The Sharing Economy - Training Toolkit Based on Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
1. MARCO TORREGROSSA
Managing Director
Euro Freelancers & European Sharing EconomyCoalition
The Sharing Economy
TrainingToolkit Based on Strength, Weaknesses,
Opportunities andThreats (SWOT)
4. The Sharing Economy
âA social and economic system driven by network technologies and peer
communities that enables the sharing of underutilised assets from space to
skills to objects and money, transforming how we produce, consume, finance
and learnâ.
Source: Collaborative Lab
8. Underlining Principles
ī§ Optimisation of underutilised assets (tangible and
intangible) with idle capacity
ī§ Shift from individual ownership to shared access
ī§ Disaggregated physical assets consumed as
services
ī§ Horizontal value chains
ī§ Collaborative digital technologies
ī§ Trust between strangers
ī§ More convenience, choices and empowerment
11. The 3 Systems of the Sharing Economy
1. Redistribution Markets redistribute things from where they are not needed
to someone or somewhere theyâre needed.
â Examples include eBay (auction site), Craigslist (local classified ads),
Swap.com and niche marketplaces such as 99dresses (clothes), thredUP
(childrenâs clothing), yerdle (various)
2. Product Service Systems allow members to pay for the benefit of using a
product without needing to own it outright.
â Examples include Zipcar, Getable, Snapgoods, RelayRides,City CarShare,
Velib, bicycle sharing platforms
3. Collaborative Lifestyles platforms allow for the sharing and exchange of less
tangible assets such as time, skills, money, experiences or space.
â Examples include Skillshare,Airbnb,TaskRabbit, Lending Club, LiquidSpace,
Vayable, time banks and local exchange systems such as Sel du Lac
Source:Young Global Leaders Sharing Economy Dialogue Position Paper 2013
12.
13. Worldwide Blurred Distinctions
ī§ Professional and personal life
ī§ Public and private sectors
ī§ Manufacturing and services
ī§ Science and society
ī§ Multinationals and small businesses
ī§ âProprietasâ and âUsusâ
24. The Sharing Economy Drivers (Social)
ī§ Renewed belief in the importance of the community (virtual
and real) with sense of togetherness, intimacy, trust
ī§ Population growth: more people - smaller spaces - less stuff
ī§ Shift in power balance from centralised organisations to
distributed networks of people
ī§ Global recession that has shocked consumers behaviours
ī§ Independent lifestyle trend above all among young, IT savvy
and urban people
ī§ Active citizenship
ī§ Disillusionment with consumerist culture
25. The Sharing Economy Drivers (Economic)
ī§ Monetise excess and the idling capacity of assets
ī§ Need to reduce carbon footprint by sharing assets, stretching
the life cycle of a product and reducing waste
ī§ Rising costs of production and of living, e.g. energy, food
prices
ī§ Influx ofVC Funding
ī§ Economic disparities and shifting of resources
ī§ Inaccessible luxury items
ī§ Pervasive unemployment
26. The Sharing Economy Drivers (Technological)
ī§ Peer to peer social networks
ī§ Mobile and real time technologies
ī§ Peer to peer payments
ī§ Internet of things
29. The Sharing Economy Consequences
ī§ More efficient allocation of underutilized resources
ī§ Favourable effects on competition, forcing traditional suppliers to
innovate and reduce their prices
ī§ Greater consumer choice with lower transaction costs
ī§ New distribution lines to support multi-user product life cycles
ī§ Increases happiness and contentment due to positive social
interactions
ī§ Lowers barriers to entrepreneurship
ī§ Fosters local production, exchanges, investments
ī§ Shifts power from top down, from centralized institutions to
decentralized, connected communities and distributed networks
31. Where Sharing Economy Works Best
ī§ The asset needs to become âliquid,â i.e. easy to share e.g.
spaces and skills
ī§ The asset needs to have high idling capacity, i.e. low
frequency of use e.g. cars or spare spaces
ī§ Assets that are expensive to own outright e.g. solar panels
and luxury goods
ī§ Assets that quickly become obsolete e.g. baby goods and
maternity-related clothing and products
ī§ Assets that have no demand or supply limitations, or whose
value increases because of the fact it is shared e.g. travel
experiences
34. The 3 Phases of Internet Evolution
Source:The Sharing Economy,Torben Rick
35. Power ofTechnology in the Sharing
Economy
ī§ Increased efficiency
ī§ Enables to build trust/accountability among
strangers
ī§ Peer to peer reviews and stars rating systems
36. HowTrust is Built Online
ī§ Identity verification systems
ī§ Social network integration
ī§ Similar interests and values
ī§ Comments, rating and reviews
38. Online Reputation Data to BuildTrust
Among Strangers
ī§ Extraction and aggregation of online reputation
ī§ Reputation capital as a credit to spend via data
banks beyond marketplaces
ī§ New forms of payment like virtual or peer-to-peer
currency (Bitcoin) or social capital (Klout)
ī§ Privacy concerns
43. Challenges of Online Reputation
ī§ Is trust universal accross different types of sharing
platforms?
ī§ Can I trust the âtrust platformâ that is collecting all
my data?
ī§ How will this data be used?
ī§ Do these trust aggregation platforms foster
control, rather than trust?
Source: Francesca Pick, OuiShare
44. âThe original idea of the web was that it
should be a collaborative space where
you can communicate through sharing
information.â
-Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of theWorldWideWeb
47. The 4 âIâ Areas Ripe for Disruption
1. Infrastructures 2. Intermediaries
Complex
Dictating Distributions
Non interactive
Enticing control
Monopolistic
Redundant
Diffused
Unwanted
Inappropriate
Expensive
3. Inventories 4. Institutionalisations
Centralised
Enclosed
Burdensome
Locked in
Proprietary
Pervasive
Hierarchical
Broken trust
Unempowering
Inaccessible
Undemocratised
48. Recipe for Disruption
ī§ Follow an approach that makes it more accessible,
more affordable, faster and with higher quality for
a large group of people to do what matters to
them.
ī§ Develop a way of offering a product or service that
is difficult for others to replicate, keeping costs
radically lower than competitors.
ī§ Tackle markets that existing companies are
motivated to exit or ignore because they are
unprofitable or seemingly too small to matter.
49. How Companies Get Involved in the
Sharing Economy
ī§ Partnerships
ī§ Investment
ī§ Business model reinvention
ī§ Tapping into the crowd (crowdsourcing)
50. Examples from Big CompaniesTapping
into the Sharing Economy
ī§ Nike (runners communities)
ī§ Virgin Atlantic (sharing luggage space)
ī§ Lego (pley, renting lego sets)
ī§ Groupon (collective buyers power)
ī§ French Post (digital identities for registered letters)
ī§ Quirky (user-submitted ideas via virtual platforms)
ī§ Starbucks (crowdsourcing design)
ī§ Dell (crowdsourcing product specifications)
ī§ Google Helpouts (skills sharing)
51. Sharing Economy Partnership Examples
ī§ Marriott and Liquid Space
ī§ Google and Lending Club
ī§ BMW and ParkatmyHouse
ī§ GM and RelayRides
ī§ Ebay and Patagonia
ī§ GE and Quirky
ī§ Philips and Indiegogo
ī§ Walgreens andTaskRabbit
ī§ Western Union and Airbnb
ī§ Home Depot and Uber
ī§ Kelly Services and oDesk
ī§ DHL and MyWays
ī§ Uniliver and Carrotmob
ī§ Lufthansa and Home Exchange
52.
53. âThe secondhand market opens up [our]
brand to a lot of people who canât afford
to buy it first-hand. In a way, it opens up a
market to us that we might not have
otherwise had.â
âVincent Stanley, Patagonia
54. Business Models
Traditional selling for consumption is no longer the
only viable business model. New models of access
over traditional ownership include:
ī§ Rental
ī§ On-demand
ī§ Freemium
ī§ Subscription
ī§ Membership usage
ī§ Try-and-buy
58. Industrial Capitalism Sharing Economy
Access controlled by few Empower individuals
Cantralised Distributed
Monopoly Participative
Competitive advantage Open innovation
Individual customer Network
Design and deliver a product Design exchanges of services
59. How Companies can Embrace the
Sharing Economy and Stay Profitable
ī§ Adapt business model to become a service: sell
access to goods instead of ownership of those
goods e.g. renting, subscribing, premium
memberships, loyalty programs etc
ī§ Connect buyers and sellers by encouraging and
motivating a virtual marketplace
ī§ Enable customers to give feedback and build value
to company brands via online platform
62. Benefits for Companies
ī§ More efficient, as the crowd helps you to create,
distribute and sell your products
ī§ Sell same product multiple times
ī§ Show durability of products, commitment to
sustainability, a thriving community
ī§ A long-term extended relationship with customers
ī§ Serve new market segments
ī§ Drive trial among prospective customers
ī§ New value created between people, means new
revenues
63. Benefits for Companies (Continued)
ī§ Tap into repeated business transactions
ī§ Additional cost of producing other units is very low
if redistribution markets are in place
ī§ Strengten brand and competitive service
ī§ Collect more users feedback and improve service
ī§ If you act now, you will have first mover advantage
ī§ Own no inventory, warehouses, distribution centers
or other ancillary overhead required for most
traditional business models to operate
64. How toTurn Businesses into Platforms
ī§ Identify an idle asset
ī§ Allow customisation
ī§ Prolong product life-cycle
ī§ Allow multi-user interaction
ī§ Let users and providers rate each other
66. Consumers Shift
Customers are becoming:
ī§ Sellers
ī§ Producers
ī§ Distributors
ī§ Lenders
ī§ Teachers
Customers are beginning to act like:
ī§ Hotels
ī§ Restaurants
ī§ Transport operators
ī§ Manufacturers
ī§ Banks
ī§ Universities
67.
68. Common Reasons for Start-up Failures
ī§ Difficulty in building a critical mass of supply and demand
ī§ Difficulty in creating the inventory (especially with
geographical dispersion)
ī§ Higher-than-expected operating costs (customer service,
insurance, lobbying, customer acquisition, security, etc)
ī§ Competition from free alternatives
ī§ Customers sidestepping the middleman platform
ī§ Too much revenue going back to suppliers
ī§ Mounting opposition from conventional industry groups
ī§ Neglecting advocacy for regulatory change
71. Regulations and the Sharing Economy
Why the regulators' sudden interest?
ī§ Scale: Rule enforcers are beginning to realize how
big the collaborative marketplace is growing.
ī§ Cash: As collaborative start-ups begin to
monetise, governments smell taxable revenue.
ī§ Consumer Protection: Consumers and providers
need an element of legal protection to exchange
services between themselves.
72. Opportunities for a âSharing Cityâ
ī§ High population density and more assets to share
ī§ Tackling congestion and efficient use of space
ī§ Setting up âsharableâ infrastructures
ī§ Bringing together residents and neighbourhoods
ī§ Redefining public services, innovation and civic
engagement
ī§ Commissioning studies on sharing assets within the city
and set up working groups to identify opportunities
ī§ Incentivising public investments (grants, subsidies)
ī§ Investing in co-creation centres and sharing of unused
public spaces
73.
74. Seoul, South Korea:The Self Proclaimed
âSharing Cityâ
Act No. 5396 (Act for Promoting Sharing)
The Seoul Metropolitan Government has declared the
Sharing City as a new city paradigm. On 20 September
2012, the government disclosed its plan for promoting
the âSharing City Seoulâ project, which includes 20
sharing programs and policies for generating or
diffusing infrastructure to promote and enable
sharing-based platforms.
75.
76. The Shareable Cities Resolution in US
The Resolution was adopted by the US Conference of
Mayors in June 2013!The resolution, co-sponsored by
fifteen mayors including Mayor Lee of San Francisco
and Mayor Bloomberg of NewYork City, states that:
âmayors resolve to make their cities more shareable,
encourage better understanding of the sharing
economy, and create local task forces to review and
address regulations that may hinder participation in the
sharing economy.â
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82. Questions for Cities in the EU
ī§ What opportunities to pass a similar resolution or a manifesto among the
cities signatories of the EU Covenant of Mayors?
ī§ What shared infrastructures and urban development plans are needed to help
the sharing economy take root at city level?
ī§ What department, agency, working group or other vehicle is needed to lead
collaborative economy strategy and vision within the local government?
ī§ Does your city have any plans to do a systematic mappings, an impact
assessment or life-cycle analysis of its own assets which have idling capacity
and/or might be shared?
ī§ Does your city have any plans to create a hyper-local directory of examples in
the collaborative economy?
ī§ How can your city promote or create sharing economy platforms and
public/private partnerships with start-ups in this space?
ī§ How can the sharing economy help to achieve your cityâs targets in the
framework of other initiatives e.g. carbon reduction, climate action plans,
Covenant of Mayors, recycling, regeneration, resource efficiency?
ī§ How can your city mitigate the impact of existing outdated regulations that
unintentionally obstruct collaborative ventures and new business models?
83. Questions for Cities in the EU (Continued)
ī§ How can your city incentivise public investments and community-focused
financing mechanisms in the sharing economy ecosystem e.g. investing in
incubators and accelerators, research projects, building capacity of collaborative
economy companies, networks and cooperatives, shared infrastructures, micro-
entrepreneurship, social innovation etc?
ī§ How can your city regulate on the sharing economy on a sector-by-sector basis,
incorporating feedback from collaborative companies, end-users and involving a
broad set of stakeholders in consultations?
ī§ How could your city take the lead in the creation of a âShareable Cities Networkâ
at EU level?
ī§ Under which existing EU city network can sharing cities be embedded or
incubated?
ī§ What plans does your city have to review/establish laws in the field of taxation,
zoning, insurance and licensing to allow the sharing economy to scale?
ī§ What collaborative sectors have the greatest traction in your city among
transportation, housing, food and retail or others and how to leverage their
outreach?
ī§ How does your local procurement system favour public tenders with criteria that
include shareability or collaboration?
84. Examples of PPPs Between Cities and
Sharing Economy Enterprises
ī§ Bike/car sharing infrastructures and pick up points
ī§ Smart grids for renewable energy excess output sharing
ī§ Empty public buildings utilisation
ī§ Partnership for emergency preparedness (e.g. airbnb &
San Francisco during superstorm Sandy)
ī§ Reallocation of redundant workers to maker spaces
ī§ Local group purchasing platforms for consumers
ī§ Investment in coworking spaces
ī§ Establishment of hubs for reusable products diverted from
landfill
85. The EU and the Sharing Economy
Some common goals:
1. Increase resource efficiency
2. Create jobs and prosperity
3. Build community participation
4. Advance social innovation
Great opportunity to combine efforts around joint
priorities and mainstream a stronger, more resilient
Europe in view of meeting the EU2020 objectives.
86. The EU 2020 Strategy and the Sharing
Economy
âThe consumption of goods and services should take
place in accordance with smart, sustainable and
inclusive growth and should also have an impact on job
creation, productivity and economic, social and
territorial cohesion".
- EU 2020Strategy
88. EU Policies and the Sharing Economy
ī§ Problem: Current lack of tailored European policy
frameworks and institutional support for regulating this new
sector. Absence of regulatory measures creates uncertainty
that may inhibit investments and development of the sector
and can result in companies trying to exploiting loopholes in
the legislative vacuum, damaging consumer trust.
ī§ Solution:The European Sharing Economy Coalition aims to
inspire European policy makers by providing them with a
tangible narrative, available scalable solutions and an
innovative vision for faster adoption of the Sharing
Economy across policies, sectors and markets in Europe.
89. The European Sharing Economy Coalition
The Coalition promotes and monitors progress towards European and national policy that:
ī§ Mainstream the Sharing Economy
By campaigning to raise awareness, improve visibility and build capacity of community and
policy leaders.
ī§ Sustain the Sharing Economy
By advocating for fair and sensible regulations, ensuring the Sharing Economy becomes a
political priority at European level.
ī§ Scale Up the Sharing Economy
By promoting leadership and best practice exchange, aiming towards scalability and
transferability in the EU.
ī§ Invest in the Sharing Economy
By raising EU funding to kick start relevant pilot projects and platforms all over Europe,
above all in cities.
MA S S IVE
90. Recommendations for EU Policy Makers
ī§ Create an environmental for sharing economy enterprises to
grow given the economic benefits they bring. If necessary,
pursue smart and targeted regulations.
ī§ Treat sharing economy enterprises as facilitators in a p2p
marketplace, not as traditional employers.
ī§ Legislate only as a complement, when there are gaps
(market failures).
ī§ Create a level playing field among p2p business and
traditional businesses.
ī§ Measure impact and make policy decisions that are data-
driven and flexible given the pace of change in this new
market.
ī§ Facilitate a mechanisms for local authorities and cities to
learn about the sharing economy and how to develop
appropriate rules and enabling infrastructures.
91. âWhether it is about cabs, accommodation,
music, flights, the news or whatever, the
fact is that digital technology is changing
many aspects of our lives.We cannot
address these challenges by ignoring them,
by going on strike, or by trying to ban these
innovations out of existenceââ.
- Neelie Kroes, FormerVice-President of the EuropeanCommission
95. Current World Resource Consumption
ī§ Market forces rather than human needs dictates the
distribution of resources, goods and services
ī§ Commercialisation has infiltrated every aspect of our
lives, encouraging highly individualistic and
unsustainable consumerist lifestyles
ī§ Natural resources are usurped at far greater rates than
they can be replenished
ī§ At least 18 international conflicts have been triggered
by competition for resources since 1990 and this is set
to increase in light of a rising world population, soaring
global consumption and rapidly disappearing energy
supplies
96. Sustainability Benefits
Environmental
ī§ Less resource use and CO2 emissions, if number of new products
manufactured is reduced
ī§ Higher demand for good quality products, if products are to be
lend or leased, repaired, upgraded multiple times
ī§ Favours eco-design for multi-user experiences, durability and
repeat customisation for shareable products
Social
ī§ Enhances social interaction, community building and trust
between citizens
ī§ Access to high quality products also for low income consumers
ī§ Lowers barriers to entrepreneurship
ī§ Helps learning new skills
97. Sustainability Concerns
Rebound effects (offset the sustainability benefits)
īē Does sharing under-utilised items leads to longer lasting and
higher quality products or leads to increased and faster
consumption?
īē Does home sharing lead to a more sustainable tourism or leads
to more tourism, hence higher environmental impacts?
īē Does car sharing lead to more sustainable transport or the
money saved from car sharing is reused into long distance
travel?
īē Does office sharing lead to more sustainable energy use?
īē Does movie streaming lead to higher carbon impact coming
from the intensive energy use caused by inefficient equipment?
98. Sustainability Concerns
ī§ May increase faster consumption, if sharing is used as trial before
buying new products
ī§ May increase disposal of old items in exchange of newer ones, if
shared item is cheaper and with lower quality
ī§ May increase transport, distribution, logistics and related CO2
emissions (e.g. long distance shipping and delivery of items from
home to home)
ī§ May increase social disparities, social dumping and job losses
99. Way Forward for Sustainability and
Sharing Economy
ī§ Invest in behavioural change, awareness raising campaigns and
capacity building to reduce the rebound effect
ī§ Create measurement systems for the long-term positive
sustainability impacts against key performance indicators
ī§ Create minimum environmental performance standards with
high benchmarking potential
ī§ Commission environmental impact assessment and lifecycle
analysis studies on sharing assets above all in large cities
100. Way Forward for Sustainability and
Sharing Economy (Continued)
ī§ Support green public procurement favouring sharing economy
enterprises
ī§ Introduce mandatory requirements for shareable products (e.g.
minimum recyclability, reusability, upgradeability and durability)
ī§ Promote the creation of awards schemes for the most
sustainable sharing economy concepts
ī§ Support the development of one sharing economy regional
cluster in the EU to accelerate the innovation process
106. Market Developments
ī§ Movement towards professionalism of sharing services (To Follow -> B&Bs on
airbnb)
ī§ Reputation and trust to become a new currency (To Follow -> eID legislation)
ī§ Accountability in collaborative manufacturing, more business to âpoliceâ the
system and ensure equal retribution for contributors
ī§ More synergies between collaborative consumption and collaborative production
(To Follow -> 3D printing, maker movement)
ī§ More removal of âmiddle-menâ (To Follow -> from sharing companies owning
the stock to individual ownership)
ī§ âShareabilityâ criteria enacted in private procurement along the supply chain
ī§ More âunionisedâ type of associations for sharing economy providers (To Follow -
> union of Uber drivers in Seattle)
ī§ More sharing economy companies to start CSR programs and CSR internal
departments
ī§ Rising B2B sharing of manufacturing equipment (To Follow -> Floow2 in the
Netherlands)
107. Market Developments (Continued)
ī§ More partnerships between corporates and startups in traction sectors
(housing, mobility, retail, food, education) and across EU MemberStates
(To Follow -> Marriott/Liquid Space,Google/LendingClub, BMW
/ParkatmyHouse, Ebay/Patagonia,GE/Quirky)
ī§ More platforms to be shaped as cooperatives, own and financed by users
and not byVCs (To Follow -> Coop Europe)
ī§ Integration with sensors development and internet of things (To Follow -
> smart home appliances and mobile apps)
ī§ Increased focus on customer service for sharing enterprises (To Follow ->
Uber)
ī§ More p2p providers moving into other services along the value chain (To
Follow -> airbnb and hospitality industry, uber and logistics industry)
ī§ Introduction of âmatchmaking in searchesâ type of algorithms
ī§ Aggregation of usersâ data and reputation dashboard to boost trust in
p2p marketplaces
ī§ Shareability index for companies
109. Policy Developments
ī§ âShareabilityâ to be effectively integrated in EU innovation policies (To
Follow -> EU2020 Strategy)
ī§ More financial support from public authorities to sharing economy
startups e.g. on market data collection (To Follow -> CAPs projects of DG
Connect e.g. co-working spaces and new H2020 calls)
ī§ White Paper and ConsultationConclusions on Crowdfunding (To Follow ->
DG Growth and EuropeanCrowdfunding Network)
ī§ Possible EU Commission Communication on âCollaborative and
Participative Consumptionâ (To Follow -> DG Health â July 2015)
ī§ Recognition of micro-entrepreneurship and freelancing into EU labour
legislation (To Follow -> revision of Directive on Professional
Qualifications)
ī§ More support for harmonised peer2peer finance legislation (To Follow ->
Revision of Financial Services Directive)
ī§ Emergency response and resilience planning through sharing economy
(To Follow -> DG Environment Impact Assessment Reviews)
110. Policy Developments (Continued)
ī§ More cross-sectoral coalitions for advocacy with a focus on top-down
approaches (To Follow -> 9Flats,Wimdu, Housetrip alliance in p2p
accommodation)
ī§ Network of SharingCities to be possibly integrated in the EU IP on Smart
Cities (To Follow -> HL Sherpa Group Meeting 31/03/2014 and CoR)
ī§ More attention for end-of-life phase in current product designs, as
customer will seek durable and shareable products designed for longevity
(To Follow -> EU eco-design directive revision)
ī§ Sharing Economy and Freelancing Petition in European Parliament or
through European Citizens Initiative (To Follow -> 2014 European post-
election campaigns)
ī§ Consumers protection effectively enacted for electronic payments (To
Follow -> EU Consumers Agenda and e-payment directive revision and
BEUC)
ī§ Direct financial support to high speed broadband projects at local and
regional level (To Follow -> EU DigitalAgenda Developments)
113. Challenges to Overcome
ī§ Scaling up from the young, urban and IT savvy to a viable alternative for
everyone and everywhere
ī§ Changing consumersâ habits and cultural barriers e.g. in new EU Member
States with rising middle class
ī§ Finding a level playing field with incumbents and traditional industries
e.g. hotels, taxi operators etc
ī§ Friction with trade unions and consumers organisations on workers and
consumers rights & safety
ī§ Liabilities and the need for targeted insurance products for sharing
assets
ī§ Fragmented start-up scene, uncertainty about funding after initialVC
ī§ Centralisation and potential formation of monopolies (e.g. airbnb, uber)
with loss of diversity and healthy competition
ī§ Will the sharing economy bring down wages in some sectors or bring
gentrification?
114. Challenges to Overcome (Continued)
ī§ EU Competition legislation inhibits certain collaboration between
companies (within product chains can be seen as a cartel)
ī§ Guidelines needed for public procurers in support of sharing economy
enterprises
ī§ Unintended macroeconomic effects: surging prices in real estates, taxes,
over-regulation
ī§ Lack of standardized reputation systems
ī§ Concerns over privacy and public safety for vulnerable consumer groups
ī§ Standards on quality control and harmonisation of online terms of use
ī§ Lock out effect (exclusivity of peer to peer communities)
ī§ Technological novelty to meet social needs
ī§ Mainstreaming âbeyond GDPâ principles (e.g. happiness index)
115. Challenges to Overcome (Continued)
ī§ Application of traditional industry standards in regulations
ī§ Drawing the line between peer-to-peer sharing and conventional
commercial activities
ī§ EU legislation on product planned obsolescence still to be mainstreamed
ī§ Disintermediation of services (when users bypass the platforms after first
interaction)
ī§ Donation system instead of actual fees, sometimes used to circumvent
legislation
ī§ Raising taxed revenues from sharing economy platforms
ī§ Ensure economically disadvantaged citizens and neighbourhoods can
benefit from sharing economy, not only convenience-seeking affluents
with high disposable income
ī§ Sharing transactions mostly happening among people with the same
social/economic status
116. âInfra horam vespertinam, inter canem et
lupumâ
At dusk, when one canât recognise a dog from a wolf
-Latin proverb
117. The Dark Side of the Sharing Economy
ī§ Lack of rural outreach
ī§ Digital trust
ī§ Members exclusivity
ī§ Quasi monopolies
ī§ ProfitVs non-profit
ī§ Shared ownership and distributed governance
ī§ Workers rights
ī§ Minimum wages
ī§ Health and safety
ī§ Liability and consumers protection
ī§ Data privacy
118. From Collaborative Consumption to
Collaborative Creation
ī§ Collaborative Consumption (reactive) => earn
some money, subsidise your belongings ownership
(e.g. zipcar), have more human cantered
experiences (e.g. airbnb)
ī§ Collaborative Creation (proactive) => building new
skills, create a business, drive an industry, more
meaningful livelihoods, create innovative solutions,
jobs and new forms of wealth (not just share it)
120. ī§ Co Financing
ī§ Co Production
ī§ Co Creation
ī§ Co Design
ī§Co Distribution
ī§ Co Marketing
ī§ Co Selling
ī§ Co Profiting
Imagine the Power of Collaboration
121. Big Shift to the Sharing Economy
Me <=> We
Ownership <=> Access
Global <=> Local
Centralised <=> Distributed
Competition <=> Collaboration
Company <=> People
Advertising <=> Community
Credit <=> Reputation
Money <=> Value
B2B <=> P2P
Hyper Consumption <=> Collaborative Consumption
123. âThere are laws for people and there
are laws for business, but we are a new
category, a third category, people as
businesses.â
-BrianChesky,CEO Airbnb
124. A Role for Freelancers
in the Sharing Economy
40%
of EUâs workforce will be
freelances by 2020 and some of these will be the
providers powering up the sharing economy
125. Freelancers and the Sharing Economy
ī§ It is notion of the past that freelancers are only hinging to their
professional sector. Nowadays, also because of the changing economic
climate, freelancers are more adaptable, therefore suitable actors to
thrive in the collaborative economy.
ī§ Despite the massive growth of freelancing, European policy makers still
focus on âjobâ creation rather than âworkâ creation, an
area where independent professionals actively contribute.
ī§ Targeted regulations that address freelancers in the collaborative
economy are often missing, as well as platforms to supply a rotation of
providers into different marketplaces.
ī§ A re-definition of outsourcing is needed to fit the sharing economy new
developments.
ī§ While freelancers create much of the value on p2p marketplaces, they
do not participate in the shared distribution of the value once captured
through a public offering, acquisition, or other form of surplus
distribution.
126.
127. âA half century from now, our grandchildren are likely to look
back at the era of mass employment in the market with the
same sense of utter disbelief as we look upon slavery and
serfdom in former times.The very idea that a human beingâs
worth was measured almost exclusively by his or her
productive output of goods and services and material wealth
will seem primitive, even barbaric, and be regarded as a
terrible loss of human value to our progeny living in a highly
automated world where much of life is lived on the
Collaborative Commons.â
-Jeremy Rifkin,The Zero Marginal Cost Society
128.
129. âThe Future is already here. Itâs only not widely
distributed yet.â
-WilliamGibson
130.
131. MARCO TORREGROSSA
Managing Director at Euro Freelancers & European Sharing Economy Coalition
marco.torregrossa@euro-freelancers.eu
@eurofreelancers
Editor's Notes
A new economic model has arrived. Named by TIME as one of the â10 Ideas That Will Change the Worldâ, collaborative consumption or collaborative economy describes the shift in consumer values from individual ownership to shared access. Itâs multi-billion EUR a year industry and itâs becoming a way of life too. This is something you probably wanna know more about it and you probably wanna be involved.In many areas of our life, the importance of owning physical stuff is diminishing. As our possessions dematerialise into the intangible, a blurry line appears between what is mine to what is yours, between "me" and "we".We increasingly consume products and services through renting, sharing, and purchasing subscriptions. Being âsocially connectedâ is no longer just about having a lot of people to share your news with; these days, itâs about having a lot of people to share your stuff with--either for free or at a fraction of the market fee. Itâs about collaborative consumption.
Make examples: CD->no, we want the music it carries, answering machine->no, we want the message it plays, street maps->no, we want how to get from point A to point B. We donât want stuff but the experience it fulfils. We want to pay for the use of a product not owing it outright.Do we have a fundamental desire to own things? Generally, I would argue no; what we really want is the utility that can be derived from property.This leads to massive economic waste. Your TV is off most of the time. Your iPad often goes unused. The majority of your wardrobe is sitting in your closet. Your car sits in the driveway while you travel. There is rampant unnecessary product duplication in all realms of life, simply because people fully own so many things.
Zilok => Make example of power drill: used 11-12 minutes for its entire life cycle. In the end we want the hole not the drill, so why donât you rent the drill or even better rent it out so you can make money out of it.Airbnb => in central Paris or Manhattan on every street one airbnb host, you can stay for 20 Eur a night. Castles in Scotland, Igloos in Sweden, boats in Amsterdam, one Caribbean island for 500 Dollars a night. 40.000 new profiles per day.Zopa => peer to peer money lending in UK. Default rate very low 1%. People do not trust big banks. Zipcar => average car 8000 Eur per year. We use it only 1 hour per day. Sits idle for 23 hours. Most of families own 2 or more cars. Peer to peer car borrowing is the next phase from car sharing. After testing, more than 1500 people did not want to have their keys back.Taskrabbit => outsource any service any time to anyone. Examples: doing groceries, taking care of your old grandma, 3500 ironing and folding of shirts in a month in UK, n.1 service requested=assembling ikea furniture. Even a guy asked someone to write a love letter for him through taskrabbit. People using the system are usually unemployed or underemployed.Skillshare=> matches people who want to teach something with people who want to learn something for a fee.Rent a Friend => Rent a friend for family events, social, business, workout, companionship
Allof these ideas are so simple, yet brilliant you wonder why it has never been done before.The sharing economy can be manifest in almost every sector of society and corner of the globe. Sectors which have experienced robust traction and interest include accommodation, transportation, tourism, office space, financial services and retail products. Areas where significant growth is expected include P2P car sharing, ridesharing, errand marketplaces, P2P and social lending, and product rental. Other examples of collaborative economy: crowdfunding, couchsurfing, peer to peer lending, co-working spaces, bike sharing, books/cloths swapping, garden sharing, toys / baby cloths rental, crowdsourcing, you can even share a dog, your pet or your grandchildren with grand parents.So popular nowadays that people make their living out of it. I know people that pay their mortgage with it.200Â 500 collaborative spaces in the world, 300Â 000 rooms on Airbnb, 2Â 000Â 000 people doing ride sharing per month in Europe and $ 2,7 billion raised by Kickstarter in 2012 - these are a few figures that demonstrate the growth of the collaborative economy.People are most interested in sharing infrequent-use items that have a high barrier to ownership or a high burden of ownership. This is the primary reasonthat car-sharing has met with such success over recent years. The other part is a larger paradigm shift where people are just beginning to think about âstuffâ differently. Theyâre focusing on the benefits of access over ownership â of practicality over materialism, experiences over possessions.Self storage is a 22 million Eur industry and this is pointless, it is larger than Hollywood box office sales.
Recent years have been marked by a global recession, the rise of the mobile and social web, and a period of rapid urbanization and, therefore, densification. People now have less financial security, less time, less space, and more autonomy.Community => A latent desire to connect with people and communities is re-surfacing. Airbnb guests prefer the experience of staying in a home or a neighborhood. Kickstarter funders get to know the makers, inventors, and entrepreneurs behind projects. How ridiculously easy it is nowadays to form groups for a purpose => see smart flash mobs. These ideas bring us back to old market principles and collaborative behaviours (ex swapping, lending, bargaining) reinvented in dynamic and appealing forms valuable for the facebook age before the hyper consumption era arrived. Using online networks to get things done in real life (using the internet to get off the internet) without layers of middle man in between and no transaction costs.The Internet is becoming more of a mechanism to enhance and add value to our face-to-face connections and real world experiences, not a destination to dwell in, shut off from society. Collaborative consumption is just one example of this. It is fueled through technology and in turn provides a unique personal experience that is the basis of human interaction.Example => Every minute of this speech 25 hours of you tube videos will be loaded and shared. In collaborative economy people become mico-enterpreneurs: empowering people to make and save money from their assets and make meaningful connections and personal relations rather than empty transactions.Recession =>This is a powerful economic force not hippy idea. Collaborative consumption is not a niche trend, and itâs not a reactionary effect to the recession. Itâs a socioeconomic process that will transform the way companies think about their value propositions. Thomas Freedman said: in 2008 it was like we hit a wall, when both mother nature and the market said: no more!Environment => These peer-based âmarketplacesâ help the environment by using the resources we already available more efficiently rather than manufacturing more new goods.
Sharing a car is convenient; renting fashion is economical; staying in someoneâs home offers a more authentic experience: these are the kinds of messages brands need to push when they are entering the collaborative economy. Rather than leading with taglines about sustainability or community, companies need to emphasize convenience, value and quality because that is what actually drives sharing transactions.
Business Models => Collaborative economy disrupts outdated business models and creates new business opportunities: examples => music industry (after Napster arrived), newspaper industry (after online news) which had to reinvent themselves after peer to peer sharing. Cars industry will be the next in line. As Picasso said: every act of creation is first an act of destruction.Businesses will need to reconsider their distribution models that encourage shared ownership, as well as product lines that support multi-user product life cycles.In our times => too much choices and disconnect with happiness. The more we have the more we want.
