UNTACT : The New World
UNTACT : The New World
  • Jeon Seo-yeon (ST Reporter)
  • 승인 2020.09.12 16:17
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A new flow of change is encompassing the world. The concept of ‘untact’ emerged without us realizing it. Like all changes, untact brought not only the good but problems, too. ST looked at what led untact to our society, and the differences we face. How do the youth and the middle-aged perceive untact? Let us find out what ‘untact’ is, and be prepared to welcome this new era. ....................................Ed

  In 2020, there is a keyword that dominated the first half of the year trends due to COVID-19. It’s ‘Un-Tact.’ Untact is a newly coined word and is Konglish, combining the negative prefix ‘un-’ with the English word, ‘contact,’ which means ‘connection.’ The new term refers to a tendency to avoid contact with people due to social distance, but it is not just a neologism that has emerged from the coronavirus.

ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
ST, Jeon Seo-yeon

  For example, when shopping at a department store, the keyword ‘untact’ is applied even when shopping without any burden by minimizing contact with clerks, and the term ‘untact’ is also used for marketing methods that offer products or services without having to face sellers directly through the development of technologies such as the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and O2O(Online to Online).

  Professor Kim Nan-do’s Trend Korea, published by Seoul National University’s Consumer Trend Analysis Center, has already mentioned untact technology. E-commerce is a keyword created with the development of the Internet, and the untact consumer culture has made it more powerful. Due to advances in various technologies, applications such as ‘Market Kurly’ and ‘Baemin’ are recalled as new consumption trends in purchasing goods or food without having to see anyone in person. However, kiosks and drive-thru services, which are common in fast food and cafes, are also included in the untact system. Professor Kim Nan-do’s team organized four reasons for the background of untact. The first is cost reduction. Untact an reduce the labor force, which will naturally save money. Second, there is instant gratification. Consumers prefer a quick and easy way to purchase at stores where they feel confident. Third is abundant information. As consumers’ information power is higher than before, they trust the information they find in person rather than the clerk explaining it directly. Fourth is interpersonal fatigue. With the development of the Internet by leaps and bounds, one feels psychological fatigue in an overconnected society, and avoids face-to-face contact. Professor Kim Nan-do asserted that the development of technology that reaches everything paradoxically cuts off human contact. In line with this social atmosphere, the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, making it difficult to find a place without contact these days. According to each company’s findings, the growth rate of food company online malls compared to February sales increased by 200 percent for Ottogi malls, which mainly sell instant noodles and cup rice, and 250 percent for Dongwon Mall, which mainly sells tuna cans and bottled water. According to saramin, 71 percent of adult men and women reported increased untact consumption.

Untact by Our Side
  We picked out three un-contact things that we apply in our daily lives. First is working at home. Meetings are held by using instant messaging or video. Furthermore, more and more companies are hiring using AI in untact. Although working from home has spread due to COVID-19, it seems that people feel the benefits. Also, remote work is becoming the new normal. Second is banking.
A few days ago, ST went to a bank to reissue a public certificate, and came back home right after being informed that we could do it on our cell phone. Beyond simple Internet payments, remittances, re-issuance of public certificates, subscription to various financial instruments, and even loans are now available. Although there are still many people who are reluctant to do online banking due to security concerns, the number of users of Kakao Bank’s app seems to be gradually increasing to the extent that the number of monthly users of Kakao Bank reached more than 6.09 million (as of July 2019). This tells us that there are many people who use online banking. Third is distribution revolution. You’ve probably heard of dawn delivery. There is a dawn delivery system that accepts orders at nighttime and delivers at the door of the buyer first thing in the morning. Nowadays, mothers say there is no reason to go grocery shopping at the risk of carrying heavy things. Naver and Kakao offer direct delivery to the area of production, and freshness concerns over the delivery of groceries seem to have been resolved. Then ST interviewed the young and the middle-aged to know their opinion on ‘untact.’

saint.ssu.ac.kr
saint.ssu.ac.kr
ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
zoom.usmeetings
zoom.usmeetings

