At the beginning of the pandemic, 3% of emoji-using Venmo transactions included a โค๏ธ. That made it the most used emoji on the platform in March 2020. One year later the use of โค๏ธ has continued to rise.
Last year, when we conducted a similar analysis, it was ๐ usage that the pandemic affected most, reflecting the cancellation of the NCAA basketball tournaments and their associated betting pools. This year ๐ and ๐ฅณ made big comebacks as the world begins to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The portion of these transactions that contained emoji dropped from 41% in March 2020 to 32% in March 2021.
Messages show ๐is typically used to reimburse someone for paying for pizza. Usage dropped considerably in 2021.
Use of the money emoji like ๐ธ, ๐ต, and ๐ฐhave all declined from last yearโs levels. Expense splitting app Splitwise uses these three emoji (and ๐) in its default Venmo messages. In March 2020, Splitwise was mentioned in 446 messages per 100,000, this year it fell to 408.
Use of โฝ has dropped significantly. Messages show itโs used not only to pay for gasoline, but also with other shared utility expenses.
Transactions including the โ have increased. Compared to 2021, transactions last March using โshowed more messages explicitly supporting front-line workers.
Payments including ๐ fell. Itโs the emoji most often used in messages with the word โrent.โ
Popular gift-giving emoji ๐ and ๐ were used more this year.
Golf courses have seen a surge of golfers during the pandemic. โณ usage is higher.
Of all the emoji that appeared in at least 0.5% transactions in March 2020, ๐ท, ๐งป, and ๐ฆ were the least used in March 2021.