The QR code in typical North American style where everything internet is seen as marketing, actually formed the core of Ant’s payment acquiring approach.

Courtesy of John Gapper – FT

The name Masahiro Hara does not appear with Steve Jobs and Bill Gates on lists of great innovators of the communications age, but perhaps it should, writes John Gapper in the FT. For the Japanese engineer’s humble, unassuming invention, the Quick Response code, has finally found its moment. The square QR code, which Mr Hara developed in 1994 to track components in car factories, is being put to many uses in the Covid-19 pandemic. Governments include it on tracing apps, shops offer it for contactless payments and restaurants tape it to their tables so diners can browse menus online. It has become an all-purpose tool.