BEING known as one of the fastest growing business trends in 2019, the sharing economy has gone a long way since 2010, when investors spent over US$23 bil in venture capital for startups that were operating with a share-based model.
Now, companies like Airbnb and Uber have valuations of US$88.86 bil and US$77.26 bil respectively (compared to US$31 mil and US$72 bil respectively in 2019) and over 86 million people in America alone are leveraging on the services of the sharing economy.
As a disruptive economic principle that is constantly evolving, digitalisation and the use of advanced technologies is crucial in the development of the sharing economy. Needless to say, those who are flexible enough to adopt new ways of doing business will stand to thrive.
This was proven at the time when the global crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted economies around the world.
According to Trevo Malaysia general manager Susan Teoh, the gig economy, which usually comes hand in hand with the sharing economy, helped balance the unemployment numbers when the pandemic hit local shores and that the sharing economy as a whole provided more people with opportunities to generate some extra income to help support daily expenditures.
Teoh also mentioned that more Malaysians are now leveraging on the sharing economy through various platforms to acquire daily necessities such as food and groceries due to the movement control order (MCO).
It was only natural that food delivery apps and cloud kitchen concepts grew in popularity, creating tremendous demand for such services.
Apart from providing the people with what they need, the sharing economy is also an avenue for businesses to advance its key business imperatives such as minimising carbon footprints, raising productivity and increasing societal contributions.
Beyond deliveries
But beyond services like deliveries, rides and accommodation, what other industries could stand to benefit from the sharing economy?
The criteria for other industries to successfully leverage on the sharing economy include asset-heavy industries, industries with underutilisation or redundancy in their ecosystems, industries that require similar assets and services across players and those with operations in the same geological areas.
When these conditions are met, it is likely that there is a significant potential to jointly utilise or invest in infrastructure, facilities, machinery or even research and development (R&D), as well as people and teams.
This is an opportunity for industries from manufacturing, food and agriculture to energy, mining, chemicals and others. – Aug 30, 2021
