It is well known how new companies sharing products as a service are growing due the new business scheme to get access for a bite of the price, creating a collaborative consumption and predicting a phenomenal experience.
This new trend is driven by different reasons for customers; either cost saving or being open to new ways of accessing what they want and how to go and get it.
It´s been 10 years when financial crisis hit America and depending economies were affected as well, Mexico was one of them, in which companies had to prod the customer to shop again. From that time there had been rampant of businesses, some great and some others fraudulent, one thing in common was people engaged to sell and consume form others.
After 10 years, we are still consuming from others in a redefined Collaborative Consumption, made by Community, either by ubiquitous cyber peer-to-peer or sharing what we have access, this new way of consumption is driven by technology advantages and online behaviors in which people is trusted by other´s reviews that build the community.
Many sharing and collaborative consumption systems had emerged, banks, exchange trading, bike, land, clothing, toys, cars, rides, workplaces, and so on, many of them already matured and some others in the becoming process, all of them categorized into three:
- Product Service System: Use without own it; car sharing, movie watching.
- Redistribution Markets: Exchange for what both want; toys, clothes.
- Collaborative Lifestyle: Exchange less tangible asset such as time, space, and skills; workings space, rooms, parking spot.
Across above categories, people can go from saving money to making money, from convenience to meeting friends, from saving space to saving time and create a trusted community by “doing the right thing” by sharing what they have to help others.
Technology connects us handy, cloud keeps resources needed to share and consume, to offer and buy, but most important, keeps us connected with people with mutual interest, peer-to-peer could be peer-to-AllWhatWeNeed in a single touch.
Systems are getting to know more about consumer habits, creating a model according to our exposure to the digital world, taking a snapshot for each of us and beloved ones to see how our behaviors are changing according to what surround us, we are being analyzed to create better services exchanging our identity and personal life for a better user experience.
This is a new momentum happening, it is exciting how many things and how easy we can access to many goods, sharing and collaborating with others to exchange instead of own, this is not only technology change, it is cultural and behavior mindset, communities supported by trust from others they do not even know. This new ecosystem on the mobile is enabling us to share any product or service we also have; specific skills? no problem, there is a community to co-work with others on a mutual project, car riding? it´s by our hand, a room in middle of nowhere? you can knock the door and being welcome. This new collaborative culture is now happening.
Juan Soto.
