The term “sharing economy” refers to the use of information technology to make it easier for two or more persons to exchange products or services. Sharing a good or service has a long history, dating back to the barter system that human groups employed for thousands of years prior to the invention of money. Nowadays, consumers rent a variety of products that they only occasionally need, including automobiles, skis, tools, gardening equipment, and many more.

History of the Sharing Economy

Around the period of the Great Recession of 2007–2009, the first real sharing platforms started to emerge thanks to easier access to the internet and mobile technology. Although many sharing economy businesses have failed since then, the sharing economy has expanded quickly. Notwithstanding these setbacks, the sharing economy has a promising future. The sharing economy is immensely varied, and businesspeople are finding new market niches and developing new business models to fill them. The sharing economy market sectors that currently and in the near future will make up the majority of the market are listed below:

Mobility sharing is the practice of using a vehicle (such as a car, bicycle, or other low-speed form of transportation) with others in order to give users with temporary access to transportation as needed.

Person-to-person (P2P) finance: This type of financing connects individual funders with consumers over the internet, cutting out traditional financial intermediaries like banks and insurance firms. Lemonade, Lending Club, and AngelList are a few examples.

Vacation rentals and room sharing: These options let visitors book short-term vacation lodging directly from the real estate owner through their website or mobile app.

Examples are HomeAway and Airbnb.

What innovations await?

Coworking: Allows employees from different businesses or organizations to share office space, saving money and providing convenience by using shared tools, utilities, and receptionist and cleaning services. The Wing and WeWork are two examples.

Online talent platforms: These platforms match specific, temporary job opportunities, or “gigs,” with independent contractors, consultants, or other outsourced or non-permanent labor. Freelancer.com, TaskRabbit, and Fiverr are a few examples.

Healthcare sharing: Provides on-demand access to medical specialists through telemedicine and, in certain situations, face-to-face consultations. American Well, Cohealo, and Kindara are a few examples.

P2P rentals of consumer goods: Uses a P2P car-sharing concept to rent out items like tools, furniture, cameras, and clothing. Examples are Rent-Instead and StitchFix.

Fresh Possibilities in the Sharing Economy

As business owners and investors create new business models, the sharing economy will continue to expand into new markets. 

Electricity sharing is one of the sharing economy’s most exciting potentials. Communities can be formed by people who get their electricity from a variety of sources, such as solar panels, wind turbines, and more traditional sources, to share energy with one another and their local utility company. Utility firms may benefit from energy sharing if it reduces the grid’s load from erratic renewable power. These utility firms could have a variety of responsibilities in energy-sharing schemes. Utility businesses will be necessary for the energy distribution network in sharing communities. Utility firms may also be required by the communities to act as the sharing systems’ organizers. 

Conclusion 

Such communities that share electricity already exist as examples. Participants can “join in a sustainable energy network and choose their chosen energy sources, locally” thanks to the Brooklyn Microgrid (BMG). Energy transactions can be made using BMG, a blockchain-enabled platform, through an online marketplace. Energy corporations, solar communities, consumers at home and at work, and prosumers at home and at work are all participants. The biggest takeaway for 2023 appears to be that the sharing economy will become almost entirely an online phenomena.