Technology => The collaborative economy is a high-tech twist of a kindergarten concept. Sharing isn't something we need to relearn. It's a childhood skill we've never lost, like riding a bike. Real time tracking devices, sensor networks, GPS, mobile connections and the internet have allowed this to take place fundamentally changing the way we behave. Technology makes sharing fun. Smartphones with maps and satellite positioning can find a nearby room to rent or car to borrow. Online social networks and recommendation systems help establish trust; internet payment systems can handle the billing. All this lets millions of total strangers exchange goods and services to each other. Online sharing is a good predictor of offline sharing.Efficiency => For consumers to overcome the cult of possession we have to get to a point where sharing is convenient, secure and more cost effective than ownership. People need to desire services more than products. Make example of LINUX and Wikipedia and other open sources.Trust & p2p => (make example give credit card number online totally normal nowadays). Example of ebay (how it started, quote: broken laser pointer that was bought by a broken laser pointers collector). These online systems socially oblige people to behave in certain ways to earn reward points (stars in ebay, amazon).20 years ago it was perceived as a crazy idea to even just send a parcel and hope the post will deliver it or trust a seller called Mickey Mouse in ebay, yet 99% trading in ebay happen successfully one 1% unsuccessful for minor reasons like the item did not arrive in time. Review and rating tools => Enable the community to self-regulate,who can be lent to in good faith without the need for layers of middle man in between to police the system and no transaction costs.Only 14% of people trust advertisers, yet 78% of consumers trust peer to peer recommendations (example =>trip advisor). Realisation of few degrees of separation in social network also help building trust among strangers. Trust badges, verified digital identities and reward systems can help users trust one another.
See wired Rachel talk.Nowadays we experience trust shift from institutions to individuals, from the centre to the edges, to the networks to the people.
Reputation => our most valuable asset (our shadow, what people say when you leave the room). On the web we leave a reputation trail (every spam we flag, posts, comments we share etc).Reputation is the cornerstone measurement of how much a community trusts you. But difficult to extract, not tangible like money. Aggregation of reputation online is needed for what your peers think of you. One day: through google search => complete picture of one's own reputation. As reputation goes up in market places, our frequency of business and amount we can charge increases, when it goes down less business e.g. airbnb.Credit => Our reputation capital is a new social currency that allows us to enter the collaborative economy. The wealth of your reputation capital/currency: intentions, capabilities and values across communities and marketplaces. Free riders and abusers are easily isolated as other members simply refuse to transact with them just as openness, trust and reciprocity are encouraged and rewarded. Example => if two people have a fight they would go different ways and perhaps speak bad about one another with their neighbours but if there is a bad reference online, then the whole world knows about it so people tend to go the extra mile to make things work. Start-up TrustCloud is already building an algorithm to collect the trail you leave as you engage with others on social media and calculate your reliability, consistency, and responsiveness. The result would be a contextual badge you'd carry to any website, a trust rating similar to the credit rating you have in the offline world.Make example of when I arrived in Belgium, no credit history (it did not travel with me from UK) so no mobile phone plan. GDP is what seems to be important nowadays and not well-being. But we are now moving towards a society that is less focused on economic growth but also focused on social well-being. This has led to initiatives by French President Sarkozy to examine what we interpret as wealth and how this is measured being redefined. Indeed we are already seeing this in the UK, France and Canada with the introduction of the happiness index.We also expect customers to adopt new forms of payment that do not involve traditional money, such as virtual or peer-to-peer currency (Bitcoin) or social capital (Klout) that can be accumulated and exchanged for goods and service. Reputation data can also be used beyond the marketplace for instance to request a bank loan or affact our insurance premium. Reputation data creates individual empowerment, it creates accountability and transparency it helps moving from faceless transactions to humaness in the marketplace.Transparency/privacy/liability concerns => âbig brother effectâ remains a problem to overcome. Taxes, regulations and insurances also.
Some multinationals have changed their business models and redefined what they offer moving prom being products sellers to service providers. Large companies already crowdsource. Companies such as ... show that it is possible to reposition form an old vertical retail model to an integrated collaborative one with huge costs savings and increases in consumers loyalty. Point being: regardless of a companyâs size, it should focus on earning the trust of its community and engaging actively with them. Forward-thinking companies have already demonstrated that users can provide value to traditional businesses without buying something: through word-of-mouth, content creation, community innovation, and beyond.Although companies can expect sales losses in some areas â because shared products donât need to be purchased as often â overall, the opportunities outweigh the risks. âSharing per se is not a rejection of consumption; rather itâs beneficial.â Thatâs because not consuming on one end frees up resources for more conscious and deliberate consumption on the other. Nike => Less spending on advertising with famous sports people, more of creating communities. Set up communities of runners at local level to share tips, tracks, music etc. In the end they end up buying more nike products. Communities virtual or real allow businesses to maintain an ongoing relationship with their customers. Empowering communities.Skype => did not use any advertising budget, yet they have a system of buttons and sharing to allow publicity.Virgin Atlantic => sharing luggage space for air passengers and taxi sharing upon arrival at airports (even a sign you can print from the internet).Lego => organisational performance improvements through employees engagementGroupon => Groupon harnesses collective buying power to offer daily discounts to its five million subscribers. Roughly three years after inception, they've raised over $1.14B in funding.French Post =>Enable people to legally receive registered letters in digital form, IDN is a digital identity system that associates a log-in and password to a person.Qquirky => Quirky.com is essentially a consumer products company, but it relies on user-submitted ideas that are brought to market by its community and eventually produced by Quirkyâs in-house engineering team.
As products are passed across multiple owners, the brand experience extends.
