While still in private beta, we began to speak to potential clients from all over the world. We discussed their idea for a sharing economy marketplace and how using Near Me, they could be empowered to finally create it. It was clear very early on, that sharing was more than a local San Francisco way-of-life “trend”. People are sharing and it’s happening all over the world.
From Asia to Europe to South America to Canada, we’re seeing something that connects us all--the same way social media first connected us. Back to when we could see video uploads or status updates from our friends across the world, there’s now a part two to that story. We started sharing on social media and were fascinated by it and now we’re sharing within the sharing economy--sharing physically--and do you know the best part? It’s not new.
Sharing is all around--we inherently do it everyday and millions of people do it every day.
Jeremiah Owyang’s recent report with Crowd Companies and Vision Critical stated there are 10 million sharers in Canada, 80 million in the U.S. and 23 million in the UK. But is that accurate?
People share all the time--but they share with their neighbors and friends. From lending a ride because you’re the only one with a car in your family or feeding the neighbor’s kid because his or her parent is working late or sending a piece of cake to the widow up the street who couldn’t make it to the party, it’s clear it’s in us. We’re just making it more prevalent with access and technology--strengthening trust and communication on a new channel.
Most of the conversations we’re having are for basic marketplaces--food, home rentals, educational resources, etc. These are real-life marketplaces. They’re simple and practical. We are just speeding up the process so people can find and get what they’re looking for--faster. Now, people can search for exactly what they want and even expand their reach by connecting to people in other neighborhoods, towns or countries to find it. The neighborhood just got bigger.
The best part about this global sharing economy? It gives everyone the opportunity to be an entrepreneur. The sharing economy gives ACCESS to entrepreneurs to reach a broader audience as more people engage in the sharing economy and it gives ACCESS to the users with the experiences and resources often not available because of financial abilities or exclusivity. ANYONE can rent a Tesla on GetAround. Anyone can sign up for SkillSharing and learn to code. Anyone can rent a boat for a weekend. There’s no club or status to obtain. Yes, money is needed---but it’s a lot less expensive to rent a boat than it is to buy one and renting a Tesla is a lot less expensive than buying one.
The “sharing economy” is just a fancy phrase for taking what’s been happening all over the world for centuries into the digital space. Basically, the old “there’s an app for that” phrase is completely applicable here and it’s time to transition the world to use technology to share. It’s possible and just like a took some time to get over 1 billion people on Facebook, it will take some time to get everyone sharing using technology. But we’re ready for it.
It’s never been easier to start a sharing economy company than today. The sharing economy opens the doors to creative entrepreneurs to look at their community and ask, what do people have and what do people need? A common thread between the entrepreneurs and brands that come our way are that they are tech savvy and innovative. They have observed their communities and have taken note of what changes need to be made or what people need.
By sharing what we learned through our flagship product,
DesksNear.Me, we can guide entrepreneurs in the right direction. We created a marketplace to learn and grow from so that our entrepreneurs and brands don’t have to waste their time doing so.
Where are you located and what does the sharing economy look like there? What sharing economy sites do you use?
(This blog post was previously posted on
AskforTask.)
