![]() Not all Chinese people are comfortable typing in website names using the Roman alphabet, and many Chinese companies’ URLs use easier-to-remember numbers rather than words written in Pinyin (the Romanized form of Mandarin). WeChat’s built-in QR scanner means that virtually every smartphone user in China already has an app to scan the codes iPhone cameras finally introduced a built-in QR code reader in 2017, so perhaps this will help QR codes to make a comeback outside of China, if it’s not already too late. WeChat was first released in 2011 and grew in popularity very quickly – now, it completely dominates China’s social media and mobile internet, with over a billion monthly active users. In China, WeChat provides a built-in QR code scanner, and each WeChat user has their own, personal QR code, which can be scanned to add the user as a contact. Outside of China, smartphone users had to download a special app to scan QR codes. How do we explain the popularity of QR codes in China, compared to their lack thereof in the West? From language to aesthetics, here are four significant reasons. They have since become ubiquitous for making payments, finding information, adding contacts, and even accessing local police services. ![]() Not so in China, where QR codes where only just starting to take off at that time. But somehow this never came to fruition in the West, with QR codes written off as “dead” by 2012. When smartphones became popular, it was assumed that QR codes would, too, and that these scannable square barcodes had great potential for sales and marketing.
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