Sharing is Caring: From Ownership to Collaborative Consumption in a Sharing Economy
Airbnb and Uber may have become household terms, but they are far from being the only successful players in the sharing economy, also known as the gig economy, the peer economy and collaborative consumption – terms that refer to technology companies that enable individuals to rent out their under-used assets or skills. Companies like Chegg (homework help), WeWork (office sharing), Lyft (ride sharing), TaskRabbit (household errands), SoBi (bike sharing), Prosper (peer-to-peer lending), Boatbound (boat sharing), Zipcar (car sharing) and Etsy (a handmade marketplace) – as well as “Golden Oldie” eBay – are just some of the noteworthy names in the sharing space. The sharing economy has developed to cover a wide variety of core verticals, the primary ones being transportation, real estate, goods, and money, but that also has seen interesting developments in areas like utilities, health, food, and the corporate arena. But what makes the sharing economy significant, and why is it growing so fast? Part of the answer is that it brings together strangers by mobilizing technology, markets, and crowdsourcing capabilities, which creates a novel way of doing...
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