A big thanks to all who have helped us beta test. We appreciate your insight and suggestions. Please continue to give us feedback, as we’re always trying to give you the best user experience possible.
Buy & Sale with Friends & Neighbors
Friday, December 7, 2012
Congrats on the iPad
A big thanks to all who have helped us beta test. We appreciate your insight and suggestions. Please continue to give us feedback, as we’re always trying to give you the best user experience possible.
Friday, November 16, 2012
And the Winner is…
…Jill, from Las Vegas, Nevada. Congratulations Jill! It will be
delivered shortly. Thank you to all who have participated, we appreciate
your feedback. Please keep on sharing!
Friday, September 21, 2012
Win an iPad from ShareTown
Hello, and welcome to ShareTown.
We’re currently in beta and would love your help testing our site and
in return for helping us we’re offering one lucky person a free iPad.
All you have to do is:
- Post one item for rent at: ShareTown.com
- Post a comment on this blog post, listing at least one thing you liked about the process and one thing you’d like to see improved. (basically, tell us about your experience so we can make it better!)
- You will receive one entry for each item you post on ShareTown, so the more you post, the better chance you have until November fifteenth to participate.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
TechCrunch Looks at Ride-Sharing Insurance Coverage
With ride-sharing being a major portion of the current collaborative
consumption market place, Insurance coverage has been a major question. TechCrunch looks at Lyft’s
new excess liability insurance of $1 million for every driver that
transports passengers booked through it’s website.
Read Ryan Lawler’s full article HERE.
Read Ryan Lawler’s full article HERE.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Collaborative Consumption: An Idea to Change the World
Today on SAcommercialpropNews
the article “One of the Top Ten ideas that will change the World”
explains the draw of collaborative consumption and how because of
technology it is now scaleable to make it a viable solution in local
economies through out the world.
“Collaborative Consumption is all about sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping of all kinds of assets, from spaces to skills to cars. It has exploded onto the scene through network technologies that allow for these more traditional ways of economic exchange to take place on a scale and in ways never possible before.
Why buy when you can rent? Or swap? Or share? Want to go on holiday but can’t afford it? Why not consider a house swop? Or how about swopping books, CD’s and DVD’s with friends? Perhaps you need to hang pictures in your home – rather than rushing out and buying a power drill, rather borrow your neighbours or rent one. And when the time comes to start a family, consider renting your baby equipment for the short period of time that it is needed.
These are a just a few of the many ways that people are starting to change their consumer behaviour. The 20th century has seen us churning out mass produced consumer goods such as laptops, cell phones, TV’s, cars etc. – we are a society of consumers – but people are being driven through a combination of recessionary thrift and a growing consciousness of what we are doing to our planet to reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ that we own. Sharing and renting more stuff means producing and wasting less stuff, which is good for the planet and is also a perfect fit for an urban lifestyle in which you have lots of neighbours and limited storage.”
Read Full Article HERE.
“Collaborative Consumption is all about sharing, bartering, lending, trading, renting, gifting, and swapping of all kinds of assets, from spaces to skills to cars. It has exploded onto the scene through network technologies that allow for these more traditional ways of economic exchange to take place on a scale and in ways never possible before.
Why buy when you can rent? Or swap? Or share? Want to go on holiday but can’t afford it? Why not consider a house swop? Or how about swopping books, CD’s and DVD’s with friends? Perhaps you need to hang pictures in your home – rather than rushing out and buying a power drill, rather borrow your neighbours or rent one. And when the time comes to start a family, consider renting your baby equipment for the short period of time that it is needed.
These are a just a few of the many ways that people are starting to change their consumer behaviour. The 20th century has seen us churning out mass produced consumer goods such as laptops, cell phones, TV’s, cars etc. – we are a society of consumers – but people are being driven through a combination of recessionary thrift and a growing consciousness of what we are doing to our planet to reduce the amount of ‘stuff’ that we own. Sharing and renting more stuff means producing and wasting less stuff, which is good for the planet and is also a perfect fit for an urban lifestyle in which you have lots of neighbours and limited storage.”
Read Full Article HERE.
Monday, August 20, 2012
TIME: Don’t Buy, Share
Time.com featured “10 Ideas That Will Change the World”, and one
of them was Collaborative Consumption. In Bryan Walsh’s article “Today’s
Smart Choice: Don’t Own. Share”, he says it’s the younger generation
who is pioneering the way to “renting, lending, and even sharing goods
instead of buying”. He goes on to assert that there is more to the
economic benefits to sharing goods, but there are community benefits as
well.
“But the real benefit of collaborative consumption turns out to be social. In an era when families are scattered and we may not know the people down the street, sharing things — even with strangers we’ve just met online — allows us to make meaningful connections…
We yearn to trust and be trusted — one researcher has found that people get a spike of the pleasant neurotransmitter oxytocin when they’re entrusted with another’s goods. That’s the beauty of a sharing society — and perhaps the reason it might prove more lasting than one built on ownership.”
Read the full article HERE.
