Emojipedia was founded by Jeremy Burge in 2013. The website began as a reference for understanding emoji and grew into a major source for character names, meanings, histories, and platform comparisons.
Its timing was significant: emoji were spreading rapidly beyond Japan, but different operating systems often displayed the same character in noticeably different ways. A dedicated reference could explain both the shared Unicode identity and the visual differences.
Emojipedia also became a source of information about proposed and newly approved emoji. Its entries commonly identify Unicode code points, official names, keywords, and artwork from major vendors.
The site is not the organization that approves emoji. That role belongs to the Unicode Consortium. Emojipedia documents and explains the standard; it does not control which characters are encoded.