The Sharing Economy: How it's Changing Our World
Posted Jul 15, 2016 in Publisher's Page
These days, especially in urban areas, we can find a place to stay through Airbnb.com, get a ride from Uber.com or carpooling.com, have household errands done via taskrabbit.com, arrange for an in-home massage through Zeel.com or get our car valet-parked by Luxe.com.
These internet-based marketplaces are part of what has been coined “the sharing economy.” Rather than getting goods or services from a traditional, centralized company or institution, we get similarly priced goods and services from other individuals mediated by some type of peer-to-peer community.
This type of collaborative consumption is considered more efficient given how infrequently we use some of the goods we own. For example, on average, our car sits idle 95% of the time and when it is used, it’s typically at 20-25% occupancy. In our industry, efficient usage is one reason why laboratory owners offer outsourcing services: one laboratory has a milling machine with excess capacity; another...
