QR code usage up 96 per cent among European smartphone owners

Oct 03, 2012 by Adam Fraser
Credit: Hudson

According to a report by comScore, smartphone users across Europe are scanning QR codes more than ever – up 96 per cent in the past two years to 17.4 million users for the three month average period ending July 2012.

The results of the research came from the five leading European markets, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom by using data from the MobilLens service. Data comes from a smartphone of 17,390,000.

Smartphone users in Germany scanned the most active QR code scanners, with 18.6 per cent of the smartphone market embracing QR codes – that's a 128 per cent growth from the year before.

Second is Spain, with 16 per cent, while France, Italy and the UK have all risen to 12.5, 11.9 and 11.4 per cent respectively.

Credit: Hudson

QR codes are used for a variety of reasons, like checking-in to a venue, looking up train time-tables, but it seems that product information was by far the most popular result of a QR code scan. Nearly three in four scans (71.7 per cent) directed the user to a product page across all five of these European markets.

The second most popular was event information (31.8 per cent), making it second most popular result across all five European markets.

According to the research, people like to receive or offers through scanning QR codes. Out of the five, does this the most with 22.2 per cent, while the UK does this the least, with 17 per cent. Overall, though, 19.4 per cent of the five markets use QR codes for special offers.

Explore further: Upconverting nanoparticle inks: Invisible QR codes tackle counterfeit bank notes

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