From a recent trip to Lanzarote and Fuerteventura plus from recollection of Tenerife, i have noticed a huge difference in the uptake of QR codes in these islands compared with Ireland.
There are everywhere! Bottles, pubs, shops, advertising, menus.
Though the QR codes were prolific in terms of visibility it did not mean that they all had effective outcomes. Some did lead to mobile web sites, some to non mobile websites, others led a web page virtually containing nothing while one should have been a data matrix code. (just a reference number)
To sum up, it was definitely quantity over quality but nonetheless they must be popular and understood by users for them to be ubiquitous?
It is also worth pointing out that some of QR code images have big international brands behind them. Their marketing is these cases must be country specific as their QR Codes are not visible on Irish brand products. E.G: Pepsi & Heineken.
Here are some examples below:
