대학신문방송국

OPAL: A New Trend 

By Yoon Ji-yeon Reporter, Sophomore of Electrical Engineering

Have you ever heard the words MIGHTY MICE? It might be an unfamiliar expression to many people because it is an expression that was made in 2020. Every new year, Seoul National University’s Research Institution of Human Ecology predicts the new consumption trends of the year, and makes a keyword that includes all of them. MIGHTY MICE was made as the keyword for 2020. Each letter in MIGHTY MICE has a meaning, these include Immediate Satisfaction: Last Fit Economy, Goodness and Fairness, Here and Now: the Streaming Life, Technology of Hyper-personalization, You’re with Us ‘Fansumer’, Iridescent OPAL, Convenience as a Premium, etc. For more specific keywords, check the picture on the left. Among these many trends, this article will specially talk about OPAL.

What is OPAL?

OPAL means the 5060 generation, which refers to “new middle-aged people.” With the extension of life expectancy, the socially accepted life cycle has changed. Also, a new class of middle-aged people was made. This generation makes up a large portion of the Korean population. Also, in terms of economy and society, the new middle-aged people are now the main customers, unlike the past when people of this age were considered elderly people and showed a small presence as customers.

The name OPAL has three origins. First, it is an abbreviation of “Old People with an Active Life.” Second, it is from the Korean pronunciation of “58 years” which is the typical baby boomer of the 5060 generation. Lastly, it comes from opal which is a kind of jewel. This means that the OPAL generation’s actions resemble an opal’s iridescence, which contains every color.

OPAL has also received much attention beyond Korea. The UK’s weekly news magazine The Economist noted that this generation has reached their prime and their choices will make big changes in consumer goods, service, and financial markets.

So, why are they receiving so much attention? Let’s find the reason with some keywords.

    Trendy

The biggest difference between the previous generation of elderly people and OPAL is that in the past elderly people showed a low smartphone utilization rate. On the other hand, OPAL use smartphones skillfully. The OPAL’s internet utilization rate is not so different from that of the 2030 generation. According to the 2018 Internet Usage Survey by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet Promotion Agency, 97.7% of people in their 50s and 86.3% of people in their 60s use the Internet through smartphones.

Smartphone users over the age of 50 choose YouTube as the most popular application, just like the other generations. Also, people in the 50s account for 20.9% of mobile payment users. Their trendy behaviors influence the consumer market, too. The information that they get from media, like YouTube, is directly connected to mobile shopping, and they are growing as the new main consumers in the mobile shopping market.

  Consumption for Themselves

One of the biggest features of OPAL is that they have enough accumulated assets and leisure time after retirement. Now, they can finally spend their money and time for themselves.

This feature greatly affected the K-Trot wave. Trot music was mainly popular for the older generation, and it couldn’t get a big spotlight with every generation. However, a Trot contest program showed high ratings and popularity, based on the active response of the OPAL generation. After the end of this program, the OPAL generation continued supporting Trot singers. The OPAL generation streamed this music online, cheered passionately at concerts, and this drew big attention. With this positive response from the OPAL generation, some TV programs related to Trot were produced, and Trot is now becoming familiar to the 2030 generation, too.

When young people think of the 5060 generation, we usually think of old people gradually falling behind the times. However, that idea is becoming just a stereotype. Now, the OPAL generation is shaping the hot trends of consumer and economic markets. Also, the OPAL generation’s passion to pursue their true dreams after retirement, not just to maintain a simple livelihood, is a good example for today’s 2030 generation.

We should break away from the conventional stereotypes, and recognize that people our parents’ age can adapt to new trends. If we can look at these changes positively and associate them with our own futures, we’ll know that we can prepare for a better future of our own choice.