You, me and P2P
P2P Commerce seems to be all around us all of a sudden. In a short few years P2P sites have popped up for nearly everything. In the not too distant past you would have had to rely on a traditional big company to get the service you desired. Now a quick search on your PC, mobile phone or tablet and you get access to peers who offer the same service cheaper. In this blog I will examine one of the numerous P2P companies out there.
Now when you travel and get to your destination you don’t have to stay in a hotel or hostel. You can pre arrange to stay in someone’s spare room through AirBnB or if you want the genuine experience in your chosen country use CouchSurfing to stay on a locals couch. There is also the added feature that allows you to connect with fellow travellers who are in the same place at the same time. You can reverse the situation and have people travelling through New Zealand stay in your spare room or if space is limited on your couch.
Craiglist started out in the US as a city based online classified ads website. Now it has grown to be worldwide. It has even reached New Zealand with ads based in Wellington, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin. One of the newest and fastest growing P2P companies is Uber. Uber has challenged the closed market of taxis. It allows customers to request a car, driven by a registered driver (usually his/her own private car), using an app on your mobile phone. The fares are cheaper then taxis and popularity has grown because of this. In recent times taxi drivers have reacted to the loss of business badly with some clashes ending in violence.
In New Zealand when people want to buy/sell goods they use TradeMe. As TradeMe is based in a closed market it has diversified and gown its business by adding websites for holiday homes, dating, hotels, and property listings. The majority of the rest of the world use eBay for auctions. eBay has changed in the last few years from being totally P2P, to now being used as a shop front by companies. Is this an example of a future path for P2P Commerce? It is one of the issues that I intend to explore in future blogs.
One of the most interesting P2P ideas in the last few years is Bitcoin. Bitcoin uses peer-to-peer technology to operate with no central authority or banks; managing transactions and the issuing of bitcoins is carried out collectively by the network. Bitcoin is open-source; its design is public, nobody owns or controls Bitcoin and everyone can take part. Through many of its unique properties, Bitcoin allows exciting uses that could not be covered by any previous payment system. However Bitcoin has got bad publicity due to its use as a payment option for illegal goods on the DarkWeb. Having worked for a bank and being involved in cross border electronic funds transfers I think the idea of a new currency with no home country is intriguing. I will come back to Bitcoin in future blogs as I think its emergence is one of the most interesting ideas to come out of P2P Commerce.
For more traditional currency exchange, you can use CurrencyFair. It offers better rates when transferring money internationally than banks. If you are an artistic type and want to get money to make a film, music, art, theatre, game, design, photography or any other creative projects then Kickstarter is the P2P for you. For more personal funding like send an athlete to Rio there is GoFundMe.
Who at home hasn’t thought about making money when the bookie gets it wrong? You knew the underdog was going to win the whole time. Betfair offers you the chance to put your money where your mouth is and become the bookie. Good luck!!
The McKinsey Global Institute Report on Digital Globalization 2016 lists the number of cross-border e-commerce shoppers at 361 million. There is no figure listed as to how much they spent. Their number does contributes to global flows which raised world GDP growth by 10% or $7.8 trillion in 2014 alone. The report also says that some 44 million people around the world use Freelancer to find work as programmers, web designers or any number of ICT related jobs.
These are just a few examples of the P2P companies that are out there and what they offer. Over the next few blogs I will explore more what is P2P Commerce? Where did it come from? Who remembers Napster??? Where is it going? What issues do P2P Commerce companies face? What are traditional companies and business doing to regain lost profits? How are governments planning to regulate and tax P2P Commerce? Does the whole world use P2P Commerce or just a select few?
Thank you for reading what has been my first ever blog. Please like and comment below, with your thoughts, questions and suggestions of what future blogs should cover.
Good night and good luck
a- � O
