The rise of the sharing economy was introduced by several e-commerce, not so much anymore start-, ups. The peer-to-peer markets have replaced the traditional markets. An example is Airbnb influencing the revenue made by hotels which is yet not identifiable to which extent. The causal impact of this phenomenon is unidentifiable because of the non-uniformly distributed impact it has on the consumers. (Zervas et al., 2016)
The rising of Airbnb
The company has outgrown the united states into a global company. The growth of the company into the European market and Asian market is facilitated by government guidelines. The European Commission is supporting the growth of a sharing economy as an opportunity for entrepreneurs and the overall economy (Taylor, 2016). The stated goal by Airbnb of 10 billion dollars of revenue by 2020 compared to the current revenue of 900 million dollars in 2015 also supports the opportunistic expected growth (Taylor, 2016; Kokalitcheva, 2015).
But is the growth sustainable
Several problems arise with the growth of such sharing economies. The rating of Uber drivers is often described as biased, with opinions influenced by among other things by racism (Harman, 2014). And, it seems that a similar effect is occurring within Airbnb. Research shows that members are able to among other things, charge more than other up to 12% because of their physical appearance. When members have increasing concerns about discrimination caused by the members despite the current policies by Airbnb against racism. It then might be justified to wonder such a sharing economy is economically sustainable. (Harman, 2014).
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract-id=2366898
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/01/how-airbnb-is-growing-a-far-flung-global-empire.html
Here’s how Airbnb justifies its eye-popping $24 billion valuation
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/nov/12/algorithms-race-discrimination-uber-lyft-airbnb-peer
