I'm pretty sure the cloud domain in question was likely a .ws IDN.
The huge factor one needs to remember is that windows keyboards are not emoji friendly .. so a company could/should never use an emoji domain as their main website. They will also run into email issues as they aren't supported everywhere.
Also note that emoji domains are not currently available for .com, and for most main TLD's .. the most common TLD that supports emojis is .ws. Note that I think a small number of .com emoji domains exist and are grandfathered from before emoji .com's were blocked.
So with that being said .. I still do think that emoji domains could have significant value as marketing/forwarding domains. What holds me back is not the emoji part of the domain .. but the .ws .. I'm not against holding ultra-premium keyword .ws domains as they have a relative liquid value (even if it's a small fraction of the equivalent .com).
However the problem here is that emoji domains currently are not available in .com so that is artificially inflating .ws emoji prices because the .ws version is more or less "unique". To hold the only
or <3 domain is worth something .. but the moment emoji's become available in .com I personally think the relative .ws emoji price will melt.
That being said .. without hesitation, I'd certainly pay $xxx for the most common SINGLE CHARACTER emojis in .ws .. and I'd say common SINGLE EMOJI .com domains will certainly be worth $xxxx and up for the ultra common ones.
One important warning however .. I know emoji's are "evolving" .. the recent standards I think do not includes colour variants .. but I think that is supposed to change .. so emoji that eventually gets multiple skin-tone versions will see their value deteriorate as that domain will bleed traffic to the variant skin-tones.
@DomainSherpa did a show on these domains recently .. I'd highly advice anyone thinking of getting an emoji domain to check out the show BEFORE buying.
In the end I think some cool stuff can be done with emoji domains .. certainly some smart advertising campaigns ... but the lack of emojis on the standard PC keyboard will always hold these back to some degree .. if/when they become available and usable in .com that's when I'd take a 2nd look. Otherwise I'd only be interested in getting ultra common single emoji domains in .ws (I don't own any).