 

Interview 01

#Youth Population

① When do you experience Untact the most
  I feel it the most when I explore cultural life. From restaurants to movie theaters, kiosks are used to receive orders. Employees no longer come out and take orders directly due to increased efficiency and cost reduction in terms of safety.
  The university conducted a remote lecture on various cultural activities, an unimaginable method just a year ago.
② Untact: Convenient and Inconvenient
  It is convenient to choose freely without meeting the staff. If you have any questions, you can ask them immediately, and you have plenty of time to choose. It is also more reassuring in terms of hygiene as it reduces contact with others. Finally, using kiosks as an example, because the order in which they line up for orders is clear, there are no problems, such as the employee receiving orders from the person who came first by mistake. On the other hand, orders through kiosks can serve more detailed orders. It is possible to receive feedback or recommendations on questions as soon as you order them directly from employees. You can also deliver detailed requests for menus based on your personal taste, but they are a little more uncomfortable with contact. Also, when using untact, there is distinctly less feeling of being serviced for the money I paid. Because people don’t expect luxurious or personal services through untact, they think it’s too efficient.

③ What do you think of people in favor of Untact
  There are people who want to keep up with the changing times, and there are more and more people who accept it with familiarity. When I first came across the kiosk, I wondered what it was, but I quickly got used to it, and sometimes I feel more comfortable using it. Untact seems to be a very efficient way not only for kiosks, but also for those who want to enjoy their own time without distraction or without communicating with others.
④ What do you think of people who oppose Untact
  Most people who are not familiar with untact are the underprivileged or the elderly who are not good at handling machines. Just as the e-commerce market does not eliminate the actual offline market no matter how advanced the e-commerce market is, I think contact and contact services should coexist and be provided to consumers together. In the future, more people will get used to the untact service, but I don’t think it’s enough to fully appeal to consumers or meet their needs.

#Middle-Aged Population

ST,Park Yoo-bin
ST,Park Yoo-bin

① When do you experience Untact the most
  Kiosks are most common in everyday life. Although the unmanned payment system is not familiar with it, it seems to be a safer and better system than seeing employees faceto-face
in this situation.
② Untact: Convenient and Inconvenient
  The convenient thing about untact was that I could choose the menu without looking at the clerk, a practice that took a long time. The inconvenience could not be solved immediately when the company was not aware of discounts or points when making payments.
③ What do you think about people who want Untact
  With the development of A.I.(Artificial Intelligence), many predict that the market size will grow due to untact. Moreover, individualistic tendencies become more and more severe, and the face-to-face system tends to shrink a lot due to Covid-19. Therefore, I think the idea of people who want untact is very reasonable. Also, I think there will be benefits for self-employed people in terms of reducing labor costs rather than ‘contact.’

ST,Park Yoo-bin
ST,Park Yoo-bin

④ What do you think about people who oppose Untact
  As the word ‘untact’ has just sprung up, there are still many problems with it. For example, consumer satisfaction may decrease. This is because the bond between visiting regular stores and building bonds with customers disappears. Also, as I only communicate through online, there is a lack of communication skills in human relationships. From the perspective of ‘a society that lives together,’ people who are opposed to untact also sympathize.

 

Interview 02
#Youth Population

① Where you can recognize untact the most
  Untact has been around us for 10 years. To be specific, as the smartphone market has expanded, not only we could get in touch with each other but also enjoy music videos instead of going out. Furthermore, commercial transactions could spread to a large extent. However, it feels like the speed of untact technology has shifted due to the coronavirus. As untact was not prepared enough for such variable, online class systems were not working properly, and there was so much confusion. It seems that more development of untact technology is needed.
② Convenience/Inconvenience of untact
  Electronic payment transactions were easy since they do not require any perplex process. Also as classes were taking place online, time could be managed more effectively. As for inconveniences, it could not substitute any of those that require a sense of realism. Moreover, since untact is in its initial installment, it is still undergoing trial and error.
③ What do you think about those who agree with untact
  It looks like an area where it has plenty of potential, and it will be regarded naturally as times change. Future generations would perfectly adapt to untact. Since analog has its own mood, it is sad to expect those will be fading out.
④ What do you think about those stand against untact
  I do understand them. The elderly, for example, may not know exactly what to do, or need an alternative to curtail any gaps between younger generations.

