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

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…’