Tech to Expect 2015: The Sharing Economy

In this article, we look at the rise of the Sharing Economy. Essentially, this is where users of a service bypass businesses altogether, and pay for services from other normal people. Two examples are AirBnB which lets people rent out a spare room in their house on a short term basis and Uber which lets people use their own car as a taxi service. These services are both bypassing the current norm of hotels and taxis, and are creating a ripple effect throughout these age-old industries.

Uber and AirBnB can be credited with the dramatic rise of The Sharing Economy, in a world where information is so easily exchanged, they saw an opportunity within their respective marketplaces. These two really are the poster children of The Sharing Economy; AirBnB with its motto of turning any room into a hotel room, and Uber with its motto of turning any car into a taxi. They tapped into a wasted resource that was laying idle -With millions of spare rooms unoccupied around the world, AirBnB saw an opportunity to not only make money for themselves but to make money for their users as well.

Today in Nigeria, it is an incredibly simple process to start earning money from AirBnB and make sure that your empty room is bringing you in money, and here we outline the process.

1. Go to http://www.airbnb.com
2. Click the Sign Up button on the top right of the screen.
3. Sign Up using either your e-mail or Facebook.
4. Take some nice pictures of your room. Pictures are everything
5. Connect your bank account to AirBnB
6. Create your listing

It really as simple as that, your room is now listed alongside just under 30 other listings in Nigeria and you are now part of the sharing economy. People can simply book to stay with you and all money and insurance is handle by AirBnB. All you need to do is be a good host, give them tips that only locals could, and make sure they have a good time.

The Sharing Economy really is that simple to be a part of, and there are thousands more businesses being set up every day that simple involve connecting people who are interested in a service with each other. Sometimes all it takes is a simple website. There are already thousands out there, and the market is ready for thousands more. Here we list some examples below

1. DogVacay – Connects Dog Owners with people who are willing to pet sit. Whether it’s for a couple of hours or even a few weeks
2. TaskRabbit – Where you can post little jobs and tasks that you need done in your area. Be it taking out your rubbish while you’re away, or even if you a need a hand moving house.
3. Liquid – Allows you to rent a bike from a neighbour.
4. Lending Club – Allows people to give micro-loans to other people in their area.

The potential for the sharing economy is absolutely massive. All you need to think of – is there something around your house that is laying idle that someone will pay to use? There are countless ideas that have yet to be thought off.

For example, tool hire is a massive industry at the moment as tools are quite expensive and people might only use tools once a year for a bit of maintenance. All it would take is a simple website, where people can post their tools and how much they want to charge per day. And that would be a prime example of the sharing economy, connecting people who have tools that they rarely use to people who need tools a once off job.