Wrist Analysis - QR Code products

Here's a couple of products with similarities. Both seek to merge online with offline connections to create a visually appealing product; in this case the combination of a snazzy bracelet with QR Codes.

QR Living

Symbol - Cash Flow: Liking your work, not working to live

QRLiving connects you online through a wearable QR code and does so automatically;  not a word needs to be uttered by either party.

Whether this idea will kill the art of conversation stone dead is a moot point.  The downside of this adornment is that it requires the user to sign up to yet another network, rather than building on existing social profiles.

I am also not that keen on the rubbable symbols that adorn the side of each wrist band but maybe these are designed to appeal to a much younger market.

Skanz

By comparison, Skanz, while linking together QR codes with mobile technology, social media and fashion allows the wearer to make full use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ social profiles.  As they put it "wearing the web".

They are also cleverer than their opposition, encouraging prospects to sign up as product Ambassadors.

The use of two dimensional codes is growing and QR Codes are being used by people in greater numbers.  A recent study by Forrester Research found that 5% of adults use 2D codes compared to 1% the previous year.

Forrester also found that too few eBusiness professionals use best practices to offer consumers good experiences once they've scanned a bar code.

Maybe part of that "good experience" could be to give away a free QR Code bracelet?

Related articles

• Study: More People Using QR Codes (mediabistro.com)
• Skanz Turns QR Codes Into 'Social Prints' (ypulse.com)

Seven Places Where Facebook Isn't Number One

Clearly Japan is still more enamoured with Twitter than they are with Facebook but the latter is catching up fast. A year from now it is quite possible that Facebook will supplant Twitter as the social media platform of choice.

According to comScore who conducted the research in 40 markets, Facebook reached 55% of the world's online audience in October 2011.  It also accounted for three of every four minutes spent networking on social media platforms, and one of every seven minutes on the entire web.

There are six other countries where Facebook is yet to rule.

• In Brazil, Orkut still reigns (232 average minutes per visitor) but Facebook (205 average minutes per visitor) is catching up fast. 298.5% growth in Facebook usage over the past 12 months.
• In Poland the indigenous Nasza-Klasa.pl is about to lose its ranks as #1 to Facebook
• In Russia Facebook does not get a look-in. 

• Naver.com Cafe and Cyworld are vying for top spot in South Korea
• Facebook is not number one in Vietnam although it should be noted that comScore does not collect data from that country
• It doesn't have a presence in China

And here is how Facebook has risen in recent years, overtaking locally-grown platforms

Facebook growth remains highest in countries that are often termed "developing markets" e.g. Indonesia, India, Brazil and the Philippines.

The only country in the world where Facebook's presence over 12 months has actually decreased is Canada, which a -1% growth over 2011.

And lest we forget, the global audience for Facebook currently stands at 797,952,700.