TIGER OR CAT
May 2022 be a year that roars as powerfully as a black tiger.

“What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.”
Nietzsche said.
Even through nearly two years of pandemic, we have continued to live, and despite the pain and despair, we have not lost hope for the future.
The groundbreaking and unstoppable advancement of technology is actually bringing the world we dream of even closer to reality.
As we prepare for "With Corona," a wise way to coexist with this unprecedented pandemic, we are now growing stronger.
To celebrate the Year of the Black Tiger, Seoul National University's Consumer Trend Analysis Center has chosen 10 keywords with the rhyme "TIGER OR CAT."
How well will you navigate the pandemic crisis? How will you adapt to the needs of consumers, who evolve faster than businesses? And how will you win the hearts and minds of voters? Will you be a roaring tiger or a cat?
We are all at a crossroads.

Perhaps because tigers are an animal closely related to our people, there are many proverbs and sayings that mention tigers.
Among them, my personal favorite phrase is 'An eagle stands like it's sleeping, and a tiger walks like it's sick.'
“The falcon sits as if it is sleeping, and the tiger walks as if it is sick,” meaning that the falcon usually relaxes to let its prey down.
Of course, when the opportunity arises, it quickly transforms into a leopard and catches its prey.
The word 'pyobyeon', which means to change suddenly, is also related to tigers.
Tigers and leopards shed their fur diligently as winter approaches. After they shed their old fur, they look so different from before that you have to open your eyes wide to tell they are the same tiger.
Even though 2022 may seem like a slow year, perhaps a bit sluggish due to the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, I hope we can seize opportunities like a tiger when they arise.
To do that, you have to change without fear, like a tiger shedding its fur.
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“When I eat one, my boyfriend eats two or three…
“When we first started dating, I thought splitting the cost was a good idea, but I guess I wasted my time creating a dating account.”
This is a post about concerns that was posted on an online community.
A dating account is an account created jointly by a couple to share dating expenses equally, but there has been controversy over whether this account is truly fair.
For the older generation, who have a strong belief that “men pay for dates,” the very idea of ​​a dating account is unfamiliar, so the debate over “Is it fair to pay the same amount when you ate less?” is even surprising.
This is a case that clearly shows how sensitive the younger generation is to fairness these days.
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“Life, uh…, finds a way.”
This is a famous line from the movie Jurassic Park.
In order to control the park, only female dinosaurs were restored to prevent reproduction, but when eggs were discovered in a natural state, the protagonist Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) asked the scientists, “Is natural reproduction possible in a group of only females?”
His thoughts turn out to be correct, as it is confirmed that dinosaurs underwent sexual mutations for reproduction.
This statement is actually a philosophy that runs through the film.
Life is, and life is uncontrollable.
The lives of South Korean consumers in 2021 were similar.
I tried to find a way to somehow get back to normal.
It was a year in which the COVID-19 pandemic severely restricted not only food, clothing, shelter, but also work and play, but people somehow found ways to circumvent it.
If 2020, the year the COVID-19 pandemic began, was a year of struggling to adapt to a suddenly changing situation, 2021 was a time to respond to those changes and seek alternatives.
In a situation where it was difficult to expect an 'After Corona AC,' citizens naturally pursued a 'With Corona WC,' lifestyle.
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51

The trend these days is that you don't know my trend.

This is the word that most concisely expresses the recent trend.
A trend that can be defined as “a majority consensus that persists for a certain period of time” has recently been showing fundamental changes.
The range of sympathizers has been greatly reduced and their duration has also become shorter.
Trends are no longer a large, shared flow felt by everyone, but rather like small tributaries that branch off and converge in small units before spreading out again.
In a nano-society where the traditional 'consciousness of ourselves', which was formed around the reference group to which one belongs, is being reorganized around tastes, trends are becoming more detailed, diverse, and faster.
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171

These days, people's extravagant spending habits are unusual.
The American magazine Fortune introduced the term 'HENRY High Earner Not Rich Yet' in 2003, 20 years ago, to refer to young people who are always short on money despite their annual salary of hundreds of millions of won.
This refers to a generation that has high salaries from well-paid jobs with high education, but is unable to accumulate wealth due to a luxurious lifestyle, student loan repayments, and high rent.
This term really captures the reality of millennials, who spend most of their income on maintaining a high standard of living and are therefore unable to save a lot of money.
In order to maintain their current lifestyle, they have to work constantly to earn money, like a hamster on a wheel.
If I were to suddenly quit my job today, my income would be cut off immediately, as I would have almost no accumulated assets.
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209

