4 ms·

Does anyone have metrics on how many people actually scan QR codes? I'd count my self as pretty technical and except for a few attempts years ago for novelty va

Does anyone have metrics on how many people actually scan QR codes? I'd count my self as pretty technical and except for a few attempts years ago for novelty value I've never scanned one. I can't imagine non-technical people even knowing what these are but their recent proliferation makes me wonder if maybe I'm wrong.

erock 14y ago
I did an experiment in my town, placing my own qr codes over everything i could find. running for a month, with putting 80 or so qr codes through out town. the number of scans i got was around 10. no one scans QR codes I have been thinking about printing up my own posters, like "Scan the code below to donate to Toys for Tots", but i still don't think I'd get many scans. here's an article http://www.veracode.com/blog/2012/06/dangers-of-scanning-qr-codes-interview-with-eric-mikulas/ http://www.veracode.com/blog/2012/06/dangers-of-scanning-qr-...
- leephillips 14y ago
  If you got 10 scans after distributing 80 stickers I would not conclude that "no one scans QR codes". This is, instead, an impressive proportion of responses, unless I misunderstand.
  - erock 14y ago
    To be fair, I'm more disappointed, that i didn't track each scan a little further, and I'm also disappointed no one flamed me when their scan took them to a web page telling them they shouldn't go around just scanning random things.
  - highwind 14y ago
    If there are thousands of foot traffic by the 80 stickers per day, then I'd say 10 scans in a month do sound relatively scarce. But you are right, 10 != no one.
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- talmand 14y ago
  But what were you promoting with these QR codes? If they were just stickers of codes with no indication of what they were for then I would expect hardly anyone to actually scan them. But if it were associated to something that might interest them, say an event or big sale, then the response might be higher. If you put the codes on top of other people's advertisement's then one could assume that the advertising wasn't effective enough for someone to be interested in scanning the code. Plus if the ad didn't say what the benefit of scanning the code was since it probably wasn't designed with that in mind, then why would they bother? Also, from my experience in online retail, a response of 2% is often considered a good return. Just depends on what you are doing. I just think you possibly conducted a less than useful test and possibly came to an invalid conclusion.
omaranto 14y ago
I don't see anyone scanning them here in Boston, but I have heard that in other parts of the world people do use them. They're supposed to be popular in Japan and South Korea. (Can anyone confirm that?)
- kamjam 14y ago
  The only one that I heard of which "worked" is this one in South Korea. Pretty innovative really! http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/10/29/koreas-emart-revives-sundial-in-the-age-of-qr-codes/ http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/10/29/koreas-e...
prof_hobart 14y ago
My 6 year old daughter loves them - we went through a phase of scanning pretty much every one we saw. Excluding those, I've occasionally done things like scanning ones at museums that give more info about an exhibit and I've also scanned a couple of ones on menus etc at restaurants that have links to special offers. I realise I'm very much in the minority though.
edent 14y ago
I've been gathering some real world metrics on QR codes in UK. They seem very popular. See http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/10/no-one-scans-qr-codes-apart-from-the-thousands-of-people-who-do/ http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/10/no-one-scans-qr-codes-apart-... http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/01/real-qr-statistics-from-tfl/ http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/01/real-qr-statistics-from-tfl/
- jiggy2011 14y ago
  I'll guess that it depends very much on the use case. For example I can see just scanning a QR code on a tesco card might be more convenient than remembering to type tesco.com/clubcard/join or texting a specific thing to a phone number. The bus use case is quite good too since looking stuff up on timetables is always a bit of a pain. OTOH when I see one on some random movie poster on the street, I'm really not likely to stand there in the cold, advertising the fact I have a smartphone to anyone around and possibly holding up foot traffic just to get redirected to some website that's probably going to load slowly over 3G anyway.
18pfsmt 14y ago
Another anecdote: I was sitting outside a brewery last week that is right next to a mall here in Colorado. This is a mall that has both an outside and inside. We were right near a mall kiosk with a mini-map and a QR code that will let you download a map of the mall. Over the course of 2 hours, I saw about 10 people scan the QR code. I think it takes non-technical people more time to understand how to use, and incorporate new technologies into their lives. I am of the belief that most people only realized how to use the internet effectively in the last few years. Meanwhile, it's been integral to the lives of many HNers for over a decade.
- c0nsumer 14y ago
  I do mountain bike trail work and mapping, and I like putting very large QR codes on the trail head sign kiosks with a note saying "Scan this QR code with your phone to download a copy of this map.". Year-old example (it's changed slightly since then): https://nuxx.net/gallery/v/travel/local_places/biking/PB150086.jpg.html https://nuxx.net/gallery/v/travel/local_places/biking/PB1500... I don't have anything in place (unique URLs or whatever) to track how often it's done, but I've personally seen a number of people using it just in times that I've been at the park and sitting near the trail head.

