Sharing economy vs market economy ?
We are expected to believe that the sharing economy is the opposite of a market economy. Yet, the global sharing economy could hit US$ 335 billion by 2025. These impressive figures concern the peer-to-peer lending or accommodation, the crowdfunding but also the car or music and video sharing. It is true that a number of platforms promoting the movement of goods and services have an " ecological fragrance ". But it is also a fact that the most successful platforms such as Uber and Airbnb, with an estimated value of US$ 18 billion and 10 billion respectively, are businesses that are capital-intensive and which objectives are clearly to dominate their marketplace. If we take the example of Uber which launched a frontal assault on the Taxi sector, the company is expected to hit an annual revenue run rate of US$ 10 billion by the end of 2015 (Business Insider). It should also be remembered that the dazzling development of these companies is an effect of the financial crisis which spread around the world. Today's consumers are looking for the best prices on the market and the concept of shared goods or services is rarely a priority. In passing this new sharing economy is at times based on evading regulations especially labor law and taxes. Obviously, these excesses can be corrected. In fact we are far from a real sharing economy but rather in a quickly-changing economy with access to goods and services always cheaper. And finally, we can be confident that these new capital-intensive industries with considerable technological means will certainly become tomorrow's monopolies.
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