By Jeremiah Owyang, Chief Catalyst, Founder of CrowdCompanies.com
The term consumer has traditionally implied the passive consumption of goods and services doled out by businesses. But the times have changed. People aren’t simply consuming, but are empowered as active individuals to get what they need from each other, rather than buying from corporate channels. This means that established brands are going to have to revise their business models to partner with this empowered crowd and to really partner with, versus simply trying to sell at the people who now rule.
Welcome to the People Economy
This is the People Economy. The Collaborative Economy. In March, I co-authored a report called Sharing is the New Buying with Vision Critical, and what we found was both confirming and surprising.
While used-good sharing marketplaces are well established, Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, Lending Club and other tech platforms that allow peer-to-peer sharing (of accommodations, transportation and crowd-funding), are still in single-digit adoption. But, people surveyed indicated that they intend to double their utilization of these sharing services within the next year. 100% growth in a year! Imagine what it would take for a traditional corporation-seller relationship to see that kind of growth.
This is truly the people’s movement. Sharing pre-owned goods crosses demographic lines, even far into rural areas, and while some may think that’s recession related, it’s not. People making over $100,000 a year were more likely to have used shared personal services to source transportation, homes, food and more than most other groups.
And sharing goods is just the beginning. The rapid adoption of the Maker Movement is a perfect example of this new economy. The nine percent of people who’ve bought custom, hand-made products in the past 12 months, is also expected to double in the coming year – creating an entirely new economy for both buyers and sellers.
Simply put, people rule
What does this trend mean? People are using new technologies to access goods and services from each other. Directly. They’re acquiring and sharing things, including money, directly. People rule. They’re bypassing traditional corporations. The crowd is becoming functional and self-reliant. People can self-fund, make their own goods, share what they already have and provide specialized services to each other.
The call now is for business as we knew it – the incumbents being threatened by this movement – to stop thinking of how to sell to consumers and to figure out how to grow with the crowd. For example:
- Lincoln Motors partnered with makers from CustomMade to build matching jewelry for high-end cars.
- GE tapped a crowd innovation community in Quirky to build next-generation electronics.
- Walgreens partnered with TaskRabbit to deliver prescriptions to homes.
- Home Depot delivered Christmas trees on demand using idle Uber drivers last December.
- Kelly Services formed an alliance with oDesk to provide additional workforce resources on demand.
For more, there are over 80 examples on this visual timeline of large companies partnering with the crowd.
People like me, people like you – we’re all proving we can get what we need and share what we have. It’s time to get on board — or risk losing the crowd. Large companies working with the crowd are helping to make a world that works better for us all. Who will be next?
Jeremiah Owyang is the Chief Catalyst and Founder of CrowdCompanies.com.
