3 Key Facts about Sharing Economy

In order to start our journey to a better us, we need to check out a little bit the vehicle we will use. Sharing Economy is a trend that will prevail in the world, as a new socioeconomic model where collaboration is the corner stone to get things at more competitive prices, and re-utilise all that we had left behind at the back end of our garages, covered in dust.

We have read about Sharing Economy for a while now and found some amazing facts on the way. Our purpose today is to give you a bit of an overview of what sharing economy offers, along with some amazing facts. We want you to identify with the trend. We want you to say “Geez… this thing is for real and moves a lot of numbers around!!”

Let’s get there.

Here are 3 key factors you want to know up and down, to be fluent in sharing economy conversations:

Biggest players & Disruptive players

We will run through the biggest players in the game and some new kids on the block who are getting everybody talking.

Big boys:

Uber

No introduction needed. This company validated the hypothesis of trust in total random people in very close proximity (sitting next to each other in a car…). It is probably the role model to follow tech-wise. Immediate access, time and effort management by drivers, low fares for riders and rating systems for both are some of the features that are proven prosperous in younger platforms. This company is now in more than 300 cities, more than 50 countries. It has been very successful pitching to investors (maybe due to a shown market positive response).

The interesting thing about Uber is the diversity they are developing in its products: UberX is a term now widely used to define anything that can be “uberised” — UberEATS and UberPOOL among others. This is showing the current economy how idle capacity for these big assets (cars) can be certainly utilised in many more mutations of the transportation industry.

On the down note, Uber has been in the eye of the public cyclone due to alleged workplace harassment and driver rights being legally discarded by cheap but lawfully manoeuvres. All we need to understand from this is the potential this downturn has to make other companies in this tendency realise the importance of organised scalability and right iteration of products. Uber clients are not only riders but drivers and employees. All need to be taken into account.

AirBnB

Hardly anyone is unrelated to this company service. This startup is directly disrupting the way we have used lodging service traditionally. It gets idle capacity in accommodation and uses it with people who demand it. This demand depends many times on events in or near the host house (like the major sporting event, music concerts, pilgrimage seasons, etc), or could be associated with tourism industries all around the world, and the fact of budget consciousness the new users have (mainly millennials).

The interesting thing about this company is how its model is enormously transforming the landscape of the hotel industry as we know it. AirBnB is cheaper, more social and less risk exposed, as screening and rating systems also enable hosts to accept guests or not depending on their behaviour in the network. AirBnB worth would soon leave behind some of the biggest hotel players in the world due to community acceptance and easy business model replication.

This company has had some problems also. But perhaps it has managed better than Uber, in the public’s perception. As usual, some traditional players are jumping through hoops to disable this kind of companies basing themselves in government umbrellas. This wouldn’t last for long. A smart sharing economy company would embrace this challenges and work with policy makers to get to common grounds. It is too big to be stopped now.

Rising stars:

If you didn’t know, there are so many industries being transformed by the magic touch of sharing economy: Not only goods and services exchange but money lending and money raising in the financial industry. Things that you probably wouldn’t risk to share before, is a common and efficient practice nowadays. Here are some other cubs in the pack. Some rising stars already shining and producing massive revenues as we speak…

TaskRabbit

If you have some time in your hands, bored of crappie tv and not sure how to be productive, TaskRabbit is the platform for you.

It works in a very simplistic but effective way. A user needs a task to be done. He/she publishes the task in the platform. The platform can match some of the “taskers” (people signed up to the platform, willing to give their time and skills to do a job when required). User and tasker can start talking about the job in a chat. The job is agreed to and gets done. Simple.

TaskRabbit has raised around US$48M and its model has been copied around the world, to go along with other countries users and taskers. Also, it has this rating system where a clean marketplace is kept, by interacting only with good users and good providers.

Mobike

Mobike is a sharing platform for Chinese users, where bikes are rented via the app, and bikes are tracked using GPS in them. Again, a very simple solution to a massive transport vehicle in this country, especially.

Mobike claims to have served more than 10 million users, who apparently have completed more than 200 million paid rides. It serves more than 20 cities in China, and it planning its expansion to Asia and America markets.

This is an actual great example of how much the environment itself can be a beneficiary of sharing economy models. How much less CO2 is not released when green energy solutions like bike riding are implemented.

Sharing Economy Platform numbers

Everybody loves stats and stories even if they don’t quite get them. It is probably due to a feeling of scholarship it gives when you are having a chit chat in a mingle meeting, or being the funny person in the room for a few minutes. Here are some numbers and stories you can use when trying to blend in:

• Half of China population uses Sharing Economy platforms. It will be a sustainable source of full-time employment there as 20% of jobs will be from it
• The equivalent of nearly 250 hotels being built is what shared accommodation supplied to guests in the last Olimpic games in Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
• More than 20% of people using sharing economy are in because of the socialisation part rather than the money… that’s around 65 million people in the US only who wants to sit down and chat!
• One time a guy pay another guy to walk and jump on his mattress to soften it, due to it being new, and him having back pains.
• There are sites to exchange food leftovers. Yes, as simple and weird as it sounds.
• Uber has a service called UberKITTENS: a service that allows riders to go and cuttle kittens in shelters…
• Maybe on the verge of the politically incorrect, but there is a peer to peer service to deliver weed. Won’t say the name here. Find it by yourself.
• Last but not least… there is sharing platform site that allows you to share your partner. Not sure how this would work for anyone, but it exists nevertheless.

Sharing Economy Forecasts

This #newconomy is meant to be a big boy in the years to come: Forecasted grow to $335B by 2020… more than what Saudi Arabia is willing to invest in the US on Trump’s time.

Also, the flexibility of this economic model enables users to seek new routes of provisioning. New sectors of industries will join the movement in the near future: health care is one of the new flags we will be seen in the field (quite an important one may I add, as the calling of medicine is to help. It is exactly what sharing economy promulgates: help each other).

As more industries come on board, new type of users will endure and swim better in the technological waters: mainstream users now bombarded with the functionality and market reach of sharing economy are to be the core of the marketplace (over 40’s and 50’s will establish as the lead actors in the scene, as millennials and even newer generation will sit in the director’s chair).

Also, it is worthwhile saying how the big traditional companies will have to embrace this change and accept its legitimacy. Sharing economy is a system now proved to work, therefore these status quo enterprises will need to adapt or vanish, outgrown by smarter and quicker gamesters.

It may be safe to say this model is in its toddler days still. We are on the verge of an astonishing growth for users and providers, and overall economic indicators based on this revolution.

Success stories account for providers making 15% income growth through these platforms. Also, it is said that a well-behaved portfolio can give 30% return in some cases. Australians are making around $300 to $500 extra cash every month in different sharing economy apps (leading to earnings presumably around $7000 to $10000 in a good manage activity).

There are some obstacles to overcome, especially regarding government allowances, policy making and rethinking companies employment approaches… but the future awaits for this form of disruption. People are getting more and more used to it, and this re-distribution of capital will change the community canvas as we know it.