The sharing economy has not really started yet

In fact, sharing itself does not necessarily create value. More efficient use of resources is the original intention of sharing. Car sharing, which is gradually becoming popular in European and American countries, is closer to the essence of sharing. If all walks of life follow suit, the concept of wasting resources will be weakened accordingly, which may eventually affect the social form.

As a commercial company, scale expansion is the first priority. In order to meet service standards, many sharing economy companies can only adopt traditional employment models to ensure that consumers receive guaranteed services. Therefore, many people believe that the sharing economy has nothing to do with social form and is just a business trend.

Sharingeconomymeans“peoplerenteachother’sitemsorservices.”Infact,thisisnotanewconcept.ItwasproposedbyanAmericansociologyprofessorasearlyas1978.However,inrecentyears,withthepromotionofventurecapital,ithassuddenlybecomethefocus.Atpresent,thisidea,whichisverymeaningfulfromaneconomicandsociallevel,hasbeentransformedintoapurecapitalroutine.

Thecoreofthiswaveofsharingeconomicactivitiesisthebusinessmodelconstruction

involvingtechnologyandventurecapital.

Sharinghasneverbeenthefocus,havingagoodbusinessmodelisthecore.EarlyrentalplatformssuchasShareSomeSugar,SnapgoodsandNeighborGoodswerealllabeledas”successfulstartups”,butnocompanysuccessfullymademoneythroughitsbusinessmodel.Piggybee,aBelgiansharingeconomycompanythatallowstravelersaroundtheworldtohelpdeliveritems,isstillunabletoswitchfromfreetopaidoperationsafterfouryearsofoperation.

Infact,ordinarypeopledon’tcareaboutsharingatall,theyjustwantreliableproducts,servicesandrelativelycheapprices.Whenmostpeoplecomeintocontactwiththesesharingeconomyplatforms,itismostlybecausetheywanttoearnextramoneyorobtaingoodsandservicesatcheaperprices.Sharinghasneverbeentheirfirstconsideration.Mostoftheplatformsthattrulypracticesharingfaceoperatingdifficultiesbecausetheycannotattractenoughpayingusers;whilecompanieswithhugeincomes,suchasUberandAirbnb,havelongdeviatedfromtheoriginalintentionofsharingintheiroperatingmethods.

Thetermsharingeconomyitselfisfullofcontradictions.Ifthefocusisontheactionofsharing,itshouldbeanon-commercial,socialinteractionbetweenpeople.Thereisnodoubtthatthesearesocialactivitiesoutsidethe”marketeconomy”.

AlthoughthiswaveofsharingeconomicactivitiesisinherentlysimilartothevaluecreationconceptoftheInternetplatform,itInanarrowsense,itscoreistheconstructionofbusinessmodelsinvolvingtechnologyandventurecapital.Forinvestors,long-termsocialeffectsarenottheircoreconcernafterall,andtheaccumulationofcapitalisitscorelogic.So,whataretheadvantagesofbuildingaplatformtomatchidleresourcesanddemand,andextractingcommissionsfromit,comparedtothepastbusiness?Theanswer,toputitbluntly,isverysimple.Itliesinthesharpdeclinein”fixedcapital”.Theactivationandutilizationofidleassetsisactuallyakindof”leasing”.

Therefore, this type of transaction will soon see a trend, that is, professional rent collectors will soon enter the platform and become the main operators. This is not at all an ideal picture of the sharing economy—the proportion of true “share your own home” cases on Airbnb is less than 3%. In order to solve the problem of service quality on the sharing economy platform, the most direct way is to control the service providers on the platform so that these people have stable service quality. This caused a lot of controversy. Therefore, an Uber or Didi driver is actually more like an employee than a freelance worker. The reason for this is entirely because the popularity of cars has naturally created a large number of drivers who can be “hired” in society, and the platform then obtains remuneration from them after matching transactions. We have seen Uber being cracked down or banned in many countries. The fundamental reason is that the role of the platform has been replaced by large companies with capital and technology. To a certain extent, this wave of sharing economy still embodies the conventional mechanism of monopoly brought about by the free market.

Are shared services provided by individuals or companies? Large-scale sharing economy companies have a common logic: they only provide platforms, and the workers who provide services to them are not regular employees, so they are not responsible for problems that arise during service provision. However, as the degree of monopoly increases, more and more workers are actually working full-time for a certain platform, and the profits obtained by the company are not the same.There are millions of unused vehicles parked on the road in the dead of night. For the sake of efficiency, economy and environmental protection, forward-looking governments should use the power of science and technology and innovation to promote the development of related fields as soon as possible.

However, the successful experience of both Uber and shared bicycles once again proves the network effect of sharing platforms. When the number of outlets and participants on the platform increases significantly, its value will go beyond linear growth and show exponential growth. If the platform is delayed in reaching critical scale, its value growth may even be lower than linear growth, and users may leave the platform due to inconvenience, leading to the eventual disintegration of the platform.

The development of science and technology may be the main reason for the development of the sharing economy, or it may be the catalyst. But to realize the ideal of the sharing economy, more sharing platforms and the joint promotion of the whole society are needed.

How to formulate and establish laws, ethics and even industrial thinking related to the sharing economy will be a major challenge for the future development of the sharing economy. Let us hope that the sharing economy will come true soon.

(Original title: The sharing economy has not really begun yet)

(Editor: DF319)