User:Brian 44/sandbox

Sharing economy, is a term used to describe several practises involving the sharing of knowledge, goods, or services through web 2.0 platforms. Although collaborative consumption and pseudo sharing do not involve sharing, they are often used to describe phenomena occurring in the sharing economy. Due to this broad use of the term sharing within the sharing economy, it is proposed that the 'sharing economy' can be better described as the 'access economy' as it "isn't about sharing at all".

Sharing

Following the definition of sharing by Belk, sharing in a sharing economy can be described as a communal act done by consumers to consumers (C2C) which does not involve ownership, a fee or other types of reimbursement from provider to user. Following this criteria, it is clear that the sharing on AirBnB, BlaBlaCar, and Uber are not 'true' sharing as the company and the provider receive a reimbursement which is paid for by the user. An example of 'true' sharing in an sharing economy can be found in the initiative Couchsurfing wherein users are brought together on a web 2.0 platform and share their accommodation without an obligatory fee or other form of reimbursement to be paid for by the user. Another example is Wikipedia, an online platform wherein users contribute through sharing their knowledge and collaboratively create and maintain an open online accessible encyclopedia.

Types of sharing

There are several types of sharing. For example, sharing can be divided into 'sharing in' and 'sharing out'. Something can be labelled as 'sharing in' when a good, service, or knowledge is shared to family or friends, thus the user and provider have an existing social relationship before the act of sharing occurs. In contrast, 'sharing out' happens when a good, service, or knowledge is openly shared without knowing the user or to someone with whom no pre-existing social relationship is established. This type of sharing often occurs in peer to peer (P2P) networks. Another distinction can be found between 'open sharing' and 'demand sharing'. Whereas 'open sharing' refers to intrinsic motivation by the provider to share the good, service, or knowledge, 'demand sharing' occurs when the good is requested by the user.

Collaborative consumption

Collaborative consumption is often interchangeably used as a type in the sharing economy. However, it does differ on one of the core elements of 'true' sharing as goods, services, or knowledge are not openly shared but only provided when a fee or other type of reimbursement is given. Often collaborative consumption initiatives are profit-driven by either the provider of the good, service, or information and/or the business behind the initiative Examples for a collaborative consumption are AirBnB, BlaBlaCar, and Uber. The use of collaborative consumption under the umbrella of sharing economy is criticised by The Harvard Business Review, and The Financial Times. The Harvard Business Review suggested to use the term 'access economy' instead as a true open market of 'sharing' is disturbed by the company which places itself between the users and providers making the users pay to access someone else's good or service.

Pseudo sharing and gift-giving

Other concepts that might be used as examples for the sharing economy but do not meet the criteria of sharing as proposed by Belk are pseudo sharing and gift-giving. Pseudo sharing portrays itself as communal sharing but in reality is a business to consumer (B2C) relationship wherein a fee is charged. Examples for pseudo sharing can be found in rental companies in the car or real-estate business. Gift-giving is different to sharing as it involves the transfer of ownership from one to another which does not happen in 'true' sharing practices.