Sharing economy, a new concept of this 21th century

I’m almost sure you have already heard about Uber, Airbnb, Blablacar, and so on… These start-up have a common point : they are all from the sharing economy.

What is the sharing economy?

Also called “collaborative economy”, it is a concept that is being developed in the 21^th century. So it’s just the beginning and we haven't finished hearing about it. The core of this economy is the “collaboration”.

This economy comes from the development of the web and networks.

It's based on a peer-to-peer, “P2P”, principle. In fact, the aim is to connect two groups of people:

Those who wants to share something (the offeror), and those who need something (the consumer). It is an exchange created through technology.

The sharing economy is the meeting of two innovation :  DIGITAL  &  SOCIAL

These start-ups connect people through an application and a website, also called “ a platform”. It is the creation of communities.

Indeed, this economy was built by the experiments of lots of individual and independent people, who were looking to create something new, they wanted to reinvent the society. It is the result of a collective intelligence.

This economy has expended due to economical crisis of the 21^th century. Indeed, it was an alternative for both:

-        The offeror (because it creates new qualified jobs for those who work on the platform, and it enables individual offerors to earn money)

-        The consumer (this economy enables lower prices, and that offsets the decline of the purchase power).

Moreover, the awareness about the environmental footprints also played a role, because people seem more conscious of this problem. For example, this concept tends to:

-        Revitalize the local economy (because it enables people to buy local or old stuff)

-        Reduce the pollution (because of the carpooling)

Who are they?

Start-ups following this concept are multiplying. This sharing economy is based on four notions:

-        The collaborative consumption of goods or services. Ex: Uber, Airbnb, eBay, Popmyday, Boatbound

-        The crowdfunding. Ex: KissKissBankBank

-        The education, also called “open knowledge”. Ex: Kokoroe

-        The contributory production

Thereby, we have just understood that this sharing economy is present in many different fields.

Arun Sundarajan, a professor at New York University, says that :

" It’s one thing to trust someone enough to let them send you a bow through eBay, it’s another thing to get into someone’s car and say “drive me to another city” "

With his sentence, he shows that not all of these sharing economies are easy to implement.  

This sharing economy tends to change our behaviour in a sense where we have more confidence, and we are more trustworthy.

Some are more unpredictable than others. Here are some examples of companies from different fields.

In most of the fields, we can find several companies, who don’t offer exactly the same service. For example, in the automobile, we can find : Uber, blablacar, and even more.

Uber is a platform for people who need a ride in a city, it is a short ride. While, for Blablacar, it’s a longer ride, it’s more between different cities.

The offeror can be a professional (as in Popmyday), or a non professional (as in Blablacar or Airbnb).

These start-ups are spreading in the whole world.          

But this concept isn't always as perfect as it seems  to be ...

The sharing economy creates debates in some countries about the legislation and social question. For example, in France, when Uber began, there was lots of controversies and tensions between the original taxis and the Uber’s drivers. There were debates about the right of these new drivers, and of their social protection and tax obligation.

Overhall we think that this concept is a good way to preserve our planet, but lots of the transactions made by these start-ups wouldn’t have been done if these start-ups didn’t exist. For example, lots of people say that they would never have bought new the goods they buy on eBay, because they buy these goods as extra. 

Another fact is that this economy isn’t just about the sharing, but more about the money that peoples can earn. For example, some people buy goods just to resell them in eBay. We can also explain that with Uber, where lots of drivers do that just to earn money.