erock 14y ago

I did an experiment in my town, placing my own qr codes over everything i could find. running for a month, with putting 80 or so qr codes through out town. the number of scans i got was around 10. no one scans QR codes I have been thinking about printing up my own posters, like "Scan the code below to donate to Toys for Tots", but i still don't think I'd get many scans. here's an article http://www.veracode.com/blog/2012/06/dangers-of-scanning-qr-codes-interview-with-eric-mikulas/ http://www.veracode.com/blog/2012/06/dangers-of-scanning-qr-...

leephillips 14y ago
If you got 10 scans after distributing 80 stickers I would not conclude that "no one scans QR codes". This is, instead, an impressive proportion of responses, unless I misunderstand.
- erock 14y ago
  To be fair, I'm more disappointed, that i didn't track each scan a little further, and I'm also disappointed no one flamed me when their scan took them to a web page telling them they shouldn't go around just scanning random things.
- highwind 14y ago
  If there are thousands of foot traffic by the 80 stickers per day, then I'd say 10 scans in a month do sound relatively scarce. But you are right, 10 != no one.
- deleted 14y ago
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- deleted 14y ago
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talmand 14y ago
But what were you promoting with these QR codes? If they were just stickers of codes with no indication of what they were for then I would expect hardly anyone to actually scan them. But if it were associated to something that might interest them, say an event or big sale, then the response might be higher. If you put the codes on top of other people's advertisement's then one could assume that the advertising wasn't effective enough for someone to be interested in scanning the code. Plus if the ad didn't say what the benefit of scanning the code was since it probably wasn't designed with that in mind, then why would they bother? Also, from my experience in online retail, a response of 2% is often considered a good return. Just depends on what you are doing. I just think you possibly conducted a less than useful test and possibly came to an invalid conclusion.

omaranto 14y ago

I don't see anyone scanning them here in Boston, but I have heard that in other parts of the world people do use them. They're supposed to be popular in Japan and South Korea. (Can anyone confirm that?)

kamjam 14y ago
The only one that I heard of which "worked" is this one in South Korea. Pretty innovative really! http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/10/29/koreas-emart-revives-sundial-in-the-age-of-qr-codes/ http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2012/10/29/koreas-e...

prof_hobart 14y ago

My 6 year old daughter loves them - we went through a phase of scanning pretty much every one we saw. Excluding those, I've occasionally done things like scanning ones at museums that give more info about an exhibit and I've also scanned a couple of ones on menus etc at restaurants that have links to special offers. I realise I'm very much in the minority though.

edent 14y ago

I've been gathering some real world metrics on QR codes in UK. They seem very popular. See http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/10/no-one-scans-qr-codes-apart-from-the-thousands-of-people-who-do/ http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/10/no-one-scans-qr-codes-apart-... http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/01/real-qr-statistics-from-tfl/ http://shkspr.mobi/blog/2012/01/real-qr-statistics-from-tfl/

jiggy2011 14y ago
I'll guess that it depends very much on the use case. For example I can see just scanning a QR code on a tesco card might be more convenient than remembering to type tesco.com/clubcard/join or texting a specific thing to a phone number. The bus use case is quite good too since looking stuff up on timetables is always a bit of a pain. OTOH when I see one on some random movie poster on the street, I'm really not likely to stand there in the cold, advertising the fact I have a smartphone to anyone around and possibly holding up foot traffic just to get redirected to some website that's probably going to load slowly over 3G anyway.

18pfsmt 14y ago

Another anecdote: I was sitting outside a brewery last week that is right next to a mall here in Colorado. This is a mall that has both an outside and inside. We were right near a mall kiosk with a mini-map and a QR code that will let you download a map of the mall. Over the course of 2 hours, I saw about 10 people scan the QR code. I think it takes non-technical people more time to understand how to use, and incorporate new technologies into their lives. I am of the belief that most people only realized how to use the internet effectively in the last few years. Meanwhile, it's been integral to the lives of many HNers for over a decade.

c0nsumer 14y ago
I do mountain bike trail work and mapping, and I like putting very large QR codes on the trail head sign kiosks with a note saying "Scan this QR code with your phone to download a copy of this map.". Year-old example (it's changed slightly since then): https://nuxx.net/gallery/v/travel/local_places/biking/PB150086.jpg.html https://nuxx.net/gallery/v/travel/local_places/biking/PB1500... I don't have anything in place (unique URLs or whatever) to track how often it's done, but I've personally seen a number of people using it just in times that I've been at the park and sitting near the trail head.