| Unicode, Inc. | |
 | |
 | |
| Formation | January 3, 1991; 35 years ago (1991-01-03) |
|---|---|
| Founders | |
| Founded at | California, US |
| Type | Non-profitconsortium |
| 77-0269756[2] | |
| Legal status | 501(c)(3)[2] Californianonprofitbenefit corporation |
| Purpose | "To develop, extend and promote use of various standards, data, and open source software libraries which specify the representation of text in modern software[,] ... allowing data to be shared across multiple platforms, languages and countries without corruption"[3] |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 37°24′42″N122°04′15″W / 37.411759°N 122.070958°W /37.411759; -122.070958 |
Key people |
|
| Revenue | $467,576[3] (2018) |
| Expenses | $470,257[3] (2018) |
| Employees | 3[3] (2018) |
| Volunteers | 10[3] (2018) |
| Website | home |
TheUnicode Consortium (legallyUnicode, Inc.) is a501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based inMountain View,California, U.S.[4] Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish theUnicode Standard which was developed with the intention of replacing existing character encoding schemes that are limited in size and scope, and are incompatible withmultilingual environments.
Unicode's success at unifying character sets has led to its widespread adoption in theinternationalization and localization ofsoftware.[5] The standard has been implemented in many technologies, includingXML, theJava programming language,Swift, and modernoperating systems.[6]
Members are usually but not limited to computer software and hardware companies with an interest in text-processing standards,[7] includingAdobe,Apple,Meta,Google,Microsoft, andSalesforce.[8][9][10][11][12] Technical decisions relating to theUnicode Standard are made by the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC).[13]
The project to develop a universal character encoding scheme called Unicode was initiated in 1987 byJoe Becker,Lee Collins, andMark Davis.[14][15] The Unicode Consortium was incorporated inCalifornia on January 3, 1991,[16] with the stated aim to develop, extend, and promote the use of theUnicode Standard.[14] Mark Davis was the president of the Unicode Consortium from when the Consortium was incorporated in 1991 until 2023, when he changed roles to CTO.[17]
Our goal is to make sure that all of the text on computers for every language in the world is represented but we get a lot more attention for emojis than for the fact that you can type Chinese on your phone and have it work with another phone.
— Unicode Consortium co-founder and CTO, Mark Davis[18]
The Unicode Consortium cooperates with manystandards development organizations, includingISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 andW3C.[19] While Unicode is often considered equivalent toISO/IEC 10646, and the character sets are essentially identical, the Unicode standard imposes additional restrictions on implementations that ISO/IEC 10646 does not.[20] Apart fromThe Unicode Standard (TUS) and itsannexes (UAX), the Unicode Consortium also maintains theCLDR, collaborated with the IETF onIDNA,[21][22] and publishes related standards (UTS), reports (UTR), and utilities.[23]
The group selects theemoji icons used by the world's smartphones, based on submissions from individuals and organizations who present their case with evidence for why each one is needed.[24]
The Unicode Technical Committee (UTC) meets quarterly to decide whether new characters will be encoded. A quorum of half of the Consortium's full members is required.[25]
As of July 4, 2025, there are nine full members:Adobe,Airbnb,Amazon,Apple,Google,Meta,Microsoft,Salesforce and Translated.[26]
The UTC accepts documents from any organization or individual, whether they are members of the Unicode Consortium or not.[27][28] The UTC holds its meetings behind closed doors.[29] As of July 2020, the UTC rules on both emoji and script proposals at the same meeting.
Due to theCOVID-19 pandemic's effect on travel, the meetings, which used to be hosted on by various companies for free, were in 2020 held online viaZoom,[30] although the discussions remain confidential.
The UTC prefers to work byconsensus, but on particularly contentious issues, votes may be necessary.[31]: §9 After it meets, the UTC releases a public statement on each proposal it considered.[25] Due to the volume of proposals, various subcommittees, such as the Script Ad Hoc Group and Emoji Subcommittee, exist to submit recommendations to the full UTCen banc.[32][28] The UTC is under no obligation to heed these recommendations,[31]: §1.7 although in practice it usually does.
The Unicode Consortium maintains a History of Unicode Release and Publication Dates.[33]
Publications include:
Note: During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis, until further notice, all Unicode Technical Committee meetings are held via video conference. Details for joining the meeting hosted on the Unicode Zoom account are listed on the logistics page for each meeting.
