The collaborative economy as a response to the crisis. The concept of sharing versus the concept of ownership. Here's how, even in Italy, the sharing economy is taking hold.
Some regard it as an epoch-making shift, a paradigm change: from owning an object to sharing its use. The economic crisis and the scarcity of available resources have played their part, but so has what can be described as a cultural — almost generational — shift: values such as environmental and economic sustainability, saving money and new technologies have given rise to a new type of economy, which in the three-year period 2010–2013 alone saw triple-digit growth (source: Sharitaly).
The idea of sharing can today be extended to an ever-growing range of goods and services. It spans cars and bicycles. Land and professional skills. Office space and flats in major cities. According to what emerged at the first event dedicated to the phenomenon of the collaborative economy, there are around 160 exchange and sharing platforms, around 40 self-production initiatives and around 60 crowding initiatives. There is the sharing of goods, services and information, but also peer-to-peer barter, and ever-growing practices such as crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.
Who the users are. Who are the people making use of these platforms — often digital ones? According to recent research commissioned by BlaBlaCar and Airbnb — two of the best examples to illustrate the phenomenon — from Ipsos, 75% of respondents had heard of the sharing economy, while one in three is interested in using it. The average user is between 18 and 34 years old, university-educated, from all parts of Italy and from the middle or upper class. Of these, as many as 86% have changed their consumption habits in recent times. As a result, modes of consumption such as ride sharing, home sharing, bike sharing and co-working have established themselves.
"While the crisis and the need to balance the household budget have certainly made sharing practices more attractive, the economic lever, though paramount, is not the only driver behind the spread of the phenomenon," explains Fabio Era, Senior Researcher, Ipsos Public Affairs. "Novelty and innovation, sociability, and also the environmental sustainability and ethics implicit in sharing goods and services, are the emerging factors that can sustain the sharing economy once the crisis has passed."
The examples that work. This is therefore not simply a matter of economics. Take the case of BlaBlaCar, a platform that offers the possibility of sharing a car, especially on long journeys. As the very name of the service suggests, the added value lies in the opportunity to socialise during the trip and forge connections, combined with flexible scheduling and, above all, financial savings. "Travelling together is a simple and effective solution for drastically cutting travel costs, with an eye to environmental sustainability," comments Olivier Bremer, country manager of BlaBlaCar for Italy.
Airbnb's figures are also on the rise. The platform, born in the United States, is today a point of reference in Italy for those who want to rent homes and apartments with complete peace of mind, both in terms of quality and reliability of service. "Since its inception, Airbnb has placed great emphasis on the uniqueness of the experiences and accommodation on offer. Safety is one of the key aspects for us," says Matteo Stifanelli, Country Manager Airbnb Italia. "Airbnb offers a guarantee to those who make their home available, a customer support service active 24 hours a day in 16 languages, to make the community as safe and trustworthy as possible. Paying through the platform also means there is no risk of unpleasant surprises."
More cautious is Mario A. Maggioni, Full Professor of Economic Policy at the Università Cattolica di Milan: "The collaborative economy is an interesting phenomenon for economists, because it brings together many of the hallmarks of great innovations: a technological one (in this case, intensive use of mobile), a social one (the spread of social media) and a media one that — as often happens — tends to exaggerate its revolutionary character. Like all innovations, the sharing economy too records very high growth rates in its initial phase, which then necessarily slow down; it sees the participation of a number of small independent players, who are subsequently supplanted by a handful of large oligopolistic ones; and lastly, it does not entail an anthropological revolution whereby one can simply 'trust strangers'. Even Airbnb bases the success of its business model on an insurance policy (taken out with Lloyds) that covers potential damage caused by guests up to 700,000 euros."
For now, there are many collaborative initiatives that are working in our country. In addition to those already mentioned, services such as Gnammo, Flubes and Vicinidicasa, all gathered in turn on the Collaboriamo.org platform, are recording positive trends. "Collaborative consumption and the collaborative economy are changing the way we live, work and consume, to create a more sustainable future," explains April Rinne, one of the world's leading experts on the collaborative economy. "These new models are transforming entire sectors — such as transport, tourism and education — and hold great promise for innovative businesses, entrepreneurs and public administrations."