The Sharing Economy and the Tragedy of the Commons

Uber, Airbnb And The Conflict Between Policy’s Ratchet Effect And Tech’s Accelerating Speed

By Kim-Mai Cutler, TechCrunch

The bigger the sharing economy grows, the more questions it raises. The key thing to tackle is who will have to deal with all those questions? Does the state have the right to step in or would that ruin the whole idea of the sharing economy?

Kim-Mai Cutler from TechCrunch explores a number of challenges. On one hand, what if at some point there are so many drivers and private landlords that prices deflate and nobody can make a living? Would the rise of Uber and Airbnb lead to unbearable congestion and further limit housing? Research show that Uber slows down traffic in Manhattan by 7.7%. How does that compare to existing yellow cabs?

On the other hand, do policy and laws, even if unintentional, impact technology progress? And — surprise, surprise — can regulations become more flexible if the sharing economy services share their users’ data?

Where are the answers?

Every startup wants to grow, and growth is inevitable for great ones. Some don’t have a choice but to deal with the government. And the sharing economy startups are in the vanguard because they are profitable for all but the state.

Traditional hotels or taxis are facing considerable taxation, which in turn becomes the consumer’s problem. Hotel rooms in the Bay Area for $300 are too much, and Airbnb addresses this problem. Taxis from the airport to San Francisco city center cost $40, and Uber solves this with carpooling.

In trying to regulate the industry, the government acts like a big corporation suffering from unearned profits. But even more, it is suffering from unknown data. And if Uber or Airbnb start to share the data with the government, they will grow to eventually become a sort of “traditional service provider.”

It’s no secret that regulation can bring down even the best ideas and business models. The romance of disruptive growth and shared economy breaks over the rigid laws and caps just as the ocean waves break over San Francisco piers. The sharing economy lives in the future while laws are still covering the past.

But here is the bright side: if you have to deal with regulation, you are either already big, or on your way there. Will Uber and Airbnb lose their sharing economy spirit and turn into once-hated corporations on the way? We’ll see in the coming years. One thing is for sure, they have enough budget now to go up against Washington.

What Tech Giants Are Spending Millions Lobbying For

By Issie Lapowsky, Wired

Another quarter, another round of tech lobbying. The feature in Wired scrutinizes the lobbying budgets of key internet companies. Seems like Google is comfortable with being the third largest corporate lobbyist, while Facebook and Amazon are gradually increasing their six figure budgets.

So what are they spending for? Patent reform and protection from patent trolls, immigration issues for employees, taxation and trade policies, and even regulation of drones came into spotlight this quarter.

Does the internet affect the law?

Large tech companies undoubtedly became drivers of law-making. Although they might not have a choice — who should impact change, if not them? The whole world, including governments, can’t keep up with the pace of change in the tech industry — so the companies have to create a legal structure to work within.

Major tech companies are still vulnerable, and need to grow stronger. A while ago Mail.ru Group started patenting technologies, although patent trolls have stayed away from us. What’s more important, tech companies are not just protecting themselves, they’re defining the rules of the game for smaller players.

Recent research showed that if all Google employees participated in Mountain View major elections, they could have easily nominated their own candidate. So how long until people from tech come to politics just like they once came from Hollywood? If data is the new currency, and tech leaders are the new idols for millions, it’s a fair bet.

PayPal is now worth more than Netflix, eBay, and Twitter

By Eugene Kim, Business Insider

PayPal’s return to independence made a splash last week. Not only is it the only independent platform of digital payments on the US stock exchange, it has managed to secure a valuation more than its former parent company eBay. It’s now more valuable than Twitter and Netflix.

With in-app payment technology provider Braintree, the peer-to-peer payment app Venmo, and global money-transfer service Xoom under its umbrella, PayPal has room for growth, too.

What’s the secret of PayPal?

Payment information is the king of personal data. It shows taxes, “grey income,” user habits, and purchase patterns. Investors are evaluating PayPal for its massive payment data storage.

While with eBay, PayPal was all about e-commerce, but independently it’s more of a lifestyle. The number of problems a user can solve with a single money transfer grows each year — and PayPal’s success — just like Apple Pay, Android Pay and others — depends on whether they could make this process flawless.

Stephen Hawking Joins Russian Entrepreneur’s Search for Alien Life

By Dennis Overbye, The New York Times

The synergy of intelligence and money can be very powerful. Famous Russian investor Yuri Milner — a physicist himself — and even more famous cosmologist Stephen Hawking will try to prove it. The breakthrough Listen initiative, aimed at searching for signals from alien civilizations, will get at least a $100 million support and the whole world’s attention.

Is it a good investment?

Stephen Hawking is known for bold research hypotheses. And Yuri Milner, for highly considerate and profitable investments. How will the return on investment be calculated this time?

My guess is the effects. The project might bring on board the most accurate and full map of space which can prove its use for many stakeholders. Among those could be NASA, Richard Branson, and whoever else is willing to bet on space as the area for future living. So the key gains could be high-level contacts and partnerships — another currency of the sharing economy world.

It’s Your Fault Email Is Broken

By Alex Moore, TechCrunch

Another day, another discussion around our love-hate relationship with email. Alex Moore brings up a funny point: some of us are experiencing happiness when receiving emails because it brings dopamine to the brain.

So could email be replaced with something more real-time and IM-like? I tried to make my guess earlier — and I still believe in simple and elegant email solutions like myMail.

But why do some people hate email?

I think that dopamine works to a certain extent. I’m sometimes terrified to open email myself, but the smart sorting and one-tap replies make it much easier to bear.

As for email addiction, it has nothing to do with email itself. My.com’s research shows that those are the humans who take email to bed, to bathroom, even to meditation. So maybe it’s the time to regain email-life balance?

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