New Baidu and Paramount Pictures Partnership Brings Transformers’ Bumblebee to Life on Mobile Phones Everywhere

Baidu, Inc., the leading Chinese-language internet search provider, has partnered with Paramount Pictures to bring immersive messaging features to fans in anticipation of the holiday premiere of “Bumblebee,” the latest film in the “Transformers” series.

Just in time for the December 21, 2018 release (US), Baidu and the Paramount International Digital group collaborated closely to bring the beloved yellow Transformer from the globally recognized franchise to a new home within Baidu’s keyboard apps in the United States, China and Japan. The Facemoji, Simeji and Baidu IME keyboards are already known for extensive libraries of emoji, customizable themes and keyboard skins, and thriving communities of creators; now, the nearly 400 million users can download and enjoy these Bumblebee-themed offerings through the apps:

• Bumblebee AR Emoji: Built on Baidu’s sophisticated face-tracking AI, the hyper-realistic AR rendering of everyone’s favorite Autobot mirrors the user’s expression and enables them to take selfies or create one-of-a-kind GIFs.
• Two Bumblebee-themed Sticker Packs: Expressive stickers featuring Bumblebee and Charlie give conversations some extra gas with sayings like “Bee right there” “#TBeeT,” “High Five!” and others.

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“This is the first partnership of its kind between Baidu’s global business unit and a major Hollywood studio, and it couldn’t be more fitting,” said Mr. Jiang Feng, director of Baidu’s global business unit. “The Transformers films have nurtured a thriving community of fans, and Baidu prides itself on fostering a similar environment for its keyboard app users, where technology can be as fun as it is sophisticated. This is the perfect setting for Charlie and Bumblebee to help users and fans alike transform their messaging experience into something a bit more yellow.”

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In addition to the Bumblebee-inspired AR emoji and sticker sets, users can interact with other Transformers fans within the app by voting on and downloading their favorite sticker combinations. Users no longer need to rely solely on hashtags or approximated characters when messaging friends — Paramount and Baidu are making Bumblebee accessible to everyone in and outside the movie theater.

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