Almost like a metaphor of life, the old and structured QR codes are having their revival. Thought for applications that, in their origins, did not manage to impose themselves too much, today they are reaching the massiveness imagined in those times through digital payments.Created in 1994 by Toyota, its main objective was to register the codes of spare parts at high speed. And there, in his country of origin, Japan, he succeeded.
The shock wave came to everyone but without much space to apply them. The most successful cases were to read additional information on works exhibited in museums or of varieties of trees and animals in parks and recreational spaces. Not much more.
This year, a series of initiatives were launched in Argentina that are putting the QR in a privileged place. They spent 24 years to mature its use and today they begin to be a fundamental part of the digital collections: it was incorporated by Red Link with VALEPei and did the same Mercado Libre for Mercado Pago. And the combination of squares is still at the center of several projects of fintech companies.
Its rediscovery to facilitate purchases and small monetary operations is due, precisely, to the concept with which the QR code was created: the speed to execute transactions. In addition, it represents lower risks, since it is not necessary to take out the wallet or have all the time on the credit card, nor the debit card.And, thanks to its agility, it becomes "an ideal means to launch purchase stimuli via discounts or promotions," according to a report by Latinia, a software company dedicated to the Fintech world.
It is also used to develop loyalty strategies, because "it allows closing the transaction with messages that activate it via point programs," the report detailed.
Although this resurgence crystallized throughout this year, the first concrete initiatives were seen in 2017, when Red Link developed the Mob Professional app, which allows charging with QR codes the professional services and products that are acquired in small businesses.
"The generation of the payment is done from the VALEpei wallet, that is, a user of VALE who, for example, goes to the psychologist and who has Mob Professional, generates the QR, the user VALE scans it with his cell phone and pays," he explains. Jorge Larravide, commercial manager of Red Link, to iProUP.
Currently, the application already registers more than 100,000 downloads and has 75,000 active users.Given this initial kick-off through Red Link, it was the turn last June of Mercado Libre, which enabled this functionality in its virtual wallet. And a new wave of use began, more massive still.
While it also depends on the merchants that enable the collections - be it chain, or small, more neighborhood - the secret lies in the incorporation of that modality. Mercado Libre users found it easier to take the step, precisely because they had already been using Mercado Pago. And the QR facilitated its adoption
"There are already more than 1 million users who make payments with the digital wallet, since we launched it, more than 1.2 million QR transactions have been completed," says Ignacio Estiváriz, Mobile Director of Mercado Pago, a iProUP.
According to the manager, the effort is based on having more and more businesses that receive the system and accept the QR code as a means of payment associated with the MercadoLibre / MercadoPago application.
And in this sum come both large retail chains and coffee shops, as hamburgers or service stations and small shops. Already there are more than 150,000 locals who got into this modality in Argentina, which thus becomes the first country in the region to use it, while Brazil is in the process of implementation.
The pace of adoption is accelerated. While in Mercado Pago they were limited to pointing out that the growth rates are very high since the launch, not only because more and more users are using the system, but because they use it more frequently.
For their part, Red Link, put numbers. "The average transaction per user VALE is 13 monthly transactions, and the relationship between those who have the application is about 75,000 in conditions to pay and about 2,000 that can be charged with QR," says Larravide.
To such an extent there is a revival of these codes that it is no longer just consolidated companies - like the ones mentioned above - that decide to use it for transactions, but also are taken into account by those who are in charge of various undertakings.
"Several startups are proposing QRs as a dynamic payment system in stores, which is a great advantage both for the buyer (since it facilitates a new collection tool based on a universal device such as the cell phone) and for trade, since it provides a new facility to pay, since it can dynamically generate codes of amounts in real time, "said Oriol Ros, Marketing Director of Latinia, partner of the Startupbootcamp Fintech Latam program, dedicated to the acceleration of these projects.
"In summary, this means maximum simplicity and zero friction", the executive completes in dialogue with iProUP.
Maybe because they were born there, because the levels of adoption of technology are higher in the case of producing countries, or both, Asian countries are the international reference for the use of payments by QR codes.If Toyota designed them, the one that made them popular in stores was the British supermarket chain Tesco in South Korea. In 2010, it incorporated them as a means of payment for a population that spent a large part of its day in train stations.
To ease the wait, Tesco offered to buy through a system that allowed them to scan the codes of a screen as if they were in the supermarket and then received the order at home.
In China, QRs are used by 500 million people, more than a third of its population, as iProfesional showed in this article of September 2017.
Is it possible to imagine an Argentina where they are used by the bulk of the population?
To the extent that referents such as Mercado Pago and Red Link, on the one hand, and financial startups, on the other, promote them, the idea could quickly ignite in most of society. Not only for the convenience to pay for products and services, but also for money transfers and other simple operations.
And it will be further enhanced if companies and stores that move large volumes of cash imitate them. Because paper money also has its cost, and if it can be lowered, the better.
"For the users, the advantage is that they do not have to charge the credit card, that the technology is simple and can be downloaded in any type of cell phone, reasons why it is only possible to think that its growth in Latin America is going to be exponential and will be absolutely incorporated into the financial system, "said Estiváriz.There is a segment more prone to its adoption and it is that of millennials, included in the range between 20 and 35 years, although those consulted agreed that it will be massive in all age segments.Massive for 2020
Argentine financial regulation also leans in favor of QRs. On October 24, Decree 933/2018 was published in the Official Gazette, which released since 2020 to businesses that use these codes to also accept debit cards, since they will be equivalent.
"Taxpayers who accept payments through the use of the aforementioned codes (QR) will not be obliged to accept, in an additional manner, the other means of payment arranged", establishes article 2 of the decree modifying Law N ° 27,253 , which will become effective as of January 1, 2020, promoted by the Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA).Through its innovation table, the entity promotes new developments with the aim of expanding the Argentine financial system, one of the smallest and least developed in the region.
The current legislation requires taxpayers who offer products and services for final consumption to accept for their collections "bank transfers instrumented by debit cards, non-bank prepaid cards or other means of payment that the National Executive Power considers equivalent."
With this measure, the cost of installing the devices that process operations with debit cards will be alleviated. If it's about saving costs, businesses will not hesitate. The QR codes are in their revival and, as things are presented so far, perhaps their return is immortal.