export_ofoct.com
[00:01.20] Whether it's ridesharing with Uber, lending your power drill to a neighbor with Peerby, taking advantage of a home exchange with Airbnb, or dozens of other examples, the so called "sharing economy" is firmly established in our daily life.
[00:19.73] While the concept has been in place for some time, numerous enterprising groups have found a way to make the most of the current economic environment.
[00:29.75] Entrepreneur magazine explains:
[00:33.75] The idea behind the sharing economy isn’t new.
[00:37.26] Napster, eBay and Craigslist were all built on its basic tenets.
[00:42.77] But companies such as Uber and Airbnb have taken collaborative consumption to a new level.
[00:50.03] These pioneering companies created affordable solutions for cash-strapped consumers during the Great Recession, and they offered unique income streams for people who needed extra money or flexible work schedules.
[01:05.82] Generating revenues in the tens of billions of dollars globally, it’s difficult to ignore this growing segment of the economy.
[01:14.84] According to data from PricewaterhouseCoopers, we can quickly see that sharing is big business:
[01:22.85] Today, we estimate that the five main sharing economy sectors generate $15bn in global revenues, making up just 5% of total revenue generated by the ten sectors we looked at.
[01:37.12] However, by 2025, these same five sharing economy sectors could generate over half of overall sales in the ten sectors – a potential revenue opportunity worth $335bn.
[01:54.90] Also referred to as the collaborative economy, gig economy, peer economy, or collaborative consumption, sharing.org defines the sharing economy as:
[02:07.92] A socio-economic ecosystem built around the sharing of human and physical resources.
[02:14.71] It includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption of goods and services by different people and organizations.
[02:25.73] Call it what you will, there is a spectacular amount of growth taking place in the sharing sector.
[02:34.51] As TechCrunch reports, holiday-makers are making the change from big chain hotels, and looking for something a little more personal:
[02:42.77] Growth is on the up and up for Airbnb.
[02:46.54] Nearly 17 million people worldwide booked their guest stays with the peer-to-peer lodging platform this summer, according to a new travel report.
[02:56.31] That’s a whopping 35,000% surge in the last five years – and a far cry from the three guests Airbnb hosted before officially launching in the summer of 2008.
[03:10.09] If you’re in the market for someone to help you with your household chores, that’s not a problem either.
[03:16.09] After a large department store in Canada closed its doors in April, the newly laid off staff applied for odd jobs with AskforTasks.
[03:26.88] From the Globe and Mail:
[03:30.12] Toronto startup AskforTasks, an online platform that allows individuals to sign up to do chores and other daily errands, has been seeing a 40-per-cent, month-overmonth increase in “tasker” sign-up at a time when Canada is said to be in a mild recession.
[03:49.41] The platform saw a remarkable 800 percent increase in sign-ups after Target Canada closed all its stores early this year.
[03:59.67] In China, the sharing economy has already gone far beyond car pooling and home rentals.
[04:07.19] As Sina.com notes, the sharing economy brings together excess capacity of products or services to "share" them:
[04:17.96] Knowledge can be shared too.
[04:20.21] The Chinese website zaih.com, tries to connect people with expertise - whether in art, science or lifestyle - with people seeking advice.
[04:32.75] Those in need of professional help can click a button, schedule a face-to-face meeting with experts, and pay them a fee of about 50 U.S. dollars for a consultation.
[04:44.78] Stunning growth aside, some have voiced concerns over the way these ‘employees’ are being treated.
[04:52.04] Uber has for months been locked in court battles over the legality of their business practices.
[04:58.30] From the Huffington Post:
[05:00.81] 2015 has not been as kind to Uber and its brethren, as the fascination with a new business model has given way to serious concerns over everything from public safety to worker exploitation to unfair market monopolization.
[05:17.09] In some ways this is not surprising - the honeymoon for startups can be notoriously brief.
[05:23.10] While there are bound to be some growing pains, the sharing economy seems to have unlimited potential.
[05:30.11] With more minds working together, we can count on the right person with the necessary skills, networks, insights, and location to appear.
[05:39.89] As The Next Web concludes:
[05:42.89] It’s clear that our current labor structure is in flux, and “going to work” no longer means driving to an office or a factory for a set amount of time.
[05:53.41] The traditional 40-hour workweek is experiencing an overhaul, and it will continue to evolve as new on-demand service platforms rise up to meet consumer demands.
