Translated from French by Scarlette Elizee
La Fing and OuiShare have released their results following an independent study on collaborative consumption in France, giving insight into its “consumers” and the motivations behind their use.
Collaborative consumption is frequently making headlines and the days where Airbnb and BlaBlaCar were “new, marginal players” now seem light years away. But beyond now archaic phrases such as "maximizing the value of possessions”, how much do we really know about collaborative consumption? Few studies have been done to understand this phenomenon…
To delve deeper into the subjects raised in our study, have a look at the program of the 3rd annual OuiShare Fest, being held in Paris 20-22 May.
A study of diverse Collaborative Consumption actors
For a little over a year, we have worked side-by-side with teams from la Fing in the ShaRevolution program to identify the major issues raised by the rapid development of collaborative consumption in France.
Check out our results:
A few words on the scope of the study: it is a consumer issue and only a consumer issue (therefore not including makers and participatory finance). This study examines practices in the digital as well as the non-digital realm. On the supply side, the study looks at non-professionals and “on-demand” service providers (Uber, TaskRabbit, etc.). Four large-scale group models or “families” have been identified through our study:
- Re-distribution systems, which give individuals access to resell, gift or barter of various objects (Le Bon Coin, Etsy).
- Product-service systems, which describe all hiring practices, lending and sharing hardware resources between individuals (here, no transfer of ownership). There is also talk of the service economy (Airbnb, Peerby).
- Peer-to-peer services ("on-demand services"), services between individuals in general, including carpooling (BlaBlaCar member Join), jobs (TaskRabbit) and classes (LiveMentor).
- Cooperative local systems- relying on the mobilization of local communities without resorting to an online platform (La Ruche qui dit Oui, La Louve, short circuits, etc.)
For more details, please consult our mapping below:
ShaRevolution: Overview of Players of the Collaborative Economy from OuiShare
Return on “Sharers”
Our study would not have been complete without a look at the motivations of the different “profiles” of collaborative consumers. The survey, "I share! And you? ", allowed us to collect more than 2,000 testimonials from regular users of collaborative consumption. Here are some figures we compiled:
- Sharing “aficionados” have cited economic reasons as the main motivation behind their use, 75% of cases. This does not exclude the desire to enrich and give more meaning to their lives since 74% also cited the search for meaning behind their motivation.
- 62% cited a preference based on the practical sides of collaborative consumption.
- 52% think that the collaborative economy will pull as much weight as the traditional economy in the future.
View the full report below:
Survey "I SHARE! DO YOU?" La Fing and OuiShare from OuiShare