The “Sharing Economy” Is Dead, and We Killed It

https://www.fastcompany.com/3050775/the-sharing-economy-is-dead-and-we-killed-it

by prostoalex • 11 years ago

4 4 11 years ago

VelNZ• 11 years ago

I think there is a certain amount of cognitive energy that goes in to renting something rather than owning it.

After moving to a larger city recently, I have been renting cars when needed rather than owning one. While it is far cheaper and even more convenient (4x4 for skiing, small car for city trip), the effort, inconvenience and mental awareness take a toll. The selection of the car, the strict schedule to pick it up and drop it off, the worry over damaging it (or being told I damaged it when I didn't) and inconvenience caused by system malfunctions (flat batteries or "technical difficulties" communicating with the car have happened several times) all serve to add that little bit of inconvenience for what should be a nice day out.

I think a similar problem exists with the sharing economy, there is just too much inconvenience and unless money is a serious problem it's just not worth the hassle.

cmsj• 11 years ago

I hate my drill, it's cheap and underpowered.

But. I know right where it is, and I can get it in 30 seconds, drill a hole in a couple of minutes, and put the drill back in its cupboard.

It was proportionately cheap enough that I don't remember or care how much it cost, and I'm not incentivised to care that it's a waste of resources for me to own a drill.

The "sharing economy" seems like something that should be a response to adverse market conditions - e.g. huge taxes on mass produced goods, high prices due to supply shortages, low affordability due to macro-economic disasters, etc. It's not something that seems likely to work in a status quo where such things are cheap and easily available.

Things like cars seem like a much better opportunity, given their proportionately higher cost. Once the roads are stuffed with huge fleets of on-demand vehicles, I can see now owning a car (also by then my kids will be old enough that we won't need to keep a huge array of infrastructure in the car ;)

dhiren342• 11 years ago

I think the real problem with a p2p rental platform lies on two factors. One of them being access: I need a drill, pair of skis, camera... I can pick this up from a neighbor (which enhances the second factor: community) or I can have it delivered to my house through a 3rd party service (e.g. uber, postmates...) which solves access/ease. So this can be solved by focusing on balance, starting in dense cities and experimenting through geolocation, or working with close knit communities (e.g. airbnb for IBMers, stanford alumni..). Relayrides had a # of devices which they placed on each of their cars to make them accessible to customers but what they realized according to Shelby Clark (Founder) was that the damage to these cars increased. Once they removed this device (main reason was to lower cost) they reduced damage done by 50% as people associated these cars(product) with someone else = community. They key is balance and it seems like very few companies in the p2p product rental industry have found such.

dhiren342• 11 years ago

I also think what is key is to find how much $ a person is willing to move for. In our experiments in Spain we believe its 30Euros, so we do not target products such as drills, but focus on higher ticket items.

The “Sharing Economy” Is Dead, and We Killed It

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