In the Collaborative Economy, companies must evolve their business models to avoid becoming disintermediated by customers who connect with each other.Companies can rethink their business models, becoming a Company-as-a-Service, Motivating a Marketplace, or Providing a Platform. Basically the key is to collaborate with users e.g. co-ideate new products.Make example of frontrunners: netflix. Toyota car rental, Marriott certified scheme, Patagonia and Ebay schemeThis can expand the scope of interaction with consumers, moving from a narrow buy/sell transaction to a long-term relationship over the entire user experience. In the process, companies can gain more data and insight about the usage of their products.Astute companies will have an opportunity to evolve from product/service vendor to trusted advisors who show consumers how to maximize the value of the products and services they are using. Trusted advisors will benefit from powerful economies of scope: the more they know about users, the more helpful they can become.Create share platforms, devise data flows to refine your offers, cultivate social networks to grow respect and reach for your brand.
In the Collaborative Economy, companies are evolving their business models to avoid becoming disintermediated by consumers who connect with each other.The key is to convert products into services, services into marketplaces, and marketplaces into digital platforms to collaborate with consumers and co-ideate new products. This is what we call the Collaborative Economy Value Chain.Company as a ServiceEnable a MarketplaceProvide a PlatformFirst point, âCompany as a serviceâ. Now that consumers want access to products and may not necessarily want to own them, companies offer a new form of service through renting, subscribing, loyalty programs, premium membership, try before buy, or even lending â beyond just selling. To do this, companies must build a durable good that can be passed through many hands, instead of many current products built for forced obsolescence.Second point, âEnable a Marketplaceâ. Shifting services to become a peer to peer marketplaces. The goal is to get the people to do these actions (first point) among themselves in a peer to peer buyers and sellers marketplace. Thereâs a number of new activities that consumers can perform, including to resell, co-owning, swapping goods, lending to each other, or gifting. Companies like Patagonia and eBay have collaborated to encourage people to buy Patagonia products used rather than new. This reinforces their brand as promising durability.Third point, âProvide a Platformâ. Companies who have marketplaces, activate them to build their future products. And it means that companies empower consumers in a long term relationship to give feedback and build future products and services (e.g. 3D printing) via a digital platform. This is co-innovation, which involves the crowd in the creation of the product or service. To complete this cycle, those newly created consumer products flow back into the system, starting over again. The goal is to activate the market around you, and these circles represent all the transactions that the brand can now extract value from. Our cursory look at the startups show that they often take 20-25% of every transaction.Examples of companies using the collaborative economy approach: Netflix, Lego, Nike, Patagonia, Starbucks.This can expand the scope of interaction with consumers, moving from a narrow buy/sell transaction to a long-term relationship over the entire user experience. Astute companies are evolving from vendors to trusted advisors who show consumers how to maximize the value of the products and services they are using.
Most companies stubbornly stick to one formula: create a product, sell it, collect money.CC is based on network-enabled sharing. The central strategy is to sell the same product multiple times. Multiple sales multiply profits and customer contact. Multiple contacts multiply opportunities for additional sales, for strengthening a brand, for improving a competitive service and for deepening relationship with consumers.Each transaction is an opportunity to put the brand in front of consumers. Increase interaction allows to get more info, improve service and make personal offers. Customers can try before they buy.
Rather than buying a power drill . . . consumers rent pre-owned items from each other on Zilok (peer to peer goods exchange)Rather than hiring a cleaning company . . . consumers get help on TaskRabbit (peer to peer services)Rather than owning a car . . . customers share cars on demand via Uber (peer to peer car sharing)Rather than staying at hotels . . . consumers stay in real homes through Airbnb (peer to peer accommodation)Rather than getting a loan from a bank . . . consumers borrow from each other through Lending Club (peer to peer finance)Rather than getting a degree from a university âĻ. consumers teach and learn from each other through skillshare (peer to peer education)Rather than eating in a restaurant âĻ consumers share meals cooked in real homes though feastly (peer to peer meals)Rather than owning a dog âĻ consumers share one through borrow my doggy (peer to peer pet sharing)
Until recently, collaborative businesses have fallen below the radar when it comes to government regulation. The entrepreneurs driving the sector insist this is helping them to experiment, to innovate and, ultimately, to grow. That could be about to change.However, the sharing economy will always rest on trust not regulation. The success or failure of collaborative businesses revolves around endorsements and reviews from users. Regulation can help, but it will never be the whole answer. The point is which countries will decide to be proactive by regulating how the sharing economy can operate lawfully and effectively and which other countries will decide to kill it because they have not understood it or have given up to pressures from vested interests.
The first one is scaling it, because not everyone is a frequent user yet. If the well-educated young people are already heavily involved in it, now other groups - like elderly people - need to be reached as well.The second challenge is changing peopleâs habits: consumers need to change the daily routines they have had for years (such as buying in a supermarketâĻ), to using other channels (i.e. web platforms) and trusting strangers. A person has to be very motivated to actually change such deeply rooted habits.The third is the resistance of the traditional economy: newcomers are rarely welcomed, they have to adapt to legal constraints (regulation, taxationâĻ) and face the opposition of competitors from the âold industryâ as soon as the revenues become attractive.Some question how much sharing will grow. The idea of renting a vehicle or apartment to a stranger seems quirky or even dangerous, and they canât imagine such sharing will catch on. Itâs worth remembering, however, that practices such as online shopping and social media initially faced similar misgivings, yet consumers adjusted (one-click shopping, anyone?). The long-term trend suggests that the sharing economy, too, will muscle its way into the mainstream, one slightly dented car at a time.
I really wonder if we realise the significance of the period we are in and the far reaching impacts it will have for the next decade and beyond. We may not be headed directly towards the new socialism, but it feels that we are almost certainly headed towards a new era for the social web.
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Euro Freelancers helps businesses and local governments in the EU to understand and harness the power and potential of the sharing economy through strategic advisory services.As leading experts in this space, our work is informed by a large collection of market research, data, examples, visual graphics and real-world learning from sharing economy entrepreneurs. We work together with and bring insight from a network of leading experts â from behavioural economists to urban planners to digital technology specialists. We act both as investors in innovative start-ups in the sharing economy and as consultants.Interested in working together? Send us a note.