Abstract:
A shift can be noticed in consumer values from ownership to
access in current times. Network technologies are enabling
whole of communities around the world to achieve more with
very less by swapping, gifting, lending money and sharing
products on a scale never been possible before. It appears
as though the barter system is returning.
This paradigm shift is also transforming business,
consumerism and the way people live for a more sustainable
and fulfilling life. Between ownership and gifting, a
hybrid model of market has emerged, referred to as “sharing
economy”. Coordinated using the online services, a peer to
peer based system allows sharing of goods and services.
There are three main factors driving the sharing of
resources across a variety of services and goods. First, a
host of information technologies have appeared in the
mainstream making it possible for people, networks and
organizations to transact as well as find solutions
directly. Consumers are now quite easily linked to one
another. Second, consumer behavior changes to sharing for
many things they wanted to own once. Third, the mobile
devices remove the hassle of using the online services for
shared resources, for example, apps on the smart phones
come in handy. With the growth in sharing economy, the
Forbes had forecasted that the revenue flow from shared
economy will exceed 4 billion dollars in 2016.
