Trends are rapidly changing, whether they are cultural or technological. The younger generation tries to showcase their style and actively follows trends. Meme stocks and FOMO, which stands for fear of missing out, represent this social phenomenon. Specifically, the younger generation is more eager to follow trends than any other age group. The propensity to indulge in fads or show off leads to a significant shift in consumer groups from baby boomers to millennials and Gen Z. Under this circumstance, the impact of trends and younger generation are becoming more significant.
There are nice cafes and restaurants with modern interior designs in Euljiro, Seoul. It is not difficult to see long lines in front of these shops in popular areas, while others have no customers.
The extreme polarization of whether a place follows a trend defines the culture in Korea. Especially, young people in Korea are willing to wait for more than an hour to have a nice meal at a famous restaurant they saw on Instagram. Naturally, the main target segment for retailers and restaurant owners is Gen Z, which has become the gold standard.
Recently, Thread released by Meta has gathered about 100 million users in less than a week. Surprisingly, the number of Korean users is about one million without any advertisements. Young people who hear about the service become users and try out the newly-launched social service. However, it is unclear how long this popularity will last.
With that being said, the intriguing aspect of a service can be its better features, a user-friendly interface, and its symbolic image in the market. One thing I am sure of is that young people need something new or something that appears new. If the target segment is young users, the user experience (UX) should be completely different from existing services in at least one aspect. Additionally, unique user values should be provided to create a perennial service that attracts repeat visits. Regardless, having trendy features or designs that differentiate from others is a key norm for users when choosing which service to visit.