These emojis created by an art student were downloaded by 4 million users in one day. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Xu Han, the cartoonist behind Ali the red fox, perhaps the most popular fox in China, says: "The problem with the Internet era is that while a cartoon image can gain huge exposure and many fans very quickly, people can also forget a cartoon image easily."

Three million copies of Xu's picture books featuring Ali, which he created in high school, have been sold since 2009.

His emoji of the red fox was one of the first cartoon images launched on QQ in 2012 and WeChat in 2015. The problem Xu talks of worries many other cartoonists, especially those who are looking to make a name for themselves by creating cartoon emojis.

"Weibo and WeChat give good exposure to cartoonists than do traditional publishing channels," Xu says. "But if you want to cultivate a good cartoon image brand you need more than emoji."