Can OP3 Establish Shotcodes as a Standard for Camera Phone Readable Codes in the West?
Shotcodes are one of a number of consumer oriented camera phone readable code formats on the market. In many ways they are similar to Datamatrix Codes, QR Codes, and Semacodes.
Shotcodes are the product of OP3, based in Sweden. OP3 is taking a closed (not necessarily bad) approach to mobile phone camera readable codes. While Datamatrix Codes and QR Codes are free to use and can be created online on a number of sites, to the best of my knowledge the only place that Shotcodes can be created and managed is in conjunction with OP3 and their Shotcode web site. When someone scans a Shotcode they are (invisibly) routed through Shotcode servers to the site contained in the code which allows OP3 to provide metrics to marketers.
It appears that OP3 is betting that through big marketing partnerships with the likes of Coca-Cola (story here), they hope to encourage cell phone users to download the required code reading software to their phones and to participate in marketing campaigns. This is a much different strategy than was used in Japan where QR Codes and Datamatrix codes became wildly popular because mobile phone providers pre-installed code reading software on new phones and used widely accepted and open code standards. Marketers had an easy time leveraging software already in 10 of millions of hands.
Obviously OP3 has an uphill battle by going the route they have chosen. The odds of gaining anything close to universal use of Shotcodes are long (and expensive for OP3). On the other hand, OP3 is giving corporate marketers what they need, an easy, enterprise ready way to create, track, and manage campaigns driven by Shotcodes. And they appear to have had some good success to date.
I think the Shotcode folks stop by here from time to time, and I would really like their take on this.
[…] Hot on the heels of my previous post on ShotCodes, I came across an interview with ShotCodes CEO Dennis Hettema by Heather Paulson at ReveNews. It is a detailed look at how OP3, the company behind ShotCodes, got started, and how the service works. He does make a good point that keeping ShotCodes proprietary rather than open allows OP3 to control the look and use of ShotCodes and avoid the confusion that arises when some companies use more open standards such as QR Codes and Datamatrix codes, but add a proprietary element to the process. If you want some insight into OP3 and ShotCodes, this is the place to start. […]