The concept of a sharing economy has become increasingly prevalent in Western nations in the last decade.
The Internet has simplified resource matching for both supply and demand sides amid the rapid development of mobile technology, as well as increasing the awareness of efficient social resource allocation and economic value recreation.
These have bolstered the growth of new sharing-economy business models at an amazing rate.
The global sharing economy in 2013 totaled about US$15 billion, and could reach US$335 billion in 2025, according to estimates, making the sharing economy the key business model for the next decade and beyond.
New ventures and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) using the sharing-economy model have performed extremely well compared with other business models, with Airbnb and Uber garnering widespread international attention.
The former provides short-term accommodation services and its market capitalization has reached US$10 billion; the latter provides online transportation services and is valued at US$41.2 billion. Both are the bellwethers of the sharing economy.
Bicycle sharing is also another example of the sharing economy, providing users an alternative means of transportation in cities that aim to reduce air, noise and environmental pollution.
In this case, the public bicycle rental system is the main mechanism used to implement the bicycle-sharing concept, which provides multiple rental stations around cities to allow the public to either rent or return bicycles, such as YouBike in Taiwan, BixiBike in Montreal and Citybike in Copenhagen.
The development of the global sharing economy has extended into spaces, transportation, services, goods, finance and other fields of economic activity, and many innovative business models are still evolving.
The sharing economy can simultaneously provide economic and social benefits, as well as offering a cross-industrial business model with potential for development, although it also bears conflicts that need to be resolved.
Even though Taiwan has favorable conditions for the sharing economy, it is still in the early stages of development.
Hopefully, the government can build a better environment for the domestic sharing economy as soon as possible and provide local businesses with new opportunities.
Gary Chen is an international affairs specialist in the president’s office at the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research.
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