LOS ANGELES — In what is being called the adult industry’s first use of an emoji-based domain name, CamGirl.com has adopted the new visual namespace to create a pathway to its site.
According to the company, emoji have taken the world by storm in recent years, so it’s no surprise to see these popular icons make an appearance in the adult industry.
“CamGirl.com figured out how to win over millennials with the redirect of [its] emoji-based domain name. This means anyone can now visit CamGirl.com by entering the word ‘cam’ followed by the girl emoji and ending in the .ws extension,” explains a company rep. “The emoji domain names are 100 percent compatible with all browsers thanks to a technique browsers use to convert the code behind the scenes.”
The .ws TLD, the extension for Western Samoa, commonly referred to as an abbreviation for “website,” is one of the very few that currently supports emoji.
“Emojis have exploded in popularity, becoming an essential part of the online vernacular,” GoDaddy’s Senior Director of Product Marketing Theresa McGinness Geraghty told Fortune. “Driven by the rise of mobile internet usage, which now accounts for [more than 60 percent] of traffic, consumers are integrating emojis into their conversations on social media, messaging and beyond.”
The CamGirl.com rep also notes the marketing potential of emoji domains for brands, which some have already embraced.
“For example, Coca-Cola ran a campaign last year in Puerto Rico using emoji website domains on large billboards,” the rep reveals. “Norwegian Airlines ran a campaign shortly after as well.”
Worldwide adoption of emojis grew exponentially starting in 2007 when Apple included the emoji keyboard in their iPhone, quickly followed by Android- and Microsoft-powered phones.
“Emojis transcend borders, languages, and technology,” the rep concludes. “More than one thousand written symbols date back to 3,000 B.C. hieroglyphics of ancient Egypt, and some of them are still used today.”
