UK Tabloid The Sun Reports Strong Uptake Of Mobile Barcode Service
By Dianne See Morrison - Wed 16 Jan 2008 03:06 AM PST
UK tabloid The Sun says that its new mobile content quick response (QR) barcode service is a hit, with some 11,000 users registered since its early December launch. Mobile Today reports the newspaper has high hopes for the service--and thinks it can help print become a “more profitable medium,” by boosting printed editorial and advertising content in the paper.
QR services, which are popular in Japan, but have not taken off any where else, is a technology that lets people scan their mobile phone over a barcode--in this case on the pages of the Sun--which then uploads information stored in the barcode onto their mobile device. A football fan could read a match report in the paper, for example, and through a QR barcode placed next to the report, upload video highlights of the game.
The Sun will push the QR service hard in the next few months, and is planning another pull-out supplement in the tabloid to help educate people on how to use the codes. The Sun also claims that the service has been popular with advertisers, with betting shop Ladbrokes signing on, as well as News International stable mates Sky and Twentieth Century Fox.
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