6.2 percent of Americans scan QR codes says study

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Fourteen million American mobile users, representing 6.2 percent of the total mobile market in the United States, scanned a QR in June 2011, according to a study released August 12 by digital analysts Comscore.

QR or Quick Response codes are squares of black and white dots which, when scanned by a mobile device, direct the user to a website or grant access to special content such as coupons, for example.

Of the 6.2 percent of Americans who scanned QR codes in June the majority were male (60.5 percent) and aged 18-34 (53.4 percent). The Comscore survey also found that the most popular source of a scanned QR code was in a magazine or newspaper (49.4 percent), followed by product packaging (35.3 percent). Only 11.7 percent of those who scanned QR codes did so from the television.

In comparison to the 6.2 percent of Americans who scanned a QR code in June, 4.6 percent of mobile users and 9.8 percent of smartphone users in France, Germany, Italy and Spain scanned QR codes over the same period, according to a separate study by Comscore.