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Chapter 3 Sharing Economy

3.1 The sharing economy evolution

The sharing economy (sometimes also referred to as the peer-to-peer economy, mesh, collaborative
economy or collaborative consumption) is a socio-economic system built around the sharing of human
and physical resources. It includes the shared creation, production, distribution, trade and consumption
of goods and services by different people and organisations. These systems take a variety of forms, often
leveraging information technology to empower individuals, corporations, non-profits and government with
information that enables distribution, sharing and reuse of excess capacity in goods and services.
A common premise is that when information about goods is shared, the value of those goods may
increase, for the business, for individuals, and for the community.

The term “shared economy” began to appear in the early 2000s, as an answer to the economic recession,
that requested new business structures that would enable social technologies and propose solution to the
growing awareness around world population about the exhaustion of resources.

Sharing economy companies and services have provided new ways for people to purchase, use, and reuse
everyday products. While the term was initially used to define peer to peer sharing services, these days the
term is broadly used to refer to online marketplaces that allow users to bid on and offer any kind of good
or service. Along with adding competition and more accessible marketplaces, sharing economy services
have helped foster more integrated communities that share products and resources with each other. The
sharing economy has redefined the way we think about services, belongings, and property, creating a new
economic model which focuses on sharing rather than ownership.

In the last years many platforms have reached scale and developed to some extent not fully regulated;
a main point voiced by disrupted incumbents and critics is, in fact, that they are benefitting from
a regulatory arbitrage.