News

Opera Enables Emoji-Only Web Addresses Provided By Yat

While longer addresses consisting of four or five emojis sell for as little as $4, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure a memorable single-emoji URL.

Published

4 years ago

February 16, 2022

David Morelo

opera enables emoji-only web addresses provided by yat

Yat

If you have the latest version of the Opera web browser installed on your computer, go ahead and launch it.

Now, copy & paste 🌈🚀👽 into the address bar and press Enter. You should see a landing page belonging to Kesha, the American singer-songwriter.

You can also enter 👽🎵 to be redirected to the official website of Young Money Entertainment, the American record label founded by rapper Lil Wayne.

These emoji-only web addresses are the result of Opera’s partnership with Yat, a startup that sells URLs with emojis using its Y.at domain. Thanks to the partnership, Opera users now don’t have to enter “y.at” when visiting Yat’s emoji-only web addresses.

“The partnership marks a major paradigm shift in the way the internet works” said Jorgen Arnesen, the executive vice president of mobile at Opera. “It’s new, it’s easier, and more fun”.

It can also be pretty damn expensive. While longer addresses consisting of four or five emojis sell for as little as $4, it can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure a memorable single-emoji URL.

Why would anyone do that when it’s fairly easy to purchase a custom domain name that supports emojis and use it instead of the “y.at” domain? Because Yat’s CEO Naveen Jain has big plans for the startup.

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In the future, Jain would like Yat to become a self-sovereign company using blockchain technology to provide a decentralized alternative to the current domain name system (DNS).

“This is laying the foundation. There are certain elements of the vision that are certainly more of a social contract than actual implementation at this point in time” says Jain. “But this is the vision that we’ve set forth, and we’re working continuously towards that goal”.

In 2021, Yat sold almost $20 million worth of emoji identities, and the partnership with Opera could make 2022 sales figures even more impressive.

News

Syria Just Got Its First Super App Featuring Built-In Digital Payments

Built by UAE-based Syrian founders with the Ministry of Tourism’s backing, My Syria lands as visitor numbers more than double.

Published

5 days ago

August 1, 2026

Nour Nasir

syria just got its first super app featuring built-in digital payments

For most of the past decade, paying for anything in Syria with an international card was effectively impossible. Sanctions, a collapsed banking sector, and years of isolation left the country running on cash. That is what makes the launch of My Syria — the country’s first super app — more than a routine product announcement.

Developed by 121 Living, a company founded by four UAE-based Syrian entrepreneurs — Rami Kaiem, Feras Kaiem, Waseem Qudmani, and Kinan Madi — the app launched in Damascus on July 30 under the patronage of Minister of Tourism Mazen Al-Salhani. It bundles hotels, restaurants, transport, attractions, food delivery, and other lifestyle services into a single platform, currently offering eight services with plans to expand to more than 40 verified tourism and hospitality providers across the country.

Although the app already sounds enticing, the headline feature is its built-in payments. My Syria is the first platform in Syria to support cross-border digital payments through Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express — familiar tools for international visitors, and a route into the digital economy for local businesses that have long operated outside it.

my syria super app launch event

The launch rides on a sharp rebound for the troubled country. Syria’s tourism sector recorded 3.52 million visitor arrivals in the first half of 2026, a 111 percent increase over the 1.67 million during the same period in 2025 — a mix of returning expatriates, regional visitors, and international tourists.

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The Ministry of Tourism, which supported and supervised the app’s development, frames the launch as proof of concept for a wider strategy. “Digital transformation is one of the Ministry’s strategic priorities because it enables us to build a more competitive, connected and investment-ready tourism sector,” Al-Salhani said, inviting technology companies “globally, regionally and locally” to explore opportunities across the wider economy.

For 121 Living, this is phase one, with additional services and expanded geographic coverage planned. Whether a super app can flourish in a market still rebuilding its infrastructure is an open question, but for the first time in years, a visitor to Damascus can pay for dinner with their phone.