The economy of sharing, new Internet horizon

The economy of sharing, consisting for individuals to exchange services without intermediaries, will overcome the consumer society in its present form, a revolution was already billions which do not kill capitalism, says Rachel Botsman, specialist the subject.
The "collaborative" economy, including the best-known examples are the AMAP in France, the exchange sites of apartments, car rental between private loans between individuals bypassing the banking system, "already worth billions dollars "globally, said Rachel Botsman, author of" What's mine is yours, How Collaborative Consumption Is Changing The Way We Live "(What is mine is yours, or how the collaborative economy will change our way of life).

Thus, the market for loans already represent two billion. Airbnb, linking individuals to rent their homes for a few days and taking that transaction costs, resulted in the hiring of 4 million overnight stays in 2013 against 3,000,000 in 2012, to the chagrin of the hotel, note the specialist invited Thursday Bordeaux for a forum on this topic.

"This is the end consumer as intended. Within ten years he'll be dead," she says AFP. The consumer will be defined more as such, but as "a member of a community," says the English from the world of marketing and advertising, founder of a consulting firm specializing in collaborative economy, which considers crisis of 2009 led to a profound questioning of the consumer society.

The technology has now enabled to connect individuals without intermediaries and as in the circulation of information, internet defies "monopolies" and causes a profound change in the relationship between producer and consumer, with a "more distributed economy, less centralized, niche markets and networks (...) allowing individuals to feel more "capable".

It also allows users to "monetize" assets that previously were not: "The cars but also the physical space or the expertise that were previously under-utilized."

A triple-digit growth

Before, "the tree houses had no market," now can be rented on the Internet, she jokes. Similarly, some rent their time to others to do paperwork for them, before a non-existent market. Ditto for the "empty seats in cars", unused minutes of mobile phone packages, exchange knowledge online.

Sector, she insists, has a "triple-digit growth," she notes.

That economy does lead to job losses in the manufacturing sector, while encouraging the re-use of objects rather than consumerism?

Not necessarily, she responded by emphasizing the exchange of online music had thus fear the collapse of the music industry and eventually led to "the emergence of new sources of revenue." "It went well for television, Youtube, blogs newspapers," she said, without however denying that at first, "Manufacturing will suffer a lot" and will evolve into a "service model" and Non production.

Thus, some DIY chains offer more and more services to individuals beyond the sale. "They teach you how to do things yourself rather than just selling a stripper."

However, altruism should not prevail. "We go beyond money, with very sophisticated systems of barter." There will be a "democratization" of finance with loans between individuals, but also remains a "tension between individualism and the common good" and resistance of incumbents who attempt to recover these business for their benefit .

"You will always monopolies and conglomerates but the margin, niche market network will be as dynamic as those of + center +," she said. For workers, however, to listen, everything will change: "My children have five jobs a week and no longer think in terms of work, but expertise."
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