Zipcar, Uber, AirBnB. Companies we’re familiar with now, but were unimaginable years ago. What they have in common is they are all part of the new Peer Inc model which is about sharing physical resources by using these platforms. In Peers Inc, Robin Chase shares her experience starting Zipcar and how the internet has changed the way we do business. The reason Robin Chase co-founded Zipcar is because she found that many urban dwellers, including herself, do not need to own a car on a full-time basis. With Zipcar, they can rent a car for as little as a few hours at a time and do the renting through a user friendly platform.
Many of us have excess capacity that we often don’t think about. If you drive your car to and from work by yourself, you have three passenger seats frequently unused and perhaps 20+ hours when your car is parked each day. Your guest bedroom is occupied occasionally when people visit from out of town but is mostly unused. The power of Peers (individuals) combined with the power of Inc (corporations) makes it possible for property to be a shared resource rather than individually owned.
As we look into the future, the vision is not one where machines replace humans. It is one where machines and humans work together. Our devices are the platforms but we are still needed to determine different ways of using these platforms and we make the decision about whether a solution, such as Zipcar,appeals to us or not. And for it to work, it needs to be simple. Complicated solutions decrease the appeal for both the Peers and the Incs.
Airbnb appeals to homeowners who can use a little extra income to pay for their place, often in an urban area. It also appeals to travelers who want an option beyond the standard hotel room. Rather than a number of isolated individuals trying to coordinate this, Airbnb provides a platform where these transactions can easily happen in a central location. Airbnb saw the capacity in extra rooms and developed the technology to make these connections happen.
Platforms have also expanded opportunities for us to learn from each other. Telemedicine not only provides assistance to patients regardless of geography; it also enables doctors to connect with each other. Patients can also connect because of these platforms. For example, HelpAround is a platform specific for people with diabetes and enables them to support each other through an online community.
As great as these ideas are, none of them happened overnight. First, there needs to be identification of a problem worth solving rather than creating solutions for people who don’t believe they need them. Also, while new platforms generally open to anyone initially, some measures have to be put in place to monitor who uses them. For example, someone who doesn’t take care of the Zipcar they rented would not be able to use the service in the future. With Airbnb, travelers can rate their hosts and hosts can rate the travelers so the community contributes to the operation and guidelines for participating. Through the development and use of the platforms, both sides are important so there’s a need to be cognizant of any shifts in power. Individuals need the creators of these platforms and the people who created them need interested individuals to participate.
So where does that leave us? As we embrace these new platforms, we need to guard against a model that builds wealth only for a small minority and instead distributes wealth. Growth in business for one entity will impact others. As Airbnb grows its user base, it could lead to some hotels going out of business. Zipcar and Uber can negatively impact taxi drivers. In these scenarios, these new efficiencies could result in fewer jobs. To ensure success, everyone needs to consider what an economy looks like that is becoming collaborative and community focused. The collaborative economy isn’t going away. The question remains of how people will participate in it.
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