The MZ Generation

Yugyeong Jeong

M of the MZ Generation refers to the Millennial Generation from the early 1980s to the early 2000s, while Z refers to the generation from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. The MZ Generation has become accustomed to the digital environment, so they mainly use mobile. And they pursue the latest trends, unique experiences that are different from others.

The MZ Generation is a new consumer with less bias in money and consumption, and is currently making a difference in the food and beverage industry to the financial industry. They are familiar with capitalist elements such as advertising, markets and finance, and do not consider advertising in content to be annoying. They take for granted the structure of the cost of creating content from advertising.

Also, they are exerting a strong influence in the distribution market through SNS. They tend to value personal happiness rather than group, sharing rather than ownership, and experience more than products. Therefore, expressing one’s beliefs by purchasing items containing social values or special messages, and expressing one’s self through consumption is considered the pursuit of happiness.

The lifestyle of this generation is called ‘roller life’ in the sense of enjoying life like riding a roller coaster. They participate in short trends such as ‘Gang’ or various challenges and it leads to explosive consumption. However, they are immediately turning their attention to the next trend, so companies are also preparing for ‘short marketing’ rather than perfect marketing.

The MZ Generation consumes reasonably and cares about financial management. As their interest in the environment increases and reselling emerges as a financial means, used goods are considered to be of equal value to new ones. The development of a secondhand trading platform called the ‘Carrot Market’ also affected the increase in reselling.

And recently, there was a stock investment craze from college students to office workers. In the midst of the stock market plunging due to COVID-19, the large-scale buying trend of individual investors and the large-scale selling trend of foreign investors were combined. In this situation, MZ generation was the main participant. The MZ Generation can easily obtain investment information through YouTube or SNS and have no hesitation in trading stocks on smartphones.

In a modern society where it is difficult to accumulate wealth, it can be said that it is a factor of action based on social problems, believing that the world of investment will be fair.