AirBNB Flooded With Commercial Interests Time recently published an article lamenting that the share economy, otherwise known as the ‘peer-to peer-economy’ is being co-opted by the“interests of venture capital and its insatiable demands for rapid growth and high-value exit-strategies.” The share economy has given commercial credibility to the citizen over the corporation, as disruptive technologies “blows up the industrial model of companies owning and people consuming, and allows everyone to be both consumer and producer”. AirBnB, a platform that lets consumers rent from their peers, is now being used by landlords to buy up property for that very purpose, and consequently driving up land values and rents through gentrification.This is a growing problem in other areas of the online marketplace, as tech start-ups designed for the share economy are being encroached by commercial interests looking to increase their own profit margins. According to Time, TaskRabbit, a platform designed to outsource skilled tasks to people in your local community, has become “a glorified temping agency leaving its participants in the same precarious boat as those on zero-hours contracts”.This poses a great problem to freelancers or ‘digital nomads’, who depend on these tech platforms that enable remote working as their main source of income. Freelancers now have to compete with agencies and professional contract winners masquerading as freelancers, who often flip the job they’ve won by re-advertising the job at a lower price. As a result the job is done for a fraction of the price paid by the hirer, and businesses begin to lose faith in seeking online freelancers for quality work.There is nothing wrong with businesses looking to tap into the online marketplace to remain sustainable and competitive, however it should not be done in a way that will disenfranchise citizens looking to participate in the share economy. For example, several car manufacturers have responded to the threat posed by car sharing start-ups by launching their own car sharing services. Ford recently launched its FORD2GO service in Germany, and BMW entered the market with a premium car sharing service called ‘DrivenNow’ in Germany and San Francisco.The growing risk of online marketplaces being flooded with commercial interests and vested interests masquerading as skilled workers will only seek to create further inequality between the citizen and the corporation. Corporations can opt to participate in the share economy in a positive way, and smart businesses will inevitably find innovative and more sustainable ways of connecting with consumers.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Oct 2014 11:21:49 +0000
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