5 Hot Stats on QR Codes

There’s been a lot of talk about QR codes lately. Is the exponential growth in the use of these codes reality or hype? It’s reality. You know how I know? I’ve seen the data.

Many of the companies offering mobile barcode scanning and mobile payments solutions are releasing the data from their servers, showing the explosive growth in the use of these codes. Many of these companies offer the data on a quarterly or year-over-year basis, making this growth very easy to see.

One of the companies, Mobio Identity Solutions, a mobile payments solution, shows growth so exponential that it makes your head turn. In fact, its most recent report is called “The Whiplash Edition.”

Recently, I compiled as much adoption, growth, and demographic data on the use of QR and other mobile barcodes as I could find and published it in a single report. (For more on that report, click here.)

Here’s some of the data that caught my eye:

1. Between Q1 2010 and Q1 2011, the number of scans going through ScanBuy’s ScanLife system (whether 1d or 2d barcodes) has gone from 10 scans per minute to 60 scan per minute. Scans are now coming from 128 countries around the world.
2. Over this same period, ScanBuy found an 850% increase in active users, 400% increase in use application downloads, and 810% increase in total mobile barcode scans.
3. 3GVision (iNigma barcode scanning software) shows the same trends. Scans running through its system grew by 20.0% between Q2/2011 and Q3 2011. Daily scans now come from 141 different countries.
4. Between Q1 – 2010 – Q1 2011, Mobio Identity, an international mobile payments and marketing company, reports a whopping 4549% growth in QR code scanning.
5. According to a survey of smartphone owners conducted on behalf of MGH, a Maryland-based ad agency, QR code users are primarily between 35-54 years old, have university+ educations, and have household incomes over $50,000 per year. What a great target market!

What does all this mean for you? If you have been seeing QR codes as a trend, it’s time to take them seriously.

For more information on the aggregated QR code data report, see “QR Codes: The Data Speaks.” For a detailed look at the technology, applications, and best practices of QR codes, check out “QR Codes: What You Need to Know.“

Please share this!

•