Nikkei xTREND Announces Trend Map for theSecond Half of 2021
Nikkei Business Publications (President & CEO: Naoto Yoshida; Minato-ku, Tokyo) announced
its Trend Map for the Second Half of 2021 with the aim of identifying upcoming trends in thefields of technology, marketing and consumption. The Trend Map was compiled by Nikkei
xTREND, a digital news medium focusing on marketing and innovation in the most advancedtechnologies.
Technology, marketing and consumption are three notable areas that are changing rapidly,and various related buzzwords are emerging in rapid succession. To identify
medium-to-long-term trends to watch in these three fields, the Trend Map makes use of theaccumulated knowledge of experts from different fields, including reporters from its editorial
team and a board of some 50 external advisors. The results of analysis are mapped onto a chartusing scores for "current economic impact" and "future potential."
Compared with an earlier survey conducted in the first half of 2021, ⒤token economy⒥ and⒤GNSS⒥ (⒤Global Navigation Satellite System⒥) in the technology field saw the most notableincrease in terms of scores for future potential. Growth of significance was also obvious for"CRM⒥ (⒤Customer Relationship Management⒥) and "OMO/omnichannel" in the marketing field,
as well as "geek consumption" in the consumption field.
As with the category of future potential, ⒤GNSS⒥ and ⒤token economy⒥ were the keywords
whose scores for economic impact increased the most in the technology field. In the marketing
field, "D2C⒥ (⒤Direct to Consumer") emerged, as did "OMO/omnichannel." In the consumer field,
the keyword "subscription consumption" made great strides.
Increasing Scores for Keywords by Field (compared with the survey from the first half of2021)
Over previous

Field

KeywordScore

Technology

Token economy

3.81

0.61

4.10

0.33

surveyFuturepotential

Technology

GNSS (Global Navigation
Satellite System)

MarketingManagement)

4.04

0.25

Marketing

OMO/omnichannel

3.82

0.22

Consumption

Geek consumption

3.74

0.26

3.57

0.73

Technology
Economic

CRM (Customer Relationship

GNSS (Global Navigation
Satellite System)

Technology

Token economy

2.19

0.30

Marketing

OMO/omnichannel

3.21

0.40

Marketing

D2C (Direct-to-consumer)

2.97

0.35

Consumption

Subscription consumption

3.04

0.25

impactThree keywords newly added in the second half of 2021 were "UGC⒥ (⒤User GeneratedContent") and "MEO⒥ (⒤Map Engine Optimization⒥) in the marketing field and "TikTok selling"in the consumption field. For the marketing field, the previous survey results included thekeyword "omnichannel," but it was changed to "OMO/omnichannel" in this survey. In theconsumption field, the two separate keywords "sustainable consumption" and "ethicalconsumption" were integrated into a single keyword, "sustainable ethical consumption".
Future Potential Scores of Newly Added/Integrated Keywords
FieldKeyword

MarketingFuture potential score

UGC (User Generated Content)

3.73

OMO/omnichannel

3.82

MEO (Map Engine Optimization)

3.68

Sustainable/Ethical consumption

3.89

TikTok selling

3.00

Consumption

The Trend Map survey for the second half of 2021 was conducted in August 2021, when a stateof emergency had been declared for third time in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Major topics
covered by the survey are given below. Scores for and details on all keywords in the latest
Trend Map were reported in an article published on the Nikkei xTREND website(https://xtrend.nikkei.com/) on October 12, 2021.
High Scoring Trend Map Keywords for the Second Half of 2021 (top three keywords scoringover 4.00 points)
Field

Future potential

Technology

KeywordScore

AI (Artificial Intelligence)

4.55

Telemedicine

4.52

Autonomous driving

4.45

Marketing

EC (E-commerce)

4.38

D2C (Direct-to-Consumer)

4.17

Subscription commerce

4.07

Cashless settlement (such as QR codesettlement)
Consumption

4.30

Personalization

4.15Subscription consumption

4.00

Smartphone

4.61

Cloud computing

4.09

MarketingEC (E-commerce)

4.21

Consumption

NATechnology
Economic
impactExamples of Technology Keywords in Trend Map for Second Half of 2021