In "Trend Korea 2022," we refer to the ability of consumers to obtain products that cannot be obtained through payment alone as "saving power."
The word 'deuktem' was originally created in gaming culture.
When you get a game item you want, the word 'deuk-tem' is expressed by combining the character 'deuk' (得) from 'get' and the character 'tem' (item), but it is now used as an expression to replace shopping.
The growing importance of acquisition power goes beyond the mere fact that "the number of limited-edition products that are difficult to obtain has increased," signifying the birth of a new market in which the concept of product scarcity is changing.
Furthermore, the power of acquisition carries contemporary significance in that consumers' means of differentiation are expanding from the ability to pay to the ability to acquire rare items or experiences.
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223

As more and more modern people seek out their own little rice paddies and healing spaces, the 'countryside' is becoming 'hip'.
The countryside is no longer a backward and outdated place, as the word "rustic" implies.
For city dwellers who sometimes find even ordinary daily life burdensome, the countryside presents an attractive space that offers a leisurely experience that transcends boredom and offers a raw experience that overcomes inconvenience.
In today's world where urban life has become the norm, the countryside stands in stark contrast as a space of the extraordinary and romantic, a special hideaway of one's own.
Furthermore, living in the countryside is not a life of seclusion or isolation suitable only for the elderly, but rather a time of recharging needed by people of all ages.
This rural lifestyle does not only refer to moving to the countryside, returning to the mountains, or moving to the countryside to completely leave the city or to become disconnected from it.
Rather than completely leaving the city for the countryside, it refers to a new trend of escaping the city life a little and adding a simple 'countryside' feel to life by practicing 'Odoichon (五都二村)' or 'Sadosamchon (四都三村)', where one stays in the city for 4-5 days a week and then visits the countryside for 2-3 days.
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249

The market needs to keep an eye on the 'early care syndrome' among young people who are good at prevention.
Early Care Syndrome is a new term that refers to the rapid increase in the number of people in their 20s and 30s taking preventive measures against various health problems that were previously a health concern for the older generation.
A representative example is hair loss management.
Hair loss, which was once a real concern for those in their 40s and older, is now recognized as something that needs to be managed in advance by the 2030 generation.
In fact, the consumer base for anti-hair loss shampoos, which used to be dominated by middle-aged consumers in their 40s and 50s, is expanding to include those in their 20s and 30s. According to CJ Olive Young, sales of hair loss-related products are rapidly increasing by 40% annually, with women in their 20s accounting for the largest proportion of customers.
Meanwhile, the increase rate of patients visiting hospitals due to high blood pressure over the past five years was also highest among those in their 20s.
In this way, the younger generation these days is actively making efforts to prevent diseases that affect older generations by visiting hospitals in advance.
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296

In the industry, there is a saying that attracting high purchasing power and loyal customers is the 'cheat key' (a secret key known only to the creators in computer games) that ultimately determines the success of a business.
Although the MZ generation is the fastest to try new services, the power of Generation X is needed to establish them in the market.
Extin is also behind the success of Market Kurly, which has established itself as an online shopping mall that threatens large distributors in just 5-6 years since its launch in 2015.
According to the "2021 June Food Dawn Delivery App Trends" released by WiseApp, users in their 40s (35.4%) and 50s (23.1%) account for more than half of all Market Kurly users.
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316

Paradoxically, increased freedom in daily life increases people's anxiety.
People are more likely to feel stressed in an unstructured daily life.
Those who begin to question whether they are managing their time well look at the time that passes by without a second thought with anxiety and impatience.
The feeling that I am the only one falling behind, the anxiety that I am the only one not doing well, is what makes me uncomfortable.
People who have lost their sense of control move in a direction that seeks to reaffirm their sense of control.
I want to transform into a healthy lifestyle routine and confirm that I can control my life by practicing a structured lifestyle.
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345

In the movie “The Matrix,” which declared, “The Matrix is ​​everywhere,” the virtual world Matrix, which exists in contrast to reality, was created for the purpose of isolating reality.
On the other hand, the 'metaverse', which has emerged as a global trend, refers to a virtual world, but it guarantees a richer and more meaningful reality for consumers by supporting and enhancing reality.
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370

Everyone has probably had the experience of visiting a friend or acquaintance's social media feed or community and finding a product they were interested in and purchasing it.
We no longer buy products because we need them or because we see ads on TV or in magazines.
'Social feeds' are becoming the first window for product discovery.
Instead of making time to 'go shopping', it has changed to 'always shopping'.
As a result, consumers' purchasing processes are moving away from traditional decision-making models and forming new ones.
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397

The point is that the moment a company has a powerful narrative, its stock price can soar through the roof even for a company with meager sales at the moment.
It's not just the stock market.
Even in the realms of business and politics, when you present your own narrative, you immediately attract strong public attention.
The power of narrative is powerful.
The COVID-19 pandemic won't end when the virus is completely eradicated.
It ends when the narrative that “we can now live a normal life despite the virus” gains sympathy from society as a whole.
In this sense, narrative plays a powerful yet invisible role as capital in modern society, and so we propose the keyword "narrative capital" as the final trend of "Trend Korea 2022."
Narratives have the power to unite people and inspire action.

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