Kim Ran-do, renowned scholar on fast-emerging trends in South Korea, has defined the year 2021 as “Cowboy Hero” as he announced 10 key words for next year that would continue to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Through an online lecture live-streamed on YouTube to mark publication of his latest publication Trend Korea 2021 late Tuesday, the professor from Seoul National University created the term “Cowboy Hero” from the initial letters of 10 key phrases.

“What the virus has changed is not the direction of trends, but the speed of change,” Kim said. “The coronavirus has moved forward our future, and has strengthened strong trends further while making weak trends die away.”

2021 is the Year of the White Metal Cow, and the professor said he hopes to see commercial vaccines – the word comes from the Latin vacca, meaning cow.

Kim said he hopes the vaccine will rope in the virus, which is moving about uncontrolled, “like a rambling cow.”

The 10 key words are: Coming of V-nomics, Omni-layered homes, We are the money-friendly generation, Best we pivot, On this rollercoaster life, Your daily sporty, Heading to the resell market, Everyone matters in the CX universe, Real me: searching for my own label, and Ontact, untact with a human touch.

V-nomics refers to an economic change brought about by the virus, but the letter V also implies variation, value and vision that are newly created across economies, industries and communities in the aftermath of the pandemic

“In the post-COVID-19 era, a golden ratio of ‘untact’ and contact will be the key,” he said.

The SNU professor has been publishing the Trend Korea series every year, offering insights about following year’s trends since 2007.

Among a total of 140 key words announced over the last 14 years, “untact” coined by Kim’s team in 2018 has become a household word due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Kim will deliver a lecture about the 2021 trends at The Korea Herald Biz Forum slated for Oct. 27.

By Song Su-hyun (song@heraldcorp.com)