Collaborative Economy - Concept
Definition
By the Collaborative Economy Coalition
"Collaborative Consumption, originally coined by Rachel Botsman in her transformative book What’s Mine is (Y)ours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption, is an economic model that leverages communities or crowds to rent, share, swap, barter, trade, or sell access to products or services." (http://www.collaborativeeconomycoalition.org/what-is-the-collaborative-economy/)
Typology
According to the Collaborative Economy Coalition, there are "Different Types of Collaborative Platforms":
Peer-to-Peer
P2P business models allow everyday citizens to rent, sell and share their homes, cars, bikes and services. These platforms allow families to create income out of otherwise non-producing assets, while giving consumers an alternative to services that are otherwise prohibitively expensive for them. Some P2P platforms allow consumers to directly buy professional creative and logistical services, while others empower citizens to give loans and startup capital to aspiring small businesspeople across America and the developing world.
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing platforms create a pure competitive marketplace for creative talent and services. These platforms allow consumers to easily announce their creative or logistical needs to the crowd, and then choose the highest quality and most competitively priced submission.
Collaborative online markets
Online marketplaces provide individuals access to globalization. Some online markets like Etsy provide a platform for consumers to buy directly from small businesses and artisans, allowing those small businesses to scale up their production and compete with mega-retailers. Other platforms allow consumers to sell, rent, and buy pre-owned goods, thus creating cashflow for families and a market for affordable items.
Group Purchasing Platforms
Some collaborative models use technology to allow consumers to leverage group bargaining and increase their purchasing power by connecting consumers with similar interests. These models aim to create perfect equilibrium of supply and demand, allowing small businesses to scale their businesses rapidly while also providing consumers the most competitive prices possible." (http://www.collaborativeeconomycoalition.org/what-is-the-collaborative-economy/)