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1. MOBILE
BARCODE
Q4 2011
TREND REPORT
DEC
NOV

2. INTRODUCTION
This is our Q4 2011 ScanLife Trend Report which looks at the busiest quarter of the year for mobile barcodes and
some year-end growth comparisons to 2010. Mid-November through December proved to be another big period for
activating new users as people are searching for product information and millions of new Smartphones were activated.
Key Takeaways
• 2011 saw a 300% growth in barcode scanning over 2010, and 1000% over 2009
• Q4 2011 saw more scans than all of 2009 & 2010 combined
• Over 3,000,000 new ScanLife users were activated in Q4, 2011
• Half of our users report being 18-34, and 60% are male which is consistent with the previous report
• Among marketers using the ScanLife platform, the Consumer Packaged Good industry saw the most
scans for the first time ever
• During the holiday season, two of the biggest scan days were actually after Christmas and many of
those people scanning were first time users
SCANS BY QUARTER
User Audience Information
A large influx of new users drove significant growth in Q4. Over 3M were activated in Q4 alone.
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3. Age & Gender of ScanLife app users saw minor changes. For example, the Under 25 age demographic now makes
up about 33% of all scans which may be indicative of decreasing Smartphone prices and data plans.
The number of iPhone users increased by about 10 points taking some share from Android. BlackBerry continues
to fall substantially with only a 6% share in Q4 compared to over 20% a year ago.
TOP COUNTRIES SCANNING
N/C
1. United States 2. Spain 3. Canada 4. Denmark 5. France
NEW
6. United Kingdom 7. Germany 8. Mexico 9. Brazil 10. Israel
Marketer Adoption
One of the primary ingredients to increased scanning
numbers is growing adoption among those that are publish-
ing 2D barcodes like marketers and media publishers.
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4. Marketer Adoption (con’t)
The Consumer Packaged Good (CPG) industry moved up five spots to #1 with the most scans via the ScanLife
platform. This can be seen as another indicator of mass adoption. The other top industries remained unchanged.
As usual, codes are being placed on a variety of media. In this quarter, we saw a large influx of traffic from codes
placed on websites (PC). Primarily this was done to easily deliver mobile apps directly to the device.
TOP 2D CAMPAIGN INDUSTRIES Q4 2011
TOP 2D MEDIA PLACEMENT Q4 2011
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS
ScanLife conducted an online survey of over 100 independent marketers. Here are some of the highlights:
• 50% of marketers are currently using 2D barcodes
• 86% plan to in the near future
• 61% report using open source code formats with QR Codes the most popular
• The top three media placement choices included magazines & newspapers, direct
mail and product packaging
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5. Holiday Checkout
The fourth quarter has always been a significant period
of growth for barcode scanning as new codes are
published and new Smartphones are activated. However,
this year both 2D and 1D barcodes saw large increases
in scan rates as shoppers are becoming more accus-
tomed to using QR Codes to view more information as
part of their retail experience.
Scans by Day
Unsurprisingly, the largest scan day of the year was Black
Friday, or the day after Thanksgiving in the United States.
Scans by Time and Location TOP CITIES ON BLACK FRIDAY
We went a bit deeper on Black Friday to understand
when people were scanning over the 24 hour period.
Late morning to early afternoon saw the most
sustained traffic, but interestingly the largest spikes
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were at the very beginning and end of the biggest sale
day. This could indicate that people scanning barcodes
are also looking for the best possible deals, and use the 4
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technology to make more informed decisions.
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6. NOTES ON THE DATA
The data in this report was pulled from the ScanLife Reporting Platform. It represents traffic from both two-
dimensional barcodes (i.e. QR Codes) and UPC barcodes. The 2D barcodes scanned may have been generated
on the ScanLife Platform, or from 3rd party generators. The 2D barcode scanning traffic may come from either
the ScanLife app or 3rd party apps.
Contact Us
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