Rachel Botsman's exploration of collaborative consumption began in 2009, examining how technology reshapes consumption and ownership. By 2010, the concept of the sharing economy emerged, characterized by peer-to-peer marketplaces where trust between strangers is essential. As of 2014, Botsman shifted focus toward the collaborative economy and its potential to disrupt traditional institutions, emphasizing the importance of reputation capital in this evolving landscape.

1. THE EVOLUTION OF MY THEORIES
RACHEL BOTSMAN

2. “WE ARE AT THE START OF A
COLLABORATIVE REVOLUTION
THAT WILL BE AS BIG AS THE
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.”
RACHEL BOTSMAN 2009

3. 2009: COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION
In 2009, I began exploring key questions that led to the idea
and book on ‘collaborative consumption’:
• How would technology change not just what we consume but how
we consume?
• We are sharing music, videos, knowledge; what was next?
• What would the concept of ownership mean in the digital age?

4. COLLABORATIVE CONSUMPTION
The reinvention of traditional
market behaviors—renting, lending,
swapping, sharing bartering, gifting
—through technology, taking place
in ways and on a scale never
possible before.

13. 2010-2012: THE SHARING ECONOMY
The term ‘The Sharing Economy’ started to take hold in 2010.
It is an economic system largely based on peer-to-peer
marketplaces that depend on the social glue of trust between
strangers. The ‘providers’ in these marketplaces are often
referred to as ‘micro-entrepreneurs.’ (E.g. Airbnb hosts, Etsy
sellers, Lyft drivers.)

14. SHARING ECONOMY
An economic system based on
sharing or renting underutilized
assets directly from individuals for
monetary or non-monetary benefits.

15. THE SHARING EVOLUTION

17. MICRO-ENTREPRENEURS
Empowering people to make and
save money from their existing
assets.

18. 2012: REPUTATION CAPITAL
We are at the start of a profound shift from trusting people more
than corporations or government. This new era of trust needs a
measure, namely reputation capital.
Books, music, knowledge, photos have digitized; identity, trust
and reputation next. I believe it will transform how we think about
wealth, power and personal identity in the 21st Century.

19. REPUTATION CAPITAL
The worth of your reputation –
behaviors, capabilities and values
– across communities and
marketplaces.

27. 2014: COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY
At the start of 2014, I expanded my focus to look at how
decentralized networks of connected people – who create,
distribute and consume value in ways that bypass traditional
centralized institutions - are starting to change sectors such as
finance, manufacturing and education.
Ripe for disruption by this model are systems with waste,
redundant intermediaries, complexity, limited access and broken
trust.

28. COLLABORATIVE ECONOMY
An economic system of
decentralized networks and
marketplaces of connected
individuals creating value in ways
that bypass traditional institutions.

33. 2015: THE IMPLICATIONS….
I am currently focused on looking at the positive and
negative effects the collaborative economy will have on
society, the economy and culture. Warts and all…