QR Code Usage Grows 600%

Remember when I said that QR Codes weren’t dying? Well, how about some more proof… QR Code usage grew an estimated 600% between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011.  Amazing right?  Well…

The report comes to us from Scanbuy, a mobile marketing company that specialized in mobile 2D barcode.  The metrics were collected from their proprietary barcode scanning application, which can scan and interpret several different types of 2D barcode, including the industry standardized QR code.  Scanbuy also estimates that there are 45 million smartphones in the U.S. that are capable of scanning mobile bar codes.

600% growth is pretty impressive, but before we start popping the champagne and erecting new buildings in homage to the mighty QR code, we should look at this in a little bit of perspective.

Believe it or not, this is actually a decline in growth.  In the second half of 2010, we saw a 1200% growth in QR code usage. So what does that mean?

The fact is that QR codes are still in the adoption phase in the US.  We have seen wild growth periods in the past two years, and we will continue to see them for at least a couple of more.  Huge numbers are easy to achieve when your initial sample is small. Here is an easy example that most of you can relate to.  When I first started on Facebook, I didn’t actively look for friends. By the end of the first day I probably had 5 friends.  After the first year, I had 65 (OMG a 1200% increase!). In another year, I had around 450 (Another 600% increase!).  As you can see, the percentages don’t really tell the whole story.  And more importantly, they quickly slow down, as the sample size grew.

Now I’m not saying that QR codes aren’t on the rise - they are. And I am very much an advocate for their (correct) use.  However, I think we can stop with the crazy numbers and growth rhetoric as QR code use continues to work itself into the public marketplace.

On the bright side, at least they aren’t dying…