Ireland is the 10th biggest user of the electronic communication codes scanned by mobiles. Big in Japan. Not so big elsewhere. For several years, that has been the general take on QR (quick response) codes – highdensity, two dimensional barcodes that can be quickly scanned with a mobile phone.
Extensively used in Japan since 1994, where they are ubiquitous on ads and business cards, the codes are little monotone images made up of an abstract collage of squares and oblongs, though there are other variations – several vendors offer a multiple colour format, for example. QR codes most often appear in advertisements, and usually link directly to a webpage with more information on a product, service or event.
Market trends worldwide are shifting rapidly. In an international survey of QR code use, Ireland scanned its way into 10th place internationally in January, according to ScanLife, a QR code company that analyses scan use and traffic for its own codes and those from other companies.
QR code traffic has jumped by in excess of 800 per cent this year over last. The US is now the largest user of QR codes, with more than 14 million people scanning away in June alone, according to the most recent ScanLife report. Over 6 per cent of smartphone users are scanning the codes, found everywhere from products to supermarket displays to magazines to ads on public transport. Some 12 per cent of users even scan them off television, where they appear in ads and on shopping channels.
As usage has accelerated, countries such as China and South Korea have fallen off ScanLife’s top-10 user list while Europe and North and South American nations move upward, helped by booming sales of smartphones. In other words, QR codes aren’t just about Asia anymore, even if it is not clear whether ScanLife’s data reflects the full QR usage picture in Asia.
Internationally, a major take-up barrier has been that users have to chase down scanning applications themselves and download them to their phones, whereas such software is standard in Asian mobiles. However, dozens are available for free online and from app stores. Many companies online, including Google, let anyone create a QR code linking to any URL for free.
Part of the attraction is their versatility. They can offer further product details, link to a coupon, a music download, a game or a competition, or provide contact information. They can bring someone directly to a video, a Twitter or Facebook page, download a business card or even auto-dial a contact number.
In Ireland, the codes are becoming more commonplace in advertisements. They are popping up in newspapers and magazines, on print ad inserts, on billboards, on posters in bus shelters and Dart stations, and on television and webpages.
ICA, Northern Europe’s top retail company, is using technology to enable the world’s first Facebook check-in-activated price reductions in its supermarket branches.
