Big Idea 2015: From Sharing Economy to Sharing Responsibility

With the advancement of web and mobile technology, the economy of sharing quickly became a trend that generated quite some momentum and revenue in 2014. I envision 2015 as the year businesses and individuals will leverage that momentum in order to create a better living environment for all.

What is a sharing economy? It is an economy that is composed of peer-to-peer businesses.

Airbnb is a successful case. Airbnb allows anyone to rent spare bedrooms on a daily/weekly/monthly basis. We, signing up as Airbnb hosts, decide the pricing and mark the calendar for availability. People browse the website, read the room information, book a room, and pay the host after he/she accepts the request for rent.

Trusting strangers enough to have them stay in our home or trusting a host enough to stay in his/her homes is one result of sharing economy. A component of that trust is accountability. Airbnb uses various ways to hold hosts and guests accountable. One of the mechanisms is rating. Hosts and guests rate each other, thus sharing responsibility. The mass population then replies on the rating to rent. Sharing economy therefore evolves a culture of trust based on the engagement of community.

Airbnb has shared some stats in March 2014 that more than 11 million guests stayed on the platform since being launched in 2007. Airbnb had 650,000 listings in 34,000 cities across 190 countries reported in July 2014.

To experience the trend, I became a host of Airbnb and hosted a couple of guests at my home. I also stayed in a host house in San Francisco and saved 70% of my travel expense. I was deeply impressed by the structure in place that has enabled the entrepreneurship as well as the kindness of my guests and hosts.

Uber and Lyft are taxi service companies based on sharing economy. If we meet certain requirements, we can apply to be drivers for these companies. After taking a ride from Lyft and chatting with my driver, who was on his way home after work (as an engineer), my eyes opened upon seeing how people can support each other when trust is built through technology. Lyft mobile app enabled me to watch my driver approach me and simultaneously gave me the driver’s information. The cost was 50% less than taxi.

Sharing economy has grown into a $26 billion market and reshaped our sense of community. Stepping into 2015, sharing economy will continue to show strength; especially when Fed slows down bond buying rate, people become more conscious about managing their finance. I envision the following:

1. Businesses change their business models to support the culture. For example: Businesses provide platforms for user content and providing support to the users in order to generate better revenue and community engagement. eBay has been taking the lead of this approach. Linked also opened its platform for everyone posting articles.
2. The young generation who grow up in the peer to peer business model is more innovative. They are comfortable with social media interaction and sharing responsibility. They tend to be more attracted by entrepreneurship.
3. Big corporations adjust their business strategy and policies to adapt the impact from sharing economy and responsibility. For example: 360 surveys might weight more than annual performance reviews in younger organizations.
4. Government will experience new demands based on sharing responsibilities. For example: Civilian’s mobile video could be used as evidences for criminal acts and that will inspire civilians to be part of the effort to build a safer community.

What is your experience about sharing economy?

Interested in technology behind the sharing economy? Read on.

About the Author:

Hsuan-hua Chang is a business coach and has over 20 years of experience in wireless technology, holding many corporate positions ranging from software engineer, technical architect to product marketing manager. She is the author of “Everyday NFC Second Edition: Near Field Communication Explained”