Sharing economy

Sharing economy (also known as shareconomy or collaborative consumption) is a hybrid market model (in between owning and gift giving) which refers to peer-to-peer-based sharing of access to goods and services (coordinated through community-based online services). The concept is not new. The sharing of resources is for example well known in business-to-business (B2B) like machinery in agriculture and forestry as well as in business-to-consumer (B2C) like self-service laundries. But three major drivers enable sharing of resources for a broad variety of new goods and services as well as new industries. First, customer behaviour for many goods and services changes from ownership to sharing. Second, online social networks and electronic markets more easily link consumers. And third, mobile devices and electronic services make the use of shared goods and services more convenient (e.g. smartphone app instead of physical key).