Article
The sharing economy: Share and make money
How does Switzerland compare?
The “sharing economy” is currently the talk of the town, thanks largely to the international success of Airbnb and Uber.
In the last few years, companies in the sharing economy have been transforming ‘traditional’ business sectors, most notably hotels and transport. The concept of the sharing economy is impressively simple: anything that is not being used can be rented out. Direct contact between the supplier and customer is established via an online platform.
Key findings
- Worldwide investments in sharing economy startups are increasing each year. So far more than $12 billion has been invested – more than twice as much as for social networking start-ups such as Facebook and Twitter.
- Our survey indicates that in the next 12 months, 55% of Swiss consumers will engage in rental of property or goods and services via a sharing economy platform. This is ten percentage points more than in the USA.
- In the French-speaking part of Switzerland 65% of the survey participants favour the sharing economy, compared to just 32% in the German-speaking part.
- In Switzerland 21% of our survey respondents are in favour of greater regulation of the sharing economy, while 36% are against. The Swiss are more doubtful about the need for further regulation than respondents in the USA, where 25% were in favour and 28% against.
- The large amount of investment, the rapid growth in revenues and the increasing willingness of consumers to participate, taken together, illustrate the huge potential of the sharing economy. Large companies can join in the success, if they employ the right investment strategy.
The sharing economy: Share and make money
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