“But the real benefit of collaborative consumption turns out to be social. In an era when families are scattered and we may not know the people down the street, sharing things — even with strangers we’ve just met online — allows us to make meaningful connections…
We yearn to trust and be trusted — one researcher has found that people get a spike of the pleasant neurotransmitter oxytocin when they’re entrusted with another’s goods. That’s the beauty of a sharing society — and perhaps the reason it might prove more lasting than one built on ownership.”
Read the full article HERE.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Collaborative Consumption Cornerstone of New Economy
USnews.com reports that collaborative consumption is the cornerstone of the new economy.
The Rise of the Collaborative Consumption Economy
By David Brodwin
‘…Collaborative consumption is a cornerstone of the new economy. It challenges the old economy idea that corporations must own the assets they need to make things and provide services. Instead, it encourages ownership to be widely distributed.
Collaborative consumption applies both to physical assets and human assets. Physical assets like homes and cars are sometimes vastly underutilized. This value can be tapped to generate cash for owners and offer lower prices for renters. Collaborative consumption also applies to people-powered services, particular when specialized knowledge and skills are involved. You may want to learn French and I may need help with my taxes. But neither of us wants to become a full-time teacher or consultant…’
Read full article HERE
The Rise of the Collaborative Consumption Economy
By David Brodwin
‘…Collaborative consumption is a cornerstone of the new economy. It challenges the old economy idea that corporations must own the assets they need to make things and provide services. Instead, it encourages ownership to be widely distributed.
Collaborative consumption applies both to physical assets and human assets. Physical assets like homes and cars are sometimes vastly underutilized. This value can be tapped to generate cash for owners and offer lower prices for renters. Collaborative consumption also applies to people-powered services, particular when specialized knowledge and skills are involved. You may want to learn French and I may need help with my taxes. But neither of us wants to become a full-time teacher or consultant…’
Read full article HERE
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Yahoo! Finance talks Collaborative Consumption
Yahoo! Finance speaks of the new generation of sharing and how it will cultivate a new economic landscape.
Recession Generation Opts to Rent Not Buy Houses to Cars
By Caroline Fairchild | Bloomberg – Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:00 AM EDT
‘…”This is a generation that is scared of commitment, wants to be light on their feet and needs to adjust to whatever happens,” said Zukin, who’s researched the effects of the recession on recent college graduates. “What once was seen as a solid investment, like a house or a car, is now seen as a ball and chain with a lot of risk to it.”
One key difference is that technology now allows companies to provide younger consumers access to what they want, when they want it and at a reduced cost, said Paco Underhill, founder of New York-based consumer-behavior research and consulting firm Envirosell.
“Renting is something that is in play that wasn’t in play during the Great Depression,” he said. “To a modern generation, ownership isn’t about having it forever, it is about having it when you need to have it,” said Underhill, who has studied shopper behavior… ‘
To read the complete article click HERE
Recession Generation Opts to Rent Not Buy Houses to Cars
By Caroline Fairchild | Bloomberg – Wed, Aug 8, 2012 12:00 AM EDT
‘…”This is a generation that is scared of commitment, wants to be light on their feet and needs to adjust to whatever happens,” said Zukin, who’s researched the effects of the recession on recent college graduates. “What once was seen as a solid investment, like a house or a car, is now seen as a ball and chain with a lot of risk to it.”
One key difference is that technology now allows companies to provide younger consumers access to what they want, when they want it and at a reduced cost, said Paco Underhill, founder of New York-based consumer-behavior research and consulting firm Envirosell.
“Renting is something that is in play that wasn’t in play during the Great Depression,” he said. “To a modern generation, ownership isn’t about having it forever, it is about having it when you need to have it,” said Underhill, who has studied shopper behavior… ‘
To read the complete article click HERE
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
Article on Collaborative Consumption: The Sharing Engine
This article apeared today on The Sharing Engine:
Three interesting companies every startup should pay attention to
Three interesting companies every startup should pay attention to
Posted on August 1, 2012 by lisa
If your thinking of starting your own peer-to-peer sharing site, make sure you are up to date on the latest trends. As
more and more people are connected through the Internet, you need to
make sure you can deliver quality as promised. Our first company on the
list will challenge your startups reputation, but with the right game
plan you will be just fine.
“Public Demand”
Public demand calls them self the “Social Better Business Bureau”. It’s similar to “Causes” and lets users write reports on something that’s bothering them about a company, and then allows other people to hop on the bandwagon.
It is like a structured petition site. Customers can share a story and connect with people who have experienced the same thing, rather than simply complaining on Twitter, where tweets go to die.
So, in the area of the sharing economy and the collaborative consumption, make sure to keep your users happy to make your business afloat.
So far so good? To grow you your business further you need to attract customers and clients. One of the biggest problems for many startups is to know which customers to use money, and resources on. Sqoot is making this process really easy, and will help you to focus your attention the “right” places.
“Sqoot”
The idea behind Sqoot is that more companies are selling digital goods and services to businesses these days. But how can your company know if for example a coffee shop is savvy enough to understand what you’re selling? Sqoot jumps in to give the coffee shop a rating between 1-100 on how savvy the business is.
