Despite a publishing decline in Japan, it’s still quite easy to get a magazine for just about anything, and the publishing world has been hard at work integrating their printed materials with the new Digital World.
The print magazine Tada Gets, which basically means “things for free” is a magazine composed entirely of QR codes. By scanning the codes, users link via mobile phone to free ringtones, decorations, games, music, pictures, and other content.
Tada Gets is a novel approach (now in its 5th issue) and takes advantage of the fact that many young Japanese now have unlimited data plans on their phones and can scan/download away without fearing big charges. Of course, there is accompanying written content with the codes as to not hypnotize the readers and keep it fresh, but the majority of pages are simply covered with QR codes of all sizes and colors.