Trend Map Highlights for the Second Half of 2021
ぶ The scores for the ⒤token economy⒥ surged in terms of future potential and economic
impact in the technology field
The booming "NFT⒥ (⒤Non-Fungible Token⒥) trend, which has been attracting numerous
Japanese companies entering the market this year, is seen as being behind the growing
attention given to the token economy. Resembling crypto-assets such as Bitcoin, NFTs arebased on blockchain (distributed ledger) technology and share transaction data involving alarge number of computers connected to the Internet, which makes it extremely difficult totamper with them. The digital marketplace is expected to grow if the rarity of digital data isguaranteed in the same way as is possible for precious art pieces, and if data havefinancial-asset-like values.
Similarly, "metaverse⒥ (a kind of virtual space) is a keyword that received a great deal ofbusiness attention in 2021. The metaverse will allow participants to interact with each otherusing avatars on the Internet. Since the concept of the metaverse fits with that of with NFTs, it
is expected to remain in the spotlight as a technology that will create a large-scale economic
zone within the virtual world.
ぶ In the marketing field, ⒤OMO/omnichannel⒥ saw its scores increase for future potentialand economic impact
Because the stay-at-home movement has become widespread due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
the e-commerce market is expanding rapidly. As more consumer activities will continue to takeplace online, the concept of ⒤OMO/omnichannel⒥ is gathering growing interest as a
post-COVID-19 business strategy for guiding consumers to a holistic experience that connects
stores and e-commerce sites.
According to the survey, the future potential score for "CRM⒥ (⒤Customer RelationshipManagement⒥) surged sharply. If the advancement of the OMO/omnichannel concept allows
the storage of customer data both on and off the Internet, there is a possibility that CRM could
become more sophisticated than it is now. In the future, it will be even more necessary tocreate a digital mechanism to connect directly with consumers and build relationships withthem.
ぶ The future potential score of ⒤geek consumption⒥ surged rapidly in the consumption
field, on the back of ⒤oshi-katsu⒥ fan activities among members of Generation Z⒤Geek consumption⒥ saw its future potential score increase in the consumption field, mostprobably on the back of the growing ⒤oshi-katsu⒥ boom in Generation Z. Oshi-katsu is the actof showing devotion (= ⒤katsu⒥) to favorite performers or anime characters (= ⒤oshi⒥). On
Instagram, a hashtag that in English would read as ⒤Life with my oshi⒥ has garnered over
817,000 posts.
Moreover, many people are enthusiastic about making personalized goods featuring theirfavorite characters. Examples include "oshi glasses," which are drinking glasses covered withtransparent tape sporting the name of a favorite character written with an oil marker pen, and⒤trading card case decoration,⒥ in which stickers and rhinestones are used to decorate atransparent box used for collections of trading cards of a favorite character. Finding ways toincorporate or create such strong consumer enthusiasm into products and services will be ofkey importance for successful future sales.
Survey Method for Trend Map for Second Half of 2021
The survey was conducted from mid-to-late August 2021. The Nikkei xTREND editorial teamselected 28 keywords in technology, 29 keywords in marketing, and 28 keywords inconsumption. People who know about these keywords were then asked to judge the economic

impact and the future potential of each keyword on a scale of one to five points. The following
alternatives were provided to answer the questions.
[Economic impact]
1. No corporate profitability / 2. Profitable for a handful of companies (10-20%) / 3. Profitable
for some companies (30-50%) / 4. Profitable for most companies (60-80%) / 5. Essential forsociety as a whole[Future potential (= contribution to corporate profitability and impact on socialtransformation)]
1. Low future potential / 2. Somewhat low future potential / 3. Neutral / 4. Somewhat highfuture potential / 5. High future potential[About Nikkei xTREND]
Nikkei xTREND ( https://xtrend.nikkei.com/ ) is a digital medium that delivers updates onmarketing strategies, product development and new business creation in relation to advanced
technologies. We feature in-depth news based on data and case studies at the forefront of new
product development by companies as well as marketing and business strategies changing
with the progress of digital technologies. This assists with the identification of key elements in⒤hot-selling products⒥ and ⒤new service development.⒥ Nikkei xTREND delivers its news
mainly through its website and smartphone site, targeting a broad range of businessprofessionals involved in corporate business planning, new business development, productplanning/development, IT systems, marketing, sales and customer relationships.
For further details, please contact:
Global Business Unit
Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.
https://www.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/

About Nikkei
Nikkei is a world-renowned media brand for Asian news, respected for quality journalism and for being a trusted
provider of business news and information. Founded as a market news provider in Japan in 1876, Nikkei has growninto one of the world⒢s largest media corporations, with 37 foreign editorial bureaus and approximately 1,500
journalists worldwide. Nikkei acquired the Financial Times in 2015.
Contact
Public Relations OfficeNikkei Inc.
pr@nex.nikkei.co.jp
https://www.nikkei.co.jp/nikkeiinfo/en/