If the company has a Twitter account and Facebook page, they’d get a higher rating than someone with only a simple website. This will help your business locate the tech friendly companies who may be open to new and interesting solutions.
The last company in this article will help you improve your coworkers information sharing. You probably use Dropbox already, which is really easy. The only problem is that there´s no real way to take notes on the files that you’re sharing
“Groupiter”
The company Groupiter lets you create “change logs” on the fly that pop up an update to those who are parts of a shared folder on Dropbox. This helps you to make sure that everything is up to date. Imagine how much time that could be saved by eliminating conversations around updates on files!
These three companies are interesting because they will help your business in three important ways: “PublicDemand” forces you to constantly think of the customer value, “Sqoot” helps you narrow dawn the list of potential clients, and “Gropiter” improves the internal workflow in your company.
“Public Demand”
Public demand calls them self the “Social Better Business Bureau”. It’s similar to “Causes” and lets users write reports on something that’s bothering them about a company, and then allows other people to hop on the bandwagon.
It is like a structured petition site. Customers can share a story and connect with people who have experienced the same thing, rather than simply complaining on Twitter, where tweets go to die.
So, in the area of the sharing economy and the collaborative consumption, make sure to keep your users happy to make your business afloat.
So far so good? To grow you your business further you need to attract customers and clients. One of the biggest problems for many startups is to know which customers to use money, and resources on. Sqoot is making this process really easy, and will help you to focus your attention the “right” places.
“Sqoot”
The idea behind Sqoot is that more companies are selling digital goods and services to businesses these days. But how can your company know if for example a coffee shop is savvy enough to understand what you’re selling? Sqoot jumps in to give the coffee shop a rating between 1-100 on how savvy the business is.
If the company has a Twitter account and Facebook page, they’d get a higher rating than someone with only a simple website. This will help your business locate the tech friendly companies who may be open to new and interesting solutions.
The last company in this article will help you improve your coworkers information sharing. You probably use Dropbox already, which is really easy. The only problem is that there´s no real way to take notes on the files that you’re sharing
“Groupiter”
The company Groupiter lets you create “change logs” on the fly that pop up an update to those who are parts of a shared folder on Dropbox. This helps you to make sure that everything is up to date. Imagine how much time that could be saved by eliminating conversations around updates on files!
These three companies are interesting because they will help your business in three important ways: “PublicDemand” forces you to constantly think of the customer value, “Sqoot” helps you narrow dawn the list of potential clients, and “Gropiter” improves the internal workflow in your company.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Collaborative Consumption, $100 Billion Industry?
The Wall Street Journal reports that some estimate that the collaborative consumption industry could be worth as much as $100 billion.
In the article by Ben Rooney, Sharing Gains Currency on Internet, he states:
‘…How big the sector will be is anyone’s guess; estimates go as high as $100 billion. U.S. analysts Frost and Sullivan have estimated that just one sector—the car sharing industry in North America—will be worth $3.3 billion by 2016. Last year Airbnb joined the exclusive $1 billion valuation club.
Brent Hoberman of venture capital firm Profounders says this is an attractive market and one in which it has made a number of investments. “It plays in lots of trends; unused assets, people not being as materialistic, and it is also green,” he says.
Of course the idea of people sharing rides or swapping homes is nothing new; what is new is the scale the internet brings to create real companies. But that scale brings its own problems, one of which is liquidity, i.e. having enough buyers and sellers, or borrowers and lenders…”
Read entire article HERE
In the article by Ben Rooney, Sharing Gains Currency on Internet, he states:
‘…How big the sector will be is anyone’s guess; estimates go as high as $100 billion. U.S. analysts Frost and Sullivan have estimated that just one sector—the car sharing industry in North America—will be worth $3.3 billion by 2016. Last year Airbnb joined the exclusive $1 billion valuation club.
Brent Hoberman of venture capital firm Profounders says this is an attractive market and one in which it has made a number of investments. “It plays in lots of trends; unused assets, people not being as materialistic, and it is also green,” he says.
Of course the idea of people sharing rides or swapping homes is nothing new; what is new is the scale the internet brings to create real companies. But that scale brings its own problems, one of which is liquidity, i.e. having enough buyers and sellers, or borrowers and lenders…”
Read entire article HERE
Monday, July 16, 2012
Social Sharing Economy
USA Today talks about America’s new business model: Sharing, By Roger Yu
‘…Americans with heaps of stuff, skills and time are connecting online with tech-savvy and early adopters eager to share and rent homes, cars, tools and services in exchange for deep savings.
Dubbed “collaborative consumption” — or “the sharing economy” — this movement represents the newly cemented intersection of online social networking, mobile technology, the minimalist movement and heightened penny-pinching brought on by lingering economic uncertainties…’
‘…Americans with heaps of stuff, skills and time are connecting online with tech-savvy and early adopters eager to share and rent homes, cars, tools and services in exchange for deep savings.
Dubbed “collaborative consumption” — or “the sharing economy” — this movement represents the newly cemented intersection of online social networking, mobile technology, the minimalist movement and heightened penny-pinching brought on by lingering economic uncertainties…’
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