While it’s hard to believe that yet another year is over, it has certainly been an amazing one for collaborative consumption! The Sharing Economy has received a lot of buzz and energy from both the press and the global community since the early months of 2013 and it hasn’t stopped since. Since the launch of the new lucystaqueria.com in April, we have had hundreds of additions to the Collaborative Consumption Directory, and so many fantastic career opportunities on our newly launched Job Board. We are seeing a lot of great new entrants in the industry, with no sign of slowing down. We are thrilled to share the stories of these companies and the entrepreneurs driving them through our Collaborative Pioneer Series. Over this time, we’ve realised two things—it’s the people that are the magic ingredients of startups, not just the technology, and also the best startups operate in constant beta mode and are always learning from their experiences. There’s always something to improve on, which is inspiring to keep in mind for 2014!
We’ve kept our ear to the ground and shared with you amazing stories from our global curators, partners and the best of collaborative consumption on the web. We’ve learned more about the potential of Shareable Cities, the variety of Sharing Economy Definitions and more on the ins and out of managing marketplaces from our friends at Balanced Payments.
The Collaborative Consumption Team would like to thank our wonderful Curators, partners and supporters for their efforts and enthusiasm this year. 2013 was a great year for all things Collaborative, but we know things will continue to get better in 2014!
Highlights of collaborative consumption in 2013
January
Press: Triple Pundit launches the Rise of the Sharing Economy Series, publishing more than 70 stories about the growing movement, including our Market Wrap for 2012, highlighting the big collaborative consumption funding rounds of the previous year.
February
Press: Brian Chesky shares his experience on building the mother of all sharing economy companies, Airbnb, via Forbes: Airbnb And The Unstoppable Rise of the Share Economy.
March
Press: The Economist cover story, The Rise of Sharing Economy-On the internet, everything is for hire, establishes that peer-to-peer rental vs. ownership is the new norm. We agree!
Closure: We were sad to see our friends at Whipcar close their London-based P2P car rental service, but are excited to see what they do next.
April
Conference: Mesh 2013, a gathering and sharing economy cultural immersion, was held in the collaborative consumption epicentre of San Francisco.
Launch: We were thrilled to release the beautiful new Collaborative Consumption website, an international media hub on collaborative consumption fuelled by our network of 30 Global Curators. It now has a job board and a global company directory, and there are big plans in store for 2014.
May
Conference: Ouishare Fest is the first major international event dedicated to the collaborative economy. The three day festival, held in Paris, brought together entrepreneurs, economists, investors, politicians and collaborative consumption fans from around Europe and the world.
June
Conference: The theme for this year’s Le Web Conference in London was the sharing economy. Major players in the industry such as Etsy, Airbnb, Lending Club and Kickstarter shared their experiences with the tech-savvy crowd.
Resolution: A landmark occasion, the Shareable Cities Resolution was passed in 15 US States, with mayors resolving to make their cities more shareable, encourage better understanding of the sharing economy, and create local task forces to review and address regulations that may hinder participation in the sharing economy.
Event: Global Sharing Day, held on June 2, a campaign by People Who Share, was launched to encourage conversations between people who share to make it more fun and enjoyable.
Launch: CC Korea, partnering with Seoul City, launched ShareHub. The website delivers sharing movement news in Korea and around the world to Korean speaking readers. It organises a number of events and programs to promote sharing culture in Korea in 2013.
July
Launch: We celebrated the launch of Peers, a community organisation which helps the passionate sharing economy community mobilise around important issues to help the space go mainstream.
August
TV: Collaborative Consumption’s Lauren Anderson appeared on Australian breakfast television talking about how to Rent Out Your Life.
Guide: Share Sydney an A-Z guide of Sydney’s collaborative consumption activity, was released by TimeOut Magazine, in conjunction with the City of Sydney.
September
Regulation: A landmark ruling for ridesharing companies was passed by California Public Utilities Commission, creating the first legal framework for ridesharing in the state of California.
October
Regulation:Airbnb faces regulation challenges in New York, which sparks a global debate about the merits peer-to-peer accommodation.
November
Thinking:Rachel Botsman gives clarity to the increasingly confusing terms of the space in an article published on FastCo.Exist – The Sharing Economy Lacks a Shared Definition.
December
Market: Ridesharing industry competition escalates to a new level with revenue leaks and industry growth articles, while European companies are seeing a strengthening of the community with a 99% retention rate.
What were your highlights for 2013? What do you hope to see happen in 2014 for collaborative consumption? We would love to hear your thoughts.
I came to your website via a link elsewhere and know nothing about who/what you are but am very interested to know more. How about having an ‘About’ page on your site to give those who don’t have a clue what Collaborative Consumption is a resume to start from?
Hi Helen,
Here’s our About page ? http://www.lucystaqueria.com/about/
Thanks Rachel, April and team — not only for a great year of bringing Collaborative Consumption to the attention of a broad global audience, but also for helping to bring clarity to how we think about it and empowering people everywhere to enhance the wellbeing of people, communities, cities and companies via this exciting new value exchange mechanism. (BTW, this year-end post will be shared throughout my company as its a great resource for people who want a convenient one-stop location for developing a richer understanding of something that spent 2013 evolving from a buzz word to a more sustainable and egalitarian form of capitalism.)
Hi Tom,
Thanks for your kind words. Makes working on CC even more worthwhile ?
The sharing economy could gain more momentum in 2014
We hope so too, Michael. Thanks for your comment
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Well done guys for keeping us updated.Indeed 2013 was an amazing year for collaborative consumption. I expect this positive trend to spread beyond America and Europe into other parts of the world, such as Africa and Middle East. Cheers
We hope so too. Thanks, Chuks ?
I am thrilled about the recent developement in the shareconomy space. if 2013 was the year of shareconomy, I really think that now is the time where ‘traditional’ corporations will start to understand the potential of the crowd and starting to integrate p2p principles into regular customer service operations to increase their customer satisfaction. or start to think about how additional services can be designed around existing core services. after all, it will help to better serve customers and to reach increased efficiencies. I believe that new chances arrise for everybody, and that various communities of different interests are empowered. finally, this all happens through trust, so I think that this universal currency will also gain on value in 2014
Good points, Jan! thanks for sharing ?
Loved this article! For the food within the collaborative consumption market, you should totally check out mealsharing.com!
Hello Jessica, thanks for your comment. I can add mealsharing.com to our directory if you’d like. Send me details at [email protected] or you can now add it directly on the directory yourself:)