Tech

Snapchat reportedly paid $100 million for a startup that makes an emoji look eerily like you

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Bitmoji CEO Jacbob Blackstock
Bitstrips CEO Jacob "Ba" Blackstock  Bitstrips

Snapchat has bought Bitstrips, a company that makes personalized emojis, according to Fortune's Dan Primack

Bitstrips started as a way to make personalized comics back in 2007, but then pivoted to creating cartoon avatars in addition to the full comic strips. The popular Bitmojis app allowed users to customize an emoji that looks like them and respond with it in messages. 

A recent update let Bitmoji users paste their avatar over other images that are already on your phone. It's similar to how Snapchat lets people put localized illustrations like the Eiffel Tower on top of their photos when they're near those places. 

Snapchat has made previous acquisitions to help it advance its filters and having a new company than can make an eerie likeness combined with text falls squarely in its targets.

Bitmojis
An example of a Bitmoji  Bitmojis

Snapchat declined to comment.

 

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Biz was a senior tech reporter in San Francisco, covering startups and venture capital. Before joining the Business Insider team in 2015, Biz was the assistant managing editor of Gigaom and an editorial fellow at Wired. She had previously worked as a newspaper designer for Gannett in Phoenix.