Early sharing economy enthusiasts had a clear vision for the peer-to-peer marketplace: path towards sustainability, empowerment of individuals, and new job opportunities for the disadvantaged. However, the sharing economy’s giants such as Uber and Airbnb quickly overtook the marketplace, painting a vastly different picture.
While they provide convenience and efficiency, there’s a price to pay: low wages and job insecurity. As a result, we’ve seen a number of workers across the globe take it to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction with unfair work practices.
And these workers are not just talking the talk; they’ve also started walking it. A number of them united to start or joinplatform cooperatives— platforms owned and governed by the workers, users, or both. While these platforms aim to reinvent Uber and Airbnb by using cooperative principles, they are struggling to get on the radar of consumers. But blockchain is coming to the rescue.
It’s promising to make trust, reputation, and coordination possible without the need for centralized authority. So I wonder, how would the sharing economy world look if it was run by the users, for the users?
The so-called “sharing economy,” pioneered by platforms such as Uber and Airbnb, is a marketplace for exchange of goods and services powered by digital technologies. Platforms bet their fortunes on people’s willingness to share their cars, homes, and even dogs with complete strangers. And it’s paying off. Uber, valued at $48 billion, is currently the second most valued tech startup in the world (behind Didi).
The way platforms earn their money is by connecting individuals to one another. In other words, their competitive advantage lies in their ability to exploit network effects. Meaning, the more users they have on one side of the platform, the more attractive is the platform for users on the other side.
For instance, the more Uber drivers join the platform, the more is the platform attractive for the passengers, and the other way around. Therefore, workers and users are at the core of value creation.
The value created by workers and users on these platforms is, however, captured by the platforms that facilitate transactions. The platforms are going even further to tap into communities and leverage individuals’ skills and talents. Airbnb recently launched “Experiences,” so for every tour guide a person offers or a cooking class he gives,Airbnb takes a 20 percent cut. Airbnb also decides which “experiences” are appropriate. Therefore, platforms not only capture a big chunk of the generated value, they also make decisions that affect communities.
blockchain is promising to level the playing field. If in right hands, it could enable individuals to transact directly with one another without the need for centralized authority, while promising the same, if not superior, security levels. In addition, profits could go back to the community that generated them.
Sounds like a distant dream, doesn’t it? But it’s actually not that far from becoming a reality.
Cooperatives existed since the 19thcentury and in the long-run, they proved to be more successful and resilient to economic crises. Despite this, they’ve never become mainstream. But the sharing economy has given cooperatives a chance to be reborn, this time as platform cooperatives. While they offer alike services to Uber, Airbnb, TaskRabbit, and Bla Bla car, they differ in ideology.
