Looks like your son is in pre-school...

Yes, he is. But this is not me pontificating to him on sharing tiffin.

Then?

It’s about the booming sharing economy, powered by those immensely popular apps.

You mean those ride, rent-sharing apps in the US?

Not just in the US -- such applications and services are popular across many developed countries. The sharing economy is a multi-billion market now. A report shows rent-sharing services alone generated $3.5 billion in revenues in 2013. This market could grow to as big as $110 billion over the next few years.

That’s a big number. But this is not a new idea, right?

Yes. People have been sharing things since time immemorial. But with the arrival of Internet, especially the technologies that enabled people access the Web on the go, made sharing easier. As smartphones got popular, several apps were created to meet such needs. Today, people share almost everything they own. Cars, home space, equipment, content and even babysitting time. Many, especially those in the world of computing, would like to call this the age of community- and collaborative-consumption, or peer-to-peer sharing.

Is it like the torrent services?

Collaborative consumption is not piracy, which is what most torrent services are all about. This is, again, not a new thing. Collaborative consumption hit the jackpot when it went online. Location-based services, GPS, online payments and social networking platforms made it a huge success across the globe.

Many companies have figured out that the real value of the sharing economy lies in its ability to transform the overall quality of life. Home-rental service Airbnb, founded in 2008, in the US is, perhaps, the most popular example of this transformation. Today, the US alone has hundreds of services-sharing apps such as Airbnb, SnapGoods (sharing high-end goods), Uber and Lyft (ride-sharing). Europe has taxi-sharing services such as Drivy and Blablacar, and more. These firms are the darlings of investors and venture capitalists. Airbnb has, for instance, raised about $830 million and it is reportedly valued at $10 billion, more than hotel chains like Hyatt and Wyndham.

But I heard Airbnb ran into some regulatory hurdles.

Yes. In the US, authorities feel such services carry some danger. For instance, there could be safety issues when residential societies become tourist havens; many may not follow rules on tourist security; ride-sharing firms may not take responsibility on insuring drivers and so on. In many cases, these services dodge taxes. In the US, a study shows states would lose out on a at least 3.4 per cent in annual tax revenues; almost $23.4 billion, courtesy ride-sharing services. According to Sidecar CEO Sunil Paul, US auto ownership would be cut in half over the next decade thanks to social car-sharing services.

Fewer cars sounds nice to me.

Yes. Finally, we will learn to live with less and less and live in style too. But many still think the sharing phenomenon is a response to the economic slowdown in many countries, especially the US, and won’t last long.

But the apostles of the sharing economy says it’s just a new segment of business which is sustainable and human-friendly and with a little caution and attention security and service quality issues can be tackled. They feel ‘rent’ will be the new ‘own’ and, of course, sharing is caring.

What about India?

There are some players, but not many have made it big. Rideshare, ZingHopper, RideInSync and Ridingo are some of them. But they are yet to make the cut, especially in the B2C segment.

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