Coronavirus: The End of the Sharing Economy, or a New Beginning?

12 years ago, the smartphone was in its infancy. Neither Airbnb nor Uber, Lyft or TaskRabbit yet existed. Saying the phrase ‘sharing economy’ usually resulted in raised eyebrows: was that some kind of hippie bartering, or a new take on philanthropy?

What’s happened since then is nothing short of extraordinary: today there are tens of thousands of self-professed sharing economy platforms worldwide, many featuring blistering valuations, wobbly IPOs, and fierce debates about the sharing economy’s benefits, pitfalls and potential. I’ve been at the fifty-yard line of this transformation, advising sharing economy startups, governments, policy makers and investors in 50+ countries on what the sharing economy is (and isn’t), why it matters, and what’s on the horizon.

12 years later and in the midst of COVID-19, saying the phrase sharing economy again raises eyebrows, albeit for different reasons. The main question today is: will it survive?

To answer this, let’s take a look at where we’ve been and where we’re heading. The sharing economy will survive, though it may look quite different moving forward — in ways we should celebrate.

From infancy to awkward adolescence to adult arrogance

Go back to 2008 again. Airbnb and Uber didn’t exist, but the sharing economy was alive and well. Companies including BlaBlaCar, Couchsurfing and Zipcar were young and growing. Each of them embraced an “access over ownership”…