or lab coat emoji".[ 35]
Writing
Burge has been a regular news contributor to Emojipedia[ 36] and responsible for many of the initial emoji definitions on the reference website.[ 37] Additionally he has written for publications such Six Colors,[ 38] Medium ,[ 39] [ 40] and The Internet Review.[ 41] In August 2023, Radio New Zealand reported that Burge was writing for Mobile Tech Journal.[ 42]
In 2019, Burge raised the issue of Facebook using user-submitted phone numbers for undocumented purposes,[ 43] [ 44] and in 2020, he identified TikTok accessing user clipboard data on every keystroke.[ 45]
Podcasting
Burge hosted Emoji Wrap , a podcast[ 46] from Emojipedia[ 47] covering "global emoji news and trends"[ 48] between August 2016 and December 2020[ 49] interviewing guests including Mark Davis ,[ 50] Myke Hurley ,[ 51] Jason Snell [ 52] and Christina Warren .[ 53] The Guardian notes that Google product manager Agustin Fonts was "hesitant about shifting to a water pistol" when discussing the Android gun emoji with Burge on the Emoji Wrap podcast.[ 54]
Between 2017 and 2023, Burge appeared frequently on podcasts from Relay FM [ 55] and The Incomparable .[ 56]
Public speaking
The Evening Standard reported that Burge "lectured on the history and social impact of emojis" at TEDxEastEnd at London's Hackney Empire in 2017.[ 57] In addition, Burge has spoken at conferences such as The Next Web in Amsterdam,[ 58] Smart Future in Riga,[ 59] Design Matters in Copenhagen[ 60] and Úll in Killarney.[ 61]
Institutions that have hosted Burge include Eton College ,[ 62] Eye Magazine ,[ 63] Google ,[ 64] London Design Museum ,[ 65] The British Library ,[ 66] and University College London .[ 67] [ 68]
World Emoji Day
World Emoji Day is a "global celebration of emoji" created by Burge in 2014.[ 14] [ 69] [ 70] According to the New York Times , he created the day on "July 17 based on the way the calendar emoji is shown on iPhones".[ 71] [ 72] Burge told Axios in 2017 that "Tim Cook tweeted about [World Emoji Day] this year so I was kind of excited about that".[ 73]
In 2017 Burge discussed the origin of World Emoji Day and Emojipedia [ 74] at AOL BUILD,[ 75] attended the lighting of the Empire State Building "emoji yellow"[ 76] with The Emoji Movie voice cast Patrick Stewart , Maya Rudolph and Jake T. Austin , and announced the winners of the annual World Emoji Awards from the New York Stock Exchange .[ 14] [ 77]
Saks Fifth Avenue hosted a "Saks Celebrates World Emoji Day" red carpet event in 2017[ 78] which was attended by Burge.[ 79] On World Emoji Day 2019, Burge attended the launch of an exhibition at the National Museum of Cinema [ 80] [ 81] and spoke alongside Unicode Consortium co-founder Mark Davis at The British Library .[ 82] [ 83]
Burge claimed to "relax and enjoy it [World Emoji Day] at least once" in 2022, after stepping down from Emojipedia.[ 84]
Personal life
Burge was born in Western Australia ,[ 85] and educated at Assumption College, Kilmore [ 86] before graduating from Deakin University .[ 87] In 2019[ 88] [ 89] Burge moved onto a 53 ft narrowboat named Dottie M[ 90] and gained popularity on TikTok with viral clips navigating rivers and canals of the United Kingdom .[ 91] [ 92] In 2024, Burge told the Sydney Morning Herald he was splitting his time living between the UK and Melbourne, Australia.[ 93]
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External links