I’m frequently asked when QR codes will take off. They are already common place in Japan and we have seen a number of attempts to implement them elsewhere in Europe and the US. Whilst they are being used across a number of channels there is little evidence that they are broadly adopted by consumers.

An infographic from a QR company therefore shows some surprising results: 28% of people (in the US I presume) have scanned a QR code. Really? It also tells us that 57% of Twitter and Facebook users have scanned a code in the last year. However that suprisingly large figure doesn’t tell us if they will continue to use them. I wonder how many people have scanned one once out of curiosity but don’t intend to do it again? Although the stats in the graphic show an encouraging performance for QR, somehow it doesn’t match the reality. I have previously blogged about the effort vs reward issue. QR will only become big if the reward of scanning a code is significantly greater than the effort of doing so. I have yet to see a campaign outside of Japan that offers such a reward.

More on the stats here