The Sharing Economy: transforming 21st century business
The emergence of the Sharing Economy – an umbrella term for a range of activities transacted over online platforms – is transforming 21st century business. Disruptive business models include: on-demand (Uber), rental (Airbnb), gig (TaskRabbit), access (Spotify), collaboration (WeWork), platforms (Amazon), circular (ThredUP) and peer-topeer (Lufax). These tech-focused models are unlocking the value of unused and underused assets, driving a shift from asset-heavy to asset-light businesses and enabling access over ownership. Consumers are driving adoption as they hit “peak stuff”, embracing a “shift to thrift” and the “experience economy”. Some 72% of Americans have already used 1+ Sharing Economy service, and two-thirds of consumers worldwide are willing to share or rent out their personal assets. Millennials and Gen Z (5x more likely to share than Boomers) and EMs (600mn involved in China) are key drivers.
The full text of this article is available to MacroBusiness subscribers
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
