The sharing economy is a phenomenon visible to everyone, and even those who don't know its exact definition are probably already making use of a service offered by the new platforms built on collaborative consumption.

Services of various kinds — from apartment sharing to swapping second-hand equipment and clothing — are being used more and more in Italy too: according to a census by Collaboriamo.org from last year, there are 97 platforms in Italy dedicated to sharing goods, services or skills, plus another 41 crowdfunding platforms (for the co-financing of projects) — although some of these have run into legal difficulties.

2015 was then described as the boom year for the sharing economy: Time included it among the 10 ideas that will change the world and, according to a study by PwC, its turnover in 2013 was 15 billion dollars (and will reach 335 billion by 2025).

CC Alan Levine

One of the areas where the collaborative economy made its first experiments and gained ground most quickly is transport (car sharing and carpooling): car sharing was included in the latest update to the Istat basket of goods — a genuine revolution, given that it replaces the sat nav, the hi-fi system and the DVD recorder. Meanwhile, more and more Italians are opting for shared cars for medium and long-distance journeys.

The strength of these services lies in sharing, reuse and more conscious consumption: splitting the cost of a journey or swapping a room in your home with a tourist saves money, but above all it represents an alternative way of consuming, which can include meeting new people. It is precisely this last characteristic that underpins the new platform ClubSharing, the carpooling service for sharing the journey and a passion for concerts.

How many times have you wanted to go to a concert, but none of your friends were interested? The result: either you gave up on the concert or you went alone and disheartened. With this kind of service, by contrast, you can easily find travel companions who share the same interests — musical ones, at the very least.

ClubSharing is, in fact, a "fun ride sharing" project where young people and not-so-young people can search for and share a car ride with others to reach venues and major events, allowing not only the sharing of travel costs, but also the meeting of music lovers and the sharing of the concert experience.

The idea for the project came from a "social" and environmental/logistical need: the need to be able to go to a concert with company, even when you have no car and no friends to go with, splitting the transport costs and having a positive impact on the traffic to reach the concert and on parking.

Benedetta Solari of the ClubSharing team tells us, adding:

Our mission is to promote a culture of shared mobility for events, with a significant impact in terms of energy saving: fewer cars on the road, less traffic, fewer parking headaches, less pollution, shared costs and a sharing experience on every level, including the most personal one.

The service is free and peer-to-peer: it is the users themselves who offer and seek lifts from one another (no third-party vehicles are used). ClubSharing is currently active mainly in the greater Milan area, but the startup was selected as one of the seven winning projects in the second call for young entrepreneurs run by FabriQ, the social innovation incubator of the City of Milan, and its founders Stefano Mangiola, Luca Confalonieri and Matteo Salodini intend to roll it out across the whole of Italy.