Sharing skills, knowledge, rooms, cars, even sofas, is increasingly common thanks to the internet and, above all, to apps that allow us to connect with peers who live near us with certain guarantees (their reputation is valued by the entire community). community).
At the same time that goods and services cost us cheaper because intermediaries are eliminated, in this way a model of subscription to goods and services is also being imposed over the traditional model of ownership.
Although it is true that there are still some intermediaries between the users of various platforms that serve to share goods and services, they only keep a small part of the transaction between users because the fixed costs are very low and the marginal cost of each operation additional is practically nil . This is what, for example, happens with Airbnb or HomeAway , which connect millions of people with homes or rooms for rent with their potential clients around the world.
In this way, Airbnb has been able to reach the same level as the large hotel chains. Couchsurfing , one of its competitors that provides free mutual accommodation among its users, does not even obtain direct benefits from each operation, it only offers those who wish to do so the option of paying a registration fee.
Thanks to this system of sharing economy or circular economy that is exponentially favored by 2.0, new services are flourishing to share or rent practically everything, emphasizing the subscription modality : a monthly or annual fee to access a whole catalog of items or services.
So you can rent toys (Baby Plays, Rent That Toy !, Spark Box Toys), clothes and accessories (Rent The Runaway, I-Ella, Avelle, Tie Society), recycled products (The Freecycle Network, ThredUP), technology (Yerdle ), home gardens (SharedEarth) or vehicles (SocialCar, Turo), among others.
You can also share your own money, in the form of microcredits that we give to people who we think deserve or need it. This is what platforms such as the Grameen Bank or “Bank of the Poor”, created by the Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus , or Kiva , allow people from poor countries who need small amounts of money to open or maintain your business with collaborators from richer countries.
There is even Shareable, a publication that reports on the advances in this type of economy of sharing or collaborative commons .
In addition to reducing costs, these initiatives make it easier to consume less, which has a positive impact on the environment. It is also recycled more. Only in the act of car sharing, the figures can be spectacular: for each shared vehicle, 15 private vehicles stop circulating . As if that were not enough, the retailers themselves will pollute less because, in order to satisfy the demand for products that last long to be shared again and again by their users, their quality and durability will be improved. That will significantly reduce the amount of garbage because less will be wasted.
By 2025, the sharing economy will represent more than $ 335 billion. In Spain, these companies account for between 1% and 1.4% of total GDP, but by 2025 they will account for almost 2.9% .
