𝚀𝚁 𝙲𝚘𝚍𝚎𝚜: 𝙰 𝚅𝚒𝚛𝚊𝚕 𝚃𝚎𝚌𝚑𝚗𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚢 𝟸𝟾 𝚈𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚜 𝙸𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝙼𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐
QR codes have thrived in the pandemic, evidenced by Coinbase's Super Bowl ad recently, which featured just a bouncing QR code. That crashed the app because it was so popular.
The small square barcodes have seen a surge in usage around the world for travel documents, COVID tracking or just to open up the menu at a now paperless restaurant. One Irish man even got a QR code inked on his arm - a personal link to whatever he wants it to be. But QR codes are hardly a new technology.
QR codes are almost 28 years old, invented by Japanese automotive company Denso Wave back in 1994 to streamline their manufacturing process.
Their adoption was slow in the West before the pandemic, but they've long been used in Asia. In China, there's a QR code for just about everything. More than 90% of mobile payments in China are made on WeChat or AliPay, both of which rely on QR codes.
𝙲𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚛 | 𝙳𝚊𝚝𝚊 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐
