Detailed visiting cards are passé. Placing them in a cardholder, updating names, addresses, e-mail IDs, and numbers in your contacts, even more. A QR (quick response) code on a card just involves pointing your cellphone camera at it and clicking, and the details become part of your database in seconds. But, despite the popularity of smartphones in India, most firms here have stayed away from putting QR codes on their business cards.
Kiran Kumar, CEO and co-founder of Adepto, a social media software development company, says it might have to do with the perceived “geekiness” of the befuddling black and white patterned boxes. Sociologist Shiv Vishwanathan adds that Indians tend to cram their cards with irrelevant data: fax numbers (when was the last time you got a fax?), several landline numbers (direct line, board line, extension number), and even maps to guide you to the office. Very few have Twitter handles, blog links, or Skype IDs. Cleaner and friendlier SnapTags will soon arrive. Unlike the free-to-use QR codes, these comprise barcodes with space for a logo inside a notched circle.
