Tag: qr codes

QR codes used by Tokyo One Piece Tower for translation services

Quick response codes are now being used to help to assist foreign visitors to understand the attraction.

Though Tokyo One Piece Tower was first opened in March, it wasn’t until just recently that QR codes were added to the attraction in order to make it easier for tourists from other countries to be able to understand what’s going on.

One Piece is a massive international sensation but not everyone who likes the series speaks Japanese.

The manga based anime series has hundreds of episodes and is loved by fans around the world. Tokyo One Piece Tower is an attraction that was created in order to provide fans with a place to visit and share in their love of the series. However, until now it has created a struggle to visitors who don’t understand Japanese, let alone being able to decipher kanji (written Japanese characters). Now QR codes are about to change that struggle by opening up the experience to languages outside of Japanese.

The QR codes have been added to 28 different signs located around the tower so that translations can be obtained.

QR Codes for Translation ServiceThese quick response codes have been added above and beyond the bilingual crew members who have been hired by the attraction. Those employees wear color-coded badges so that visitors from other countries can look for the color that aligns with the language that they speak. While this will be helpful, the QRcode option will make it possible for visitors to be able to help themselves when they stop at any of the different barcoded signs.

The 28 signs can be scanned through the use of a smartphone with any free reader app already installed and open. When the barcodes are scanned, they display a translation of the sign’s original message in the language of the smartphone of the user. This allows the language to be automatically detected and selected for the user.

Upon the launch of the QR codes, the translations were available in any of twelve different languages, which included: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Indonesian, Korean, Malay and Thai. There are English, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese and Korean guidebooks that are also made available to visitors.

McDonald’s brings mobile payments support to China stores

McDonald’s teams with Ant Financial in order to support mobile shoppers

McDonald’s has partnered with China’s Ant Financial, a subsidiary of Alibaba, in order to support mobile payments. The company sees major promise in China’s mobile commerce market, especially as consumers begin to look for ways to pay for products in a convenient fashion. Some 2,100 of McDonald’s stores in China will now be accepting payments made through Alipay, which is the country’s most prominent mobile payments service.

Company has plans to fully support mobile payments in China by 2016

McDonald’s stores in Shanghai will be the first to begin supporting mobile payments. By March of 2016, all of the company’s stores in China will be accepting mobile transactions. Ant Financial suggests that consumers using Alipay can complete a transaction in only two seconds, which will ensure that they have access to a convenient service. In order to initiate a mobile transaction, consumers will only have to scan QR codes, which have become prominent tools in the mobile commerce space.

Alibaba continues to show aggressive support of the mobile commerce market in Asia

Mobile Payments - McDonald'sAlibaba has been playing a major role in Asia’s mobile commerce space. The company has already established a dominant lead in the Chinese e-commerce space and has moved aggressively into the mobile payments field. Recently, Alibaba announced that it was investing more money into India’s mobile commerce market, forming a deal with that country’s leading mobile payments company, Paytm. The deal is estimated to be valued at $680 million and is expected to have a major impact on how Paytm supports the growth of mobile commerce in India.

McDonald’s stores in the US already support mobile payments made through various services

In the United States, McDonald’s has already become involved in the mobile payments space. The company accepts mobile transactions coming from a variety of services, including Samsung Pay and Android Pay. In some cases, QR codes are used to initiate transactions, but NFC technology is also used as an effective way to engage consumers using their mobile devices to make purchases.