CAMDEN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — Touchless transactions became a daily routine during the pandemic, and they have led to the rise of QR codes.
Now that restrictions are easing, are QR codes going to stay? The short answer is yes.
Rutgers University-Camden Marketing Professor Dr. Jai Ganesh said QR codes have been around since the mid 90s.
“The biggest advantage was, it could store a lot more data in a lot smaller space, so it could store up to 100 times more data than what a barcode system could do," he explained. "That was the biggest benefit of the QR code when it came into existence.
Ganesh said countries like India and China, with a large number of low-income residents, were early adapters.
“There is a big chunk of the Indian society that doesn't have a bank account. So for them to do traditional banking, it's very difficult, so e-cash got popular, very very popular. And it spread," Ganesh said.
"You can have every street vendor having a QR code and you can pay them through that. No connecting the QR code to your bank account. In China, it’s huge.”
Ganesh said e-cash services like WeChat, Tencent and Ali Pay by Alibaba are used by nearly every individual in those countries, and each one of those people has their own QR code connected to a bank account.
But according to Ganesh, QR codes didn’t catch on in the United States for a long time, because the system was too cumbersome.
“People needed to download an app, and then we need to have to capture the QR code," Ganesh said.
"It just became a joke (that) it didn't have true value.”
Ganesh believes the pandemic changed all that. He says that now, QR codes have many uses, but there are three main ones.
“One is e-cash mobile payments and electronic cash. The second is the whole aspect of the sharing economy, whether it's a bike share or a cab share," said Ganesh.
"The third thing is the whole digital transformation of retail, what we call now the 'new retail economy.' It's what we call 'O to O,' online to offline, seamless transition.”
He believes China and India are way ahead of us.
“Whether you are tipping a waiter in a restaurant, (or) you're giving a gift to your nephew, or a niece's birthday, you know you can do (that) through QR codes," Ganesh said.
He explained that in India and China, even the homeless use them. He said they will hold up cardboard signs in the street which have a QR code on them.
“The homeless people or people are asking for money, and they're in main throughways, in Shanghai and Beijing at the traffic lights. They have QR codes," Ganesh detailed.
"You can actually give them a dollar, or Chinese wans, through a QR code transfer.”
In Ganesh's view, QR codes are "here to stay."
"For sure, we will be embracing them," Ganesh said. "It is there because e-cash mobile payments are going to become predominant in our economy.”
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