QR Code History

QR codes were invented in 1994 by Masahiro Hara's team at Denso Wave to solve barcode capacity limitations in Toyota's production lines. "QR" stands for Quick Response. Standardized as ISO/IEC 18004 in 2000, Denso Wave declared it would not exercise patent rights, enabling free global use.

2000s: Japanese mobile phones integrated QR readers. 2010s: WeChat Pay and Alipay made QR codes China's cashless foundation. 2017: Apple added native QR scanning to iOS 11. 2020: COVID-19 accelerated adoption for contactless menus, tickets, and health certificates. 2027: GS1 QR code transition planned to replace retail barcodes.