How Corona is helping the QR code to make a comeback

Contactless payment with QR code has been standard in China for many years. In Germany, however, the technology has never really gained a foothold. The corona pandemic is now changing that.

Whether as a sticker on the lamp post, in advertising brochures or printed on a business card: Most Germans know how a QR Code looks like. But since its invention in 1994, the square with the pixels has never really caught on. Attempts by Twitter and Snapchat to establish QR codes as an alternative to user names were unsuccessful.