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New research shows what drives consumers in the collaborative economy

By

Neville Hobson

•

The world of sharing

If you want to know about the collaborative economy and what it may mean for businesses large and small, the man to pay close attention to is Jeremiah Owyang.

The collaborative economy – also variously referred to as the sharing economy, the maker movement, and co-innovation – is a concept that is gaining attention as a viable business method to be considered seriously.

In its simplest form, the collaborative economy is about a consumer using a good or service rather than owning it: you buy access to the good or service for the time when you need it. When you don’t, others make use of it.

Of course, there is far more to the collaborative economy than such a simplistic description, as Owyang makes clear in Sharing Is The New Buying, a new report published today that offers a wealth of credible perspectives on the rise of the collaborative economy in the US, Canada and the UK from 90,000 people questioned to find out how they partake in digital sharing services related to goods, services, transportation, space and money.

The report contains the following sections:

  • Introduction and Executive Summary
  • Breakdown of the three groups of sharing customers
  • Market adoption rates, forecast and growth rates
  • Taxonomy of the market
  • Breakdown by demographic: age, location, political party, marriage status and more
  • Satisfaction rates of sharing services
  • Forecast of future behaviours
  • Recommendations for corporations: market opportunities, and specific departmental impacts

An ex-Forrester and -Altimeter analyst, now founder of and Chief Catalyst at Crowd Companies, Owyang says his latest research has uncovered three distinct types of people who participate in the collaborative economy:

  1. Re-sharers: Those who buy and/or sell pre-owned goods online (for example, on Craigslist or eBay), but have not yet ventured into other kinds of sharing.
  2. Neo-sharers: People who use the newer generation of sharing sites and apps, like Etsy, TaskRabbit, Uber, Airbnb and KickStarter.
  3. Non-sharers: People who have yet to engage in the collaborative economy, although many of these non-sharers intend to try sharing services (in particular, re-sharing sites like eBay) in the next twelve months.

In a world where people can get what they need from each other, how can big brands survive and succeed?

Owyang believes that is the question every business should be asking as the collaborative economy becomes more established and is set to grow, as evidenced in the report.

Like social media before it, Owyang says, sharing will be rapidly adopted because the same technologies that make it easy to share also make it easy to spread the word about the benefits of sharing.

The Collaborative Economy at a glance

While the collaborative economy could disrupt many industries – and, says Owyang, is poised to do so – there is little data available on how many people participate in sharing, who they are, and, most importantly, why they do it.

This report – produced in collaboration with Vision Critical – fills a significant gap in knowledge leading to understanding, offering a picture of the sharers in the collaborative economy and provides important recommendations for businesses that want to win in this new economy.

Sharing Is the New Buying, a 31-page PDF, is available on free download: read it at Slideshare or in the embed below.

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42 responses to “New research shows what drives consumers in the collaborative economy”

  1. Report: Sharing is the New Buying, Winning in the Collaborative Economy | Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Digital Business

    […] Neville Hobson: New research shows what drives the collaborative economy […]

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