All forms of mobile advertising have been in the media a lot lately as the industry wraps its head around ad-supported rather than fee-based content, and mobile barcodes have gotten their fair share. From the consumer perspective they do have the benefit of the user initiating the contact. BusinessWeek has an article focusing on mobile barcodes in China, where mobile advertising is still dominated by push SMS ads. The countries mobile ad market was $17 million last year, out of a total of $40 billion. The technology faces the same hurdles it does in other countries, such as the need for enough codes to get people to use them and the need for enough people to get advertisers to use them, but the article also quotes people as saying the lack of 3G access is a problem. Even if someone does take use a mobile barcode it takes a long time for any content to download over the air. Of course, with some barcodes it’s possible to code more than a URL…
In terms of cost, “MyClick…charges an annual licensing fee and a fee for each hyperlinked frame. Once the frames are in use, the price is US$0.20-0.60 per click”.