#Middle-Aged Population

① Where you can recognize untact the most
  I often go on business trips abroad for meetings, but because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most meetings were replaced by video or telephone conferences like Google Hangouts. At times like this, I experienced untact.
② Convenience/Inconvenience of untact
  It is good that I don’t have to go overseas or travel long distances for business meetings. I can use my time efficiently. However, we have to check for defects with the naked eye to see the items more clearly. In untact situations, we can’t check them clearly and we couldn’t check the details. Also, when we were hosting the meeting, we could talk, but we couldn’t figure out the
atmosphere of the meeting, so it was uncomfortable.
③ What do you think about those who agree with untact
  Time is becoming more and more important in modern society. So, I think someone can want it enough depending on his or her situation, as the amount of time one spends is reduced by untact.
④ What do you think about those oppose untact
  As I said before, I felt something was lacking while experiencing the idea. And those deficiencies can actually be large in context. So, even those who oppose it are understandable in part.

 

#Untact: Marketing Transition
  Non-face-to-face/unmanned situations due to the development of untact technology are expanding not only in ordering and payment transactions, but also in artificial intelligence and customer-tailored services based on augmented/virtual reality.

① Starbucks:vSiren Order and Drive-Thru 

ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
ST, Jeon Seo-yeon

  In 2013, Starbucks launched non-face-toface ordering, ‘Siren Order.’ Through the ‘Siren Order,’ you can pay in advance and pre-order drinks on the Starbucks app. Twenty-two percent of Starbucks orders are made up of siren orders. Starbucks’ prepaid charging card users (My Starbucks Reward)surpassed 6 million in February 2020, and the average number of subscribers per hour between January and March 2020 exceeded 100 due to Covid-19.
  Meanwhile, ‘My DT Pass,’ released in 2018, is a drivethru payment system linked to license plates, with 40 percent of drive-thru orders using ‘My DT Pass.’

ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
ST, Jeon Seo-yeon
ST,Park Yoo-bin
ST,Park Yoo-bin

 

② Olive Young

ST,Park Yoo-bin
ST,Park Yoo-bin

  At the Olive Young store in Seocho-dong, you can check product information, prices, and the virtual makeup on your iPad through the installation of a ‘smart table.’ In ‘Smart Mirror’, you can measure your skin condition by standing in front of a mirror and obtain recommendations on   suitable products.

 

 

 

③ New Medical Platform: Medihere

ST,Park Yoo-bin
ST,Park Yoo-bin

  Founded in 2018, Medihere is the first digital healthcare startup in Korea to launch a remote video medical app. After temporarily allowing telemedicine amid the Covid-19 pandemic, it  provides free services, has 3,000 app subscribers, and has 1,400 telemedicine cases. There is a system in which medical appointments, doctor selection, symptom entry, video and chat treatment in the telemedicine room, payment of medical fees with registered cards, and prescriptions are sent to prepopulated pharmacies. Medihere earns profits in the form of a certain fee on patient charges.

④ Yuhan-Kimberly
  Yuhan-Kimberly’s sanitary pad brand, ‘Good Feeling,’ has produced content with ‘20-year-olds,’
garnering 1 million views and more than 3,000 responses. It attracted consumers’ attention by making consumers aware of the brand through a preliminary comment survey before the content was published, and distributing videos in earnest. Customers who are aware of the product through contents are encouraged to try the product as an event, leading to final purchase. The
video content will continue to be high-profile in terms of physiology-related keywords on YouTube, and it will also have additional promotional activities.

Jeon Seo-yeon (ST Reporter)
seo1256@soongsil.ac.kr
Park Yoo-bin (ST Reporter)
ybpark5973@soongsil.ac.kr


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