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Collaborative consumption is an economic practice based on a shared access to goods and services between consumers for monetary or non-monetary benefits. It is a core concept of the Sharing economy. Collaborative consumption leaves classic notions of ownership behind as assets are shared between participants. While Botsman and Rogers have a very positive definition of collaborative consumption stating that it “occurs when people participate in organized sharing, bartering, trading, renting, swapping, and collectives to get the same pleasures of ownership with reduced personal cost and burden, and lower environmental impact”, media scholar Russel W. Belk points out the monetary character of collaborative consumption defining it as “people coordinating the acquisition and distribution of a resource for a fee or other compensation”.

Business experts praise the phenomenon for its efficiency and for unlocking the value of unused or under-utilized assets. The model of collaborative consumption model can be found in online marketplaces such as Craigslist or eBay but also in emerging business sectors such as social lending, peer-to-peer accommodation, peer-to-peer travel experiences, peer-to-peer task assignments or car sharing.

History

Although analog forms of collaborative consumption can be found like resale shops of building material, the phenomenon raise through digital marketplaces. Those marketplaces rely heavily on the network effects of social media. “Collaborative Consumption is rooted in the technologies and behaviours of “Indeed, we believe that people will look back and recognize that Collaborative Consumption started online – by posting comments and sharing files, code, photos, videos and knowledge.”

Since online sharing marketplace Craigslist was founded in 1995, collaborative consumption start-ups and platforms increased value and have become a central part of the economy in Web 2.0. While Web 1.0 still primarily involved one-directional provision of information to consumers, collaborative consumption relies on websites that allow users to contribute content and connect with one and another.

While the economy of the 20th century was still circling around individual ownership and a form of hyper consumption, the sharing economy of the 21st century holds shared access and collaborative consumption as there cornerstones.

Forms of Collaborative Consumption

Although all forms of collaborative consumption involve sharing, there is a distinction between two elementary forms of collaborative consumption. Firstly, there is peer-to-peer sharing, a type of sharing goods that individuals own with other people. Users are encouraged to lend out and also find objects that are unused and free to be borrowed. The second type of sharing in collaborative consumption can be found at companies like ZipCar or Rent The Runway. Here a third party owns a fleet of cars or a certain amount of designer dresses and lents them out to its costumers. Hence, a certain product is being shared but there is no sharing between individual users.

Criticism and Controversies

Its advocates speak out for collaborative consumption not only in terms of business efficiency, but also in terms of a sustainable handling of resources. Product sharing and collaborative models can help conserving natural resources. The concept of “using rather than owning” of products that are material-intensive in the production phase can be optimized by prolonging the use phase via sharing. . However, there are also major concerns with the concept of collaborative consumption. Belk calls collaborative consumption practices forms of “pseudo-sharing”, as the positive connotation of sharing, as something innocent and altruistic is taken to cover up the corporate interests and profits behind the sharing practices.

Another aspect is the trust in collaborative consumption. People still hesitate to share their property like car, house or clothes with other people they don not personally know. This trying to be solved by a rating system of buyers and sellers. But issues of safety and validity are still a major problem for the development of collaborative consumption.

Literature

• Botsman, R. Rogers, R. (2010). What's mine is yours: The rise of collaborative consumption. New York: Harper Business. ISBN 978-0061963544.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Carroll, E. Romano, J. (2011). Your digital afterlife: When Facebook, Flickr and Twitter are your estate, what's your legacy?. Berkeley: New Riders. ISBN 978-0321732286.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Sützl, W. Stadler F. Maier R. Hug, T. (eds.) (2012). Media, Knowledge and Education: Cultures and Ethics of Sharing (PDF). Innsbruck: Innsbruck University Press. ISBN 978-3-902811-74-5. {{cite book}}: |author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)