The collaborative economy is booming in Latin America and could be a great tool for both citizens and city administrations, the recent OuiShare LATAM tour has shown. What are the differences and parallels between collaborative approaches in LATAM and Europe? Here is the diary from our journey. Before we take off, in case you missed it, review this article that explains how the support of the OuiShare community and the team effort of local Connectors allowed the OuiShare LATAM Tour to happen. It is also time to thank our sponsors:
4 cities = 4 different contexts
Although it is dangerous to derive quick conclusions from a short visit to a city, the fast pace of the trip allowed us to realize how different the contexts of Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre, Buenos Aires and Santiago de Chile are.
It is important to acknowledge that our observations are probably biased and limited. During this trip we were mostly in touch with a specific type of person (in some articles they were defined as "elite"): internet savvy, highly social, well educated and traveled, with informed views on economic and social issues, able to speak two or more languages fluently and mostly under 40. They are clearly not the "average" citizens of these cities, but the truth is that the overall population in these cities is much younger than in European or U.S. American cities and is embracing digital culture and its values at an amazing speed.
A lot of my friends who are not involved in these projects think it is a good way to save money, but the large majority still doesn't participate. They don't see the social benefit, only the economic benefit - Victor Reimann (OuiShare Connector in Porto Alegre)
I don't think the same values are so strongly spread throughout the culture in Rio as they are throughout cultures in cities like New York or San Francisco where sharing, access over ownership, trust in strangers, etc, is already very developed. I still see some traditional values in Rio, for brands, ownership, privacy, exclusivity, etc, which are the values of the old economy focused on consumption - Olivia Frazao (OuiShare Connector in Rio de Janeiro)
In Rio, there has been a recent, promising burst of online platforms that spark real life exchange and interventions. Further amplified by the use of social networks like Facebook, their impact is like wildfire. While there is still a ways to go in building trust and truly sharing, there is a palpable proliferation of co-working spaces, crowd-funded projects, distributed independent media, and networked communities. Though we can't expect this new economy in Rio to be as mature as in NYC or Paris, there seems to be more room for creative and positive rupture in the city's flux - Karen Demavivas (OuiShare Connector in Rio de Janeiro)
Brazil is "waking up" from the hyper consumption "dream" and the youngest generation wants to have a more active role and wants to decide how their society is managed. By either joining the protests in different Brazilian cities or participating in the excellent OuiShare Mini Conferencia in Rio (photos, full report) or the OuiShare Drinks in Porto Alegre (photos) the Brazilians citizens feel self-empowered in ways that a lot of the European and American citizens may have already forgotten.
We recommend following consumocolaborativo.blog.br and consumocolaborativo.cc for news about Brazilian collaborative consumption projects. ---------Buenos Aires is probably the closest you can get to Europe in LATAM in terms of culture and it was the city where we felt most like home. When talking to locals you learned to what extent the Argentinean economy is in a bad state: 30%+ annual inflation, limited imports of products, non-official exchange rates for Euros and Dollars as they can't be easily bought legally, etc. Consumption levels are high (for example the number of buying mobile phones or cars) because Argentinean Pesos lose value so quickly. Despite this situation (or maybe because of it?) "porteños" make the collaborative economy thrive and both events - the OuiShare Drinks (photos) and the OuiShare Welcome to the Collaborative Economy (photos) event - generated a lot of interest.
Driven mostly by the potential savings, a lot of my friends know about collaborative services and some of them are active users (Airbnb, AlaMaula, Craiglist, CouchSurfing, etc.) but they are not aware of the "Collaborative Economy" concept. The social perception of sharing (online and offline) is positive in general - David Sucar (OuiShare Connector Buenos Aires)
In many cases the term "colaborativo" in Argentina is still associated with the "solidario" concept that drove the bartering initiatives after the "corralito" in 2001 - Désirée Maillard-Salins (OuiShare Buenos Aires Team)
To keep an eye on collaborative consumption projects in Argentina check out MundoColaborativo blog. ---------Santiago de Chile provides entrepreneurs with the most stable and reliable environment to develop their business ideas, although the digital culture in general is slightly less developed there than in other cities. The startup sector is booming with Chilean government supported programs such as Startup Chile (where OuiShare Drinks was hosted (photos) and other CORFO funding opportunities. The interest in the collaborative economy topic, both from a social and economic perspective, is also present at universities. During our days in Santiago we talked at Universidad Católica (photos) and Universidad del Desarrollo (photos). We also had our closing Fiesta! (photos) It is also important to note that Chileans are now in the phase of embracing hyper consumption and hyper individualism (ex: a housing price bubble), which is widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
The companies in this space in Chile are still very young and are in need of more knowledge transfer. Organizing conferences, workshops and bringing local entrepreneurs closer to more experienced entrepreneurs in Europe or the U.S. would be a great help for the Chilean Collaborative Economy community. -- Dalma Berkovics (OuiShare Connector Santiago de Chile)
Top 4 commonalities in all 4 contexts
Despite the different contexts described above there are also a number of commonalities. 1) At this stage most collaborative consumption P2P based initiatives are working better in environments where there is already trust in the group (companies, universities, clubs, etc.)
. There are exceptions to this "rule" like Airbnb (~35K spaces in LATAM, ~150K travelers from LATAM (170% increase YoY)) and services that do not require face to face interaction (such as P2P lending Afluenta or Cumplo). I strongly recommend reading the article "La economía colaborativa sin confianza, el modelo chileno" to get a better understanding of the situation. 2) Not that many smart phones and not always connected: a number of collaborative consumption services perform better when the users can use the Android or iPhone applications and are always connected. The reality is that in these cities only a small portion of the population will be able to do that. In Argentina it is simply not possible to import (and sell) an iPhone, this is why services such as CanuBring make so much sense. There is also another similar issue related to electronic payments and the level of banking (accounts and associated credit/debit cards). 3) First sectors to go collaborative: as in many other countries shared mobility (carpooling, car sharing, public bike systems, p2p car rental and even p2p logistics) is the first to develop. Tourism related services and P2P finances (crowdfunding, p2p lending, p2p savings, etc.) follow closely. The crowdfunding leaders in the region are Idea.me and Catarse.me4) The traditional players do not see how the collaborative economy affects them:
we were not very successful in arranging meetings with key industry actors in the various cities, and even when we achieved this, the level of interest was low. Local politicians and administrations were more open and interested however, proving once more that the city is currently the best scale to develop the collaborative economy.
Media love for the collaborative economy
What seems to be almost universal is the media's interest in talking about the collaborative economy, and the OuiShare LATAM Tour was the perfect excuse to do so. Apart from being reported on by InfoBae and many other online mentions (Catacra Livre, TuVerde, La Tercera, Manzana Mecánica, ASECH, Fundación Emprende) we were on Porto Alegre TV and two Buenos Aires radio stations (La Tribu 88.7 FM and FMIdentidad).
...to be continued! Part II of this article following soon!