How to raise standard of life? Sharing economy is a step in that direction.

Sharing Economy is not a niche, it's the future

How co-consumption saves millions

Crowdholding discusses how the economy of joint consumption will help in crisis and why, by sharing with others, any extrovert can become richer

I got carried away with the idea of ​​co-consumption after watching Rachel Boatswain on TED in 2011. Before that, I heard from acquaintances how they traveled using Couchsurfing, but did not pay attention to it. In Rachel's lecture, everything was described very sensibly: from the point of view and personal interest, and the global view - this is good for the economy, humanity, it is a model of the future economy.

For me, the notion of joint consumption was the answer to the question of how to deal with hyper-consumption. Everyone wants the quality of his life to be better so that he gets access to more services and opportunities - but how to do so so that this desire does not destroy nature and society?

Sharing economy

Girlfriends exchange shoes, dresses, handbags with each other, younger people rent a car from strangers, friends come to visit friends or rent a cottage together. This all is part of joint consumption and the millions of people who deal with it.

Today we can talk about projects for joint consumption on the Internet, that this phenomenon goes beyond the boundaries of family and close friends, and begins to work among strangers personally.

Since 2011, the number of projects and people included in the economy of joint consumption has increased. This is also called “sharing economy” (from the word to share). Free space in the car, a spare room, idle equipment or tools, unlimited Wi-Fi network, startup projects - you have already paid for it, and if someone else does this, you will not lose anything.

In the list of goods and services that people most often share, leaders are housing (rent, rent out, joint travel), transport (joint trips), food (joint dinners), tools, goods for tourism (joint purchases, rent from private persons), Shared Wi-Fi.

Joint consumption is the economy of supply. You have something "superfluous" that you do not use, and you offer it to others. Joint consumption is an economy of abundance instead of an economy of insufficiency. All commercial advertising is built on one principle: it inspires us that something is missing (health, beauty, rest, luxury, freedom), and then offers goods to compensate for this insufficiency. The joint consumption is completely different: you understand that you have something superfluous, and you share this. From this you feel freer, happier, feel prosperity.

Against the whole world

Now it is already impossible to say exactly what happened before - whether the trend of sharing started itself or companies triggered this trend. Discussions about this are similar to the age-old theme of the primacy of eggs or chicken. Another important thing here is that the trend is growing so rapidly that it causes serious fears on the part of many "traditionalists".

"The level of aggressive competition among online services depends on how such a network is organized. If prices are always in sight, competition is stimulated, and then it reaches a negative level. But the competition should be focused on eliminating the intermediary. This is the essence of such services. Many people can lose their jobs because of this - by the example of Uber, against which the taxi drivers are on strike, we are already convinced of this. Agencies lose, drivers and passengers, on the contrary, win, "- says Justin Varilek.

Maurice Levy, head of the media group of Publicis, in an interview for the Financial Times, said that "everyone began to be afraid of becoming assured." The thing is that before the mass verification for companies the greatest risk was companies that offered better service at a lower price. Now companies are afraid of newcomers, start-ups, realized by smart madmen with their new business models, free from outdated views on business.

Last year, IBM conducted a study, "Pushing the boundaries: the results of a global survey of senior executives," which showed that one of the most common fears for company CEOs remains "verification," which destabilizes a particular industry due to the emergence of an "unobvious" competitor.

"My policy is the systematic destruction of corporations. And, yes, I'm for super efficiency. I need maximum business activity at minimum prices, "Travis Kalanik said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Apparently, the old orders will long resist progress, while their bonuses will be given to pioneers who decided to choose an uber model for their business.

Of course, one can not argue that traditional business will completely withdraw from the market. Rather, it will be said that it is transformed by under the pressure of companies with an innovative business idea. Even if there are two employees in such a company. The "traditionalists" will have clients who will feel much safer at the expense of the long-established service system.

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